I heard the door to the office open, and the guy disappeared into the shadows. Someone placed their hand on my shoulder a moment later, and I screamed, swinging around, burning the person with the torch. The torch was knocked from my hand as a voice that sounded familiarly like Cole’s roared in pain. “For fuck’s sake, Amelia!”
I gasped. “I’m so sorry, Cole!” I exclaimed.
I turned away from him and ran my shaking fingers through my hair. Fuck, I was all out of whack right now. Too much had been happening to me in too little time. I was struggling to deal with it now. I was crushing under the weight of everything that I was being faced with. I wanted away from it all so bad, but I had a feeling it would only follow me and become worse if I ran away.
Cole turned me back to face him, his eyes meeting mine. “Amelia, are you okay?” he asked me softly, his eyes scanning my face.
I ignored his question. I didn’t have the energy to lie right now. Not after having to put up a strong front to that guy.
“Your arm,” I murmured, looking down at the burn, avoiding the topic of conversation that he wanted to discuss.
He looked down at the burn and shrugged. His eyes met mine again, and I quickly looked away from him. “Amelia—”
I grabbed his wrist. We needed to get back to the clubhouse where it was safe. “Come on. Let’s go to the clubhouse so I can take care of your arm.”
I walked us forward. We were almost out of the garage when Todd stepped back out of the shadows, holding a gun that was pointed at us. Cole immediately yanked me behind him, not giving a second thought to the burn on his arm. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he ground out through clenched teeth. “Do you have a death wish, mother fucker?”
“I figured I’d give you the same message that I just gave Amelia. She will never be riding off into the sunset, Colton. One of us will kill her first.”
Before I realized what was happening, Cole had his gun out and had shot the fucker with a clean shot to the forehead. He turned to me as Todd fell to the ground. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, slowly releasing it. But it didn’t do anything to help his anger. “Are you going to continue keeping fucking secrets, Amelia?!” Cole roared.
“Yes,” I ground out, standing my ground against him. “This doesn’t fucking concern you. I can take care of myself. I don’t need you or the fucking club to do it for me.”
He slammed the huge toolbox to the floor in anger, making me jump slightly. “I don’t give a fuck what you think you’re fucking capable of doing!” Cole hollered, seething at me. “This is much bigger than anything you can fucking deal with by yourself without losing your fucking life! I won’t allow you to fucking keep all of this shit to yourself, even if I have to be your mother fucking shadow!”
“Break it up!” Travis shouted, jogging into the garage.
He yanked Cole back from me, and a pressure I hadn’t even realized had been on my arm was released. Cole shoved Travis off him and walked over to me, towering back over me. His eyes bore into mine with a coldness that chilled my bones. “If you keep doing stupid shit like this, I’m going to fucking walk away from you. I won’t stand around and watch you get yourself killed. You mean too much to me for that. Let me know when you make your fucking decision.”
He stormed out of the garage. I ran a hand through my hair. Cole had finally admitted that I meant something to him, but it was too late now. I was putting the Black Skulls and the Bloody Royals in danger by staying here. I couldn’t continue on with my life here. I had to get out. I would put the clubs before myself.
Travis looked down at me as two members began getting rid of the body. “I don’t know what’s going on, and a part of me doesn’t want to know. Get your shit together, Amelia. The clubs aren’t blind to the way Cole feels about you. He’d give his very own life up for you. You may think that’s not any different than him laying his life down for a man with a cut, but it’s much more than that. You’re crippling him, Amelia. You’re twisting him all around, and I don’t like it one bit. Get your shit together.”
I knew he was speaking some truth to some degree, and it pissed me off that it was so fucking visible to everyone else. It also pissed me off that he was confronting me about shit that was none of his fucking concern. Travis may be the president, but when it came to me and my business, he had no fucking place in it.
I didn’t know where he thought he was going with his little speech considering I ran by my own book, and I didn’t give two fucking shits about anyone else when it came down to what I wanted or needed to do.
So, I denied everything.
“You and my fucking dad need to learn to stay out of business that has nothing to do with you,” I snapped at him. “Cole and I are fucking for fun, Travis, nothing more. Quit making this shit out to be more than it is.”
He took a step forward, pointing his finger in my face. His eyes were blazing with anger. I glared right back at him, not backing down. He couldn’t do anything to me that someone else hadn’t already done.
“I won’t let you fuck him up, Amelia.”
He walked out before I could say anything else. I went outside to Cole’s bike. I had to get out of here. Not only was everyone in danger with me around, but Travis had said it himself. I was twisting Cole around and starting to fuck him up. Besides, not only was I twisting Cole, but I was twisting myself, too.
I used my tools and took the parts off Cole’s bike that I needed for mine. Not only was I getting the parts I needed so that I could ride out, but I was stopping Cole from following me. I knew the second he found out that I had packed up and left, he would be out trying to find me.
I was hoping like hell that this would delay him and give me time.
* * *
Cole
I glaredat the ceiling of my room. My head was pounding with a hangover from hell. Fuck, I shouldn’t have drank so much last night. It was all Amelia’s fucking fault. Had she not decided to keep fucking secrets all of the fucking time, I wouldn’t even be feeling this fucking way! I didn’t want to deal with the shit I was feeling last night, and I still wasn’t ready to deal with it. So, I’d drank until I didn’t give a fuck anymore.
Amelia always kept secrets. I still didn’t know what happened to her to get her locked up in jail. She refused to tell me how she got the knife wound on her shoulder. Hell, if I hadn’t been in the hospital when they said she was raped, I wouldn’t have known that either. Not only that, but if the ATL president hadn’t practically forced her to tell me his message, I would have never known who raped her! How much more shit was she keeping from me and the clubs?