~Chapter Two~

I walked through the front door of the shop to see Daddy in a conversation with another man. They were talking about cars so I assumed that he was talking to a customer. I quietly made my way over to the front desk.

"Were taking a trip to Florida next week and I need my car back by then. Can your mechanics handle that?" The man asked with a skeptical look on his face.

"Can my boy's handle it?" Daddy laughed heartily as he patted the other man's shoulder "I'll have Royce King look at it." He smiled. "He's the best mechanic there is."

I pulled my hair from behind my right ear to try and hide the bandage easier. I tried not to pay attention to Daddy as he told the man all about the fabulous Royce King.

"Yes, Royce King is the best mechanic I've ever had the pleasure of teaching. Why, even my little Rosie is obsessed with him." Daddy turned to look at me. "Isn't that right Rose?"

I swallowed back the words that I wanted to say and said, "He's certainly a great mechanic sir." and went back to my work.

I heard the bell above the door chime as the man left the shop.

"Rose?" Daddy came over to my desk and turned my face to the left. "What happened?"

"It was just me being clumsy." I said.

Then Emmett came through the shop doors and started cleaning on the other side of the room.

"I was coming back in from lunch and I tripped over something lying in the floor, it looks worse than it really is." I tried to blow it off like it was nothing.

"Oh." He released my face. "How was you're little lunch date thing?"

I dared not to look in Emmett's direction, fearing what his face looked like.

"Lunch was great. I had a really good time." I went back to my filing hoping he would just drop it. It wasn't a lie because after Royce left it I eventually had a good time with Emmett.

He stormed away from me, I thought he was headed for Emmett, somehow sensing he was involved since his is the custodian, but he went through the doors and waited till the doors were shut before he started yelling at the mechanics that were there. I tried not to laugh as he told them I had tripped over something and they had better start picking up after themselves. I could barely make out the response but I knew Royce's voice as soon as I heard it.

"Why aren't you yelling at McCarty?" He asked. "Isn't that what you hired him for?"

"I hired him to take out the trash and sweep up the floors. Not clean up your messes. If you don't like it King, there's the door!" I had never heard Daddy speak like that to Royce. "You're my best mechanic Royce but if you can't start treating every employee in here as you do me and my daughter then I will fire you."

I looked at Emmett, who was just as shocked as I was to hear the words coming out of Daddy's mouth. We both looked at him as he burst through the doors.

"McCarty." He nodded at Emmett.

"Mr. Hale." Emmett nodded back.

"Rose, if anyone needs me I'll be in my office." He didn't look at me as he walked to his office door.

"Alright Daddy." I waited until the door was closed and I could hear the muffled sound of him sitting in his chair.

I looked at Emmett and held my hand over my face to silence my laughter. Emmett chuckled softly as he walked over to my desk.

"I don't think I've ever heard Mr. Hale yell at them like that."

"Oh it's just because you're new." I assured him. "And that I was the one who got hurt. He's a little protective."

"Ya think?" Emmett grinned as he went into his cart and pulled out a white paper bag. "I figured you would want one of these since you didn't get to have lunch today."

I opened the bag to find a hot dog and half an order of French fries from the diner just down the street.

"Thanks Emmett." I smiled at him as I nearly scarfed the whole thing down in one bite.

He chuckled and went out to the vending machine that was outside. Daddy had bought it about three months ago to try and get more money. The man who sold it to us told us it would pay for itself in less than a month and here we were three months later still trying to pay it off. Well at least we were three dollars closer to paying it off.

He came back in with two cokes. "Here's to you." He toasted me.

The rest of the day passed slowly. Not many people ventured out when it was this hot outside. Most stayed indoors crowded around their air conditioners.

School was finally out for the summer, which was good because I could spend more time at the shop and with Emmett. Before today I would have said Royce but I wanted to stay far away from him….

The only incident came towards the end of the day when most of the mechanics had already gone home. Royce busted through the doors and sauntered over to my desk. Daddy was on the phone with someone so he couldn't hear anything and the glass window in his door was disfigured so he couldn't see out and no one could see in. Emmett was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Gorgeous." Royce licked his lips as he ran his hand down my right arm. I cringed away from him and winced as the motion sent pain through my shoulder. "Sorry I hurt you earlier. I didn't mean it. I just thought you wanted it. All you had to do was tell me no." he grinned as he had to remind himself time and time again to look up.

"Then why did we need an audience?" I could barely make the words come out of my mouth.

"I could have told the guys to leave if you asked me to Baby." He reached for me again, this time caressing my face, touching the bandage there. "All you had to do was say so."

"You didn't give me much of an opportunity to object." I tried to back away from him but I hit the wall all too soon. He had me backed into a corner.

I considered screaming. At least for Daddy because he was closer but who I really wanted was Emmett. My eyes frantically went from Royce to the door then back to him.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about McCarty." Royce guessed my thoughts. "He's… busy." He smirked.

"What did you do to him?" In an instant my fear for myself turned into hatred for whatever Royce had done to Emmett. "If you've hurt him I swear-!"

"What are you going to do?" He was in my face then, his hot breath blowing all over my face. His face was twisted into a fearsome grin. "Tell Daddy?" He pointed towards his door. "I know you told him about me giving you that." He put his finger on the bandage until it started turning red with the blood that was coming out of my wound. "He wouldn't have stuck up for McCarty if you hadn't." I turned my face away from his finger to relieve its pressure on my face. "Look at me!" He hissed. He grabbed my face and squeezed until I cried out in pain and tears tumbled over his fingers. "You are mine. You are mine for the taking and I can do whatever I'd like with you. And if McCarty barges in on me again, I won't be so forgiving."

