Page 114 of My Rose

“Hell no.” Jasmine inclined her head knowingly, and I continued, “He told me I didn’t have to work in general, but he knows I want to. He’s helping me get a job at the Met.”

“See! That’s what I’m talking about. Someone who supports you and lets you be you. I take back what I said about taking you away from him. He’s golden.” I swallowed, pushing past the tears that threatened to escape. She was right. Briggs was golden, and he was all mine. “Oh! Did I tell you how scared August looked at the party? I’m willing to bet he shit his pants. What did your golden man do to him?” My heart sank to my stomach just thinking about that day. About August being so close and holding me against my will, even as I asked him to let go. Briggs was right—August was going to do terrible things to me had he not saved me. “Rose? You good?”

“Yeah, sorry.” I looked out over the water again, the edges of it covered in a thin layer of ice. “August hurt me too many times. If Briggs hadn’t found me, I’m not sure what would have happened.” That was a lie, but not one Minnie needed to think about. Not this early in the morning, at least.

Her dark, precisely trimmed brows pinched together. “Are you…are you sure you’re okay?”

I nodded, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m okay. It was a lot at first to think August could ever be like that. He wasn’t always like that.”

“Yeah, he was an asshole, but not like…aggressively.” Her eyes washed over my body again. “He didn’t hurt you, right?”

“Not like he probably planned to, no. Just made it hit home for me about how blind I’d been.”

The glass door slid open, and we both turned. Every inch of my skin froze, but not from the weather. Dean stepped out from behind a blonde woman, taking Jasmine’s hand and leading her back into the house before she could get a word out, the confusion lining her face making the moment more daunting.

And then it was just her and me. The woman’s eyes were hazel, the dark green swirls in them making it harder to pull my gaze away. She smiled at me, popping a faint dimple where barely-there makeup highlighted the rosiness in her cheeks. Rubbing her hands together, she took the seat Jasmine had been in before. “I’ve been there before—being blind to the nature of men.” Her laugh warmed a fraction of my skin. Not enough to let my guard down. “Really hope you aren’t talking about my son. You must be Rose.”

Chapter 41

Briggs

"The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so." ? Quintus Ennius

The air was crisp and cold along my neck, a smile gracing my features from the otherwise blood-curdling cries in the near distance. It gave me an odd type of satisfaction—one Rose wouldn’t ever understand. I’d never want her to. My hold stiffened around theblack fabric and I debated its necessity for mere seconds before tossing it over my shoulder, letting it crumple to the floor.

The steel-tipped end of my boot clinked as I nudged the swinging door open. I couldn’t hide my joy at seeing the man—the rat—before me in the chair. My guy did well in collecting him quickly. Judging by the way he was only in his boxers, he had either stripped him bare or he’d stolen him while he was still asleep. Didn’t really matter to me, so long as he was here.

“Oh, fuck,” August murmured as I rolled up my sleeves, the quake in his voice forcing that smile of mine to spread. A lot. I was almost giddy with the sight, and as fucked up as I knew that was—to want someone to hurt so bad it makes you happy—I knew it was all for her.

“Hello, rat.” He squirmed against his bindings, where a red rash was forming. His eyes flared, mapping out the room like he hadn’t been sitting in it for at least an hour before I was able to get away.

“W-why…what is this p-place?” His teeth began to chatter, and I didn’t think it was from the cold.

“You don’t get to ask the questions here.” I circled the chair, stopping inches from his back to where he wouldn’t be able to see me anymore. His teeth chattered louder. “How about we start with thewhyfromyou?” I finished my circle, watching the color drain from his face as I came back into view. “Was it always about the money?”

He hung his head. “Please, just let me go, man. I swear, I won’t touchher—”

The knife in my pocket came out so fast I barely processed it moving to his throat. He whimpered. “You alreadydidtouch her. If I hadn’t shown up”—my jaw ticked at the thought—“we both know how far you would have taken it.” I dragged the tip of my knife down to the top edge of his boxers. “You were going to stick your filthy fucking dick in my girl, weren’t you?”

“No!”

“Don’t. Fucking.” I slid the blade beneath the elastic around his waist. “Lie.”

“Please!” August’s cries echoed off the walls. “I swear…I swear, man. I wasn’t—”

“You were going to rape her. Ruin her. Destroy everything she worked to rebuild in her beautiful fucking head and tear it down, piece by piece, until she was left with nothing all over again!” My fingers whitened around the hilt as I reared my elbow back, cocking my head. “I know what it’s like to be corrupted—to be made to do things I don’t want to fucking do. But you”—I chuckled, slipping the knife from his boxers and moving it along the top of his thigh, breaking the skin—“had a choice.”

August wailed, staring down at the blood that dripped from his leg. He shook his head, a mass of shitty golden hair sticking to his forehead, damp with sweat. “Rose wouldn’t want you to do this, man! Let me go. I won’t tell anyone, I promise. It can stay between—ah, fuck!” I drew another line in his skin, ignoring every word he spewed except the one that should’ve never left his mouth.

“Don’t say her fucking name. You don’t even deserve that much of her, you worthless piece of shit.” I carved another line as Augusttilted his head up to the ceiling, screaming in pain, begging for help that wasn’t coming. He had no clue where he was, but the man waiting for my signal above us had zero interest in keeping him alive. No one but me could be this man’s savior. A few more articulately placed lines later and I stepped back, cocking my head down, evaluating my work.

The tears in his red-rimmed eyes must’ve cleared enough for him to see what I’d done. “What the fuck?!” he shouted, the anger rippling from him heavy and deplorable. I silently thanked everything in existence that Rose never had to see the darkest side of him because I believed I’d finally exposed the core of it.

Seeking justice had never felt so…justified before. I grinned as I circled him again, eyeing the new label he donned on his skin. One that would stick with him forever. As much as I’d promised to kill him if he hurt her again, I knew it would hurt Rose more if she ever found out the truth of what I’d done to him, and not for his life, either. She’d worry for mine, the knowledge of that alone warming the beast inside me.

If I couldn’t kill him, this was the next best thing.

“Liar?” He spit on the floor as he read the word scrawled on his thigh. Fuck, this was going to be fun. I could almost feel the stress of the past few years of his involvement melting from my shoulders. Perhaps a few more labels would completely vanish them, for good.

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