Page 22 of Rose

Savior eased his black Dodge Durango through the towering black gates, tires crunching over gravel before rolling onto smooth concrete. The gates slid shut behind him, swallowing him into silence.

He stepped out, boots landing heavy on the pavement, and took in the vast open field stretching around him—miles of stillness in every direction.

In the center of it all sat the greenhouse.

Massive. Glass. Glowing in bursts of soft color like it held its own sun inside.

Savior walked toward it, the air calm, clean, and oddly peaceful. The kind of peace he never trusted.

The glass doors opened after he punched in the code, and a soft mist sprayed over him, sanitizing his clothes and skin before he moved any further inside.

It was Sincere’s sanctuary.

His little brother’s empire.

A living, breathing space filled with vibrant plants and the sharp, earthy scent of premium weed.

Savior moved slowly through the aisles, eyes scanning the lush greens, the climbing vines, the orderly rows of cannabis thriving under ultraviolet light.

He was in awe.

Everything in this place had been grown by Sincere’s hands. Nurtured. Researched. Protected.

This greenhouse wasn’t just a grow house—it was a damn kingdom.

Sincere had built successful dispensaries all over the city, pioneered natural medicine research, and provided real help to people who’d been failed by the system.

He was doing good.

Exactly what Savior always wanted for him—even if it meant sacrificing his own childhood so the twins could live without the weight of the family’s bloody legacy.

Through a haze of smoke, Sincere appeared in a white lab coat, clipboard in hand, looking more like a scientist than the little brother who used to ride shotgun with him on missions they weren’t supposed to survive.

“This shit gets bigger every time I visit,” Savior said, pride thick in his voice.

Sincere looked up, his smirk spreading slow.

Although he and Sarai were twins, he was a spitting image of Savior—just a few years younger. Same dark skin, same brown eyes, same quiet fire behind them. Tattoos climbed his arms, curls resting at his shoulders, face framed in a trimmed beard that mirrored Savior’s almost exactly.

“Probably ‘cause you visit once in a blue moon, nigga,” Sincere joked, voice warm .

Savior chuckled, walking deeper into the greenhouse, trailing his fingers along a line of hanging buds.

He knew this space meant everything to Sincere—just like the garage meant everything to him.

This was his peace. His joy. A patch of life carved from a world soaked in blood.

“Yeah, you right,” Savior said with a nod. “Your shit’s helping people though. I’m proud of you.”

Sincere lowered his clipboard, brow raised.

“I appreciate that, big bro. But I know you didn’t come all the way out here just to be proud. I can see it all over your face—some shit’s eating at you.”

Savior sighed, pulling the blunt from behind his ear and sparking it without a word.

That told Sincere everything.

He missed his brother, yeah. Always did. But this wasn’t a casual visit. He wasn’t here to catch up, talk business, or reminisce.

His mind was a mess.

And it was all because of her .

Sincere had always been the emotionally intelligent one out of the three of them.

Deadly when necessary, sure. But unlike Savior, he felt his emotions. Lived in them. Embraced them.

“Man…” Savior exhaled a long stream of smoke, eyes fixed on the greenhouse ceiling. “I think I’m going fucking crazy.”

Sincere glanced up from the clipboard he was using to analyze a new strain and smirked.

“Nigga, yo ass was born crazy.”

Savior chuckled under his breath. “Fuck you.”

Sincere didn’t look up this time. “So who’s the woman?”

That made Savior freeze.

“How the fuck you know it got something to do with a woman?” he snapped, instantly on defense.

“I didn’t,” Sincere said casually, smirking now. “But you just told me.”

Savior shook his head, letting out another puff of smoke. His siblings were the only people who could ever see through him.

And Sincere wasn’t wrong.

All he could think about since the moment he laid eyes on her… was Ahzii.

The sound of her voice when she moaned for another man—detached, hollow, like her body was there but her soul was elsewhere.

The way she didn’t flinch when he showed up uninvited, even when fear flickered in her eyes.

Her defiance when he spoke on claiming her.

How guarded she was—like no one had earned the right to touch her truth.

He’d killed a man over her. Broken into another man’s house just to see her.

And still, it wasn’t enough to shake her loose from his mind.

He couldn’t explain it, and that alone drove him mad.

“Plus,” Sincere added, dragging him back to the moment, “I know that look in your eyes. Same one I get when I look at my wife.”

Savior mugged him. “Nigga, yo ass ain’t even married.”

“Not yet, ” Sincere said, grinning now. “Wifey still playing. But don’t trip, you’ll be at that wedding real soon. Shit… I might be at yours first, the way you stuck on this mystery woman.”

He set his clipboard down and sank into a nearby chair, fully locked into the conversation now.

