“Hey Sky,” Jess said, popping her head in through the door. Her arm was still in a sling from when Abel had rear-ended the car, and she’d dislocated her shoulder. “I’m thinking about going to see Sugar and see if I can get a new outfit for the party tonight. Can you come with me?”

Rolling my eyes, I placed my laptop to the side. I’d practically moved into Eagle’s room, not that he’d thrown up any kind of arguments against the matter. “You want me to go in to work on my one day off?” I teased.

“Don’t act like you don’t want to find something cute to wear for your man later,” she threw back, raising her eyebrows.

Laughing, I quickly climbed off the bed. “Truth.”

Things had been really quiet, I was stressed to the max, and the club was still reeling a week later from the events that had taken place.

My sister, Delilah, was still in the hospital. The bullet that hit her leg caused significant injury including fractures to her tibia and fibula bones and soft tissue injury with some nerve damage. Unfortunately, what we didn’t realize at the time was that she also took another bullet to her left arm in the cross-fire when she was lying on the road. Luckily, that bullet went straight through, and the injury to her arm wasn’t significant. But she’d lost a lot of blood and nearly died—it came very close, too damn close, and I spent the first few nights sleeping in the hospital room with her. She also developed a serious infection and was only now starting to come good. Delilah would have to be taught how to walk again, and her mental state was, at best, fragile. I managed to find a good therapist with Eagle’s help, and we were going to make damn sure she came out the other side of this with stability and love in her life.

Being so young, she’d been temporarily placed in my care, until we decided on the best approach. Right now, the only plan as far as I was concerned, was that she lived with me and Emerald, and I would fight for that to happen.

Of course, I had many brothers and sisters that lived in the Colony, and I was going to ensure that each and every one of them was taken care of. I had no idea how I was going to achieve this, but it was my promise, and I was going to keep it.

So for tonight we’d decided we were done, we needed to start living again. Jake was heading out tomorrow to go to Washington to stay at a military physical therapy center and hopefully get his leg back into working order.

There was no way the club was going to let him get away without showing how thankful they were that he was here. His skills had gotten him to us without detection, and there was no doubting that the speed in which he’d taken down the men in that room were second to none.

He deserved a proper goodbye, and a real thank you.

I was still struggling to deal with my own emotions, but I wasn’t struggling alone. Eagle was with me every possible moment, and when he wasn’t, there were brothers and club girls and old ladies by my side helping me make it through another day.

I did exactly as I said I would.

I wrote a list of things that the Colony believed were the ultimate sins, things that would send you on a one-way ticket to hell, do not pass go, do not collect two-hundred dollars. Then I handed it to Leo, and I walked away.

After that was said and done, I didn’t ask what happened to Abel.

I put faith in the people I loved, my family, and allowed them to do whatever they felt was appropriate to ensure that he would never control the people of the Colony again. And that he wasn’t allowed to welcome death without wondering whether he was going to spend the rest of eternity in the fire pits of hell.

Thankfully, we’d had injuries, but we hadn’t lost any lives.

Levi was still in the hospital recovering, but the boys were already talking about him having earned his patch. I put my hand up in agreeance even though I knew my vote didn’t really matter. But I’d seen him stand there, the determination on his face to protect all of the women and children in that room, and he’d almost paid the ultimate price for it.

“Where are you two running off to?” Eagle asked as Jess, and I bounced down the stairs. He and Jake were sitting at the bar where I’d left them two hours ago so they could have some time together before Jake left tomorrow.

“We’re going to Sugar’s to find something to wear for tonight,” Jess explained with a grin. It was funny to see her so bright and energetic around people. I’d always known that Jess was in there, but when she was in public, she constantly put up this force field around her that consisted of a bad attitude and a sharp tongue. Since the chaos blew over, it’s like she’d found a confidence in her to show a little more of who she really was. I had to admit it was kind of strange, but I also kind of loved it.

She caught me staring at her, and her beaming smile instantly turned to a suspicious frown. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she questioned slowly.

