Chapter 20
Amelia
I smile as I stare at myself in the mirror. Rueben bought me a short, flowery dress that is the color of summer. It's yellow with some white flowers printed on it.
My wave of red hair is in a messy ponytail with two braids at the front. I slide the red bracelet he bought with the dress on and smile.
“I know you’ll look beautiful in this… Not that you need any help in that department.”
A blush reddens my cheek, almost matching my hair. His eyes had held so much intensity as he laid the clothes out on the bed.
It meant the world to me. Not only were they showering me with gifts and treating me with so much adoration, but this gift also meant something else. I would be going out with him.
I do a happy dance in front of the mirror. Although the guys were still skeptical about letting me out because the Flames of Hell gang was still looking for me, it was wonderful to see how much they considered my feelings in this matter.
My cheeks color once again. I’ve never had anyone care for me the way that these guys do. I wrap my hands around myself with a bright smile on my face as warmth travels to my core.
Having outing privileges is not something I ever believed I would need to consider, but now, it’s a privilege I’ll never take for granted again.
“Are you ready, Amelia?” Rueben’s deep voice sounds, pulling me from my state of appreciation.
His shadow darkens the hallway before I see him, and I smile at the sight of him from the mirror. He really is such a handsome man.
Much like the tattoos that cover his skin, he’s dressed in a black shirt, pants, and leather jacket.
He steps into the room and holds out his hand to me. I instantly go to him. My heart flutters, having him near me like this.
He pushes my braids behind my ears and searches my face. “You’re more beautiful than I imagined you would be.”
I melt into him as his lips press against mine in a sweet kiss. A moan escapes me as he sweeps my bottom lip with his tongue, seeking permission which I grant.
Rueben groans and pulls his lips from mine. I look up at him, baffled as he groans once again.
“We need to go now, otherwise there’ll be no outing for you today.”
His eyes darken as he pulls away from me completely, but I shake my head.
“Perhaps I won’t mind right now,” I murmur as heat spreads down to my core. I throb as he stares at me with those eyes that are filled with the promise of what he’ll do to me if I let him. I want to let him.
“Don’t tempt me, baby girl. I know you’ve been excited to go out,” he scolds.
I grin, grateful that he’s willing to put his needs aside just so he can grant me mine.
“Here, I brought you this,” he says, handing me the blonde wig I’d completely forgotten about and a pair of sunglasses.
I sigh as I take it from him and tuck my hair underneath a wig cap before sliding the wig on.
I slip on the sunglasses and my cropped leather jacket before taking his hands and following him out the door.
“Have fun,” Josiah calls out, chomping down a bowl of cereal.
I smile and wave until the door closes and I can no longer see him. He’s taken me on several dates recently, although they try not to get too comfortable with the patterns we have developed.
“I feel like I’m undercover every time I wear a wig and glasses,” I say, grinning up at Rueben.
He chuckles. “I’m beginning to think this is part of the fun for you.”
I shrug, giggling. It’s fun to have people who want to have fun and hang out with me. It’s fun to not have to be alone all the time, but even more fun is the fact that they are people who care about me, much like I care about them.
Seeing the fun side of a disguise that has been thrust upon me as a means of keeping me hidden in plain sight is something I choose to do in order to not take away from the happiness I feel.
Rueben fixes a helmet on my head and I climb onto the bike behind him, wrapping my hands tightly around him. The feel of the wind on my legs as he rides is exciting. I’ve never been one for bikes, but I feel safe with him.
“You said you wanted to see where I work,” he says when the bike rolls to a stop.
I nod excitedly, and he smiles.
“Well, we’re here. I work at this tattoo parlor. Maybe Josiah and Tanner can show you their own workplaces sometime.”
I beam at him. “I would like that.”
“Good.”
He takes my hand in his and leads me inside the tattoo shop. There are some men dressed in overalls and showing off tattoo-covered skin, although none of them are anything close to Rueben.
They pause to stare as he walks in, his hands still wrapped around mine.
“Morning, boss,” they greet him collectively.
“Morning.” He pulls me closer to him and smiles before turning to them, wearing a serious expression.
“Hello,” I say with a short wave.
They stare curiously at me for a moment, looking between Rueben and me before smiling in my direction.
“Hello, lady,” they greet.
“Today sure is a wonderful day,” says a man who appears to be in his thirties, with short brown hair and a nose that takes over a huge chunk of his face.
“How so?” another guy asks him.
“Well, boss Rueben has never brought someone here before. We must be in the presence of an angel.” He grins.
I giggle softly as Rueben leads me over to a sort of office, where there’s a desk but also an open wall to the rest of the shop. He pulls me into his lap so that I’m straddling him, facing away from the men, who whistle and laugh among themselves.
