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DARING
Last Updated:
2025-03-25 04:15:15
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Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance DEAL
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD Again, the man who whispered to him as I entered the room began another series of silent discussions with him, and I waited for them to finish. A minute later, they were done.“And what is this business proposal of yours, young Blackwood?”I rose and cleared my throat. I wanted to convince him.“I love my father, Victor Blackwood,” I began, and saw the old man before me raise his eyebrows. Still, I was not done. “He is dear to me and has taught me everything I now know. He has raised me to be a man, and I want to do him a favour back. He is growing old and fails to see how many opportunities that our locale, Vieuti, carries. I can see them, however, and I want to use all of them.”“What do you mean?”“Vieuti is a place that has been home to the Blackwoods for years. We rose from among them to serve them, and have carried out their murders and brought them the drugs they want for their euphoria. The only thing is, my family has sold the same kind of drugs for the pas
Last Updated : 2025-03-25Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance A Father's Tale
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD That night, on my return, I had a very long talk with my father. We sat on either side of a table in his room, father to son, and there remained quiet for so long that I wondered if we were going to say anything at all. “You didn't tell me a deal with the Blacks was what was on your mind. I hate that family.” He began looking me over.“I did what was best for us to do. You'll see it in a few months, and you will know that I made the right choice.”“I trust you, boy. I know I raised you well, and I feel pride over what you did. But I still hate the Blacks,” he said, bringing out a video recording of me speaking to Michael Black and playing it. There was a look of pride upon his face, but I could only think of how someone had recorded me without knowing. I felt an inner surge of rage over this, that one of the men I went with would do this without telling me. How dare he—whoever he was- undermine my power. To consider me a boy who needed to be watched by his father…
Last Updated : 2025-03-26Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE BLACKS
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD I watched his face assume a sour expression that had disgust written all over it. “While I waited, Oliver came a number of weeks later to me,” he continued, his voice hardening. “He told me Vanilla had already been promised to someone else by their father to secure an alliance. When I asked if she had agreed to it, he swore that she did. I did not want to believe him, as I was sure that his sister was in love with me, but I trusted him as my friend and let go by stopping my visits and even asking about her. I buried it all and told myself I’d been a fool to fall for her, to think that she could love me as a Blackwood.”I watched him closely and found myself annoyed by the emotion that showed on his face. Only weak men let emotions get to them as far as I was concerned, as far as he taught me, and I could swear he was becoming weak.“A year later, I found out the truth,” he continued, now closing the fist that had held the cigarette. “I started raising the Blackwood
Last Updated : 2025-03-26Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance CLOSE SHAVE
DAMIAN BLACKWOODMy business with the Blacks took off quite well.Vieuti responded just as I said they would. Our supplies were hurried so quickly, and I made sure to sell them at a price that would put the others out of business. By the end of the first month, I returned to Michael Black with a mouth full of success.I sat before him in that chair with a smile on my face, confident of how successful I had been, and sent one of my men with the records of my sales for him to see. He went through each page carefully until the very last one, and shut the book in the end so hard that it made a sound that echoed through the whole room. No one said a word, waiting to hear what he had to say, and then he started to clap. One clap… two claps… three claps… until the whole room was going off in a round of applause. It lasted, and I sat still, taking everything with a smile on my face.“A eighteen-year-old-boy just pulled off sales that I haven't seen from many older men.” He announced. “Look a
Last Updated : 2025-03-27Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance BLOOD
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD A week would pass since that meeting with Michael Black for something to happen.Within that time, I felt that I had gone several steps up the ladder of power, and the world was going to be mine. The alliance I had forged between myself and the Blacks was the talk of every corner, and my name, Damian Blackwood, was whispered with a mix of awe and resentment as was reported. They said that at eighteen, I had climbed higher than most men twice my age. That was when I saw why I needed Michael Black's blessings and advice. The alliance had allowed for me to tighten my hold on the fiends in Vieuti, and with Michael Black giving me so much priority that he made sure my supplies were on time, I was tightening my grip on the neck of the competition. For us Blackwoods, the men worked tirelessly under my instructions, loyal to me not just because of the Blackwood name but because I’d proven myself. Before I knew it, I was in control of half of all Blackwood properties. Just
Last Updated : 2025-03-27Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance TWENTY FIVE
