Page 60 of Roses are Royal

“Why don’t you rest on the drive home? I’ll wake you when we get to Angelo’s.” I can tell Dante is just as exhausted as I am, maybe even more so, but my eyes are closed before I have a chance to respond as sleep pulls me under.

77

DANTE

Igently wake Rose up when we are a few blocks from Angelo’s house. Thankfully, she slept the entire drive. I pull into the alley nearby and into my designated parking space, hidden from the street.

“Rose, before we go inside, I need to know where your head is at with everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, do you want to run? We can go right now, far away. No one would ever be able to find us. We could live our lives away from all of this.” I’m holding my breath, waiting for her response, but she remains silent, looking down at her hands clasped in her lap. “Rose?”

“You’re serious, aren’t you? You would disappear with me right now if I wanted to. No questions asked?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“What is my other option?”

I let out a long breath, and my heart sinks slightly. It would be easier if she wanted to leave.

“The other option is we go inside and hear what Angelo and his men have found. But Rose, if you do that, if we do that, then those men become your men. If we go inside, there is no going back to your normal life. There is no escape from this life now that you are a part of it. And not just a part of it, you are the head of it. You will be the new head of the organization.” I’m internally cursing myself for not stealing her away weeks ago to save her from this agony. From having to make this decision.

78

ROSE

Iknow Dante is being sincere when he says he would leave with me right now. And part of me wants to say yes. Part of me wants to take the easy way out and just disappear with him, but that has never been me. I’m a fighter, a survivor, and there are too many unanswered questions to just leave and pretend this life doesn’t exist. So I know what I need to do.

“Let’s go.” Without waiting for Dante to respond, I push open the car door and step outside. I don’t need to look to see if Dante is coming with me. I know now that he will literally follow me anywhere.

Angelo is waiting for us in the foyer when we walk through the front door of his brownstone.

“Come, we have much to discuss.” He has a somber expression as he greets us. I wonder if he regrets bringing me into this situation as much as Dante does.

We are led upstairs and into a room that I assume is Angelo’s office. So this isn’t a sitting room kind of conversation, I guess. Perfect. Angelo even dismisses the bodyguards that were present by his sides the last time I was here. I get the feeling I am not going to like what he has to say.

“Please sit.” Angelo gestures to the two leather wingback chairs situated in front of a large oak desk that is littered with papers, an ashtray with an old cigar sitting in it, and an empty crystal rocks glass with a matching crystal decanter next to it, half full with an amber liquid I can only assume is amaretto. I remain silent, not sure what to say in a situation like this. Angelo is still a stranger in reality, even if he is my grandfather by blood.

“What did you find?” Dante seems comfortable here, which makes sense if Angelo has been his boss this entire time and the man who raised him.

“The intelligence team was able to recover a single USB flash drive from the area.”

“A flash drive? That wouldn’t have belonged to us. What was on it?” Dante is quick to respond for both of us, which I am thankful for.

“It was encrypted, but they were able to enter a password to gain access.” Angelo is looking only at me when he responds, and I finally find my voice.

“A password? What was the password?” Now my mind is starting to spin with all the possibilities. Like how did a jump drive even survive the fire? And how would they know the password?

“Rosey,” Angelo says.

“Yes?”

“No. The password…was Rosey.”

“What? How is that possible? What does that even mean? Where did they find it? How would they know to try Rosey? How did it survive the fire?” The questions are coming faster than I can control now, but Dante reaches a hand out and places it over mine, which is tightly gripping the arm of the chair. The leather creaks in my grasp. That small gesture calms my swirling thoughts and allows me to pause and take a breath. The gesture is not lost on Angelo, however, who clocks the small touch, but he doesn’t give away how he feels about it in his response.

“It wasn’t found at Dante’s house, but in the area near his house. And ‘Rosey’ was written on a piece of paper that the flash drive was attached to.”