“This is all we have,” she croaks. “And it’s probably still not enough. He won’t come back alone, but at least we don’t go down without a fight.”
It isn’t enough.
We both know it.
But even if we ended Trey’s life before ours was taken, it would mean our death was worth something.
I shuffle closer to Charlie, a different kind of understanding and respect for her. I reach over, and take her hand. She looks at me, eyes glassy, fear as strong in her gaze as it is in mine. “I’m so afraid,” she whispers.
“Me too. If we get out of this, let’s make sure we stay friends, okay?”
She smiles, weakly. “Okay.”
We sit, side by side, hand in hand, waiting for Treyton to come back.
The sounds of gunshots disrupt our silence, and my eyes get wide. Angry, yelling voices, and more gunshots erupt. What’s happening? Is he coming?
Charlie looks at me. “We need to stand.”
Both of us push to our feet, standing, holding the jagged piece of wood. We go closer to the door, so that when it opens we can drive the wood into whoever comes in. We both stand, one either side of it, and we wait, holding onto it with the last strength left in our bodies.
We wait.
There are gunshots.
Then silence.
Dead silence.
I swallow the fear and wait for the door to open. Footsteps can be heard outside, and then the door rattles, once, then twice, and then it opens. We both lunge the second the door opens and the man coming in’s hand lashes out and he catches the end of the wood, knocking us off guard. We both tumble to the ground. No. I frantically look around for something else, but there is nothing.
He’s going to kill us.
He’s going to ...
I look up and my heart stops beating. Standing in the doorway is Malakai and Koda, both of them bloodied, both of them panting, both of their eyes on the two broken girls lying on the floor. I open my mouth and cry out in relief and pain. Malakai drops to his knees, cupping my face in his hands, his eyes glassy. Koda leans down, scooping Charlie up into his arms.
She’s crying, too.
“Oh, god. My beautiful girl. What has he done to you?”
I clutch his jacket, crying so hard I can’t see him enough to see what else he says. I bury my face into his chest, and he scoops me up into his arms.
The relief hits me, the reality that I’m going to make it through another day, and my body shuts down on me.
I’m thankful for the darkness, because it means I can’t feel the pain.
Not for a little while.
~*~*~*~
MALAKAI
We go in, guns blazing. I knew from the moment we put a bullet in the man at the front doors head, that this was the place. They came out with force, and guns that put mine to shame, but we had the upper hand, because we came in as a surprise. I decided on bringing ten men with me, my gut told me this was the fuckin’ place and I’m glad I listened to it.
We came in slow, guns ready, and once the shooting begun there was no looking back. Bullet after bullet, shattering skulls and exploding through hearts. Releasing a rage I’ve never felt in my entire life. Every time I pull the trigger, I think of Amalie. Is she still alive? Am I too late? Is she dead?
Kicking the door to the house open, I step inside.
And a hard form slams into me.
I stumble backwards, toppling over a couch and landing on the hard, fucked out floor, with a grunt. I launch upwards and somehow manage to dodge a bullet that comes flying in my direction. I raise my gun but am slammed down again when the man shooting at me, throws himself on me once more. He wants to use fists? Fine by me. I take a few hard hits to the face, and realise he has some force, but I have more.
So much fucking more.
I drive my fist upwards into his face, cracking his jaw over and over. Then with all my strength, I flip him over until I’m straddling him. I pull out my gun and press it to his temple. Treyton. Panting. Blood pouring down his mouth. He grins up at me, unafraid, evil as hell. Those eyes are the coldest eyes I’ve ever fuckin’ seen and that’s saying something.
“You finally found me, Malakai. Well done,” he splutters, laughing.
“Where the fuck is she?” I growl, shoving my gun into his temple.
Mason enters the room, gun out, covered in blood. I don’t look at him for longer than a second before focusing back on Treyton.
“Oh, she’s fine. Probably bleeding out. But that’s the least of your problems, isn’t it?”
