Page 3 of My Rose

The moment the theater darkened, I felt his gaze linger on my hand and where I kept my phone, sending pinpricks of awareness through me. Briggs was watching me, not the movie, possibly wondering when I’d leave or when the other person would show. I almost wished I had the same expectations that he did, but I knew August wasn’t showing. And as strange as it was, I was sort of okay with that.

Chapter 2

Briggs

“The cause is hidden; the effect is visible to all.” ? Ovid

Nothing could have made my night worse than running into Rose Fields at the one place I didn’t expect her to be. I don’t even know why I thought going to a movie theater I hadn’t been to in years was going to put me in a better head space, but it failed.

Miserably.

Right as the credits started to roll I excused myself, pulling my phone from my pocket and pushing it to my ear. No one was calling me, but she wouldn’t know the difference. I didn’t need to glance back over my shoulder at her before I started descending the stairs of the theater to know she was checking her phone again. She’d checked her phone dozens of times throughout the film, each time tapping irritably on the armrest that divided us whenever her notifications came up blank. I wasn’t going to fill the void she was missing, so at the risk of feeling even more inadequate than I already felt, I fled back to my car.

I should have at least offered her a ride home, but being this close to her was making a sour taste form in my mouth that had taken too long to dampen. I don’t know what had come over me in buying that second ticket, but the flood of immense guilt in seeing her alone was too much for me to take. The guilt I felt whenever I thought about Rose Fields should have been tarnished by now. But it clearly fucking wasn’t.

My Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series came to life in the dark alley I’d parked it in as I reached into my pocket and pressed the auto-start button. The car was beautiful, but a downright facetious gift from my father when I turned sixteen. I told him I didn’t want to stand out, just like I didn’t want his fucking money either. That request earned me a couple of fractured ribs and a split eyebrow that I sutured back together myself.

Sliding into the driver’s seat, I noted the thin white line on the outer edge of my right eyebrow as I looked into the rearview mirror. Barely visible, unless you were looking for it. I guess I was alwaysmore prone to revel in my faults rather than any attributes that might deem me worthy of inheriting a multi-billion dollar company—but that’s the way he wanted it to be. At twenty-three years old, I was still being controlled by my father.

It was sickening.

The tapping of fingers on glass jarred my focus away from the mirror and over to the passenger side window.

Rose.

I rolled my window down halfway. “Hey, I wanted to say thank you again for everything, but you just…left.”

“Yep.” I nodded, gripping the steering wheel with one hand and raising the other to blatantly check the time on my wrist. The watch was a gift to myself after turning seventeen—expensive enough to get my father off my back about looking and playing the part he needed me to play, but he missed the engraving on the backside that read, ‘Fléctere si néqueo súperos Acheronta movebo,’—If I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell.Some people had motivational posters whereas I had a dead language inked on my skin and carved into my belongings.

“Right, well. Thank you, I guess.” Her eyes flicked down to her feet, then over to the end of the alley, her arms wrapped around her small figure to shield herself from the cold. I wasn’t necessarily mad at her for coming after me. She just wanted to thank me for not leaving her alone, ironically enough as I was currently trying to do the very thing. But a girl like her shouldn’t be in a dark alley late at night, which unfortunately she followed me to. There weremonsters in the night, and I couldn’t omit myself from that lot as that damn sour taste formed again in my mouth.

I fought back a grimace. “You should go home. It’s late.” I wrapped my fingers around the gear shift. The alley was empty, but shit always happened in small towns to pretty girls, especially when you’d least expect it to.

She bit down on her bottom red lip making some of her lipstick fade to nothing. I blinked away from her lips and clutched harder on the shifter. “The person who was supposed to meet me here was also, kind of, my ride home.” Her baby blue eyes darted up to mine for a second before falling back to her shoes.

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose and squeezing my eyes shut. I had a good idea of who stood her up, but I didn’t need her to know how much of her life I’d made myself privy to.

And that guy—he was never coming.

The one bus in town was done doing its route for the night, which meant her only other option was to call her grandparents she’d moved in with years ago after the death of her parents. I couldn’t bring myself to point that out, because that would make me look like a stalker.

Which I wasn’t.

“Get in.” The words came out before I could stop them.

She pulled her hands free from where she’d tucked them between her arms and chest, revealing her cleavage even more as she reached for the handle. If I wasn’t so aggravated at the way she chose to dress on a cold night all for him, I would have appreciated the way her dress hugged her body. But then that guilt settled in like the plague itwas and sent sharp pains beneath my ribs, killing that blip of insanity before it had a chance to stir.

Pushing the thoughts away, I cleared my throat, making her freeze in place. “You might want to step back.”

She dropped her hand and took two broad steps back somewhat dramatically as she peered around the car. The door lifted into the air, folding out like a wing, and she pushed her shoulders back, her red lips popping open audibly. Sometimes I forgot just how absurd my car must seem to the people in this town, which is exactly why I parked it in darkened and forgotten alleys. It wasn’t to avoid getting robbed or the car getting stolen, because frankly, that idea kind of excited me knowing it would make my father livid. But no. I kept the car hidden to avoid being noticed—to avoid hearing the voice of my father in my head telling me I was supposed to look down on others, that I was supposed to be better than them, and that they shouldknowthat based on my possessions. Because this car cost him close to a million dollars, and yet if he had to spend that to save my life, I doubt he’d pull out the fucking checkbook.

“You aren’t, like, James Bond or something, are you?”Far from it, sweetheart.I shook my head. “Am I even safe getting in the car with you?”Jesus.

“Are you really asking the person who is telling you to ‘get in’ if you aresafewith them?” If I was going to do something, I wouldn’t have given her a ticket to watch a 1950s movie with me while her date refused to show his face. I certainly wouldn’t have waited until the very end of the movie to leave, either. I knew dozens of ways to harm someone discreetly and not a single one of those flitted through myhead when I was sitting there with her. “Of course, you are safe with me, Rose.”

She bit down on her lip again and my fingers turned white as I tightened my grip on the shifter. “If I get in, do you promise to bring me straight home?”

My teeth clenched. “Where else would I bring you?”

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