“Where should we put her?” Tyler snapped, holding the front door open for Jax. Clearly, their ride in together had not gone well.
“Kitchen?” Adam frowned. “We don’t even know what the problem is yet, or how bad it is.”
Jax didn’t wait for our discussion to continue; instead, he walked clean past us with Amber in his arms, and headed in the direction of the kitchen.
Jax was acting like she was his. I had never seen him protective of a female, but, right now, he was protective of Amber.
Biting my tongue, I followed him. Jax put his back to the door and gently swung it open. Using more force than needed, I slammed my fist against the other door to open. This only caused a shooting pain up my arm; my injuries from yesterday, still taking a toll on my body.
Adam spread out a few clean towels across the stainless steel bench and then Jax lowered Amber’s body onto them. It really bugged me, the way he was being so gentle with her; he never looked at a woman the way he kept looking at Amber.
Grabbing a pair of scissors from the counter, I shouldered Jax out of the way.I ignored his tight posture and his glare. Reaching for the hem of Amber’s top, I waited for Jax to remove the jumper he was holding to her stomach. “Move it,” I snapped at him.
Troy and Tyler stormed in; Tyler holding the case Amber had used a few weeks ago on me. When Tyler placed the case on the bench next to me, Jax finally decided to pull the jumper away. As soon as he did, blood began to spurt from her wound and stain the white towel underneath her.
Slowly, I cut the fabric up the middle and then along the base of her bra; leaving the fabric covering her chest. Dropping the scissors to my side, I slowly peeled the fabric from her body, which was now stuck to her stomach because of the blood. I peeled away the other side as well, frowning until her entire midriff was exposed. I let out a gruff of rage, and my brothers joined me.
“They’re dead!” Troy spat, bringing a fist down on the bench.“They’re FU-”
“ENOUGH!” I yelled at him. Amber was bleeding out right now; we could deal with the threats and killing later. “Get me the threads and needles.”
My eyes drifted to the large wound on Amber’s stomach. Two lines ran from each hip bone and then met in the middle of her abdomen, to make an arrow, pointing up. To most people, this wound wouldn’t have been symbolic, but to us, it immediately spelt ‘enemy’.
The mark of a warring bikie group, it was the biggest form of insult, to mark someone with this; especially when their blood and loyalty lay elsewhere. Exhaling sharply, I realized this was going to scar, and for the rest of Amber’s life, she would be marked with their sign.
“Move,” Jax hissed at me, “I’ll do it.” He reached for the needle in my hand. I turned to glare at him and narrowed my eyes.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“Cole, give me the needle. You can’t sew for shit. I’m covered with scars to prove it.” He snapped at me.
Curling my free hand into a fist, I retorted, “You never sew.”
“Yeah, because I don’t give a shit if you guys are covered in scars.”
“But you care if Amber is?” I arched an eyebrow to make my point.
“Cole, just give him the needle.” Troy snapped. “If Jax can do a better job, then let him. We don’t want to make Amber’s scar any worse than it needs to be.”
Grumbling, I handed him the needle and stepped back. I never said I was the master of sewing; it’s just that I was usually the one who got stuck with the job.
I watched as Jax took in Amber’s cold, limp body, before he exhaled sharply and began to thread the needle through her skin. Adam was on the opposite side of the bench, holding a towel on the wound and moving it down as Jax sewed.
Crossing my arms, I watched how delicately he was threading the needle through her. Jackson Johnston, the leader of Satan’s Sons, the Head MC, had a crush on my sister.
I had to suppress the growl growing inside me and clenched my fists, stopping myself from charging at him and slamming him across the kitchen, away from her. If he thought we were going to let him be with her, he had another thing coming.
We were here to get her back on track, not to hook her up with our bikies’ leader MC. I scoffed, inviting glares from Troy and Tyler. The other two were too focused on Amber to care about anything else.
I took Amber in. Sleeping with his brother was one thing, but Amber was never getting close to Jax, and he definitely was not getting in her pants, I decided. Jax is a good guy sure, and one of my closest friends. That’s why I wouldn’t stop or think twice before cutting his penis off to keep him away from my sister.
Because I knew him, and knew what he was capable of.
***
“Is he still in there?” Tyler whispered to me, as I rolled my eyes.
“Go in if you are interested,” I shot back, lighting up a cigarette outside Amber’s door. I didn’t give a toss about what dad thought about smoking in the house right now.