The Silencer: A Bad Boy MMA Romance

by Aubrey Michelle

  She frowned and pursed her lips. “Would you get over it already? This is going to be a beautiful house,” she reassured him as she rubbed her pregnant belly.

  As Joy toured them around the house, the kids ran and played as they yelled from room to room. There was plenty of space and Ashley loved how elegant the home was. Keith even found it charming himself. Mature trees sporadically occupied the yard; a large one right in front of the house. It was beautiful.

  “How long has it been on the market?” he asked as he admired the outbuildings.

  “Let me see,” Joy said as she flipped through her paperwork. “Um, it looks like it’s been on the market for almost two years.”

  “And nobody’s ever put it under contract?” his face crinkled as he began to wonder why.

  “No, actually, I had a couple who made an offer on the house, but their loan fell through. I think it was the Briar’s who made the offer.”

  Keith thought for a moment. “Oh,” he chuckled, “yeah, they actually applied for the loan through me. The husband had quit his job but never told his wife. When we tried to verify his income, we couldn’t since he was unemployed so their loan was denied.”

  “Are you kidding? That’s why? They told me that they had to move to take care of the wife’s sister because she’d been in an accident at work.”

  “No, that’s why. I’ll tell you what,” he said looking at his wife. “If Ash is still crazy about the house after seeing it, we’ll make an offer,” he smiled at her.

  “Really? Do you really mean that babe?” she gloated.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Okay, well if you guys are sure, I’ll go ahead and start the paperwork right now. We’ll make the seller’s an offer and see what they come back with.”

  Ashley bounced up and down as Joy went to her car to get the paperwork. “Thank you, babe! Thank you so much!” she kissed him. “We’re going to be so happy here!”

  Joy returned with the paperwork and began filling it out when Keith asked if the kids would still be in the same school district.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Let’s check,” she said as she skimmed the listing.

  Ashley nervously bit her lip, hoping the answer would be a good one.

  “Yep! It says right here, R-IV so you’re safe there.”

  Ashley sighed in relief.

  Not long after they made an offer on the house, Keith was promoted to a directorship at the bank. It couldn’t have come at a better time. With his promotion, though, it meant he had to work longer hours. Ashley had her hands full with three kids at home and one on the way. Three weeks later, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. They named him Bryce and were lucky enough to bring him home a day earlier than they did with Chase.

  The offer on the house was accepted, and they hired a moving company to make their move easier and alleviate some of the stress that comes with moving. After they had been settled into their new house, Ashley began putting in a few hours of work-at-home bookkeeping here and there to help her husband when she could. With everything falling into place, the family had never been happier. That spring, Ashley, and the kids began gardening and even started to raise animals that the kids could help with. They thought it was neat to have chickens, rabbits and a couple of cows. Chloe was now nine, Brooke seven, Chase was almost five and Bryce was almost a year old. Every morning, the kids ran out to feed the rabbits in their hutches and tossed chicken feed out into the yard for the chickens. After the animals had been fed, they took turns watering the garden where they grew their own lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans. They were fascinated with how fast everything seemed to grow.

  After about six months or so, weird things began happening. One morning when Ashley went running errands with all four kids in tow, she noticed the front passenger van door was open. She told the kids to wait inside the house; Keith was at work, even though it was a Saturday. Slowly, she approached the van, checking to see if anyone was inside.

  “Hello?” she called out but received no answer.

  Walking closer to the van, she saw that it was empty. Worried whether anything had been stolen, she began to take inventory. The car seat and booster seats were all there. A few dollar bills laid crumpled in the drink holder; no money was taken. As she walked over to the open door, she noticed everything from the glovebox had been scattered across the front seat. She began going through the papers to make sure everything was still there. It was. The vehicle registration, proof of insurance, her permit to pick up the kids from school, it was all there. She didn’t know what to make of it. It didn’t make any sense; she decided to call Keith at work.

  “Keith, someone was in our van!”

  “What do you mean?” he asked, confused.

  “I mean someone was in our van. Nothing was taken, but all of the papers in the glove compartment were lying all over the front seat. They’d been rifled through, but they were all there.”

  “That’s odd,” he commented as he managed accounts.

  “Didn’t you notice the passenger door open when you left for work?” she asked.

  “To tell you the truth, I didn’t. When I left for work, it was still kind of dark out and my car was parked on the driver’s side of the van. Are you guys okay or do you need me to come home?”

  “No, we’re going to come into town to run some errands. What time will you be back?” she asked as she began loading the kids into the van. She wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible in case whoever did it was still there watching her.

  “Honestly, I can probably meet you guys for lunch if you think the kids can make it until about two o’clock or so.”

  “Okay!” she said, glad that her husband would be able to spend a little free time with them.

  It wasn’t long after the van incident, on a Friday night, when the family decided to splurge and went out to dinner. They hadn’t eaten out in a very long time since Keith had received his promotion and began working extended hours. When they returned home that evening, they noticed that the front living room window was open.