“I’d love to fuckin’ kill you slowly, but I don’t have time. My girl is in there, and I won’t fuckin’ sit back and leave her a second longer.”
“Kill me, by all means. That won’t make you or your club safe, Malakai. Nobody is safe. You think I’m bad,” he throws his head back and laughs. “You have so much more coming for you.”
“Who the fuck are you working for?”
He grins at me, bloodied teeth. “Ah ah ah, that I can never tell you. You should know, that little Charlie, has bigger secrets then you could ever imagine. Perhaps, you should ask her?”
Charlie?
What the hell has Charlie got to do with this?
“Who the fuck gave you information from my club?” I growl, slamming the gun into his temple. “Who the hell betrayed me?”
He laughs again, the sick fuck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I drive my fist into his face, hard, over and over. Blood spurts out, but he doesn’t even flinch. Evil doesn’t cover what Treyton is. Deranged. That is closer to the truth.
“You can hit me. You can kill me. You will never get what you want from me,” he spits blood in my face. “My job here is done, you’re not safe, nobody is. Now, hurry along, your little girlfriend isn’t doing so well down there. I was going to send her dead body back to you, never mind, eventually, someone is going to.”
Fuck him.
Dirty little scumbag fucker.
He’s not going to tell me a damn thing.
I pull the trigger. His head explodes and I stand, wiping my gun. Waste of my fuckin’ time and space. I need to get to Amalie. Before it’s too late. I wasn’t wasting a single second more on that scum. I move through every room in the house, my men take care of anything left. When I realise she isn’t up here, I go down to the basement. There is a locked room, but the padlock is only dummy locked. Enough that they can’t push out. I shove the lock off and unlatch the bolt, stepping inside.
A huge piece of wood swings at me. I get it just in time, knocking whoever swung it off their feet. It takes me a minute to see who it is, and when I do, my heart stops beating.
My entire world fuckin’ stops.
Bloodied. Battered. Fuckin’ broken.
My Amalie.
I drop to my knees, cupping her precious face in my hands.
“Oh, god. My beautiful girl. What has he done to you?”
-18-
AMALIE
My eyes flutter open, and I stare around the brightly-lit room. My body is numb, and my throat feels like I’ve swallowed a heap of rocks. My vision slowly clears, and I realize I’m in a hospital. Memories of what happened come flooding back to me, and my heart starts racing as I glance around, wondering who is here. Is Treyton dead? Where’s Malakai?
A nurse comes into the room, smiling when she sees me, and she comes over, placing a hand on my forehead before saying, “Hi, Amalie. How are you feeling?”
How am I feeling?
I don’t know. I can’t feel anything.
Why is my head bandaged?
Why is my leg and arm bandaged?
How bad was the damage?
“You’re in the hospital,” she tells me when I stare at her blankly. “You had severe injuries. You’ve been in and out of consciousness for the last few days. Today is the first you’ve fully woken up. You have a cast on your leg and on your arm. You have some broken ribs and wounds over your bo
dy that we have stitched. You had some internal bleeding around your stomach that we had to do surgery to fix. You also had severe damage to your left ear, and extensive damage to your right. We’ve done what we can to fix both.”
They operated on my ears? But how?
“We’re aware you’ve had hearing loss in the past from a difficult accident. The doctors repaired as much as they could on top of what you’ve already had surgically. They’re confident they’ve saved some of your hearing.”
They did?
But I didn’t have any before.
“I’m going to get the doctor now and run some more tests. Your partner is waiting outside. I’ll send him in.”
He’s here?
He’s okay?
My heart explodes with happiness.
I look over at the door once the nurse is done, and I wait, just needing to see his face. When he steps into the room, I start to cry. Big, fat tears rolling down my cheeks. For a little while, when I was with Treyton, I never thought I’d see Malakai again. Or anyone I loved for that matter.
