by Naomi West
She smiled at him over her shoulder, that same confidence he had seen in her before. It sent a tremor of need coursing through his body. “Of course, I can. I don’t know how he got that scar, but it looks like it really has healed over well. There’s only a small part of the tat that’s affected, and fixing it would make it look a lot better. It’s good work in the first place, and I think I should be able to match the style without a problem.” Blue tipped her eyes up to the ceiling as she thought about her work.
“Are you all right? Going alone, I mean?” He still had half a mind to disobey Acer’s order and go with her. He was probably right about the time of day and her safety, but Torque couldn’t quite convince himself it was the right thing to do.
Her mouth twitched and she gave a slight shrug of her shoulder, which made Torque immediately think she wasn’t too sure about it, but she forced a smile. “I’ll be fine. Your boss is right. Everyone is in bed. The only people who are up and moving right now are businessmen and moms.” She clamped her mouth back down on the words, no doubt realizing she would soon be in that demographic. “I’ll be much better off if I can run home and grab a change of clothes, anyway.”
“I want you to watch your back,” Torque warned. “Don’t think that just because it’s light outside or because Acer has given you his reassurances that you’re safe. We can’t underestimate Rat and his men.”
Blue gently laid her hand on his arm, her fingers dancing against the outline of one of his solid black tattoos. “You’ve done a lot for me, Torque. You’ve stood up for me like nobody else has before. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“Don’t say things like that,” he said through clenched teeth. “That sounds too much like goodbye.”
She flicked her bright eyes to the floor but immediately brought them back up to his. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean it like that. I think I’m just feeling a little soft and mushy. Blame the hormones. It doesn’t take long for them to kick in, apparently.”
Her words reminded him all over again of the news she had given him. He hadn’t passed the word on to Acer. It might have made the president more willing to let Blue stay at the clubhouse, but it would cause trouble in its own right. The pregnancy would be a surprise and an inconvenience for another day. Besides, he liked the secret better when it was between just the two of them.
“I understand, but you can’t be soft and mushy today, just in case.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the knife he always kept there. It was the same knife his father had given him as a boy and the same one that had helped him win a fight that fateful day. He kept the blade sharp and polished, and he had never used it for something as mundane as opening a package. There were plenty of other tools for that, but this was a knife for survival.
“I don’t think I need that,” she protested.
Torque pressed it into her hand. “In that case, it will just be something you carry until you come back to me. Then you can give it back.”
She folded it into her fist and looked up at him. “I’ll do that.”
The cab pulled up just outside the garage door. The driver looked nervous as he realized his location, a fact that made Torque feel a little bit better. Even so, he hated to put Blue’s life in the hands of a stranger, even if it was only for a short time. It was more than just her life, after all. “Just promise me you’ll be careful. Really.”
“I will. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He watched the cab drive away and didn’t close the garage door until he could no longer see the car. Then Torque retreated up through the clubhouse to his room. The early morning sun streamed through his windows, slowly illuminating the town underneath him. He had been awake for far too long, and the fatigue that came with a healing body was catching up with him. Even so, he knew he couldn’t go to sleep. His mind was in overdrive, and he wouldn’t be able to turn it off for quite some time.
Instead, he opened the dresser drawer and pulled out his pistol. Torque had gotten out of the habit of carrying it with him every day. When the clubs were at peace, there wasn’t much need and it only aroused the suspicion of the cops. Now, though, he knew there would be more of a need for it than ever. The Dirty Bastards were out there, and he had no way to know when they would be coming. And he had two more lives to protect now.
Torque retrieved the cleaning kit from the drawer as well and set about readying his weapon. A father. He was going to be a father. It was the kind of thing he’d always thought of as being in the distant future, something that would happen when the time was right but nothing to worry about right away. And yet here he was, face-to-face with it.
What kind of a father would he be? Not one like his own dad, that much was for sure. He didn’t want any son of his to grow up feeling an obligation to be part of Satan Seed. It hadn’t been a choice for Torque, but it was the sort of decision that shouldn’t be made lightly or by anyone else. Blue had asked him once what he would have done if he hadn’t been a biker. He had been a biker since he was born. The question had caught him off guard, and he hadn’t quite known what to say, but even now he didn’t have an answer.
Nor did he have the answers to anything else when it came to parenting. The one thing he did know was that Blue would be wonderful as a mother. She could be tough when she needed to be, but she was also soft and caring. Her touch when she had tended to his wounds had been so gentle, but she was able to turn around and say just what was on her mind when she didn’t agree with him. He could easily envision her singing her baby to sleep or disciplining her child when he didn’t follow the rules. No, their child.
Torque let himself imagine for a moment what she would look like when her belly had swollen with the child. She would still be just as sexy as ever. He could see her holding a child in her arms, looking tired but elated as she showed Torque what his new son or daughter looked like.
