Red Roses ~Marcus Lopez Arguello

29~ Thorns.

Scarlett and Marcus sat in the car, a silence wafting between them as Scarlett drove away from the house. A weight had been lifted off of Marcus' shoulders, and he finally felt free after a long time. Marcus turned to the girl who sat bloody in her red car, driving home. "Hey Scarlett."

She hummed and raised an eyebrow towards him, continuing to drive home. "Hm?"

"Are we going back to Kings?" That was the last place he wanted to be.

"Do you want to go back?"

Marcus sighs out, smiling. "No."

Scarlett lightly laughed "Figured that much. If you want you can come stay with me. I mean I have the space and all, and it would be nice to have some other faces in the house-"

"I'd like that." He cuts off the girls rambling and she stops herself, looking at the boy, whispering out.

"Okay. Cool." She turns the corner, driving down the street where the entrance of Kings is located. "I'll have my men come and pick up all of our stuff."

"Won't Lin be mad?"

"They'll be in and out of there before he even notices. Promise."

"I believe you."

She looks over at him, before keeping her eyes on the road, finally blurting out what she's wanted to say for the longest while. "I want you to work with me."

"Scarlett-" His eyes widened.

"I know it's a lot to ask, and I- I know it's not the mundane shit you wanted in life, but maybe, maybe this is the closest to normal we get." She looks at him, taking one hand off of the steering wheel and onto his. "I don't wanna lose you again, and you'll be a lot safer with me, I can protect you and take care of you-" Marcus moves his hand so it's interlocked with hers and she stops and stares at the boy.

He nods, a smile forming on his face. "Yes."

"Really?" She didn't think he'd say yes.

"Really." Scarlett smiles as her face flushes. She turns to face the road once again. He then asks her, placing his other hand on top of their interlocked one. "Hey. Now that I work for you, does this mean I get to know more about you, Scar?"

Scarlett nods, figuring now was best. "You really wanna know?" He nods eagerly. Scarlett sighs. "You know about my brother," she saw him nod. "And you know about Violeta and her situation, right?"

"Yeah. Is that all?" Oh such an oblivious boy.

"Well, when we were in Vegas, I had a meeting with an ex colleague of mine. He had me go on a date with his son to marry into my business. Sebastian.'' The name rings a bell in the boy's head.

"Well, I rejected that really quickly, and when I met up with his father in Vegas I said I wanted no part of the trafficking ring he was running. I only met up with him because I wanted a name. The name of the guy he was working with. He never gave it to me." Scarlett takes a breath, trying to figure out how to go about it. "My brother's anniversary was the week we came back, and every year since he died, on my birthday I would go back to our childhood home, and I would spend the week there. That's where I was when I left after Vegas. But that day, Rory showed up at the front door."

"He's alive?" She looks at him and he's shocked.

"Yeah, and when he arrived, he told me that our dad was the name that I was searching for. My dad is the leader of that trafficking ring." She looks at Marcus. "Rory also told me that he hurt me not because  he wanted to, but because my dad told him to. Said to cut me up so I wasn't pretty enough for his clients to want me."