Black Skulls, page 19
I sighed and stood up, grabbing a ponytail holder and pulling my hair into a side ponytail. “I’m trying to get everyone to clean up their puke and trash. This place will be fucking spotless by the time I get done laying into all of them,” I muttered. When I had walked out into the barroom and seen the fucking mess that morning, I had practically flipped my shit.
Cole stood up and pulled me against him, kissing me again. “I’ll be out there as soon as possible.” He rubbed my belly which was starting to stick out a little more. He said he noticed it way before I did, but Cole knew my body ten times better than I did. Now, it was big enough to be noticed by everyone that looked at me.
“Don’t stress out too much,” he reminded me, a slight warning in his voice.
I nodded and walked back out to the barroom. Everyone was back to sitting around on their asses, playing on their phones. “Just because I left the fucking room doesn’t give you a goddamn reason to sit on your fucking asses again! Why aren’t you all fucking cleaning up your fucking messes?!” I screamed, making them jump up to their feet.
“Go fuck off. You shouldn’t even be the VP. The only woman we listen to around here is Katie,” one of the men sneered at me.
I glared at the person who had spoken up. Kale glared back at me, anger morphing his features. He rarely ever said anything. In fact, he was so fucking lazy and stupid, Cole and I rarely included him in club decisions. It was a miracle he had ever moved up in the club from just being a prospect.
“I don’t give a fuck about your opinion,” I spat at him. “Why don’t you just fucking do as your told instead of starting shit?”
He jumped up threateningly, and I pulled my gun out, pointing it at him as he came charging at me. He stopped immediately, eyeing the gun in my hand with cautious eyes. “Take another step, and I’ll splatter your blood around this room, do you understand?” I snapped, my tone cold and dangerous. I wasn’t playing any fucking games. I would be fucking damned if another man ever put their fucking hands on me.
Cole stepped into the room and immediately stepped up beside me. I could practically feel the anger radiating off of him in waves. “What the fuck is going on here?!” he roared.
“I’m seconds away from beating that bitch into the fucking floor,” Kale growled at Cole, nodding his head towards me.
“Lay a fucking hand on her, and I’ll shoot you myself,” Cole ground out through clenched teeth, his hand settling protectively on my back.
“You need to sit the fuck down,” I snapped, talking to Kale. “I’ll shoot you before you become the next man to ever lay his fucking hands on me.”
He pulled his gun out, and a shot fired. I didn’t know if it was me or him that shot. Everything was happening so fast. Cole knocked me out of the way, and I heard his roar of pain almost instantly. Kale dropped his gun, his jaw practically touching the floor in shock as he stared down at Cole on the floor. Dropping my gun, I yanked my shirt off, rushing over to Cole, not caring that I was in my bra in front of everyone in the room. I moved his hand from his stomach, feeling nausea roll in my own. Blood was practically pouring out of his wound.
I quickly pressed my shirt to his wound and pulled out my phone. I called 911 immediately, trying to keep down my nausea and panic. I could barely fucking think, much less breathe. When I got off the phone, I looked down at Cole, who had his eyes closed. Panic constricted my chest with a vice-like grip. “Cole, open your eyes!” I shouted down at him.
He opened them immediately, his eyes landing on me. I was terrified. I couldn’t lose Cole. We had a baby on the way. I couldn’t do this on my own. Christ, I fucking loved him.
What?
I love him.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as I kept pressure on his stomach, desperate to slow down his loss of blood. He closed his eyes again just as EMTs and cops ran into the clubhouse. They pushed me out of the way, and I fell against the wall, sobbing. I couldn’t focus on what they were doing to him and the commotion around me. All I could focus on was Cole. His face was pale, and he looked like death itself. They shoved an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth, taking away my view of him.
I wrapped my arms around my belly and rocked back and forth. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t fucking breathe.
I barely felt the hands on my shoulders. I couldn’t make out the person in front of me. My ears were ringing loudly, and my vision was hazy. I couldn’t hear what they were shouting.
I was placed onto a stretcher, and an oxygen mask was placed over my face right as I blacked out.
I blinked awake in a hospital room. I was alone. I didn’t have Cole by my side. I didn’t have my mom or my dad in my room. I was absolutely fucking alone in this tiny white room.
All of the blood flashed through my mind. The image of Cole’s pale face made panic grip my chest. The oxygen mask over his mouth and nose almost made me sick. Tears poured down my face.
I had to go see him. I fucking had to. I had to know that he was okay.
My room door burst open, and a nurse ran into my room and over to my bedside. “Miss, you need to calm down,” she told me gently with a tone of desperation in her voice. “You’re going to cause contractions again.”
I ignored her, still trying to get out of bed. What the fuck was wrapped around my stomach? What was with all of the fucking needles and shit? All I wanted to do was see Cole! I just wanted to make sure that he was okay!
A doctor rushed into the room with two other nurses. They held me down to the bed, and the doctor strapped me to it as if I were mental patient. Hell, I felt like one.
“Cole—where’s Cole?” I demanded, my voice breaking from the tears leaking down my face and the huge lump that seemed to be lodged in my throat.
