“Maggie’s gone!” I cried. “I’m so worried, she left her phone and her wallet and she never —.”
“—I’ve got her.”
“What?”
“I’ve got her, Rose. She’s safe,” he promised. “Everything’s alright, babe.”
My heart swelled with relief and tears began falling down my face.
Chapter 50
MAGGIE
When Mom walked in the door of Grace’s hotel room, I ran to her and threw my arms around her.
“Magnolia, I was so worried about you!” She kissed my cheek and looked me over.
“I’m alright, sorry Mom. I had a fight with Dad and just left without thinking.”
“He was at the house?”
“He came by to tell me he was changing our plans. He wants to leave tomorrow to go out of town for the whole week.”
“You have school.”
“I know, he doesn’t care. He said he would convince you.”
“Rose, why don’t you come on in?” Grace suggested. “We have a lot to talk about.”
Bewildered, Mom walked in slowly, looking around at everyone. Blade walked to her side, placing a protective arm around her.
“Rose, these are my friends,” he said. “Grace, Ryder, Slade and Riot.”
They all shook hands and exchanged a few awkward smiles. The room seemed very small all of a sudden and I wondered if I’d made a huge mistake to involve all these people in our lives.
“Hey, guys, why don’t you let us have the room for a while? It’s a little crowded in here and Rose and Maggie need a few minutes.”
“Of course,” Ryder said, as the guys all walked to the door. Blade hesitated, but Ryder called him to go with him. I wanted to ask him to stay, but I didn’t. Now that Mom was here, it was time to talk to her about everything.
“I’ll be right back,” Blade said. “Call if you need us.”
Mom nodded as he closed the door, turning back to me and grabbing my hand.
“Maggie, tell me everything and don’t leave anything out.”
Her eyes told me everything was going to be okay.
It had been the secrets that were putting me in danger all along.
Chapter 51
DEREK
I stood looking out over the ledge of my folk’s property, thinking about how much life had changed in these last few years. Maybe I really did have it good with Rose. Life sure had gone downhill without her.
I’d never been happy, though.
All the adventure I missed out on haunted me. All the things I wanted to do that I’d said I would get to later was just me trying to console myself with lies. Later was never going to come. It never did.
I’d let myself get wrapped up in the money and power that came with being a Davenport in this town. My father had been the founder of the hospital and when his only son’s grades weren’t good enough to get into med school, he asked for favors to make it happen.
I’d been in debt to people ever since.
It was entirely different than being in debt to the government for tuition. My tuition never existed. It was just wiped away behind the scenes with the wave of a man’s hand, a score being kept amongst the wealthy families of Savannah.
Saying no to marrying Rose wasn’t an option for me.
Not going to med school wasn’t an option.
I thought about Blade, born to a poor family that didn’t seem to want to have much to do with him and I thought again that he was the lucky one. He was the one that got to have a life, and now he gets Rose, too.
I laughed, my laughter swallowed up by the wind as I turned away. I grabbed the plastic ziplock bag and walked over to my mother’s garden. She’d be appalled if she knew what her precious flowers were being used for.
The angel’s trumpet was one of the biggest features in her garden. The flowers were dramatic — massive gold and pink blooms that hung down from large six feet tall shrubs. They were one of the first she showed off when she had guests. Her hydrangeas and peonies were also a big hit, but the trumpets were sure to impress.
I pulled on a pair of latex gloves and clipped several blooms off, placing them carefully into the plastic bag before zipping it closed.
I took one more look out at the property, remembering running around carelessly as a boy, thinking the world was going to provide me with anything and everything I’d ever need, without asking much of me in return.
And it did.
Until it didn’t. Now, I had to pay in a way I never imagined I would.
I climbed into my car with a resigned sigh, the trumpet blooms on the seat next to me, as I drove away. It felt like I was driving with a bomb, and essentially I was, because those flowers could blow up my entire life.
At this point, I wasn’t sure there was much left to salvage, but the thought of it all being over wasn’t a pleasant one, not just yet.
“All because of Anton,” I scoffed, shaking my head.
Hell, I thought, maybe I should give him the Angel’s Trumpet. He’s a million years old, nobody would think twice about him keeling over suddenly. And the entire fucking town would take to the streets to celebrate if that old turtle died.
Instead, I was being forced to eliminate the threats that existed to expose what a sick fuck he was.
Somehow, that didn’t seem quite right.
I drove to the hotel to find Hannah and Grace, the blooms sitting peacefully beside me, a vial of saline in my pocket and my head spinning out of control.
Chapter 52
ROSE
I held Maggie against my chest as she cried.
She’d told me about everything she and Tara witnessed at the cemetery and I was mortified.
I’d had no idea she’d been holding all of this horror inside of her for years. How she hadn’t broken down before now escaped me. A surge of protectiveness rushed through me and I wanted to make every single one of those men pay
