Chapter 3
* * *
Six Weeks Later
Rose really shouldn’t be doing this, but she also couldn’t help herself.
If she had any self-control, she wouldn’t be in her current life predicament, anyway.
But it was a well-established fact about her that once she got a thought in her head, she became obsessed with it—no matter how obscure or ridiculous that thought was.
She just fixated on it, and a lot of times, she did not think the consequences of those actions through.
She’d been trying to do better since Oscar. It wasn’t just her life she was risking fucking up anymore. Unfortunately, that self-control took a lot to maintain, and Rose tried her damnedest to keep to an agenda that was standard for her and Oscar without being predictable to an outsider.
And alarms. She had a lot of alarms scheduled, because she knew the moment she strayed from her agenda, it would be Oscar who suffered.
She had to be better for him.
But maybe… Maybe just a peek… She’d been helping Keys out with his new security system, testing his code to find weak points.
Part of his software included an overwatch of Mount Grove itself, including police cameras, traffic cameras, and even private security cameras from outside residences and businesses.
Whether it was authorized or not, Rose didn’t know, though she highly doubted it was.
Part of her system was set up to attack his program, but the other part had access to his cloud base.
The trust he offered her by even showing her his code meant more to Rose than she could possibly express. The blueprints of a code were kept secret and secure for a reason.
It wasn’t a breach of his trust, per se, to access it now.
She just hadn’t gotten permission to do so.
But how else was she going to watch this bachelor auction?
Sure, she could hack into the town’s mainframe on her own, but his program might pick up on that.
That was what it was designed to do, after all.
And then he’d be alerted to her eavesdropping…
Plus, they hadn’t exchanged pictures or real names. She didn’t know how much Keys knew about her, and she’d been trying to keep herself from looking too much into him. It was a temptation that would go nowhere. What difference would learning his name make?
Or putting a face to the name?
The oversight that Rose kept on Poison and the Non Cras might seem creepy to some. Even now, she had several monitors set up with various angles of traffic as the club cruised through the streets of New Orleans. But Poison had already been kidnapped once, and Rose would not lose her sister again.
What was a little peek anyway?
Keys had been working so hard to improve himself.
Not for this auction or for his brothers or even for her—but for him.
He was very adamant about that. It might be small things, like making the decision to grow his hair out and to stop shaving, to switch up his diet and add a workout routine, but he was still making the effort.
Rose was very proud of him for that. In fact, he’d inspired her to make a few changes of her own, including getting an under-the-desk treadmill so she wasn’t sitting all day long—other than her only daily exercise of chasing Oscar around when he got the zoomies.
Even after only a few weeks, Rose could already feel the difference.
Looking up the auction wasn’t to spy on Keys, to finally be able to see him. That was a perk, sure, but not her main reason. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself as she pulled up the feeds to the town.
It had been a long time since Rose had belonged anywhere.
Ironically, or pathetically, the place she’d felt the most loved and supported had been juvie when she’d been seventeen.
While she could argue unfairness on the part of the judge, who had only seen her “bad girl” image, her six month stint had been a structured environment where Rose felt seen for the first time.
Her counselors especially had tried to set her on a different path, but Rose had panicked leading up to her release date, and one bad decision had led to another.
She couldn’t curse it all, though. If she’d listened to her counselors, she wouldn’t have Oscar, and she wouldn’t trade her son for anything. He was her reason for living, her purpose for not returning to a life she’d hated but felt she deserved.
Looking through the monitors, Rose watched the townspeople of Mount Grove mill about. It was mid-afternoon on the east coast and the mountainside terrain was already bringing the winter chill, even though it was only October.
There was something homey and humble about Mount Grove.
In all the places she’d lived, she’d never experienced the affection for that place, a love of home.
Maybe because she’d never allowed herself to become attached, or because she subconsciously feared it disappearing in the blink of an eye.
It wouldn’t take much, a small slip-up could have dire effects.
Like a ripple in a pond that she couldn’t yet see.
The way Keys talked about Mount Grove, even in the lifeless text of their written messages, there was a warmth, a bond, with the land he called home.
Rose envied that. Watching the celebration that was for nothing more extraordinary than the changing of the seasons, Rose saw the camaraderie and simple atmosphere of small-town life.
Melancholy gripped her.
She would never have that. She couldn’t even have a conversation with her own sister without disguising her voice so she couldn’t be identified. When was the last time she’d had a meaningful, face-to-face conversation with an adult?
Oscar was such a well-behaved toddler. Based on the horror stories she’d read about the Terrible Twos, she’d really lucked out.
She tried to limit his screen time as much as possible, though she wasn’t above using it when needed to occupy him when the club needed her full attention.
He was so inquisitive, but the way he studied things was through quiet observation.
Rose had even had to inquire online if it was “normal”, and discovered that quiet personalities were not uncommon.
The loud personalities, obviously, just made the most noise.
Glancing around her monitor, Rose couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face as she saw her son play with his letters and numbers mat.
It reminded her of the Dance, Dance, Revolution dance pad from the nineties.
Her high school hadn’t been able to upgrade their field day games since before Poison had attended that same school a decade before Rose did, so she was familiar with some of the earlier models.
Oscar had his little red Spidey headphones on and was completely engrossed in whatever game the mat was prompting him with. He might not speak often, only a word here or there, but he knew his ABCs and 123s. Rose was extremely proud.
Movement on the monitor in front of her caught her eye, and she saw a group of kids running down the cordoned off street. Vendor booths and businesses with open doors lined the sidewalks decorated with fall-themed garland running lamppost to lamppost.
When she’d first discovered her pregnancy, Rose had considered numerous paths.
The father was going to prison for a long time, but what about the others who were looking for her?
She couldn’t take a baby on the run with her.
What sort of life did that offer him or her?
The idea of an abortion was deplorable to her, but could she really risk the welfare and life of her child when she had no idea what her welfare and life would be in nine months?
She’d booked the appointment, but standing outside that clinic, Rose knew she couldn’t do it.
Some might argue for or against her decision, but in the end, it was no one’s business but her own.
She’d looked into adoption. Surely giving her child away was the best thing.
To give him the life she couldn’t. But who could she trust him to?
Her parents were dead, and there wasn’t a maternal bone in Poison’s body.
Plus, hiding him with family would defeat the purpose.
He’d be too easily found. She’d looked into adoption agencies, even considered looking for a family in Canada or England, but she couldn’t make up her mind.
And the moment Oscar had been handed to her, and she looked into her baby’s eyes and his little smooshed face and his coned head… Rose knew. There was no giving up her son. He was hers, and she would give him the best life she could.
Staring at the monitors, though, she wondered if that was the right choice.
Oscar would never know the carefree life of running down the street at a town celebration with other kids his age.
Things were constantly changing for them.
New car, new home, new surroundings. What would she do when it was time for him to go to school?
Needing to get her mind off things she couldn’t change or decisions that did not affect today, Rose searched for a distraction. The bachelor auction was down at the other end of the street, by where the pony rides and other activities were happening on the grassy lawn of the town center.
Even with the cold weather, a man stood up on the makeshift stage in a fireman’s uniform doing a strip tease. Talk about distractions. Rose’s eyebrows lifted, and she happily zoomed in to watch the show.
* * *
“Something you want to share?”
Keys winced. He’d been hoping to make a clean getaway after departing the stage, but of course, the universe wouldn’t let him. Trying to portray innocence, he turned on the balls of his feet and offered Cage a wide smile.