But there was an important piece of the puzzle missing. Blue might be pregnant with his child, but she had never given him any indication that she had changed her mind about how she felt about him. He was a biker, and now, because of him, she had been dragged into a club war. This couldn’t be good. At the very least, he would protect her as well as he could. When things settled down, they would find the time to talk.
He put the gun back together and held it in position, staring down the sights. When they came, he would be ready.
Chapter Twelve
Blue
When the cab pulled up in front of her house, Blue wasn’t sure she would be able to get out and go inside. She was emotionally wrung out, completely exhausted both physically and mentally. The pregnancy, talking to Torque, and the news of the war were all too much. Her body wanted to sink into the upholstery. She wanted to close her eyes and not open them again for a century. But she knew that sitting in the back of a cab wasn’t going to change anything. It wouldn’t stop what lay ahead. Feeling as though all of her energy had been drained, she hauled herself out of the back of the car and let herself in the door. She immediately locked it behind her.
The house was deathly silent, but Blue allowed herself to stand in the living room and enjoy it. She was used to the hum of tattoo machines all day at work with a steady background of various music. The streets outside were usually full of traffic. At this early hour, the entire world seemed to be quiet for a moment. Soon enough, it would be punctuated with the howls of an infant.
Heading down the hallway to her room, Blue glanced longingly at her bed. She wanted more than anything to crawl under the covers, go to sleep, and forget about everything that was happening. It was so easy to think about the cool feeling of the sheets around her body, the softness of her pillow, and the bliss that would come from a deep sleep. But Torque was waiting for her, and Acer expected her to fulfill her promise. The constant threat of Rat showing up spurred her forward more than anything, and she grabbed a duffel bag from the bottom of her closet and filled it with clothes.
A glance in the mirror made her r
ealize just how bedraggled she looked from her visit to the park, but there was no time to shower. She spritzed some dry shampoo in her hair and ran a brush through it, and then quickly changed into a clean tank top and a pair of jeans. Torque’s knife went into the pocket.
Blue hesitated before she went out the front door again. It was early, and the shop wouldn’t be open yet. In some ways, that was the perfect time to go. She wouldn’t have to explain any of this to Spencer. But it would hurt him to come to work and see that she had taken the bulk of her equipment sometime in the night. He would think she had left him for good, and after all he had done for her.
“It can’t be helped,” she muttered. “I’ll take my stuff, and I’ll just leave him a note so he knows I haven’t quit. That is, if he hasn’t fired me yet.”
Having left her car at home when she had gone for her walk the previous night, Blue didn’t need to take a cab back to the shop. She chucked her duffel in the backseat and got behind the wheel, zooming out onto the main road before most of the town was off to work. She pulled into the parking lot and was surprised to find all the lights on in the building. “Good morning,” she called out tentatively as she walked in the front door. “Did you have an early appointment, or did you just forget to go home last night?”
“Blue!” Spencer came jogging out of his booth and around the counter. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. He still had a black nitrile glove on his other hand, and he held it away so he wouldn’t touch her with it. “Are you feeling better? I’ve been worried about you. I swung by your house when I left last night just to make sure you were okay, but it looked like you weren’t there. You didn’t answer your phone, either.”
“I … wasn’t home,” she replied uncertainly. There was no need to explain that she had been pressed up against a tree in the park or working out a deal at the Satan Seed clubhouse. And now that Spencer had mentioned her phone, she realized she didn’t even know where it was. In the chaos at the park and the clubhouse, she must have left it somewhere. “Sorry if I made you worry.”
“It’s okay. I just can’t lose my best artist,” he replied with a grin.
“Don’t let him fool you,” said a voice from behind Spencer. The curtain over his booth parted to reveal Bri, his wife. With her sleek dark hair, heavy eyeliner, and quality tattoos, she had been one of the classiest tattoo artists in the area. Before Spencer had put a ring on her finger, she’d had numerous offers from her clients and from other shop owners. Of course, she had turned them all down. “He’s been worried sick about you all night. I thought I’d have to slip him a mickey just to get him to go to bed.” She poked her husband on the arm and smiled.
Spencer made a pouty face at his wife, but he didn’t argue. “It’s just that I’ve never known you to miss work. I don’t know what’s going on, Blue, but I’m happy to talk about it if you want to.” His brown eyes were sympathetic and somewhat sad.
Blue’s shoulders slumped under the weight of it all. She’d been going through so much, and there had been nobody for her to share it with. Maybe it was time to talk about it, after all. Spencer was the only person who knew even a fraction of what she had been doing through. First, she peered around the shop. “What are you doing here so early? It’s barely past eight.”
