Rose with a Thorn

CHAPTER TEN

I puked. All over one of Keith’s henchmen’s shoes. He grabbed my hair and pulled my head up to look at him. He was mad. Before he could get a word out, a gun was fired, and Amelia and I both screamed.

“Don’t you dare put your hands on her again Warren. It'll be the last time your hand touches anything.” Keith said calmly. I looked over at Warren and he was holding his hand to his chest. There was so much blood. I looked down and one of his fingers was floating in my vomit. I puked again.

“Can’t sew that back on now, I guess you paid your price in full. Get out of my face and get that cleaned up. Lisa, can you get this puke out of here, it stinks.”

In all the commotion, no one noticed that Derrick had opened his eyes and was well aware that he was currently tied up. I tried, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he was looking around, assessing the situation.

Keith followed my gaze over and started smiling. “Wakey, wakey, boy. Nice of you to join us.”

The look Derrick gave Keith was one best described out of a murderous movie scene. He wasn’t scared at all, his were narrowed and his breathing labored. He knew exactly what this was all about, and he didn’t look afraid that he had been caught. Or what his consequences would be.

Unfortunately for Derrick, he wasn’t able to talk yet, or I'm sure not so nice words would have been coming out of his mouth. He took another look around the area before he realized Amelia was here, crying. His entire demeaner softened. Oh, he fell for her too.

He started pulling on his restraints, trying to get free. Amelia was shaking her head no, but he didn’t care, he was focused entirely on trying to get to her. One of the men came up from behind, stabbing a knife in his leg. Derrick screamed the best he could with his mouth gagged. Amelia stood up to move toward him when Keith stepped in front of her.

“Now that we have the room's attention, I'd like to ask you a few questions Derrick. If you answer me correctly, you’ll get to touch Amelia one last time. If you don’t, you will die knowing she watched you go.”

“No!” screamed Amelia, “You can’t do that to me!”

“Oh honey, I’m sorry. I know it pains you, but this isn’t about you right now. Derrick is very smitten with you; I even think he might have wanted to propose if things didn’t play out this way. But I need information. And I will get it one way or another.”

I didn’t think Amelia understood what Keith was saying, but I knew Derrick wasn’t making it out of here alive. This was both of their punishments. Derrick for betraying his Boss, Amelia for falling in love with the enemy. There was nothing anyone could do. Keith was determined for this to end exactly how he wanted.

“If you kill him, you’ll have to kill me too.”

I knew Keith wasn’t expecting to hear that from his only biological daughter. He didn’t move, he just stood there looking at her.

“Amelia,” I whispered. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Just sit here quietly, please.”

She shook her head and looked right at Keith. “I mean it, Keith. You will have to kill me too.”

Ouch. That hurt. If Keith was surprised by the use of his name from her, he didn’t show it. Never once had I heard Amelia call her dad by his name, not even after his death.

He turned away, closing his eyes in thought. When he faced Amelia again, he looked like stone. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Melia bug. But no, I won’t be killing you, no matter what happens here. You can stay with Rose until you’ve forgiven me. Until then, you are now under 24/7 guard.”

I could feel a few men step up behind Amelia, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Keith. Was he really k********g his own daughter?

“Now... if we can please get started, I have somewhere else to be later. You... bring me the tools.” As someone was bringing over what Keith requested, he walked to where Derrick was and crouched down in front of him.

“I don’t care if you want to make this as painful as possible, either way I will get what I want and enjoy every second of it. I'm going to take off your mouth gag and you’re going to give me precise answers. If I don’t like the answer, I will punish you. Do you understand?”

Nothing happened.

“I said, do you understand!?” Keith screamed as he punched Derrick in the stomach.

Amelia screamed again, as Derrick nodded his head.

“Good. Amelia, sit down.”

No nonsense Keith was back. Amelia did what she was told while someone removed Derricks gag. The second it was off, Derrick looked right at Amelia. “I’m so sorry, baby. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was never supposed to find out. You were never supposed to be here.”

I couldn’t believe what was happening. I grabbed Amelia’s hand, trying to lend her some of my strength. Her tears fell silently while she was forced to watch.

“Now Derrick, what was I not supposed to find out?”

Derrick spat at him. “If you’re just going to kill me anyways, why would I tell you s**t?”

That earned him another punch in the gut.

“You claim to care about my daughter... do you think she wants to sit here and watch you get whipped and sliced open? Maybe lose a few fingers, toes, an ear? Hmm, I doubt that. You will tell me what I want, or I will force her to watch every second of the rest of your pitiful life.”

I was dumbfounded. Keith was ruthless. He was a monster. How could he do this to another person? Let alone force his daughter to watch? I was shaking sitting here watching but I knew better than to say or do anything. I kept a hold of Amelia and prayed to whatever God that’s out there to please help us.

“Fine. I will tell you everything.” Derrick panted out. “I will tell you every single piece of information you want to know, under one condition.”

He looked up at Keith. I looked at Keith.

“You are in absolutely no position to compromise!” he laughed.

“On the contrary, I think I'm in a great position to do so. You see, your daughter means the world to me, and watching me suffer is going to cause her more pain than it will me. If there’s anything I've known about you Keith, it’s that you love Amelia and Miranda more than anything in this world. Even more than your precious little gem, Rose.”

