Chapter Eighteen
Amy
I ran a hand through my hair and shifted in my seat, feeling the pull of exhaustion on my body. Another hour and I would be at home, in my bed, hopefully able to get some sleep. Last night… well, sleep had been the last thing on my mind.
The first thing had been how I would like to go back and shoot Jenny in the head.
The second was that I would have loved to shoot Eric in his balls.
The third… well, I would love to get rip-roaring drunk.
But I could do none of the above. While I was Grant Travis’s daughter, I wasn’t a killer. Sure, I had gotten an easy lick on Jenny last night, my hand bruised and hurting this morning from my sucker punch, but that was all I was willing to do for now.
Now, if she was brave enough to come after my family or me… well, I would be killing that bitch.
And Eric. Oh god, how I didn’t even want to think about him! The mere thought of him brought back the image from last night, how his hands were on her body, that he was even in town to begin with.
He had lied to me.
But that wasn’t even the worst part. He had been parked outside the salon and in the presence of the daughter of the Brotherhood leader at that. They might has well have had their plans stapled to their foreheads. The thought of Roxanne going through the pain of someone destroying her shop had been hard to swallow, more so than Eric’s betrayal. She had ranted all the way home, and I knew she would tell Neil, beef-up security around the shop until we figured out what was going on.
It was completely and utterly wrong for them to go after the shop, and I couldn’t believe that it had been Eric who would have done it.
My stomach rolled, and I picked up my soda, taking some fortifying sips to calm it down.
There was no denying what they had been going to do, and the thought sickened me. I couldn’t believe I had fallen in love and gotten pregnant by a man who was out to destroy the very things that my friends, my family, held dear.
Would he have set fire to the salon if I had been in it? I didn’t have a good warm, fuzzy feeling about denying that fact.
My father chose to walk in at that moment, and I cleared my thoughts, hoping that my expression did not give away the turmoil that was on the inside. We were in the dining room of the main house, the only place currently big enough to hold his top advisors for the club. Besides myself, Neil, Zach, and Grubbs, my father’s current right-hand man and oldest member, now that Grayson was MIA, were all in attendance, with Tess hovering in the wings.
He took his seat at the head of the table, kicking back in the chair.
“Anyone care to tell me what we are doing here today?”
Zach cleared his throat, the circles under his eyes revealing his own exhaustion. Whether it was because of what was happening to the Horsemen or keeping up with Sydney’s whereabouts, I wasn’t sure.
“Fires were reported at Tick’s Bar, the bunker on seventeen, and Majesty’s last night. All are total losses. We have five injuries and one confirmed death.”
I gasped. Tick’s Bar was one of the Horsemen-owned joints just outside the city limits that I had frequented a time or two myself. The bunker was where my father kept all of his extra weaponry, and Majesty’s was a topless joint that had an affiliation with the club. All were very important fund growers for the Horsemen, which meant that my father’s pocket had just taken a major hit.
Not to mention the injuries and death.
“Shit,” my father swore, raking a hand through his thinning hair. “Who’s the dead body?”
“Not one of ours,” Zach supplied, a haunted look on his face.
“Thank God for that,” Neil replied, blowing out a breath.
Zach gave the sharpshooter a nod.
“Security has been beefed-up at the remaining holdings, including the house and Hayley’s apartment.”
I couldn’t help but smirk at my sister’s fierce independence. She had refused to give up her apartment despite our father ordering it, pitching a royal fit until he had relented. Had my own house not gone up in flames, I would have done the same thing.
After last night, I had gone to stay with her instead of staying here, needing someone that understood my current situation, so I could bawl my damn eyes out.
My father looked pointedly at me.
“You and your sister will come here immediately.”
I narrowed my gaze.
“No. We are not going to run scared.”
His jaw twitched.
“I can’t afford to have my men scattered around the damn county. You will come here, and that’s the final word.”
I let out a little laugh, not scared of the look he was giving me.
“Try telling that to Hayley. We are fine, with or without the guards.”
I wasn’t about to cave on this one. I knew he was struggling with panic on the inside, trying to protect his family and the club, but it was high time we started fighting back.
“Why aren’t we turning face and setting fires to their shit?”
Neil shook his head.
“If we do that, we will be starting an all-out war with the Brotherhood. What if they aren’t the ones setting the fire?”
“But we are already in a war,” I argued, glowering at Roxanne’s other half.
Most of the time, I liked him, but not today.
“And we are just holing ourselves up, waiting for the next one to strike! We have to fight back.”
“Amy,” my father warned, displeasure on his face. “This is why you shouldn’t be at this table.”
