Blood and Roses

chapter seven

Adjusting to my new routine wasn't difficult. It turned out the Smith's were not as decent and respectable as they posed . I did everything a help would do and even more. The chores seemed never ending and Richard was a bigger pain in the butt. He tried forcing himself on me twice but I turned him down and that seemed to put me on his bad side.

I would be beaten up, starved and made to clean up after their mess time and again. It was like reliving another nightmare. This time my body had purple and blue bruises to show for it.

I was positive the Smith's were involved in a shady business. I had seen files with a weird logo of a monochrome skull in a bandana and two daggers placed in an opposite angle beneath the skull while cleaning Richard's room on countless occasions.

He was hardly at home and whenever he returned, he was mostly in the study with his father and some strange scary men. I had bumped into one of them once and judging from their looks and accent, they seemed Russian and their demeanor screamed danger so I tried hard to stay away from sight whenever they were around.

I got a job in a martial art studio. The owner seemed to like me a lot and gave me the job without much hesitation.

I've always wanted to learn how to fight and defend myself just in case I ever needed to but my pay was not enough to get me signed in.

Mr kim who took the classes offered to teach me some moves and my enthusiasm to learn made me his favorite student.

We would train everyday after the main classes were done with and in the space of nine months, I had perfected every single move from the basics to the hardest and trickiest.

I was fast and had a perfect body.

I got better, tougher and stronger with each training and for the first time, I was proud of my achievements.

************

Mrs Liana travelled out of town for the week and Adam and Richard had some business to attend to, so I had the house all to my self. Of all the rooms in the house, I've never been allowed into the study and curiosity seemed to be getting the best of me. I stepped out of my room and walked towards the study.

The door to the study was always closed and with shaky hands, I drew out a pin from my hair and tried picking the lock with it. A few minutes later, a click broke through the deafening silence. I wiped my sweaty palm on my pants and pushed the door open.

The study was big. Books of different sizes decorated the shelves. There was one big door sized window in the room and it was unusually cold in here. The floor was covered in a red carpet, a massive black mahogany desk sat close to the window and a long black couch was placed few meters away from the desk. I strolled towards the desk, running my fingers tips on the fine surface.

A black shiny file seemed to catch my eyes. It had the same logo as the one I saw in Richard's room. Inside the file was information about some Russian group.

From what I could see, they were into drug trafficking, illegal arms trade and even human trafficking.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway, caught my attention. I walked close to the window and pulled down the blinds.. s**t!! Adams and Richard arrived earlier than I had expected.

In a flash,I returned the file back to it's original position and hurried out of the room.

With shaky hands, I closed the door hurriedly and sprinted towards my room.

I couldn't stop my heart from pounding as I shut the door to my room and took a seat on the bed. It was obvious the Smith's were related to the Russian syndicate.

I couldn't tell how they were related and what they did. A thousand questions raced through my mind and I fought hard to concentrate.

I cluctched my locket tightly and wondered if it was the same group my dad was talking of on the day of the incident.

Could it be that it was the same group that murdered my family in cold blood???

I needed answers and the Smith's were the keys to those answers.

I owe it to myself to get those answers and I would; One way or another.