Page 62 of Twisted Road

“That sounds very judgmental, Blythe. I don’t know either of them,” she said out loud, looking toward Blythe without looking her in the eye. “But when he looked at her, his entire expression changed. Everything about him changed.” She rarely challenged someone with her opinion if she didn’t know them, but she felt like she had to stand up for Savage and Seychelle. In doing so, she was standing up for Keys and herself.

Blythe looked horrified. “I do sound judgmental. I love Savage. I do. I don’t know why I sounded like that.” She looked at Anya and then Lyric. “He’s wonderful in so many ways. The kids adore him. And like everyone, I worried that we might lose him until Seychelle came along. I believe we’re each responsible for our own happiness…” She trailed off when Anya leaned toward her shaking her head.

“Seriously? Every single one of the Torpedo Ink members is lost without the others. I doubt if they could exist if they left the club. Having said that, Reaper definitely doesn’t do well without me. I feel that responsibility every single day. I don’t think Czar would do so well without you, Blythe. Where is this coming from?”

A young woman with a wealth of thick black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail approached the table. “Have you had a chance to look at the menu?” She smiled at Lyric. “I’m Sabelia.”

The first thing Lyric noticed was that Sabelia wore a mask—not a tangible one, but a mask nevertheless. Lyric always recognized masks because she wore one. That’s how she’d gotten together with Keys in the first place. She studied the woman without seeming to. She was very young. She had enormous dark green eyes shaped like a cat’s. Her features were very delicate. She appeared open and friendly, with a slightly impish smile, but just as Lyric always did, she was using a fake persona to help her get through her workday.

“The apricot scones are amazing,” Blythe said. “We’d like high tea with all the works, Sabelia.” She pointed it out on the menu to Lyric. “You’ll be able to sample all kinds of things if we order that, and each of us can choose a different tea.”

They put in their order and Sabelia hurried away. Other customers had come in, and she was suddenly quite busy.

“Blythe?” Anya persisted. “What’s wrong?”

Blythe leaned her forehead into her palm. “I don’t know exactly. I’m so restless. I feel cooped up all the time. I’ve gotten to the point that I feel like I talk to kids and teens all day and have no adult interaction whatsoever.”

“You have a lot of children, Blythe,” Anya pointed out. “And very little help. I can see you getting overwhelmed.”

“Everyone thinks I’m such a saint,” Blythe said. “I hate that they think that. I can’t complain or throw a little temper tantrum because I have to live up to my saintly status.” She looked up at Lyric. “You’re definitely getting a baptism by fire. First Seychelle and now me.”

“You’re entitled,” Lyric said. She was used to conversations with women, what with having had a beauty salon for several years. “I don’t have children, but if I did, I wouldn’t want to spend every waking minute with them. And who wants to be known as a saint? No one can live up to that reputation. No one.”

Blythe scrubbed her hand down her face. “Club members collect lost children like candy and bring them home to me. It isn’t that I don’t want them, I do, but I’m tired. Really, really tired. Saint Blythe apparently has limitations. It’s just that no one can see them.”

Anya reached over the table and took Blythe’s hand. “Honey, you need to talk to Czar and have him put a stop to it. There are others who would be willing to help by taking in a child or two if it was needed.”

“I can’t talk to Czar. I’d be letting him down.”

There it was. Did every woman fear she was letting her man down? Lyric certainly felt Keys carried the weight of their relationship. Seychelle felt Savage did. Now, Blythe admitted to being fearful of telling her husband she was tired and couldn’t take on another child at the moment.

“It isn’t just that I don’t want to let him down,” Blythe said. “These children had been trafficked and have special needs. They aren’t easy, but they deserve a home where they feel safe and loved. I know I can provide that for them. I also know others have said they would be willing to take a child if needed. Airiana and Max have four they adopted and now a toddler. I’m going to just come out and say it. They have to sneak out of the house to have any sexual relationship at all. Czar isn’t like Max—he doesn’t care who is around, but I do. If we have trouble, and we’re tame in comparison to some of the others, how would it affect their marriage, bringing a child into it? I have to think about that.”

Lyric shook her head. “No, you don’t. They have to think about that before they volunteer to take on a child. All of us do. You only have to consider how children affect you and Czar, not any of the others. That’s for them to decide.”

“She’s right, Blythe,” Anya agreed. “Every single couple, including Reaper and me, has to figure it out ourselves. The sex with any member of Torpedo Ink appears to be wild, there’s no question about it. Some, like Savage, have proclivities that aren’t good to expose a child to. He isn’t the only one, but all of us can learn to be more circumspect when it comes to sex. It’s just another evolution we all have to embrace. It doesn’t mean giving it up, it means learning how to handle it when we have children around.”

Blythe sighed. “I suppose you’re right.”

“And get a physical. You could be lacking vitamins or have some underlying problem,” Anya continued.

Lyric thought Anya was very wise and insightful. Blythe managed to put on a happy face, but Lyric felt her sadness. She was tired. She needed a break. How could Czar not see it?

“Is that going to be me in a few years? Keys unable to see me?” She hadn’t known she was going to just blurt that out loud.

“Czar would be furious that I haven’t talked to him about my feelings,” Blythe admitted. “He’s in the middle of something huge right now. He hasn’t been home with the kids, and Jimmy in particular is difficult at the moment. When Czar is doing his best to bring down a human trafficking ring, I think that takes precedence over me being tired, so I choose not to say anything to him.”

Lyric wanted to protest. Czar should see it, shouldn’t he? He should be tuned to his wife. She knew a relationship wasn’t going to be fifty-fifty, that the scale would swing first one way and then the other, but in her mind, she thought, no matter what was going on, Keys would see her. She wasn’t good at expressing feminine emotions in a relationship. She just wasn’t. Even now, when he talked to her and wanted her to tell him what she was feeling, she couldn’t always express herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him…Okay, she was learning to trust him.

“Lyric, why do you suddenly look scared?” Anya asked. “We’re just hashing out how to be with these very alpha males. You have one. You know it isn’t always easy. We were all surprised that Keys came home with a woman. Not just any woman but the one. He made that very clear to everyone.”

“What’s he like?” Blythe asked. “Each of the members of Torpedo Ink is different, but I can get a good reading on them. But not Keys. He’s always been a bit of an enigma. He’s always sweet to us, the women in the club, I mean, but I don’t know a single thing about him. I don’t think anyone else does either.”

Lyric hugged that information to herself. Keys was really hers. He’d given himself to her. Shared the reality of who he was—the good, the bad and the ugly. He trusted her with the real man. She was a tiny bit ashamed that she didn’t give him that same trust back. She was trying. She wanted to. She was getting better when it came to sex. And maybe that helped. Maybe their crazy sex life was slowly instilling an ability to trust Keys because he gave her no choice when it came to sex.

He’d always been up front with her about how he was, what he needed and what he expected from her. She clearly needed to be able to reciprocate, telling him what she needed, or she would end up tired and discouraged like Blythe. She relied on her feelings when it came to people, and she sensed Blythe was a really good person. She needed a rest. Maybe a spa day. At the very least, she needed time with her husband.

Sabelia put cups and saucers on their table and added three small pots of tea, along with the layered tiers of various savories and scones.