Ramsey Security (Ramsey Security #1-3)(3)
I didn't dare think of the next Rose. Imagining another woman living her life, only to find herself enslaved, made me feel guilty for running. I had already been broken. Shouldn't I have lasted as long as possible to save the next Rose from my fate? Instead of being self-sacrificing, I allowed a single song from my past to inspire me to run.
The security men outside are retired police officers, and they always speak to me in hushed voices. I sometimes cry when they look at me. They scare me, but I creep them out too. The only time I've laughed this week was when Shelley teased me about scaring those big strong ex-cops. Tears terrify men, I told her. When Shelley gave me a knowing smile, I wonder how much she's gotten out of Vern by crying over the years.
I eat dinner at the table with the kids and Shelley. They talk about their day while I stare at my food. Able to eat whenever and whatever I want now, I often overeat. In fact, I plan to put on fifty pounds, maybe a hundred. If I'm fat enough, Locke won't want me any longer. Rose cared about her weight, Locke told me once. You care about your weight too, Rose.
I doubt he even remembered I wasn't the real Rose most days. For nine months, my sanity relied on a man who'd lost his decades earlier.
After dinner, I watch a Disney movie with the kids before bed. They sing along with the songs while I stare at the screen. I'm sweaty in my large gray sweats while Shelley looks healthy and comfortable in her blue shorts and tank top. I feel disgusting next to her. Yet my ugliness relaxes me. An ugly woman has no value to Locke. Despite my guilt over his next victim, I refuse to be Rose again.
Sleeping in a bedroom upstairs, I leave the door open and TV on. Downstairs, the family's housekeeper Mona walks around, and her slippers slap against the wood floors. A few rooms away from mine, I hear John's TV playing quietly. In the other direction, Diana giggles while being silly with the cat. Even with everyone readying for bed, the house feels too loud.
Before crashing for the night, Shelley leans into my room and smiles at me. I smile back, but the dark scares me, and I can't pretend otherwise.
"Everything is locked up tight," she says. "Dan and Joe are keeping watch."
"I took a sleeping pill. I'll be fine."
Watching me from the doorway, Shelley worries again. Her pretty face scowling in the darkness, she's thinking I take too many pills. Shelley wants me to be the way I was before Locke stole me from her, but she's clinging to a fantasy.
After she retires to bed, I stare at the TV and think of nothing. I doze off to the sound of the dogs' nails clicking on the floor as they play in the hallways.
The first gunshot yanks me from a bad dream, and I'm paralyzed in bed. Joe and Dan's yelling accompanies the second shot. I flinch at the sound of more gunshots along with the blare of the security alarm.
Tangled in the blankets, I roll out of bed and topple on the floor. Soon, I crawl into the hallway. Between the insanely loud alarm and the sleeping pill in my system, I can't concentrate.
"Aunt Darla!" Diana yells at me from down the hallway.
Diana waves me towards her mother's room where Shelley appears with John. My sister's terrified eyes look huge in the darkness. Even panicking, I can barely move with all the medicine flowing through my veins.
Crawling towards them, I finally lose the sheet wrapped around my left leg. I reach the bedroom door as the dogs do. Diana is already in the closet's panic room with her brother. Shelley helps me to my feet and yanks me towards the doorway.
As Shelley shuts the door and locks it, I wrap my arms around my shaking body. Next to me, John and Diana cuddle with their dogs. I wonder about the cat and Mona. At the control panel, Shelley looks at monitors while speaking to someone on the emergency phone.
"We're safe in the panic room," she says. "Our housekeeper is in the downstairs panic room. We're safe, but I hear gunshots."
"It'll be okay," Diana whispers to me.
John wraps me tightly in his little arms. "Don't cry, Aunt Darla."
The medicines leave me numb and unable to feel my tears. Locke will never let me go. He'd rather destroy me than know I exist without him. In his desperation to destroy me, he'll hurt everyone I love.
"I shouldn't have run," I whisper, but the children don't understand.
Shelley does, and I see the pain in her eyes. Unable to be negative, she focuses on the monitors and helps the arriving police. I hear her say Joe and Dan are on the ground. She tells the police where the gunman is in the house. She warns them when he's ready to fire on them. Her help gives the police the upper hand, and the gunman ends up dead.
Ex-policeman Joe is dead while an injured Dan goes to the hospital. I hear of their suffering and see the fear in the eyes of my family. Through it all, I wish I hadn't run.
3
~~~
Troy
Hunting the Soulless
The Ramsey Security offices are located in a rough part of Houston where the police are scarce, and the best form of protection is through the local gang. Other firms want downtown high-rises, so they'll be seen. We have no interest in anyone knowing what we do inside the former factory turned expansive business center.
Rafael Ramsey is the face of the company. Like the rest of the staff, he's a retired assassin. Now we provide security to rich clients in need of professionals willing to get dirty.
I joined the company because my partner Minka wanted more in life than killing *s. She was looking to retire, so I followed her to Houston. Three months after we arrive, the Ramsey offices are more secure than the local police station. In fact, we possess an arsenal that would make the National Guard envious.