“So?” Sincere pressed. “Who is she?”

Savior didn’t answer right away.

He took another hit from the blunt, but his mind wasn’t in the greenhouse anymore—it was with her.

Savior never thought love—or anything close to it was meant for him. Not someone outside the Carter bloodline.

Because love gets you killed.

And he’d spent his whole life making sure that never happened.

“Her name’s Ahzii Rose.”

Savior hadn’t meant to blurt it out, but once it slipped, there was no pulling it back.

Sincere’s eyes lit up instantly.

“Damn! For real?!”

Savior mugged him, annoyed at how excited he was acting.

“Why the fuck you so hyped?”

Sincere chuckled, unable to hide his grin. “’Cause, nigga—we might end up brother-in-laws too.”

Savior squinted, completely thrown.

“What the fuck are you talking about? She don’t even got a sister.”

He hit his blunt again, jaw tight. He knew that much already—had Liv run a light check on her.

Nothing too deep. He didn’t want her entire life delivered in a file.

He wanted to learn the real shit from her , with his hands in the sand, their feet in the ocean, no one around but waves and peace.

That was the only thing he pictured when she crossed his mind.

“They not sisters by blood,” Sincere clarified, grinning. “But my girl always says Rose is like the big sister she never had.”

Savior’s brow furrowed deeper.

“Nigga, who the fuck are you talking about?”

“Ahzii is Rose—she a tattoo artist. Owns that dope ass spot near Midtown. That shit stay booked. My girl’s her assistant—works there while she’s in med school. Smart, beautiful, everything.”

Sincere’s voice softened at the end, clearly somewhere else in his head.

“ Focus, nigga.”

Savior snapped him out of it with a glare.

“Damn,” Sincere mumbled with a smirk. “Let me daydream about my baby for a minute. I know you over there thinkin’ about yours.”

Savior didn’t respond, but the way he hit the blunt said enough. He was thinking about her. He hadn’t stopped.

Savior leaned forward, teasing. “So… who’s this woman you claiming as your wife now?”

“Her name’s Taylor,” he said, like the name itself meant something. “She an artist like your girl, but she’s studying to become a medical scientist. I be tutoring her when I can… and yeah, I wanna put a ring on it. But she keep curving me. I think she low-key scared.”

Savior let out a short laugh. “I know your delusional ass ain’t sitting here clowning me, when you haven’t even bagged yours yet.”

Sincere grinned. “Difference is, I actually got to know Tay before I went crazy over her.”

Savior flipped him off. “Fuck you.”

“Real talk though,” Sincere added, his tone shifting slightly, “you know she A’Mazi’s sister, right?”

Savior stayed quiet, eyes fixed on a point across the greenhouse.

Sincere’s brows lifted. “ Damn . You ain’t tell him, huh?”

“I’m still trying to figure out how the fuck I feel right now,” Savior said slowly. “Before I go to that crazy-ass nigga and tell him I might be falling for the one person he probably swore off-limits.”

Sincere laughed under his breath.

“A’Mazi protective as fuck, just like we are with Sarai. He gon’ lose it.”

“I know.” Savior inhaled deep, blowing smoke through his nose. “That’s why I gotta be sure first.”

And even as the words left his mouth, deep down…

He already was.

“So how Rose pull the heartstrings of my heartless big brother?”

Sincere smirked, leaning back with that sly-ass grin on his face, clearly enjoying every second of this.

Savior didn’t even try to deflect.

“Man… I don’t know,” he admitted, exhaling smoke as his voice dropped. “I seen her outside Macho’s shop. Everything about her—how she moved, how she stood—she had me from jump. Some nigga was disrespecting her, and I killed his ass.”

Sincere’s eyes snapped wide.

“ Nigga?! In front of her? In broad daylight?!”

Savior shot him a look. “Fuck no. I ain’t stupid. But I did catch up with him that night. Put a bullet in him for calling her a bitch. Then I broke into the house of the nigga she’s fucking with and told her to stop.”

He dragged his hand over his face, frustration rising.

“I’m doing all this… and I don ’ t even know her . This shit is fucking with me, bro.”

Sincere stayed quiet for a beat, letting that sit. Then he nodded slowly, still stunned.

“Damn. You in deep. I ain’t never seen you like this. A woman’s never had you gone.”

Savior gave a tight nod. “It’s more than her beauty. Way more.”

He paused, staring into the haze of smoke floating between them.

“I looked her in the eyes, Sin. Those beautiful-ass eyes. And I saw pain—but I also saw who she used to be. Like the woman she is now… that ain’t really her. Like something broke her and she’s been faking it ever since.”

Sincere’s expression shifted into something softer. Wiser.