Trouble Brewing

by Selena Kitt

  For a moment he looked relieved, like he was grateful I was finally seeing the light. Then my hands fell to my belly, and I saw him look at me, head cocked, brows drawn.

  “But I’m carrying your baby.” I looked at him, seeing the realization dawning like a slow horror on his face. “And you can’t kill it—unless you kill me, too.”

  Chapter Ten

  Sabrina said I let Dante Marotta and his henchman through the gates, and I’m sure I did. It was our house, and I was in charge of the intercom. But I don’t remember doing it. Not to make excuses. It was my fault Catherine ended up shooting Sabrina—I brought her right through the gates. And it was my fault that Dante Marotta came into our house with guns to kill us all.

  I was the fuck-up. My fault, as usual.

  Everything happened so fast.

  Rob showed up first, trying to talk some sense into Tyler, but that just made him crazier. Then I let in Sabrina and Sarah, who were at the front gates. By the time I’d gone to answer the front door and let them in, Tyler had smashed his Fender guitar to pieces, and the mirror over our brand-new dresser was in fragments on the carpet.

  I looked from the glass to Tyler’s bleeding fist, and I knew what had happened. Sarah picked up the glass, telling me Rob had called Dr. Marcus—he ran the Pacific Rehab, where Tyler had spent a great deal of time, over the years. When Tyler found that out, he cursed and swore he wasn’t going, no matter what kind of impromptu intervention we staged.

  I just got something to bandage his hand, took his broken guitar and set it aside, and put him in one of the arm chairs. His knuckles were bloody, like he’d been fighting, and I suppose he had. He’d been fighting with himself—and the closest he could get was punching the mirror.

  “They’re not going to let you go, Ty,” I whispered, kissing the back of his hand as I wrapped his fingers with the bandage. It was his left hand, not his right. Both hands were necessary to play guitar, though. I heard someone give a low whistle and glanced over to see Jesse standing in the doorway. He must have gone to get Celeste, who came in behind him, shaking her head.

  I turned back to Ty, whose jaw was set, eyes blazing.

  “They’re not going to let you go,” I told him again. “And neither am I.”

  “Katie…” He looked into my eyes and I saw the devastation there. “Please say it isn’t true.”

  I knew what he was asking.

  I could barely breathe, but I opened my mouth to answer.

  Then the intercom went off again.

  “Dr. Marcus,” Rob said, and so I ran to buzz him in.

  Maybe a professional could help, I thought, hearing Tyler yelling, Rob yelling back, as I ran down the stairs. At least it was one more person between Tyler and the drug dealers, whenever they decided to show up. I was surprised they weren’t there already, to be honest.

  I threw open the door, ready to invite Dr. Marcus upstairs, but the bespectacled substance abuse therapist was dwarfed by the two men on either side of him. And they were both holding guns. One of them was aimed at Marcus, but the other was aimed directly at me.

  I swung the door to close it.

  I reacted quickly—but it wasn’t fast enough. One of them grabbed me by the throat, while the other one kept Marcus in his sights. Then a third guy appeared from behind them, even bigger than the other two.

  That’s how Dante Marotta ended up in my bedroom.

  I didn’t recognize him, though. Not when he stepped into my foyer and swung the door closed behind him. Not until they marched me back upstairs at gunpoint, along with Dr. Marcus, after they insisted I take them to Tyler. I considered leading them somewhere else, trying to text a message to Tyler on my phone, but they heard the yelling from upstairs. Rob and Tyler were still arguing, and it gave their position away.

  So, I had no choice—I led them upstairs, into my bedroom, trying to make sense of what was happening. All I could imagine was the dealers wanted money. They’d decided that Tyler was a good mark, given his location. Anyone who had a house this big had to have a ton of money, right?

  I had no idea then that the man in the suit was Dante Marotta. That Tyler was right—he still had his sticky fingers in all those evil little pies. Except they weren’t so little anymore. Marotta had grown them into an empire, and as D.A., he could select who he prosecuted, and when. He could get rid of anyone who threatened him. And he could cover it up, in his position of power.

