Page 18 of Devil's Den

“You want to leave?” he asked.

She pressed her lips together.

“You know it’s not a bad thing, to want to leave that kind of shit behind,” he said.

“Like you know what I’m talking about,” she said.

“I killed my father when I was thirteen years old,” Rome said. “No one knows this. For as long as I can remember, that man was beating me with his belt, sticks, his fists, there waseven a time he took a hammer to me. Trust me, that man was a nightmare, and I was afraid of him. I don’t know what happened. I was growing up, and the beatings were hurting less, but I was starting to get angry. I was starting to see the truth, and one day when he was beating me and he smashed a bottle over me and was going to start jabbing that thing into me, I snapped. To this day, I don’t know how it happened, but I got that bottle, jammed it down his throat, and watched him die.”

“I’m not going to kill my brother,” she said.

“But, my point is not to kill your brother. With the piece of shit he is, someone else will do that job, but you can’t be afraid to walk away. You can’t be afraid to make a life for yourself. Sometimes it’s better to walk away than live your life, dying inside, hoping tomorrow never comes.”

Beth felt tears spring to her eyes as she looked at Rome, and in that moment, she knew there was more to him than met the eye. He was more than just a criminal, a killer.

“You shouldn’t cry for that,” he said.

“I don’t know how you’re able to say the right words, but you do.” She let out a laugh, and he pressed a handkerchief into her hand.

“When all of this is over, I will find the means to allow you to start a new life,” he said. “If you’re interested, I will even set up a cleaning business for you, and you can do the books yourself. We’ll come to some kind of percentage arrangements, and we’ll do business together.”

She frowned. “You’d be willing to do that for me?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because sometimes in life, bad shit happens to good people, Beth. You’re a good person. I know that, and I know I’m using that. Maybe this will be my good deed.”

She laughed. “Helping me leave my brother behind to deal with his own problems is your way of doing a good deed?”

“Helping a woman who needs it, who has done nothing wrong, who is only trying to make a life for herself. That is the good deed I am talking about, and if it stops any bad shit from happening to her, then I am all for it.”

She pressed the handkerchief beneath her eye and gave a little laugh. “You better be careful, Rome, people might think you care and you have a heart.”

“I don’t. That was beaten out of me years ago. A heart is a weakness I don’t have. What I am, is reasonable.”

“Beaten?” she asked.

“I told you, my dad.”

“What happened after?”

He pursed his lips and she knew this was where he was going to try and make his escape. She reached out to him.

“Stop, okay, I get it. You don’t want to tell me. You give me half a story, but I don’t know if you’re aware of this, I am a good listener. I don’t know if you like talking or not, but I won’t share anything with anyone.” She laughed, she just couldn’t help it. “I don’t have any friends to call my own.”

“Are you trying to ask me to be your friend?” he asked.

Beth took a deep breath. “You make it sound like a bad thing.”

“No, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. I don’t … have friends,” he said.

“So maybe you and I could do something radical, and perhaps be friends?” She didn’t even know why she was suggesting this. There was so much about Rome she didn’t know.

“You want to share all your secrets with me?” he asked.

“You’ve already got my two biggest.”

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