Fighting for Rose

21♦

21

♦𝕭𝖑𝖆𝖐𝖊♦

"You walked this road at night?" The tension in my shoulders gets stronger. We're ten miles down a heavily forested road, there are no lights and I've only seen three driveways since we turned out of the city.

How the fuck did she even see where she was going?

"Yeah. I was walking as it got dark though, so my eyes adjusted well." The words leave her mouth like it isn't a big deal. Like hell it isn't a big deal, anyone could have stopped their car and snached her up, and no one would have been around to see.

"It's right past this corner." She says. Isaiah and Ace haven't said much since the house, I think they can feel the murderous tendencies I'm feeling.

The only thing that's keeping me sane is that Rose is sitting safely in the passenger seat of my car.

We turn around the corner, but I don't see her car. I look over at Rose in question, to see her frowning at the road.

"I thought it was here." She mumbles.

"Maybe it's down further?" I say, but my heart sinks, because I see fresh tire marks on the side of the road where she probably would have pulled off.

She nods her head, but I can see the wheels turning, she knows it's not.

I won't turn around until we know for sure though, maybe it's a coincidence and those tire marks are unrelated to her car.

We drive for a while longer, each mile we pass looks more grim.

"We can turn around." Her voice cracks and she brings her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them.

Fuck, what's the world got against this girl?

"Are you sure? We can keep going." I offer.

I hate seeing her like this, when she's all curled up like that the pain in my heart burns harder.

"We passed the place I was working at. It's gone." She's trying so hard to conceal the pain in her voice, but I can hear it.

She leans her head against the window and hugs her knees tighter as I flip around. My fingers grip the steering wheel with enough force to turn my knuckles white.

"I'll call around, see what towing company got it." I want to see her smile again, like at the waterfall. But I don't know how to make her happy, and it's killing me.

"No. I don't think I would have been able to fix it anyway. I'm pretty sure the motor is toast." Her voice is even again, she takes a deep breath and lets her legs go back to the floor.

"Sorry for wasting your time." Her green eyes travel over to me as she forces a smile onto her plump lips. "But I'll figure it out from here."

"Rose." I grit. She's pushing me away again. "Don't apologize." I'm at a loss here, she's so important to me already, but there's no way she feels the same about me.

So I chose my words carefully, I can't risk scaring her away.

"We can get your car back, figure out what's wrong with it and go from there." It shouldn't be too hard to track down.

"No. It's not worth it. Even if we did find it, it'd cost hundreds to get it back." Her voice reasons.

"If you can't afford it I'll help." I glance over at her stiff posture and dig my fingers into the steering wheel.

I know she won't accept my money, but God I wish she would. Can't she see I just want to help her?

"He isn't worth that much, I'd be better off getting a new vehicle." She won't look at me, her eyes stare out the window as she speaks.