“I don’t know. I’m not his doctor,” the doctor told me calmly. “Amelia, you need to calm down. It’s vitally important that you do. You’re jeopardizing your baby’s life.”
“Cole—I need to see Cole!” I shouted, ignoring the doctor. Why the fuck weren’t they listening to me? I had to fucking go see Cole!
The doctor said something quietly to one of the nurses, and she nodded, rushing out of the room. I pulled against the restraints, screaming at the top of my lungs. “I just want to see Cole!” I shouted.
Travis rushed into my room. “Amelia, you have to calm down. Cole is fine. I promise that he’s okay, but you can’t leave this bed,” Travis said gently.
I cried harder, slumping against my pillow. “I just want to see him,” I sobbed.
Katie came into the room and ran her fingers through my hair soothingly. “You’ll get to see him; I promise. We’re getting a room organized for you and Cole to share right now.”
I continued crying. I didn’t believe them. I didn’t believe he was really okay. I just wanted to see for myself.
Katie pulled me into her arms, and I clutched onto her jacket, feeling nothing but pure, heart-wrenching, emotional pain at the moment. It hurt so fucking much not knowing if he was okay, and my last memory of him was being unconscious and bleeding.
“The room is ready,” someone said, poking their head around the door frame.
Katie let me go but gave my hand a gentle squeeze. Travis helped the nurses push my bed down multiple halls, and Katie helped push a machine that had a tube attached to me. I was still sobbing, tears just pouring down my face. It was like I couldn’t stop. It was like a fucking rainfall in my body. I just realized I loved someone, and then they were taken away from me.
I hated feeling like this. I just wanted Cole’s arms wrapped around me, promising me that everything was going to be alright.
When we got to the room, they placed my bed directly beside someone else’s at Travis’s and Katie’s orders. Someone popped their head into the room. “She’s having contractions.”
“Contractions?!” an all-too-familiar, deep voice bellowed.
I jerked my head over to see Cole—sitting up as much as he possibly could—staring at me with wide, fear-filled and worried eyes. “Cole!” I screamed, tears of joy now streaming down my face. I went to sit up but then realized that I was still strapped down to the bed. “Let me go!” I screamed.
“Give her the shot. Hurry. I need to sedate her,” the doctor from earlier said.
I didn’t register his words. I wanted to hold Cole, to know that he was fucking real and actually okay. “Fucking let me go!” I yelled.
I felt something get pushed into my arm. I thrashed against the restraints, but they wouldn’t fucking budge. “Amelia, you need to calm down,” Cole said desperately, his tone soft and pleading. “Baby, please,” he whispered.
Everything went dark.
Cole
I slumped against my bed once Amelia passed out and ran a hand through my hair. I looked at her doctor, recognizing him as Dr. Kline. “What’s going on?” I asked him desperately. Something was wrong with Amelia. Something was terribly fucking wrong. This wasn’t my girl.
“She’s been in and out of consciousness since she was brought here. She was freaking out about you, but we couldn’t do anything except keep her sedated and monitor the baby. This is the third time we’ve had to stop her contractions,” he informed me a bit sadly.
I blew out a breath. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! She took me getting shot a lot fucking harder than I had expected.
“Has she tried to self harm or anything?” I asked him, noticing that they continued to keep her strapped to the hospital bed despite her being asleep.
“Not yet, but we’re not taking chances,” he told me. “She was ready to break all of our machines if it meant getting out of bed to see you, and we couldn’t let her walk. Walking helps some women speed up their labor, and I wasn’t willing to give Amelia the chance to possibly lose her baby just because she wasn’t thinking straight.”
I sighed, nodding my head in understanding. I was glad the doctor had done what was best for Amelia, despite how uncomfortable she probably was at the moment. If they thought she was ballistic when I got shot, imagine if she had miscarried.
The doctor left the room, and my mom came over to my bed and sat down beside me. “How’s your wound?” she asked me, her eyes flickering to my stomach that was covered in gauze.
I shrugged. “The pain meds are keeping the pain away, so I don’t know.” I looked up at her. “Did you see her acting . . .” My voice trailed off. Hell, I didn’t even know what to describe her fit as.
She nodded. “It was bad. I’m hoping that when she wakes up, she’ll be calmer with you beside her. We all kept telling her to calm down and telling her it was bad for the baby, but it was like she couldn’t hear us. She was so focused on you.” She huffed in irritation, shaking her head. “Stupid, if you ask me. She has a baby to think of. It’s not just about her and what she feels anymore.”
“Put yourself in her shoes,” Dad told my mom, speaking up. “She’s just lost Luke, her mother betrayed her, and she’s an only child. She doesn’t have any biological family to turn to in her time of need. The only person she’s been able to turn to is Cole. I imagine the last thing on her mind would be her baby.”
Hated to say it, but I had to agree with my dad. I had always been Amelia’s rock, even when she hadn’t noticed it herself. This had probably ripped her apart on the inside.
“I never acted that way when you were shot when I was pregnant with him,” Mom said, throwing her thumb over her shoulder towards me.
