Vegas: Devil's Rose #9

Chapter 5: Bruce Dalton

"Bruce?"

"Yes, June?"

"Can you give me one of those reasons to stay alive?"

"Season two of Loki is coming out in October. You love Loki."

She stares blankly up at me for a second, but then, a smile ignites her face. Tears gather in her eyes, and she starts to laugh. The sound of it fills up the apartment, and I think I feel my heart warm. I run a hand through her hair as she starts to eat her food. 

Goddamn, I'm so fucking lucky that I'm the one she trusts to take care of her. She's not one to let others help her. She's more of a "I'm going to do it myself even if it kills me" type of person. Knowing that she's eating away, I let myself have a few bites of the breakfast that I made for her.

We sit in silence for quite some time. I don't think either of us has much to say. We're both still reeling from what happened. I haven't felt like that in a long time. I think it was partly fear, but I just remember being so fucking angry. 

I barely even remember what happened after I killed Rex. I barely even remember what I said before I killed him. When I heard her voice on the phone, I instantly knew that something was wrong. I felt a chill down my spine. 

She sounded so fucking different and alone. It was her usual tenacious self telling me off for doing something stupid or her confident voice telling me about her new anthro find, and I knew. 

Then, her voice was gone. She knew she was putting herself in danger by telling me her exact location because well, it's pretty obvious that she was getting in contact with someone who was going to find her.

I got to her in time though. Thank god. She was shaking when I found her. Pressed up against the wall. Begging Rex to stop, to not do anything to her. And I think what fucking kills me is that she had to use her boyfriend to try and stop him. 

He wouldn't have stopped if she begged for her own life. No, she wasn't a fucking human with a soul to him. I wanted to kill him in that moment. I think I realized he wasn't getting out of that situation alive. I knew he was going to be dead. No one like him deserves to live.

I pressed a gun to his head. He stepped away from June and begged for his life. He had to fucking audacity to beg for his life. As if I would ever hear a word that came out of his mouth. So I shot him. Right in the fucking head. 

In most cases, I feel some guilt when I kill someone. And it's not like it's often, but it's part of the Devil's Rose MC job. That is part of what we all signed up for. But with Rex, I don't feel regret or guilt or anything besides anger at him.

I'm not entirely sure what happens next. I mean, June has Westin (who didn't pick up the phone). I shot and killed her boyfriend's best friend. Her boyfriend's best friend tried to sexually assault her. What do we do with that? I also have to cover it up. 

I called Alpha last night, and he said he had it taken care of, but now, Devil's Rose is going to have to deal with the police if they start looking for him. This is not a good situation. I'm not saying that I did something wrong. 

Rex deserved to die, but now the aftermath, the things that come after the experience has happened, it's going to give me a heart attack. Because now June and I have all this shit to figure out, and every second I spend with her, I just want to tell her that I love her.

This is so fucked up. Rex didn't hurt her for just that moment. She's forever going to be left with the pain from last night. She's going to have to face Westin; she's going to want to know what we did with Rex's body. It's just not right. Not any of it. 

And she's the one who just asked me for a reason to stay fucking alive. That pisses me off. If I could kill Rex again, just for doing that to her, I would.

"You're angry, Bruce."

"I'm sorry."

"You have every right to be angry. I should at least be feeling something, and I'm not, and I don't know what to do with that either. I have no idea what to do," she admits.

"I feel the same way. I don't know what the first step is after this."

I'm glad I don't have to lie to her.

"Am I supposed to start healing? Am I supposed to tell people?"

"I don't know. I could tell you the facts of what Devil's Rose has to do."

"What do you mean?" she questions with a tilt of her head.

"His body, June."

"Where is it?"

"Turned into ashes."

"He was cremated? When?"

"Poison and Reaper did it last night."

She rubs her forehead, taking a deep breath.

"I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything."

"You didn't have to kill him."

"Well, June, he was hurting you. There was no other decision to be made."

"You could have not."

"And while that's true, are you glad that he's dead?"

She doesn't say another word to me, relaxing herself into me once again. I let my eyes fall over her soft body and force my eyes to stay dry as I think about the way this all could have been. I think about how our life could have been if I had been honest long ago. And yet, we are here instead. Life is brutal in that way. 

We sit together and stare at nothing. I don't know what she's thinking and while I want to know every thought that ever crosses her mind, I'm sure she's not in the mood to express them. I can't say I blame her. She doesn't know what to do next. I don't know what to do next. It's not like there's a rule book for something like this. 

We both woke up today and time keeps going, but it all seems off. It's too fucking bright and sunny and beautiful outside for what just happened. I'm not sure where to go from here.

"Is there something you want to do?" I ask June.

"I can barely move."

Panic rushes over me, my heart racing.

"What do you mean?"

"I feel so weighed down. Like something is holding me to the ground."

"Let's go somewhere."

"Bruce, I don't want to move."

"I'll carry you. Please trust me."

"I do trust you. But I-the world can't see me broken from inside."

"It's a good thing that there's not one part of you that is broken then. I promise you that I will be here for you with every breath that you take."

The deep brown of her eyes stares into the depths of mine, and she doesn't have to say anything for me to know that she's willing to go where I take her. She needs fresh air. She needs to scream at the top of her lungs. She needs to cry her pretty soul out. 

I wrap her in a fuzzy blanket and carry her out to my car. She tucks her face into my neck, hiding from the world, and the pressure on my chest starts to subside. At least she's finding comfort in me. At least she has me to be there for her. I will never leave her side, not unless she asks me.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Somewhere to feel free, even if only for a moment."

My truck rumbles as it starts, and June's hand is clasped in mine as I drive along the windy road leading up to one of the tops of the mountains. She's been where I'm taking her before. About three months after Tank and I first moved to Westmoor, June came for a visit, and I showed this spot to her. 

She stood at the edge of the cliff, scaring me half to death, and smiled at the vastness of the world. There she was among the mountains and the trees and the sky and the wind. She was, she is, the most beautiful woman in the world. She is my world.