Roses & Thorns: Conquer

by Bry Ann

  “Rose, my god.”

  “Shut up!” Boss orders, narrowing his eyes at Aaron.

  SMACK!

  The vibration from Boss’s fist slamming against the table fills the room.

  “I’m not taking your shit today. I had no one to watch Rose, so unfortunately, she’s tagging along. You won’t be speaking with her.”

  Lie. Boss has a strategy, which is reassuring, given the amount of rage he’s currently carrying.

  Aaron’s orange suit stands out immensely in this cold, dark room. Rose stands there like a warrior: strong, eyes narrowed. I’m so fucking proud of her. I don’t know when the change happened from the insecure, anxious girl who showed up on my doorstep to the woman standing before me, but it did happen.

  Damn it, I’m still focused on her, not the major problem we have at hand. I straighten my collar and spin around, pinning the man who planned my girl’s murder with a confident glare.

  We’ll end you.

  “I speak to my daughter or I don’t speak at all.”

  “You won’t be speaking to her!” I snap.

  “I see she still lets you in her pants.”

  Rose gasps. My feet move of their own accord. I spring to the desk, but Boss’s fingers curl around my shoulder before I can touch him.

  “He just wants a reaction from Rose, Sven. Don’t ruin this.”

  He digs his nails further into my skin before throwing me off.

  “You want to speak with her? Tell me what you know about Miguel Castello.”

  Aaron smiles as he raps one finger at a time on the table. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

  “Ah, better start saying goodbye to your empire, Adam.”

  Boss’s jaw clenches. His fists bunch and his eyes blacken. Rose’s jaw is on the floor.

  “No such thing will happen,” Boss finally grinds out.

  “We’ll see,” he responds, simply.

  “I heard your lovely little wife has been hacking Miguel’s system lately.”

  Fuck. I glance over at Rose. Her teeth are drilling into her lower lip, fighting to keep her mouth shut.

  “You think a chick with no background experience is able to hack your boss’s system? Do you think that little of him?” I lean back and cock an eyebrow.

  “He’s not my boss.”

  His voice is as eerily cold as his eyes.

  “You should be humiliated. You report to a fucking seventeen year old.”

  “I don’t report to anyone! And if anyone should be humiliated, it’s you. You’re going to wish you were dead because of a seventeen year old! Everything you love will be obliterated to dust. Poof.”

  He waves his hands in front of his face for effect. I have to bite back the urge to tell him I already fucking have had that happen. At his hand!

  I glance at Rose, his ‘precious’ daughter. Aaron would have noticed my glaring weakness if he hadn’t been staring at Boss instead of his own fucking daughter. I can almost feel the blow to the heart Rose is taking right now. I feel it like there’s a rope connecting my heart to hers, and her pain is my own. With this, I feel my control slipping. WHY DID HE TRY TO KILL HER?

  That’s for Rose to ask and not me, but damn if I don’t want to.

  “My wife is uninvolved in my business. I keep her away from this shit.”

  Aaron smiles and leans back in his chair with an air of casualness, but the chains on his handcuffs clanking with each of his movements ruin the illusion he’s trying to give off.

  “You’d think, wouldn’t you?”

  Boss looks downright lethal. “What the fuck is Miguel’s end game here?”

  “Obviously, to destroy you and everyone who had something to do with his father’s death.”

  “Just tell me this. What does Lacey have to do with this?”

  “Everything.”

  Boss is hanging on by a thread.

  “Clarify, and Rose can say a few words.”

  His gaze flickers over to Rose, and runs over her body once. Immediately, my protective instincts spring to life. Rose wraps her hands around her waist. Her one big weakness, her healing body. I abso-fucking-lutely will not let him send her spiraling back.

  “Don’t fucking look at her!” I snap. My voice cuts like a whip. Everyone looks at me strangely, but all that matters to me is whatever insecure spiral my words snapped Rose out of. Aaron looks amused as he flicks his gaze back over to Boss.

  “Miguel’s plan is to shred Lacey down to nothing so in the end she comes to him.”

  “That would never happen!”

