Chapter 23

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(Edited)

Taking a hold of the gauze, she pulled it from her skin, hissing and whimpering at the pain as it separated from her burnt flesh. It would most definitely leave a scar, but Rose didn't care, she was alive and so was her baby.

Her left side was burned from the explosion, it was raw, and hurt like a bitch when she moved, her side took the blast, she turned before landing on her stomach and shielded Sammy from any harm.

Her plan worked, though the last part could have been a lot smoother if it weren't for Miles Saxon deciding to shoot her. Fortunate that he was a terrible shot and only got her arm, but that was also the reason she got burned.

She felt her life flash before her eyes the moment the warehouse blew up. When she jumped out the window, she feared Sammy was hurt despite shielding him, but a swift kick to her stomach moments after landing told Rose he was okay. He always knew when she needed his acknowledgement.

The hardest part of the entire escape was climbing a rope with an arm carrying a fresh bullet wound. She ran across the beams as fast as she could without falling off and made it to a second-floor window.

She was literally about to slip out when she saw Miles in his office, the door wide open not caring if anyone saw him. But it wasn't him that caught her attention. It was the other person in the room with him. The whole reason Rose was in America in the first place, the whole reason Scott upped his life and moved for the sake of his daughter. That person was Sandra, her mother.

The urge to go down there was great but, the warehouse was about to blow any second and she needed to be as far away as possible. Climbing out the window, she stood on a small ledge, the only way down was to jump and she did, however that great height of fifteen foot had Rose landing on her ankle wrong, she bit back a scream of pain and limped as fast as she could away from the warehouse.

She got a measly twenty-foot when the explosives detonated. She shielded her stomach to protect her son, but the blast hit her side and sent her flying a further thirty-foot from the warehouse. Before she landed on her stomach, Rose turned to land on her back. It still hurt like hell, but it was safer that way.

She had no idea if anyone survived the blast, but she needed to hide, the black smoke emitting from where the warehouse once stood gave Rose the cover required to limp into the forest behind her and get far away before what remained of Saxon's men came after her.

She found an old shack a mile away from a town and took refuge inside. She had stolen medical supplies a few days after getting the injuries from a local care centre, then clothes from a house who had laundry out on the line and food from a shop on the corner who had just gotten a delivery of products.

Rose would have headed home, but on her first trip out to find supplies she saw many of Saxon's men about the place and she was able to make the long trip, not without proper care first, using what was left of her adrenaline from that fateful night to gather supplies.

She was three and a half weeks from her due date and in her weakened condition, Rose knew she would survive the birth and Sammy would be in danger, so she did everything she could to heal enough o move, the recovery time wasn't nearly long enough before giving birth, she just hoped he would come one time on later rather than early. She knew she couldn't cope with that on her own.

Thinking about her son, Rose's thoughts drifted to her family, were they searching for her? Did they think she was dead? Although Rose thought that having people think she was dead was probably a good thing, at least whilst she was still in the enemy's territory.

Sandra and Miles made it out of the building somehow which mean they were loose and could be plotting anything. It also explained why there was Saxon members about the place, they could be searching for Rose or not. It was all so confusing, and Rose struggled to think straight.

She knew that if they thought she was dead, then seeking them out would be an advantage for Rose, but that meant leaving her family believing she was dad and she hated that idea. Who knows what they were going through in the past week alone?

Rose sighs and closes her eyes, the pain was sending her to sleep, her body was unbearable when she was awake and hoped sleeping would help the healing process.

Waking up, the pain was less, and her body was more relaxed, but she knew that wouldn't last long, rose took that time to move so she could clean her wounds again and reapply the bandages and gauzes before taking a few light pain killers, it wasn't much but it took off the edge.

As Rose worked, she couldn't help but wonder how Miles Saxon and Sandra knew one another. She was positive Miles filled Sandra in on her being pregnant or 'was' as she is now dead.

The crime scene was surprisingly bare when Rose went to take a look two days ago, the bodies had been removed and the debris had been put into a large pile. As far as Rose could tell only three people escaped the explosion and two of them were from Satan's personal army.

Digging through the rubble for an hour, Rose found nothing, the last place was Miles' office, it was the only place in the warehouse that didn't take such a heavy beating from the explosion, in here you could make out some things about the place, the filing cabinets screwed into the walls were now half blow away and tipped away from the wall.

Rose spotted a hole in the wall and it wasn't created from the explosion, though it was hard to reach, she was able to put her arm between the wall and cabinet and reach into the hole, it had to have been the place he stored all his valuables. Careful of the sharp edges on the metal, Rose felt around for anything int here, but it was empty. She sighs in annoyance, of course Saxon would clear out his valuables and if he didn't someone else did, the cops perhaps?

She was about to give up and head back to the shack when she spotted something that had slipped to the back of the cabinets. It was a file, pulling it out with only two fingers as that was the sized of the gap. Rose didn't expect the file to be heavy and almost dropped it back down the wall.

When she stood straight on her feet the pain in her side began to grow again and Rose headed out, she needed rest despite her finger itching to open the file and look at it all.

The moment her butt hit the blanket covered wooden floor she downed two pain tablets and then opened the file. There was files inside files. Anything and everything needed to bring down Miles Saxon was present in the file, crime photos, which was in police reports, so how he got them meant there was a mole in the service.

Ace wasn't the only one with his fingers in pies it seemed.

