Blythe became their symbol of hope. She accepted them unconditionally. She took in the children no one else wanted. She showed them, through her actions, how it was possible to love the unlovable. All along, Czar was slowly showing the members of Torpedo Ink, just by sharing Blythe and his children with them, what it was like to have a family and someone to love them. More, to be part of something bigger—a community.
Just watching Czar and Blythe together, Savage knew that he’d been so closed off that it was impossible to allow anyone into his life until he’d come to this place that seemed to hold some kind of magic, until he’d seen the real possibilities.
Czar looked at him then, those eyes seeing right into him. “I know you came here for a reason, Savage, and it must be serious, or you wouldn’t have asked that the children not be present. That isn’t your style. You wanted both of us here. Is that right?”
Savage knew what he meant. Czar knew about his sexual needs. He was there through the entire growth of the monster. Blythe knew nothing about that side of Savage, and he would prefer it that way, just as he would prefer that Seychelle never know what his responsibilities included for the club.
“We had a talk when I first went to you about how I felt about Seychelle. Told you she was special, and I wanted to marry her.” Savage lifted her hand and showed both of them the ring. “I intend to make her my wife as soon as possible. She’s a little reluctant at the moment to fully commit to me, with good reason.” He had to admit it because it was the truth, whether he liked it or not. He was determined to be as honest as possible. “You said if we ran into a problem, we could come to you. We’re here. How do you separate club business from partner business?”
There was a small silence. Seychelle sat very still in her chair, completely taken off guard, her eyes on Savage’s face. He felt the intensity of her gaze and couldn’t help looking at her. She had that look again. The one that always threatened to do him in. The one that made him feel stripped bare. Raw. Naked. Vulnerable.
Seychelle looked at him with such stark, utter love. She didn’t try to hide it. It was right out there, plain on her face, in her eyes. Complete adoration. She just gave that to him for no fucking reason. He had the urge to frame her face with his hands, take her mouth and devour her right there in Czar’s living room.
“I don’t want to know club business,” Blythe said. “Unless I can see that it really upsets Czar in some terrible way. I don’t ask unless I know I can handle the answer. I love Czar and I trust him completely. Whatever the club feels they have to do, that’s their business. They don’t run drugs; they don’t traffic. I do know they do their best to stop trafficking. That’s how we got the girls, Kenny and Jimmy. They put themselves in dangerous situations at times, but again, I trust Czar to get them in and out of those situations, so I don’t ask unless I can see he needs to talk something out. Then I refuse to make a judgment. I asked and he answered, so it would be wrong to put a judgment on it, in my opinion. That’s how I handle it.”
Czar sighed and shook his head. “Seychelle, I presume Savage hasn’t explained to you that sometimes what we do can be extremely dangerous to the club members. If you decide that you really want to marry Savage—and seeing the way you look at him, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re in love with him, so I believe you do—you have to know what you’re getting into.”
The knots in Savage’s belly tightened. It wasn’t like he’d already given Seychelle enough to decide against staying with him. What sane woman would want to be with him? “Czar,” he cautioned.
Czar shook his head. “It’s only fair to her, especially if you want the kind of relationship that Blythe and I have. I think it’s incredibly risky and even foolish, but under the circumstances, I can understand why you’re asking.”
“I want to hear what he has to say,” Seychelle said.
She reached over the arm of the chair and put her palm on Savage’s thigh. He didn’t know if she was looking for comfort, but he covered her hand with his, because even if she didn’t need the comfort, he did.
“Belonging to Savage is belonging to Torpedo Ink, Seychelle. They aren’t separate. It isn’t just his club, it’s his family. It’s who he is. It’s who we are. All of us. Blythe. The children. What happens to one of us, happens to all of us. We take care of each other first. It’s always family first. What happens in our family stays in it. It’s never taken outside of it. Never. You have a problem, you come to me with it. You go to Steele. Or Reaper. You put your trust in us. No matter how bad it is, or how scared you are, you never go outside the family. We watch each other’s backs at all times. You need anything, you say so.”
Seychelle hadn’t taken her gaze from Czar’s face, but her palm pressed hard into the muscle of Savage’s thigh. “What you’re saying to me is that Torpedo Ink sometimes does things that are illegal, and I might not agree with them. I might inadvertently find out about them, and you don’t want me to go to the police.”
“We take back children from pedophiles, Seychelle. We find them using illegal means, and we track them and then we take them back. We do things law enforcement can’t do. These people are trafficking in children, and they have a pyramid, a hierarchy. There is someone or a group of people at the top, running the operation. We’re trying to find them. Rescuing a child and getting rid of the one that is raping and beating him or her is satisfying, but it isn’t going to stop it from happening over and over. We’re working our way to the top slowly. It takes time, and it isn’t always nice or easy. We don’t ask for names nicely, is what I’m saying.”
Seychelle’s blue eyes stayed on Czar. Her palm felt hot, a brand burning her name into Savage’s thigh. “If you get caught, you’ll go to prison.”
“Without a doubt.”
“And doing this, any of you could get killed.”
“We’re very good at what we do.”
“There are other things. Like the other night, in the bar. With that club. That wasn’t about pedophiles.”
Savage sat very still, unblinking. Blythe was in the room, calmly drinking tea and eating a pastry, looking serene. She wasn’t involved in that kind of club business. She knew about the hunt for children. Sometimes she knew when Torpedo Ink was hired to try to retrieve a woman taken by the notorious Ghosts, who targeted other clubs by kidnapping the wife of a president of the targeted club and demanding compliance or they would torture and kill her. Blythe didn’t know when the Diamondbacks asked Torpedo Ink to do them favors as a support club.
“There are other things we do, yes,” Czar admitted but went no further. He didn’t look away from her, his voice as gentle and as low as always, but there was no doubt his tone carried absolute weight.
“You’re telling me I have to accept what you do, and trust that no matter what happens, no matter what I hear or how afraid I am, that if Savage does something I feel is wrong, you will hear me out and treat me fairly in spite of the fact that he has been with you since he was a child and you just met me.”
“Yes.”
“That’s a pretty big leap of faith, Czar.”