“You killed them right in front of her,” Steele reminded. “Each of you put a bullet in one of their heads. If the cops come around, and a good investigator might uncover that they were searching for her, will she be able to stand?”
Ice honestly didn’t know. He wanted to believe that she would, but how could he know? If she told the cops the truth, he and Savage and Absinthe would be going to prison for a very long time. Inwardly he cursed. He needed to do what Czar said. He should have already been giving himself to her in the way he’d insisted she give herself to him.
“I don’t know.” He was honest. He had to be. It wasn’t just his life, it was the lives of the two men he called brothers.
There was a long silence while most looked down at the table. There was a pretty big threat hanging over their heads, and normally the club removed all threats. Ice’s stomach began to churn. No one was removing Soleil. If the suggestion even came up, he was walking out, grabbing his woman and taking off.
“Hopefully the women will do their jobs,” Czar said. “Ice, you get a handle on this—and fast. We can’t expect her to know our ways just because you’ve been fucking her brains out for the last month. You instruct her. Teach her. Her loyalty has to be to you and the club. You get me?” There was a ruthless note in Czar’s voice. One all of them recognized immediately.
Ice nodded. “Absolutely. Consider it done.” He’d been the one to make the mistake, not Soleil. She hadn’t done anything wrong. He had to make certain that she didn’t.
“Have Lana and Alena help you. Soleil seems to trust them, and they like her. Alena is already hoping for a niece. That’s another thing,” Czar continued. “You were big on telling Steele to keep Breezy knocked up; get it done if that’s what it’s going to take. Soleil is married to you, that makes her one of us. No one wants anything to happen to her, but I can’t have a sword hanging over the heads of any of you.”
Ice stood up slowly. “Nothing is going to happen to her.” He put his hands on the table and leaned toward his president, ignoring the restraining hand of his twin. “I hope you understand me. All of you. Nothing is going to happen to my wife.”
Savage stood up as well, immediately drawing the attention of all of them. He rarely spoke. “Soleil is innocent in all this. She actually did very well. It all happened in the space of less than five minutes and she didn’t throw up. She didn’t run. She didn’t start screaming. She just needs a little time to adjust. I’m the one with the sword hanging over my head and I’m willing to risk it.”
“I am as well,” Absinthe agreed.
The knots in Ice’s stomach began to relax.
Czar put both hands on the table and shoved his chair backward until he could stand. “Well, I’m not. Clean this mess up with your wife, Ice. No one is going to take down three of my brothers because she was brought in before she knew what she was getting into.”
The knots were back in full force. Ice turned on his heel and left the meeting room.
FOURTEEN
Ice stood for a long time staring out the window of the pool room. He’d brought Soleil home and they’d had a quiet lunch together. She’d said she wanted to swim. He knew he was going to have to talk to her. Break the silence between them. He’d put it there, not her. This was one of those defining moments when he was going to make it work or everything was going to fall apart. He turned back to look at his woman.
Soleil cut through the water like she was born there. Whatever she chose to do, she did very well. She’d told him that she had lots of time to practice the things she was interested in. Swimming appealed to her, and every hotel she stayed or lived in had a pool. It was significant to him that she wore a bra and underwear instead of swimming naked. She didn’t have a suit because he hadn’t thought to buy her one. They still didn’t have her things because they hadn’t gone near her place in San Francisco.
“Come on out of there, princess, before you turn into a prune,” he called.
She glanced up at him, did another lap and then swam to the stairs. He handed her a towel and watched her dry off.
“I’m sorry about this morning, Soleil,” he said quietly, meaning it. “I’ve never told you about myself. I should have given you so much more. Something for you to hang on to so you’d trust me to do whatever was necessary to protect you at all times from anything, including being an accessory to any kind of violent or criminal act that takes place anywhere near you.”
She stopped in the act of drying her leg, looking up at him. “They were after me. They clearly said so, Ice. I put all of you in a terrible position. Savage could have been killed. All of you could have been killed. I’ve shot a gun. I’m very good at it, but after watching what unfolded so fast, I realized I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger. I was horrified when I saw all of you kill them. It was so terrible. And it happened so fast. So unbelievably fast.” She shook her head and her hands trembled again. “I need to get dressed.”
He knew she felt vulnerable without her clothes. He’d felt that way a long, long time ago, when he’d been vulnerable. Before Czar. Before they’d taken back control. He trailed after her as she took the stairs back up to their room. He liked being behind her when she walked, especially since her panties were see-through and showed her firm cheeks to perfection. It took restraint not to reach out to claim what was his. He wasn’t going to allow himself to get off track or diverted because he didn’t want to go where he knew he had to.
Ice waited until she had rinsed off in the shower and come out fully dressed. He gestured toward the comfortable chairs positioned in front of the fireplace. “It’s very understandable that you would be horrified by violence, Soleil. Especially that brutal, that fast.”
“None of you hesitated, not even for a second. I blinked and there were three dead men. Then you all were ready to leave, and I was still trying to breathe.”
“You grew up very sheltered. You didn’t think of it like that because you were alone so much, but no one would dare touch you. You didn’t have to worry about where your next meal was coming from, you just had everything there.”
Ice rubbed his thigh, back and forth, trying to stop the churning in his stomach. He rarely opened the door into his childhood. He felt it creaking open, his personal nightmare. Immediately, his temperature dropped, and his heart began to race. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead and trickled down his chest. He took a breath. He just had to get it done. Get it over.
“My parents were murdered by a man who felt very threatened by their political views. His name was Sorbacov and he was a very powerful man in Russia. At the time, he backed a certain candidate for the presidency, and he got rid of any opponent to his choice. When he killed the parents of his political enemies, he took their children to one of four schools to train them to become assets for his country. That was really code for assets for him. He oversaw the schools and directed his agents—us—where he wanted them to go,to those he wanted them to kill.”