Black Skulls: Bloody Royals Book II

by Smith, T. O.

  She sighed heavily, sadness coating her eyes as she looked down at me. "Amelia, we found the weapon that matched the one used on your dad. Your mother says she was at the club house the entire time he was gone. Can you vouch for that?" She asked me gently.

  Looking back, I realized that I actually couldn't. That really fucking cut me deep. I was hoping that my mother hadn't done this to him, but it was looking more and more possible by the fucking second.

  I shook my head at the agent, giving her the answer that she feared was right. She sighed and nodded. I followed her to the interrogation room where she let me in, letting me know to bang on the door when I wanted out.

  I sat in the chair across from the one I knew they would place her in. When she was brought into the room, her hands were cuffed in front of her. They made her sit in the chair and chained her to the leg of the table. The agents walked out and I glared at my mother. I was fucking livid. I swear, if we weren’t in the middle of a fucking police station, and there weren’t cameras and agents watching our every fucking move, I would strangle the fucking life out of her. She had betrayed me in the worst goddamn way.

  It was silent in the room for a minute until I spoke. "Did you have a hand in doing this?" I asked her quietly.

  She kept her mouth shut, knowing anything she said in this room could be held against her in court. I tried another tactic. My mom had never done well under a lot of pressure and if there was something I could do when I was pissed was get the truth out of someone, especially if I was fucking hurting.

  "Tell me, mother,” I spat, “do you know what your betrayal has done to everyone? Travis is going nuts. Katie . . ." I let my voice trail off. "Well, I'm sure you know how your best friend is reacting to this, considering dad was Travis's best friend."

  She glared at me harshly, knowing exactly what I was doing to her, but clenched her jaw to keep her mouth shut. "Then again, Katie’s probably renounced your title as best friend, huh? After all, you just don't do this kind of shit."

  She kept silent. I was getting really fucking tired of this game she had going on. I wanted some fucking answers, and I fucking wanted them right then. I jumped up from my chair, sending it flying against the wall. She jumped in fear, knowing just how ruthless and uncaring I was when I was pissed. "Do you want to know how I fucking feel?!" I screamed at her.

  She shook her head no, tears filling her eyes. I knew she was getting ready to crumble under the pressure I was applying. I knew the moment I poured out how I was feeling, she would crack. I slammed my hand onto the table, making her jump again.

  "Well too fucking bad." I snarled at her. I ran a hand through my hair, pacing the floor in front of the desk. "He was my fucking dad, Amy." I spat her name out, fucking sick of calling her mother and mom. She was no fucking mother of mine, that was for damn sure. "He was the one fucking person that was always by my side! Even if he was silent, I knew he was working things out for me. He was the only fucking person that visited me in jail, who tried to help me while I was inside. I fucking loved Daddy!" I screamed, tears filling my eyes. She flinched at the name Daddy, refusing to meet my eyes.

  "Why would you do something like this to him?! He loved you unconditionally! You treated him like absolute shit, and still he stuck by your side because he fucking loved you so goddamn much! You made him absolutely fucking miserable! Even if you hated him and wanted him gone so bad, why didn't think of your fucking daughter?!” I screamed, tears flowing down my cheeks. “Did you even think about how this would affect me?!"

  "Yes, I did!" She finally yelled back at me, tears flowing down her face. "Your father was a horrible influence on you, Amelia! I thought with him gone, you would finally straighten yourself out!"

  I ignored her. Her statement wasn't enough. I wanted more. I continued on as if she had never spoken. "You even tried acting the sad fucking widow, telling me you couldn't be in the same room as me because I reminded you too much of him-."

  "I wasn't acting when I said that!" She yelled me, sobbing. "Amelia, when I first met your father, he acted exactly like you do! You two are more alike than you could even begin to imagine and knowing that his death had pushed you to that kind of person cut me deep! I have murder on my hands now, and for what reason?" She snapped.

