Sitting on the hotel room bed, my body felt so numb, and it wasn’t because of the ice pack that I was holding against my cheek. I’d imagined so many different scenarios when it came to standing face-to-face with my brother or my father. I guess I just never expected for them to end with me telling the world I was a whore.
Not that I would change a thing. It hurt Abel, I knew it. And not because I was his little sister and he hated the idea of me using my body to please men. It hurt him because soon the entire Colony would know that the blood that ran through my family’s veins was anything but worthy of leading all those faithful and dedicated people to the highest place in heaven.
It was dirty, it was tainted.
But what had me scared now was what they planned to do to try and fix it.
Me running away was easily lied about, covered up. I had no doubt they told the people of the Colony that I’d been sent away because of some higher calling, that I was made for something more than spending time with peasants. There was no way my father would have ever let them believe that his eldest daughter, the one meant to set an example for others in her faith, did a runner.
“Here,” Hadley said, coming to sit on the edge of the bed. She handed me a short glass with clear liquid inside. She grinned as I studied it. “Just a hint, it’s not water.”
“Thank God.” I sighed, tossing back the liquid in one shot and holding out the glass for more as the taste of vodka attacked my tastebuds and stole the air from my lungs.
Jess snorted from the sofa. “Ironic choice of words.”
I choked out a laugh, trying to find my breath and feeling the warmth of the alcohol settle in my stomach. Hadley poured me another glass and screwed the lid back on the vodka bottle. When I pouted, she shook her head and wiggled her finger at me.
“I promised to look after you while the boys sorted shit with the cops downstairs,” she warned, all motherly like. “If they come back and you’re drunk, Leo will have my ass.”
“Funny, I would have thought he’d had it already,” Jess said dryly, her face lighting up in an over the top smile when Hadley turned and narrowed her eyes. “Oh come on, you walked right into that one.”
Hadley was fighting a smile and controlling it pretty well. I, on the other hand, couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up. My body shook, and my head pleaded with me to stop, the constant headache I’d had since Abel slapped me had been undeterred by painkillers.
I groaned, raising the glass to my lips and swallowing the liquid in two large gulps, hoping it might make my muscles and my mind relax a little.
A couple of officers had shown up as Abel was dragging himself to his feet, looking dazed and confused. People had called them right after seeing him slap me across the face. I expressed that I didn’t want to press charges, but the police were essentially the ones who would make that call given that people had witnessed the event.
The same was to be said about Eagle’s involvement, and that’s what I was most nervous about. Because he didn’t come at Eagle, it can’t be classed as self-defense. If the police wanted to go after him they could, even though Abel had done the smart thing and opted not to.
Hence why the boys were all down in the hotel’s meeting room with the police chief and Rivet, waiting on Digger, the Texas Brothers by Blood President. He was the one with the most pull inside the police force, hopefully enough to make this whole mess go away.
“Was wankstain your full brother?” Jess asked out of the blue. I knew she was dying to hear more about who the Colony was, and what the hell went on there. After everything I blurted out today, I’m sure they had more questions than I probably had answers for, the boys included, which was why I was trying to wait until they got back. So that I didn’t have to repeat it more than once.
Just putting my head back there with the memories of what it was like, it was fucking painful. It always left me feeling nauseous and sometimes angry. Seeing Abel today had already sucked the life out of me and pulled me back into a place that I spent a lot of time trying to avoid.
There was a lot of beauty in my story. I still remembered the times my siblings, and I would laugh and play, using whatever we could to make games. Sometimes it was sticks from the dead tree in our yard, other times it was old flat tires or torn rags that were made into capes.
Children in the Colony were encouraged to be children because when we came of age, things changed.
Girls were married off to older men—some often even relatives like uncles or cousins—and boys when they turned twelve were sent to work. They would do twelve hour days on construction sites and farms for one of the many businesses owned by the Colony. At the end of the week, they might end up with one hundred dollars.
The rest was taken for the community.
“Wankstain, now that’s a new one,” I joked, falling back onto the bed after Hadley took my glass.
“Don’t avoid the question,” Jess snapped, pointing her finger at me accusingly.
I rolled my eyes. “No, he’s not a full-blooded sibling, he belongs to my father’s first wife, my mother is the second and I’m her only child. You could say, she was the dud wife, and that’s sort of reflected in me.”
“You’re not a dud,” Hadley scolded with a frown as she made herself busy, tidying mine and Eagle’s things.
