Welcome Home, Rose

Twenty-Three

I woke up with a splitting headache.

I groaned my throat was burning with the desire for water. The light in the center of the room blinded me for a moment. I tried to stand, yelping when I felt a metal cuff digging into my wrist. Panic seized my heart, my vision getting clearer with every frantic beat of my heart. The room I was in felt eerily familiar. I stood up slowly this time, testing out the extent of my restraints. I wasn't being given very much room.

Think Heather! My mind scolded me. What do you remember?

I remembered driving to AJ's house, finding his door kicked in and him unconscious. He told to run, that it had been a trap, the next thing I knew I felt a sharp pain in my neck and I woke up here in this room I could only vaguely remember. I jumped hearing the sound of a door being opened and slammed shut.

"How hard is it to find fucking spark plugs and a starter Livana?!"

My heart stopped at the sound of his voice, his Irish accent heavy, his anger laced into very word. It had been five years since I had heard it. Five years since he made his promise to shatter my world. The very next day my parents had been taken by the Backroads Killer.

"Then start fucking digging Liv, I have waited way too long for this moment. I am not waiting any longer."

I sat back down on the bed, patting myself down. The gun I had taken from Randy's SUV was to my knowledge still at AJ's My phone was still with me, a quick glance showed me I had enough juice for one phone call. I quickly concealed it just as the door to my room opened. My eyes meeting a pair of glacier blue eyes, the rest of his face hidden behind a familiar black mask.

"Hello Ellie, it's been a long time."

I stared at him, too stunned to speak. He chuckled, removing the mask. His eyes and his cheeks looked sunken in; his skin paler than normal. His platinum blond hair was greasy hanging in chunks resting at his jawline, a thin scar running down his face. He smiled producing a white rose from behind his back coated in blood.

"Welcome home, Rose." He whispered his hand brushing my cheek.

My mind launched me right back in to the worst day of my life. The sound of my dad swearing, the popping of the tires as they hit the spike strip. The sound of the gunshot, my mom screaming, another shot, and the hand that brushed my cheek.

"We don't have time for this! Come on dumbass, we have to go!"

The owner of the voice had been female, their Irish accent heavy and furious. I pulled back, getting as much distance between myself and him as possible.

"It was you..." I croaked out. "You son of a bitch! You ruined my life!"

"I made you a promise." Shane grinned evilly; the gesture sent a shiver down my spine. "I'm not only going to ruin your life; I'm going to be taking it as well. Just as soon as I find your brother and my traitorous bitch of a sister."

"Why did you do it? Why kill my parents? Why kidnap my brother? Why threaten me to stay away from AJ? Do you still think I'm your property after all these years apart? If so, you're just as delusional as you were five years ago."

"Oh, how I have missed your fire, Ellie." He shrugged out of his sweatshirt. His plain black shirt clung to his slender frame I could see his ribs from underneath the fabric, his jeans were being held up by a belt. He looked downright awful. "I made you a promise, I was going to make the Turner family pay for what they did. We owned Bennington Parque, no one dared to cross us, no one said a word, and if they did the MacClellan's would take care of them. All of that changed when your mom showed up.