Read Tangled Rose for Free Online

This was her life. If she was going to survive, she’d have to come up with some way of accepting the situation. She couldn’t fight these guys. They would destroy her.
    *
    W HEN PATRICE RETURNED HE WAS carrying a couple of plastic drugstore bags and two cups of takeout coffee. It was only when she smelled the coffee that Rose realized how hungry she was. She hadn’t been fed anything at all since her capture. That was three whole days. All she’d had was a little water. No wonder she felt so weak. No wonder her mind was racing so incoherently.
    The stress of everything that had happened, the trauma of the night with Fat Boy and the discussion with Serge, it had all made her forget that she hadn’t eaten in so long. When Patrice handed her the paper coffee cup she realized that her hand was visibly shaking.
    “Thank you,” she said, and she meant it with all her heart.
    He also had a box of donuts and Rose was embarrassed by the fact that she couldn’t stop looking at them when he put them on the table.
    “You must be starving,” he said.
    She nodded as he handed her the box. Inside were six donuts, all different shapes and flavors. She grabbed a bear claw, it was the biggest thing in the box, and took a bite out of it.
    “This is so good,” she said.
    Patrice smiled. “I thought I should probably get you something healthier, girls are always trying to eat healthy things, and you’ve been through so much,” he said.
    “No,” she said. “This is perfect. Fuck healthy.”
    She took another bite out of the bear claw and Patrice smiled. She sipped the coffee. It had cream in it and was sweetened. That was perfect too.
    “Two creams, two sugars,” he said. “We call that a double double up here.”
    “We call it that in the city too.”
    She smiled. Patrice smiled. It felt so good for someone to finally be treating her like an actual person. She could feel the sugar, the nourishment going into her blood and bringing her body back to life.
    She knew that things were terrible, they could hardly have been worse, but it felt good to have a friend.
    She looked up at Patrice. “Thank you,” she said.
    “No problem.”
    “No,” she said. “Really. Thank you. I don’t know how I would get through this without you.”
    He looked at her and smiled. “You’re a survivor, Rose. Like me. I can tell that much about you.”
    She thought about that. She hoped it was true. She really would need to be a survivor if she was going to get through this new period in her life.
    Patrice was chewing his donut, dipping it in his coffee.
    “What do you mean, you’re a survivor too?” she said.
    “Oh, you don’t want to hear my whole story. I’ll tell you some other time. Right now I want to show you what I got you.”
    Rose couldn’t help feeling affection for Patrice. He was younger than her but he was still confident. He was obviously tough. He’d been through a few things in his life, she could see that much. And she liked that he’d recognized her as a survivor. She felt validated, encouraged even. She felt that if he could see that she was a survivor, then she really might be strong enough to survive this situation, at least until she had the strength to escape.
    Patrice unpacked the bags on the bed and she sat up and watched. There was a pack of disposable razors, some toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, body lotion, even a compact with foundation, blush, and a couple of colors of eyeshadow.
    “You really didn’t have to buy all this,” she said.
    “Trust me,” he said, “where they’re taking you, you’ll need it.”
    In the other bag there was some socks and underwear, some plain cotton t-shirts, sweat pants, soap, shampoo, conditioner, nail clippers, a scissors, and some cream to put on her cuts. She was genuinely touched that he’d bought so many things for her. He obviously cared about her. He was trying to set her up with all the things she would need.
    “I really appreciate this, Patrice,”