Rose with a Thorn

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It had been a little over a month and I have been kept safe here with Michael and Rachelle. I've watched so much tv while Michael had been out pretending to help Keith and his men look for me. Apparently, they started looking within a 2-hour radius from here.

I spent most of my time getting to know Rachelle. We hadn’t talked about anything related to them leaving me yet. I knew I wasn’t ready to tackle that burden yet. But I have gotten to know the woman she turned out to be.

She was an only child. She never had any other children besides me, so I guess that technically made me an only child as well. She was a terrible cook but she had been taking cooking lessons ever since Michael found out where I was. Rachelle said she doesn’t get involved in whatever business Michael handles, so she never had anything to use against him in court if anything were to ever happen.

They had a beautiful garden that Rachelle maintains. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to actually leave the house just in case anyone recognized me, or Keith had anyone keeping an extra eye on Michael, so I haven’t been able to see it yet. But she had been bringing some plants inside to teach me all about them.

She said right before next spring, we could plant some seeds together and watch them grow from the beginning. I should probably tell her that I didn’t plan on being anywhere near here for much longer.

I was waiting for Michael to come home one day and tell me that they had stopped the search. He has been keeping me fairly up to date about what has been happening out there, but he said the person most affected by my disappearance was Brandon.

The man had only met me once, and in that time, he tortured me with his touch and the way he smirked at me. How could he possibly be that attracted to me? I was trying to muddle through my brain to see if I might have recognized him from my life before, maybe in...

“Hello, earth to Rose!” I shook out of my inner monologue to Rachelle snapping her fingers in my face.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something. Is Michael on his way home?”

“He sure is, and he’s bringing pizza!”

Right then, my stomach growled. Me and Rachelle looked at each other and burst out laughing. We started to make our way to the kitchen when we heard tires on the gravel laneway. “Oh, that must be him! Rose, can you grab the plates, I'll get the pizza from him.”

“Sure, no problem! Meet you in the living room!” I called back. I reached up and grabbed 3 plates. I kind of loved that I knew where everything was and how comfortable I was getting without asking. I turned to head into the living room when Rachelle ran in the kitchen looking panicked.

“Oh s**t! Shh, okay Rose, you need to go to the basement. Behind the furnace is a hidden door, go through it and stay quiet! Quick, go!”

“What’s going on, Rachelle?” I asked as she pushed me towards the basement door.

“Just go, please. And be quiet. Do not come out until me or Michael come for you! Keith is with him.”

Oh... shit... My face immediately lost all color and I felt dizzy. They couldn’t have found me. We were so careful.

I ran down the stairs as quick and quietly as I could. I could hear footsteps above my head while I felt behind the furnace for the door. I was glad they didn’t make it easy to find, but if I didn’t find it myself, he was going to find me.

Ah hah! Got it. I opened the door very slowly and slid inside, closing it as quietly as I could.

“Rachelle, it’s so nice to see you again!” I heard Keith say.

“What a surprise, Keith! I wasn’t expecting to have company tonight.”

“Well, you know... Mike here has been working so hard looking for your daughter and I just wanted to pay you both a visit with the latest updates. Brandon thinks he caught a glimpse of Rose down by the waterfront today, but by the time he got there, she was gone. I kept thinking to myself, why would she bother staying around this immediate area? She can’t go back to Miranda knowing I have someone always watching her, Amelia is long gone with Derrick for now, and that pain in the ass Adrian has people working with him to find her too. Not that I think she would trust him to keep her safe.”

Wow, I was in shock. Even Adrian was looking for me? I hadn’t heard his name or thought of him in a while. I wonder why he cared so much.

“Boss, we have looked everywhere... Why don’t we just assume she’s no longer anywhere near here? There's no way Brandon would’ve seen her; it was probably just someone with a resemblance.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking, myself. I really just wanted to come over and thank you both for helping so much in all this. I know she’s your daughter and you must be just as worried.”

“No offence,” said Rachelle, “I like you, Keith. I do, you have always been good to both me and Michael. And you helped raise our daughter into the woman she is becoming. But don’t for one second think you have any idea what it’s like to lose your child for a second time. You chose to walk away from your wife and daughter. You chose to let your daughter leave with Derrick. Michael and I didn’t choose to let you find our daughter that night and we certainly did not choose to have her disappear again!”

Wow. Damn Rachelle, give it to him! I heard the c*****g of a gun and covered my mouth so I wouldn’t scream.