He walks over, going straight down and cupping my face, his eyes glassy. “Never thought I’d see your beautiful fucking eyes again. I’m so sorry, Amalie. I should never have let him take you.”
“You’re here now,” I croak. “I’m here. That’s all that matters.”
“He hurt you ... so fuckin’ bad.”
“Is he ... is he ... gone?”
Malakai nods. “I watched the life suck out of his eyes when I put a bullet in his head. He will never hurt you again.” He leans down, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Nobody will.”
“Ch-Ch-Charlie?”
“She’s okay. Still in here. Her injuries were much like yours. She’s had a few surgeries.”
“Can I see her?”
“When you’re better. The doctor said they worked on your ears. He said he repaired some old damage. They won’t know if you have more or less hearing until the bandages come off.”
I reach up and lightly touch the bandages.
Will I be able to hear more?
Malakai covers my hand with his, and tells me, “I was so scared. Never been so fuckin’ scared in my life. Love you, Amalie. I need you more than I need my next breath. Don’t ever wanna feel what I felt over the last day, again, for the rest of my days.”
I smile weakly up at him. “I love you too, Malakai.”
He presses his lips over mine in a soft kiss, and then stands up when the doctor enters the room. The older man walks over to me, a smile on his face. “How are you feeling, Amalie?”
I shrug. “I’m a little numb.”
“Pain medication. You had some serious injuries. You’ll be here for at least a week.”
I nod, frowning.
“The nurse probably told you we did some work on your ears. We’ve yet to take the bandages off, although you don’t need them, because we wanted you to be awake when we did. Should we take them off now? I will need to pop on a device, that’ll help, and you’ll probably have to wear forever, but it’s better than not hearing, right?”
I nod, and suddenly my heart is in my stomach and I can’t breathe. What if I can’t hear anything, not even the faint humming I heard before? What if it’s all gone? Tears burn in the back of my eyes as Malakai steps away and the doctor unravels the thick bandages covering my ears. As he releases them, I wait, wondering if I’ll hear anything, or nothing.
When he puts the bandages aside, I look at him. I can’t hear anything. Not a thing. But I’m not entirely sure there is anything to hear. The doctor moves closer, inspecting my ears with his little torch. Then he reaches out to the nurse and she gives him a little black device. He clips it onto my ear, and plays around with it for a moment.
“Looks good. The swelling has gone down.”
I cry out.
It’s so sudden he leaps backward.
Tears explode and run down my cheeks.
I heard him. I heard his voice. It was faint, and a little muffled, but I heard him. I heard him. I press a hand over my face and I cry so hard my body shakes.
Malakai pulls me into his arms, and holds me until I stop crying enough to pull back and look at him.
“S-S-Say something to me.”
“Hi, baby.”
His voice, I can hear his voice. It’s far from clear, and it’s far from easy, but I can hear the different tones and make out his words. I’m sure to anyone else, it wouldn’t be much, and it would probably still sound so incredibly off, but to me, it’s like heaven has opened up and sent me a miracle.
“I can hear you,” I cry in pure happiness, burying my face into his chest.
He hands onto me for a while, clutching me close, then I pull back, wiping my tears and turning to the doctor.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“You’re very welcome. We were unable to do much to one ear, so you’re probably going to find it is still deaf, but there was one semi-good ear and with the surgery and the little magical device, you should be able to hear just enough. We did what we could, and it would appear it worked. It’ll never get better than it is, and it’ll probably always sound a little different, but I’m sure you don’t mind.”
I still stare at his lips, because some of his words are unclear, and sound more like a hum than a word, but I can hear. I don’t care if it’s the smallest bit.
I can hear.
“I’m so grateful. Thank you. So much.”
He nods, and smiles. “I’ll leave the nurse to finish up here. I’ll send you for a hearing test in the next few days, to check how it’s going. Rest up.”
