Battling Troy: Devil's Knights Series (10 page)

Just as I was twisting the handle open, the person on the other side pushed on the door, smashing it into my face. Son of a bitch that hurt. I let go of the handle and grabbed my nose, hoping it wasn’t bleeding. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. Why the hell did getting hit in the nose hurt so fucking bad?

“Who the hell stands in front of a door when it’s opening?”

Gravel. What in the hell was Gravel doing here? “You pushed the fucking thing into me.” I gently prodded my nose, trying to see if it was broken.

“I barely touched you.”

“You were thirty seconds in front of us, how did you manage to get a punch in?”

Marley too? What the hell was going on?

“I didn’t punch him. Cowboy here was standing in front of the door when he opened it.” Gravel walked past me and started walking around the living room.

“You pushed the fucking thing into me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gravel mumbled as he grabbed hold of the banister going upstairs and shook it. He muttered something under his breath as he walked up the stairs.

“I brought your other bag, hun. Are you sure this is enough? Gravel doesn’t want you going back to the house until everything is cleared up.” I glanced behind Marley and saw Ethel standing behind her.

“I should be okay. I can always do laundry or shop. I’ve wanted to get some new clothes.” Marley walked past me and set the suitcase she was carrying down next to the couch with Ethel following behind her.

I was in the twilight zone. That had to be what was happening.

“There’s this little vintage shop that just opened downtown that you should check out. It looks like clothes you would like.” Ethel dropped the bag she was carrying and hitched her purse up on her shoulder.

What the fuck was going on? I thought I would never see Marley again, and now here she was, standing in my living room talking to Ethel about vintage clothes.

“We’ll have to go there-”

“Stop!” I yelled. I need to know what was going on. To top off all this confusion, my God damn nose was killing me and I felt a headache coming on.

Ethel and Marley stopped talking and looked at me like I had two heads.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Meg said she was going to call and tell you we were on the way over,” Ethel said, puzzled why I didn’t know what was going on.

“She called me like two fucking minutes ago and told me I was going to have some company. That’s it!”

“Oh, no,” Marley whispered.

“OK, well, I’ll give you the short and sweet condensed story, hun. Marley can fill you in on all the small details later.” Ethel plopped down on the couch and Bandit hopped up next to her, nudging her hand with his nose.

“That would be a good place to start.” I slammed the front door shut and crossed my arms over my chest and waited.

“You need to put better locks on all of your windows upstairs and fix this fucking banister.” Gravel walked down the stairs, wiggling the banister the whole way. It was more like trying to rip the banister off.

I repeat, what the fuck was going on? Why the hell was Gravel telling me fucking home improvements I needed to do? “The next person who talks better be explaining to me what the hell you are all doing here.”

Marley bit her lip and looked at Ethel while she twisted her hands together.

“You ready to go, woman?” Gravel asked as he stood at the bottom of the stairs, his arms folded over his chest.

“Not quite. Meg didn’t give Troy the rundown of why Marley is staying, so I think you might want to clue him in on what’s going on.”

“The assholes who shot at ya’ll are mafia. Until we figure shit out, we need someone with her twenty-four seven. Since I missed Marley’s rebellion years, she’s decided to give me a glimpse of them and insist that she stay with you just to piss me off.” Gravel gaze shifted from me to Ethel. “Let’s go.”

The fucking mafia? Who the hell was Marley engaged to? “For how long? I do have a job.”

“Till we get this shit squared away. King said when you’re at work, one of the prospects will stay here. Keep her safe or I will fucking kill you.” Gravel walked out the door, leaving it open and leaving me still confused as fuck.

“Well, you kids have fun. I’ll stop by in a couple of days to see how you two are getting along.” Ethel grabbed her purse and followed Gravel out the door. She at least shut it behind her.

Marley and I just stared at each other. How the hell did this happen?

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Marley

Troy just stared at me. Not talking, just staring. He didn’t look happy to see me. This had all played out so differently in my head. A tense stare down was not what I expected.