“All right. That’s enough fun out of you all. Get back to work,” Rueben says.
The men go back to what they were doing. They don’t seem to have customers, but they are tattooing each other.
“Sorry about them. They can be quite a handful sometimes. I hope they didn’t embarrass you.”
I smile at his care. “No, they didn’t. If anything, I’m glad that they mentioned that you never bring any women here.”
My face burns bright as he laughs and kisses me square on the lips, right in the presence of the gang.
“Getting possessive, are we?” he asks. “Good. You never need to worry about whether or not there is someone else with me, or the others for that matter.”
Rueben kisses me once again and I melt into him, kissing him with as much passion as he gives me. He pulls me closer to him until I’m pressed against him.
Remember there are people around you, Amelia.
I struggle to keep from grinding against him as heat pools at my core. I want to feel him inside of me. I groan and he laughs.
“Don’t worry, love. We’ll be home soon enough, and you can have me however you want.”
My lips part to speak, but I stop and frown when he tenses. I try to pull away from him to see what could have caused it, but his hand on the back of my head stops me. The shop also quietens significantly.
“I see you are here. Good,” a raspy voice says.
“Jared. I don’t think the second in command of a gang should be making it a habit to walk into another gang’s shop, don’t you think?” Rueben asks.
I quickly realize that this is a hostile conversation and I lean into Rueben, trying to seem natural.
“Don’t give me attitude, Rueben! I told you all about the Burke girl, so why the hell aren’t you doing anything to find her? You sit here entertaining whores as if it doesn’t concern you, while others are out doing what you should be doing,” the strange man spits venomously.
Whores? Does he think I’m a whore?
Rueben’s hands tighten around me, and his voice is hard and steely when he speaks. “She has nothing to do with any of this. State your business and leave her out of it.”
“What the fuck?” the man called Jared splutters and laughs. “I can’t believe this. That’s what you got out of that? It seems you would like us to remind you of the power Flames of Hell has. Would you like to join William Burke?”
I bite my lip to refrain from gasping, although my eyes sting from the effort it takes and having to hear my father’s name on the lips of such a person.
It’s him…he’s one of the people responsible for Dad’s death.
Everything in me urges me to look at him and see the face of the man who needs to pay for what they did to my father, but Rueben’s arms around me holding me tight remind me of why that is a terrible idea.
He seems to hate what the man said too. His voice is low when he says, “Are you threatening me now? You did not involve us when you discovered her, so I figured you had it covered when it came to looking for her too.”
Jared scoffs. “Oh…so you’re being petty.”
Rueben shrugs.
Jared slams a hand on the table. “Enough!”
I can’t help but jump slightly. Rueben soothes me. “Watch my table, Jared… You break it, you buy it,” he quips.
“You don’t get to play around on the sidelines anymore, Rueben. You were involved in the deal, so you better be actively searching for the Burke girl if you intend to continue our peaceful relations.” The threat is clear in Jared’s voice. “I expect you will bring her to us if you find her.”
“Simmer down, Jared,” Rueben says in an almost bored tone. “Has my gang ever failed at any task you asked of us?”
Jared is quiet, but I can tell that he considers Rueben’s statement a fact.
“We’re working on something…trust me. Our plan is in motion.”
There is something in the way Rueben just responded that does not sit well with me.
“It better be,” Jared says, and I hear him start to leave.
My body shakes in my hands, and Rueben holds me close until I no longer hear Jared’s retreating footsteps.
What the fuck is going on?
Anger, fear, and doubt fill my insides. They had played voice recordings from my dad when I woke up, and after days of taking care of me without once trying to harm me, I had begun to trust them.
But are they trying to deceive me to win my trust?
They had been so eager to show me that they are on my side, but what if they aren’t? What if they are just like the others, and are only doing this to find out what I know before they dispose of me?
Rueben's hand on my back stops me from lifting my head up now that Jared is gone. I want to see his face and read from his eyes that I was not wrong to have trusted him or the others.
What if I hate what I find? What if I find that I have been blinded by lust all along?
“Do you want to leave?” he asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I nod, unable to speak just yet.
“I’m sorry he mentioned your father in such a manner,” he says in a soft voice.
I nod once more and heave a deep sigh. I raise my hand and stare at it as shakes. I’m unable to get it under control.
“Be calm, Amelia. I won’t let anything happen to you,” he whispers soothingly. For my ears only.
My eyes water despite myself.
But what if you’re the one who’s out to betray me?
A part of me is confused. How much about them do I really know? What guarantee do I have that everything they have told me is the truth, and that they’re not trying to use me?
