Southern Secrets (Southern #7) - Natasha Madison Page 0,37

everything that I’ve ever said I liked since I was a little girl," she says, and I smile.

"Nothing wrong with family loving you," I say, taking another sip, and I see her face soften just a bit.

"I didn’t mean," she says softly.

I shake my head. "You don’t have to apologize." It looks like she is going to say something else, but the front door opens.

"Incoming," Amelia says to me, holding her coffee cup in both hands.

"Good morning." I look over my shoulder and see Kallie standing there with her hands full of food. "Oh, good, you had coffee." I laugh and then look down when Amelia glares at me. "Good morning, Asher," Kallie says.

I walk over to her to help grab some things from her hands. "Here, let me help you there, Mrs. McIntyre."

"Suck-up," Amelia grumbles when I walk back with all the food in my hands. Placing the food on the island, Kallie walks over to Amelia and holds her face in her hands. "I’m fine."

"When aren’t you fine?" she asks her daughter and then turns around. "What do you want to eat?" she asks, grabbing plates out of the cupboard.

"If you guys are going to be okay," I say to them, "I’m going to go and meet up with the guys." I look at them, and Amelia just stares at me.

"You can do whatever you want," she says, her eyes going down to the food in front of her. I look over at Kallie, who smiles at me, and I see tears in her eyes. "I’ll be fine."

"Oh, we know," I say, turning and walking back to the bedroom. I slip on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. When I walk back out, Kallie is the only one there. "Where is she?"

"She went to lie down," Kallie says softly.

"I won't be long," I say, and she looks down at her hands and then looks up again.

"Asher," she says my name, and I look over to where Amelia's bedroom is. "She isn’t good with people helping her."

"Yeah, I got that pretty loud and clear," I say and she smiles and a lone tear escapes.

"She’s worth it," she says and then walks toward Amelia’s room. I want to tell her that I know she’s worth it. I want to tell her that I’m the one who isn’t worth it. All the support that this family has given me and I’m not worthy of any of it.

I grab my keys and walk out to the truck, the phone ringing in my hand. I see it’s Ethan. "Morning," I say, getting into the truck and starting it.

"We are at the clubhouse," he says.

"Be there in ten," I say and disconnect. When I get there, I see more cars than are usually there. I walk in, and the door is buzzed open right away. I look around and see that some of the guys are here.

Ethan sits at a desk with a cup of coffee in his hand, leaning back in the chair. Jacob stands with Casey beside him. "Morning," I say, walking toward them.

"Just in time," Casey says to me. "We were just going over the camera feed."

I sit on one of the desks while the screens fill with the back of the bar. "Nothing is out of sorts," Casey says, and then I see the door open and the light comes out from inside, showing Amelia walking out carrying the garbage bag.

She walks with her head down but something in the corner makes me sit up. "Stop it,” I snap out. "Go back a couple of seconds and look at the side corner." I point and Casey goes back and starts it again. You see a dark figure, but if you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn't have seen it. What caught my eye was the orange dot. "That’s a cigarette," I say and we all watch as the man steps out of his corner, flicking his cigarette. He moves behind her and lifts his hand, hitting her over the head. My hands go into fists when I see her fall. The figure stands over her, not moving. He turns and just walks away from her, his head down with a hoodie blocking his face. "We can’t see anything." I shake my head. "But.” I look up. "He left his DNA."

"I’m going to go out there and see if I can find it," Ethan says.

"He wasn’t there for ten minutes," I say. "He was camping out there, so chances are