Annihilation Road (48 page)

She let the silence stretch between them for a long time. “That’s just insulting. I’m not going to talk to you, Joseph, if you’re going to be ugly like that.”

He stood up, kicked the chair out of the way and caught her by the arm, fingers biting into flesh. She smashed the salad bowl right into the bridge of his nose as hard as she could and slammed the ball of her foot into his upper thigh, hoping to give him a dead leg. The moment he let go, she drove her foot into his groin and turned and ran to the front door.

Joseph dropped to the floor with a roar of rage and pain. Seychelle hesitated for a moment, thinking to go back and look for his gun, but decided she’d be crazy to waste what little time she’d bought herself. She flung the door open and
ran outside. Her car was in the garage. The door was closed, and sometimes it took a few minutes to warm her baby up. She knew she wouldn’t have that kind of time, so she just ran straight down the road toward Sea Haven.

Already, she could hear the sound of vehicles coming toward her. Not the reassuring roar of pipes. Torpedo Ink hadn’t wanted Joseph to hear them coming. Then Savage had her in his arms, holding her close. Tight. Very tight.

“Did he hurt you, baby?”

There was something very deadly in his voice—in his eyes when she looked up at him. “He’s got a gun,” she whispered. “Savage, don’t do anything crazy. We should just call the cops. He isn’t worth it.”

“We don’t call the cops, Seychelle.”

He handed her off to Ice and turned toward the house with a dark menace in every step. Behind him, Maestro and Keys prowled, looking every bit as grim. Mechanic drove a truck with dark, forbidding windows.

“Ice.” She started to follow the others.

“Sorry, honey, you’re not going with them. You’re going to stay out of the way and let your man handle this the way he has to.”

“You don’t understand, Joseph has a gun. He put it in one of the drawers in my house. I should have stayed inside and looked for it.” She was all but wringing her hands together.

Ice guided her off the main road. Once off the road and facing the house, she saw two other Torpedo Ink members, Destroyer and Storm, at the back door.

“It’s locked,” she whispered.

“We put in the locks,” he reminded her. “There are all kinds of stalkers, Seychelle. His kind don’t stop. He fantasizes he’s in a relationship with you, and that makes him dangerous. You aren’t on the same page with him. One misstep and he will kill you. They would lock him up for a short while and then he’d be right back.”

Seychelle was well aware Ice was telling the truth. Joseph had been following her around for a long time. He kept approaching her in different guises, trying to get her to go out with him. He seemed to have dropped the music scout this time and believed himself in a relationship with her. He had sunk into a delusion she wanted no part of.

His car was parked to the right of her house. She recognized the nice little sport coupe he was very proud of. He had talked about his car in San Francisco and how nice it was. What a luxury car, yet sporty. It was a pretty color, she would hand him that, but she wasn’t a car person. She wouldn’t know the make and model of any car, if the truth was told. One of the Torpedo Ink members, Transporter, slid inside and drove the car off, headed south.

There was a sharp whistle, and Storm and Destroyer disappeared inside. Then Savage, Maestro and Keys went in through the front door. A muffled gunshot made her jump, but Ice was unfazed. He just stood there, watching the cottage, keeping her in the brush several yards from the house.

Her heart began to thud hard as the front door banged open, and from her vantage point, she could see Savage emerging, dragging Joseph by his arms. Joseph was trying to struggle, but it was a half-hearted attempt. Destroyer came through the door, let Joseph’s legs drag for a minute, then reached down and picked them up by the ankles. The two men carried him to the truck, where Mechanic waited patiently behind the wheel, apparently listening to music.

Savage opened a door to the back passenger seat, easily flung Joseph inside and then bent in after him. Destroyer was at the other door and also leaned in.

“What are they doing to him?” Seychelle asked.

“Just restraining him so he can’t move while Mechanic takes him to the clubhouse. We’re going to have a little talk with him. Savage has a lot to say and some questions to ask him. Then he’s going away. We don’t want anyone seeing him. You didn’t see him today. Fortunately, he didn’t tell
anyone he was coming to see you, mostly because he came here to kill you today.”

