Sinner's Steel (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #3)(54)

“Evie…” Zane toed the concrete floor with his boot. When they’d first done the reno of the new clubhouse, they’d put down industrial carpet, but after a few parties, a couple of orgies, and a few fistfights, they’d decided to rip it up and go back to the basics. “She had a hard time growing up. And in the end, everyone abandoned her, including me and Jag. She doesn’t trust me. She thinks I’m gonna leave her again.”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I keep thinking maybe she’s better off without me. I’m not a family man. Didn’t have any role models for how that kind of thing works. She was doing okay before I came along, and she doesn’t want to be involved in our life. But then there’s Ty. I’m not about to abandon my son. I wanna do right by them. I just don’t know what right is.”

Dax lifted the key from the hook beside the door. “You’ve got to figure that one out. When people are abandoned, they wind up with a need to feel safe and secure, but they can’t trust anyone because the people who were supposed to love them let them down. So they push everyone away. If you want her, you need to make her feel secure. She won’t feel that way if it looks like you got one foot out the door.”

Well, hell. Here he’d been thinking only about Evie, but Dax could have been talking about him. He’d never thought about being abandoned as a kid. His life was the way it was, with a mom gone and a dad who didn’t give a shit about anything but drugs. He’d never really seen the parallel between Evie’s alcoholic mother and his druggie father, but it was right there, staring him in the face. They’d bonded over a loss they hadn’t realized was a loss at all. They’d found safety and security in each other’s arms.

Dax paused, one hand on the door. “Not that I like intruding on people’s lives—okay, actually I do—but, there’s something else.”

“She’s gotta forgive me.”

“No. You have to forgive yourself.”

*

“Viper doesn’t want me back, does he? That’s why you’re here.” Doreen folded her arms and leaned against the wall. She had taken off her cut and tied her hair up in a ponytail, bringing the dark circles under her blue eyes, and her pale skin into sharp relief. But as with all old ladies, appearances could be deceiving, and so far she’d shown herself to be vicious, cunning and resourceful, all of which meant Zane had to stay alert.

“He has one our brothers,” he said. “We offered him a trade, and he turned us down. He said if you were stupid enough to get caught, he’d kill you himself if you showed up at his club.” Zane didn’t pull his punches. She needed to know she was alive now only by the grace of the Sinners.

“I’m not as stupid as he thinks,” she muttered, half to herself, but Zane didn’t miss the pain that flickered across her face.

He pulled up the chair across from her bed and rested his elbows on his knees, studying her body language—legs stretched out on the floor, ankles crossed, leaning back on her hands. Certainly not the language of fear.

“So are you going to kill me? Torture me for information? You want to know what they’ve done with your brother, don’t you?”

Dax unloaded his duffel bag on the table by the door. “If you’re willing to cooperate, we’ll let you go. If not, we’ll get the information we need in whatever way we have to do it.”

“Let me go?” She moved as if to stand and Zane motioned her back on the bed. He had no desire to get physical with her, but if she tried anything stupid, he would have no choice.

With a sigh, she pushed back and leaned against the wall, legs bent up, her arms resting casually on her knees as if they were just hanging out having a chat, instead of in a dungeon with a torture expert who was ready and willing to ply his trade. “You’ve tainted me. If he sees me on the street he’ll think I did a deal with you to get free, which would make me a traitor. Only way I can go back to Viper is if I bring him something useful to prove my loyalty. You wanna tell me your secrets? Maybe give me a crate of weapons to buy back his love?”

“Torture and death it is then.” Dax clapped his hands together. “And Zane thought this wouldn’t be fun.”

Doreen shrank back the tiniest bit. “What about a door number three? Like I give you something and you give me something that doesn’t end up with Viper hunting me down and slitting my throat?”

“What do you want aside from freedom?” Zane met her gaze, challenging, defiant. He liked her. Not in a sexual way, although she was an attractive woman, but because she’d been through hell and didn’t break. Kinda like his Evie, but with rougher edges and a harder heart.

“Protection.”

“You’re a prisoner,” Zane said. “Can’t get more protection than that.”

“Not for me. For my kid. I don’t want Viper to get him. I want someone to look after him if I don’t make it. He’s with my mom, but she’s only interested in booze and drugs and her place isn’t exactly kid friendly.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, a hesitant, slightly apprehensive gesture that was at odds with what they’d seen of her so far.

“Why would he care about Axle’s kid?” Dax voiced the question that was on the tip of Zane’s tongue.