Cole and I were both out of the hospital, though Cole was still on bed rest for another week, and I wasn’t allowed to do anything strenuous. Kale was gone when we got back, and according to Travis, he had been dealt with.
I stood beneath the flow of water, my thoughts rushing through my head. It had been a week since I had realized I loved Cole. What the fuck was I supposed to do now? I felt like I was making it obvious to him, and it was scaring me. I didn’twantto make it obvious. I didn’t want him to run away from me because I loved him.
Cole had become everything to me. Fuck, I didn’t know what I would do with myself if he left me.
I heard a crash from the bedroom, and I jumped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around myself as I ran into the bedroom. Cole was on the floor, leaning against the wall, his face twisted into a look of pain. I quickly knelt in front of him. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked him frantically.
“Trying to get something to fucking drink,” he grumbled, leaning his head back against the wall as he breathed in and out slowly to try to regulate his pain.
“Why didn’t you just shout for me?” I demanded. Cole was always trying to do something by himself, and it drove me up the damn wall that he just couldn’t ask for help.
“Because you’ve been stressing yourself out way too much lately,” he muttered. “I thought I could handle getting myself a drink.”
I grabbed his face in my hands and made him look at me. “Cole, I’m being careful,” I assured him. “I can do something as simple as getting you a drink.”
He sighed and leaned forward, placing his lips over mine. I melted instantly. “Can you get someone to help me get back in bed?” He looked at my towel, his eyes darkening. “After you get some clothes on.”
I nodded and quickly got dressed and went to find Travis. While he was helping Cole back into bed, I turned off the water in the shower and got Cole a bottle of water out of the fridge that we had put up in our room. I crawled onto the bed beside him and handed him the bottle. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me against his side tightly. He rubbed his hand over my bump that was growing more and more by the day. “I think our baby is going to be a tiny little thing like you,” Cole told me quietly.
I rested my head on his shoulder and shrugged. He kissed the top of my head. “Who knows? What do you want it to be?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t care. I just want our little one to be a healthy baby.”
I looked down at his bandaged stomach and bit my lip. “How bad does it feel?” I asked him.
He followed my gaze and shrugged again. “It gets better every day. The doctor said he thinks I’ll be up and moving good again in a couple of weeks, but I won’t be able to do anything really strenuous probably for another month.”
I sighed. “Why in the hell did you take that bullet for me?” I muttered. It was probably the stupidest fucking thing he had done in his life.
He kissed the top of my head. “I don’t want to lose you or our baby.”
He said it so calmly. Like, how the fuck was he calm about taking a bullet that was meant for me? I had been shot before. Christ, I could have lost him! I had to be hospitalized due to my reaction to him being shot.
“Cole, I don’t want to lose you either. You can’t just do that kind of shit. It’s why they had to hospitalize me in the first place. I flipped the fuck out when you went unconscious.”
Cole sighed into my hair, his hand rubbing my belly soothingly. “Baby, I will take a bullet for you any fucking day. If it’s a choice between my life or yours, I willalwaysgive up my life.”
I breathed out a heavy sigh and sat up against the headboard, running my fingers through my wet hair. I felt vomit rise in my throat, and I slapped a hand over my mouth, jumping off of the bed and running to the bathroom. I heard Cole shout for someone, but I ignored him. Fuck, I hated throwing up. It hurt, and it burned my throat. They had kept me on medication in the hospital to stop it from happening, but I didn’t have anything for when I was at home.
I felt someone pull my hair back as I vomited again. When I was done, I slumped to the floor, reaching forward to flush the toilet. I leaned my head back against the wall and took the bottle of water that was held out to me. I looked up at Katie and gave her a small smile. “Thanks,” I whispered.
“You might want to go prove to Cole that you’re okay. I think he’s ready to get out of bed to come see for himself,” she muttered.
Shaking my head, I slowly stood up and walked into the bedroom. “You okay?” Cole asked me, his eyes running over me to check for himself.
I nodded. He breathed out a sigh of relief and relaxed back into the bed. I turned to Katie. “Drake is supposed to be riding in tonight. Can you make sure everything is ready for London’s Tears?”
She rolled her eyes at me. I forced myself not to scowl at her. I really hated her fucking attitude sometimes. “You’re talking to me, honey. Of course, I can. Are you and Cole going to attend the party?”
I shrugged. “We’ll try to. Cole and I have some important things to discuss with Drake.”
She pulled me into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. I sighed. I already knew where this conversation was going, especially since she pulled me aside. “Please tell me that you two aren’t planning on forming an alliance with him.”
I sighed. “It’s going to be good for the Bloody Black Skulls, Katie.”
She threw her arms up in the air in frustration. “The hell it is, Amelia!” she exclaimed. “We just got out of a war with the ATL, and we’ve got the FBI on our asses. The last fucking thing this club needs is to form an alliance with a crew that has more fucking problems than we do!” she shouted.
“Drake needs our help,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “It’s the least that I can do for him after what he did for me. So, shut the hell up,” I snapped at her.