“Rose, oh god, baby please wake up.”
I know that voice.
I open my eyes and realize that I'm screaming. Forcing myself to stop, I stare at Bear in shock.
“I'm so sorry,” I tell him.
“You have nothing to be sorry about. You were having a nightmare,” he says as he gently touches my face. “I couldn't get you to wake up.”
The brief glimpse in his eyes tells me he was worried. No one has ever been worried about me before. I lose what little control I had left and cry. Bear picks me up as if I weigh nothing, sits down with his back to the headboard and lays me on top of him. He holds me tight and for the first time in my life, I feel safe. I don't know how long he held me while I cried but I eventually found the strength to stop.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks me.
I don’t want to tell him anything about my past, but I know I need help if I want to stay away from my father and Roman Hernández. I also trust Bear. I don't know why. I've only known him for a handful of hours, but I feel it deep in my bones that he can save me.
So, I shake my head no and say, “yeah.”
Chapter Six
Bear
Laying on my back with Rose on top of me would typically have me thinking of ways of getting the woman under me. However, the current situation feels anything but sexual. Rose is silent for so long that I thought she fell asleep. Then her soft voice breaks the silence, and she finally opens up.
“I've never met my mother. For as long as I can remember it's just been me, my father, and his people,” she says in a timid voice.
“His people?” I ask.
I feel her nod against my chest.
“Yeah, the people who work for him.”
I lock away that info for another time and wait for her to say more.
“My father is very strict, and he doesn't like it when his rules are broken.”
She's silent for a few minutes, and I feel her body start to shake.
“You're safe here.” I hold her tighter trying to prove to her that I'll protect her. “You don't have to say anymore if you don't want to.”
“It's fine. I really need help, Bear. I don't know what to do,” she tells me through shuddering sobs. “Maybe I can go to the police. Aren't they supposed to help with things like this?”
“Let's go through it together first. Then I'll discuss it with my brothers, and if we need to, we'll involve those idiots, okay?”
“Um, okay. As I said, it's always been just my father and me,” she tells me as her body softens against mine a little. “Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I have a younger brother. His name is Josh. He never lived in the house with us, but he was around often.”
Rose lifts her head up, places her chin on her hands, and stares down at my chest. While I ache for her to look into my eyes, I can't be too upset at the moment because I can now see her face as she talks.
“Josh was nice to me every chance he could be,” she says with a small smile. “He couldn't let father see, but when we were alone, he was always so kind. He would even sneak me in a chocolate bar every so often. The ones with nuts. Have you heard of them?” She asks and takes a quick glance up at my eyes. “They are so very good.”
“I have,” I say. I chuckle at the look on her face. I'm getting this woman all the chocolate bars she desires.
“Anyway, Josh lived with his mother. I'm not sure where, but I do know it was far.”
Sighing, Rose lays her head back down on my chest.
“From the time I was little, I knew never to break father's rules for if I did, I would end up in the punishment room.”
“Punishment room?”
“The name itself is pretty self-explanatory. Father isn't one for his imagination. He calls things for what they are,” she says as if she's just stating a simple truth.
“What happens in the punishment room?” I ask her, trying to keep my rage checked.
“It depends really on what I did. Sometimes I just got left in there for hours, or days with no food or water. Father would always turn the heat up on those days. Other times I was tied down on this metal table, naked, and father would play with my skin using dry ice.”
“What?” I yelled.
“Hours, I would be held there while he traced my skin with the ice, and sometimes, the pain would be worse than the cuts,” she continues as if she didn't just hear my sudden outburst. “Occasionally, he left them in one place too long, and it burned my skin so badly it scarred. You've seen my back, Bear,” she rolls off me, sits on the bed beside me, and finally looks me in the eyes.
“He would cut me with his knife and leave it to become so infected that it scarred terribly. I have marks on my side where he would shoot me with that electric gun he has, and they have scarred terribly. The marks on my back carry down to my inner thighs. Burns on my stomach and legs from the dry ice. Don't you see it, Bear? I will never be a beautiful Rose. I will never be a beautiful anything. I am scarred on the inside just as bad, if not worse, as I am on the outside. Not to mention my father sold me to some man named Roman Hernández. So, can you please just let me get out of your hair and take me to the police?”
I lay there shocked silent. The more she spoke the more confident her voice became. Sweet Rose will be one fierce woman once she blossoms. Then it hit me. Did she just say what I think she did?
Finding my voice, I ask, “Did you say, Roman Hernández?”
“Yes,” she says with a resigned sigh as she slumps easily onto her side.
“Let me tell you a little more. My father's number one was rule was that I was to never show myself to any of his company. My face was not to be known to anyone but my brother, the workers, and father. I never really understood why. I also never asked. Then last night father brought a man home and told Eric to bring me to his office.”
“Wait, who is Eric?” I ask before she can continue. I want to make sure I have all the facts.
“Oh, Eric was my prison guard. He was the one who was always guarding my door, walking me from room to room, watching me while I was outside.”
She pauses as if in thought then continues where she left off.
“I go to fathers office, and I'm told that I will be leaving with Roman Hernández the next morning. Something came over me and I shouted that I wasn't going anywhere. Mr. Hernández decided to teach me a little lesson before he left. That's why the marks on my back are so fresh.”
Just another reason to kill Hernández, slowly.
“Roman and my father were talking about a deal that was due to be set on my twenty-fifth birthday. I had to be pure and able to obey or something of that nature,”
I wait a few minutes before speaking.
“Okay, let me start off first by asking when your twenty-fifth birthday is?”
Peering at me under those long eyelashes she says, “Today. I guess that's why Roman had to leave and come back in the morning because whatever deal they had made had yet to start.”
It's her birthday?
“I know Roman Hernández,” I mutter.
Rose's eyes widen with fear, and I knew I made a mistake in my word placement. Again. Reaching out I tuck her hair behind her shoulder.