I close the distance between the two of us and put my arms around her. “Sweetness, you can wear whatever shirt or hoodie you want to wear whenever. I like seeing you in them. Means a lot.”
“Thank you,” she utters mutely.
“You don’t have to thank me, Amaya,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Finish getting ready and we’ll head out,” I tell her as I drop my arms and step back.
Time to find out what’s going on and if my woman can help, then I’ll stand guard to make sure she’s safe while doing what she does best. I’ve seen the stuff she can do. So have my brothers. We all thought Harlow, Vi, and Raven were all badass bitches, which they are on their own level. Whereas Amaya is on her own level. One that is just as dangerous if not more so with the way she can get through barriers which shouldn’t be penetrated.
Getting to the clubhouse, Lincoln immediately goes straight to where Luca, Sebastian, and James are, at the little kid’s table. Seems he’s grown attached to them. They’re all around the same age, the other three being a little older than him, my kid doesn’t seem to mind.
Glancing around the room, I nod to Rachel and Victoria who are sitting at a nearby table drinking coffee and talking quietly to themselves. “Do you mind watching him for just a bit?” I ask.
“Of course not, he’s fine. Go do what you need to,” Rachel says, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture.
Nodding, I head in the direction of Nerd’s room. I knew he and Cara were staying here last night due to the party and whatnot. On the way to his room, I spot Stoney coming out of the kitchen with his and Rachel’s youngest in one arm, while he held his coffee in the other. Corinne, their daughter, right next to him. I give him a chin lift and keep going with my arm wrapped around Amaya.
At Nerd’s door, I knock on it and wait for him to open it. He opens in his boxers looking pissed at the world. “What?” he mutters.
“Sorry, brother, not trying to interrupt.” I grin. “But Amaya needs her laptop,” I state.
“Hold on, I’ll get it,” he grumbles and leaves the door cracked. A minute later he’s back holding it out to him. “Anything you need me for right now?”
“No,” Amaya murmurs shyly.
“Go finish spending time with your ol’ lady,” I chuckle and turn Amaya back down the hall. “Can you do this in the main room while I get you some breakfast or do you need to go to my room?” I ask, wanting her to be focused.
“Main room is fine,” she says, nodding her head.
“Alright.” I guide her into the main room and to the table Whip is already seated at, with a few others who’d come out of their rooms. Soon as she’s seated, I kiss the top of her head and leave her. I check on Lincoln and make sure he’s good then head into the kitchen and get Amaya a plate of food I know she’ll eat as well as my own.
Carrying the two plates, I head back to the table. My eyes focused on Amaya, I watch her do her thing as her fingers fly across the keyboard and her gaze is locked on the screen. I put the plate down next to her laptop and without missing a beat, she reaches out, picks up a grape, and plucks it into her mouth.
I take my seat and talk with the others quietly while she works. Thirty minutes later, she lifts her gaze and looks at me.
“Um, you’re not going to like this and I . . . I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have missed this. I don’t know if you can forgive me,” she mutters, tears welling in her eyes.
“What is it?” I ask cautiously everyone in the room going quiet.
“Emilia, she’s the one behind everything. At the house, Whip said something about someone going after his sister and niece, I remembered something. Emilia had pictures hanging up in her room and I should have paid more attention. But I didn’t. Oh God. I could have stopped it,” she says, tears running down her face.
“Stopped what?” Whip demands, his voice even softer than my own. To him Amaya has become family.
“She’s the one the police are looking for in the murders of the men you used to work with,” Amaya announces. I’d told her about the two guys who were in my unit who were killed this past week when she heard Whip and I talking about it.
What?
How the fuck can she be? The woman is barely five and a half-feet tall. There’s no fuckin’ way she could do something like that.
Chapter Eighteen
Amaya
I think I’m going to throw up.
How could I not have figured this out by now?
The signs were all there like a blinking light in front of me. She had a photo in her bedroom of Isaac and his unit from a cookout we all went to. I remember being the one to take a picture of them all. Next to Isaac had been Emilia and the other women were cuddled into their men as well. One of them had a beautiful little girl in his arms.
Emilia would make a big hype about how she would get Isaac back and the two of them would be happy. That they would be a family. I even wrote about it in the letters to him. About how she wanted him to come back and that she’d do whatever it took.
So why this?
Why kill men who were close to Isaac?
I didn’t want to believe it myself until I saw the security footage from the security feed of one of the bars one of the men was seen at. The footage is grainy in both systems, goes to show you how much they care about the
