“How are you holding up, sweetheart?”
“Oh, you know. Just a little ruckus.”
Ethel threw her head back and laughed. “I knew you were a fighter.”
“I’ll be back. Take care of her for me, Ethel,” Troy said as he slipped out the front door.
“Don’t even have to ask, Troy. I’m here, and Meg is outside with Lo right now. Tell her to head on in and I’ll whip up some hot chocolate,” Ethel said as she pulled off her coat and draped it over the back of the recliner.
“Will do,” Troy shut the door behind him and Ethel turned to look at me.
“I think he’s gone, sweetheart. You can stop clasping your hands together so tight. Your knuckles are turning white, dear.” Ethel slipped her shoes off and walked over to me.
I looked down at my hands seeing that they were turning white. Unclasping them, I laid them on my knees and looked up at Ethel. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose it.”
“Let it out, hun. No shame in it. I’ve thankfully never been shot at before, so I can’t tell you how to feel.”
“Hey!” Meg yelled, poking her head in through the front door.
“He told you about the hot chocolate, I take it?” Ethel laughed.
“Uh, duh. He didn’t even have to finish his sentence before I was up the front steps. Need some help?” Meg walked in, shrugging her coat off and put it on top of Ethel’s.
“I got it. Why don’t you sit with Marley?”
“Can do,” Meg said, saluting Ethel. Ethel walked down the hall to the kitchen, shaking her head and chuckling at Meg.
“How ya hanging in there?” Meg plopped down on the other side of Bandit and he laid his paw on her knee and nudged her hand with his nose.
“Um, you know…” I watched Meg’s hand as she petted Bandit, trying not to think about anything. When I started thinking about the fact I almost got shot, I started to lose my shit.
“You know Gravel got shot, right?” Meg leaned forward and pulled the coffee table closer to the couch and kicked her feet up.
“Yeah. He filled me in.”
“Well, I was there. So was Cyn. I’m not sure how Cyn handled it, but I can tell you for the next month after it had happened, I was so damn jumpy and attached to Lo. It got better, though.” Her gaze landed on me and I could feel the compassion in her tone.
“I almost died,” I whispered. Meg nodded her head and clasped my hand. “Troy almost died because of me.” A lone tear ran down my cheek and dropped on my leg.
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t ask for those assholes to come and shoot at you.”
“I need to leave. I shouldn’t have come here. There’s no reason why you guys should be in danger because of me, you barely know me. I’m leaving.” I pushed away from the coffee table and stood up. I frantically looked around, trying to figure out where to start first.
“Ethel!” Meg called, but I ignored her. I decided packing my closet was the best place to start. Even though I had just bought furniture and everything I would have to leave it all behind again. I had no idea where I was going to go, but I knew I had to leave Rockton before anyone got hurt because of me.
I bounded up the stairs and threw open my bedroom door. Whipping open the closet door, I thanked God that I was such a procrastinator and my empty cardboard boxes still sat on the floor. I tossed them out into the open and grabbed a handful of clothes and started ripping them off the hangers.
As I was grabbing the third handful of clothes, I heard yelling and talking coming from downstairs but couldn’t make out what they were saying. I’m sure they were all grateful that I was leaving, even though I’m sure they’ll protest me leaving.
“You packing up all your shit and leaving wasn’t part of our deal.”
I glanced up from my frantic packing and saw Troy leaning on the door frame.
“Neither was us getting shot at.”
“You’re not leaving, Marley. I’m not going to let you run away and I can damn sure bet you that your dad isn’t going to let you go. You need to let us help you.”
“No. This is my mess, and I need to figure out how to fix it. I’m going back to California, and I’m going to talk to Mark’s family. There has to be a way that I can make this better.” I grabbed three pairs of shoes and tossed them on top of the overflowing box. “Tape. I need tape,” I babbled. “Tape fixes everything.”
“Marley! Stop!” Troy yelled.
“I need another box.” There was no way I could stop. I was beyond frantic and headed into crazed.
I pushed the overflowing box out of the way and made my way back over to the closet.
“Marley, stop.” Troy wrapped his arms around me from behind, stopping me in my tracks. “You need to take a breath and just relax.”
“We almost died, Troy,” I whispered.
“I know, but we didn’t. We’re both still here, having this ridiculous conversation.” He tightened his arms around me and pulled my back flush to his front.
“It’s not ridiculous. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. It’s best if I just go.”
“So you leave and then they can kill you? Sorry, not happening.”
“You don’t know what you are getting into, Troy. Hell, I don’t even know what we are dealing with. I never thought that Mark’s family would do something like that to me. I know they don’t like me, but I never imagined they would try to kill me.” I tilted my head back, resting it on Troy’s shoulder.
“You’re not leaving, Marley. It’s not safe.”
“No shit, Troy. That’s why I’m leaving in the morning.” I turned around in his arms and tilted my head back to look at him.
“You have to work. You just going to up and leave with no notice at your job?”
Shit, he was right. I couldn’t leave Gwen with not even a days’ notice. She had just started taking on more clients and was thinking of adding another stylist. “Dammit. You’re right.”
