She blew out a sigh. "What is he being arrested for this time?" she asked, exasperated.
This wasn't the first time Cole was being locked up, but itwasthe first time he was being locked up for something that he didn't do.
"He's being blamed for my rape. Katie, he didn't do anything. I need to get to the station so I can get that cleared up."
She was quiet for a moment, most likely trying to process the bomb I’d just dropped on her. "Be waiting outside for me."
She hung up. I finished signing my papers and waited outside of the hospital for her. When she pulled up, I slid into Cole's truck. "Why are you driving Cole's truck?"
“Because I don’t want you on the back of my bike, Amelia, and I don’t own a car. Heather has Travis’s truck,” she informed me.
I looked out the window, cutting off any conversation with her. When we got to the station, I jumped out of the truck and went inside. I couldn't move as fast as I wanted to because my body was still extremely sore from what I had gone through in the past few days.
I found the sheriff and walked over to him. He took a double take of me, shocked to see me out of the hospital so soon. “Miss Johnson, I didn't realize you were being released so early."
Fucking cops. I really did hate cops. I knew he was going to come back to question me, but with cops, it never mattered if they got the right person, just as long as they had someone behind bars for the crime. But I would be damned if I let Cole take the fall for this. I needed him outside with me, not locked up inside.
"You've got the wrong person, sheriff," I said. "Cole isn't the one who raped me. I willingly had sex with him when we were at the club house. I'm not letting him take the fall for something he didn't do."
"We have to keep him here until we've questioned him, Miss Johnson," he sighed.
I saw the keys to the holding cell on the desk behind him and snatched them up. I took off running for the back where they kept the cells, ignoring my body's protests. I found Cole’s cell and began to unlock it.
"For fuck's sake, Amelia, what in the fucking hell are you doing?!" Cole roared.
"Getting you out," I told him.
I unlocked the door, and right as I swung open his door, my body was slammed into the bars. The sheriff dragged my arms behind my back. Cole stepped out and pulled the officer back from me. "You really going to arrest her, man?" Cole asked.
"She just released you, Cole. I can't let that go unpunished."
"If you arrest her, our deal is off, sheriff," Cole said quietly.
I glared at Cole. Don't tell me this mother fucker has become a rat. Rats don't live once they're caught. They're killed immediately.
And I couldn’t live with that—not Cole.
The sheriff sighed and walked off. "Get out of here, both of you. Cole, take your mother with you," he called over his shoulder.
Cole looked over at me and noticed my glare. "Amelia, I'm not a rat. I made a deal with him because my dad asked me to when I called him. Get that judgmental little look out of your eyes."
I rolled my eyes and walked past him. If the clubs kept making deals with the cops, the clubs were going to go down. Someone was eventually going to rat us all out. I had tried telling Travis that, but he never listened to me. I was just a patch—one without a voice.
I walked out to the truck and slid into the backseat. Cole got into the driver's side, and his mom slid into the passenger seat. "Your bike is still at the hospital," Katie told Cole.
He grunted but didn't respond. I was sensing some serious tension between them. It was fucking strong.
"Drop me off at the club house on your way to the hospital," I said to Cole. I didn’t want to be in here any longer than I had to. Cole and his mother obviously had some issues between them, and I didn’t want to be around if they started arguing.
Cole glanced at me in the rearview mirror but didn't reply. However, he did as I told him to. When I got into the club house, Dad and Travis were sitting at a table together. Travis was looking through some papers. I walked over, and Travis looked up at me. "I was wondering when you were finally going to show up here," he said to me.
"Cole got locked up. I went to the station to release him." I nodded to the papers in his hands. "What's that?"
"Cops are suspicious of the money we make,” Dad muttered, glaring at the papers as Travis tossed them down onto the table. “I've got to find a way to balance out the books to make it seem like all of our money comes from the garage."
I grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the table, taking a seat beside him. I was over what happened a few days ago. Besides, even if I was still pissed off, I would have still sat down to help him because I needed to learn how to do this. After all, I was about to be the VP of both clubs.
Maybe—if everything didn’t get fucked up before then.