  I clenched my fists. I wanted to know how she found out where they were going. I wanted to know how she went into that territory without getting hurt. However, I couldn't ask her. I wasn't stupid. There were monitors in here that could send me and everyone else in the club to prison with her. I glared at her, tears pouring down my face. "I hope your time in prison is ten times fucking worse than what I had to deal with.” I seethed. She recoiled from the dangerous gleam in my eyes. “You deserve to fucking rot there for what you did."

  I walked to the door and banged on it, letting them know I wanted out. The door opened and I stormed out, wanting to get out of the station as fast as fucking possible. Cole was waiting outside for me. He opened his mouth to say something until his eyes landed on my face. He sighed and pulled me into his arms wordlessly. I sobbed into his chest, my tears soaking his shirt.

  I knew what she had done now, and a part of me wished I didn't know.

  ~*~*~

  I walked ahead of Cole into the club house wordlessly. It was still a mess from what had happened yesterday. Travis had gone fucking ballistic, destroying everything in his fucking path after the agents had left.

  Travis jumped off of the ground, his face a mask of pure rage. I had never seen Travis like this. He looked he could murder my mom.

  "You fucking whore!" He roared at my mom. "How the fuck could you do something like this?!"

  "I didn't fucking do it!" She yelled at Travis, her bottom lip trembling..

  "Like hell you fucking didn't!" He yelled at her. "My best friend is fucking dead because of you! If you were that fucking miserable with him, why the fuck didn't you just get a goddamn divorce?!"

  At this point, he was already across the lot, standing in front of her and the agent that was pulling her towards the car. "Travis, I didn't do it." Her voice cracked though, giving away her lie.

  He wrapped his hands around her neck. "If another fucking lie comes out of your mouth-!"

  Cole unwrapped his hands from around her throat, and another club member pulled him backwards. Katie came over and slammed her fist into my mom's face. Blood spurted from her nose. The agent stood by quietly, not doing anything. Smart man, he was. This was a family matter, and he obviously knew better than to get in the middle of it.

  "If you fucking show your face around here ever again, I'll bury you myself, do you understand?" Katie snarled at her.

  With that statement, Katie moved away from her, going to Travis. Travis was sitting on the ground, his face in his hands, tears running down his cheeks. She moved his hands and put her hands on his face, making him meet her eyes. My heart clenched seeing Travis so broken. He never cried, and rarely showed emotion unless he was yelling at someone.

  "Baby, she will get the end she deserves." Katie said softly to him. "Trust me, I'll make sure of it."

  That was enough of a shock to most of us around. Katie was actually showing some affection towards her husband. The next thing could have knocked us to the ground with the shock we felt. Travis yanked Katie down on his lap, wrapping his arms around her tightly, burying his face in her neck. She rubbed her hand over his hair softly, whispering comforting words into his ear.

  I turned away at that point.

  I looked at the women and the prospects. "Get this place cleaned up." I ground out.

  Travis came over to me. Cole wrapped an arm around my waist protectively. His dad shook his head at him, letting Cole know that he wasn’t there to start any shit with me. "I'm not here to take revenge, Cole.” Travis told him. “By the look on her face, I know she had nothing to do with this. However, since Amy is a fucking bitch - may she burn in hell - I got everything that I knew Luke would rather see you with than anyone else." He told me, handin
g the box in his hands to Cole. Travis gave me a small smile that looked more like a grimace. He was obviously still hurting, finding out his best friend’s own wife killed his best friend. "Amelia, no one here thinks of you the way we all think of her. You're Luke's daughter and you're family. Nothing will change that. You may not have any blood to turn to, but you have us." He assured me.

  I hugged him, tears dripping down my cheeks for the second time that day. "Thank you." I whispered.

  I felt him nod. I moved away again and he sighed. "Make Luke proud, will you? You're just like him. You're already making a great VP, Amelia. Be the legend he was."

  I nodded. He turned around and walked over to Katie. She leaned up and kissed him softly. I walked down the hall to my room. When I walked in, Cole followed behind, placing the box on my bed. I sighed and opened the box. The first thing I pulled out was his cut, and I started crying all over again. Cole wrapped his arms around me tightly, whispering soothing words into my ear.