“Woah!” I heard Michael say. “Put that thing away before someone gets hurt, Brandon.”

“The only person that’s going to get hurt here is that damned wife of yours for talking to the Boss that way, and maybe you if you interfere. I want to know where my little flower is, and I want to know now!”

My entire body shivered in excitement hearing Brandon’s voice. What the hell was wrong with me! This man shouldn’t excite me at all!

“Put it down.” The whole room went silent.

“Whatever. I’ll be outside. Make it quick, Keith, I want to get back to looking.”

“Sorry about him, Rachelle. He's been losing it ever since she left. He really got attached to her while he was watching her over the years. That's why I kept him away from her so long. I think he might actually love Rose, in his own way.”

The room up there was silent, and honestly, so was I. Brandon had been watching me for years!? I felt sweat start to drip down my back and my breathing quickened. Don't faint in here, I kept repeating to myself.

I didn’t know how long I was there, but once I got my breathing under control and my head started to clear, I could hear them talking again. They must have moved rooms because they were quite muffled now.

I needed to get out of here. This was too much; I was feeling too many things. And this space was so little. Why did they make it so little? I started to get worked up again, but I couldn’t control it this time. I heard more movement from upstairs and the front door opened?

“See you tomorrow, Boss!” I heard Michael call.

Okay, good, they were leaving. Just a few more minutes Rose. You can do this. You got this. I tried to gather myself while listening to the footsteps come down the stairs and closer to me. I heard a little whoosh from the door unlatching and opening, and a burst of air filled my lungs.

“Rose, come on out. It's safe now.”

I took two steps out and collapsed into a strong pair of arms. I didn’t realize I had started to cry until I felt Michael rub my back and hush me. “It’s okay, honey. Just breathe. Dad has you now. It's okay, let it out.”

I felt him pick me up and he started carrying me up the stairs. Rachelle took one look at me and ran over to hug us both. “I’m sorry I couldn’t warn you. I drove up to the house as slow as I could without raising suspicion to give you guys a little more time.”

“I was so scared, Michael. I thought he knew. I thought when Rachelle said Keith was with you, he was here to take me back with him.”

“No, honey. No. I wouldn’t let him take you again if I could help it. You're safe, I promise.” I nodded my head and gently pushed myself away from him to wipe the tears from my face.

“Come on, let’s go upstairs and eat something.” Michael let Rachelle and I go up first, closing the basement door behind him. The air was thick with tension from what just happened, and it felt like Rachelle had something to say. I brushed off the feeling when I heard my stomach start to grumble. I opened the pizza box lid to the most delicious smell.

I closed my eyes to breathe it in before I took a slice, I had to wonder how they knew my favorite kind of pizza. It wasn’t something that was typically ordered, so I had been told before. “How did you know what I like?” I asked while I grabbed a slice.

“Michael was able to get a lot of intel on you when Keith brought him up in the ranks. At first, I didn’t know what he thought was going to happen knowing Michael was your biological father.”

“How did Keith even find you Michael? My whole life him and Miranda told me no one ever came looking for me.”

“Keith worked very hard to keep us apart. We spent a lot of time putting up flyers all over the surrounding areas. After a while, we started to notice that a day or two after we’d put some up, they’d be gone when we came back. We weren’t sure if people had been taking them down because they recognized you, or where they were going, but we never heard a word about anyone finding you. One day, we were out walking around, and a young girl in her teens came out of the store she worked in and said she had seen a man coming around taking down our flyers, so she followed him, and he was burning them in an alley fire. We contacted the local police with this new information and our claims went totally unheard. The next thing we knew, Keith was at our door talking about you. He promised we could have you back if we did everything that he asked.”

“And did you?”

“He may have used you as a bargaining tool to get your father to do things for him, but Michael didn’t have a choice except to continue working for him.”

“Why did you not have a choice? Why not just demand my safe return?”

Michael and Rachelle looked at each other, having a silent conversation through their eyes. Eventually Rachelle nodded, and they turned back to me. I was not expecting to hear what I did.

“Keith told me if we wanted you back, I had to shoot someone for him. I hope you understand, I would have done anything I could to get you back,” Michael said. “I knew without a doubt I could shoot a leg or arm if it meant being with you. But that’s not what he had in mind. Keith put the gun in my hand and lifted it to a 16-year-old boy’s head. My daughter’s safe return, and all I had to do was pull the trigger. A life for a life, he said.”