A/N

Thanks to anyone still with me on this ride. I think only about 2 more chapters to go. I will be starting a new job in a few weeks, so the pressure is on to finish this bad boy. Wish me luck.

Thanks to Twilightmomoftwo for betaing this for me.

Chapter 10

Rose didn't come into work tonight, but Royce was the manager on duty, and without Edward to use as a buffer, I could feel the tension between us sparking like a felled power line. He'd put me on rope duty, a place I hadn't been stationed in a long time. Not since Caius' request to join his little sex squad, and I wondered if my refusal to participate last time was the noose around my neck for that particular odd job. I hadn't worked through my thoughts about Rose's warning from this morning and decided to steer clear of Royce as much as I could. My mind tried to appease the macho, knight in shining armor side by saying avoidance was better than a knock-down, drag-out confrontation at my current place of employment. I'd have to trust Rose and wait her out. No matter how much it killed me to do so.

Standing outside in the cool evening air, I couldn't shake the niggling sensation that there was something I was missing, like a gigantic piece of the puzzle was lost under the sofa or something. Suddenly a thought popped into my head. Perhaps if I started a wall like I'd seen in all those cop dramas on TV where they placed the clues and suspects all together, maybe I could figure out what Rose was involved in, and perhaps how I could help her. As I started to let the usual crowd in, I spotted Tanya walking down the street; her hair was now dyed a dark brown, and her eyes looked weary and tired. Well, more than they had when she was busy partying here.

"Tanya, how's things?" I asked as she passed by.

Barely sparing me a sideways glance, she nodded and kept walking. While I was relieved she was alive, her new appearance left me wondering had happened to her. She wasn't my favorite person, but I still didn't like to see anyone down on their luck. Vowing to give Izzy a call later, I kept the line moving, waving the prettiest of the pretty in, while making most of the dudes wait until the club had filled up a little bit.

"Hey Em," Jasper shouted as he walked to where I stood. It took me a moment to realize that he had Alice tucked beneath his shoulder. "We're on our way to have dinner with Edward and Izzy, and since the club was on the way, we figured we stop by and say hi."

Alice looked thinner, but healthier than I'd ever seen her. Her hair was cut shorter that it had been, and for once her eyes were clear and alert. Happiness seemed to radiate from within her. She wrapped her arms around me, giving me a friendly hug before stopping to chat and see how I was doing.

"Izzy tells me that you and Royce got in to it a while back. Still dealing with that douche bag?" she teased, but from the elbow Jasper planted into her side, she closed her mouth and looked guilty. "Sorry, but he is," she whispered prior to telling me all the gossip that was fit to tell, explaining that her parents were just starting to let her back out into the world since she'd been attending recovery meetings, and that Izzy was standing strong beside her, helping her to stay on the straight and narrow.

"No wonder I haven't spotted her around the club. She's been hanging with you, huh?" I teased, joking about her attending beatnik poetry readings in The Village now that she was sober.

"Yeah, no way. We've been catching up on Mad Men and trying to figure out life away from the spotlight, you know?"

After a few minutes, Jasper reminded her that they needed to go. She leaned in to give me one more hug and whispered that she wanted to talk to me about what had happened prior to her overdose. "Edward told me you're sort of trying to figure out the drug deals, and I think I might have some information for you."

I squeezed her shoulder once and told Jasper to give her my number. Remembering my Tanya sighting, I grabbed Alice's hand, spinning her around back to ask her if she knew what was going on with her.

"Tanya? Wow, I haven't talked to her since I OD'd." She looked wistful as she continued, " I imagine she's found some new group to cling on to. I'll text her later and see if she gives me any of the details. She's always been a hot mess, so whatever it is, I'm sure she's in deep. She was an all or nothing kind of girl. Catch you later, Em."

As the night wore down, Royce told me to shut the line down and come inside to help with the exodus that happened every night once last call was announced. People tended to get pushy and struggled to get their last drinks pounded down their gullets prior to evacuating into the streets of New York. Some people thought it was the perfect time to pick a fight, and so it was always all hands on deck when the call was made.

I'd barely made it ten feet inside when I heard my name being squawked over my earpiece. "Emmett. Aro would like to see you in his office after shift."