There is dozens of open and closed cases at the local police where the Saxon gang were involved, and there was never any proof, but this file gave the department all the proof they needed because Saxon was organised to the point that he kept records of everything including the jobs his gang did and the men who did them. An irresponsible move on his part. Everything from break-ins to murder, this file contained it all and Rose smiled, the moment she can get out of here she will hand this file to Officer Jackson knowing her would seek justice for them all.

A further two weeks pass, and Rose was a week away from her due date, her body was healing nicely, slowly but the pain was now bearable. Rose was working on getting out of the shack, but she couldn't travel far due to the burns, however, she couldn't give birth in there and also found footprints nearby which meant someone was drawing closer on her location.

It wouldn't take much for Miles to figure out Rose was still alive and send people to look for her. So, she decided now was the time to move, gathering her things she had stolen from homes, she throws them into a bag after cleaning her burn again. She high tailed it out of there as fast as she could nine months pregnant.

Keeping to the tree line, Rose made sure to have the town in her sights in case something came out of the woods after her, being in public would make her safer, but she had no idea the extent Saxon would go to kill Rose.

A parking lot on the edge of ton held the transport she needed to head home, being over the state line meant home was a few hours drive and without money she was left with stealing a car.

There was no one around when she looked around the lot for any cameras, there was none, she figured in such a small town nothing major really goes on.

A little car, she decided on one that wasn't expensive and was easy access too. Even the door was unlocked, was there seriously trusting people like this in the world?

She searched for some keys but found nothing, it meant hot-wiring. Removing the board from underneath the steering wheel it gave Rose access to the wires connected to the ignition. Taking the correct wires, Rose snaps the together until the engine roared to life. Nearly a full tank of gas meant she would be able to get over the state line and back to her home without stopping.

This was going to be a long day.

She had no idea how long she was driving for, but about thirty minutes ago Rose began to feel sharps burst of pain in her stomach, she though they were Braxton hicks, but as the hour ticked over they gradually became worse and she groans out "I swear, if I go into labour now you're are grounded for life" she tells her son.

By late afternoon Rose couldn't wait to be home, almost a month of people thinking she was dead she couldn't help but chuckle at the faces of those she cared for seeing her alive again, betting that one of them would pass out or throw up when they saw her.

Rose felt horrible about it, but she had no way of contacting them, the town she was near was more definitely tapped so Miles would know where she was before she could get out of town.

Looking into her rear-view mirror she sees a blacked out car following behind, her body goes rigid with fear, she was so focused on getting out of there she failed to check her mirrors every so often to make sure this didn't happen, but it was too late now.

Just to prove to herself they were following Rose sped up a little and they copied, when she eased off the accelerator so did they, "Why now" she groans out.

The sign for entering her town came up, she would be there in a few minutes and be safe. They too also knew that and sped up, moving to overtake Rose. She sped up not wanting them in front of her, they would slam on the breaks and force Rose to either stop or crash.

A forest before town held a dirt road hidden inside that lead through to the other side of town and was the best option at losing them. Unfortunately the car she was in couldn't take the terrain and they caught up to her easily, the front of their car hit Rose's bumper and she lurched forward, it jostled her about the place like a rag doll, Rose kept going.

Her breathing increased rapidly and the pain in her stomach grew, her eyes began to blur, and she couldn't see well which in this moment was the worst thing possible.

A second hit from behind combined with Rose's diminished sight had her car crash into a tree, her head leaping forward and hit the steering wheel, blood oozed from the wound that was created. She even felt a trail of something down her leg.

Moaning in pain as she moved, Rose forced her body to move, the car was behind her, but he small dust cloud gave her chance to escape before getting caught for the final time.

With no time to hang around, Rose took off into the woods, she was certain she was in labour and people chasing after her to kill her was not a great way to give birth, her head was in a spin from the crash. Everything was going wrong.

Stopping away from the car, Rose lent against a tree till the dizziness faded.

"Where'd she go?" a rough voice questions he accomplice, they looked around for any sign of the girl but there was nothing.

Rose needed to move, she knew that, however she took a step and a sharp pain shot through her body, she couldn't hold back the loud moan which alerted the men as to her location.

"She's over there" one calls out and Rose took that as a que to run, taking off as fast as she could, she pushes herself, ignoring the dizziness and pains.

"Get back here you bitch" one roared from behind Rose, she knew if she slowed down they would get her, and she refused to be captured again. She was in no condition to fight and to be honest Rose dint want to fight, she was fearful of her baby right now.

Rose got closer to the forest edge, a light shone though, having no idea where she was about to come out, she hoped there would be plenty of people. The Saxon gang never killed in front of people, unless it was a small groups they could easily dispose of.

The loud cheering of a crowd was heard over Rose's heavy breathing and groans as she ran, one hand planted on her stomach and the other stuck out to keep balance as she ran.

Breaking through the trees, Rose didn't expect to land on the football field of the high school. The cheering was from the stands as they watched a game currently being played by the high school football team.

She was shocked for a second until the sounds of footsteps behind her made her move forward. She needed someone she knew, Tyler and Drew were on the team, but she had no idea of the emotional baggage she caused them. They should be playing this moment and she searched the pitch as she walked closer for their numbers. She couldn't see them.

Glancing over her shoulder Rose sees two men stood on the forest edge with anger all over their faces, they failed, and Rose smiled with glee, now all she had to do was locate someone she knew.

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