Sven:

“Do they have her?”

“Yes.”

Boss is sitting in the main area with his feet propped up on a couch with a bottle of wine listening to the audio. I’ve never seen him drink. Then again, I'm gonna need a drink to listen to this too. I grab an uncharacteristic beer and sit next to him. I have no clue what the fuck to say to him. The man is a robot. One wrong word I'm dead. So I just listen.

“Turn it up,” I say.

He grits his teeth but does. Then the audio fills the room. Guys laughing like high school boys.

“Wait ‘til we tell the boss,” one laughs. “Fucking hell she’s hot as shit.”

Boss jaw clenches and he takes a large drink of alcohol. We hear Lacey screech.

“Get your hands off me. Ow. Please.”

She’s crying. It’s a lot of that. A lot of her crying and begging. Boss is listening. He’s breaking. I can’t imagine it being Rose. I just can’t. When it gets late and all we hear is more of Lacey’s torture and no confessions Boss turns to me.

“You can go. Come back tomorrow afternoon. I’ll call you if anything comes up.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” He cocks his head. “Go. And Sven, you can’t keep her locked up forever. Better start training her or get rid of her. Pick one. I won’t have her locked in there forever. Fair warning.”

“Understood.”

He’s right. She can either be trusted or she can’t. I quietly enter the room. Rose is under the covers. I look at the clock. It’s 1AM. Damn. We were at that a long time. No wonder I feel a little fucked in the head.

“Sven?” Rose mumbles groggily from the bed. “It’s late.”

I strip my clothes and crawl into bed next to her. I'm too tired to do anything else. She stays turned away like she always does when she’s not breaking down. I wrap an arm around her.

“Rose. Tomorrow. We’re gonna do something. I'm getting you up early because I do have to work to do in the afternoon.”

She props up on her elbow and looks at me. “You’re letting me out of here?”

“Supervised. I'm not an idiot.”

“Okay, well. I’ve been stuck in this room. It’s still outdoors, even if I'm stuck with you.”

“I don’t want you to be a prisoner Rose.”

“I don’t know what the fuck you want from me. Go to bed Sven.”

She’s not getting it! I want to wack her over the head. She goes to her side, tucks her hands under her head and starts to move away. My arm snakes out. I pull her into me. She struggles for a minute, but eventually relaxes. Her breathing evens out and mine follows. When the alarm goes off I jump out of bed. Rose slowly peels herself from the bed.

“You’re such a morning person. It’s annoying,” she grumbles.

I laugh while we both get ready. I throw on blue slacks and a loose white button down. Rose puts on a pair of ripped jeans shorts and a button-down white and black tank top.

When we are both ready I place my hand on her lower back and usher her out the door. She no longer flinches when I touch her which is a huge win. She’s not going to like where we are headed first, but, oh well. She’ll live.

I move her to the dining room. She freezes in the doorway when she sees Boss. He takes his headphones out when he senses our presence. The headphones no doubt containing Lacey’s audio. It’s clear he hasn’t slept. His suit is wrinkled, he looks tired and his hair is a mess. He doesn’t look nearly as threatening, but one would be stupid to underestimate him.

“Sven.” He nods his head. “Hello Rose. Glad to see you out of your room.”

“Yeah me too.”

“I suspect you won’t be causing trouble.”

Rose looks at her feet. “Will you ever let me see Lacey?”

“Okay time to go.”

I grab Rose’s hand and jerk her from the room. I keep dragging her behind me while she protests until we get to our destination. It’s outside in the garden by the pond. I had them bring breakfast too. Today they are serving turkey bacon, yogurt and oatmeal.

Rose stops talking and looks at the sight in front of her in shock.

“Is this a… date?”

She looks at me stunned. Is it? I guess I never thought about that. I have no clue. I just did it. I shrug.

“I don’t know. Are you gonna sit?”

“You did this?”

“Uh, yeah.”

I stare at her like she’s stupid. Cause she is being stupid. Who else would have done this?

“Now are you going to sit?”

She shakes her head several times and then looks at me.

“I don’t understand you at all. You make no sense. This is… nice. Like this is really sweet.”

“Okay.”

“And you have no problem with that? No problem that this is sweet and romantic.”

I shrug. “No.”

“You should! Men like you don’t do stuff like this. They don’t. This doesn’t… you don’t make any…”

“Okay!” I need to shut her up. I want her seated. We have limited time. “Listen to me.” I grab her arms. “A man who is scared of what people think of his actions is insecure. I wanted to eat out here, so we are. Period. Now please, dear God, will you sit?”

She sits down hesitantly, staring at me like I'm gonna poison her.

“Quit acting weird Rose.”

“I don’t know who you are right now.”

I extend my hand. “Sven Evane Xander. Nice to meet you.”

She chokes as she slaps my hand away. I laugh. She’s laughing so hard she has to struggle for air.

“Your initials are S.E.X?”

I smirk and wink. “Yep.”

“Explains a lot.”

“Does it? What does it explain Rose?” I grin.

“Oh shut up. You know you know what you’re doing.”

“Yeah, but you wouldn't. You haven’t let me fuck you yet.”

She side smiles. “Sven,” she turns in her seat, “Seriously why am I here?”

“I’ve told you so many times. You’re mine.”

“How can I be yours?! You just met me!”

I shrug. “I don’t know what you want me to say here. I felt something for you instantly. You give me something I’ve never had.”

“Why do you have to be evil? Ugh! Why? Why does everyone who actually gives a damn about me hurt other people?”

She drops her face into her hands and shoves her food aside, sending it crashing it to the floor.

“I rarely actually hurt people Rose. I'm not a good person. By any means, but I usually use other methods. I don’t actually like to see people physically suffer. I prefer to use people’s weaknesses against them. Ya know? But what if I promised that after things calm down, and my plan falls through, to try and use even less violence. I’d give you my word. Would you give me a chance then?”

“You’d do that?” She looks skeptical, but I completely would. Compromise. I rarely do it, but in this instance, well, if she’d fucking let me in, hell yeah I’d hurt fewer people.

“I need a real life too Sven. I actually do like working.”

“I know. We’ll work on it. Just let me trust you. Give me a chance.”

I push my plate in front of her since she spilled hers. She looks at me blankly. I nod, encouraging her to eat. She does.

“You’re alive with me Rose. Admit it. You eat. You don’t smoke. You’re healthy. Your eyes have life in them. You have an attitude. You stand up for yourself. You’re coming alive. You know it. I don’t treat you bad.”

I almost sound like I'm fucking begging. Oh well, I want her to see what I see.

“I know.”

She nibbles at her turkey bacon.

“This is just so wrong.”

I snatch the bacon from her and kiss her hard.

“Wrong’s never felt better babe.”

She laughs and throws the other piece of bacon at me. I eat it and wink at her. We have a playful breakfast before I have to take her back to see if we have anything new on the Castello’s. Everything is playing out just how I planned.

My emotions. Yeah, those I could have never predicted, but they shouldn’t be a problem.