Twisted Rose: Motorcycle Dark Romance 3 (The Darkness Trilogy) by Abby Weeks Page A

they want to do that? I just don’t understand it.”
    “And the way they wanted the strippers in their clubs to be there against their will.”
    “That’s sick too,” Josh said. “I’ve been to strip clubs in the city and the girls there are dancing because they want to. They’re doing it because they love it, or they need the money, but either way they’re there by choice.”
    “But that’s not the way it is with the DRMC clubs,” Rose said.
    “They’ve made it so that the whole appeal is that the girls don’t want to be there. Their customers know it. The girls have been captured. They don’t want to do it. They’re being forced.”
    “That’s how it was for me.”
    “It just isn’t right,” Josh said. “And then, the thing they did with you and Patrice. It’s exactly the same. They saw something good happening there. They saw a man falling for a girl. It should have been the most natural thing in the world. In an ordinary club they would have let him make you his girl and you two could have been happy together.”
    “That’s not what they had in mind at all,” Rose said.
    “No. They made him rape you. They destroyed any chance of happiness for either of you.”
    Rose thought about it. Josh didn’t know just how horrible they’d made it. They hadn’t just forced Patrice to rape her. They’d forced him to do it while she was lying in piss.
    “I just don’t know what to make of it,” Josh said. “I had that kid, Patrice. I had my gun pointed right at him. I could have killed him.”
    “You can’t kill everyone that ever hurt me,” Rose said.
    “No,” Josh said, “but sometimes I feel as if I’d like to.”
    Rose nodded.
    “There’s no excuse for raping a woman,” Josh said. “I don’t care if they put a gun to his head. You can’t do a thing like that and expect people to forgive you. I should have killed him when I had the chance. I can’t believe I let him go.”
    Rose didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know if Josh was right or not. She didn’t know anything any more. All of this was so far beyond her. She wasn’t equipped for it. So many men were dead. Six had been killed. Deuce, Serge, Fat Boy, they were all dead. Murdoch and Patrice were still out there. Would it make any difference to her if they were dead too?
    “I should have killed him, shouldn’t I?” Josh said. “That kid, Patrice. They told him to do it but he still had a choice. He should have done the right thing. He should have stood up to them. If he liked you, he should have made a stand.”
    Rose didn’t know the answer. She said nothing. Too much blood had already been spilled.

XXIII
    “Y OU’RE BLEEDING,” ROSE SAID.
    In the rush to escape Val-d’Or she’d forgotten that he’d taken buckshot. She could see the blood coming through his shirt and jeans.
    “It’s nothing.”
    “It’s not nothing,” she said. “I have to clean it. Lie back.”
    Josh did as he was told and lay back on the bed.
    “Get those jeans off and roll over,” she said.
    She went into the bathroom and wet a towel with hot water. She wished she had some alcohol to disinfect the wounds but this would have to do. When she got back out to the room Josh was lying on the bed completely naked. He was on his tummy and she had the most perfect view of his butt. If it wasn’t for the shrapnel in his legs and shoulder she’d have wanted him right then and there.
    “Oh my!” she said with a smile on her face.
    “Sorry,” he said, “but you’ve seen me naked before, right.”
    “Don’t apologize,” she said as she got on the bed next to him. “This might sting a little.”
    She dabbed his wounds with the wet towel and wiped away the blood. Some of the cuts were easy to wash but she could see that others would be more difficult. There was bits of shot in them or threads of fabric from his clothes.
    “This is going to hurt,” she said as she wiped at one of the deeper wounds. “I’ve got to get the shot