by Simone Elise
“Oh joy,” I grunted. “What did I ever do to be so lucky.”
“I think Jax has been missing you there,” Tyler said, as he slowly began to creep in Cole’s direction.
“What do you mean?” I arched an eyebrow at him, as he slowly crept up to Cole who had his back to him, still floating on his giant ring.
Anyone could see what was going to happen next.
One.
Two.
Three.
Cole let out a surprised scream as he went flying into the water and Tyler claimed his giant ring, quickly pushing himself off in the other direction of the pool.
The pool sliding door slid open, and I quickly looked in another direction as Jax walked in, followed by Adam with his hand entangled with a pretty blondes.
Looks like someone hadn’t gotten rid of last night’s flame. Wait a sec, make that two someones; I noticed El out of the corner of my eye.
“Geez, this room is massive,” a light voice said, and I glared at Tyler and Cole as they wrestled for the giant ring. It was their fault that we now had more visitors. I wanted to whack them both over their stupid heads.
“Is the water warm?”
I turned my head to the Blonde as she went to dangle a toe in the water. They couldn’t possibly be thinking about swimming in here, right?
I saw the annoyance in Jax’s eyes as El slid out of her dress. I wanted to yell that a bra and undies were not a bathing suit, but what was the point?
The blonde followed in Ella’s footsteps, and pulled her dress off.
“What song is this?” The blonde asked, as “Changed the Way You Kissed Me” by Example played. Adam told her what it was.
“So, Amber, which one is yours?” El winked at me, and then glanced between Cole and Tyler.
I began to choke on nothing, as I visualized what she was saying to me.
Cole and Tyler looked in complete horror as they waited for me to correct her.
“They’re her brothers,” Jax answered for me, and I nodded my head. El seemed slightly surprised by this little bit of information and then looked at me.
“I didn’t know you had brothers.”
“You know what Amber, I am starting to think you are ashamed of us,” Adam winked at me, helping the blonde down the stairs.
“Denial is one step closer to acceptance, I suppose,” I shot at him, and then cocked my head to look at Jax. He snapped his eyes away from me as soon as I looked at him.
“So Amber, tell me what is new with you?” El said, being friendly, as she began to walk in the water towards me.
God shoot me, or at least give me duct tape, so I can tape that mouth of hers shut. I was not in the mood to make conversation.
“You know… nothing much. You?”
I swung my legs out in front of me as I gripped the edge of the pool.
“This, that and everything in-between,” she finally replied, and leaned against the pool wall next to me; of course.
“Exciting,” I replied and then looked at Adam and the blonde who were mucking around with each other. “Who’s she?” I nodded my head in their direction.
“That’s Gab. She’s an underwear model,” El answered, and then flipped her head back to look up at Jax, who was yet to grace us with his presence in the water.
“You coming in?” she asked him sweetly.
“Yeah Jax, get your gear off, and get in here with your girlfriend,” I spun around and said up to him. I was over this silent thing that we had going on at the moment.
“I’m not his girlfriend. I don’t do boyfriends remember,” El informed me as she blushed.
“That’s not what I heard Jax say last night.” I smiled up at him innocently, while he narrowed his eyes at me.
El looked up at me and frowned slightly. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Hey, it’s not my place to tell you the one thing Jax loves about you.”
Yeah Jax, why don’t you tell her that she is only good for one thing. I wanted to slap him across his face for his views on women.
“What is she on about?” El looked up at Jax, while he crossed his arms, keeping his eyes on me.
I knew he knew what I was on about. I wondered if he was shocked that I had heard his confession; well, it had been more of a statement.
“Who knows,” Jax said coolly. “You still high on your boyfriend’s drug fumes, Amber?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend, so the answer to that question would be no.” I cocked my head to the side. “You really can’t remember Jax? Well, you said it just before you went to bed last night. Come on, you know what I am referring to.”
Jax shrugged his shoulders innocently, and added, “El already knows I care about her. I don’t think that would surprise her.”
“You do?” Ella’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Doesn’t look like it,” I sang, floating away from them.
Jax shot me a dirty look before looking at El. I wonder how he was going to get out of this. “I don’t do girlfriends El, you know that, but, if I did, you would be the one.”
I wanted to scoff. What a cop out.
“El and I have heard that line before,” I said, looking Jax in the eye. “From a better player than you.”
Blake had had many girlfriends, but he would never refer to them as his girlfriends. Well, with me it was different; he would openly say I was his girlfriend, but for all the others, they were all classed as girlfriends, but he never really looked at them like that.
“Yeah, but you actually turned him around,” El said in my direction. “But she is right Jax.”
Jax groaned and then ripped his t-shirt off; my eyes scanned his tattoos. Man, he had a good body.
Jax was already wearing black branded board shorts. Slowly, he lowered himself into the water next to El.
“Fine, let’s do it,” he said to her.
My mouth dropped open. Hell no! Don’t do it. I had expected him to push her off or set her straight.
“You mean, be your girlfriend?” She looked as surprised as I was. No-one else in the pool seemed to be taking in the scene in front of me.