My mind scrambled to figure out what he could want with me now, especially as I got closer to figuring out who was bringing drugs into the club. I'd had a debriefing with him just the other night, and couldn't image why he was calling me in only two days later.

I had hoped Rose hadn't turned herself in, not when I really wanted to figure some way to keep her out of the whole dirty affair. Knowing it was unlikely, yet still wanting to do all I could to help her. I only wished she felt like she could confide in me more than she had. Deep down in my soul, I knew there was something else going on, something she wasn't telling me that had to do with her. Not just about her involvement with the drug dealings in the club, but why she was with Royce. My mind refused to believe she was with him out of love, not after I'd witnessed how he treated her. It wasn't just his derogatory words that bothered me, but the fact that he'd raise his hand to a woman made it even more bothersome.

No, the fact I didn't do anything about it, is what was troubling me.

Rounding the corner, I was busy ushering a surly and very wobbly drunk towards the exit when I saw Caius wandering up the stairs with Rose tucked beneath his arm. My blood ran cold while my fury slowly simmered beneath the surface.

How dare she comment about my sexual habits in the club, when from where I stood, she was just as bad as me. Shit, she was worse, because she'd turned up her snooty nose and read me the riot act while she was getting down and dirty with the main man himself. Talk about your hypocritical bitches.

I weaved my way through the crowd, wanting her to see me standing at the bottom of the stairs when she rounded the bend in the staircase to see exactly what I thought of her newest dalliance in the club. All my angry bravado quickly deflated when I saw her look up at me. She'd been crying and from the look of Caius' hold on her arm, she wasn't exactly a willing participant. As her teary eyes met mine, I watched her face fall as she mouthed the words, "I'm sorry."

My legs sprinted towards the bottom of the stairs, but with one minute shake of her head, my feet became rooted on the spot. She was wordlessly telling me not to rescue her.

Why?

My thoughts bounced around, trying to figure out why she was willingly going when her body language betrayed her. I spun on my heel, looking around the strobe-lit room trying to find Royce among the exiting patrons. He had to be somewhere in the building, and I was going to find the little fucker and find out exactly what was going on, hopefully early enough to save Rose from whatever Caius had planned.

On my way through the building, I appeared to be doing my job, reminding any straggler club goers to get on their way, but really I was like a heat seeking missile locked in on its one true target.

Then I spotted him. He was crouched low on the ground by the door to the locker room, rocking back and forth on his heels while his hands were covering his head, muttering something I couldn't hear over the music still being piped through the system.

Nudging him forcefully with my boot, I growled, "Why the fuck is Rose up in the secret room?"

Peering up at me through glistening eyes, he stood, looking pale and weak. "You have to help her, Emmett. It was the only thing I could think of to save me." He tried to push me in the direction of the stairs, continuously urging me to save her. Even though my heart wanted to race up to the room, my head prevailed for once, wanting to know what was going on before I charged into a room I knew I wasn't welcome in.

"What did you do?" Pulling him up by the front of his shirt, I could see from his dilated pupils he was probably on something.

Fucking great.

"I'll tell you everything, but please save her!" he begged, shoving me in an attempt to get me moving.

Knowing the urgency of the situation, I dropped Royce and ran towards the stairs, shouting I'd be back to talk to him in a few minutes.

When I finally made it up to the room, the door was locked. Thankfully, I had my keys in my pocket, and quickly opened the door. What I saw nearly broke my heart. Rose kneeling naked on the floor while Caius stood only inches away, about to pull his dick out of his pants. Tears were streaming down her face, but she wasn't struggling or trying to get away. My mind raced trying to figure out what Royce had done to be forced to barter Rose, and what Royce had done to deserve Rose's loyalty to go along with it.

"Don't even think about it." I growled, crossing the room in three steps while shedding the coat I'd been wearing in the process. I pulled Rose up off the floor, wrapping my jacket around her before stepping in front of her and knocking Caius out with one punch. He never even saw it coming.

A/N

Thanks for reading. Chapter 11 – hopefully to come in about a week or two. Leave me some love if you have the time & inclination.

Happy New Year! Wishing you & your family a fantastic 2013.

M.