Czar wasn’t the only man in the room who wanted to put a bullet in Pierce’s head. Savage wanted to take him apart, hurt him the way he could see the man had hurt Alena. He knew Ice and Reaper felt the same way. Maestro as well. Pierce was a dumb fuck for playing Alena and leaving her exposed to someone like Tawny. He should have known Torpedo Ink would come for him—and they would. They were patient and they would bide their time.
He looked at Destroyer, the newest member of their club. Yeah, he felt the same way Savage, Ice and Storm did. He could take apart Pierce just as easily. They exchanged long, knowing looks with Maestro and Keys.
Alena nodded. “I’m heading out. Lana, if you’re coming with me?”
“I’m ready, baby,” Lana said.
Alena looked at her brother. “Ice, you have a woman here at home. She’s your responsibility. You don’t need to shadow us.”
“You’re my responsibility,” Ice corrected. “You belong to all of us, just as we belong to you. Storm and Mechanic will go with you. Those are the rules we set up, and you’re Torpedo Ink. You’ll follow them. I assume you’ve blocked Pierce on your phone?”
She nodded. “As soon as possible, I’ll change phone numbers. Don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson. I should have learned it a long time ago, but ever the fool, I guess.”
“You’re not that, Alena,” Ice said, slinging his arm around her. He pulled her to him and dropped a kiss on top of her head. “He’s the fuckin’ fool. Tawny isn’t worth the tip of your little finger. She’ll go from man to man, and she’ll never be a partner. She’s a taker.”
“They’re going to kill her,” she whispered. “Pierce is, and he’s going to try to implicate me.” She put her arms around her older brother and for one moment let herself sag against him for comfort.
Savage clenched his teeth. The pain Alena felt was almost agony, compounded by memories of childhood betrayal. He shouldered what he could, let it swirl through him until the rage was so strong, breaking close to the surface. He had to look away. So many times, everything they wanted or needed had been ripped away from them. When they were children, time and again they would be duped into trusting someone, an adult, another child, and they’d get their hearts torn out. That cycle had continued for years—until Czar had put a stop to it.
The code—they lived by it. They had woven their lives together and become whole. The few they allowed into their closed society had been tested, and they’d paid a high price for becoming part of Torpedo Ink. They might not be patched members, but they lived by the same rules and were held up to the same code.
Alena pulled back and gave him a small smile. She looked to her birth brother Storm, and Mechanic, her Torpedo Ink brother. “You both ready?”
“Let’s go,” Storm said and indicated the door.
Alena went out without looking back. The room was eerily silent for a long while.
It was Czar who broke that silence. “We’re going to get that fucker. He won’t get away with this. I want everything we can get on him. Code, you hear me? Find out everything about Pierce so we can bury that pissant. We just bide our time before we take him down. I mean it: no one goes near him. No one threatens him. Nothing at all. Let him sweat. He’ll know it’s coming. The longer he has to wait for it, the more his nerves are going to stretch to the breaking point. We’re going to have to keep a lookout to make sure that he doesn’t come for us.”
They all nodded.
“Savage, I’d like to see you privately.” Czar indicated their meeting room.
Savage shrugged. A part of him had known this was coming, especially after what Pierce had done to Alena. He walked ahead of Czar into the familiar room and sank down onto one of the very comfortable leather chairs that surrounded the long oval table. The table was very thick and made of gleaming, polished wood. The room was large, the walls formed of warm wood. A bank of windows looked out toward the pounding sea. He liked everything about their meeting place.
Reaper closed the door and leaned against it. His brother. He always took Savage’s back, even when Czar was about to lay into him. They both had known it was coming sooner or later. In a way, Savage welcomed it. He had to know his brothers would watch out for Seychelle. If Savage ever tipped too far, went wrong, they’d take her back.
“We’re going to protect your woman. There has to be a plan in place.”
It was a demand, nothing less. No one else would dare, other than Reaper, tell Savage his business. Czar was more than their president. He was the man who had found a way for all of them to survive. Two hundred and eighty-seven children had entered that brutal, vile “school,” and only nineteen had made it out alive. They survived because Czar had taught them how to survive.