  When I had calmed down, I set the cut down on the back of my desk chair and pulled out everything else from the box. There were pictures of him holding me when I was baby and more pictures of us together as I grew up. I smiled at the pictures. I didn't even know he had kept all of these and framed them at that. I tossed the box to the side and set the pictures up in my room.

  I really fucking missed my dad. I didn't realize how much until I saw his smiling face in the first picture that had been taken of all the club members that I had actually joined in on. I was daddy’s little girl, and I always would be.

  ~*~*~

  I was lying on my bed almost asleep when I heard someone scream from the bar room. My eyes flew open at the same time Cole shot up into a sitting position. "Get off of me!" A woman screamed, terror coating her voice.

  Cole cursed and got out of bed, running down the hall only in his sweats. I slid out of bed and pulled on shorts. I walked out into the bar room just as Joseph took a swing at Cole. Cole ducked it and quickly wrapped his hand around Joseph's throat, slamming him against the wall. "How many fucking times do I have to tell you mother fucking idiots that you don't fucking force a woman to have sex?!" Cole roared, the veins in his neck and arms standing out.

  There was a girl sitting on the couch. She didn't look any older than me. She was definitely a woman I had never seen before, not even around town. I was about to walk over when I felt the vomit rising in my throat. Groaning, I sat down quickly, telling the closest person to me to find a trash can ASAP. I snatched it from him and a few seconds later, I vomited into it. I heard a body hit the floor, but I didn't look over, too busy throwing up a second time.

  "You stupid fucker!" I heard Cole roar.

  Brian gave me a small smile when I looked up and handed me a bottle of water. I took a few swallows. "Thanks." I murmured.

  He jerked his head in the direction of the girl. "You might want to deal with her. He beat the hell out of her trying to get her to fuck him."

  I sighed and stood up with Brian's help. I gagged and he held the trash can up. I breathed in and out of my mouth slowly, but the feeling still didn't go away. The sound of grunts and skin hitting skin finally reached my ears, and I looked over to see Cole and Joseph doing some really bloody fighting. I sighed and looked at Brian. "Break it up, please?"

  He nodded. I took another sip of water and then walked over to the girl. She was still crying. I sat beside her. "Hey." I said softly. "I'm Amelia – the VP of the club. What's your name?"

  "Holly." She sobbed.

  "Where did you come from?" I asked her gently.

  "I work at the strip club across town. Sometimes I do work outside of the club to provide for my daughter, but nothing like this has ever happened." She sobbed.

  I grabbed her arms, examining them. She had red handprints around her wrists that were already beginning to bruise. Her nose was bloody, and she had a bruise on her jaw and her eye was swollen. There were handprints bruising themselves around her neck. I sighed. Joseph had really done a fucking number on her.

  "Holly, I know how you're feeling and trust me when I say that it will be okay." I told her softly.

  She hiccupped and nodded. I looked over at Cole and Joseph to see that Travis and Brian had managed to pull them apart. Cole's jaw and cheekbone were already bruising and his lip was split but other than that, he seemed fine. He was fucking livid, though. Joseph looked like he was going to black out at any given moment.

  Cole's eyes met mine. His gaze was torn away when Joseph began hollering. "She's the fucking bitch that I fucking paid-!"

  "It doesn't give you a fucking right to try to fuck her in a-!" Cole roared.

  "Cole!" Brian hollered, shutting both of the men up. "Pull yourself together, man! Your girl over there is barely holding herself together!"

  Cole looked back over at me and sighed, running a hand through his hair. He stormed away from them and came over to me and Holly. Holly shrunk into my side as he came over, beginning to cry again. I pulled her into a comforting hug. Fuck, I knew she was terrified. Cole didn’t exactly look friendly at that moment.

  "Cole." I said as warning.

  He looked over at Holly and a look of understanding passed over his features. He took a few calming breaths and then sat next to me. "Hey," Cole said gently, "I'm not going to hurt you. Are you okay?"

  Holly looked at me with wide, tear filled eyes. I gave her an encouraging smile. "Cole isn't going to hurt you." I told her gently. "I'm a rape victim, too." The word victim left a bitter taste in my mouth. "Cole helped me."

  She sniffled and nodded. "Your daughter – where is she?" I asked her.