“Why would he want to kill me?” Seychelle turned her gaze up to Ice’s. But she knew it was true. She’d known it the moment she saw the gun.

“Because his delusional fantasy isn’t working for him anymore, and when it doesn’t work, he kills his victim and moves on,” Ice explained. “He’s been clever enough to make certain there’s not enough evidence to point to him. We’ve had Code looking into him.”

“What’s Savage going to do?” she whispered, dread filling her.

“What he should have done the first time he found that man in your house, stealing your things. You asked him not to and he spared him,” Ice explained. “That was a big fucking mistake, Seychelle. You could be dead right now, and he knows it. That would have been on him.”

She shook her head. “No, it would have been on me, not him. Joseph is sick. He needs help. Savage was showing compassion.”

Ice snorted his derision. “Savage was showing you he loves you and giving you something he shouldn’t have. He doesn’t have an ounce of compassion for someone like Joseph Arnold. Once they cross the line and kill an innocent, there’s no going back.”

She shook her head. “He can’t live with that kind of thing on his conscience day in and day out, Ice. You all expect too much of him.”

She watched as both doors slammed shut and Mechanic took off with his prisoner. Savage and Destroyer walked back toward her with Maestro and Keys. Savage looked grim. The lines in his face were cut deep. His eyes were colder than she’d ever seen them as he strode back to her.

“Babe, there’s some things you have to know about your man. For things like this, when it comes to vermin like that, he doesn’t have a conscience,” Ice said.

Savage came right up to her, grasped her by the shoulders and started her toward her cottage. “Get what you need, Seychelle, to bring to the other house. I have some work to do tonight, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take. The other house is more secure, and I’ll leave you there with a guard.”

“Now that you have Joseph, don’t you think it’s safe for me here?” Something told her not to push him, but she didn’t want to go back to his place yet. He might feel as if his home was far safer for her, but she didn’t necessarily feel that way about it.

His grip tightened on her and he continued to walk her toward her home. “Babe, just please do as I ask. Scared the holy fuck out of me when I heard your voice on the phone and then you said the word
gun
. We just sounded the alarm and raced out of there as fast as we could. Gotta get you home, where I know you’re safe.”

Her house looked the same. Felt the same. Like home. It didn’t feel as if a madman had taken it over. Lettuce was all over the kitchen floor, and she bent to pick up the bowl. Savage took it from her.

“I’ll clean this up. You put a few things together for a couple of nights. We’ll stay at my place and talk things out. Come back here after.”

Seychelle didn’t bother to argue with him, especially since he was wearing that implacable look on his face and his eyes were not only glacier cold but flat and dead inside. She knew no matter what she said, she wasn’t going to get her way. This was one of those times he’d warned her about.

She pulled out clothes and pushed them into a small overnight bag. Her ring was in the top drawer under her leggings, where she’d shoved it. She slipped it back on her finger, needing the reassurance of it and not understanding why. Savage seemed distant from her, even though he was right there, dictating to her. The weight of the ring on her
finger made her feel instantly closer to him, and she needed that when she already was so uncertain.

In her small bathroom, she collected a few personal items, but she actually had most things already duplicated. Savage had thought of just about anything she could need or want at the other house. She mostly took things she wanted for familiarity. She nearly took the rose sculpture with her parents’ ashes, but this was her home, and she wanted it there. She did bring her mother’s hairbrush.

Savage stood by the door with the other Torpedo Ink members, and it took a little courage to walk up to him. The men were intimidating, and she really didn’t know them all that well yet.

“I’m ready. I can drive my car. Do you want to ride with me, or do you have your bike with you?”

He reached down and caught her left hand, bringing it up so he could see the ring. His thumb slid over it. Of course he would have noticed that it was missing. He looked at her, clearly waiting for an explanation.

“I took it off so he wouldn’t notice it. He was acting so weird, and I thought it best to just go along with whatever he said and stall as long as possible.”

“Smart woman,” Ice said. “Too fuckin’ smart for you, Savage. Knew it the minute I laid eyes on her.”

