"So what's wrong with your President?" Kali asked as we sat around the bar. Smiles and Key were behind it working. I looked around at everyone's faces, curious as well. Ever since we got here I could tell that somehow he was hurting, and he was hurting for a reason.

Ricky sighed, but didn't seem surprised by the question.

"His former old lady was Lilly's mother. Before Lilly was born she would've had an older sister, named Adeline but," he paused. "Adeline died from cancer when she was several years old. After that, neither of them were the same. Alpha took on double the work load and Bethany turned to drinking. Bethany left over eighteen years ago, and what we didn't know at the time was that she was pregnant with Lilly," Spider explained as he nodded at Lilly.

"I didn't know who my father was," Lilly mumbled, barely loud enough for us all to hear her. "Bethany wasn't always cruel. But I guess when I got to the age that Adeline died something in her snapped. I guess she didn't like the fact that I got to live longer than Adeline, and for some reason she blamed me. She became super abusive," Lilly gave us a sad smile. "I ran away, and by some miracle I ended up in here running away from the snow. My dad took me in without even knowing me at first because he could see that I needed help. We found out that he was my father when we realized who my mother had been to him. We even took a DNA test to make sure. Everything was going fine until she showed up here looking for me, then shit really hit the fan," she explained.

Kali and I glanced at each other. "Is that what you're healing from?" I asked. I could still see marks on her body that were still healing into nasty scars, hinting that she was cut deeply into.

Lilly smiled sadly. The pain in her eyes was different then the one in her fathers, but I could see that they both were suffering from this in their own ways. "She got one of Dad's rivals involved. He was able to get someone to betray the club and take me. I was tortured, that's why I'm healing," she told us quietly. We could see the pain in her eyes when talking about it and knew then to not question it further.

"He kinda spiraled after that. He blames himself even when we tell him not to, on top of the fact that he still isn't over not only someone betraying his club, but the fact that someone he used to love betrayed him too," Smiles said quietly. "Everyday I hand him at least five full glasses of whiskey. It's as if he's trying to forget but is just causing a hole in his heart by doing so."

"Has he talked to any of you about it?" Kali asked hesitantly.

Everyone shook their heads. They all were frowning.

"The only reason that we know is because he's like an open book when he chooses to show emotion. It's probably because he's built up those emotions for so long to where they just come pouring out whenever he has a moment of vulnerability," Miranda explained.

"Having a moment of vulnerability doesn't mean you're weak. It means that you've been dealt too much that you can handle at once," I whispered loud enough for them to hear me.

I cleared my throat after a moment of silence. "I'm going to go to bed," I said as I stood up from the bar.

Kali stood up too and hugged me. "If you need me just scream," she whispered in my ear. I chucked.

"Sure thing."

Laying in bed later that night, I couldn't stop thinking about what Lilly had said.

Knowing that she had been tortured made me see her in a whole new way. After knowing that information, she was the strongest girl I had ever met before. To have her mother help someone torture her had to have taken a big hit on her mentality, it was no wonder why Alpha is reacting the way he was.

Sighing, I turned over onto my side and fell asleep.

______________________

I woke up the next morning to someone pounding on my door.

"Yo Scarlett! Get your ass up already!" Kali was screaming.

"I'm up!" I yelled back, slightly annoyed. However that annoyance evaporated when I saw that it was almost noon. I never slept in that long.

Quickly, I got up out of bed and went into the bathroom to shower. When I was done I got dressed and went upstairs into the main area. Kali, Lilly, Miranda and Jessie were all already at the bar eating.

"Oh well look who decided to finally get up," Kali chuckled. I rolled my eyes and flipped her off, thanking one of the old ladies as she placed a plate of food down in front of me. Looking around, I noticed that very few guys were around.

"Where are all of the guys?" I asked.

Miranda rolled her eyes. "They all went down to the police station nearby to see if they would be willing to give up any information on your ex. Originally only a few of them were going to go, but since a lot of the guys are still very mad about what happened to you, a lot of them decided to go with as well," she explained. I nodded slowly and started eating.

"When will they be back?"

"Who knows," Jessie yawned. "Sometimes those boys are only gone for a half an hour and sometimes they're gone for the whole day. It depends on how stubborn whoever they're trying to get information from is."

"They're going to kill him when he shows up here aren't they?" I asked.

Miranda, Jessie and Lilly all looked at each other before making eye contact with me.

"Do you not want him dead? Even after what he did to you?" Jessie asked slowly, as if she were afraid of offending me.

I shook my head. "It's not that, I really don't care if he survives. But won't they get in trouble for killing him? I don't want anyone going to jail because of me," I explained. I didn't want someone to spend time in jail and have a grudge against me.