“Yes, but you and Amelia are so alike, but yet so different in so many ways,” he reminded her. It was true. When Amelia had first started growing up and figuring out who she was as a person, I thought she was way too much like my mom. Now, I knew that Amelia was ten times different from my mom and a hell of a lot emotionally stronger, too.
“You had your dad. You didn’t have the shit happen to you that happened to Amelia,” Dad told Mom, trying to get her to understand where he was coming from. “Cole was the only person that stood up for her, got her the help she needed, and stood beside her and believed in her besides Luke. Amelia is ten times more ruthless than you will ever be, Katie, and it’s because of what has happened to her. People hate her, even our own crew. When the entire world is falling apart around her and the one person that she had has been shot, I’m sure Amelia isn’t thinking much about a baby.”
I snorted. “No shit,” I muttered, thinking of Dad’s comment about the crew hating her. I had no idea Kale had felt like that about Amelia, and I wished I had known it sooner. I could have handled it properly. I looked at Mom. “The bullet that I took was meant for Amelia.”
“I knew that she was bad for you!” She yelled at me, jumping up from the bed, throwing her arms up into the air.
My dad grabbed her and yanked her back into his chest, saying words into her ear. She glared at him. “No, I will not fucking calm down! Cole could have died because of that bitch! You expect me to be calm about this?!”
“Yes, I do,” Dad ground out through his clenched teeth. “I would have done the same thing for you if I were Cole, so just shut the hell up. I understand where Cole is coming from.”
That was a first. My dad rarely saw anything my way.
“He doesn’t even love her!” she hollered. She looked over at me, narrowing her eyes. “Do you love her, Cole?” she demanded.
I shrugged. I really didn’t know. I knew I felt something strong for Amelia. Was it actually love? Hell if I knew.
My dad gripped my mom’s arm and swung her around to face him, his hard eyes glaring into her icy blue ones. “It doesn’t matter if he fucking loves her or not, Katie. Do you remember how long it took me to admit that I loved you, to even realize that I fucking did? Before I realized I loved you, I still would have gladly jumped in front of a bullet that was meant for you because I cared about you and couldn’t stand the thought of losing you or Cole. So, step back and think about what you’re fucking saying,” he snapped down at her.
She huffed and plopped herself into a chair. I chuckled. My dad and I were really the only people that could make my mom stop and think about something that she was doing or saying. When I saw my parents like that or hell, even when I saw my mom comforting my dad when Amy got locked up, what my grandad said rang through my head. I could see that my parents truly loved each other. It was a deep, passionate, reckless kind of love, and not one that showed its face all of the time.
We all sat there for a few hours, watching the news on the television in a comfortable silence. A little while later, I heard Amelia groan as she woke up. My mom instantly got up out of her chair and walked over to her, grabbing one of Amelia’s hands, which shocked the hell out of me. I never expected my mom to want to comfort Amelia. I guess what my dad said to her had really gotten through to her; he had a habit of doing that.
Amelia blinked awake, looking around. I noticed the second she tensed up, and tears filled her eyes. I felt my heart constrict. I really fucking hated seeing her like this. “Amelia, honey, Cole is here. Look,” my mom coaxed, trying to soothe her before she had another fit.
Amelia turned her head, and she grinned when she saw me, tears of joy running down her face. “I want—” she started, but I cut her off.
I shook my head at her. “You can’t, baby. You’re putting our baby at risk.”
“What?” she whispered, her eyes immediately jerking down to her stomach. “What happened?”
“You caused contractions three times,” I told her softly, knowing that if I continued talking to her like this, it would keep her calm. “You have to rest. Stop stressing yourself out, and stop panicking. I’m right here beside you,” I assured her.
My dad pushed her bed closer to mine, and I grabbed her hand since it was still restrained. I rubbed soothing circles on the back of her hand, giving her a small smile. She sighed and relaxed back into her pillows almost instantly, closing her eyes. “Do you have a jacket or something?” she whispered, her voice showing just how tired she was feeling.
My mom went to my bag and grabbed my leather jacket, draping it over Amelia. Amelia smiled a little, relaxing even more against the pillows. “Don’t let go of my hand please,” she whispered as she started drifting back off into a peaceful sleep. “I hated not knowing that you were okay.”
I could hear the pain in her voice and the slight strain as she thought about the time she spent wondering if I was actually alive or not. I grimaced a little; it really was a miracle that she hadn’t miscarried from the stress she put herself through.
“I’m okay, baby, and I’m right here,” I assured her. Hell, I would never go anywhere.
She nodded sleepily. I sighed and looked at the ceiling tiredly. My mom pressed the button for a nurse and asked for her doctor. Dr. Kline came in a few minutes later. “Is everything okay?” he asked almost hesitantly, his tone a bit wary.
“She woke up, and she was calm,” I told him. “I think you can take her restraints off. She might be more comfortable when she sleeps.”
He nodded, taking my word for it, and undid her restraints. I kept her hand gripped in mine though, knowing she didn’t want me to let go. I wouldn’t.
She was mine, and I would be damned if she ever got taken away from me.
18
Amelia
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’t want to 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.
