36. Rose
ROSE
"Beatie, are you sure she's in here?"
The rundown house Beatie brought me to is one of seemingly hundreds stretching in all directions up and down the street.
Getting here was a blur; from wrapping a makeshift bandage around my arm to stealing that car and driving like a maniac with no care for what we left behind.
We walk the cracked stone paving up to a peeling front door that creaks painfully loudly when Beatie places her hand on the worn brass handle.
"She is," Beatie murmurs, her back to me. "He brought me here once."
"Who did?"
"Mathew. After… after Dad left."
Dad.
What a fucking mess this is turning out to be.
I'm out of ideas on how to fix any of this, and I'm praying that whatever Kon has been busy doing is enough to distract Mathew and Lev long enough that I can sneak in here, get Mom, and sneak back out.
Beatie hovers on the top step for a long moment, then she turns to face me with tears in her eyes. "Will your friend be okay?"
Calvin?
I close my eyes and try to chase away the image of his motionless, dead body lying in a pool of his own blood.
He did so much for me.
Kept my secret.
Helped me when I really needed it. In the end, he died for me and every step I take past leaving him there is a step I don't deserve.
A breath stolen from a man who only ever tried to be my friend.
"I think…" My voice cracks. "I think he's fine. They will find him and he'll be alright."
"I'm sorry." Tears well up in her eyes, and suddenly, I'm staring down the seven-year-old version of her as she stands before me with my broken jewelry box in her hands.
It breaks my heart, so I reach for her hand and grip it tightly. "Everything's going to be okay. We'll get Mom, and we'll get out of here, and everything's going to be okay, alright?"
Beatie looks up at me with wide eyes, but the same glazed look remains.
It's like she's looking right through me and the overwhelming guilt inside my chest doubles in size.
She wouldn't be like this if I'd acted faster.
If I'd done something different, then maybe I could have given Mathew what he wanted before he stuck a needle in my sister's arm.
"Come on." Using my grip on her hand, I pull her away from the door and ease myself in first. Every snap and creak of the door hinges is loud and painful.
Despite gritting my teeth, my body jumps with a mind of its own against every sound.
Thick, stale air clogs my lungs the moment we step into the dark hallway and a chill sweeps past my bare arms, making my wounded arm throb with heat.
Rickety stairs near the door lead upward and I point to them while glancing at Beatie.
She shakes her head and points past me to the darkest part of the hallway, where shadows close in around the barely visible closed doors.
My heart begins to hammer faster and faster like it's trying to break free of my ribs.
Taking a deep breath, I ease myself over creaking floorboards and around rotten, dark holes and move down the hallway.
Beatie crowds herself at my back, using me like a barrier between her and the rooms we're approaching.
Any other time and I'd be pleased that she trusts me this much, but I can't help but feel her actions only stem from self-preservation.
Reaching the split in the hallway, I peer through the dark at the two closed doors.
The floor near one is completely covered in dust and dirt, with peeling paint fragments scattered around and hinges rusted so tightly that I doubt even Kon could get through that door.
The floor near the other door is clear, and very small streaks of light drifting through the front door catch on the hinges.
This has to be it.
Wrapping my first around the cold handle, I push down and slowly open the door.
"Mom!" Beatie rushes past me like a bullet into the room and throws herself down onto the floor next to a threadbare mattress that barely has enough stuffing in it to keep its shape.
My heart stops dead in my chest.
Mom lies spread out across the mattress with a moth-eaten knitted blanket over the top of her.
Her pale face is streaked in dirt and tears, and her sunken cheeks pinch at her wrinkled, dry lips.
She doesn't move, not even when Beatie takes her hand and squeezes it.
I can't move. It's like I've sunk into the weakened floorboards and become part of the house with how frozen I am in the doorway.
Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead.
"Mom?" Beatie pats Mom's cheek and shakes her shoulder. "Mommy? Mommy! Mommy, wake up! Wake up! I brought Rose. Rose is here. Mommy? Wake up!"
Every desperate plea from Beatie is a knife to my already aching heart, but it finally spurs me forward and I approach them both. I scarcely dare to breathe, as if adding to the air trapped in my lungs will somehow unlock the terrifying reality I fear is in front of me.
Until, finally, Mom shifts under her blanket. She doesn't wake up, but the movement alone is enough to overwhelm me with relief and I stumble into Beatie.
"Oh thank god," I croak, sinking down into the dust and grime next to my sister. "She's okay."
