The Black Rose

The Black Rose

  By

  K.L. Hopkins

  The Black Rose

  By K.L. Hopkins

  Copyright 2012 Kimberly Hopkins

  I would like to thank my children; Kellie and Colt, for supporting me throughout the entire process.

  I would also like to thank my mother, Flora, as well as Michele (you know who you are), my niece Taylor, and my nephew Gregory.

  I couldn’t have done it without any of you!

  Chapter One

  I closed my eyes and allowed myself to enjoy the sun’s warmth against my face. It helped to remove this cold dread that has been a constant shadow on me in the last few weeks. I knew if I didn’t get away from where I was, I would have snapped. That was what brought me here.

  I sit on the rock facing the mountains. Flag Rock was my favorite place to go. Most people went about their daily lives; working, spending time with their kids in another state at the lakes, or going camping. Very few ventured up that long steep winding road that brought you to this wonderful place.

  High in the mountains; forest all around until you reach the overlook. When you got there you could see the tops of the trees, the haze over the surrounding mountains, and the city coming alive below.

  The beauty of this place would take you away to another world. It is so easy to get lost in this peace as the birds sing their lullaby. You could hear the breeze fluttering through the trees below, the stream trickling its way down the mountain. But even with that I couldn’t get absolute peace.

  The months since I heard from my father were wearing on me. He had never gone longer than two days without calling when he was away on business. Here I sit, wondering why two months had passed. Because of the silence, I had an anchor tied to my chest, weighing me down. My father was the only family I really had, around here anyway. Oh I had a cousin and aunt and we had friends we considered family. I was staying with them until his return, but it wasn’t the same.

  Then there was Braydon Thompson. There were few people I was close to, Braydon, being one of them. I hadn’t heard from him in almost two weeks. Again that was something that never happened. I was beginning to think I had become a leper. I was more alone now than I had ever been in my entire life.

  I sit up and looked at the mountains. A sad sigh escaped me. “Where are you two?” I whispered into the wind. I knew they would never hear those words, not from here. The wind is not magic like I thought it was as a child. No, it couldn’t carry my words to their ears, or lift the burden weighing on me. It could do no more for me than cool the sweat as it trickled down the back of my neck.

  The sound of a blaring siren brought me back to my senses. I shuffled around trying to find my phone. I knew that ring-tone by heart and there was no way I would miss the voice on the other end.

  “Hello,” I said struggling to breathe normal after wrestling with the phone in my pocket.

  “I’ve missed you,” Braydon’s voice crooned through my speakers. “Come home.”

  Home meant Dean’s house. He’s Dad’s best friend as well as his boss. I had to put it out of my head that I wanted to be back at my house laughing with my dad.

  “I’m on my way. And I’ve missed you too.”

  I run the trail back to my bike, switched my phone over to the headset in my helmet and cranked my bike. I loved the rumbled beneath me almost as much I loved Braydon beside me.

  We talked as I made my way down the freakishly winding road. He told me about his latest adventure in Kentucky. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. The way he put things was hilarious.

  I yelped as a car sped past, causing me to swerve to avoid being hit. I managed to get it up on the side of the hill without injuring myself or the bike.

  “I wish these freaks would watch what they’re doing!” I screamed into the headset.

  “Oh like you are not one of the freaks? What happened?”

  “Someone just tried to run me off the road.”

  And I knew before Braydon tried to convince me otherwise, that it was done on purpose. They didn’t blow their horn or slam their breaks. They hit the freaking gas. I didn’t tell him that. I just mumbled into the microphone how he would feel different about it had I been smashed into the pavement.

  I shook my head and descended from the hillside back to the road. I continued to listen to him ramble on and on about different things. I knew he was trying to calm me, it’s what I do to him to calm him, but it was eating at me.

  I rounded the next corner and came to a complete stop.

  “Uh Braydon, I told you something wasn’t right. Put it on video.” I was in shock as I stared down the road at what was there to greet me.

  I heard the click of the firing pin before the blast that sent the bullet straight toward my heart. The impact jarred me but didn’t cause me to lose grip on my bike. I looked down at my chest and then back up at the gunman. He seemed shocked. He cocked the hammer back again. The thing that went through my mind in that split second was, why a revolver? I would have brought an automatic if I wanted to kill someone by shooting them.

  I didn’t hear Braydon at first but then the screaming seem to bring me back. I reached down to my side and pulled the long cylinder out of its holster. I reared my hand back and pressed the pressure plate in as I threw it toward him. It hit its target straight on; his heart.

  “Get Dean on the phone, now!”

  I heard the silence then the ringing as he three-way called him.

  “And the next time you don’t answer me, Marissa Stone, I swear to God I’ll kill you myself!” Braydon was screaming into the phone as Dean answered his.

  “And a fine day to you too,” Dean replied.

  “Dean, I just killed a man. We need clean-up.” There was complete silence on the phone. I became worried the line had disconnected somehow.