“But what about you? Who’s going to make sure that nothing happens to you, Josiah, and Tanner? I can't lose you guys too.”
I’m unable to hide the pain and fear from my voice. The other part of me is plagued by the what-if. What if he’s telling the truth and they’re only after my safety?
Then that would mean that their lives are in danger, and they could get hurt from protecting me the way that they are.
He sighs and kisses the top of my head, tightening his hands around me.
“You don’t have to worry. We can take care of ourselves. Nothing will happen to us,” he assures me before getting to his feet with me in his arms.
My legs wrap around his waist, and I no longer care about the gang members watching us. Their eyes are on us, although they try not to make it obvious.
They return to their work, but the tension in the air and in their bodies is very visible. Their boss has just been threatened in front of them, and the offender was allowed to walk away.
I slide down his body, and he holds me close until I’m steady on my feet, taking my hand in his and leading me back out to where his bike is parked.
There are so many questions running through my mind that I wish to ask, and yet, I can't think of the right way to phrase them without breaking something between us.
I slip on my helmet and climb on the bike behind him. My hand wraps around him and we peel out of the parking lot, but this time, everything is different.
He’s worried about me, or at least worried that I will find out the truth. His head constantly turns to the mirror, and I can feel his stare despite being unable to see his face under the helmet.
We arrive home and he shuts off the bike. He stays silent for a moment, neither getting down from the bike nor speaking to me. I frown.
“Rueben?”
The question in my voice pulls him away from whatever thoughts plague him, and he sighs. He takes off his helmet, revealing a look of apprehension in his gaze.
It’s one of the few times those dark pools have held emotions.
“I’m sorry for everything that has happened to you, Amelia. I can’t help but think that we played a role in it.”
His words fill me with more doubt, and I’m even more confused by everything. What do I believe? How do I get to the bottom of this without creating enemies for myself?
Our relationships have changed over the past few weeks, and the last thing I want to do is lose that if I can avoid it, especially if it turns out I was right to have trusted them all along.
“Let’s go in.”
“What’s going on? You were parked outside for a long time,” Josiah says the moment we walk in.
The look on my face is enough to confirm his suspicion that something happened.
“Are you okay, Amelia?”
He rushes over to me and looks me over, concern in his gaze.
“Jared visited the bike shop again. He didn’t know she was there, but he wanted us to find her and threatened we would end up like…” Rueben clears his throat, although the words he’s spoken are enough for Josiah to know exactly what he means.
I jump at the loud sound that suddenly fills the quiet room just as Tanner comes in.
“What the fuck, Josiah?”
He looks at Josiah’s fist, which has disappeared into the wall, then at the rest of us.
“What the fuck have I just walked into?”
“I’m going to kill that son of a bitch with my bare hands, just you wait,” Josiah threatens.
His eyes are filled with hate, and he looks like he’s ready to murder someone. After everything I’ve found out about him, I don’t doubt that he’s capable of doing that.
A distressed sound escapes me. None of what I’ve heard or seen makes it seem like they are against me, and yet, I can't know for certain.
“Will someone just tell me what has happened and who Josiah is trying to kill?” Tanner asks.
Josiah fills him in on what has happened, and he turns to me with an incredulous expression before turning to Rueben.
“What are we going to do about all of this? We can't hide her forever.”
Rueben nods, scratching his chin. “You’re right. We can’t. We need to find a way to put an end to this once and for all so that she can go on and live her life without any restrictions.”
Their actions anger me. “You’re speaking about me as if I’m not here.”
My words end in a whimper, and instead of responding to the anger that’s spilled into my words, the guys’ faces take up sad and concerned expressions.
“Amelia.” Rueben comes up to me and takes my hands. He rubs them gently, soothing away the tension in my folded fists until I release them in his palms.
“Today didn’t turn out like you wished it would, did it?” he smiles sadly. “I’m sorry. What was supposed to be a fun day turned out to be a terrible one for you.”
My lips wobble at his words, but I hold back my tears. I’ve tried so hard not to think about how I was betrayed and how my father had experienced the same, but it’s almost impossible not to.
I don't know what I would do if it turned out that they were betraying me as well. He pulls me forward until I’m pressed against him and lifts me up, carrying me to the sofa, where the guys surround me.
Tanner sits at the end, his eyes boring into mine, although he remains silent and allows the others to take care of me.
Josiah’s expression is serious as he pulls off my wig and jacket. I can’t tell what he’s thinking, and I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.
A chilling realization hits me as I sit there, surrounded by the men who have come to mean so much to me in such a short span of weeks, and yet, they were men who could well be toying with my emotions and could break me.
I’m falling for them. For all of them.