“Stupid little Rose, always so desperate for love and affection,” Ridge mocked. “They’re not sorry they hurt you, they just found a better way of using you. Playing nice to get you to agree to play bait for them.”
Maybe she would have believed that if it were true, but Steel had been adamantly against the idea. He hadn't wanted to risk her safety, he’d just known it was the best course of action. She’d had to talk him into it, and the fact that he’d been on his knees throwing up after burning the soles of her feet told her everything she needed to know.
If Steel was a monster, she didn't care, because he was her monster. It was the craziest thing in the world to even consider any sort of future with the man who had been her captor, but he gave her everything she needed, everything she craved, everything she’d thought she would never get.
Threatening to spank her for causing herself more pain made her feel seen and cared for, while also giving in to her need for pain.
They had so much to learn about one another, but the thing was, she actuallywantedto learn everything there was to know about her crazy captor. Steel dominated her in a way she needed someone to take over and let her mind check out for a while, and yet he tucked a blanket around her so she wasn't cold, or massaged her feet to warm them, and cooked her homemade meals. He was possessive and jealous and obsessive, but he had a softer side he believed had been eliminated by her brother’soverzealous games. She wanted to help him realize it still existed.
And she needed someone to help her find her own softer side, which had been buried under layers of trauma so deep she had no idea how to go about finding it.
“You can believe whatever you want, but it doesn’t mean they aren't coming for me,” she told her brother.
“Coming for me,” Ridge corrected with all the arrogance she would have expected from him. He truly seemed to believe that the entire world revolved around him. He was the sun and everyone else was the planets. Whatever he wanted was all that mattered, and nothing that happened didn't involve him.
“For both of us.” Rose wouldn't pretend that Steel and his team didn't want her brother dead, they absolutely did, and since he’d tried to run, they’d be coming after him so they could get their vengeance. But she also knew Steel would go to the ends of the earth for her.
“Stupid little girl. Get it through your head, they’re just using you. They cannot empathize with you or feel guilt over what they did to you. They tricked you like the stupid child you are, and if they use you to get to me, they’ll only kill you without remorse because you're a loose end they don’t care about. I don’t understand how someone related to me can be so stupid, and?—”
“And I don’t understand why someone related to me is such a psychopath,” Rose snapped as she reached out from her position and yanked on the wheel as hard as she could.
The guys were coming after her, she knew they were despite Ridge’s rant, and she wanted to make sure Ridge wasn't able to get them too far away. She wanted this over now. Listening to her brother demean her while acting like he was the smartest person to have ever existed was too much.
Ridge howled in annoyance and tried to wrangle control of the steering wheel back. To do that, he had to release his gripon her broken arm, and since the limb was already screaming in agony, Rose thought she may as well go for it.
Latching her good hand onto the wheel, she let her body drop forward, down into the recess in front of the driver’s seat. Tangled with Ridge’s legs though she was, she pressed her bad arm onto the gas pedal, making the car jerk forward.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ridge snarled, trying to make a grab for her.
Using her body to push him out of the way, Rose pressed down further on the gas pedal, making the car’s speed dramatically pick up.
“You're going to kill us both,” Ridge screamed.
“I’d rather kill us both and be done with it than let you go on experimenting on people like you’re a god. You're no god, Ridge Gardner, you’re just a plain old flesh and blood human, with a large slice of demon thrown in,” she screamed back, pressing all the way down on the gas pedal as her hand still on the wheel yanked hard to the left.
As far as she was concerned, taking out her brother was the best thing she could ever do with her life, and would have the added bonus of infuriating him to know the little sister he placed zero value on had been the one to end his life. For the first time ever, she had something worth living for, but Steel would still find the peace he’d craved in knowing that the man who had played with his DNA was dead, even if she died along with Ridge.
They fought over the steering wheel, and Rose never let up on the gas pedal.
Not until the car plowed into something, sending pain rippling through her entire body, did a deadly quiet, calm, blackness descend on her mind as she fell into unconsciousness.
Chapter
Twenty-One
January 2nd
3:27 A.M.
It had been mere minutes since Rose was snatched from his sight, but to Steel it felt like a lifetime.
He knew better than most how much pain you could inflict on another human being in a short amount of time. Anyone on his team could have someone howling in seconds, and that was without needing to resort to a gunshot or knife wound.
There had been more than enough time for Dr. Gardner to have his little sister screaming in agony. The only thing that had him holding onto any semblance of a shred of control was the fact that Blade hadn't alerted him to any cries of pain from Rose.
Would his friend lie to him?
To keep him sane, yes. But still, he trusted that the man he considered a brother would let him know if Rose was suffering in any way.