  I got off my bike and walked the distance to the vehicle, I looked in both the front and back to make sure there were no one else and then pulled my home-made retractable sword from his chest. One would think it was a redneck contraption had they heard. But anyone who knew me, asked me to make one for them.

  It was my choice of weapons.

  The delicately carved foot-long wooden cylinder cased a titanium cylinder. When the pressure plate was pressed in, the blade shot out the top and locked into place. It was my way of being able to carry it without being stopped by law enforcement.

  I knew they were both watching the video because of Braydon growling into the phone about something. I made sure to scan the hand holding the gun in case they both missed the fact that he still held onto it. Or that I had a freaking hole in my brand new leather jacket.

  After telling Dean everything I could about the guy, he informed me cleanup was on the way to get the heck out of dodge. Not a problem for me. I ran back to my bike, hopped on and gunned it. I run up a fallen tree to get around the blocked car. They had either turned the video off or were no longer paying attention because neither said a word to me about it. Normally I got my butt chewed out for those stunts.

  After finally reaching the exit to the four-lane, I didn’t bother stopping as I come off the exit onto the highway but I couldn’t. Behind me was another car revving its motor and coming straight for me.

  “Are you guys seeing this?”

  “I’m on my way Rissa.” Braydon was trying to be calm about it but I could hear him giving it gas. No one could miss the roar of his bike.

  I felt the sting causing my shoulder to push forward almost causing me to lose control of my bike. “How many times do they have to freaking shoot me to realize it is not going to work?”

  “I am a minute out.” Yeah so much for calm, he sounded panicked. I tried to calm my breathing and think of something to say that would help ease him.
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  Even after racking my brain I couldn’t think of anything. So I just begin singing. I never bragged that I could sing because I knew that I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, most people either laughed at me or cried from the pain it caused. Braydon, no he was weird, he liked it. Then again to him it meant I was alive.

  I looked in my mirror to find the car so close to me that I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out of the way in time. I didn’t feel like eating the pavement or worse, going over the bridge in a two hundred foot drop. So I did the only thing I could do. I hit my front brakes causing the bike to stand on the front tire. When I felt the car under me I jammed it in reverse and backed up until I was on the roof of their car.

  This wasn’t an ideal place but I knew at least he couldn’t run me off the road and if he tried shooting through it, he took a chance of it ricocheting and coming back at him.

  Braydon spoke into the microphone letting me know he was behind me. He must have been flying to get here so fast. I put the bike back in reverse and began backing off the car. I jumped off the trunk of the car, got in the other lane beside Braydon and watched as the guy after me ended up hitting the concrete pillar on the side, flipping over and making the drop that I did not want to experience ever in my life time.

  He had been paying more attention to me trying to get off his car from behind that he wasn’t paying attention to where he was driving. At least I couldn’t exactly be blamed for that one.

  “Pull over,” Braydon ordered.

  I geared down and tried to hit the back brakes to stop the bike. Nothing was happening. The bike had slowed only because of the gears being shifted but it was not stopping.

  “Uh Braydon, we have a problem.” I glanced his way and then down to the side of my bike. I wanted to scream. I was angrier than I had been in a long time. “He hit my brake line!”

  Braydon pulled up close to me and held out his hand. I shook my head. I could not lose my bike. Dad had bought it for me on my seventeenth birthday.

  I couldn’t help but wonder how many bad things could happen to me in one day when we come up on our exit.

  “I love you guys remember that,” I told them as I shot off the exit and turned to go toward Dean’s house.

  Big Stone Gap, Virginia, had two exits. The first was the one I was taking. The second would have gone toward my house as well as town. The last thing I needed; more traffic.

  As I drove down the road, near the other exits in the area, that’s when I saw it. A guy was blocking traffic with his car. He had the hood of his car up and standing outside of it waving something back and forth in front of the motor trying to cool it. I don’t know how I could have gotten so lucky.

  I came up on Dean’s house to see the four boys standing in his garage. There was no way of trying to stop it without hurting one of them. So I veered off into another path.

  “I apologize in advance Dean.”

  I reached up grabbing the scaffolding he had there to help build the fountain. I flipped up on the bars and almost cried as I watched my bike weave back and forth before dropping off into the pond beside his house.

  “I love that bike,” I whimpered as I stood up hoping to see part of it sticking out. Nope, it was gone. The bubbling had ceased and all I could hear was the roar of Braydon’s bike coming up behind me.

  “Marissa, what the heck are you doing?” Sage was screaming as he came running towards us. I took my helmet off and looked at him. He backed away.

  Sage was one of my best friends. He was tall, lean, muscular, had short brown hair and brown eyes that screamed innocence. But Sage was not as innocent as he led people to believe. Only a few of us knew the truth.

  I looked back at Braydon as he took his helmet off. I jumped down onto the front of his bike. “Get off my bike,” he said through gritted teeth. Okay so he was beyond mad now.

  I jumped landing in the seat in front of him. I ignored him as he ranted about dangerous stunts and how he wouldn’t fish my bike out of the pond. I didn’t care. I wanted to know that he was alright. I unzipped his jacket and almost laughed as he didn’t try to stop me.