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD By the time I was twenty-five, I was at the top of the ladder.I had survived a number of assassinations without cuts and made so much money that my next goal was transitioning all the Blackwood assets into legal businesses. My father had retired, leaving everything in my hands—he had done it since I turned twenty—and Michael Black had been dead for four years. I mourned his death after learning so much from him, as we had grown so close that whispers started to go around about him being my true father. Those whispers became even louder when I was one of the first and few at his deathbed, and he went into the afterlife after leaving me a 20% share in his will, an equal amount to the shares he left his own biological children. When he was asked about it, he said:“This one is my son. Did you not know he would have been my grandson if I let his father marry my Vanilla?”All he asked of me was that I watch over his other four, to keep them from harm.“I trust you, Dami
Last Updated : 2025-03-28Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance FAKE GOLD
ELEANOR SINCLAIR I still think of how I met Damian Blackwood through his grandfather.Our first contact was when I served his coffee in the café I was working at the time. He appeared to be a jolly old man—the smile and extra tip he gave me warmed me up so that I ignored the other man who sat next to him. He called me for a second order, and as I turned the hot liquid into his cup for the second time, I tried to listen to them. My eye caught the other man's grin and I thought that there was something off about him. After that, my eyes moved to his hands and I saw what they held onto.It was a gold chain with a small pendant fashioned to look like a dog. I found it hard to understand why he would want a chain made of gold, but saw that it really did have an effect on the old man, who the other man now handed it to. His hands shook so much I could not tell whether it was for joy or for his age, and his expression softened with a mix of nostalgia and longing, highlighting how much he
Last Updated : 2025-03-28Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance ONE GOOD TURN
ELEANOR SINCLAIR I could have sworn that the old man had frozen to death when his prized gold seller lunged to attack me. He was shaking like a reed when I saw him and needed a reassuring hand on his shoulder from one of the crowd standing around us to be touched out of whatever had taken hold of him. Not far from us, the seller was dragged away, and I could only hope that it was the last time I was going to see him. His threats rang too loud in my head, and the look in his eyes, as I recalled them, seemed too wild for me to ever want to see him again. “What was that all about?” A young man who had come close to us asked, coming from nowhere and with genuine concern written all over his face.I looked at his face and observed it to make sure he was safe and to remember it if it was not. Vieuti was the last place to trust a random passerby, as you could be speaking to a criminal on the run from the police so fondly without knowing if you were any less careful. “I saw him trying to s
Last Updated : 2025-03-29
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Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE SPIDER
VINCENT MOREAU I would earn the name ‘The Spider’ three years after that, when I turned twenty.It was mostly because I learned the one thing my father did not. To kill. The test of the story was because of something I did, something that brought my name to the Parisian slums. One lesson I learned just as early was that people liked smart people. When you did things that would ordinarily not come to their minds, they liked you and lived in admiration of you. For the gangs, they thought I was smart because I knew everything about everybody. I knew who was plotting to kill his boss. I knew who had done something to attract the Police. I knew who was sleeping with who’s woman. I knew who was going to die next.It made me highly covered, indeed, and in danger of death all the time. They would want to sneak up on me and beat what they wanted to know out of me, which was why I had to learn two skills I found extremely important.How to escape, and how to kill. I made money from both.I r
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance ON THE SLUMS OF PARIS
VINCENT MOREAULooking at Damian Blackwood as he told me about the problems that had arisen between himself and his wife, telling me the details just as he had from the very first instance of their saddening scenarios, I knew I would like him.Oh… do I need to introduce myself as Vincent Moreau, his friend?Maybe tell you a little about myself too…Paris is easily one of the most beautiful cities in the world, so they tell me, but it is hard to say it as a Frenchman myself, especially as one born in the densest slums of Paris, where the eyes refuse to see and the air stinks of rot and every shadow hides a blade. It was where I realised that watching my father, Édouard Moreau, was my first lesson, and it showed me how life chewed up hope between those rugged, closely packed houses we lived in. He had been a smuggler without much traction—a small-time criminal that always went chasing the next sourcd of his jobs—cigarettes, booze, fake watches, whatever he could move. For the longest t
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance GOING CRAZY
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD The more I thought about it, the angrier I got with myself.And the more I thought about it, the more I started to despise Eleanor. She was a villain seeking control over me, and I was determined to stop her. The day then came when I found her holding up one of my shirts and inspecting it, her hands trembling. The brown stain on it caught my eye, and we both knew it was dried blood, and it was from a human. “Damian,” she began, the tears already gathering in her eyes so that they sparkled.“What?” I asked, fixing an eye on her. “We talked about this,” she said, in a manner that made it look like I was a child who needed correcting, and not a man who had been escaping death for so long. “We’re going to have children who need to be kept safe—”“Or who will learn how to keep the Blackwood name high, Debbie,” I shot back, stepping closer. “Like me. I killed my first man at fifteen and have lived on the edge ever since. I built everything you see around you with blood.
