Twelve of Roses

His sister?

“Molly is Constantine’s sister?” I repeated slowly, making sure I understood him correctly.

“Shit,” he muttered. “She’s his half-sister. His step-momma and dad. I thought you knew. I thought the girl had a change of heart and was really looking out for you the night I told you to get away.”

“Molly is...”

The room tilted.

All this time we were together. All the times I thought I was protecting her. The nights she cried and I comforter her. None of that was real? I considered Molly my sister. I didn’t want to believe that she could—would—do this to me. She was probably telling him everything this whole time.

No wonder he kept the little bitch alive. It was almost funny, really, considering all the secrets we kept from each other.

This was more fucked than I thought. I needed to get my ass in gear and get the fuck out of Black Pine.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“You don’t, but there aren’t too many other options.”

He was right. If I burst into a police station and blurted this story out, I would be handcuffed or detained. Con would no doubt slip away.

“How far out are you? I’m going to leave now.” I stood up, sending the desk chair rolling into the wall.

“There’s a diner—”

“I know where it is,” I interrupted him, flying out of the room.

“Be careful, okay? Con doesn’t look like himself these days.” I didn’t ask him to elaborate, because I already knew what he meant. The front door swung open just as I reached the top of the stairs, and Max walked in, looking straight at me.

“Rose?” he asked, pretending to feign confusion. Did he think I was still going to fall for this shit? He knew me better than that. Furthermore, did he think I somehow overlooked his creepy room with my pictures all over it?

“He’s here,” I mumbled into the phone, before slowly lowering it from my ear.

“Let me see you,” I ordered, not moving from my place at the top of the steps.

He sighed but obliged, starting with his left eye. He pulled the lower lid down and used his index finger to slide the first contact lens out, before doing the right.

When he was finished, he blinked a few times and rolled his neck, before looking back up at me. Even though I knew it was coming, I still blanched and took a step back, sucking in a small breath and openly staring at him.

“Rosie.” He completely ditched the accent and stared at me with bold blue eyes instead of dark ones.

They disintegrated my heart and made it race all at once. And his face…

“What did you do to yourself? Why would you do this to me?” I glared at him, feeling my chest tighten.

“What did I do to myself?” He raised his brows like he couldn’t believe I’d just asked him that. “I spent a shit load of money to change everything about me so we could start over. You know? Try and be a good guy for a little while. But then, you let Maxwell fuck you in the parking lot, and I knew you wanted the real me back.”

I scoffed, shaking my head.

“It would never have worked. You lied to me about everything. You’re fucking insane!” I screamed at him.

Pot meet kettle.

“You’re the sole reason for my insanity. You’re my one and only madness. It’s you, Rosie. It always comes back to you,” he preached.

“You’re not even you!” Raising my palms in a defensive gesture, I warded him off as he began walking up the stairs.

“I’m the same Constantine I’ve always been,” he objected.

No, he wasn’t my Con. His face wasn’t right, the hair was wrong, his body was bigger. His eyes, though…there was no denying those anywhere. It didn’t make sense to me why he would go through all of this when he could have just taken me whenever he wanted.

And Molly?

I didn’t even know where to begin with that.

“Rosie,” he drawled in his fake accent.

“Stop it,” I rasped, backing away.

I felt like a giant fucking idiot to dare believe a guy like Max could be real—and that he would want someone as screwed up as me.

“I need you to come with me.”

“Why would I do that, Con?”

“Because I know where Lauren is,” he pointed out.

Shit, how had I forgotten her so quickly? I couldn’t just abandon her to his judgement. I looked at him and weighed my options, coming to the only feasible conclusion. There was only one way to end this, and it started with me complying and agreeing to accompany him wherever he wanted.

“Take me to her,” I stated, wondering if she would still be alive when I saw her again.

Chapter Nineteen

Present

It was time to make peace with my ghost.

Con had tossed everything he needed in a brown box and then followed me back across the street so I could do the same under his supervision. We’d been on the road for a little over an hour since, and the silence between us was deafening.