  "She's with my mom, but I should have picked her up already. I can't let her see me like this. My job isn't supposed to affect her." She mumbled.

  "Make up works wonders for bruises." I told her. I showed her my fading chain shaped bruise on my neck. I felt Cole’s hand tighten on mine. I knew my injuries were still a sore subject for him. "I was able to hide this for a while with make-up. Come on. You can use my stuff. I think we have about the same skin tone."

  She nodded. Cole followed us wordlessly as we went back to my room. I led her to my bathroom and handed her my make-up bag. "Do you have a phone to get in contact with your mom?" I asked her.

  "The guy smashed it." She told me, her voice becoming a little stronger now that she was away from the bar room.

  I handed her mine. "Call your mom and tell her what happened. I'm sure she's worried."

  She gave me a small, thankful smile and I walked towards my bed where Cole was already sprawled on his back with his eyes closed. "Cole?"

  "Hm?" He murmured, turning his face to me, but not opening his eyes.

  "You okay?" I asked gently.

  He chuckled, opening his eyes this time. "Babe, that's a crazy question. How many times have I been shot or hit by a vehicle? I'm fine." He paused for a minute. "I think dad said he's going to take Joseph to the hospital, though."

  I laughed. That bastard deserved the beating he got for what he did to Holly. Holly ran out of the bathroom with frantic eyes. I tensed up instantly at the same time Cole sat up. "Holly?" I asked her cautiously.

  "Lilly answered the phone. She was crying and I could barely understand her, but she said that there were EMT's at my mom's house-."

  I cut her off. "Do you have a car?" I asked her.

  She shook her head. Cole was already off of the bed, grabbing clothes and going into the bathroom. "Cole, grab my make-up bag when you come out!" I called after him.

  When he came out, he tossed me my make-up bag. He slid his boots on and I slipped on my flip flops. Cole shrugged his cut on and grabbed my hand. "Come on." He told Holly in his gruff, deep voice. "Amelia and I will take you to wherever you need to go."

  "You don't have to-."

  "Don't protest." Cole told her, his patience obviously wearing thin. "Your daughter – who is Lilly I'm guessing – is probably freaking the fuck out right now. Going with us will get you there a lot faste
r than walking will."

  We followed Cole over to his truck. I slid into the passenger seat and Holly got into the back. She told us the directions to her mom's where her neighbor had Lilly. Holly was running to the front door before the truck even came to a complete stop. The door flew open and a little blonde girl with pig tails ran into Holly's arms crying loudly. "Mommy, granny is in the hospital!" She sobbed.

  "I know, baby, I know." She whispered, holding Lilly tight, trying to comfort her.

  "Get in the truck." I told her. "We'll take you to the hospital so you can see your mom."

  Cole and I swung around when we heard motorcycles riding down the street. Their cuts read London's Tears. Cole cursed and let his head drop to the steering wheel. "If it's not one thing, it's another. Now, because Joseph can't keep his dick in his pants, we've dragged an innocent woman and her child into our shit. Just fucking lovely." He ground out.

  I got out and ran over to Lilly and Holly. I couldn’t let an innocent mother and her child get hurt because of our problems.

  I shoved them into the bushes just as shots went off. When it quieted down, Cole yanked me off of the ground, glaring at me harshly. I yanked away from him and helped Holly and Lilly up. If Lilly and Holly weren't in bad shape before, they were absolutely possibly ready to piss their pants right then.

  "Amelia!" Cole roared, panic in his voice.

  I felt the pain in my leg as soon as my adrenaline began wearing off and almost crumpled to the ground. Cole caught me before I fell and held me against him. "For fuck's sake, woman, you're going to get yourself killed one day." He ground out. "Get in the truck." He ordered Holly and Lilly. He looked down at me, anger and worry in his eyes. "You better fucking stay awake, Amelia. Damn it, I won't fucking lose you."

  Sixteen

  Amelia's POV

  "When the fuck are you actually going to start listening to me?!" Cole roared when the doctor finally finished stitching my leg up. "For fuck's sake, that bullet almost hit a fucking artery in your thigh!"