  Yesterday, it had been Catherine who threatened him—going public with the story about Rob killing his pedophile father. And he’d gotten rid of her. The media said it was a suicide, but in the end, we all knew better. Dante Marotta had found out who leaked the story and had plugged that leak.

  Today, the threat was centered in my bedroom. It was Rob, Tyler and Sarah who Marotta had come for. The rest of us would just be collateral damage. And, I was sure, Marotta would take care of Leanne, too, once he found out where she was. Because I could tell, just the way he talked, Marotta was a no-loose-ends kind of a guy.

  I went to Tyler as soon as they pushed me and Dr. Marcus into the room. If I thought things happened fast before the armed gunmen arrived, they moved at light speed after that. Tyler put his arm around me, protective, demanding to know who in the hell these new people were and why they had guns drawn.

  It was Tyler who recognized him first. Maybe because his mother had mentioned Marotta to him recently. Maybe because the man’s face had been burned into his memory, after Marotta had burned Leanne’s face as a “warning” message.

  But what none of us knew, as I pressed my face against Tyler’s chest and the men confronted one another, was the truth Leanne had kept from all of them.

  “Do you know who I am?” Marotta demanded, while his henchman demanded cell phones, so no one could secretly call for help. We left them on the dresser.

  “Dante,” Tyler said, and I saw that Rob recognized him, too. Then Sarah, the realization slowly dawning.

  Rob demanded to know what he wanted, and Dante laughed, like Rob was in any position to make demands?

  “Did you think I was kidding when I told you I’d kill you all if you ever told anyone?” Dante asked.

  “No, sir, we didn’t think you were kidding.” I felt Tyler’s arm tighten around me. “But we didn’t tell anyone.”

  “Yes, I know.” Dante’s eyes were cold, dead. Completely unfeeling. “That little blonde bitch leaked the story. I already took care of her.”

  Catherine. That’s how we found out it was Marotta, and that’s when I knew exactly what he was there for. I guess we all knew.

  I clung to Tyler and thought, this is it. This is how we all die. And it’s going to be all my fault.

  “Get away from her,” Tyler snapped when Dante approached Sarah. She shrank from him, but he took her chin in his hand, turning her face from side to side.

  “Could use you,” he mused, and my blood turned to ice in my veins when he said, “Little old though.”

  “Fuck you!” Sarah snapped.

  “Is that any way to talk to your father?”

  His words stopped everything, everyone. I felt Tyler’s breath falter, his heart racing under my ear. No one said anything for a minute.

  “Leanne never told you?” Dante sounded surprised at first, but then he chuckled.

  “You’re not my father!” Rob protested, but I saw Sabrina grab his arm, shaking her head.

  “It’s true. He is.” Sabrina spoke up, her face pale. “Leanne… I talked to her before we came here. She told me, it’s true.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Rob paled, too.

  “So, I didn’t…” Tyler gave a low moan and I tightened my hold on him. “Joe wasn’t… our father…”

  That realization was almost enough to collapse me, but I managed to stay on my feet.

  “Afraid not. But he was your uncle. My brother.” Dante relayed that fact without any emotion at all. “It was his… proclivities, shall we say… that got me into the business in the first place.”
/>
  Oh my God.

  I tried putting all the pieces together. The man that Rob, Tyler and Sarah believed was their father had been their uncle? Leanne had married him—why? And she’d been sleeping with Marotta? All three of them were his?

  I glanced around the room at everyone’s faces. Jesse and Celeste were together, his arm around her protectively. Sarah was by me, her hand brushing mine. Dr. Marcus was as pale and quiet as a ghost in the corner. Marotta’s two lackeys were just watching him play the room, keeping their guns at the ready in case any of us made sudden moves.

  I met Sabrina’s eyes—she was half-hidden by Rob—and saw the truth in them. She really had talked to Leanne. This man was revealing the truth to his children—why? To clear his conscience? I didn’t think so.

  I thought it was because he knew they weren’t a threat anymore.

  Because he was planning to get rid of us all.

