“This woman was originally after the Demons and Diamondbacks because they didn’t fall in line when the Ghosts took their women. It was a retaliatory, vindictive move on the part of the Ghosts against both the Demons and Diamondbacks. Someone in the Demons has the suggestions planted as well. I don’t know where this woman fits in with the Ghosts. I don’t know the first thing about the Ghosts. But I do know that her vengeance has gone from those two clubs to seeing Czar dead. Somewhere she heard of him inside that club. She hates him with a passion. I’d be worried if you had visited that club recently, Savage. She could so easily use a Torpedo Ink member to exact her revenge against him. Has anyone else gone there?”
They were almost to the picnic table. Savage wanted to curse at the Diamondbacks and tell them to get the hell out of his campsite. He was done making nice with his unwanted guests. Who else frequented the kinky underground club? Every member of Torpedo Ink had fetishes. Shit. This wasn’t good, and they couldn’t talk freely.
Seychelle was all smiles, handling the introductions Czar made to Plank and Sylvia, his old lady. Tony and Leonardo sang Seychelle’s praises. Plank seemed very annoyed at the delay.
“Yeah, I don’t understand what took so fucking long,” he groused. “You just had to talk to her for a couple of minutes,” he snapped at the two members of his club.
Both seemed to freeze. Seychelle took his lousy temper in stride. “My talent doesn’t work like that, Mr., er, Plank. I had to plant a suggestion in both of them, and they had to realize I had actually done it, and then I had to show them I could remove it. They didn’t want me working on your wife if there was the potential of hurting her. I know their mother, so they have a little faith in me, but still, they told me they wanted to be very careful with Sylvia.” Seychelle sent him another one of her sweet, innocent smiles.
She looked like the girl next door, the furthest thing from a biker babe she could possibly be. Twice, Savage noted Tony looking at her bare ring finger and he cursed under his breath. Plank was falling under her spell, the combination of her voice and her sweet demeanor. She was harmless, and after being introduced to Sylvia, she held out her hand, and Sylvia smiled and went with her. Plank didn’t send his usual guards, and he didn’t follow or insist Seychelle conduct her “experiment” right there in front of him.
Savage paced a distance behind them as if giving them privacy but watching over them. Tony did the same, while Leonardo held back but still took up a position to look out for his president’s old lady.
“You’re here with Savage?” Sylvia asked when the two women were alone in the shadow of the trees and brush of the forest that backed up to their campsite.
“Yes. He’s mine. I want to kick him half the time, and the other half I’m super crazy about him.” Seychelle’s laughter invited Sylvia to share her amusement at herself, and Sylvia joined in.
Sylvia nodded. “I hear you. That’s how I feel about Plank half the time. He makes me want to pull out my hair.”
Seychelle leaned toward her and lowered her voice so Savage had to strain to hear her. “Does he know you’re pregnant?”
Sylvia gasped. “How did you know?”
“It’s part of what I do. The baby’s perfect, but you should be seeing a doctor. Seriously. Why are you waiting?”
Sylvia cast a quick glance in the direction of her husband. “He’s never said he wanted children. Never. Not once. He likes to pick up and go. I’ve been afraid he’d insist I get an abortion. I wouldn’t do it, and I’d have to leave him. I don’t think that would go over very well.”
The entire time Sylvia spoke, Savage watched Seychelle’s focus. The colored notes were faint to him, but evidently not to Seychelle. Sylvia produced a combination of reds and orange, but they were very shaded pastels rather than vibrant.
Suddenly, Seychelle leaned forward as she spoke, and when she did, she released her golden notes in those rounded tones, the ones that looped like tiny nets. “I think you will be very surprised, Sylvia. That man may be walking on the wild side. He might be rough and bossy, but he doesn’t take his eyes off you. I believe he loves you. I don’t think he’s going to freak too much that you’re having his child.”
“I really hope there’s no suggestion in me. Tawny has wreaked havoc in our chapter, turning everyone against each other. All the old ladies are suspicious of one another. They all think their men cheated. Even I thought Plank was cheating with her at one time, but he convinced me he wasn’t.” Sylvia looked down at her hands. “At least I let him convince me. I don’t know. That’s another thing. If I can’t come with him on the runs, because I have a child, I’ll always wonder.”
Savage expected pinkish-purple notes in a stream, that faint mixture a telltale sign that the same woman had somehow managed to penetrate Sylvia’s defenses, but instead, the notes were a dull grayish blue. Immediately, the golden net gently, with exquisite skill, dropped over those out-of-sync notes and pulled them into her loop, so she could follow them back to the source. All the while, she continued to nod her head and keep the conversation flowing.
“Blythe usually comes with Czar on these runs, but she will have someone watch the children while she comes. It’s only for a couple of days. If your baby gets used to a routine like that, they don’t think anything of it. In any case, if Plank didn’t fall for Tawny’s crap, I don’t think he falls for very many temptations. He’s not going to throw away what he has for something like Tawny.”
The dull, grayish-blue notes were slowly extracted from Sylvia as she replied, this time with a smile on her face. “No, I think you’re right. As far as I know, he never has cheated, and he’s always been good to me. I don’t know why I started having all these doubts about us. The entire chapter seems—unsettled.”
“Sometimes it takes one person’s influence to undermine everyone’s happiness. I think they have mad skills in the meanness department.” Again, Seychelle laughed softly, her tone an invitation to join her.
Sylvia complied, and Seychelle sat back, satisfied. “I think you can safely go back to Plank and tell him you are clear, and no suggestion is in your mind.”
“You’re certain?”
“Absolutely.”
Sylvia leapt up and threw her arms around Seychelle. “Thank you. I was so worried. I felt this heaviness all the time, and frankly, I was so nervous around Plank. And snappy. I feel so much better after talking to you.” She turned and practically ran back to her husband.
Seychelle stayed in her chair. She looked exhausted. Savage went to her, lifted her out of the chair and sat her on his lap. She didn’t protest but took the bottle of water he handed to her. “Drink, baby. You’re done for the night. I don’t care how many other women Plank wants you to examine, it can wait until morning.”
She pushed her face into his neck. “The threat to Czar is immediate and huge, Savage. The hostility that woman from the De Sade club felt toward him came off her in waves, and she wasn’t even making a suggestion to Tony or Leonardo that had anything to do with him. She was being vengeful to both the Demon and Diamondback clubs.” Her voice was muffled. “I have the worst headache.”