Rose was tired by the time she made it home. It was far later than she wanted it to be. She silently hoped as she walked the last few blocks to her house that there would be no cars parked in the driveway.
Somehow, it looked as though she was in luck as she punched the keycode to open the gate. There was no indication that any cars were sitting in the driveway. There was still a chance that she made it home before anyone else!
She was still quiet as she entered the house just in case her father or anyone else had come home without the car.
"Miss, welcome home. The bath is already running for you." The family butler was the first one to greet her. She inwardly winced at the sound of the voice until she realized who it belonged to.
"Thank you, Howard." She told the butler as he took her purse from her. She kept her wallet in her pocket as she hadn't had a chance to go through it yet.
"A little bit soaked are you miss?" He raised an eyebrow when he saw exactly how wet her hair and clothes were.
Luckily, she wasn't dripping it on the marble floor otherwise she was certain that the maid would scold her for the mess that she was making when she saw it.
"Only to be expected because I forgot my umbrella today." She laughed.
"Something to do with the reason as to why you're late in coming home today?" He asked as she switched into her slippers and set her shoes right inside the door on the mat.
They would need time to dry and she didn't want to drag mud into the house.
"Yes. I had been certain that if I had waited a little while that it would eventually have slowed. Obviously, I guessed wrong." she joked as she ran her hand through her hair. Thanks to the rain, it had become quite the tangled mess.
"Is anyone else home already?" She asked as she made her way to the stairs.
The house sounded rather quiet still which gave her hope that she was right to think that she had been the first one back despite how late it is.
"No miss. Your father has a meeting that is running late tonight, he probably won't be back for a while still. I believe you know where your mother and brother are. As for your uncle, I'm unsure of his current location except for the fact that he isn't here tonight."
Rose took in all of the information with a silent nod of her head as she stopped right before ascending the stairs.
"Then... does that mean this little secret can stay between us?" She asked turning to him with a sheepish smile. The older butler returned it with a small indulgent smile of his own.
"You mean like the secret that you asked for me to keep for you last week or the one the week before that?" He teased as he counted the recent times she had asked this favor off on his fingers.
"I promise that this will be the last time for a while. You just know how my parents can be. I don't want to cause anything that will impact my ability to work." She told him.
"Very well then miss. I know that you will pay me back later for this favor anyways. I will not inform your parents of anything." he told her as he offered her a small bow of his head.
"You know that you're a lifesaver Howard. I will make it up to you the next time that we get a chance to go out together. I will take you to that little restaurant I know that you like to go to and everything be on me." Rose promised.
She would have given the butler a hug to show how much she appreciated what he was doing for her but held back as she was certain he wouldn't appreciate getting soaked.
"I will look forward to it miss. Right now though, I recommend that you quickly take a bath and get out of your clothes before you get sick. I cannot cover for you if you end up getting sick." He reminded.
"Right, thank you Howard." Rose thanked the man once again before she made her way up the stairs.
At least one thing was going well for her tonight if everything else up to that point had been a messing.
Once she had reached her room, she made sure to shut and lock the door behind her. She didn't think that there was anyone around who would enter her room with permission. She wanted privacy though as she went through all of her things again.
There was a small part of her that didn't trust Zane to have put everything back where he had gotten it from.
It at least seemed like he wasn't a true street pickpocket as he had put her debit card, ID, and cash back where he had pulled it out from. In fact, it didn't seem that he had taken any more from her at all.
At least she knew that he had some sort of integrity even if he was with the mafia.
The only other thing that she had to make sure of was that he hadn't taken any of the business cards that he had been rooting through.
They were all very important clients that if they were leaked, she would definitely get in trouble if it was traced back to her.
Rose couldn't find much of anything though that seemed to be missing or out of place. Things certainly weren't in the correct order that she preferred to keep them in but it didn't look like the mafioso had stolen anything from her.
The only annoying thing she found was a small note on a neatly folded up piece of paper that he somehow found a way to slip inside when she wasn't looking.
'You made for some good company today. In the case that you decide to entertain me with your presence again, here's my number.'
The scrawl was rather messy and hard to read but she understood the gist of what Zane put.
The message caused her to scowl as she crumbled the paper in her hand. As if she would want to see him again after what happened!
She was about ready to throw the piece of paper away in her wastebasket but then stopped herself.
If she threw it away in her room, there was a chance that someone might spot it.
She couldn't risk that even though the note didn't have his name on it.
Rose ended up putting the offensive piece of paper back in her wallet where she found it. It would stay there until she figured out what the best option for dealing with it would be.
She would be safe, for now, if she could make sure that she didn't make any accidental mistakes along the way.
Now that all of that was taken care of, it was time for her to take her bath and get out before her father returned.
She needed to make sure she had eating out of the way before he came back so that she could get away to work before she got caught up talking with him.
Tonight was one of those nights that she couldn't afford to do that.