  “No one knows about you.” Rob assured him, and I knew then—he understood why Marotta was there, too. “You told us not to tell and we never did. We got the message.”

  “You nearly burned her face off!” Tyler was trembling with anger. I winced at the thought of his mother, the pain she’d gone through. The man who had fathered her children had burned her face? “She lost that eye. We got the fucking message, asshole!”

  “No one knows who you are,” Rob assured him again. He was doing his best to talk his way out of this—but it was useless. I could tell, just by the look in Marotta’s eyes, that he wasn’t going to let any one of us go. “No one knows what you did.”

  “We won’t tell anyone.” Tyler picked up the stick Rob had thrown and ran with it. “Why would we? We never have!”

  “So, you believe we can come to some sort of arrangement?” Dante looked like he was considering this, but I knew that was ridiculous, too.

  “I’m sure we can work something out.” Rob ignored Sabrina, who tugged at his shirt, trying to get his attention. I knew what she wanted to tell him. Don’t be a fool! He’s not going to let us go!

  “You mentioned money?” Dante cocked his head, his eyes gleaming.

  Of course. Money. He could clean us out before he killed us. And probably make it look like a break-in, too.

  “Tyler has a safe,” Rob offered. “Ty?”

  I bit my lip, sinking into the chair, as Tyler moved toward the safe in the floor. It was hidden under a flap of carpet. You’d never know it was there. Sabrina was still trying to get Rob’s attention, to no avail.

  “Sarah,” I whispered, turning to her, and we clung together, just like we had on the day I’d let Catherine past the gates. Déjà vu all over again.

  This time, I’d let an even bigger, badder wolf into our house, and he was going to blow our house down. And all of us, too, in the process.

  I couldn’t look. I turned my face away from whatever was happening. I heard Rob say something to Tyler, then Dante asked, “What have you got for me, son?”

  He called him son? I shuddered. I couldn’t even imagine what Tyler was feeling.

  Then Tyler said, “Just this,” and a gun went off.

  It was so loud, I screamed, and Sarah did, too. We held each other so tight, waiting for it to end. I thought we would all die, and the only thing that made me look up was the thought that I wanted to be looking into Tyler’s eyes when it happened.

  By the time I had the courage to look up, it was over.

  Dante Marotta had collapsed in a pool of blood on the floor. His lackeys had been disarmed. I don’t know who did it, or how. Except that I saw Tyler holding a gun, still pointed at his father, and I recognized the gun as the one he kept locked in our safe.

  “Is he dead?” Rob asked his brother softly.

  Tyler shook his head. “I’m not killing our father twice.”

  That’s when Ty lifted his face and his eyes found mine.

  Sarah gave me a nudge and I went to him. Someone was calling the police. They were talking about what might happen, what secrets would be revealed to the world, if the police got involved, but I wasn’t paying attention to that. I didn’t even care.

  The media could announce all of the secrets Tyler had been forced to keep from the rooftops, for all I cared. It was about time.

  “Katie,” he said when I got close. He was still holding the gun, still pointing it at his father, but he lowered it as I approached. He lowered his voice, too, so no one could hear his trembling question. “Is it true?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head, hating myself, but I had to tell him the truth. I would have done anything, said anything, to save his life. “I said it because I didn’t want to lose you. Because I thought… it might give you a reason to stay. Or to take me with you.”

  His eyes closed for a moment, a pain crossing his face, and I felt tears stinging my eyes.

  “I was desperate,” I whispered, swallowing hard. “Tyler… say something…”

  “I want to have a baby with you.” He opened his eyes, a bewildered smile crossing his features as he pulled me in to him with one arm, holding me close, an action that both surprised and thrilled me. “I want to have ten babies with you.”

  “Ten?” I choked, half-laughing, looking around to see who had heard him, but no one was really paying attention.

  “When you said you were pregnant, I was terrified,” he whispered into my hair. “And then… when you just told me it wasn’t true… I knew how much I really wanted…”

  I put my arms around him, feeling a sob, happy or sad, I didn’t know, rising in my throat.