“I know,” Troy smirked.
“So, I give my two weeks’ notice and then I leave.”
“How long was the lease you signed on this place?”
Son of a bitch. “One year.”
“You think you can just walk out on poor, old Mrs. Petersen, leaving her high and dry with no one to rent this place to.”
“How the hell do you know who I rent this place from?”
“Small town, Sunshine. You’ll see once you stay for a while.” His hand stroking my back.
“Nice try, but I’m not going to stay here long enough to see how it is living in a small town. Two weeks and I’m gone.” I pushed away from Troy, trying to get away from his touch. He was making me lose focus on why I was leaving.
“Alright, two weeks. Not a day sooner. Deal?” Troy held his hand out for me to shake.
“Why do I feel like you agreeing with me leaving in two weeks so easily isn’t as big of a victory as I think?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Because it’s not. You still have to deal with your dad. I figure between the two of us, there’s no way you’ll be leaving in two weeks.”
Dammit. How the hell had I forgotten about Gravel? Troy was right, there was no way Gravel was going to let me leave if Mark’s family was out there still trying to hurt me. I would have to try everything I could think of to get them to lay off. “I’ll have everything cleared up in two weeks, and then I’m gone.”
“If you get everything cleared up in two weeks, then why are you going to leave, Marley?” Troy asked, pulling me into his arms again.
“Because there’s nothing here for me,” I stared over Troy’s shoulder, looking at the wall.
“That’s bullshit. There’s more here than there was in California. Your dad and everybody downstairs want you to stay.”
“I can come and visit Gravel and everyone else. There’s nothing here that can make me stay.”
“What about me?”
My eyes s
napped to Troy’s. “What do you mean, what about you? Last I knew, Troy, we had agreed to casually hooking up. I don’t think a casual hook up is something that can tie me down.”
“Maybe if you would stay and not run away, it could be something more. But with you insisting on leaving, that’s all it’s going to be.”
I pushed on his chest and stepped out of his arms. “You said you only wanted casual before any of this happened so don’t stand there and tell me you thought we could be something more all along. That’s a lie.”
Troy ran his fingers through his hair and looked up at the ceiling. “Jesus Christ, Marley. How the hell did we end up here, having this conversation?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s cause you opened your big mouth.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down.
“I’m not doing this, Marley. This is the exact reason I don’t want to be in a relationship. Fighting with you when you are irrational and twisting my words is not something I want.”
“I didn’t ask you to do this, Troy. You were the one who came on to me at the store, not me. If my irrational moods are too much for you to handle, I can show you where the door is,” I ranted.
“I’m done. A half an hour ago we were ready to rip each other’s clothes off and now all we want to do is rip each other’s heads off. All I want is for you to be safe and you can’t see that. Leave or stay, Marley, it’s up to you.”
“Two weeks, I’m gone.”
“Ok, well, I’ll just say goodbye now.”
“We’re going to see each other before I leave, Troy. There’s no need to be dramatic.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Marley.” He walked towards me and reached out, cupping my cheek with his hand. “I wish you wouldn’t leave, but I can’t stop you. Please be careful.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead and walked out the door.
Bandit whined next to me and nudged my hand with his nose. I glanced down at him and rubbed his nose.
“Bandit!” Troy yelled up the stairs. Bandit whined again and nudged my leg.
I crouched down eye to eye with Bandit and cradled his head in my hands. “You need to go, boy. Troy is waiting for you.”
Troy called for Bandit again, this time there was no fooling around in his tone. Bandit walked to the door and looked back at me. I fell down on my knees and motioned for him to leave. He gave me one last glance and then disappeared down the hall and I heard him pad down the stairs.
How did things change so quickly? An hour ago I had felt the happiest I had been in years. Now, I was sitting on the floor, my heart even more broken then when Mark had died.
Troy and I hadn’t even dated, but it felt like I was losing a part of me I couldn’t live without. It was probably for the best that we didn’t see each other anymore, but it still fucking hurt.
Tears ran down my cheeks, spilling onto the floor. I couldn’t see it before, but I might have let the best thing that could have happened to me walk out the door.
It was time to leave Rockton. Two weeks and all of this would be a memory.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Chapter 9
Troy
“Troy!” I heard Meg call after me as I walked out the door with Bandit on my heels. I wasn’t in the mood for whatever Meg had to say, so I kept walking.
“Son of a bitch, stop, you asshole!” Meg jerked on my arm right before I reached my truck and tugged on me to stop.
“Why the hell are you leaving?”
“Trust me, it’s not my choice. Now, let go of my arm.”
“No, not until you tell me what the hell changed in the past ten minutes. I knew the second you walked down the stairs something was wrong. Tell me,” Meg insisted.
This was the problem with my friendship with Meg, we couldn’t hide anything from each other. Even when neither of us talked, we still knew what the other was thinking. “Marley is leaving.”
“What?”
“Two weeks. She’s giving notice at work and then she’s gone.”
“Why the hell would she do that? She just rented this house and bought all sorts of shit. That doesn’t make sense.”
“She’s trying to protect us by leaving.” I reached up and ran my fingers through my hair.