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance LOSING MY BALLS
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD At first, the world was mine. Then, and all of a sudden, it wasn't.It started with rumours of a plot against me, and from the ones I expected in the least, from the eldest of the three Black grandchildren Victor Black had left in my care when he died. I had allowed them to have the rights to their property piece by piece and as they advanced in age, and cared for them as I would have with my own siblings. Yet, the eldest of them, Wesley, had somehow nursed hatred and resentment for me all that time, even to the point of wanting to take me captive.Someone must have advised him against it, seeing that I would not be easily taken because I soon set a number of spies on him and the influx of information soon changed. He was no longer setting his eyes on me, deeming me too big for him to catch. Next, he set his sights on the one person he thought he could take to get at me. My wife, Eleanor.I prepared well for him, setting a few men to watch over Eleanor, and asking t
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE TASTE OF BLOOD
ELEANOR SINCLAIR We moved—myself and the dogs—to the Blackwood home, where I was forced to swallow a bitter truth. I would never get my husband back. He became more distant and started to change after that. It was heartbreaking to watch him go even farther from me, to receive even less attention from him. His kisses became quick and hurried, and our lovemaking became so infrequent that I found myself driven towards the edge of madness.But the climax of everything would come the one evening I found a blood-stained shirt hidden in the laundry basket. It was hidden away, but I found it anyway, and my hands could not remain steady as I held it up, looking at the broken stain in horror. It broke my heart to realise that I was too late. Too late to see him for who he was. To see that he would not change. To see that it was what being a Blackwood meant, to him.At the very moment, he walked in and past me in the most casual way.“Damian,” I called out to him, holding up the shirt so he w
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance EVERYTHING IS WRONG
ELEANOR SINCLAIR That moment was a disappointing one for me. I called the man he wanted me to call, and he soon appeared within minutes. I watched my husband give orders to the men who came with the one I called, and watched as they rushed to do them with a dutifulness that made them almost robotic. From inside the house, the dogs were barking, and the whole place had almost become a bedlam of noise.“John, Davis, both of you take him to the warehouse. I'll soon be there with you.”“Romeo, Julius. Both of you stay and watch my wife. Not a scratch must come to her.”“Tim… go get everything ready.”“Ellie,” he huffed, turning towards me as I stood still, watching everything before my eyes. His shoulders slumped a little bit as he looked at me, and he came towards me and to where I stood. “Romeo and Julius will be watching over you. They are my good men, and will not harm you. You will not even know that they are there, and you will be safe with them.”His voice was low in his throat,
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance SEEING SHADOWS
ELEANOR SINCLAIR Six months later, Damian and I were married.The six months after that? Blissful heaven.Within a year I had gone from Eleanor Sinclair to Eleanor Blackwood, from Miss to Mrs, from unmarried to happily married, from poor to rich. I could swear that I now had all I could have ever dreamed of, but as everything turned positive for me, it went the other way around for Damian.I continued to live in Grandfather's house and as the housemaid, taking care of the place. At times, Damian would come to me there and the other times, I would go to him. Whatever it was, we spent all our nights together. It was our one rule—never going to bed without one of us seeing the other. I kept to this rule of ours faithfully, and so did he. Until the night my husband came to me and felt eerily like the old Damian Blackwood.The grumpy, unfeeling Damian. His face was turned up in a scowl that only lessened when he saw me, and I thought I could wipe it off completely. So I attended to my ma
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance MY PRINCE CHARMING
ELEANOR SINCLAIR I think love is a creeping feeling.It comes upon you like a thief in the night, and remains with you like your shadow—unnoticed, but realer than fiction. It holds sway over you like a powerful spell, and causes you to make decisions under its full influence. And all the time, it goes unnoticed.Another thing I think is that Grandfather knew that I was in love with Damian. When I did, I did not know. Maybe it had to have seized me on the day that I ruined his shirt in the most egregious of ways, so that I was sure of two things. That I had permanently ruined that shirt and that I was going to lose my job. I do not know about the first, but he graciously saved me from the second and even put the manager down. Maybe it was because I spent days and even months after that waiting for him to come again. ‘So I could serve him better than the first time,’ I told myself, but I knew deep inside that it was more than that. That it was just because I wanted to be seen by him.
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD I wasn't thinking about a lot then, but I thought she was perfect.Picture perfect, heavenly perfect. The most perfect that any form of perfect could aspire to be. She was warm and soft and oozing with life from beneath me, with her legs tightening around my waist and pulling me even closer to her.“Damian… oh Damian…” she moaned, and her voice was comparable to the sweetest of sounds. It was breathless and desperate, the harmony of the most sonorous choirs and the songs of the sweetest birds. It was the sole reason why I didn’t need to be told twice, and drew back until I was almost all the way out of her before pushing back into her with a force that slammed both our bodies and made her cry out in pleasure, her body bouncing about in the bed. The sound of her pleasure drove me to near madness, and I continued to a rhythm that was a dance for the both of us—slowing down until it was gentle for the first steps before becoming more deliberate. Her hips rose to meet m