Savage kissed her knuckles, then the ring. “I’ll drive you home and then head to the clubhouse. Ice and Soleil will stay with you until I come home. It will be late, baby, so they’ll probably stay in one of the guest rooms. Alena’s going to send over dinner.”

Seychelle lifted her chin. “I’m capable of cooking for a guest.” She was capable of driving her own car as well, but she wasn’t telling him that, not in front of his “brothers.”

He reached around her, caught up her overnight bag and left it to Ice to lock up her cottage as Savage led the way to the garage. “Babe, I’m sticking you with guests for the night and asking you to stay at a house you don’t want to
stay in.” He opened the back door of her car and tossed her overnight bag in with a little more force than necessary. “I’m trying to make things easier on you. I didn’t want you to have to go grocery shopping on top of everything else.”

She yanked her seat belt around her and waited for him to adjust the driver’s seat in order to be able to get behind the wheel. “You didn’t want me to go grocery shopping,” she clarified.

He sent her a chilling look as he started the car. “You’re right, I would prefer that you not go anywhere until I know there aren’t any other threats to you. At the same time, I don’t want you to have to cook for unexpected guests.”

She stared out the window as he easily handled the car, taking it along the highway toward Caspar. “I’m just out of sorts. I have been all day. Crazy person with gun trying to kill me in my house might have put me in a bad mood on top of everything else. Just saying. I’m a processor. I just need a little time to get a handle on all this.” She did her best not to burst into tears.

Savage ran his finger down her cheek. “I know this is hard for you, Seychelle. I’ll come home the minute I can, and I know it’s important you have some alone time. Ice and Soleil will go to the guest room long before I’ll make it home tonight. They’re used to being alone. She could use a friend, though. She doesn’t come to the clubhouse very often with the other women.”

“I’ll be happy to visit with her,” she assured him, not really meaning it but knowing she would do it. She pushed back her hair and then reached out her hand, needing the physical connection with him.

Savage immediately engulfed her smaller hand in his and pressed it to the heavy muscle of his thigh. “We’re going to be fine, Seychelle. We’re new, and I get that can be scary.”

Seychelle nodded. There was little doubt in her mind that any new relationship could be frightening at the time,
but hers was more than that if she thought too much about it. On the other hand, did she really want to be without Savage? She looked up at him. She had been alone without him. Lonely. She hadn’t felt alive. Or beautiful. She certainly didn’t know what it was like to be loved so intensely. Savage made her feel as if she belonged with him. She just didn’t know how to fit into his world. There were so many things she questioned, and she didn’t have anyone she could talk things over with.

Savage pulled the Mini Cooper into the garage and parked it. “Babe, for me, just leave everything for tonight. I’ll be home in the morning, and we can talk then. I promise you, I can make things better.” He turned her hand up to the warmth of his mouth, kissing her fingers.

Seychelle nodded. “I can do that, Savage.” She wasn’t leaving him, she knew that much. She wanted to work things out, but it wasn’t with him, it was in her own mind. She had to find some kind of balance she could live with. “About Joseph . . .”

Savage shook his head. “We aren’t going to talk about him. Arnold is no longer your business. He’s mine. Go into the house, babe. Try to forget everything bothering you and just enjoy Soleil. She’s very sweet, and she hasn’t had the best life.” He leaned into her and then brushed a kiss onto her forehead before sliding out of the car, one hand retrieving her overnight bag. Once he rounded the hood, he handed her the bag and indicated the door leading to the house from the huge garage.

Seychelle didn’t look back. Savage was already somewhere else in his head. He was at the clubhouse, or wherever they’d taken Joseph Arnold.

She put her overnight case against the wall in the hall leading to the master bedroom and went to meet with her guests. Ice was in the great room with his wife, Soleil, his arm around her, looking protective. Ice was a gorgeous man, with the same platinum hair Alena had and startling
crystal-blue eyes. He had three tears dripping down from his left eye tattooed on his face. Soleil was a beautiful woman, and every time she tilted her chin up to look at her husband, her face lit up.

“Soleil, this is Seychelle, Savage’s old lady. She’s new to the club and could use a friend. I thought the two of you could get to know one another. I can get some drinks together if you’d like.”