  “Did you open the window today?” Keith asked, drawing his wife’s attention to it as they parked in front of the house.

  Slowly, she shook her head, “No, I never open that window. You know the screen’s missing, and it would let all the bugs in.” Ashley hated bugs, and it seemed as though the ones on the country were morphed in size compared to the bugs in the city. She turned to face the rear of the van, “Did one of you kids open the living room window?”

  Several no’s followed her question as the children denied doing it.

  “You guys wait here. I’m going to go inside to check,” he said, nodding his head. “You sit in the driver’s seat, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said as her heart raced, worried that an intruder was lurking in the house.

  “If you see or hear anything, you drive off with the kids and call the cops,” he whispered before exiting the vehicle.

  She nodded as he shut the door and she slid over to the driver’s seat. Through the windows, she could see his silhouette pass from room to room until his head appeared in the open window.

  “It’s all right!” he yelled, motioning to her that it was okay to come inside.

  That night as they laid in bed, they discussed the strange events of the window and the van door. They couldn’t make sense of the two events.

  “Do you think someone is messing with us?” she asked her husband.

  “I don’t know what to think. It’s weird, isn’t it? It’s like they’re harmless pranks, but they make you wonder. You know?”

  She nodded, “Yeah, it’s almost as if some prankster is playing practical jokes on us, but I don’t get it.”

  “Me either. It’s also possible that someone was planning on stealing something out of the van and I scared them off when I came out of the house to leave for work. And maybe one of the kids opened the window but don’t want to get in trouble.”

  “Yeah, that’s possible, I
suppose,” she agreed. Her gut told her that things weren’t that innocent. “Is there any way you could bring some of your work home and do it here so the kids and I aren’t alone as much?”

  “No, not really. I’ve thought about it before, but it’s just not possible. I have to log into certain accounts that can only be accessed from the bank’s servers.”

  “Well, it was an idea,” she said as they kissed each other goodnight.

  §

  Around the beginning of October, Keith came home late from work one night. The house was pitch black, as Ashley and the kids were all asleep since it was a school night. Pulling up to the house, he parked his car and headed inside, exhausted after putting in long hours that day. On his way to the front door, he began searching for his house key on his key ring. Walking through the yard, as he continued his search for the key, he ran into something dangling from a tree branch. It felt warm and wet as it smacked him in the face.

  “Ugh! What the hell?” he murmured to himself.

  He took a step backward, trying to figure out what he’d just ran into as he pushed away thoughts of what it might be. Warm blood was still dripping out of the freshly killed raccoon that swung from the tree. The animal’s blood was smeared across his face and shirt. He couldn’t escape the rust scent of the blood; he gagged, almost vomiting in the yard.

  Whoever did it, killed the raccoon and tied a rope around it before hanging it from the tree. His senses were heightened as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Who would’ve done this? He looked around, making sure no one was watching. With no one in sight, he retrieved a switchblade to cut it out of the tree before Ashley or the kids found it. They’d be scared to death at the sight of a bloody, mutilated raccoon dangling from the tree as they walked out of the house.

  As he cut the animal corpse from the tree, he thought maybe some nearby teens must have done it as a sick Halloween prank. It was only three weeks away. He hid his soiled, bloody shirt inside of a grocery bag with the raccoon and tossed the plastic bag in the trash bin at the curb. After disposing of the animal and cleaning himself up, he decided to keep the event to himself. Ashley was already on high-alert as it was, and he didn’t want her to worry more than she already was while he was working these late hours.

  The next few weeks were uneventful in the Marshall house as the kids did their chores and Ashley tended to the baby. The children continued helping with as much as they could since their dad was still leaving early and coming home late as the demands of the bank grew. Bryce was becoming a bit more active as he grew older, keeping Ashley on her toes. In the blink of an eye, that child could be happily playing at her feet one minute, and then standing on top of the kitchen counter the next. There was never a dull moment as long as he was awake, but she wouldn’t trade him—or any of the other kids—in for the whole world. Her bond with her children was very strong as she actively played with them and participated in their extracurricular activities.

  The week of Halloween, the kids went out one morning to check on their rabbits since the temperatures had drastically dropped overnight and there was a bit of frost on the windows. They were concerned that it might be time to move the rabbits to one of the outbuildings with a heater, and lay some extra hay in the chicken coop. Keith and Ashley came running out of the house when they heard the children screaming.

  Approaching the rabbit hutch, they saw what all of the commotion was about. All of the rabbits had been massacred. The rabbit hutches were filled with dead rabbits. Blood was splattered all over the inside of the cages; some on the ground. Their stiff bodies didn’t move, and their large eyes were open. Staring back at the children. Ashley quickly took the kids back to the house and made them hot cocoa to help comfort them as Keith tried to clean up the mess before he went to work. With almost no time to spare, he didn’t get very far. He’d thrown away the dead animals, but the blood remained. It would have to wait until he had a chance to hose it out; he had to finish getting ready for work. They allowed the children to stay home from school that day. They wept, asking what happened to their animals.