  Bosses voice borders on hysteria.

  “Really?” Aaron smirks. “Even I can smell your fear. You don’t think a man who’s spent time and effort planning your demise can smell it?”

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  “I got what I wanted,” Boss says in a deceptively even tone. He turns to Rose with cold eyes and nods his head. “You’re up.”

  Boss doesn’t say another word. He stalks out of the room, slamming the door behind him. I can feel the reverb from the force of the door hitting its frame. I steel myself as I hear Rose step forward. He turns to her. There’s no pretense this time. No fake pleasantries. Lies I admit he sold so well. It’s Rose who speaks first.

  “Why?”

  She lifts her hands like she’s going to say something else, but decides against it and lets her hands fall back down to her sides. A silence falls between the two of them, but their eye contact is not broken. When he doesn’t respond, her jaw tightens.

  “I’ve known what you are for almost ten years now, but for seventeen years, you were my hero. You were all I had, or so I thought. Why? Why in the hell would you put a hit out on me? Why would you have that man use my childhood nicknames? The ones you used when you braided my hair and cleaned bloody knees. That really was a nice touch by the way. Why, Dad? Why?”

  I glance at Rose. She’s keeping it together somehow. Hearing her phrase the murder attempt like she just did shifts something inside me. Maybe it’s the year of therapy I’ve undergone, maybe it’s the fact that I’m getting older and more attached to her, but for some reason, the situation with her father reminds me of my situation with Savannah. Past situation. The man she loved, who fed and clothed her, the man she viewed as a parent, is a criminal with no hope of redemption. In the end, that’s all he turned out to be. A danger to her sheltered heart. At least with Savannah, in the end, the very end, she tried to protect me. Aaron did the exact opposite. I glance at the tight set of Rose’s lips, the thrown back shoulders she pairs with it, her typical defiant posture.

  I just want to hold her.

  Make it better. I’ll fucking braid her hair and fix her bloody knees if it’ll make this all better for her.

  “It wasn’t personal, Rose.”

  “It was personal to me! Why have your lackey—”

  “Rod,” her father interrupts.

  Rose’s skin prickles. “Fine. Why have Rod say those things to me? Why? I’m not sure what was worse. The bullet or the words that ripped through my heart faster than the bullet ever could.”

  “So you want to know why?”

  “Yes.”

  Breathe. In. Out. I fucking hate this man. He stole a year of my life from me. Changed me. I’m not the same man I was a year ago, but I’m still not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.

  “I told you. It was never about you. Nix—”

  “What does Nix have to do with this?”

  “Listen, Rose. Nix works for me. Best man on my team, actually, because I trained him myself since birth.”

  That’s fucked.

  “He’s trying to ‘go straight,’” he scoffs, “It’s like he doesn’t know me at all. When you’re in, you’re in. You don’t get an out. He knows this. Then he met Sage. Told me he wants out. That’s not the way this works! I mean, the obvious choice to teach Nix a lesson would be to off his plaything. I already had her, after all. The problem was that if I offed Sage, Nix would give up. He wouldn’t give a
shit if I killed him or not. That’s not my goal. I also couldn’t hold her indefinitely to get him to work for me. The girl’s too screwed up. What he sees in her is beyond me. So yeah, without Sage in the picture, that left very few choices. Unfortunately, you are the only other person Nix gives a shit about. You were perfect. He cares about you enough to feel depressed, to feel like he could never escape me, but not enough to fully break him. My need for Nix to do his job unfortunately outweighs my affinity for you. I am glad you’re alive, Rose. I guess I got the best of both of worlds.”

  “No. You didn’t get the best of shit. I came here to say that the promises I’ve made you are void. Don’t call yourself my father. I changed my name ages ago. I’m Rose Bellemore. I’ve given you the most love anyone ever will, so if you have any good left inside you, any memories of the times you scooped me off the ground when I cried, you’ll leave me out of your shit from now on.”

  With that she walks out. She doesn’t pause when he calls her name, when he yells it, when he demands she turn around. She walks right out the door, and damn, I’ll be following her, but first…

  THWACK!