  I lifted his shirt and begin feeling my way around to make sure there were no bullet holes in him. He had a bad habit of downplaying his injuries. When I was satisfied I looked up at him.

  I could play it off as the adrenaline rush I had or the fact that someone, no two someone’s, just tried killing me three different times but that wouldn’t be the truth. The truth was I did that because I had wanted to from the moment I met him. I grabbed him around the neck and pulled him toward me, devouring his lips, cutting him off his next sentence. And he let me.

  His lips were just as rough with me as mine were with him. But that didn’t stop me from feeling the softness, the warmth, or even tasting the sweet taste I got when his tongue touched mine.

  There weren’t very many people that had made me feel the way Braydon did.

  “Dear God you two, breathe will you?”

  Sage was one of them. But they were like two different worlds. Braydon’s pale blue eyes reminded me of a clear day. His face was chiseled to perfection, including the scar that ran along his jaw from his ear to his chin. I told him constantly that it proved he was carved from stone. To others they thought it was a joke. He knew what that scar meant to me.

  I had never kissed Braydon, not on the lips anyway. I had always kissed his jaw whenever I saw him and always before he left. He had gotten it saving my life.

  When Braydon pulled away, I could see the fire in his eyes, I wanted to melt right here.

  I’m not a lovable person exactly. I mean if I’m close to you, you know how I feel about you. I don’t usually hide things from people I know. Most people think of me as a hard core, die-hard woman. They knew not to mess with me. Only few got away with it.

  Braydon began leaning down over me causing me to lean back on his bike. I watched as he raised his leg over to get off the bike and reach out a hand to me. I allowed it. We walked around back to the pool and he motioned for me to sit down on the chase lounge.

  He sat down beside me and leaned in again. I leaned in to match him. I could feel everything when his lips touched mine again. He surprised me by doing this. This wasn’t normal Braydon behavior, no he was just as hard core as me. I’ve heard he’s the best at what he does next to my father.

  As he laid me back I watched as the sun glinted off his brown curly hair as it hung in shag over his eyes. I would never complain if he blocked out my sun because his eyes were all I would ever want to see. He was everything I had ever wanted in a man; tough yet funny, hard yet caring, strong yet soft under my touch.

  I didn’t care that we were in the back yard as he began to unzip my jacket. I didn’t care that I could hear the four boys running up the stairs so they could watch out Lorik’s window. They were nothing like him.

  Lorik and Gabe were brothers, Dean’s sons. Sage and Zavier, were brothers, Gabe and Lorik’s best friends. And none of them looked alike. Lorik had hair so pale it was almost white and eyes so gray they looked almost silver in the sunlight. Gabe looked more like his father, red hair and green eyes. The only thing that made them resemble each other was their build. They weren’t as tall as Braydon but they were built tough like him. Both had broad shoulders and muscles to make every woman go crazy.

  Zavier had long black curly hair that hung to his shoulders and eyes almost as black, I always felt like I got lost in them. I couldn’t help but compare the two. When Braydon wrapped me in his arms, in so many ways it reminded me of Zavier. I loved spending my days there. Now I loved spending my nights with Braydon.

  Sage and Zavier had the same shaped lips. Lips I had kissed many a time. It was nothing for me, Sage, and Zavier to kiss or torture one another flirting knowing nothing would ever come of it. No, we grew up together and knew too much about the other to ever take each other serious.

  And I was right, they were watching with mouths open standing there at the window. I winked up at the b
oys and grabbed Braydon. The passion that sparked at the motorcycle rekindled quickly. I could feel his hands on my hips as he pulled me closer to him. They were slow as they made their way up my shirt, stopping short when touching the blood from the bullet wound.

  “Rissa you’re bleeding,” he said pulling back.

  “Just a scratch,” I told him as I devoured his mouth again.

  He moved his hands around to the back of my shirt, hitting another spot. He pulled his hand out and looked at the blood. I know it was sick and twisted of me to feel the way I did seeing my blood on his hands but it was the Assassin’s curse they say. It could twist ones view of a lot of things.

  When he looked back at me I bit my bottom lip. “Only a scratch,” I told him as I looked from his eyes to his lips. I didn’t think I could take much more. I grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head. He looked shocked for a split second before giving in to me. I wrapped my legs around him and did the one thing that scared me.

  I’m not scared of many things. Losing my father, yes. Losing Braydon, yes. Having Braydon walk away because I opened my big mouth and uttered the words I’m in love with you, most definitely.

  He pulled back and looked at me.

  “What? What did you say?”

  “I don’t know.” Yeah that wasn’t going to cut it.

  “Yes you do. Did you mean it?”

  He stared into my eyes for a few minutes while I tried to come up with a way to say yes.

  “I didn’t think so.” He unlocked my legs from around him and rose. I didn’t know if he was giving me an out, a way to take it back so I didn’t ruin our friendship or if he honestly thought I could lie to him like that just because things were getting heated.

  “Yes. Yes I meant it.” Open mouth insert foot.