AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There’s nothing to say. Nothing you could take. I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for you.”
His gaze drifts for a few seconds, looking at the wall like all the answers are written on it.
“I want to help you. I want you to have a chance at a normal life. Bianco stole your childhood, and the Volkovs stole what was left of your teenage years. Please, let me help you.”
I shrug. “A normal life. I’m not too sure how to achieve that.”
“We’ll start with getting you some rest. When you come out of the hospital, you can go back to Stoneview if you want. To my parents’ house. We’ll enroll you in college, and you’ll catch up. Next year you can go to Duke. You know nothing will stop that brain of yours.”
I chuckle, letting myself imagine for one second. Allowing my thoughts to filter to a simpler version of my life. Chris nudges my shoulder so I shift to the side. He comes to lie down next to me, but his frame is much larger than Jake’s. About half of him is on the bed, and we’re still squished like sardines in a can.
“I’ll keep my question for another time,” he says low. “We’re gonna make this better, Rose. I promise you. It’s your turn to taste happiness.”
I nod at him, but I don’t confirm his plans for me. I just want to enjoy being next to him again. I just want to enjoy his warmth and his love. I’m always cold, and Chris is the perfect human heater. This is precisely what I needed and he knows it.
But what I don’t tell him is, that I don’t want to taste happiness. I want to tasterevenge.
3
SAM
Comatose– jxdn
I watch her sleep. I’ve always liked watching Rose sleep. She’s so peaceful, so relaxed. When she doesn’t have nightmares, she looks like an innocent child who hasn’t encountered life’s harshness—a delicate flower.
The opposite of who she really is.
Rose is anything but a delicate flower. She’s thorny, poisonous.
I had to wait for Chris Murray to leave before I slipped into her room. I had to wait for the cop to get distracted. I should kill that cop for taking a loo break and leaving her unattended. It could have been any of Volkov’s men coming into this room.
But they haven’t shown up yet. Not Viktor, Aleksei, or any of their little puppies that do their bidding. I’m surprised they haven’t tried to take her back.
My heart pinches when I let my gaze observe her too closely. I’m sitting on the only chair in the room, opposite her bed, silently looking at the bruises on her face. My eyes dart to the splint around her left wrist. It goes high enough to hide most of the tattoos I know she has on her forearm.
For the whole of her childhood, I was there for her when Bianco tortured her. I couldn’t stop it. No one could. Although I picked up the broken pieces, I took care of her wounds, and I healed the scars. I controlled her older brother when he would get violent.
Before Rose disappeared, I had one goal in mind. Protect her. I haven’t always done a good job at it, but when I failed, I did my best to help her heal.
She didn’t always see it. She didn’t always notice the small changes I made in her life. The nights I kept her busy so she wouldn’t end up at a party doing drugs. The times I kept her close to me so Bianco couldn’t get close to her. The men I’ve killed for her. The ones who touched her, who took advantage of her young age and drugged up states. The ones who had evil intentions without her even realizing. The predators who hid in the dark or behind bright smiles and a lot of money. Keeping an eye on Rose was a challenging and exhausting task. But I did it.
Because I loved her.
I truly did. Despite Nate’s disapproval, I cherished our moments like a preacher cherishes their god. I shared my deepest secrets and insecurities with her. I shared my trauma so she would feel comfortable talking about hers. I gave her everything that I was while respecting the boundaries I had created to keep her safe. I showed her the person no one knew, no one ever met.
I never dated Rose, and yet with her, I was whole. I was happy. I had dreams of doing one last job and taking her away to a place where it would be just her and I. I wanted to go back to England with her, show her London, let her grow in a city where no one knew her, and she could become the best version of herself. We would both have become the best versions of ourselves. She used to make melaugh. A rare thing. So rare. Only it was genuine, natural with her.
Rose was my Achilles heel, and I let her use it against me. I was stupid, so naïve. It’s the last words I would have ever used to describe myself, but for her, I was. I let her steal my heart and stomp on it like I meant nothing to her. The kids around her used to call her the queen of broken hearts. I was not spared. I thought myself special. I thought myself a king in a world made of Rose’s subjects. I wasnothingspecial. I learned the hard way that Rose might have stolen hundreds of hearts, but she still doesn’t own one.
I run both my hands through my hair, bringing back the strands that have escaped my gelled-back hairstyle. The slow beeping of the machine connected to her fingertip, keeping score of her bpm, is calming. It grounds me.
I slowly rise from my seat, my knees popping like an old man. I’m twenty-two, and I’ve been on enough missions as an enforcer and a hitman to feel like my body is sixty. I crack my neck as I approach Rose’s bed. She’s sleeping soundly, and I know it’s only because of the meds. She would never be able to sleep that peacefully on her back. That’s how much I know her.
I feel like my movements are in slow motion. I have been planning what I would do to her if she ever returned for so long that it’s hard to go against it.
I want to kill her. I’ve wanted to kill her for six months. Except I never thought she’d show her face again. And now that she has, I have to wait. Because I need her. And I hate that I need her.
I run my finger along her long legs, covered by the hospital sheets. I let myself stare at her beautiful face. She’s bruised. The purple around her eyes, the swollen cheeks, the bloody lips…it should make her ugly. So why does she still look like a Goddess?
