Rules for Enduring the Sweenys

Rule #13: Never Take Orders from a Sweeny

“You’re not gonna make this easy for yourself, are you?” Owen asked dropping Bella’s newly washed clothes onto her bed. Somehow Maria had managed to get all of the blood out of her shirt and sweats.

“What are you talking about?” Bella’s eyebrows knit together as she lifted the stupid hospital gown over her head.

“Oh!” Owen immediately turned his back on her, his cheeks heating up. Bella groaned to herself as she carefully clipped her bra on and slid the shirt over her head. The burns on her stomach were fitted with gauze and the letters carved by the glass were stitched up. There were stitches in the gash on the bottom of her foot, as well as in one of the deeper cuts on her right cheek, and the cigarette burns that covered her shoulders were carefully bandaged.

She slid her pants on and glanced over at Owen whose back was still turned away from her. She smirked. “You can look now.” Owen glanced over his shoulder, his cheeks still pink.

“Come on, you don’t even have shoes on, and your foot’s all cut up.”

“No. I can do it myself,” she grumbled, trying to walk on her own. Every single muscle in her body was sore. Even standing was unbelievably painful. She hadn’t felt aches like that since she ran the Boulder Boulder without stretching or training when she was ten.

Owen crossed the room and put his hands on Bella’s shoulders. He gently pushed her back onto the bed so she was sitting. He stared into her gorgeous blue-green eyes, his expression serious. “Georgie is dead Bells. Your brothers killed him. They hung him on a cross and burned his body. For you. Get it through your head,” he tapped her forehead, “that you can trust us.” He looked almost sad. “Your brothers are complete assholes sometimes, but they’d do anything for you. How is it that everyone else can see that but you?”

Bella stared back at him. His dark eyes were intense. She felt all the walls she’d built up falling down around her. She’d locked her heart in seventeen steel boxes, and somehow, he’d managed to find the keys, and unlock almost all of them. What the fuck?! ‘Rules, think of the fucking rules!’ she told herself. But it had already been done. She’d tried to close herself off from people for so long, and yet here he was, seeing passed every smoke-screen she’d created.

“I didn’t want to get hurt again. They didn’t come the last time…” she admitted, gazing downward, at the linoleum tiled floor. Owen lifted her chin so she was looking at him again.

“You’re safe with us.” His eyes were smoldering lovingly. “You’re safe with me.” Bella shook her head. She’d lived by her rules for so long, how was she just supposed to forget about them all?

“But…”

“No buts. You always get screwed over when I’m not around and I should’ve been.” He wore a determined expression. “Never again.” Bella’s eyes widened. She was unable to comprehend the meaning of his words.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t care whether you like me or not,” he said. “I’m never gonna let anything like that happen to you. I won’t lose you like I lost my…” Dad. He couldn’t spit the word out, it felt so foreign to him after so many years, but Bella knew what he was talking about regardless.

Bella was highly aware of his hands on her shoulders. She grinned up at him, her eyes shining in a way they hadn’t in a while. It caused butterflies to attack his stomach. Owen pulled back suddenly, and Bella immediately missed his close presence (as much as she hated to admit it). He grinned mischievously, reaching for his phone. Bella groaned, but made no move to stop him.