He’d obviously fucked up huge again. Shit. Had she caught his thoughts? It was entirely possible. He’d been thinking about other women blowing him. The images had been there in his mind. If she’d been looking, she would have seen them. That wasn’t good coming on the heels of whatever the hell he’d done the night before or the fact that she knew he was keeping things from her the other women knew. The club knew. This was turning into a shit show.
“All right, babe, we’ll scout out the bathrooms nearest the campsite. Fatei marked them for us,” he said, doing his best to appease her. She had been touching him. Her hand had been in his back pocket.
Seychelle was spoiling for a fight with him. Looking for a reason to leave. She’d been too quiet ever since they’d left that gas station. Different. Holding herself away from him. Not her body, but her mind. There was that space he couldn’t quite bridge. Something had happened while he’d been arguing with Czar.
He glanced over her head to Maestro. Several times he’d checked on her and he’d seen Lana, Alena and Maestro with her and he’d been reassured. Now, he wondered what had happened, especially when Maestro sighed and shook his head. That wasn’t a good sign. He tapped a code on his chest.
Maestro tapped two words back. Shit show.
What the fuck did that mean? Even though Seychelle didn’t want to take his hand, Savage shackled her wrist and began walking in the direction of their camp, forcing her to go with them. Short of an all-out struggle, which for a moment she seemed to actually consider, Seychelle went with him. He tapped the question on his chest. He didn’t like the answer he received. His brother and sisters, rather than making Seychelle feel as if she was wanted, had made her feel as if they didn’t approve of her for Savage. That hadn’t been their intent, but they didn’t feel she was capable of handling what might happen. She’d taken it wrong. It had been delivered in a clumsy manner.
Savage cursed under his breath. He was fighting to get his woman to accept Torpedo Ink, and they were making it much more difficult for him.
Czar moved up to the other side of her, giving Lana and Alena an inquiring lift of his eyebrow. Neither woman met his eyes.
“I know this is stressful, Seychelle. I wouldn’t have asked Savage to bring you along if I didn’t think we’d really need you again. I appreciate you coming. I know you didn’t want to be here. It’s difficult when you don’t know the rules, but we’ll look after you.”
“Maybe you should look after Savage. It appears he needs it more than I do.”
“I can understand you’re worried about him,” Czar said, feeling his way. “But we’ll watch his back, and when he’s in trouble, you’ll be here to see to him.”
“I’m told the help he needs when he has too much rage is in plenty of supply here, Czar, and I’m not needed at all. In fact, I’m a liability to him.” There was frost in her voice. Pure ice. She kept walking, head up, not looking at any one of the club members walking close to them.
Savage turned his death stare on Maestro and Lana. It was a shit thing for them to do to make Seychelle feel she wasn’t worth anything.
Czar’s head snapped up. He looked at Savage as if Savage had lost his mind. Savage shook his head. He would never tell his woman that. Not in a million years, and Czar should know that.
Before Czar could ask, Seychelle went on. “It appears you don’t need many of the other women, Czar.” Her cool blue eyes raked the president. “Nor did you have any problem telling the ones you chose to bring what to expect.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. She didn’t care in the least about throwing shit in Czar’s face. Her jacket might say PROPERTY OF on it, but she didn’t know exactly what that meant, and that was on him—not that she would have cared at that moment. She was looking for any reason to leave. One wrong misstep, and there was going to be a battle to end all battles; he could see the determination on her face.
She gave another twist to her wrist to try to get his fingers off hers. He tightened them, not willing to let her go. For all he knew, she might take it in her head to run. She definitely didn’t want his hands on her. She wasn’t fooling around either. Seychelle was her own person. He had a feeling if she could have, she would have marched right out from under the club’s watchful eyes and gone back to Sea Haven on her own.