Southern Secrets by Natasha Madison
Chapter 13
Asher
"Do you want another beer?"I ask Ethan while I wipe down the bar in front of him. He shakes his head. I walk down the bar, ignoring the need to look up and find Amelia. The bar is slowly starting to get less crowded, and I look up and see that it’s almost one o’clock. The band finished their last song thirty minutes ago, and it’s just a playlist that plays. The dance floor is still semi full.
"Can we have more shots, Cowboy?" the group of girls yells from the other end of the bar, and I look at the ceiling and count to ten. I turn to walk toward them when Reed comes behind the bar to grab the dirty glasses.
"Shots, shots, shots," one of the girls says, laughing at herself, putting her hands in the air and dancing.
"If they vomit," Reed says, grabbing the bin, then looking at me, "I’m not cleaning it."
"That is what you are paid to do, little brother,” Quinn tells him, and he glares at him. "Hey, you think we never cleaned up vomit?"
"Not me," Chelsea says, grabbing her bottle of beer and taking a pull of it. "I was the one doing the vomiting most of the time." I laugh, and Mayson shakes his head, and she looks over at him. "Better or worse." She leans into him, and he kisses her lips.
Reed looks at me and then the girls. "Ladies." They all look at him. "Why don’t you go dance, and I'll fill up the shot glasses, on the house?” he says, giving them a smile.
"Really?" the blonde says, and I look over at Ethan, who just shares a look with me.
"You betcha," he says. "Six shots will be waiting here for you guys, on the house." He winks at them, and they giggle and take off to the dance floor.
Reed turns to me with a smug look on his face. "Now you can fill up six shot glasses with water," Reed says. "They won’t even notice."
He grabs the bin and walks out of the bar area toward the back. "I bet you twenty bucks they notice," Willow says, looking at Quinn. I grab the six shot glasses and fill them with water as the rest place bets and then leave them in front of their seats.
"Here they come," Willow says, and the six of them just sit at the bar watching the girls as
they come back, swinging their hips, stumbling, and laughing. They each grab a glass and raise it up. "To the cool cowboy," one of them says, and they take the shot.
"Smooth," one of them says.
"I’ve had this before," another one says while she looks into the empty glass.
One of them looks up at me. "What was in this? It was good."
I try not to laugh at them. "It was a secret drink only he knows," I tell them, and they turn around, going back to the dance floor.
"You owe me twenty bucks," Quinn says to Willow, "but I can be persuaded to take other forms of payment."
"You’re gross," Chelsea says. "We are right here." Ethan laughs at them bickering.
"Where is Amelia?" I finally say, looking around the bar and not spotting her.
"Probably in the bathroom," Chelsea says.
I look over the heads of people, trying to spot her. The crowd has thinned out even more than before. "I’m going to check around," I tell Ethan, and he nods, coming behind the bar. I walk toward the sports room and open it to see it’s almost empty.
"Hey, Dolly,” I call her name, and she looks up from cleaning the bar. "Have you seen Amelia?"
"No." She shakes her head. "I’ve been slammed all night, so I haven’t seen anything." I nod at her and turn to walk out of the room, going to the pool table area and seeing that only one game is going on and there are six people there.
"Hey," Christopher says, looking at me while he walks around the area, picking up all the empty beer bottles that have been left. "What’s up?"
"Have you seen Amelia?" I ask, looking around toward the bar to see if she got back.
"Not in a while," he answers, placing the bottles in the bin with the sound of clinking.
"If you see her, tell her I’m looking for her." I walk toward the dance floor, looking through the crowd. Maybe she got sucked onto the dance floor, and I didn’t see her. The burning in my stomach starts, and my heart beats faster as the time goes on and I still can’t find her.
Making my way past where the band is loading up their stuff, I look in the back room but don’t see anyone there. I even go to the office. The soft light on the desk is on, but it’s empty.
Making my way back to the bar, Ethan looks up at me while he wipes down the bar. "Did you find her?"
"No," I say, shaking my head.
"I’ll go and check the bathroom," Chelsea says, pushing off from the bar and walking to the back.
I spot Reed coming back and picking up the empty beer bottles left on the tables. "Reed!" I shout his name, and he walks over to us. "Have you seen Amelia?"
"Yeah, she was going out back to take out the trash," he says, and I look over at Ethan, who has stopped cleaning at this point.
Mayson stands up and so does Quinn. "She isn’t back there," Chelsea says, and the four of us all move at the same pace.