“Not sure grumpy pants will like you touching his stuff,” I told her with a smile as she folded the T-shirt he had dumped on the floor hours before, in our rush to get to the charity event.
Hadley laughed lightly. “He loves me, he’ll get over it.”
I can’t explain how those words twisted my gut, and the green head of jealousy reared up to make an appearance.
“He also seems to be extremely protective of you,” she added, taking a seat at the end of the bed.
I huffed out a breath and closed my eyes, wishing that the bed would swallow me whole and take away the pain in my head. “All the boys are protective of us, you saw the way Kev put himself in between Jess and the confrontation. There’s nothing more to it.”
The words came out as casual as I’d intended, but honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince them, or trying to convince myself.
“Whatever you have to tell yourself to get to sleep at night,” Jess said, rolling her eyes.
There were two sharp knocks at the door, and she climbed off the sofa and walked over, pulling it open without bothering to check the peephole or ask who was on the other side. She stepped back, and I heard several heavy footsteps enter the room before the door clicked closed again.
A warm hand slipped the cold icepack from my face, and the bed dipped beside my head. I blinked several times before the room came back into focus, and I could identify the people in the room. Eagle was staring down at me, his face worried with a frown.
“Anyone ever tell you that if you stress too much, you’ll get wrinkles,” I told him, rolling my eyes.
“Anyone ever tell you that your family have serious mental problems?” he shot back without missing a beat.
I snorted, reaching for the ice pack again when I felt my face begin to throb, but he held it just out of my reach. “Yeah, it’s in my genes to be a little crazy. You scared I’m gonna stab you in your sleep now?”
“I was scared of that well before this shit happened,” he shot back, a smirk pulling at his lips.
Every single damn time I saw that grin on his face, my body melted into a pile of goo. He’d asked why I pushed him and threw sass consistently when we were together, and I’d replied honestly—because seeing him smile actually made my heart stutter.
I’d known Eagle for a while, but we’d had little to no interaction. He was quiet and serious and tended to stick to himself or the brothers that he knew well. Before this trip, I honestly couldn’t even remember a time when I’d heard him speak, and after twenty-four hours of drama and fucking crazy it was like we’d known each other forever.
“We need to have a chat about what’s going on,” Op said, interrupting the quiet moment between us and drawing away Eagle’s attention. I quickly snatched the icepack out of his hand and pressed it against my face again, letting out a satisfied sigh. “I feel like I’m gonna need a few drinks for this, though. So we’re going to a bar a few blocks away and meeting some of the others there as kind of a…. I hope we can survive one more day without shit hitting the fan, thing.”
I could tell Op was utterly exhausted and no doubt he was missing Chelsea and his boys. A lot of effort and planning had gone into making this whole thing run smoothly, and to be honest, it really hadn’t been that smooth, and I felt a little guilty for that fact.
Rolling onto my side, I tried to push my body back into a sitting position. Eagle took my arm, supporting me as I struggled to move my body. I was absolutely shattered, every inch of my body was aching and sore, and all I wanted to do was climb into bed and sleep for as many hours as possible—days even. But I knew I owed these guys an explanation at the very least, given that they’d saved my ass and stood up for me in a way that they didn’t have to. “I’m sorry about the drama,” I said quietly, trying not to lean into Eagle’s body for comfort when he placed his hand on my back. “Usually, I’m the first person to run the opposite direction when it comes to this shit.”
“We know that,” Blizzard spoke up, leaning against the large window that looked out over the street. “Learnt a long time ago that we can’t blame someone for the mistakes of their family. You didn’t have it easy, that we know for sure now, so we ain’t angry at you standing up for yourself to the people that hurt you.”
I could feel a burn in the back of my throat, and I swallowed past a huge lump that was threatening to bring forth tears.
“Shit, you’re gonna make her cry,” Jess groaned, shoving Blizzard in the shoulder. Blizzard just grinned but nodded in my direction, a subtle but substantial sign of support.
“Come on,” Eagle said, wrapping his arm around my waist and helping me to my feet. “You guys go ahead. Let Sky have a shower and collect her thoughts, and we’ll meet you at the bar in thirty minutes.”
Optimus raised his eyebrow, but he didn’t argue. “Fine, but don’t be too long. I have questions and I want to be somewhat sober for the answers, and with the mood I’m fucking in right now, a couple beers just ain’t gonna hit the spot.”
I laughed. “I gave up religion a long time ago, but fucking Amen to that.”