Chapter Seven
Amy
I shook my head as I looked at the damage, not believing that this was the clubhouse I had grown up in. Most of it was gone, the charred smell still heavy in the air, making me nauseous to the fact that we had suffered a heavy loss. I hated it. There had been so many memories here, so many from when my mother was alive, and I knew my dad had to be suffering. The club was our lives, and we had sustained a heavy blow with the loss of the clubhouse.
Walking past the pile of charred wood, I spied my sister and my father up ahead, talking with some of the other senior members of the Horsemen. Surprisingly, most of the club was there, attempting to help clean out the mess so that they could start to rebuild. Zach and Neil were there as well, using their muscles to lift some of the heavier pieces of wood from the room that used to be the bar. I imagined my father wanted it cleared as soon as possible, showing whoever had done this that they were not going to tear us apart.
We were a family and the loss of our clubhouse would only piss us off, not tear us apart. I just hoped that whoever had done this would be ready for the retaliation, because it would be coming. There was no way we were going to forget this.
“Hey!”
I turned to see Sydney behind me, her hands covered with gloves.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
She gave a sad smile.
“This is my family too. I wasn’t about to let Zach come by himself.”
There was an undertone that I knew she still struggled with. When we had been kidnapped, they had taunted Sydney and Roxanne with live feeds of their men, telling them that they could kill them at any point in time. I had never before seen Sydney grow so pale as she had when she realized that Zach was in danger and she couldn’t do anything to stop it.
Since then, she had kept close tabs on him, and it would likely take some time for her to ease off. It was the police officer in her, though her love for Zach was something that made my heart hurt.
“I… thank you for that.”
She shrugged, dusting off her gloves.
“It’s the least I can do. Who would do something like this?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
The Horsemen had many enemies, but my money would be on either the Brotherhood or Grayson Barnes. I just hoped that Eric hadn’t been a part of this.
If he had been, I would never forgive him for it.
After giving Sydney a wave, I walked over to my family. Hayley had a good bit of our father’s looks about her, but she was the spitting image of her mom as well. I could say the same about myself. When my father looked at me, I wondered whether he saw his first wife standing there.
“Hey,” Hayley said with a tired smile as I approached them. “I’m glad you made it.”
“Of course,” I answered. “I wouldn’t want to be any other place.”
This was where I belonged, with my family, as we tried to pick up the pieces of what was a major bit in our lives.
“Amy,” my father acknowledged with a nod.
I could see the lines of exhaustion on his face, and my heart went out to him. He was hurting, and I didn’t know what to do to make it okay.
“Who did this?” I asked, swallowing my emotion. “Was it the Brotherhood?”
His eyes narrowed.
“Don’t you worry about that. I got this shit handled.”
“I want to help,” I blurted out. “I can do something.”
He waved a hand at me before turning back to the group of senior bikers, dismissing me with the gesture. I opened my mouth to retort, feeling the anger rise in my belly, but Hayley grabbed my arm and pulled me away.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“I want to help,” I answered, yanking my arm from her grip. “How does he expect me to take over one day if he won’t include me in the decisions?”
Hayley’s expression was sympathetic.
“Amy, maybe he doesn’t want you to take over.”
Oh, I knew that, but that didn’t mean I was giving up on the plan for my future. My father had no sons, and one day he would have to step down as the president. I was the oldest, and it only made natural sense for me to step up into that position, despite the fact that I was a woman. That shouldn’t have any play on it. But I wasn’t stupid; I would have to prove myself to this club that I could lead them. But my father wouldn’t even give me the time of day to do so.
My gender should have no bearing on my future position in this club.
“It’s bullshit,” I finally growled, running a hand through my hair.
“I agree,” Hayley stated as we looked back at the group in a heated discussion. “But I can tell you that they think Grayson did this. He’s the only one who would want to make such a personal statement.”
I tended to agree with her. This was a personal attack. Burning down a clubhouse meant that you were calling war, and though we’d had the shootout with the Brotherhood, Grayson had been behind some of that as well. I couldn’t imagine the Brotherhood wanting to do something so petty when they could just shoot up the place.