He spat my name out. I couldn’t help but ask, “What the hell did I ever do to you?”

“You ruined my life!!! You stupid, idiotic girl! I knew what was going to happen to you so me and Amelia were going to run away together! She had no idea what my real goal was and I was going to tell her everything as soon as we were far enough away from here. But then Adrian happened because he talked to you and your tough act turned the bastard on. Keith reassigned me to driving the getaway car after we grabbed you because of it, and I knew if I didn’t show up, I was a dead man. And now look at us! You're forced to work with a ghost, and I'm a dead man anyways.”

I knew the position I was in right now, but the mention of Adrian made my skin flush, and my heart rate increased. No. Not right now. This was not the time to think about him.

Amelia pulled her hand away from me and I rolled my eyes. “There’s something going on between you and Adrian? Why didn’t you tell me?”

She almost seemed offended. I knew now wasn’t the time to talk about this, not with all these eyes on us. Thank God Keith decided to continue on with his crazy.

“Enough!! What was I not supposed to know!?”

“You didn’t agree to my condition...”

“...what do you want, Derrick?”

“I want my life back. I will tell you every single thing I know, and me and Amelia will walk out of here. We will get on a plane, and you’ll never see or hear from us again.”

“You will not take my daughter anywhere. She is MY daughter; she is not your property.”

“Not to burst your bubble, Keith, but I doubt your daughter is going to want anything to do with you again after the side you just showed her. Just let us go.”

I could see the wheels turning in his head. “Fine. I’ll accept your condition... start talking.”

That was too easy, I knew it. Keith had something up his sleeve. But Derrick relaxed too much and missed the look on his face. He quickly composed his facial features before taking a seat and waiting for Derrick to spill the tea.

“Can you untie me first?”

“You already got your one condition... don’t push my patience.”

“Alright,” Derrick nodded. “I started working part time for Mr. Claus about 3 years ago. He doesn’t trust anyone, not even his most reliable men, and for good reason. At first, I just wanted to see how he ran his show. I spent months observing, doing everything that was asked of me and nothing more. Eventually he noticed all my hard work and that I kept my mouth quiet. He asked me if he could trust me enough to be his spy. He already knew I worked for you too but didn’t want to spook me too soon. I agreed to give him intel on you on the condition he pays me a very hefty amount of money in an offshore bank account. It was always my intention to meet and leave with Amelia.

I started with just giving him little things here and there. Nothing too big that would make you suspicious, but enough information that he wouldn’t call the whole thing off and kill me himself. The deeper in I got, the bigger tidbits I would give. If he didn’t find something valuable, he would turn it into the police to deal with. I’d say a little less than half the task force is under his thumb.

But recently, you started to wonder how the police always knew exactly where to be and when. What you haven’t noticed, is how many of your own men willingly switched sides. I guess that’s thanks to me too. I helped them get out relatively unnoticed by you. Adrian was the biggest kink. Mr. Claus wanted him so badly; he really is a very good soldier. It's too bad you shot him. If he makes a recovery, he’s going to come for your blood... he’s going to come for Miranda and Amelia. I just want to get her out of here, Keith. Let me protect her. No one will ever find us; I swear to you.”

Keith was debating believing him. I wasn’t sure how he made it to be the Boss when you could clearly see his thought process in his eyes and face. He turned and looked at me as he pondered the request.

“Rose, can you do another reading on him for me?” I looked over at Derrick before turning back to Keith.

“I really don’t trust being around all these men...”

Keith sighed. “I understand. Take him into Rose’s room in the basement, we’ll be down in a few minutes.”

Everyone moved at once. Several men dragged Derrick to his feet while the others backed away into the field. I noticed that they didn’t go much further than the 20 feet I did. I followed Keith into the living room before he turned around right in front of me, causing me to stumble into his chest.

He grabbed my shoulders to steady me. “I know this is a lot to take in today and the last couple days. You will be compensated for as long as you stay with me. But if I am to trust that he will protect Amelia, I need to know if you see anything in his future that would contradict her safety.”

“I care about Amelia too, Keith. Of course, I want to protect her. But I don’t need a bunch of grown men knowing what I'm doing or watching me pass out. It's bad enough you’re using me, I don’t want anyone else thinking they can too.” I said angrily.

He nodded his head, and we went down to the basement. “And just so you know, one of my men brought a video camera, so we will be recording every session from now on. Just as you requested.”

I didn’t say anything as I walked past him into the room. I noticed the camera ready to go off to the side, and the dirty look Derrick gave me. When Amelia walked in the room behind Keith, Derrick’s entire demeanor changed. I didn’t think he was acting when it came to his feelings for Amelia. I think he really might love her.

As I approached him on the ground, I couldn’t help the nauseous feeling I had creeping up within me. I sat on my knees in front of him, fighting the urge to lean over and vomit. I laid my hands on his arm and closed my eyes to concentrate. All I could think about this time was Amelia, inwardly praying something positive comes from this so I don’t have anyone’s death on my hands.

The rush I felt was completely different from before... it was more of a relaxed surge of emotions. The room faded out behind me, and I was flung into a black and white movie. There was no sound, just lots of movement in my vision.

Something was happening... I felt myself sucked backwards.

I was trying to keep my eyes open at the same time my vision started to fade. The last thing I saw was Keith’s face covered in anger.