Page 110 of My Rose

“It wasn’t her, Briggs.”

I let my hands fall and glared at him as he finished. “I would have still liked to hear whatever we could get out of him.”

“Jesus, Briggs. Just take it as a win. The girls are safe for tonight. No one is going to get them.”

“Unless he had someone else with him,” I gritted out through my teeth.

Dean sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’ll call your team back and make sure no other alarms went off.” He looked defeated as he let his hand fall to his side. “Are we good?”

Leaning against the side of the SUV, I finished shooting off my message to the man who’d clean up the mess. “We need to do something. This is only going to get worse.”

Dean cocked a half-assed grin. “If you’re ready—I’ve got a plan.”

Stan’s words rolled in my head like I did in the sheets when I got back to Rose, still safe in our room. I hadn’t been able to sleep much—my faith in the security team surrounding our home much less now that Stan, of all fucking people, was able to get beyond the perimeter.

The sun rose steadily, and I watched as I thought it all over—every piece of information we had was so close to fitting, yet something was missing. I’d known the ins and outs of our company since I’d taken over my brother’s role—what if he knew something I didn’t? What if he had theanswers that only my father would have trusted him with?

As much as I loved my brother, he was twisted in ways I’d never been able to become. ‘Ruthless,’ as my father called him, ‘psychotic,’ by others. To me, he was just my twin. My confidant. But what if there was something so vile that he refused to share it with me? And now that the words of another dead man circled my brain, I needed to find a way to end it. If Dean and I’s plan failed…

My thoughts snapped to Rose as she turned to nuzzle into me. As much as I tried to keep her safe, I could only do so much if I had no fucking clue why she was being targeted. I needed to get the upper hand if I had any chance of turning our future around.

“What’s wrong?” Rose propped herself up on her elbow, checking my scar.

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to me, wiping the concern from her face with a kiss. “Nothing, baby.”

Her brow furrowed as I laid back down. “I don’t believe you.”

Leave it to my little viper to speak her mind. “I didn’t think you would.”

“I—”

“I don’t want to talk right now, babe. As much as I love you, I need to not think. Even if it’s just for a few minutes.” I played with the ends of her hair as she looked down at me.

I expected her to get up and go into the bathroom or punch me in the arm, storm around, and yell at me—something on the offensive side. And she had every right to. But as her fingers started to trail down my chest, my expectations became muddled.

Was she—

“Oh, fuck.” I pressed my head back into the pillow as her hand dipped beneath the hem of my sweatpants. “Rose, you don’t—”

“Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do.” She dropped her voice to a seductive whisper, my cock responding eagerly to her words right before she gripped my shaft. “Remember?”

I wrapped her hair around my fist, pulling her within an inch of my lips. “Oh, I remember, Rose baby.” A low groan left me, and I kissed her deeply when she stroked once, rubbing the tip with her thumb.

I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth. “Shit. Did I hurt you?” She tried to pull her hand away as her gaze fell to the scar on my chest beside the rose tattoo I got for her, but I reached down and gripped her wrist, urging her to continue as I guided her back to where she’d been.

“You’re going to if you stop.” The worry wasn’t clearing from her face, so I ripped her hand from my cock by her wrist and rolled on top of her.

“Hey!”

“Shhh,” I whispered as I reached for one of the straps tucked behind our headboard. “Be a good girl for me”—I finished clasping her wrist, then bent down and took her bottom lip between my teeth—“and let me have you how I want.”

“I love you,” she rushed out. “Do whatever you want.”

I felt my face soften and my heart flutter as I stared back into her baby-blue eyes. “I love you so goddamn much.” I worked to secure her other hand, then kissed her again, our tongues sliding togetherin long, desperate strokes. I finally pulled myself back and situated my knees on either side of her, then rolled my waistband down. Her lips parted as I freed myself, her eyes widening at the sight. I adjusted the angle of the pillow behind her head. “Promise me you’ll always be mine. That you’ll love me no matter what.”

“Briggs—”

“Just promise me, Rose.”

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