Page 98 of Rose
As the laughter shifted, and conversation moved on, Ahzii let herself exhale for the first time in a while. Tattooing her friend, being in her shop, listening to her girls joke—it was the escape she didn’t know she needed.
Still, in the back of her mind, she knew the truth: Savior didn’t just fuck her. He unwrapped every layer she swore she’d buried. He wasn’t just scratching at scars, he was rewriting the story she swore no one would ever read.
Chapter 11
Savior sat in the Carter headquarters conference room, a blunt pressed to his lips as smoke drifted from his mouth in a slow, deliberate curl. Olivia lounged beside him, scrolling her phone while they waited for his father and Sincere to arrive. This wasn’t just any warehouse. It was the Carter family’s fortress—far out in the middle of nowhere, buried beneath layers of security and armed men trained to kill without hesitation. Every secret, every weapon, every operation ran through this place. And this room? It was where business got handled. Where deals were made. Where power was measured in blood, silence, and the weight of the Carter name.
Savior’s mind, though, was back at home—on Ahzii. On her curves pressed against his chest. Her scent in his sheets. He wanted her curled up in his arms, not miles away in traffic or ink-stained in her shop. But when his father called early that morning, summoning him, Olivia, and Sin to the headquarter, he knew better than to ignore it. His father didn’t call to say he missed him or to check in. He only called when something big was moving.
“So…” Olivia broke the silence, her voice soft but prying. “You really like her? Ahzii?”
Savior took another hit, exhaled, then let the corner of his mouth curl. “I think it’s deeper than like, Liv.”
Her brows lifted. “Love? Already? You just met her. You don’t evenknowher story, and you talking about something deeper than like?”
He chuckled, flicking ash into the tray. “I wouldn’t say that—not yet. But it’s not just some crush either. Shit feel... heavy. Real.”
Olivia studied him for a beat before leaning back. “I don’t know what it is about her, but she looks familiar. Can’t place it though. And that look in her eyes—she’s been through some shit. You sure this ain’t just you slipping into Savior mode again?”
His eyes cut to her. “Here y’all go again. You and Sin with this ‘savior complex’ bullshit. Just because I kill corrupt motherfuckers for a living doesn’t mean I walk around trying to save everybody.”
Olivia tilted her head, unconvinced. “I’m not saying that. I’m saying the way you’re moving with her? It reminds me of how you moved with me when we were six.”
His face hardened. “Don’t even compare that. I never looked at you the way I look at Allure. Don’t even try that.”
Olivia rolled her eyes, unfazed. “Nigga, I ain’t talking about no romantic shit. I’m talking about how you move when someone’s drowning in silence. When they don’t ask for help, but you see the storm anyway.”
Savior looked away, jaw tight.
“You remember I used to cuss you out every time you came near me. Pushed you away, told you to leave me the fuck alone. But you kept trying. You kept talking to me. You slept beside me in that cold, abandoned building because I was too scared to go back to my foster home. You had a house, parents, but you stayed with me.”
He didn’t speak. He didn’t move.
“You remember what I told you he did to me?” Her voice dropped. “My foster father?”
He nodded once.
“You killed him. Atseven, Sav. You killed that monster, and looked my foster mother dead in the eye and said she was next if she breathed a word. And then you told your parents everything. Told them I needed somewhere safe. Because of you, I didn’t just survive—Ilived. The Carters raised me. Loved me.Youdid that. You didn’t just protect me, you saved me.”
Savior leaned back in his chair, blunt burning between his fingers. His jaw ticked.
“And now here you are again,” Olivia continued. “I see it in how you look at Ahzii. You think she’s hiding that same kind of storm. And you don’t even realize it, but you're already moving like you're gonna pull her out of it.”
Silence stretched between them.
Savior didn’t want to save her. He wanted to love her.
And if loving her gave her the strength to save herself, then so be it. But Ahzii wasn’t a project. She wasn’t a challenge to conquer or another name on the list of people he’d dragged out of hell. From the moment he looked into her eyes outside that barbershop, something in him cracked open. He didn’t know her full story. Didn’t know what made her so cold, so guarded, so effortlessly lethal with her silence. But even if sheneverhealed—if she stayed bruised and buried beneath her past—he wanted to be the man she leaned on when the world got too loud.
Would he protect her? No question.
Would he provide? Absolutely.
Did he want to love her? God, yes.
Was it her darkness that pulled him in? Without a doubt.
Butsaveher?