He dropped my face and walked through the front door out to his car.

For the second time today I slumped onto the ground. Once I had gotten a hold on my fear, I checked my face, making sure there was no blood escaping the bandage. Then I grabbed the medical kit that Emmett had put back in its place and raced through the shop calling out his name.

"Emmett!" I had started to cry and I didn't think he would understand me.

"Rose?" I heard him whisper.

"Emmett! Where are you?" I started listening for the sound of his voice.

"Over here, by the blue VW."

I found the car and went over to where he was. I tried not to gasp as I looked at him.

He was sitting in a pile of cleaning supplies. A couple of mops had been broken, from the looks of it, over his head and he had many huge purple marks all over him. Parts of his clothing were ripped and torn he was panting and clutching his side.

"Oh… Emmett." I cried as I dropped the kit and knelt by his side. "What have they done to you?" I reached up to touch his face and he looked at me. I could only see one eye; the other was already swollen shut.

"Don't worry about me. Are you ok?" He asked me fiercely. He didn't care if he was beaten to the point of death; he just wanted to know if I was ok.

"I'm fine." I assured him. "He didn't hurt me." He looked at the bandage on my face and I knew he saw the fresh blood stain there. "Well, not as bad." I amended.

He tried to stand up and then fell back down. He looked so helpless I had no choice but to try and help him.

"Stay here." I ordered him and then got up to walk towards the front.

"Where are you going?" he asked grabbing the bottom of my dress.

"Don't worry." I smiled as I knelt down again to touch his face. "I'm going to go put the kit back up, tell Daddy I'm leaving and then I'm helping you get out to my car so I can take you to the hospital and I don't want to hear anything about it."

"No Rose please don't take me there!" He said fiercely.

"Why not?" I demanded. He was being absolutely ridiculous. Either that or he was delusional.

"Because it will raise way too many questions." He grabbed the side of the car for support as he pulled himself up. "I don't want you to get involved and have to explain what happened today to your father."

"But you're hurt!" I protested as I offered to help him.

"It's not that bad, just a few bruises and cuts. No broken bones I think." He smiled a little half smile.

"Well at least let me drive you home." I made a compromise. Emmett didn't have a car and walked down to the bus stop every day to go home. I didn't even know where he lived.

"Fine." He agreed. He limped over to the back where my car was while I went up to the front.

I knocked on Daddy's door and stuck my head in.

"What is it Rose?" He looked up from his paper.

"I'm going to leave early. I promised Vera that I would come by her house today." I hoped the lie wasn't written all over my face.

"Oh, ok well be back home soon. Mrs. Jenkins will be leaving at six o'clock and she's leaving supper in the oven."

"Ok, Daddy. Bye, love you!"

"Love you too sweetheart." He smiled at me before I closed the door.

Now that the deception is over I was ready to get on the road.

I didn't look at the rose that was sitting in the driver's side seat. I pulled it out and stepped on it a few times then got back in the car. Emmett didn't say anything about it while he tried to position himself on some towels that he had grabbed out of the back room so he wouldn't get anything on my car. As I started the car, I hoped I ran over the rose.

"Don't you think it's funny that our roles are reversed now?" I asked him when we were on the highway.

He laughed a little then winced when it hurt. "Yea, I guess it does."

With simple and easy to follow instructions, he directed me to his house.

It was a two story house that had blue siding and black shutters on the windows. There was one small tree in the front yard which was sealed off by a white picket fence.

"Rose, I want you to go home." Emmett ordered as I pulled up to the curb and turned off the car.

"I am not leaving you here." I had no intentions of leaving him. How would I know if he was ok or not? How could he get in touch with me to tell me he was alright? And what if my father answered the phone before I could get to it? There were too many questions and not enough answers.

"Yes you are. You being here with me could put us both in awkward positions. You're dad would find out you lied to him today, and I couldn't explain it to my family. I don't want anything to happen to you. Go to you're friend's house, I'll be fine, trust me." The one eye that I could see sparkled with the intensity of his concern.

There he was, asking me to trust him again. He didn't want me to be hurt, no matter what it cost him. I deliberated for a second and then reached over into the glove compartment, pulling out a pen and paper.

"Fine. I trust you. But call me on my cell as soon as you feel better, ok?" I pushed the slip of paper into his hands. "Unless you want me to be a nervous wreck all night then you had better call me." I threatened.

"I promise I'll call you." He smiled and then hesitated.

I didn't understand his reaction. It was like earlier when the mechanics started arriving back to work. He looked like he wanted to do something and then thought better of it. But now there was no fear of being interrupted. He surprised me by swiftly reaching over and softly placing his lips to my forehead before getting out and heading towards the front door.

All I could do was stare at his back and wonder why the skin of my forehead was tingling. That never happened when Royce kissed me, though Royce had hardly ever kissed me anywhere but on the lips. Even then, it wasn't pleasurable for me, it was all for Royce. I didn't understand it then but now I did.

He waved at me from the window and I could see a little girl standing in front of him with short black hair. I assumed that was his sister Alice. I waved back, laughing when his sister smiled at me and she was missing a front tooth.

I drove to Vera's house thinking about how it would feel if Emmett kissed me on the lips.

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