Black Rose

by God, clear you out of it. I swear on my life, I will remove you.”
    The air died at once, and what had been spinning in it fell with thuds or crashes to the floor.
    The door burst open instantly. David, Logan, and Stella pushed through it an instant before Harper barreled through the terrace doors.
    “Mama.” Harper lifted her right off her feet, his arms banded around her. “Are you all right?”
    “I’m fine. I’m fine.”
    “We couldn’t get in.” Stella touched Roz’s back with a trembling hand. “Couldn’t get the doors open.”
    “It’s all right now. Where are the children?”
    “Hayley. Hayley’s got them downstairs. When we heard—God, Roz, it sounded like a war.”
    “Go tell her everything’s all right.” She pressed her cheek to Harper’s before she pulled back. “Go on now.”
    “What happened here?” David demanded. “Roz, what the hell happened?”
    “We started to come in, and she objected... strongly.”
    “Your mother slapped her back for it,” Mitch told Harper. “Let her know who runs this house.”
    “You’re bleeding,” Harper said dully.
    “Oh, my God.” Roz shoved the vanity mirror into Harper’s hands and moved quickly to Mitch to touch the cut on his cheek.
    “Some flying glass. Nothing major.”
    “Got some nicks on your hands, too.” She lowered her own before they could shake. “Well, let’s clean them up.”
    “I’ll pick up in here,” Stella offered.
    “No, leave it be. Go down, make sure Hayley and the kids are okay. Logan, you ought to take them to your place.”

    “I’m not leaving you.” Stella stood firm, shook her head. “That’s not negotiable.”
    “I’ll stay here.” Logan draped an arm around Stella’s shoulders. “If that’s all right with you.”
    “That’s fine.” Letting out a breath, she took the mirror back from Harper. “She’d’ve gotten more than a tongue-lashing if she’d broken this.” She set it back in place, then turned to give Harper’s hand a squeeze. “It’s all right, baby. I promise.”
    “She does anything to hurt you, I’m finding a way to get her out.”
    “Like mother, like son.” She smiled at him. “I told her the same, and since she stopped when I did, she must know I mean what I say. Go down now. Hayley can’t leave the children, and she must be frantic. Mitch, come on into the bathroom. I’ll clean those cuts.”
    “I don’t want her alone up here tonight,” Harper said when his mother left the room.
    “She won’t be,” Mitch assured him.
    When he went into the bath, Roz was already damping a cloth with peroxide. “They’re just scratches.”
    “Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be seen to, and since I’ve never doctored cuts caused by some ghost’s tantrum, I’m doing it my usual way. Sit down.”
    “Yes’m.” He sat, studying her face. “Not a scratch on you.”
    “Hmm?” Distracted, she glanced at her own hands, then looked at her face in the mirror over the sink. “I guess you’re right.”
    “I don’t think she wanted to hurt you. Not that she won’t, directly or inadvertently, being as she’s more than a little crazy. But this was a warning. It’s interesting.”
    “I admire a man who can get cut up by an angry bitch of a ghost and find it interesting.”

    “I admire a woman who goes toe-to-toe with an angry bitch of a ghost and wins.”
    “My house.” Her voice gentled as she tipped up his chin. “Here now, this won’t hurt.”
    “That’s what they all say.”
    But she cleaned the cuts with a deft and easy hand while he continued to watch her face.
    “Looking for something?” she asked him.
    “I’m wondering if I found it.”
    “This one here barely missed your eye.” Shaken more than she cared to admit, she bent down to brush her lips over the cut. “There.” She stepped back. “You’ll live.”
    “Thanks.” He took both her hands, those sharp green eyes on hers. “I have some theories.”
    “And I’m anxious to hear them. But I want to clean up that mess in there first, then I want a glass of wine. A very big glass of wine.”
    “I’ll give you a hand.”
    “No, I’d rather do it myself. In fact, I think I need to.”
    “You make it hard, always asking me to take a step back.”
    “I guess I do.” She brushed a hand through his hair. “Maybe it’ll help if I tell you it comforts me to know you’re confident enough in yourself to take that step back when I need you to.”
    “Maybe that’s something else