“Working on Bri’s sleeve. She hardly gets a chance to come in anymore, but her mom wanted to take the baby to some special kids’ breakfast at the diner. It seemed like the perfect opportunity.” He pointed to his wife’s arm, where a partially-formed scene of birds in a tree was slowly coming to life. The outline had been done quite some time ago, but he was shading in the leaves and adding every tiny feather to the birds.
“So, there’s nobody else here?”
“Nope.”
“Good. Then I’ll lock the door, and you make a pot of coffee.”
Blue unloaded her burdens. She explained that she and Torque had a fling, but that she didn’t know where it was going. Although she spared Spencer the knowledge that she’d had sex in the shop, she did tell them how Rat had turned up once again and taken Torque down. “I know I should have told you all about that a long time ago, but I didn’t think it mattered. I figured Rat was done with us, and that Torque was gone for good, and that it was time to just move on with my life. But Torque showed back up last night, and he told me his club is going to war with the Dirty Bastards. I don’t really know what that means or what to do. To make matters even worse, I’m pregnant.” Saying the words aloud brought every emotion to a head. Tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to spill over her lashes, and she suddenly felt more sorry for herself than she had when her mother had gone off and left her.
“Oh, honey.” Bri came forward and put her arms around Blue. The two women had never been very close, but it was a heartfelt gesture that only made Blue sob more.
She leaned into Bri and let the tears come. But there was more to explain. “I came here to get my equipment and take it to the Satan Seed clubhouse. I’m tattooing the president in exchange for his protection and for letting me stay there with Torque for a little while.”
Spencer had sat quietly and listened up until this point, but he was suddenly animated at this news. He rose quickly from the chair he had parked himself in and slammed his mug of coffee on the desk, letting the dark liquid slosh over the side. “You can’t do that! You’ve got appointments here, and you’re already behind. Besides that, you can’t legally tattoo outside of a shop. It’s a violation of health department regulations.”
“Spencer!” Bri chided. “I don’t think a motorcycle gang gives two shits about health department regulations. And there are more important things going on here than keeping appointments.” She kept one arm around Blue, almost protectively.
“I know,” he responded quietly. He remained on his feet, but he was visibly calming down already at his spouse’s lecture.
“He’s right,” Blue said. “I mean, I’m not worried about where I tattoo right now, but this is a business. I can’t let my drama interfere with everything we have going on here. I should just pretend like none of this is happening and move on with my life.” In a way, it was a very comforting thought. She had gotten through plenty of other terrible times in her life by doing something very similar. It was easier to bury her head in the sand and act like everything was fine than to actually face reality. She could put her head down and just keep on tattooing until she had no memory of anything else. Some facets of reality, though—like the baby—could only be ignored for so long.
Bri shook her head and squeezed her arm around Blue’s shoulders. “Don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t drama. This is major stuff, and it needs to be dealt with. First and foremost, we’ve got to get you away from these bikers. A pregnant woman has no place in a gang war.”
“I have to agree with that,” Spencer said. “I know Torque seems like a good guy. He really helped us out here when Rat was being such an asshole, but that doesn’t mean he’s doing the right thing by letting you stay at the clubhouse. I mean, what are the other bikers even like? Are you really going to be safe there? Hell, you probably wouldn’t be in this boat if it hadn’t been for him.”
Blue gaped at them, feelings of uncertainty squirming around in her stomach like snakes. She touched the knife in her pocket that Torque had given her. It felt heavy and cold. “But what do I do, then? I can’t just pick up and disappear. I’ve got no place to go.”
“Come to our house,” Bri volunteered immediately. “We’re on the other side of the town, and in a nicer neighborhood. I doubt anyone will come looking for you there, and I’m home almost all the time. It’ll be safer for you and for the baby until this whole thing calms down.”
It sounded nice, but it was the exact opposite of what she had set out to do that morning. The way Torque had talked, it had sounded like he wanted to be a part of her life. But had that just been a ploy to have his way with her and get Acer to allow her in the clubhouse? Had he really meant any of it, or would he just kick
her out and run off once the baby came and he no longer had a use for her? She wasn’t really losing anything by staying at Spencer and Bri’s house, and there was no need to tattoo Acer if she wouldn’t be staying with Torque. Maybe staying with the Hagens’ would be a nice middle ground.
Blue turned her head toward her booth. She had done a good job cleaning everything up, but in her mind’s eye she could still see the bloodstains on the walls. Spencer was right. The Dirty Bastards had been causing a ruckus, but it was Torque’s interference that had started all the trouble. Life had been as steady as she had ever known it to be before Rat and Torque had gotten into it and dragged her into the middle. “Okay. That sounds good.”
Spencer smiled and nodded, his shoulders visibly relaxing. He picked his coffee mug back up and drained what was left in it. “I’m just about finished with our session today, so you can get a ride home with Bri. I was planning on staying here anyway, so I can work on rearranging the books and having things prepped for the day’s appointments.”