No, I had the same gut feeling as everyone else on this.
“Mom said he hasn’t slept since,” Hayley said quietly, her eyes on our father. “I’m worried Amy. What if this gets to be too much for him? We can’t lose him.”
Her voice cracked, and I pulled her into a hug, my own fears starting to become reality. She was right. My father wasn’t getting any younger, and I wouldn’t be able to deal with his death if something were to happen to him.
“He will be okay, I swear it.”
“I hope so,” she said, returning the hug before stepping back. “I-I think you should come home for now. The clubhouse could be just the beginning.”
I shook my head. The last thing I needed was to be dealing with the effects of this pregnancy and having my family watching my every step. I hadn’t yet come to terms with what was going to happen over the next eight months or so, and while I knew I would have to tell them sooner or later, now was not the time.
“I’m perfectly safe. Dad has guys watching the house, and I have my guns beside me.”
Hayley bit her lip, clearly not happy with my answer. When had she suddenly become the worry one in the family?
“I’m scared Amy.”
“Me too,” I admitted. “But we can’t worry ourselves to death. Come on, let’s go help out for a while and get our minds off this.”
***
Two hours later, I stretched out my back, attempting to work out the kinks that had found themselves there. It must be another factor of being pregnant. While I had helped out, I had chosen smaller things to move, scared that I might miscarry if I lifted anything too heavy. While I was still struggling to adjust to the fact that I was going to have a kid, I didn’t want to do any unjust harm to the innocent baby.
But now, all I wanted was a hot shower and a nap.
“I’m done,” Hayley announced, stripping off her gloves.
We both were covered head to toe in soot, the smell of smoke clinging to my skin and my hair. Everything was gone, and the club would have to be rebuilt from the ground up.
But we would do it without question.
“Me too,” I said, stripping off my own gloves. I wanted to have a word with my father before I left. “Be safe.”
Hayley gave me a look. “You too. You really should come home Amy, if nothing but for a little while.”
I gave her a little wave before walking toward my father, who was already working on what the new club should look like.
“Can I help?”
He glanced at me, the conversation around him dying down.
“I thought you were helping with the clean up?”
I motioned toward the plans that were before him, hastily drawn up.
“I was, but I would like to give my input on what changes need to be made to the new place.”
He arched a brow, clearly surprised I had made such a bold statement.
“And who asked your opinion?”
I swallowed, hating the way he made me feel. I wasn’t a lesser person just because I was a woman. I was his daughter, his flesh and blood, and I deserved the same measure of respect that he would give to me if I was a man.
“You did when you fucked my mother.”
Someone in the group choked on his laughter as my father’s eyes widened, anger replacing his surprise.
“That doesn’t give you a right to any damn thing Amy. Go home and don’t fucking question me again.”
I clenched my hands into fists, wanting desperately to hit him. I knew why he was doing this, but it didn’t mean it was right. Instead, I turned and walked away, knowing his eyes were boring into my back the entire time. We rarely fought about anything, but the future position of the club was something we did not see eye to eye on. I could do this. I could be that person he was hoping for when he decided to step down if he would give me one fucking chance to try.
Stalking to my car, I yanked the handle open and climbed in before the first tear fell, hating that he had made me cry. I wasn’t one to shed tears so easily, but this pregnancy had me in an emotional mess, wreaking havoc on my insides.
Reaching for my keys, I realized that there were a few grocery bags in the front seat, a cooler in the floorboard. The bags were brimming with items, from chips to fruit, and as I pulled off the cooler top, I saw that there were dairy items packaged in ice, the ice not even having had a chance to melt yet. Whoever had put this in my car had done so in the last hour or so, and I had a good idea of who had done it.
Sure enough, I pulled out the receipt from the bag, seeing Eric’s handwriting on the back, including a cell phone number I hadn’t seen before.
He had bought me groceries.
The tears really came in earnest now, and I started the car, driving away before anyone could see me crying. The man had bought me groceries.