"Of course she's okay," Beatie replies sharply. "Mathew promised she would be until I killed you."
I lock eyes with my sister. Her weak, murderous intent no longer exists in the depths of her exhaustion, but it's still alarming to hear from the mouth of my sister.
"Sure. Because he can be trusted." I lean past her and clasp Mom's wrist. "Mom? Hey, Mom? You gotta wake up, okay? I can carry you out of here if need be but I'd rather not. Mom? Mom, wake up."
Despite a shift in breathing, she doesn't wake up.
I wouldn't put it past Mathew or Lev to have drugged her to keep her docile or obedient.
Whatever is keeping her under is strong, though, and I'm rapidly running out of options.
Staying here for any length of time is far too risky.
"Okay, Beatie, we need to get her up and out of here. Do you think you can help me with that?"
"Can't you do it?" Beatie asks and she turns her tear-filled eyes to me. "I'm tired."
"So am I, but you stabbed me and I can't use my arm as much as I want to."
"Maybe we can drag the mattress?"
I glance down, unsure if the material will even stand us pulling at it but it's worth a try. "Okay sure. Let's try that." With any luck, the movement will force Mom to wake up and we can walk out of here.
Suddenly, a loud creak rises from behind us, followed by a clatter of wood against the wall and then the squeak of a door wobbling back on its hinges.
I spin around instantly and place one hand on Beatie's back when a shadowy figure emerges from the other door leading into the room.
I hadn't even noticed it.
Light pouring in from the window of the kitchen shrouds the man as he slowly walks forward, then he raises one hand and the light catches on the end of his gun.
"Look at that," Mathew drawls, and his voice cuts through me like a hot knife. "Family all fucking reunited."
"Mathew," I gasp.
Beatie whimpers and throws herself over Mom as I slowly climb to my feet and place myself in front of them.
"Rose…" Anger drips from his voice as he takes another step forward. "It was you, wasn't it?"
"What was me?" I ask cautiously, my eyes locked on the gun.
In hindsight, I probably should have taken Calvin's weapon from his body, but I was too focused on getting out of there.
"It was supposed to be simple." His voice grows quiet.
"It was supposed to be fucking simple. You go in.
You spread that tight cunt of yours and you come back with a baby.
Then we all go our separate fucking ways.
Simple." Tight fury inflates Mathew's words and he doesn't stay quiet for long.
"How could you fuck it up? How could you fuck up something so infinitely simple?
You just had to lie there. It required no fucking effort from you! "
"Effort?" Despite the terror making my arms tremble and my knees knock together, I can't keep the anger in me down. "You told me if I did that, then my family would be safe, and what do I find? You fucking drugged and sold my sister! That wasn't part of the deal!"
"The deal?" Mathew lifts the gun and presses the edge of the barrel against his temple, twisting it back and forth. "You forfeited the fucking deal when you got my brother killed!"
Mathew snorts and drags his fat tongue over his upper lip.
"Daniil always was ambitious, I'll give him that.
But you?" He points the gun at me and a pulse of static floods my chest. "You were the fucking cunt who dragged this out for months!
Living it up in that beautiful fucking house, having the life of your dreams! "
Every word he spits from me is what Beatie yelled at me in the kitchen, confirming it was his snake-like lies that twisted her away from me.
"Bullshit," I snap, shakily raising both hands. "I did what you asked of me. You put me in that life and I did it to save the people I love."
"The people you love?" Mathew's face twists suddenly and the low light glints off his eyes.
Are those… tears?
"What about the people I love, huh?" Mathew lowers the gun and taps his own chest. "What gives that bastard the right to come over here and just crush everything we worked toward? What makes him think he can just take our place with no pushback?"
I swallow down a scoff. If I've learned anything about Kon, it's that he's smart when it comes to his business, and he wouldn't have cornered the market if there was no corner left. Mathew truly is delusional enough to see himself on the same level as Kon.
Asshole.
"And then he comes and kills my fucking brothers and thinks he can get away with it?" A humorless, dry laugh escapes Mathew like air rushing from a plastic bag. "Nah. Nah. I won't fucking have it.”
Wait… brothers? Is Lev dead?
Mathew thrust the gun in my direction again. “Bye, cunt."
"Wait!" I throw my hands up higher as panic surges inside me, and suddenly everything becomes alarmingly clear. "Don't! I'm pregnant!"
Mathew's eyes narrow. "What?"