THE PHOENIX MUST BURN TO EMERGE.

“I’ve never had anythin’ easy givin’ to me, Owen. Everythin’ has been hard, painful. Nothin’ has been easy. Except this. So I’m waitin’ for that other shoe to drop.” She didn’t mean to make the mood somber but she wouldn’t keep things from Owen. Rowan was a very blunt and honest person, they didn’t like her bluntness, but with Owen, it was very polite. It wasn’t like Rowan, but then again, he wasn’t like anyone she had met either. He gave her a chance at a life she didn’t think she deserved or wanted or was going to get one. But he was here, holding her, looking at her like he was, and Rowan, didn’t want to let that go. She shakes at his words, her head resting against his chest, a deep breath leaving her lips.”You love how short I am, asshole. I’m fun size.” She mumbles, before kissing at his neck softly.”A gun would be nice. Preferably one that has my name on it.” She tells him with a soft chuckle,before she’s nodding her head, biting at his pulse point.”mm, you’re right. You go and save me from weirdos, and I’ll give you the best time of your life.” She says, before she’s pulling back to look at him in the eye.”I do not need anger fuckin’ management. People ‘ere just need to stop bein’ so fuckin’ annoyin’. Not you though, you’re just fun to play with.” She tells him, before hands go under his short to feel his abs.”Are we goin’ to keep talkin’? ‘Cause I kind of want to ride you, stud.”

        “Owen, sweetheart —- I asked to get shot. I understand people are having a difficult time grasping that, but I requested for the bullet to aim through my thigh so this is not anyone’s fault but mine.” Lips pursed to sulk into quietness, becoming tired at the whole ordeal. Parker King was never a friend, he was a nuisance —- an attractive one that made her stomach flutter with butterflies, stupidly enough. “Time will tell. Owen, shut up.” She blurted out, not seeming to regret those words. “I find the concern adorable, but that’s not making me feel better. Besides, you stole my job; the taking care of portion.”

      “It’s —- long. She ( yes, she ) beat my face over a ride and some other comments I made throughout our entire conversation. You can laugh all you want, Hurst. I stand by her being the mean one in this situation.”

“You want me to toss you a punch….well, okay….” she shrugged as she put up her fists and thew a hard punch to his palm, once again her shoulder tensing up again. “See? Shoulder tense up when I punch something.”

“Like you could hurt me, or even want to hurt me.” She says, before her mood turned somber at his words.”You’re not gettin’ involved, Hurst. These men are dangerous. This is my war. I don’t need the people I care about gettin’ hurt ‘cause of me.” She tells him, before kissing his cheek gently, she cared about him, she did. She wouldn’t be this affectionate toward him if she didn’t. She couldn’t drag anyone into this. Hell, it was why she wasn’t ever going to tell Jordan. He had his family here, and she wasn’t going to have them hurt either, or have them lose Jordan. Rowan may act selfish, but she was rather selfless.”I’ve been shot so many times, I can’t keep track, this is nothin’.” She mumbles, though it had weakened her, but she figured that was the poison creeping through her body, but she wasn’t going to let him know that, didn’t want him worrying about her.”Fuckin’ aye I want a serious answer. Don’t humor me, Hurst.” She tells him, before she’s chuckling and then groaning at that action.”You shut up.” She mumbles, before she’s, looking at him as he sets her down on the couch eyes boring into his blue.”You’d seriously not let me die?” She asks, before a deep breath left her lips at his question.”Back in Boston, I had put a dru’ lord behind bars. He escaped, kidnapped my husband at the time, taunted me to come to this old abandoned warehouse. My team told me not to go by myself, but I don’t listen to anyone, so I went there, and there was Riccardo, and Santiago. He killed him in front of me, and I killed him. So now his groupies are wantin’ me dead.” She tells him, shrugging her shoulders. She was keeping out that Jordan was suppose to kill her, simply because that was irrelevant.”That’s my story, stud.” 

“I’m caught up enough. Luck for you I still stayed stocked up even while I was gone. Can’t just forget about my favorite customer right? Haven’t changed a bit. Kind of learned that there’s no need for change.”

“Do I have to though?” She asks, a pout on her lips, though there was a twinkle in her eye, clearing she was just teasing him, because she wouldn’t mind this whole thing to be settled.”There is a lot to overthink.” She mutters against his lips, though there is a smile upon her own lips, because she was only teasing him, and just enjoying being close to him. She honestly didn’t give two fucks what he got up to in his past, though she wasn’t opposed to hearing about it, but she wouldn’t judge him, and she knew he wouldn’t judge her for anything she’d done. It wasn’t about the judging, it was about the pain, and what that pain brought to their lives. That was a weird sentence to even think about. Their lives. Rowan thought she was going to die alone, peacefully in a run down hotel. That’s how she saw her life, and she had accepted that fate, but now? Now that Owen was apart of that life, she didn’t want that for herself. She didn’t want to be alone, didn’t want to find herself in that rundown motel with flies flying around the toilet bowl, sheets not even clean, pillow cases having stains on them. Perhaps her mind went into too much detail about this, but when one thought about their death so much preparation was put into no? He definitely was the reason she didn’t want to be alone anymore.”Short stuff? I am not that short.” Though compared to him she was.”Fine. But you better brin’ me some fuckin’ presents every time you brin’ it up.” She says, his touch sent shivers down her spine, made her heart flutter in her chest, made her want to be so much closer to him than she was now, but it also made it very hard to pull away, and so she doesn’t, she stays where she is. A laugh leaves her lips at his words, pulling back more so she could stare into those blue eyes.”Such a fuckin’ compliment you’ve just given me. I’m brewin’ a lot of things stud. For one, how to pay you back for all these insults you’ve just thrown my way. If likin’ you makes me a fuckin’ nutjob, then what the fuck does it make you? Nut less?” Yeah that was the best insult she could come up with at this time.”Yes. That if I see anyone lookin’ at you like they want you, I will pull a gun on ‘em, and enjoy the fearful look in their eyes.” Though she wouldn’t really…Maybe…Most likely she would. A smirk appeared on her face at his last words, lips finding his again.”You liked it, eh? Had to, ‘cause that was the first time we did it.” She points out to him.”And it keeps that spark in the relationship.”

“I’m thrilled.” The comment was automatic as she turned on patient helping mode. A mode which faltered slightly when he explained his injury occurred the other day. “You waited to come in because,” she prompted as she held out her hand waiting until he offered the hand that he meant.

“It’s true, but I’m trying not to tense up when I punch. Also she said my shoulders would thank me when I stop tensing up.”

         “Maybe if everyone around here wasn’t so damn giant, I wouldn’t look so small. It helps being small though; people underestimate me. We are and I constantly annoy her I think but she doesn’t need any more people like her; needs people that can just keep up I think. As good as any and don’t worry, I’m not judging you or your fisty actions.”