  “I’ll have as many as you want,” I told him, smiling through tears. “Or none. It’s up to you. Just… don’t leave me. You got that?”

  I looked up into his face, searching his eyes.

  “I got it.” He nodded slowly.

  “I mean it!” I poked him in the ribs. “No leaving. That’s a new rule.”

  “I’m pretty sure that one’s built into the marriage vows.” He flashed me a smile.

  “Then let’s hurry up down that damned aisle.”

  “You look like a princess,” I whispered in Emma’s ear.

  “I do?” My little sister looked up at me with big eyes and then smiled. She was missing one of her canine teeth, which just made the whole picture even more perfect. So adorable. Her dress was butter-yellow, with old-fashioned lace trim at the neck and on the sleeves. It reminded me a little of a much more chaste version of the dress I’d walked my first red carpet in.

  I’d been wearing blue the last time I walked the red carpet with Tyler. It had been for the premiere of Album—which, so far, had fantastic ratings and even more critical acclaim. Tyler Cook wasn’t just a great guitarist, apparently. He was also an amazing actor, which he continued to prove, week after week, as the public and the media ate the series up like they couldn’t get enough. HBO had another big series hit on their hands, and Neilson was projecting that the series finale might be even bigger than Game of Thrones.

  “You look like a princess,” Emma said, giving me that gap-toothed smile.

  “Then we can be princesses together.” I reached over her to the counter and picked up her basket of yellow and white rose petals. “Are you ready to be the flower girl?”

  She nodded enthusiastically, taking her basket. “I can’t wait!”

  “Go see if Daddy’s ready to walk me down the aisle,” I told her, pointing to the door.

  “He’s freaking out,” Emma confessed with big eyes. Her expression made me laugh.

  My bridesmaids—including my very pregnant maid-of-honor—came into the room, all of them talking and laughing at once. They were like beautiful beams of sunshine, Celeste, Sarah and Daisy in the same satiny yellow, Sabrina’s dress a little darker shade to denote her role.

  Her belly was enormous.

  She’d begged me to wait, just another month, so she wouldn’t have to waddle down the aisle, but I’d waited long enough. I wanted that piece of paper, the official rules stating that Tyler was mine, fore
ver.

  “Everything ready?” I asked hopefully.

  The five of us girls had planned this wedding down to every last detail, along with Claire, our wedding planner—Tyler hadn’t wanted much input, except for the music, which I gave over to him—but now I just couldn’t wait for that walk down the aisle.

  And our honeymoon.

  “Your dad is going to have a heart attack,” Celeste laughed. “I’ve never seen a more nervous father-of-the-bride.”

  “You better go calm him down, Emma,” I told my sister and she gave me a gap-toothed salute before heading out the door.

  “Oh my God, Katie…” Sabrina’s gaze swept over me, top to bottom. “You look so amazing.”

  “This could have been us,” I said, sticking out my tongue. “But you had to go get secretly married in Aruba!”

  Sabrina laughed and then shrugged. “Rob couldn’t wait.”

  “Katie?” A voice called, and I looked past my bridesmaids to see Tyler’s mom—my future mother-in-law—peeking in. “Claire said five minutes.”

  “Thanks, Leanne.” I smiled back at her. She’d been so afraid of “messing up all your wedding pictures with my ugly face,” but we’d hired a professional make-up artist, and she looked amazing. She gave me a little wave and ducked back out again.

  “Are you ready for this?” Sarah asked, adjusting my veil.

  “I should have worn the Versace.” Celeste sighed, looking at my dress. “You look amazing in it.”

  “You were a beautiful bride,” I reminded her.

  Celeste and Jesse had gotten married just a few months after they announced their engagement. They couldn’t wait either. Honestly, I wouldn’t have waited myself if we hadn’t been forced to plan around the series’ shooting schedule.

  “It’s time!” Claire poked her head in this time. “Places, ladies!”

  They all squealed and squeezed me and rushed out of the room carrying their bouquets and then I was left alone. But I heard Tyler’s voice, calling me, playing our song.

  I didn’t want the traditional wedding march, anyway.