“So, I decided to not leave,” I said meekly. Start with something positive.

“Why? I thought there was nothing here for you?”

“Ethel and I had a talk and she helped me to see things clearer. I was making a decision without really thinking things through. I’ve finally found a place to live that I love and I’ve met some amazing people I really don’t want to leave behind if I don’t have to.”

“Why are you here, Marley? There are lots of places you could have stayed that would be as safe as here, if not safer. Four days ago I was someone you could walk away from without a second glance and now you’re at my doorstep expecting me to protect you. I’m sure everything Ethel told you was the same thing I said to you. “

I sat down on the couch and Bandit hopped up next to me. Bandit seemed to be a bit more forgiving of me than Troy. I scratched behind his ears and he closed his eyes, leaning into my hand. “I shouldn’t have said what I did, Troy. You were right when you said I was irrational, but all that kept playing through my head was that you could have been shot or even worse, killed, because of me. My problems have nothing to do with anyone here, but you all seem to think that you need to fight them for me. I’ve never had something like that before. Even when I was with Mark, if I had a problem, I solved it, no one else.”

“You’ve had the wrong fucking people in your life, Marley, if they never helped you when you were in trouble.” He ran his fingers through his hair and walked over to the TV, pausing the show he was watching.

“You’re telling me. I thought Mark’s family were upstanding people who did no wrong, and I just found out they have ties to the mafia. That’s enough to make me wonder if I’ve had my head up my ass this whole time and not know who Mark really was either.” I turned my head away and dashed away the tears that were streaming down my face.

“None of this is your fault, Marley. I’m sure if there was any indication that Mark was anything less than good, you would have seen it. Don’t beat yourself up for something that is out of your control. You had no idea any of this was going to happen when you left California.”

“I knew they were upset, but I thought leaving would help. They took me to court to appeal the will ruling and I’m not fighting it at all. The only reason I can think of as to why they are doing this is because maybe the case isn’t going the way they want it to.”

Troy sat down on the edge of the recliner and looked at me. “I think it’s time we have the conversation about what all happened before you moved to Wisconsin. I can piece together what happened from bits and pieces I’ve heard, but I’d much rather hear it from you.”

“It might take a while,” I hiccupped.

Troy popped open the footrest on the chair and reclined back. “I’ve got all night, Marley. If I’m going to be the one protecting you, I think it’s fair I know what I’m protecting you from. Start from the beginning.”

I wiped the tears from my eyes and buried my face into Bandit’s neck. Telling Troy what was going on was going to be hard, but he had a right to know. A psycho family and the mafia trying to kill me was some serious shit.

“OK,” I whispered, sitting back.

Troy held his breath and waited.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Chapter 12

Marley

I clenched my hands together and tried to gather my thoughts. Where the hell should I even begin? Bandit laid down, resting his head in my lap. “Mark and I met when I moved to California. We were always in the same classes together but never actually talked until we started high school. Halfway through sophomore year, something changed. He started hanging out by my locker, asking for a pen even though I knew he had one. He finally asked me out on a date right before the end of the school year and we were inseparable from then on.”

“Sounds like your typical high school romance. No red flags ever popped up, made you think there was something up with his family?”

“I knew he had money. His family owns a talent agency and were well known around town. His money never really crossed my mind, because it was his and not mine. His parents hated me the second they met me. They had an air about them that they thought they were better than everyone. We only went over there a couple of times, before his mother called him into the kitchen, and I could hear them arguing about me. I tried to break up with him that night, but he insisted that those were his mother’s problems, not his. She had heard about my mom through town gossip. She also knew about Gravel, but I could never figure out how she found out about him. I never talked to anyone about him. I eventually told Mark about Gravel, but he didn’t seem to care. Mark was so different from his parents. He didn’t really care about money either. Although, that could be attributed to the fact that he was so loaded, it was something he was used to.” I took a breath and glanced at Troy. His eyes were trained on me, unwavering.