“So she leaves and the douche canoes that attempted to kill her tonight find her fifty miles down the road. It’s not safe for her to leave. She needs to stay and let the club help her.”
“Fuck, Meg. I know that. What the hell did you think I was doing up there. She wouldn’t listen to me.”
“So you’re just going to leave her.”
“Meg, I can’t do this. She doesn’t want me, I’m not going to hang around hoping she’ll come around and decide to stay. She made her decision, so now I made mine.” I opened up the driver’s door and slipped into the truck.
Meg grabbed the door before I could shut it and held it open. “She made the wrong decision, Troy. She’s going to see that. You know Gravel isn’t going to let her leave.”
“Look, Meg. Marley and I had one night together. We’ve barely known each other for twenty-four hours. I can’t expect her to listen to me and decide for her. We’re not meant for more than one night.”
“That’s shit, Troy. You want more, I can see it.”
“Hell yeah I want to spend more time with her, but not with her leaving. I’m getting too old to play all of these fucking games. She’s dead set on leaving and I told her I want her to stay. She doesn’t care. That’s all I can do.”
“Maybe if you hang out with her these next two weeks she’ll stay.”
“No. I told her if she was leaving she wouldn’t see me again, and I meant it. Tonight was the last time I’ll see Marley. It’s best this way Meg, and I’d appreciate it if you’d back me on this and not try to convince me otherwise.”
“I’m your best friend, Troy. You know I’ll back you on anything. I just wish you would think about this some more before you write off Marley. She’s scared right now and not thinking clearly.”
I stuck the key in the ignition and cranked the truck up. I pressed the button to roll the window down and grabbed the door out of Meg’s hold and slammed it shut. “I’m not playing games and sitting around waiting for Marley to change her mind.”
Meg leaned against the truck, sticking her head through the window. “Go home and sleep on it. I think you’re both making a mistake.”
“Look, Meg. I appreciate what you are trying to do here, but I really don’t think things are going to change. Just make sure King has someone watching Marley.” I shifted the truck into gear and waited for Meg to step away from the truck.
“You’re really not going to come around, are you?” Meg said. I think it was finally sinking in that I wasn’t going to hang around and try to convince Marley to stay.
“No. I’ll see you at work.” She stared at me, nodded her head and backed away from the truck.
I backed down the driveway and headed back to my house. Bandit whined next to me and watched Marley’s house disappear behind us. “It’s OK boy.” I reached over and scratched his ears. He leaned his head into my hand and gave the most pathetic whine I had ever heard.
I didn’t know what to do. Leaving Marley was not something I wanted to do, but she was going to leave in two weeks anyway. I know she was being irrational and not thinking things through, but dammit, she wouldn’t even listen to reason. I understood she didn’t want any of us to get hurt, but running away was not the solution.
I had seen how the Devil’s Knights handle problems, and I had no doubt that they would be able to help Marley and take care of her situation. Why she couldn’t see that and thought the only way to solve it was to leave was beyond me.
Maybe Gravel was right. Marley’s kind of problems and trouble weren’t what I wanted. As of right now, I was better off alone.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Chapter 10
Marley
“Go
d dammit, Marley. Get that fucking nonsense of leaving out of your head. If I have to tie you to a chair, I damn well will,” Gravel fumed at me as he paced in front of the couch I was sitting on.
It was two days after the whole shooting and Troy leaving disaster. Ethel and Gravel had been staying with me since, and I was two seconds away from saying fuck it and not work out my two weeks’ notice I had promised Gwen.
Gravel was driving me insane. If he wasn’t ranting at me about not leaving, he was outside patrolling the house, making sure no one would be able to get in.
“Lincoln, sit down before you have a heart attack. You ranting at Marley isn’t going to make her stay. Hell, I want to leave and you’re not even talking to me.” Ethel walked into the living room and sat in the recliner next to the couch.
“I can’t calm down when my daughter who I haven’t seen in years finally comes to town and now she’s fucking leaving while her ex’s douche lords family is trying to kill her.” Gravel ran his fingers through his hair, pulling out the tie he had holding it back.
“You need a haircut.” Yup, totally trying to distract Gravel. I had been attempting to talk him into cutting his hair since I had came into town and it pissed him off each time I suggested it.
“I’ll get a goddamn haircut if you agree to stay.” Gravel crossed his arms over his chest and stared me down.
Why didn’t anyone understand I was leaving to keep them safe? I planned on going back to California and facing Mark’s family to get everything figured out. After that, I had no idea where I was going to go. I knew I wasn’t going to stay in California. My mother and a handful of friends were the only things I had left there. I had always wanted to travel and see all fifty states, but I would have to win the lotto to make that a possibility.
“Why can’t you hear what I’m saying? I need to go talk to Mark’s family and fix everything.” I grabbed the pillow from the end of the couch and hugged it to my chest.
“Because they are past the point of talking, Marley! Anyone can see that. If they wanted to speak to you, they wouldn’t have sent someone to come and kill you for Christ sakes!” Gravel yelled.
Battling Troy: Devil's Knights Series Page 6