He leaves the room, and when he does, Scarlett comes barrelling in. She sees me, sitting up in the bed, and comes running right at me. She skids to a stop, tears running down her cheeks, and then gently leans in and hugs me, as tight as she can without hurting me. When she pulls back, she looks at me, and says, “I thought I’d lost you. Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”
“Scar?” I say to her, softly.
“Yes?”
“I can hear you.”
She starts crying now, too. Big fat tears. She swipes them away, and then more come. “Oh, God. You can?”
“Just a tiny bit, but yes. I can.”
“Oh, man,” she continues crying, and hugs me again.
I hold onto her tight.
And I send up a prayer. A prayer of gratitude.
I can hear.
~*~*~*~
MALAKAI
ONE WEEK LATER
“Look into it, harder,” I growl at Koda, running my fingers through my hair. Frustration bubbles in my chest. I might have gotten rid of one problem, but I feel like I just gained another.
Only this one is worse. Much worse.
“Fuckin’ tryin’, Prez. Unless Charlie Andrews ain’t her real name, which is likely, I can’t find fuck all on her. Fuckin’ nothing.”
“Could it have been buried?” I ask him.
“Very fuckin’ likely. If she’s got somethin’ to hide, she may have changed her name for protection. Whatever it is, Treyton managed to figure it out, so I will, too.”
I grunt, and cross my arms. “Charlie has secrets. Big ones. Dark ones. And I want to know what they are. If they could endanger my club, I need to know.”
“Feel you, Prez, but strugglin’ to find anything. Never been so hard getting information on a person before. She’s well hidden.”
“Well, see what you can find. Need to protect this club, now more than ever. We had our suspicions Treyton wasn’t working alone, and was workin’ for someone higher. Startin’ to see that’s the truth, and a dangerous truth. He wasn’t afraid to die. Wasn’t scared at all. Whoever he’s workin’ for, is deadly.”
“You’re tellin’ me,” Koda mutters, exhaling. “I’ll keep digging. I will find out how Charlie is connected. How’s Amalie?”
“Came home yesterday. She’s doin’ okay. Recovering slowly. Not happy about bein’ stuck inside.”
“Poor girl, at least she’s safe, yeah?”
“Yeah, for now. You seen Charlie?”
He shakes his head. “No, but heard she’s doin’ okay, still in hospital, think she gets out tomorrow.”
“When she’s good, we’ll ask her some questions.”
Koda nods. “Yeah. I’ll keep diggin’.”
“We gotta find out who is behind all of this, Treyton gone is one less burden, but there’s someone else out there waitin’ to strike, linin’ all this up, and I don’t have a good feelin’ about it.”
“No,” Koda mutters. “Neither.”
“Gotta get home for a bit, let me know when you find anything.”
He nods, and I walk out of the club and towards my bike. Amalie is at home, Scarlett with her, but the idea of them being there, still makes me uneasy. Even if I have three fuckin’ men watchin’ my house. I kick my bike into action and ride home, parking outside of my front door and throwing my leg over, walking inside.
I can hear music the moment I step in, two soft, angelic voices singing. Fuckin’ sweetest sound I’ve ever heard in my damn life. I follow it down the hall and to the living area where Scarlett and Amalie are both singing softly. Scarlett is playing the guitar, Amalie just singing along. I stop and watch them for a moment, loving the way Amalie closes her eyes when she sings, still not trusting her own voice. Scarlett plays the guitar as if it was born in her arms, and when she notices me, she smiles and stops playing.
Amalie’s eyes pop open.
She’s still beat up bad, but she’s getting better every day.
Nothing could take away from the utter perfection that she is.
Nothing.
“You girls sound fuckin’ amazing.”
Amalie smiles. “We were just practicing for the concerts next month, making sure the sound is right.”
“Not too sure about this concert business,” I mutter.
Amalie grins. “It’s what we do, Malakai. Nothing is going to stop that.”
“You nearly copped a bullet,” I point to Scarlett, then my finger moves to Amalie, “And you got taken by a fuckin’ psycho. Last concert didn’t end well for anyone.”