AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you want me to open it?”
Rose looked up at Blake’s voice, knowing from the tight set of his mouth that he didn’t like this any more than she did. “No, it’s okay. I can do it, though I don’t know why they’re making me.”
“You can do anything,” he said, and she smiled, believing he meant every word. “Do you want to know something funny?” Blake’s voice was closer now as he walked slowly over to her as her thumb opened the edge of the envelope.
“Sure,” she said. He was trying to distract her, and she appreciated it, but there wasn’t much that would be able to mute the horror of what was happening to them both.
“When I was at the hospital trying to find out what happened to you, they didn’t want to tell me anything because I wasn’t family.”
Rose looked at him, the envelope now almost forgotten as she listened to his voice. She’d had the same thing when she was there too. The nurses had been tight-lipped about other patients but had put her in touch with her mom after confirming Rose’s identity. She’d actually messaged her mom a few times since she’d left the hospital, and she’d said her dad was resting but recovering well, which had filled her with enough relief that she’d felt faint.
“So I leaned across the counter and into the nurse,” Blake smiled slightly, and Rose wrinkled her nose, unsure she wanted to know where this was going, “and I askedcan you keep a secret?And of course, everyone wants to know the gossip. Plus, I’m not dumb. I’m recognizable. A secret from David Blake? Irresistible.” Blake smirked, and for a moment she was too caught up in his story to even think about looking at the envelope. “She said yes, of course. So I told her that it was under wraps right now because of the press, but that I very much considered my fiancée to be family. Her eyes got all wide and gooey – everybody loves to be in on a secret, you know, especially one about secret love – and she had just called your floor when you found me first.”
She was staring at him, she knew. Also knew that Jones was likely impatiently waiting on an update right now, but all she could do was carry on looking at Blake, like if she looked away he might become a mirage.
“So I suppose being my wife has some benefits after all, huh?” He grinned, and she let out a dry laugh and coughed.My wife. Crazy, ridiculous talk. She would sooner dissolve into goo than become Blake’s anything, tentative friendship or no.
She turned back to the envelope and carefully peeled it open, feeling like her head was somehow clearer after talking to Blake. It was all undone when she saw the photograph. The blood on his face, the dirt and gravel and glass that stuck into him and the unnatural cant to his neck. The hand holding the photo shook, and her other hand pressed itself to her mouth as if to hold back her gasp of horror.
She’d never understood what people meant before when they spoke about trainwrecks, how they were awful but you couldn’t look away. That was how she felt right then, like she would give anything to just close her eyes but knew the instant that she did so the image would be forever imprinted on her brain anyway so she just. kept. staring. For the first time since the crash, Rose was grateful she hadn’t been able to turn and check he was okay because of her neck pain because seeing this… would have undone her.
Blake limped his way over to her and swore once he saw what she held in her hand. “Rose, it’s okay. I’m fine. See?” His words didn’t reach her, all she could see when she looked at him was the stillness of his face in the photo superimposed over the here and now. “Rose?”
She reached a shaking hand out and cupped his jaw, trying just to breathe, to remember how to cry so that maybe she could wash that image out of her eyes.
“Princess?” he said, and she didn’t think she’d ever heard him say the nickname tenderly before, but he was now and she didn’t know what to make of that, didn’t know what to do with the way he was making her feel as he stood next to her but lay in complete devastation in the photograph gripped in her still shaking hand.
“Bastard,” she managed to say through lips she realized were trembling, hadn’t noticed the wetness running down her face until it trickled over her lips and she tasted salt. “H-he took our photo like a sick fucking souvenir. Who does that, Blake? Why would they do that to us?”
Blake grabbed her arms, pulling them into her chest before he wrapped his own around her and tucked her in close. “Oh, don’t act like you’ve never thought about running me over for pleasure, princess.”
It was like she’d opened a floodgate though, and now that the tears had started they weren’t going to stop, and fuck Jones, fuck the bastard who was doing this to them. She was going to take this moment for her. For Blake. For her dad. And she sobbed into his shirt with the force of an elastic band snapping, like she’d been stretched too thin and this was her unleashing.
His hand found her hair, stroking it softly as he murmured words to her that she couldn’t make out until her sobs started to ease and she realized he was singing a lullaby she’d once heard Grace murmur for Cara.
“David?”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry I ruined your shirt.”
His laugh rumbled through his chest and tickled her cheek. “It’s okay, Rose.”
She pulled away and wiped her long sleeve across her face, though it would do nothing for the puffiness that was probably starting to set in around her eyes. Her throat felt raw as she called Jones back and he answered with a sharp, “Well?”
“It’s a photo of Blake, bleeding in the road after he was hit by the car.”
“Okay,” Jones said after a beat of silence. “Is there anything written on the back this time?”
She turned it over and bit her lip, feeling sick all over again. “It says,Gotcha.”
“That’s it?”
“Isn’t that enough?” she snapped, and he fell silent. “I’m handing it back to the same guard as before. He’ll meet you at the gate. And Jones? If you don’t catch this guy soon, it’s your head.” She hung up and for a moment just clenched her phone in her hands, her head hanging forwards until she breathed out and looked up. “Are you ready for a real bed tonight?” Blake raised his eyebrows in interest, and she snorted. “As flattered as I am that you’d have me in this state, I mean to sleep.Justto sleep,” she clarified when he looked set to interrupt her.
He sighed. “If you insist.”
“I do,” she said primly and linked one arm in his to help him up the stairs to his room. A few painful moments later, he was sliding under the covers, and she gave him a small smile as she made to leave, pausing as his hand caught hers.
“Do you want to stay? Just to sleep, I swear. Sometimes it's just nice to have someone there.” Blake’s voice was so quiet that if she hadn’t strained her ears, she might have missed it, but she did, and so she squeezed his hand back.
“Just to sleep.” Rose climbed into the bed on his other side, and for a moment it was quiet, the covers warm and the air cool. “Goodnight Blake.”
“Sweet dreams, princess.”