  Standing at the kitchen sink washing his hands, Keith overheard the kids chattering about what happened to the rabbits. He felt horrible to see them so upset.

  “Must’ve been a fox. They love to hunt rabbits and other small animals,” he offered.

  Ashley wondered if it had really been a fox or another animal, or if it was the handy work of a disturbed individual.

  “I don’t have time to finish cleaning the hutches out right now kids,” he apologized. “We’ll get more rabbits once the cages are all clean.”

  He kissed his family goodbye as he left for work. During his drive, he thought about what he could do to make his family safer, and put his mind at ease. He still hadn’t told his wife about the raccoon. She was already freaked out about the door and the window. Telling her about the raccoon may push her over the edge, he though. If she knew about the incident, she’d flip out of her mind. He didn’t want her living in fear; she’d done that long enough before she met him. It was practically all she knew. A couple of days later, Keith came up with an idea that the whole family loved.

  “I was thinking,” Keith said one morning as the family indulged in their stacks of pancakes, “maybe we should get a dog.”

  Ashley shot a look at him that expressed concern. She had allergies, and he knew it. “Why?” she asked as she cut up Bryce’s food. She sat him in his booster seat at the kitchen table.

  “Really dad? Can we really get a dog?” Brooke asked. She loved animals.

  “Well, it wouldn’t be a house dog exactly, but it would be an outside dog. It might help scare off those foxes and other wild animals. Plus, I figured you kids would like to have a pet,” he added.

  “What kind of dog did you have in mind?” Ashley asked. Hearing that it would be an outside dog made her feel better; she wouldn’t have to worry about her allergies. She listened as she attempted to eat a hot breakfast with the rest of the family while Bryce smashed his food in between his fingers.

  “I was thinking a big dog, something like a Bullmastiff or a Great Pyrenees. I’ve done some research and they’re large, protective dogs.”

  “I want a dog! I want a dog!” Brooke cut in again.

  “Me too!” Chloe shouted.

  “Me too!” Chase added, his brother chiming in right along with him.

  Ashley and Keith smiled as their children bubbled with excitement. “All that’s left is for your mom to agree,” he said.

  “Okay, okay, we’ll get a dog.”

  The children cheered as they finished their breakfast. As they cleared the breakfast table, they began to argue over who would get to name the dog.

  “Slow down,” Keith said. “We don’t even have it yet. We’ll have to see if we can find one first.”

  “But who gets to name it?” Brooke questioned.

  He thought about it for a moment. “If and when we get it, you can all choose a name. You can write your name on a piece of paper and we’ll draw one out of a hat. Whichever name gets drawn is what we’ll call the dog.”

  Within a few days, they located a couple of dogs for sale. Although they weren’t exactly what they’d hoped for, they were big dogs nonetheless. A man had a litter of pups—German shepherds—but two of them had never been sold and they were nine months old. Keith contacted the man to schedule an appointment to go look at them.

  When they arrived, the kids played with both dogs before deciding on the male. He was black and brown; classic German shepherd colors. The other was a solid black female. They took the dog home with them that afternoon after Keith paid the man $200 for him. With their new dog heading home, Ashley began to feel a bit of relief. Now she would know if someone, or something, was outside. And if anything were out there, the dog would take care of that problem.

  The kids all wrote down the name they wanted to choose for the dog and placed it inside a hat. Keith had mixed up all the loose pieces of papers bef
ore Ashley drew a name. She hated the name she drew. Keith could tell it must’ve been good as his wife rolled her eyes.

  “Our new dog’s name is…Peanut!” she announced.

  “Who in the world wrote that name?” Keith asked.

  “I did!” Chloe said.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Because Chase is allergic to peanuts, and I thought it would be funny to name him something that Chase can’t have,” she giggled.

  “Oh, Lord,” Ashley sighed. “Okay, Peanut it is.”

  “That’s not fair,” Chase whined. “I want the dog to be mine, too!” he pouted.

  “Don’t worry, he’s your dog too,” Keith assured him. “Your sister’s evil, that’s all,” he joked.

  Peanut spent most of his time sunbathing on the front porch. He was great with the kids, chased away opossums, squirrels and deer, and only barked at the mailman until he got used to him. The kids loved playing with him. They’d play tug-of-war with him, using an old, thick, knotted rope; other times he’d chase the kids around the yard and nip at their jackets. Almost entirely grown, he was nearly as tall as Chase and weighed close to 90 pounds. He was a very well-fed dog, but happy and protective. If a strange car pulled into the long driveway to make a U-turn because they were lost, Peanut would go into full attack mode. He’d bark at, and chase, the car until it was gone. Simple things like that made the family feel at ease, especially Ashley.