Page 13 of The First Chord

“She’ll be okay,” Elliot said. “Amelie seems like a good girl. She’ll take care of her.”

“Doesn’t make it any easier,” I muttered. “What the fuck am I bothered for anyway? She has a damn husband.”

“Like he cares,” Beau said through gritted teeth. “He’s a twat.”

“Just tell me if it looks like she’s had too much.” I rolled my eyes. “Well, more than she’s had now.”

Beau nodded and took a swig of beer from his bottle. “What’s new with my sister?” he asked Elliot once he’d swallowed the liquid.

Elliot grinned. “She’s good. We’ve got the gender scan next week during our week off.”

“You’re flying back home?” I asked, although not surprised. Beau had been the one to initially insist on regular time off so he could go home to Simone and Ethan. After getting with Belle, Elliot had been fully on board as well.

“Aren’t you?” Beau asked.

I hadn’t thought about it. Our next destination was Paris and I’d had the idea about flying over there for a few days, but…

“Are you wating to find out what a certain person is doing?” Elliot raised his eyebrow, making it clear he thought I was a fool if that was the case.

“No. I just don’t know what I want to do. Anyway, what are you hoping to have, boy or girl?”

Beau grunted and Elliot laughed at him with a shake of the head. “We don’t care.” He cleared his throat and moved closer, bringing our circle smaller. “There’s something else, though.”

“What?” Beau’s brow furrowed. “Are Belle and the baby okay?”

“Yeah, they’re perfectly fine. It’s about Richard Gregory.”

I almost dropped my bottle at the sound of our ex-record company boss’s name. He was one vile human being. He raped Simone, years before we knew her, and had been the man who also raped Elliot’s ex. Not to mention that he’d done things to Elliot after drugging him.

“What about that vile piece of shit?” Beau spat out. “Please tell me that he’s died a horrible death in prison.”

“Sorry, can’t do that, but he has had time added for what he did to Katie.”

“And what about you? Are they charging him for that?”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, nothing has changed there. We have no real evidence. I’m just glad Katie got a result. She’s been through shit dealing with it.” He shrugged. “It’s not like I ever knew what he’d done.”

“But when you did.” I ran a hand through my hair. It caused a pain in my chest knowing what had happened to him and what he’d had to deal with. He’d even felt the need to leave for a little while and get help.

“My life is good.” He patted me on the shoulder. “Honestly, Ron, I’m good.”

Rubbing at my sternum, I nodded. “Okay,” I managed to say before taking a fortifying drink of beer. “And you’re sure?”

“Yes, mate, I’m sure.”

“Oh shit,” Beau groaned. “I think you need to see this, Ron.”

I quickly turned around and my heart jumped in my chest. Jimmy was groping the skinny woman’s tits while Amber watched on, her mouth open in shock.

“Fucking cunt.”

“Ron, no!”

It was too late. I was over there and had Jimmy pulled off the woman and punched before either Elliot or Beau could reach me. As Amber’s husband lay on the floor holding his nose, which was spurting blood, a flash went off and I knew I’d have some serious explaining to do because I was about to be tomorrow’s news.

CHAPTER8

AMBER

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