by Smith, T. O.
"Yes, but you and Amelia are alike but 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 her 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." He told her.
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!" My mom hollered at me, jumping up, throwing her arms up into the air.
My dad grabbed her and yanked her back into his chest, saying some 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?!" She screamed.
"Yes, I do." My 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 murmured, 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." I told her gently.
"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 out and stop panicking. I'm right here beside you." I reassured 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 reassured 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 instantly, 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. I may sound like that bitch Rose from Titanic, but I would never let Amelia go.
She was mine and I would be damned if she ever got taken away from me.
Eighteen
Amelia's POV
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 underneath 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 morphed into 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." He muttered.
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 murmured.
He said it so calmly. Like, how the fuck is he calm about taking a bullet that was meant for me? I've 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.” I muttered. “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. "Babe, I will take a bullet for you any fucking day. If it's a choice between my life or yours, it will always be my life."
I breathed out a heavy sigh and sat up against the head board, 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 burnt 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." She muttered.
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 I can do for him after what he did for me. So, shut the hell up." I snapped at her.
"You don't know what the fuck you're about to do to this club, Amelia!" She shouted at me.
I yanked the bathroom door open, storming back out into the bedroom. "You're not the fucking president anymore, Katie. You don't get to make these decisions anymore. What Cole and I say fucking goes and you need to fucking respect that." I seethed.
"I won't go along with this decision!" She yelled at my back.
I swung around, stepping up to her so our chests were touching. I glared hard into her eyes. I wasn’t playing fucking games. She wasn’t the fucking president anymore – Cole was. She needed to fucking understand and respect that.
"Then you won't sit at the fucking table." I spat at her. "I owe Drake. You obviously don't know what it means to fucking owe someone."
"Of course, I know what it's like to fucking owe someone!" She shouted at me. "You can't make the entire club pay for your fucking mistakes!"
I wanted to punch her. It was because of her and Travis that I got locked up in the first fucking place. I didn’t fucking do it to myself.
"Those mistakes wouldn't have happened if you and Travis hadn’t made me form an alliance with the fucking cops!" I screamed at her, my temper flying through the roof. I wanted to punch her in her fucking face. "Don't you fucking get that?! I almost lost my life multiple fucking times for the sake of this club and I never raised hell about any decisions that you and Travis made, so back the fuck down now! I will make this decision, and if you don't like it then you can just remove yourself from the goddamn table."
"That's enough!" Cole roared from his spot on the bed just as Travis walked into the room.
"I thought we got past all of the bitching?" Travis asked us.
"Put your wife in her place." I spat at him. "If you don't do it, then I will – pregnant or not."
"You can't fucking let them make this decision, Travis!” Katie yelled. “Don't you see what the fuck will happen? Can’t you see she's fucking manipulating Cole into making these decisions with her?!" She screamed.
"I made the fucking decision because one day we might need Drake's help like he needs ours right now! You've got to think past the present and look into the future, mom!" Cole roared. "He has people in the FBI who can get them off of our asses! We need this!"
Katie stepped up to me and I met her glare with one of my own. "If this backfires on the club, I will kill you myself, do you understand?" She snapped at me.
I smirked at her threat, but my face held no humor. "Katie, you're all bark without bite. Fuck off. I'm not afraid of you."
Travis grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room. I shot a glare at Cole before he could say something to me. "Don't you start on me, too. I'm very fucking pissed right now. I don’t want to hear your shit.”
He smirked at me. "Stop always jumping to conclusions, babe. I was just going to tell you to come lay down with me and relax."
I sighed and crawled up the bed until I could lie down beside him. I put my head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around me instantly. "You're such a feisty little thing, you know that?" Cole breathed against my neck as he placed a kiss on my most sensitive spot, making me moan. "It's so fucking hot."
He slid his hand down my body until he slid into my panties. I moaned as I felt him press his hand against my core. Cole sucked on my neck as he slid two fingers inside of me, making me moan loudly. "C-Cole." I stuttered. "Oh God, you're going to kill me." I said breathlessly as he began moving his fingers inside of me.
I arched my back as he hit that perfect spot, making me cry out. "Right there, Cole. Fuck! Yes!" I exclaimed, gripping the bed sheets.
He moved his fingers faster, hitting that same spot over and over. When I came, his name fell from my lips on a scream. He took his fingers out and licked them clean, smirking down at me. "You're so fucking sexy when you scream my name like that, baby. I'll never get tired of the sound."
I cuddled into his side and he chuckled, wrapping an arm around me, holding me against his side tightly. "Go to sleep, baby. I'll wake you up when Drake rides in."
He sure as hell didn't have to tell me twice. Being pregnant made me extremely tired, and it didn’t help when he used those magical fucking fingers on me, either.
~*~*~
Cole's POV
I groaned softly when someone knocked on the door. "What?" I grumbled out, yawning.
Drake opened the door an
d I sighed, forcing myself to come awake. "When did you get in?" I grumbled, stretching as much as I could without waking Amelia up who was passed out on my chest.
"About an hour ago." He looked down at Amelia's sleeping figure. "Is it a bad time?"
"Nah." I told him, shaking my head. We needed to go ahead and talk. The quicker we had this conversation, the quicker Amelia and I could get issues solved on our end.
I gently shook Amelia. She slapped my chest and rolled over away from me, pulling the blanket tighter around her. I chuckled at her. "Babe, come on, wake up. Drake's here."
"Tell him to fuck off." She grumbled. "I'm tired."
I sighed. "Babe, come on, seriously."
She huffed, sitting up grumpily. She jumped in shock when she saw Drake in the doorway. She gave him a tired smile. "Cole, turn the lamp on." She grumbled. She looked back at Drake. "Go get your VP and we'll discuss things in here. Cole can't get out of the bed."
Drake left the room and I leaned over, sliding my fingers in her hair, pulling her face to mine. I kissed her deeply. "Calm down. We need to deal with this. If it's dealt with tonight, then you can sleep in tomorrow with no interruptions.”
She nodded and rubbed her eyes tiredly. I smiled at the cute gesture. I swear, this woman was making me soft as fuck.
Drake and his VP Carlos came into the room and plopped themselves into chairs. Amelia got up and stretched. Drake's eyes landed on her stomach as she walked over to the mini fridge. "You've got a bump going on there, girl." He commented.
Amelia smiled a little. "Trust me, my tight ass clothes are making it very obvious to me."
He chuckled and Amelia sat back down on the bed with her bottle of apple juice. "Cole and I discussed this and we think it'll be a good idea to make an alliance with you guys, but you have to help us in turn." She told Drake without hesitation.
"Of course." Drake told her instantly.
"We have problems with the FBI. We need them off of our asses." I told him. The FBI was our biggest concern. They were sniffing around too much and fucking up our drug and gun sales.