Miranda laughed. "Honey, these boys have more contacts within the FBI that I can't even count. And even if they did somehow get arrested, the club has plenty of money to bail them out."

"But wouldn't they be mad at me?"

"Now why would they be mad?" Jessie asked.

"They would go to jail cause they're protecting me. Wouldn't they hold a grudge against me for that?" I asked, voicing my earlier concerns.

Lilly shook her head. "I haven't been around here for years like these two have, but I know these men. They're willing to lay their lives on the line in order to protect those that they care about. Even if they went to jail they would probably be bragging about the fact that they were the one who got to kill him instead of someone else," she explained. Miranda and Jessie nodded, agreeing with her statement.

Kali patted me on the back gently. "Don't worry. I know that we're safe here, and I know you do too. So quit stressing and enjoy the free time while you have it." I rolled my eyes but nodded along.

____________________

The guys walked back into the main area a few hours later. Almost all of them were sporting grins, all of them except Alpha, Ricky, Ace, Key, Smiles and Ripper.

Even though others were grinning, those six had tenser shoulders than normal, and they seemed to be more on edge.

"What happened?" Miranda asked. Ricky just looked over at her and shook his head.

"We got information," Alpha said vaguely. He sighed. "Just not the information we would've like to get." Shaking his head, he took the glass of whiskey that Smiles offered him.

As I watched the exchange, I couldn't help but think about what they had told Kali and I the night before. He was heartbroken over his past lover more than he obviously let on.

While our circumstances were no where near the same, they were still somewhat similar in a way. I fell in love, or thought that I fell in love, with a man who didn't treat me how I was worth. I was abused and those scars don't just disappear.

And in Alpha's case, he loved someone who spiraled during the mourning process. She became too depressed to cope and left him to deal with the loss by himself without notifying him about a second daughter.

In both cases, we were treated less than what we deserve. While both of the relationships started out fine, as soon as it got to a certain point hell broke loose.

I sighed and finished up my drink. The more I thought the more I started to worry about everything. Not just about the situation with Alpha, but with Adam too.

What information did they find out that was that bad? Wouldn't any information they got help?

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Key asked as he sat down beside me.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Wouldn't any information be helpful? What did y'all find out that was so bad?" I asked. The guys looked at each other before sighing.

"Meet us in the church room in five minutes girls. We gotta finish off our drinks before we say anything."

______________________

"Spill," Miranda demanded as soon as the door to the church room shut behind us. Ricky motioned for us all to sit down as he and the other guys that came in sat down too.

Alpha cleared his throat. "When we went there, we met up with one of our connections and asked them if they could give us anything on your ex. We got information about who bailed him out, but considering who they are I don't think you're going to take to it too kindly," he explained.

"Who is it?" I asked. I could see Ricky clenching and unclenching his hands into fists repeatedly.

"We'll tell you that when I'm done explaining the rest," Alpha promised. I nodded. "After he told us we dug into a couple others that were released about a week ago that Adam had apparently been close to while he was locked up. One of them was in there on the count of assault, rape, and releasing child pornography. The other ran a pedophilia ring. Both of them were released last week within a couple days of each other, both of them bailed out. When we brought up the concern that they were all bailed out with the same purpose, our inside guy said that he would look into it and get to us about it," he finished. "Although he said that they were already planning on looking into it because they were all bailed out by the same people."

"A fucking pedophilia ring?" Jessie asked, disgusted. The guys nodded grimly. My mind was still focused on the fact that the same person had bailed out three criminals who deserved to be put away for life.

"They paid in total almost a million dollars to bail out all three of them," Alpha told us.

"Who bailed them out?" I asked again. Who could've wanted those criminals out that bad to where they would pay so much money?

Ricky shook his head and looked away, barely holding it together. His hands were still clenching together on top of the table, only Miranda's hands had been placed on top of them to try and calm him down.

"Do you want to tell her or do you want one of us to?" Smiles asked, directing his question to Ricky. His voice was soft, sympathetic.

Ricky took a deep breath and looked at me. I could see a pain building up behind his eyes that was years old. It had been a long time since I had seen him have that look and it made me incredibly uneasy, knowing that I definitely would not like the answer. I had seen that look in his eyes before, but it was one that I couldn't pinpoint as to why I have seen it.

"Who was it?" I asked again.

He looked down at the table, taking a moment to answer. However when he looked back up at me, it was then that I realized where I had seen him have that look. It was then that I knew why I had seen it before. The pain was years old, buried deep down, almost forgotten about. However, memories of that night started to flash through my mind as I begun to remember why we had been alone for so long before finding our own paths to go down.

"Our parents."