Page 14 of Darkness

I try not to react. There is no way she will be allowed on the sixth floor, even if her name gets on the list I’d remove it.

“Not sure you’re ready for it, Rose.” She scrunches her face, then looks over at Lincoln.

“The boss has spoken.” Autumn-Rose turns her attention back to me when Lincoln’s reply wasn’t what she wanted.

Not saying anything to me, I feel her eyes studying my face, then she smiles. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Cain.” She hands me a sunflower and tilts her head slightly to the right. “It’ll bring some color into your life.” She walks to her car, which is a piece of shit and I bet breaks down at least twice a month.

“Don’t say a fucking word.” Snapping at Lincoln, I hand him the flower. Bring some color into my life. Why? It gets taken away from me, anyway.

“She’s nice, I like her-”

“Then make a move.” I shut him up. I know what he’s doing, and he needs to shut up and stop.

“Hard to do when she was staring at you more than me, plus you spent most of the night reading up about her and looking into her window. Something about her is-”

“Shut up, fucking hell.” I need stronger medication. Lincoln bursts out laughing.

For the rest of the walk, he stays quiet. That’s the way it needs to be. I look under the tunnel, hoping to see the guy she was talking to last night and there he is, with a needle in his arm. How much information am I going to get out of him when his high on some shit?

“Cain-”

“Leave it.” I walk over to him, and he stands up quickly. “Only want information-” I throw a hundred-dollar bill on the table with three legs, and he picks it up quickly.

“The girl who came to you last night for the cell. What do you know about her?”

“Autumn-Rose, she’s nice. I know nothing about her.” I hand him another hundred and he shakes his head. “Sir, I don’t know anything. She came here one night and said all she wants is a burner cell once a month, and she will give me five hundred for it. That’s it. She’s on the cell for a minute or two, then wants me to burn it.”

I look over at Lincoln, who’s looking around at all the other people here, which I do, too.

Last night there weren't so many people here. There were only a few men, but now it’s a lot busier.

“Has anyone caused her trouble?” I ask. If they have, I will fix it.

“They did at the start, but the more she came, the more I started to like her. I won’t let anyone come close to her.” I hand him another five hundred and tell him he won’t tell her I came asking for her, and he nods.

Walking away, I wait for Lincoln to say something because he will, but it’s going to be the same thing I’m thinking to myself.

“Who is she calling and hiding from?” I don’t say anything to him as we make our way back to the club. I need to dig into the reports which seem to have gone missing. There is an answer there somewhere. I just need to find it. “I bet if you ask,she’ll just tell you.” Lincoln stops, which in turn, makes me stop. “Cain, what’s going on? You’ve never taken this much interest in a woman before.” Placing my hands into my pants pocket, I take a deep breath in, giving me a few more seconds to work out what to say.

“I don’t know. Every time I’m around her, a cold, icy breeze hits the back of my neck-” Looking around the street because it’s the truth. “Lincoln, I don’t know why, but something is warning me about her.”

“Or pushing you to protect her.” Lincoln walks away from me, and I take in his words. Protect her?

The biggest threat in her life would be me.

Seven

Autumn-Rose

“What time do you call this?”Katy asks with her hand on her hip. What is she talking about? I look at my watch to make sure I’m not going crazy. The only pit -stop I’ve made is to grab myself some tea. Which, I have to still moan about, because it’s not the same as back home, and if I could only get two things from England, it would be my tea, and a good box of chocolate.

“I’m not even late.” I hand her the coffee I grabbed for her, and walk back to my office to drop my bag. “So, what are you talking about?”

“I came to work, and this was left by the door, no note, nothing. So who is it?” Katy places a sunflower on the desk. I stare at it and the only thing I can think is how did he get here before me?

Picking up the sunflower, I wonder why he would give it back to me. “Mr. Cain.” The name escapes my mouth, barely a whisper, but I can’t stop my lips from curling into a smile.

“Mr. Cain? The guy who owns Skyline?” Not looking at her, I get up and grab one of the small vases I have to fill with water for the sunflower. “Autumn-Rose, are you sleeping with him?”

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