I looked around at the other men at the table, not believing what he had just said. I was the one who wanted blood. I was the one who wanted to make the Horsemen fierce again, and yet I shouldn’t be at the table? Crossing my arms over my chest, I set my jaw.
“So, you all want to be pansies and ignore the fact that our fellow members are getting killed every day? You want to sit on your asses and hope this goes away?”
“That’s enough, Amy,” my father said softly, an edge to his voice.
I looked at them all, not believing that they would not want to retaliate against this attack on our family, on our friends. Sure, some of my anger was coming from last night, from Eric’s betrayal, but all my life I had thought my father was ruthless when it came to the club.
I wasn’t seeing it at all right now.
“Fine,” I said, standing. “Clearly I don’t have a say so in the fate of this club.”
My father looked at me.
“You never did.”
Oh, that hurt. Biting the inside of my cheek so I wouldn’t burst into tears, I walked out of the room and toward the front door. He had never taken me seriously, never once wanted me to follow in his footsteps because I was a woman.
“Amy.”
I turned to see Tessa hurrying toward me, a worried expression on her face.
“He’s under a lot of stress. Don’t let him get to you.”
“He’s wrong,” I blurted out. “He should take the fight to them. It’s gone on too long already.”
Tessa grabbed my hand, giving it a pat, as she had done numerous times.
“He was harsh to you, I know, but he’s trying to look out for everyone.”
I gave her hand a squeeze. My fight was not with Tessa, it was with my father.
“You’re a saint for putting up with him.”
She gave me a soft smile.
“Honey I knew what I was getting into when I married your father. But I love that man. Let me talk to him. He will be calling you tomorrow, apologizing for his actions tonight. I’m sure of it. He loves his girls.”
So, was he going to love his grandchild as well, knowing that the father was one of the very people he was hunting down? I wasn’t so sure his forgiveness went to that extent.
“Thanks Tessa.”
She let go of my hand.
“Are you sure I can’t get you to stay the night?”
I shook my head.
“Hayley’s place is just fine. She will be at school late tonight, so I will just wait for her there.”
Tessa frowned.
“I don’t like the idea of you two being by yourselves.”
I laughed as I pulled open the door.
“Don’t lie Tessa. I know that dad has guys driving by every thirty minutes. We both have our guns. We will be fine.”
I then exited the house, walking down the stairs to my car. I could handle myself, and so could Hayley. The problem was that I still didn’t know how to handle Eric or the current situation.
I climbed in the car and started down the driveway, my hands gripping the steering wheel. I hated the fact that I had seen what I had seen last night with my own two eyes. If I hadn’t, I might not have believed it.
But I had, and there was no denying what he had been doing there, with Jenny.
I hated the way he made me feel, the way that he had wormed his way into my heart and then ripped it out like it had never meant anything for him.
Blowing out a breath, I aimed the car toward Hayley’s apartment, my stomach rumbling for food. That’s all I felt like I did those days, get my feelings hurt and eat. At this rate, I was going to be as big as a house in another month.
“Don’t worry little one,” I said softly, rubbing a hand over my stomach. “It doesn’t matter that your daddy is an asshole and a cheat. I will take care of you. We all will.”
It was the only choice I had. Was I willing to shut Eric out of my life, out of his own kid’s life? I had to. By what I saw, I couldn’t let him in.
I couldn’t trust him, and to me trust was everything.
Spying a fast food drive-thru, I turned toward it, my mind already thinking about all the things I was going to order. I couldn’t let him in my life. This distrust could tear me and my family apart. And not only that, it could get them killed. I didn’t know what Eric’s association was with the Brotherhood, but it was certain that they trusted him.
And if that was the case, then we couldn’t be together anyway. They were our enemy, whether my father was willing to act on it or not.
I snorted as I thought about what he had said to me tonight and how he had effectively thrown me out of the room. He wouldn’t believe me anyway. Tessa was not going to change his mind and I didn’t know if I wanted her to. Maybe this was the turning point in my life I should go along with my pregnancy.
After all, I couldn’t be a leader and be having a kid. Maybe this was the sign I had been looking for.
Maybe this was my new beginning.
One thing was for sure
Eric wasn’t going to be a part of that new beginning. I couldn’t allow it. I couldn’t, no matter how much I might want him to be, despite everything that had happened. He had broken my heart, ruined every warm, fuzzy feeling that had been brought on by our relationship. I had thought I might have been looking at forever, but instead I had been hurdling down the path to a broken heart.
And now, I would have to get over it. There was no time to cry over a broken heart, not with everything going on with the Horsemen and with the baby on the way. I had to suck up my hurt.
Love sucked.