“Get her the fuck up and out of here!” Tommy yelled.
The other guy grabbed Rose by the hair. I turned and ran for the guy. My natural instinct was always fight mode which was survival mode, meaning I’d hurt myself to stay alive. My shoulder barreled into the guy. I speared him to the ground, but then felt a paralyzing pain as I had hit him with my bad shoulder. I tried to swing, but I couldn’t move my arm at the moment.
“Wes!” Tommy yelled. “I’ll fucking put a bullet in the back of your head.”
I rolled over and sat up. Tommy was there, his gun reloaded, pointed at me. There was an evil fire in his eyes. He took his work personally, just like I did when I was in the circle, fighting. So if Rose’s car blew up, that was good, but the fact that she wasn’t in it made it very bad.
The other guy got to his feet and went for Rose again.
“Don’t fucking touch her hair,” Tommy said. “Bring her in alive and well. Let Aton finish it. So he can see I did my job.” Tommy then looked at me and clicked his teeth together. “You fucking rat, Wes. You’re going to get flushed down a sewer.”
I held my shoulder and watched as they forced Rose out of my apartment.
A day ago, I was supposed to kill Rose.
Now… I had to find a way to save her.
7.
(Rose)
I didn't know what to do. My car was supposed to explode with me inside it. Luke had completely lost his mind and gone off the deep end. Two men tried to shoot at me - hitting Wes instead. Then I was taken by Wes, promised safety, only to be taken by two different men.
They put me in the back of a black car, leaving my hands and feet unrestrained.
The one guy - Tommy - got into the driver’s seat.
He turned, smiled, and showed me his gun. “Look at it this way. You’re supposed to be dead. So enjoy your last ride. If you make a fucking move, say a fucking word, or just generally piss me off at all, I’m going to shoot you and kill you. So it’s really up to you. This is your chance to extend your life by a few hours. Got it?”
I didn’t say a word. I looked out the window.
They took me to a building, much like the buildings I used to go to all the time. I half expected to find a fight ready to go inside, but it was eerily empty. The door slammed shut with an echoing thud. The place smelled of age and rust. The two guys were close to me, bumping their shoulders to mine, leaving me feeling icky. I hated them. I hated everything. I hated Wes, too. Why did he even bother to help me? Just so I could get caught? Is that what it was? An even bigger set up?
I swallowed hard, processing it all.
I was supposed to be in the car. I was supposed to blow up. If Wes found out I wasn’t in the car, he tracked me down. Tricked me into going with him. Just so I could get caught and taken here. Whatever this was.
“Come on, princess,” Tommy said and dragged me to a set of steps.
We went upstairs and Tommy knocked on a door.
“What?” a voice yelled.
“It’s me, Aton. I have something for you.”
“Open the door.”
The door opened and there was a man seated behind a large wooden desk with piles of cash. He had a cigar in his mouth. When he saw me, he stood up, eyes going wide.
“What the hell is this?” the man asked - I assumed it was Aton - the cigar bouncing in his mouth. He took it out of his mouth and put it into an ashtray.
“Aton, allow me to explain the situation,” Tommy said. “Your boy, Wes, is nothing but a filthy rat.”
“What?” Aton asked.
Tommy clicked his teeth, like he’d done at Wes’s apartment. “You heard me. I found this princess in his fucking apartment. And Wes wasn’t wearing a damn shirt.”
Aton looked at me. He had small, dark eyes. He wasn’t tall, wider in the waist than in the shoulders, built nothing like Wes.
“So you’re Rose,” Aton said.
“How do you know my name?” I asked. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be. I don’t know how you pulled it off. Guess you didn’t need your car, huh?”
“I knew about it,” I said. “Someone told me so I knew not to touch my car. How’s that sound?”
Aton leaned against the desk. He knocked a stack of cash over but didn’t seem to care. “You know what you fucking did, princess. I know everything about you. Your family. Everything. What were you doing with Wes?”
I swallowed hard. It became very clear that this whole thing was not a setup by Wes. He was in serious trouble because of me. Because he helped me.
“Uh-oh,” Aton said. “You see that? She swallowed her tongue.”
“I can make her talk,” Tommy said. “It would be my honor, Aton. Considering I fucked this whole thing. I’m sorry about that.”
“No, it’s okay,” Aton said. “We have her now. We might be able to enjoy a little more right now. I wasn’t planning on starting a war for my family, but maybe it’s a good time for that.”
“What do we do about Wes?” Tommy asked.
“He’ll come,” Aton said. “Then we’ll make sure to handle that situation properly.”
“Don’t hurt him,” I said. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”