  The sound of my fist slamming into his cheek echoes throughout the room. My knuckles throb, but I barely feel them.

  “There are so many things that could be for,” I say, straightening my cuff, keeping my expression impassive, but eyes blazing. “But you know what that’s for, Aaron, you piece of shit. That’s for her.”

  Rose

  “Okay, so what do you need? Rom coms. Junk food. Meds. Silence. What? I don’t know how you cope with this without men, sex, and booze, so I’m at a loss here.”

  I watch, almost amused, as Maria hops about the room in her short dress with her crazy thick hair bouncing around everywhere.

  “I’m okay. Drained, but… tentatively okay.”

  Maria’s lips form a line. “You’re suppressing.”

  “No, I’m really not. I said my piece. I don’t know, Maria, seeing him locked up and alone, giving up the one person who could give him anything real, it gave me closure. He’s the one who fucked up, not me. It’s his loss. I’m hurt, I’m tired, but I’m okay.”

  Maria searches me for a long time, before conceding.

  “You know, you’ve been running from this place for a long time, and part of me gets it. This place definitely sucks you in. It’s got drama, crime, moral corruption, all that shit. I feel like I could wield a gun and shoot some motherf-ers right here, right now, for all the shit they are putting that poor girl Lacey through, and I’ve only been here a month. But Rose, this girl,” she waves up and down my body, “I like. You’re confident. Sarcastic. Brave. In love with a hot as sin mafia man. Just something to think about.”

  My mouth opens and shuts like a fish out of water.

  “It’s always complicated where Sven is involved.”

  Her lip twitches. “He’s fucking hot.”

  “He’s fucking insane is what he is.”

  “Girl, you’re insane. No wonder you guys keep getting thrust into each other’s lives.”

  “Ha Ha. Subject change, right now. Alright?”

  “Uh, sure. Sup?”

  “I may be out for a while tonight.” A smirk spreads across Maria’s lips. “Not with Sven, you slut. I need to talk to Lacey.”

  Maria’s frown returns.

  “Is she alright?”

  “Yeah, she’s fine. Lacey’s always fine. It’s just… Maria, you know I love you. I owe you everything, but…”

  “You don’t even need to finish. Go find your friend. Reconnect with her. I guess I have to share you, huh?”

  She can’t be serious for one freakin’ minute. I shake my head as I laugh to myself.

  “There’s only one of me to go around.” I smirk. “Maybe you can go find Cut. I’m sure he’ll keep you busy.”

  She momentarily flutters over her words before settling on a simple “maybe” with a shrug. I want to ask her more about how weird she is around him, but something tells me not to. Maria uses men for comfort, affection, pleasure. They’re tools. Fun. Nothing more. With Cut, she… I don’t even know. I can’t ever imagine her flirting or sleeping with him. And that tells me something. Something in my gut tells me not to pursue that topic right now. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my time at Fallen Ridge, it’s to trust your gut. At all times. When it comes to confronting people’s secrets, pain, and issues… trust your gut. Don’t let curiosity win over. Ever.

  “Go, Rose. Your friend needs ya.”

  She winks and pats my butt, sending me out the door.

  “Oh and Rose...” I glance back. “I’m proud of you. Go get your friend. And most importantly, go get your man. I don’t want to see you tonight.”

  I feel my heart swell with love for her.

  “Goodnight, Maria. Stay out of trouble.”

  “I never do. You know this. I need a club.”

  I hear her dramatically sigh before throwing a pillow over her head and flopping back on the bed, flashing me completely without a care. I laugh and walk out the door.

  “Byeee, Maria.”

  My laughter dies as I walk down the hall. Ugh, I have to knock on the Boss’s door. Ruston. His last name is Ruston. It humanizes him to think of him that way. Okay, think of him that way, Rose. Besides, Lacey’s there, so nothing will happen. I just have to face his eyes. His angry, judgemental eyes.

  I feel my insides quiver.

  My fist hesitates over the wood.

  “Bbbbbbb… POP!” The Boss’s voice echoes softly from inside the room.

