Page 104 of Bound Bride
"Do you think he's really in there?" Ethan asks as he climbs from the car.
I glance at him and then point at the vehicle. "Stay."
"Boss—"
"Stay!"
With that, I stride toward the building and hurry up the steps with my gun in hand.
I walk straight through the open doorway and into the dingy hallway.
It's utterly silent.
Scraps of paper dot the floor and several old yellow demolition warnings cling to the walls as I walk through each and every empty room.
There's no sign of life here at all. Did Lev lie?
Upstairs, I find my answer.
Inside the only room with a door, I open it slowly and find out why Lev sent me here.
Spread out in the middle of the floor, amidst a stomach-curling stench with his arms spread wide and his skin mottled with the early signs of decomposition, is Maxim.
Rose's father.
34
ROSE
"Beatie…" My heart pounds like a rabbit frantically fighting to escape my chest and my stomach knots tighten even further as I raise both hands. "Beatie… put the knife down."
"The whole time," Beatie snarls as the tears build in her eyes. "Thewholetime Mom and Dad and me were with them, suffering through everything they did to us, you were here! You were here in this big fucking house being treated like a princess! The whole time, you were safe! Being waited on hand and foot, being protected by guards and people who wouldn't dare raise a hand to you!"
She surges forward with the knife outstretched and I lurch backward in fright. "Beatie, please!"
"How could you do this?! You were supposed to help us! You were supposed to save us!"
"Please put the knife down!"
"No!" Her voice pitches and cracks. "He was right about you. You don't care about us. You never cared about us! All you ever cared about was yourself!"
"What? Beatie, that's not true! Everything I've done, everything I've been doing has been to keep you safe!"
"Safe?!" She advances again. "Do I look safe? You left me, Rose! You left me all alone and I have to protect Mom. And then Dad ditched us and I realized no one was coming for me. No one cared about me. No one was going to protect me and Mom so I had to step up and do it! And now the only way for me to get the fix I need and save her is to kill you!" Beatie laughs weakly. "I thought it would be hard. I thought he was asking me to do something impossible but look at you. Look at your life here. You never gave a shit, did you?"
The steak knife glints in the light and I remain frozen in place as words that don't even sound like Beatie pour from her lips.
How can she think that I don't care?
How can she stand there and yell that at me like I haven't been killing myself trying to save my family?
"Rose?" Calvin's sudden appearance in the kitchen is like a spark igniting a fuse.
His voice makes Beatie jump and he doesn't see the knife until Beatie lunges at me with a furious yell.
"Beatie!" I throw my arms in front of my face to protect myself but the blow doesn't come.
"Rose!" Calvin's yell tears through the air, and it's swiftly followed by a screech from Beatie.
