“Is everything okay, Savage?”
It wasn’t curiosity. That was the thing about Blythe. She really was compassionate. She cared about each of them as individuals. Czar had brought the club members to her when he’d returned to his wife. Seventeen members, all trained assassins, and every one of them royally fucked up. She didn’t flinch. She took them on right along with her husband.
He hesitated. If he told her, she’d share what he said with Czar. They were like that. What one knew, the other did. “Need to give this to you, but . . .”
“I’ll tell Czar it’s confidential.”
That was Blythe. Quick to understand. She was difficult not to love. He glanced toward the stairway and then the kitchen, not wanting the kids to overhear.
Blythe read his concern easily. “They’re in the den watching television. They only have an hour, so they’ll hang there. The girls heard the bike and thought it was Czar coming home.”
He decided to quit stalling. If he was going to do something stupid, he might as well just fucking do it. “There was a thing. Happened in Fort Bragg. Little boy ran into the street. Truck coming fast. I laid the bike down, scooped the kid up and ran for it. Knew I wasn’t going to make it.” He talked fast, clipped. Abrupt. Feeling like an idiot.
Blythe put down her teacup, genuine concern on her face. “Oh, Savage.”
“This chick hit me from behind, shoved me and the kid to safety but took the hit for us. At first I thought she got away with maybe a broken leg, maybe just hurt, you know, but then she turned her head and she had this bump the size of an ostrich egg. Definite concussion, but I don’t know how bad. Asked her name, she told me, but kept drifting off.”
“You’re certain you weren’t hurt?”
He shook his head. “Kid’s fine too.”
“I’m so sorry this woman was injured, but grateful to her at the same time.”
Savage shrugged, doing his best to look as if it didn’t matter one way or the other. “You still friends with that nurse? You talked about her a lot. She’s head of the emergency room or something like that. She’s a big deal.”
“Tammy O’Neil? Yes, of course.”
“Think you could ask her how this woman is doing and whether they’re keeping her there or if she was sent home?”
Blythe studied his face for a moment too long. He didn’t like that she saw things she wasn’t supposed to see. At least not in him. He wanted her to think he was naturally worried about a woman who had saved his life. He told himself that was the reason he was asking a favor, but it was so far out of character, he knew she thought there was more to it. He didn’t know what to think, so he kept his expressionless mask and forced himself to look straight at her.
“Yes, of course I can do that for you. What’s her name?”
“Seychelle Dubois.”
She stood up. “Give me a minute.”
“If they’ve kept her, can you get her room number?” Shit. He hated to ask that. “Should probably thank her.”
Blythe studied him again and then slowly nodded. “I agree. She’s definitely owed at least that much. I’m extremely grateful that you’re still with us.”
Savage wasn’t certain why. He had the opposite point of view to Blythe’s every time. She never seemed to take offense, and she didn’t start yelling to make her point. He appreciated that trait in her. She’d gotten under his skin. It was the children. She genuinely loved them. The club had rescued Darby and Zoe from human traffickers. They’d had no family other than Emily. Blythe had lied her ass off, bringing forged papers with her to claim the children. Darby had backed up her claim, and Czar and Blythe eventually adopted the three girls.
The club had found Kenny in the basement of a mansion in Occidental. Needless to say, the teen had nowhere to go. No one knew what to do with him, so they’d brought him home to Blythe. She had taken him in, and the adoption was in process. They’d be signing the papers to make the boy theirs in a couple of weeks. Kenny was pretending it didn’t matter, but everyone knew he was happy.
The latest family member, a six-year-old boy named Jimmy, they’d stumbled across on the internet. There was an auction for him, and they’d ended up in Vegas to free him. He had no family, so naturally, Blythe and Czar took him in. He hadn’t been with the couple long, but Savage knew it was only a matter of time before he came around. He seemed to like the survival classes Torpedo Ink gave to the children every other week. That was Blythe, taking the children in and then allowing them to do whatever it took to find their way to sanity.