I heard my dad breathe a sigh of relief. “Is she . . .” His voice trailed off for a moment. “Is she okay?”
Cole sighed again and held me tighter as if it would somehow make me okay again. “No, she’s not. I’ll let you see her once I’ve got her taken care of. Just give us a little while.”
I heard my dad walk away and the bedroom door close. When I was clean and bandaged up, Cole held me to him on the bed. My head was on his chest and his arm was wrapped around me tightly, his other hand holding mine captive on his bare abs. I couldn’t have been happier to have Cole with me than at that moment. He was the only thing holding me together.
Someone knocked on the door, and Cole’s hold on my hand tightened once again. “Cole, it’s me and Amy,” Dad announced.
Cole grunted in response, and they opened the door. My mom rushed over to the bed and grabbed my hand. I flinched away from her slightly. “Oh, God, Amelia, are you okay? Please tell me that you’re okay!” she exclaimed frantically, not noticing my fear of her touching me unexpectedly.
“Do I look okay?” I muttered, pulling my hand from hers.
Her lips trembled as she ran her hand over my hair. I winced in pain and jerked away, moving closer to Cole, if that were even possible. “She had injuries everywhere, so be careful,” Cole snapped at her.
My mom’s eyes filled with tears. I sighed. I had done enough crying to last everyone a lifetime. I didn’t need her crying as well.
“How could I let this happen to you again?” she cried. “Amelia, I’m so sorry that I failed you as a mother.”
My dad squeezed her shoulder. “Calm down, honey. You’re not going to make Amelia feel any better,” he murmured, his eyes sad as he looked down at my blue, black, and purple face.
She stood up after she kissed the back of my hand. “Get some rest, honey,” she whispered, another tear slipping down her cheek.
They left the room, and Cole gently set me onto the bed completely so I wasn’t lying on him anymore and stood up. “I’m going to get you some food. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I nodded. He leaned down and kissed me gently, leaving the room. When he came back, he had a plate of food in his hand and a bottle of water. “Eat the food and drink all of the water, and then go to sleep, alright? You need to rest to get your strength back.”
* * *
Cole
I tooka seat at the table in the chapel. My mom was no-where to be seen. She had texted me last night saying that while she was gone, I had the authority to make all of the decisions. I didn’t understand why the fuck she needed time away when she didn’t even have a lot of shit happen to her.My girlwas the one that received all of the harsh treatment. And as fucked up as it was, Iwantedher to feel like shit after witnessing what happened to Amelia. It was about goddamn time everyone sided with my woman instead of standing against her.
“As you all know, we have a severe ATL problem,” Dad began. “Two women of the club were kidnapped and both of them received some harsh treatment.” I snorted. He cast me a dark look.More like Amelia received all of the harsh treatment and my mother only got knocked out a few times.My dad narrowed his eyes at me but continued on with what he was saying. “Katie has taken some time away from the clubs to deal with the trauma that she has been through. Amelia is currently unavailable to us. Both women need to be watched carefully, and they areneverallowed to go anywhere alone.” My dad looked at me, his eyes showing the anger I was feeling. I knew he was angry over my mom—his wife—being taken, but I was absolutely fucking livid at not only the ATL, but at myself for letting Amelia suffer through this shit again. “Cole, what plan of action do you feel we should take to deal with the problem?”
“I say we kill every single of one of those bastards,” I ground out, my hands fisting on the table. “Every fucking person that laid their hands on Amelia will be tortured under my hand, do I make myself clear?” Just thinking of what Amelia looked like when I picked her up off of the ground was enough to make my heart ache and to make my soul fucking rage.
My dad nodded his head in consent. “We attack them tomorrow. Don’t let any of them survive, am I clear?” My dad looked over at me. “Talk to Amelia and find out who the men were that put their hands on her, so we know they’re the ones that don’t get killed on the spot.” He looked at the rest of the men sitting at the table. “For the rest of you, this will be bloody. We can’t let any of this fall back on us, or we’ll have the cops crawling up our asses. Don’t leave any fucking DNA on the scene, do I make myself clear?”
Everyone around the table said yes. My dad slammed his gavel down, and I got up from my chair. When I walked out into the main room, I saw Amelia sitting at the bar, sipping a beer. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Her long dark hair was pulled up into a messy bun. You could clearly see the hand shaped bruises that surrounded her neck, and there were cuts and bruises covering almost every inch of her skin.
I clenched my jaw and walked over to her. “Amelia, you’re supposed to be in bed,” I told her. She needed to be resting, not out here drinking.
She glanced over at me and back down at her beer. “I’d rather be out here drinking. I don’t want to lay in bed all day and do nothing but go over the shit that happened to me,” she retorted.
I sighed and sat on the bar stool next to her. “Amelia, can you tell me who it was that hurt you?” I asked gently, knowing it wasn’t going to be easy to bring this up to her.
She turned to face me, her glare burning flames into my skin. “I’m not fucking talking about what happened,” she spat at me.
I rolled my eyes at her. “I’m not fucking forcing you to talk about what happened, Amelia. I want to know who the bastards are that hurt you because we’re riding out tomorrow to kill every fucking member of the ATL. I want the sons of bitches that touched you to beg for death before I give it to them, so tell me who the fuck they are.”
She studied me for a moment. “They’re three brothers,” she finally said, turning back to face the wall of liquor and not looking at me. “Triplets to be exact. They look exactly alike. They have tan skin, brown eyes, and black hair. They’re tall and muscular. You can’t miss them. President, Vice President, and Sergeant at Arms.”
Gently gripping her chin, I turned her to face me. “I will end this nightmare for you, Amelia. You have my word on it.”
She glared at me, obviously pissed that she even had to go back in her memories to tell me who it was that had raped her. “Like I’ll believe your word.” I actually recoiled a little at her words. “The last time you promised me something, I had to face it again anyway, and I came back worse than fucking ever.”
She got up, sending the bar stool crashing to the floor. She stormed out of the room pretty fast for a girl who was as injured as she was. I sighed and ran a hand down my face. “You want a beer after that?” Peanut asked me quietly.
I gave him a short, curt nod. Within seconds, I had a beer sitting in front of me with the lid popped off. My dad and Luke came over to me. I glared at them. “What the fuck do you want?”