  Two sets of giggles ring through, one quieter than the other.

  “Dada, Dada!”

  A groan. “Angel, I’ve been carrying you since I got home. My back.”

  Lacey snorts. “Are you eighty?”

  “You try carrying her for over an hour.”

  “I do. All the time.”

  I can almost see him glaring at her and her smirking back. I should really let them have their private moment, but I have to say this now. I have to. I’m here. I’m…

  Whoosh.

  The door flies open.

  “I thought you’d never come.”

  I blink several times, just trying to take this all in. How’d he know I was here? And he’s wearing— he’s wearing a white t-shirt, grey sweats, and is barefoot. His hair is wild and he has no jewelry. He looks completely different. He looks so young! So this is who Lacey married.

  “Close your mouth. I do change at the end of the day like everyone else. It goes without saying that if you tell anyone about this...” He doesn’t even have to gesture to his casual attire for me to know what he’s referring to. “We’ll have problems.”

  I nod dumbly. Lacey walks out and furrows her eyebrows.

  “Rose, what are you doing here?”

  A high-pitched giggle fills the room, and waddly footsteps walk up beside Lacey. A mess of brown hair looks up at me.

  “Wose… Wose…”

  “Yeah, we both share a name, sweetie,” I say in a high-pitched voice.

  My heart is fluttering. She is sooo cute! Especially when she smiles up at me like right now… oh my god! I’m melting. Lacey puts a hand on her head to steady her.

  “Um, is everything okay?”

  Ruston steps back with a nod and a shake of his head. He scoops little Rose up and takes her with him.

  “Everything’s fine. I was hoping we could talk.”

  I glance down at my feet, taking in Lacey’s oversized black sweat outfit with a smile. Familiar.

  “Sure. Uh, yeah. Sure.”

  She looks totally confused.

  “Let me grab socks.”

  She comes back in a pair of fuzzy socks, quietly closing the door behind her.

  “Where should we go?”

  “Um, Maria’s in my room. Sven’s in his room.”

  Lacey smirks, knowing that is my true room and I’ll always see it that way without admitting it.

  “Any other ideas?”


  “Outside patio.”

  “Great idea, Lace.”

  She nods and leads the way outside. The moon lights the sky. It’s one of those gorgeous nights where everything is serene and the animals are loud, playful, and joyful. The stars are bright and shiny, giving the illusion of hope-filled dreams. Lacey and I sit across from each other in fancy white chairs with black lace gracing the ends.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I came to apologize.”

  “Apologize?” Lacey asks with a crease in her eyebrows.

  “Yes, Lacey. A long overdue apology. I don’t even know where to start. We went through something together that most people couldn’t even dream of. We were all each other had. Then I died, leaving you all alone. Not only did I leave you alone, but I’m learning that in doing so, I stole your first year of freedom from you. I caused you pain, worry, and put a rift in your relationship. I wasn’t there for your marriage or birth. Then I show up on your doorstep a year later with…” I feel the anxiety swell inside of me. “With some random girl and I don’t include you. I’ve dragged her everywhere with me and left you out, and Lacey, I’m so sorry. You’re my best friend. You always will be. This has just been so weird. Complete deja vu. It’s like a different life. This past year, I’ve been a normal girl, a college student, a woman in recovery, and a waitress. None of the things I am here. It’s sort of like I switch off when I’m not here. Then I come here, see you, see Sven, and everything is brought to life in technicolor. Maria has sacrificed a lot for me. She’s been my safe place while I’ve worked to come to terms with all this, but I never meant to leave you out of it. I may change, my body may change, you may be a wife and a mother, but we will never change.”

  I grab her hand tightly, placing all my feelings for her in our connected fingers.

  “I love you, Lacey. So much. I’m so sorry. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me.”

  “Why are you saying this? You’re alive, happy, and healthy. That’s all that matters to me.”

  “Knowing Lacey, I’m sure she’s just happy you’re alive.”

  I can’t hide the sadness from my smile. “You’re an angel, but that’s not true. You matter too. A lot. More than you realize.”