I shrugged, pressing a kiss to Eagle’s cheek. “No reason!”

She huffed out an annoyed breath and headed for the door, twirling her car keys around her finger. I went to follow her, but an arm snaked around my waist and pulled me back. Eagle settled me between his legs as he sat on the bar stool, his hands moving to my hips as I turned to face him.

“I wanna show you something tomorrow, so don’t make plans,” he said sternly.

“What is it?” I asked with a raised eyebrow and a smile tugging at my mouth.

He chuckled. “You gotta wait.”

“You’re annoying.”

“Look who’s talking,” he threw back with a wicked grin.

“Come on, damn it!” Jess called from the doorway. “Your cuteness makes me want to vom,” she yelled, scrunching her nose up like she’d smelt something bad.

And there was the Jess we all knew and loved.

“I’m with the bratty one, you two and your little arguments is cute for a while, but then it just gets fucking annoying,” Jake spoke up, grinning at me over the rim of his glass.

I held up my hand and backed away. “Quiet in the cheap seats.”

 

 

When we walked into Sugar’s store, the sounds of our laughter filled the silence and Jess, and I both instantly froze. I could hear soft sounds of crying, my feet started moving toward the back of the store, my heart beating twice as fast as it had been moments ago.

When I got to the dressing rooms, I found Sugar comforting my sister who was crying softly in her arms. I sunk to my knees at their feet and placed my hands on Emerald’s legs. “Hey,” I said quietly, rubbing my thumb soothingly across her jeans. “What’s going on?”

Sugar’s face was unreadable as she pointed to the television on the wall that we often used to play music videos or sometimes just trashy television shows, entertainment for friends who were waiting on people to try on clothes.

Right now, though, it was tuned into the national news channel.

The sound was muted, but I felt like the air had been sucked from my lungs as the pictures and video on the screen showed a very familiar place, a place I once called home.

“What the hell,” Jess spat angrily, snatching up the remote and turning up the volume.

“Mothers are storming the San Antonio courthouse today, demanding that their children be returned to them,” the reporter said, and my eyes began to grow wider. “Government agencies searched the small religious community known as the Colony, hoping to find known felon Brock Obrien. While they did not find the fugitive, what they did find was something that seemed a lot worse.”

Pictures flashed across the screen of the run down homes, some I recognized, some I didn’t, all in conditions that weren’t fit for cockroaches to be living in let alone families with children.

There were pictures of young boys, as young as maybe seven or eight, out working hard labor in the hot sun, the news anchor reporting that they would not be paid for the time they worked, that the money was being paid straight to the organization.

“Child Protective Services have removed over fifty children so far and are expecting to remove even more over the course of the next week as they make a point to visit each house, and demand to see the conditions in which these small children are expected to grow up.”

My mouth was hanging open. Jess, on the other hand, had a broad smile that reached from cheek to cheek.

I spun back to Emerald who had pulled her face back from Sugar’s shoulder and was smiling through the tears. “Someone took notice,” she said quietly, the joy on her face so much brighter than I’d ever seen before.

I nodded, feeling tears brim in my own eyes. “Those kids are going to have a chance, and we will do whatever we have to do to fight for every single one of them to not return to that hell hole, fucking ever!” I told her excitedly, grabbing her hands in mine and squeezing them tightly.

Emerald was still learning, she was always discovering new things and figuring out who she really was now that part of her identity had suddenly been lost, but she was still the little sister that I knew, and she was blossoming every single day.

The road ahead wasn’t going to be easy. I meant it when I said that we would do whatever we had to do to fight and make sure that no more children had to go through what we went through. People would try to build the Colony back up, they will fight back, but if I had to go and stand in court and attest to how I was treated as a child, so be it.

I wasn’t going to hide anymore.

They couldn’t hurt me.

My father was dead.

Abel was gone.

They would find another leader, and he could do his worst, but damn it, I knew the true meaning of family and my family would win.

Every. Single. Time.