The Story of Blood and Roses

Smiling at the cell phone I shook my head. The man was always to the point. He involved no emotions in these texts merely because they were meant as commands. Not giving it much thought, I helped myself to some canned food and then curled up in my bed to get some sleep.

Why waste time doing nothing when I can sleep?

Free of any worries at that moment I found myself slipping into a peaceful sleep, and no wicked dreams seemed to touch me in those moments.

.

My car waited outside the huge black gates in front of the mansion. Following standard procedure, the guards checked the car. I waited for them to be done before they let me enter the premises. The garage was overflowing with bikes and mine seemed to be one of the few cars that were parked. Judging by the number of bikes that were visible at first glance, I wondered exactly how many people would attend the festivities that were going to take place. If such an amount had arrived on call for a race, I could only imagine the actual number of people who Anthony employed. Obviously, the numbers that I had received as data had been wrong. He\'d grown his numbers drastically and done a good job at managing everything, it seemed. One wouldn\'t find many loose strings in his mob. It was a huge accomplishment if I\'d ever witnessed one.

"Mia, right?" I heard someone say as soon as I\'d gotten down from the car. I calmly turned around to see the face of the person who had finally gotten the guts to come up and actually speak to me, directly. The first thing one would notice about him was his tattoos. Any skin that was not covered with clothes had ink on it. He was a well-built man with a hard face and a scar running down his left brow to his eyelids. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt with a pair of army print shorts and had a cigarette hanging off of his lips. I remembered seeing him the day I was officially introduced in front of the people who were present and had to shoot Scott between the eyes to prove that I possessed unwavering nerves. He\'d been sitting at the back of the room, wearing a grim expression on his face as the whole debacle had taken place.

"Yes, and you are?"

He smiled before taking a step closer to me and offering me his hand. I took his hand and shook it.

"Ethan McCarthy," he introduced himself. I nodded my head even though I had no idea who he was. "I work for the security department. I\'m the head." I knew that he saw the interest in my eyes when he smirked and nodded his head. "I know, I do some pretty badass stuff to keep those people safe. We\'ll be working closely. I look forward to working with you. I was impressed by that little display the other day." With a tip of his head, he turned and walked away. Of course, I followed him into the mansion. As we entered the great hall I saw that the whole room was filled with people. It was like the house had been infested with rats or locust.

"I have arrived," Ethan announced in his booming voice. I could see that the whole room turned, their eyes fell on him as he made an entrance with his arms open wide. They rolled their eyes or smiled… until they saw me.

The first person I noticed in the room was Cienna. She had been sitting at the center of the room, flirting with the men and laughing animatedly with her head thrown back, but she stopped when Ethan entered. Her eyes followed me and a sneer was placed permanently on her lips. She slipped off from the high chair she was sitting on and sauntered to me.

"There you are!" she exclaimed with fake enthusiasm. I raised a brow at her wondering why she even tried to fake enthusiasm. Clearly, they all knew that she loathed me. She had been pouncing on me at any chance she got.

"And you\'ve met Ethan," she sneered. She said this like it was something bad. Maybe, it was. Or she was trying to embarrass me by implying something that went over my head. I didn\'t give a damn about what she thought.

"Oh, yes. I\'ve met the little lady," Ethan said as he made room for to sit. "She\'s got quite an ass on her, that little thing. I got a good view." I rolled my eyes, unaffected by the remark.

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