I push out of the door first, and I’m shocked at how dark it is. "Where are the lights?" Ethan asks, and we look up to see the two spotlights are out.
"They were working last week. I checked them when I changed the ones in the front," I say.
The sound of truck doors close in the distance as people are leaving. "I’m going to go and check the garbage," Ethan says. "You go and check to see if she is in the front. Maybe she’s talking to someone."
I nod at him as I turn to walk toward the end of the building, jogging a bit, and all I see when I turn the corner of the building is people walking to their cars. The sound of rocks crunching and women laughing fill the air.
"I found her!" Ethan yells, and I can tell from the sound of his voice that something is wrong. "Call nine-one-one." Quinn has his phone out already.
My breathing starts to come in pants as I run back to Ethan as he squats next to her. She lies there not moving with the garbage bag beside her. "I need light!” I shout, my hands shaking as I look at her lying there in the dark. The fact that I don’t know what is wrong with her makes my whole body go cold. "Mayson!" I yell his name, and he comes over. "Block off this whole area," I start to tell him. "No one comes here except the ambulance." I look back down at Amelia, scared to touch her in case she is cold. "Quinn," I call his name, and he looks at me. "Make sure no one leaves the fucking bar until we get statements from everyone." I grab my phone out of my pocket and open the flashlight. "Did you check to see if she’s …?"
"I checked her pulse," Ethan says, and Chelsea comes running out.
"What happened to her?" she asks frantically. "Don’t move her." She grabs my phone out of my hands, and I feel helpless, but I know Chelsea can help. She moves the phone to her head. "No blood," she says with a sigh of relief. "That’s a good thing." My hand comes out to grab hers, and I feel the heat.
"Did she fall?" I ask, looking around. The sound of rocks crunching comes closer and closer.
"Guess my dad is here," Ethan says. I hear two doors shut, and I know he didn’t come by himself.
"Amelia," Jacob says, followed by Kallie. "What happened?" Ethan moves over as Kallie comes to squat next to him. Her hand comes out to grab Amelia.
"We don’t know," I answer before Ethan. "We found her out here. She was lying there unconscious." I’m about to continue talking when we hear Amelia groan.
Everyone stops talking and moving as we look at her. She moves her head side to side, and her eyes slowly flutter open. Kallie sobs out in relief, and all I can do is squeeze her hand tighter. "Hey," Chelsea says, leaning in to look at Amelia. Amelia moans out and tries to sit up, but Chelsea puts her hand on her shoulder. "Don’t move until the medics get here."
"They are three minutes out," Jacob says, and Amelia turns her head to look at her father.
"What are you doing here?" she asks him.
"Someone get her water!" I shout, and Willow nods her head at me and turns to run back into the bar. "What do you remember?" I ask, and she looks at me. What feels like an electric shock runs through me.
"I was coming out to bring the garbage," she says. "Then I felt burning in my head." She moves. "I want to sit up."
"You shouldn’t move until the medics get here," Chelsea says, but Amelia, with her stubbornness, ignores her and sits up.
She slips her hand out of mine as she touches the back of her head. She winces. "There is a bump."
"Were you outside by yourself?" I ask, and she looks at me. "I don’t really know." She shakes her head, and the sound of the ambulance comes closer and closer.
"Isn’t it too dark to assess her here?" I look at Jacob. "Maybe we can get a couple of the cars moved and turn on our headlights.”
"I’ll go and move mine," Quinn says.
Willow comes running out with a cold water bottle in her hand. "Here," she says, handing me the bottle.
"Can you move my truck to the side and aim the headlights this way?" I ask her, and she nods her head. Emily runs with her to move their car also. Chelsea gets up, making room for the medics coming with bags in their hands.
"Sorry," one of the medics says, and I get up, giving him room. I walk over to stand next to Jacob, the lights from the cars giving us some light.
"What do we have here?" the medic asks Amelia.
"I don’t know," Amelia answers honestly. Her voice is soft. "I was taking out the garbage, and the next thing you know, I’m waking up with everyone around me."
"Did you fall?" he asks, taking out gloves to put on.
"I don’t think so." She shakes her head. "I don’t …" She closes her eyes, and I rush to her as she almost falls back.
"I got you," I say softly to her.
"Maybe you lost your footing?" Kallie says, and I look to see that Jacob has her in his arms.
"I felt," she says, "something behind me." My blood runs cold as ice. "When I went to turn around, that is when I felt the burning, and everything went black."