“Keep going, Sunshine,” he mumbled when I didn’t continue.

I turned away, focusing on the TV in front of me that was paused on three zombies chasing after a woman. Apparently, Troy was also a fan of The Walking Dead. It was also one of my favorite shows, too. “He always wanted to buy me things, but I never wanted them. Half of the jewelry I never wore and put in my dresser. I think one of the things he really liked about me, was that I didn’t care about the money. He knew that if the money were gone, I would have still been there. I saw him for who he is, not for what he could buy or give me.”

“There’s not a lot of women out there like that, Sunshine. I’m glad he saw that you were something special.” I was surprised that Troy was being so understanding. Gravel had said if Mark wasn’t dead, he would kill him for putting me through this.

“We rarely went to his parents’ house, spending most of our time either at my home or just driving around. We were basically inseparable in high school. After we had graduated, he went off to Stanford and I stayed local, going to community college and recieving my beautician's license.”

“You stayed together all the while he was gone?” I knew it was a long time for a couple so young to stay together. Most marriages barely last that long anymore.

“Yeah. He came home to visit once a month. We grew apart somewhat with barely seeing each other, but he was determined to stay with me.”

“I bet his folks weren’t too happy about that.”

“That’s the understatement of the year. I very rarely went to his house anymore. After he had graduated college, he came home and started running the family business. We eventually got our own place together and then he asked me to marry him three years later. I was right in the middle of paying and putting deposits down on rentals and things when he died.” Tears were streaming down my face, but I didn’t stop talking.

“I got the phone call at seven o’clock at night. He had called before he left the office and told me that he was going to stop at the store to pick up milk and then he would be home. He got hit by a dump truck before he even made it to the shop.” I wrapped my arms around my middle and leaned into Bandit. He lifted his head and snuggled into me.

“How long has it been since he passed away?”

“Eight months,” I hiccupped. It had been awhile, but not by much.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m normally OK with it, it’s just when I have to talk about it, and I seem to lose it.” I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and closed my eyes, willing the tears to stop crying.

He kicked the footrest down on his chair and walked into the kitchen and grabbed the box of Kleenex he had on the counter. “Dry your tears, Sunshine.”

I grabbed two Kleenex and blew my nose. “His family didn’t talk to me until six months after his death when they couldn’t get access to his inheritance. I figure they thought that they would be able to get around the clause of all of his belongings and inheritance going to me and ran out of time. As of right now, I own the townhouse Mark and I used to live in and three other properties that were his and a pile of money.”

“Holy shit.” Troy whistled.

“Yeah, holy shit is right. Although I don’t want any of it. I only wanted it if Mark was a part of it. I didn’t care about money before he died, and I still don’t care about it. I wish his family would just leave me alone.”

“So just give it to them and be done with it.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “If it were that easy, Troy, I would have done that right away. Mark put a clause that I couldn’t give the money away or anything. It’s mine, whether I want it or not.”

“Fuck.”

I wiped my hands on my pants and tried to get my crying under control. “So, that brings us to now.”

“Wait, where the hell does the mafia fit in? Did his family hire them?”

“I’m really not sure if they hired them or if it’s more of a favor. Gravel just told me that Mark’s grandfather had gone to the Banachi's for help and it somehow forged a relationship that hasn’t wavered.” I leaned forward and grabbed the remote off the coffee table. I was done talking. Troy now knew everything I did, and when I sat back and thought about it, it wasn’t a lot.

I hit play on the DVR and sat back, watching an episode of
The Walking Dead
I had already seen. “You’re behind almost a full season, Troy.”

I glanced at Troy, to see him staring at me. “I don’t watch them until I have the full season. I’m a bit behind on watching them, seeing as the new season starts in a week or two.”

“Oh, well. I guess I can watch it again with you and try not to tell you what happens.” I laughed.