Page 69 of My Rose

“Grandpa!” My ears flushed with heat. “You guys skipped right over the birds and the bees and jumped into the nest-making. You’re both crazy.” If only he knew what kind ofurgesBriggs had, and how crazy it made me feel that I enjoyed it, too. Not that any of that would be happening anymore.

“Just looking out for you, sweetie.” He pointed at his ear as I righted myself. “And these. Never had a hearing problem, and would hate to start pretending I do, if you catch my drift.”

“Wow,” I whispered as I put my hands on my hips and looked up at the sky. “Where was that house you said you found for rent?” I pulled my phone out, pretending I was about to search for the address and he chuckled.

His hand gently tapped the hood. “I’ll show you the listing after we’re done making a list of all the things we need to fix on this beaut.”

Chapter 26

Briggs

“…stop playing the fool, and let what you know leads you to ruin, end.” ? Catullus

Neon lights flooded the floor, my leather boots striking the tile sloppily like a wet match. At one point, I started mimicking the steps of the darker boots beside me, knowing mine were incapable of appearing anything butintoxicated.

“Pick your head up,” Dean mumbled as his shoulder pushed into mine, forcing me to roll them back.

I dragged my palm down my throat as I looked up right before another set of doors opened. I could hear my father’s grunts behind me, his disapproval palpable past my high. I stopped and leaned into one of the women at the door like some sick sort of crutch as I squeezed her exposed breast. “Act like I’m telling you to sit on my cock like the gold mine it is, or I’ll find whoever it is you love and end them.” Her throat bobbed, yet when I pulled back, she giggled and blushed over. My fists curled in. I hated having thatpower. The knowledge that I could order mostly anyone to do whatever I wanted, and they would comply simply because of my name and position in society. These women didn’t deserve to be disrespected, but I knew my father put them beneath us—their job within VanLuxe didn’t grant them any sort of reprieve from the mistreatment unless I stepped in behind the scenes and had them removed.

As if earning his approval, the tension emanating from my father seemed to fade, if only for a moment. He’d been eyeing me like the pussy-whipped man I fucking was ever since Rose left, though her pussy wasn’t the only thing I loved about her. I wondered if he knew he’d been in the same room as my weakness, the one person I’d bend and break willingly for. I wondered how close of a look he’d gotten of her. My mind was too far gone to calculate how fucked we’d both be if he knew who she was to me.

Dean cleared his throat, pushing my body through the doors. “How many did you take?”

I brushed him away. “Fuck off.”

He grabbed my shoulder, pulling me to the bench beside him as we waited for the other men to arrive for the meeting. “Don’t tell me to fuck off, Briggs. How many did you fucking take?”

I adjusted my jacket, rolling my eyes over to him as the world blurred for a second. “Enough to not feel shit.” Though nothing I did to distract myself seemed to be working. Every flash of dark brown hair caught my attention, and every set of blue eyes seeped into my skin in all the wrong ways. None of what I saw could match the beauty of the woman trying to toss me aside, unable to even look at me anymore.

My drug-induced eyes floated between the neon lights on the wall. I could feel Dean’s glares and knew they weren’t pleasant. My father, on the other hand, didn’t seem to give a shit what I took. As long as I did what I was told, I was saved from his wrath. That alone took years to accomplish.

“I’m getting you some water.” Dean waved over one of the waitresses, who wore only nipple tassels and what looked like another sticker that covered her pussy.

“I’m only fucking drinking now. Relax.” I rolled my eyes away and looked up at the ceiling as I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a flask, half-heartedly smirking at him, though I wasn’t sure I had even half a heart anymore. No, I was pretty sure the thing fucking shattered to irretrievable pieces that I numbed with drugs and alcohol. Being fucked up was easier than reliving the day I made her cry.

Dean sighed beside me as the woman walked away. “Shit. I thought you…I thought you took—”

“Just one.” Dean’s pitying looks weren’t helping to ease the odd, hollow pain that still seized my body, even with the Molly in my system. I reached my other hand over my pocket and tapped it. “But if this doesn’t work out like you said, I’m ready to take more.” He wasn’t clear onhowit would work out—he just kept telling me everything would be okay. For all I knew, he was trying to make sure I didn’t fall into a rabbit hole I wouldn’t be able to crawl out of. I never had an addiction problem and never abused drugs in the ways Dean probably thought I did. Most of the pills he gave me went to better use. Slipping a pill in Ernie’s glass hadn’t been the first time I’d drugged a client. I took them when I had no better options, but I hated not being in full control of my body.

There was only one person who could take away my inhibitions without drugs, and she wanted nothing to do with me. As much as I wanted to force her to see it differently, that’s not how I wanted my Rose baby. She needed to be willingly, irrevocably, intoxicatingly in love with me, just like I was with her. I wanted her to come to that conclusion on her own. Forcing her by any means would only push her further away.

“Fuck, Briggs.” His brown eyes raked over me as I settled into the booth more. The texture of the bench was grittier and colder than usual, seeping into my pores, amplifying the way my body hadn’t been feeling like my own since I’d dropped Rose off. In truth, the Molly wasn’t the thing that had made me numb—it was my own stupid fucking actions and the consequences of those actions that’d torn my soul apart. The lights started to strobe heavily as I took a pull from my flask.

“You promise you’re only drinking from now on?”

“You keep your promise, and I’ll keep mine,” I said as I emptied the flask, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and wincing against the burn that was going down my chest. It was almost soothing—having something affect my body that didn’t feel like a knife lodged deep behind my ribs. But as soon as the liquid settled, the pain was back again.

Dean’s eyes narrowed on me. “Don’t be a dick, Dean.” I slapped my hand on his thigh, twisting my lips into a smile I didn’t feel. “Loosen up a bit, would you?”

He muttered something in reply as he shook his head, trying not to gain too much of my father’s attention.

But it was too late. “Briggs has a mouthy little thing who works here. Hopefully, that entices him to go along with whatever is needed. Last time we were here, you almost ruined a good deal.” My father stared at me as I held back on spitting my drink in his face, his stern features begging for retaliation.

“I fired her,” Dean supplied with a shrug. “Already rotated out the rest of the women, too, as you requested.” Dean checked his phone, his other hand tapping along his thigh.

My father leaned back against the booth. “Excellent.”

Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed and leaned forward, swiping whatever alcohol was in the cooler on the table and filling my flask. “You know—” I stared at the liquid funneling through the metal, my nerves firing off. “Of all the ways you choose to do business, you pick the most vulgar way possible—treating the women who work here no better than cattle, even letting the pigs you bring infor business brand them with their hands.” I put the bottle down with a loud thud, finally meeting his steely gaze. “No one should be touching them like that.”

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