“You notice that when you came looking, baby, I pounced.”
She turned her head and smiled at him. Even here, in this old warehouse with its smell of drugs and burnt something he could make her feel wanted. She wrinkled her nose and inhaled again. Alarm skittered through her. “What is this place? It smells like burnt flesh.” She couldn’t help the suspicion. She’d been around the Swords since she was a child. She’d heard rumors about places like this.
“Yeah, Bree, you got it right. This is a place a club would take an enemy to extract information or to make a statement. I need information. They set a couple of Swords members to watch your apartment. I’m going to bring them here and ask them a few questions. We’ll know where Zane is if they know. If not, we’ll know who might be with him. Or if they’ve already sold him.”
Alarm nearly choked her. “Sold him? What do you mean, sold him?” She spun around and clutched at his jacket, her nails nearly meeting her palm right through the material. “You think they sold him?”
He framed her face with his hands. “Take a breath, baby. I don’t want to miss a possibility. Lana will go with you and a couple of guards into the apartment and get the things you want. You’re not ever going back there after this, so this is your last opportunity. We’ve got the truck, so get what you want now.”
“I’m not leaving. I might have a few questions of my own.”
His expression turned hard. “You can’t stay, Breezy, and don’t give me any grief. I’ve got this to do and I want you safe.”
“Well that’s too damn bad. You aren’t Zane’s only parent. And I know Bridges better than you do. I know the right questions to ask.”
“Bree, when we’re on these kinds of runs, we have to know everyone works together. You can’t oppose me over every little thing.”
She didn’t feel as if this was a small thing. “If you’re getting information, Steele, I should be there.”
He shook his head, his eyes merciless steel pits. “No way, baby. I’m going to take them apart to get every bit of intelligence that I can from them. It won’t be pretty, and it won’t be humane, and I don’t personally give a fuck. You will. You think you won’t, but you will. You can’t disconnect, and I’ve been doing that shit since I was seven. You’ll ask me to stop, you’ll beg me to stop and I won’t. You’ll never look at me the same way again.”
Her stomach lurched, not because he was implying he could take a human being apart, but because she saw that he could. He would. He intended to do just that. Steele, no matter what, had always seemed to be a dangerous man, but not a cold-blooded killer. He’d tried to tell her, but she couldn’t conceive of him being that.
“You said you were trained as an assassin. Was this part of your training?” Her voice came out shaky. A whisper. She didn’t want to sound like that because she needed to hear anything the Swords guards could tell her, but this side of Steele scared her.
She didn’t think he would ever hurt her, it wasn’t that. She could see that he was capable of compartmentalizing, shoving all emotion away and acting without any feelings. Disassociation. Her heart pounded as she looked around the large room. There were tools everywhere, and she could see that several chairs were bolted to the floor.
“Yes, it was part of my training. This isn’t for you, Bree. I don’t ever want you to be part of something like this, even if it’s necessary that I do it. There’s not a need for you to be here.”
“I don’t want to be,” she said. “But what if something he says triggers a memory and I can ask him a question that will lead to Zane.”
She pressed harder on her stomach. Was she really going to be part of this? What was wrong with her? Steele wouldn’t back down or stop because she couldn’t take it—and she knew herself—she would be screaming for him to stop the moment blood started flowing a Swords guard started screaming.
“You’ll know them, Breezy.” He kissed the side of her neck. “You will have grown up around them.”
“They probably raped me,” she pointed out, trying to steel herself.