“Yeah, why not,” Jax said, taking her hands from under the water and pulling her slightly closer to him. “You’re the hottest chick I know. Plus, you’re the only chick I would not want to screw and hurl aside.”
Well, I had never heard better reasons to go into a relationship. I gritted my teeth, was he doing this to piss me off?
“I…” El blushed, “For real?” she asked?
Jax lowered his head down to hers. “Yeah.”
“I LOVE THIS SONG!” Tyler screamed and startled everyone.
“Where the Wild Things Are” by Bliss n Eso boomed through the speakers.
Tyler rapped the lyrics and I found it really amusing. I glanced back at Jax, but felt disgusted; as he had his lips locked with Ella’s.
Oh, that was foul.
I caught my phone flashing behind them, and it immediately spiked my curiosity. Swimming to the side, next to them, I pulled myself up and out of the water, not thinking about the large scar on my stomach for the first time in weeks.
Water dripped from me as I picked up my phone. The number was restricted. I put it to my ear.
“Amber?”
“Um, yeah?” I responded, bringing my other hand to my other ear to block the music out.
“It’s Ashley.”
I frowned. Ashley… I didn’t know an Ashley. Well, not a guy Ashley anyway.
“Ashley who?”
“Ashley Greenhood? Blake’s right hand.”
“Oh.” And now the memories came flooding back to me. “What’s up?”
“It’s Blake. He’s been arrested. The cops have raided the house and, from what I overheard, they are coming for you next.”
My eyes widened. “You mean to my house?” I panicked into the phone.
“Yeah. Look, I got to go, we have houses to clean before they hit them. Just giving you a heads up,” Ashley said i
n a hurry, and then the phone went dead.
Blake arrested.
Houses raided.
I was next.
I processed all this information in my mind quickly, and then cursed loudly.
I went running down the length of the pool, the boys sensing my urgency and throwing questions at me.
“Cops are going to raid us!” I yelled over my shoulder as I slid the glass door open quickly.
I heard the frantic splashing as the boys hurried out of the pool, but I didn’t stop to get their advice, or listen to their thoughts on the matter.
I had my own evidence to destroy.
***
“What the hell have you got that they would want?” Cole yelled at me as I flung clothes in every direction. Where the hell did I leave it?
“Don’t you guys have your own stuff to hide or destroy?,” I shot at him.
“Unlike you little sister, we don’t bring business home.” He grunted in annoyance, and I pushed past him and went to my bedside table.
“So, you are telling me those guns you carry are licensed?” I barked as I emptied the contents of my night stand on my bed.
Cole cursed under his breath and quickly left the room, only to be replaced by Troy.
“Amber, what have you got that the cops want?” He crossed his arms and watched me sift through the junk on my bed.
“Nothing,” I shot at him. Well, if I couldn’t find it, maybe they wouldn’t be able to either.
I heard the pounding on the front door and my eyes went wide. I scrambled to the closet and pulled a t-shirt over my wet bikini top, and then quickly pulled on a pair of shorts.
The boys hadn’t even mentioned my scar, or looked at it. Though their minds were elsewhere, they weren’t taking in my scar, they were too busy wondering what the hell had me going through my room like a mad woman.
My head suddenly snapped up and relief washed over me. “It’s not here.” I said out loud. I’d just remembered hurling it over the bridge, into the river.
“What isn’t here?” Troy frowned at me, and I shook my head.
“Doesn’t matter now.” I walked past him and down the corridor, although he turned quickly to follow me.
We both reached the top of the stairs as the cops broke through the door, screaming their usual shit.
I put both hands in the air and Troy did the same.
***
We all sat in the lounge. The boys sat across from me and the girls sat with them. I was on my own in the armchair as the detective with his bullet vest studied me.
“So Amber, been a while,” he stated smugly.
“Sorry, have we met before?” I arched an eyebrow and crossed a leg over my knee. “I don’t have the best memory.”
I knew that they weren’t allowed to ask questions when searching the house, but cops were pigs so they didn’t really follow the rules; the rules that they created.
Tyler grunted in amusement, and the detective narrowed his eyes at me.
“Did your boyfriend give you a warning? From the looks of your room, you were looking for something,” the detective stated as he closed the file in his hand and crossed his arms in front of me. “Why don’t you just help us out Amber, and, in return, you’d be doing yourself a favor.”
“Do you always use that line?” I leaned back in the chair, keeping my eyes squarely locked with his. “And my boyfriend did nothing of the sort, because I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Was the breakup messy?” he asked, lowering his head to stare me down. “Perhaps some payback is in order?”
“I would, if there was anything to tell,” I said lightly, and glanced at Cole as he cursed at a cop who was searching him. “Is there a reason you are taking this out on my brothers? I thought you were here to question me?”
“Satan’s Sons are always a point of interest,” he informed me. The detective took a step closer to me. “Where is it Amber?”
“Where is what?”
“Where is the murder weapon that was used on Ryan Raymond? The gun your boyfriend pointed to his head and shot him with.”
Ryan who? We never shot at any Ryan.
