He smirked down at me with that classic Cole smirk, knowing exactly what he had done. He continued hitting that same spot. I dug my nails into his back as I came hard around him. He groaned. “God, I fucking love you, Amelia,” he groaned into my neck.
I froze beneath him, my eyes snapping open wide. “What?” I whispered.
Had I heard him right?
He quickly sat up and jumped out of bed, running his fingers through his hair. “Fuck, Amelia. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it,” he said quickly, his voice panicked.
What? He didn’t mean it?
I felt my heart shatter in my chest. My chest physically hurt after hearing him say he didn’t mean those words. I looked away from him, covering up with my blanket, and turning on my side away from him. Tears trickled down my face, but I forced myself to stay quiet. I didn’t need him knowing how much his rejection had hurt me.
“Amelia?” he asked quietly.
I felt him touch my back, but I shrugged him off. “Don’t,” I snapped at him, thankful that my voice was steady and strong despite the emotional rollercoaster currently rushing through me.
The bed dipped suddenly, alerting me that he had sat down. He turned me over, and his eyes widened at the tears falling down my cheeks and wetting the pillow under my face. “Amelia, what’s wrong?” His face was pained as he reached forward to wipe away my tears. “I thought . . . I thought you freaked out that I told you I love you,” he confessed.
I shook my head at him. “I’m upset because you told me you don’t mean it,” I whispered, my voice breaking as another tear slipped down my cheek.
He pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me tightly, rocking me comfortingly. “Baby, I only said that because I thought you didn’t return the feelings,” he whispered hoarsely into my hair, his arms tightening around me.
I shook my head against his chest. “Cole, I love you. I realized I love you when you were shot,” I mumbled into his chest.
He laughed in relief. “Fuck. Here I am freaking out, and you love me, too.” He shook his head. “You’ve loved me since . . .fuck.”
* * *
The doorto the room flew open, crashing against my wall. Cole shot up right in bed, and my eyes snapped open. “The DM have showed up here and at Drake’s. Fucking get her to safety!” Travis barked, pointing at me before he rushed back out of the room.
Cole jumped up, grabbing his gun and yanking his clothes on. He threw me a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and I yanked them on quickly. He handed me my gun and lifted me up into his arms, running out of the back entrance. He ran us into the woods, and we sat down behind a bunch of bushes. “Cole, you need to go—” I started, but he cut me off.
He shook his head with a hard look on his face. “No,” he snapped at me as gunshots started firing. I winced. “I won’t make the mistake of leaving you alone again.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I doubt anyone is going to find me here,” I told him. “You need to be out there with our club.”
He glared at me. “Amelia, shut the hell up and stop arguing with me. I’m not fucking leaving you alone—not again,” he snapped.
The gunshots got louder. I hated not being able to see what was going on. I hated leaving the crew behind to defend themselves. I knew they had Travis and Katie, but Cole and I were the president and vice president. We should have been there, fighting alongside them, not hiding out here in the woods. Fuck, Cole and I had chosen the worst time for me to get pregnant.
After a while, the gunshots stopped. Cole’s phone vibrated in his hand, and he answered it almost instantly. “What’s going on?” he demanded to know.
“We’ve got the president, and everyone that showed up here that’s not dead is injured,” I heard Travis say. “We’ve got a fucking mess. Stay hidden. I think I hear sirens—meaning the cops are on their way.”
“You can’t fucking take the fall for this!” Cole roared. “All of you will go to fucking jail—"
“Amelia fucking needs you, Cole,” Travis snapped at him. “And the members who get released will need their President and VP. So, fucking stay hidden. You weren’t involved in this. You don’t need to be locked up when your woman is pregnant, Cole. So, stay the fuck out of the way, and don’t come out into the open.”
Cole brought the phone down from his ear with a heavy sigh. He dropped his head into his hands. “It’s a mess,” Cole muttered. “It’s all a goddamn mess.”
“Everyone get on the ground on your stomachs and put your hands behind your backs!” I heard someone shout, alerting Cole and I that the cops had made it to the clubhouse.
Cole stood up and pulled me up into his arms. “Come on. We’ve got to get out of here in case they decide to search the property.”
“Cole, we can’t—” I started, but he cut me off again.
He sighed. “I don’t want to either, but my dad is right. He’ll handle everything. The crew trusts him and Mom, and they trust their decisions. We’ll be okay, and so will they,” he assured me.
Cole carried me through the woods, making sure his tracks couldn’t be seen. We had failed our club, and we had just began reigning as president and vice president. Nothing could get much worse than this shit.