“You must have your wires twisted,” I replied, honestly confused. “I don’t know a Ryan and I don’t know anything about a murder weapon.”
Well, that was half right anyway. I did know of a murder weapon, but it didn’t have anything to do with the murder of Ryan… whatever his last name was.
“Really? Because you and Blake also took care of his brother, Jake Markus.”
That murder I did know of, and that murder weapon was floating somewhere in the ocean by now.
“Jake had a brother? Never knew that,” I said, crossing my arms. “Although Jake never really talked much.”
“Well, he doesn’t talk at all now,” the detective spat at me. “Give them up Amber. We have solid information that you have them.”
Jake was a low life piece of scum, and if anyone deserved to greet death, it was him.
“I don’t know what you are on about.” I keep my eyes forward and continued, “And I suggest you stop saying I do.”
“Trust is an important thing to you, isn’t it,” the detective’s lips curled evilly. “Trust, loyalty.”
I nodded my head, not fully understanding where he was going with this.
“To be betrayed by someone you trusted… that would cut deep, wouldn’t it?” The cop placed a hand on the armchair, putting his face dangerously close to mine. “To be betrayed by someone you cared about. Someone you trusted.”
“What are you implying?” I said hotly, my fingers curling into fists.
“I think you know what I am saying. Blake is going to be deeply cut when he realizes…” The cop stood back up to his full height abruptly and turned around to face another officer who had just walked in. “Search complete?”
The officer nodded his head and I knew they had nothing on me. The detective I think knew this as well, as he turned to face me.
“Pity. Blake wasn’t as lucky as you’ve been today,” he shot at me, before walking out the room. The cops followed him.
“What do you mean?” I said with anger as I got up from the chair and walked quickly in the direction of the foyer as they began to file out. Finally, the raid was over.
“You will find out soon enough,” the detective shot at me, narrowing his eyes. “I promise you Amber. You will be going down for both of their murders. Oh, and a bit of advice. If I were you, I would get that scar tattooed over because everyone knows a marked woman is a dead woman walking.”
He walked out the front door and my eyes widened; only my family and the handful of people staying at Blake’s knew about that scar. This means he had someone on the inside, an undercover cop or someone who was working with them.
His reference to trust now slapped me in the face. Someone was betraying us and Blake was now paying the price.
Chapter 18
Jax
“What the heck is this?”
I swiped the DVD from Cole’s hands and hurled it back into the plastic bag, where he got it from.
“Nothing.” I snapped at him before stuffing the bag under the passenger seat and continuing working on the CD player in my car.
“You into chick flicks, Jax?” Cole said smugly, while leaning on the open door, watching me.
“Piss off Cole.” I pulled on the CD player, ripping it out; stupid wiring. Why had I decided to fix this bloody thing tonight?
“Or is it one of those secret movies you keep giving my sister?”
My head snapped up, my face now serious. “Does it matter?” I arched an eyebrow and my grip on the player tightened.
“Guess not.” Cole slammed the door closed. “See you at home.”
I watched him walk out of the shed. He didn’t even pretend to hide his dislike about me being near Amber, but he seemed to be a bit softer about the issue now that I was dating Ella. I hurled the spanner to the floor.
Bloody El was making m
y life hell. Messaging me, calling me and showing up at the clubhouse. Damn woman couldn’t take a hint.
I had asked her out to piss Amber off, which didn’t really work as she seemed thrilled by the idea; even encouraged it.
Sighing, I leaned back into the car seat, one word and my mind went nuts; Amber.
Groaning, I ran a hand through my hair and messed it up. I didn’t know how to show a female that I cared about her; not that I cared about Amber, I just… Fuck it, I don’t know!
I was just protective of her, and jealous when she was with other men… yeah, I cared about her.
I slammed a fist against the steering wheel. I don’t do girls, and I don’t do feelings for them.
Easy lay, that’s what they were to me.
But Amber was different; she stirred something different inside me. I was angry when she left to stay with Blake; I was hurt that she turned to him instead of us, well, mainly me. And now, I found myself bringing her food, watching movies with her, sitting with her at school. Fuck, I was even leaving her chocolate.
I glanced down at the plastic bag that was half sticking out from under the seat. I can’t believe I had actually signed up for a Blockbuster card. I gritted my teeth; I was getting whipped.
Groaning, I started the car up, leaving the CD player half hanging out. A smile twitched at my lips; I was actually starting to look forward to spending Friday nights with her.
Her sitting there complaining and huffing about nothing, while gulping down the food I would get her. I would sit there, pretend to be bored. Then, when she fell asleep, I would carry her to her bed.
Flying out the garage, I realized I was definitely looking forward to being with her. Even though she didn’t see me the same way… but it wasn’t like she’d told me that. She was semi-nice to me and, every day, she was a little bit better towards me.
That is when she didn’t slip into her depression and self-pity.
***
I pulled a plate from the Shield’s cupboard and began to place the contents from the plastic boxes onto the plate, cursing under my breath as I burnt myself on the hot chicken.
I think Amber actually thought her family left her a meal every night. When, really, every night I would go out and get her tea and put it on a plate; this was an example of me being whipped.