by Kasey Krane
When Marley told me her parents died in a car accident, my mind went to a dark place because I remembered reading the details of the accident that killed Tina.
My father acquired the police report that had been drawn up for her and handed it to me. I wanted to read it. I needed to know exactly what happened.
It was Tina driving the car, on her way back from spending the day with her grandparents. I knew she was coming to see me because that was what she told me over the phone.
In fact, when the phone rang in the house that day, I expected it to be Tina, calling to say she had stopped by her parents’ house or something and that she would come over to see me shortly.
But in reality, on the way, the car had spun out of her control and crashed into a tree.
That was it.
Tina was gone.
Just the way my mother was gone.
Every woman who had meant anything to me in my life had been brutally and violently taken away from me.
And the common factor between those two women—was me. So, I had to be the cause for it. That was the only explanation I could come up with in all the years.
And that was the reason why I could never get close to someone else. And the truth was—I had never been tempted either. No other chick matched up to the two people I had put on a pedestal.
That was until I met Marley.
She wasn’t like anyone else I met before. She was so far beyond the memories I had of my mother and Tina, that I wasn’t thinking straight.
Marley was the first person I allowed myself to get close to again. The first person I thought I could open up to again. A woman I could trust.
But I was wrong.
There was something wrong with me.
And it was probably for the best for Marley’s own safety that we stayed away from each other.
Who knew what disastrous end I would bring upon her if she spent another minute with me.
I allowed myself to get carried away for a few days. I got so wrapped up in the fun we were having, in how good it felt to have her in my bed—that I thought maybe things had changed. That maybe I could have a relationship after all. That maybe the curse was broken.
But who was I kidding?
I swerved manically until I was off the road, and stopped my bike abruptly before jumping off. I had no idea where I was but I had to make a phone call. Cars whizzed past me, with engines roaring in my ears. I liked the noise. It dulled my senses. I didn’t know if I could return to the apartment after this.
“Yeah, it’s Colin,” I said when the phone was answered.
It was the family lawyer. I should have made this call a long time ago. The moment I saw the ring on my finger.
“I need you to fix a problem, and I need it done as fast as fuckin’ possible,” I said.
I looked up at the sun—stared right at it even though it felt like it burnt my eyes. I just wanted to feel the pain for a moment, to scorch the memory of Marley out of my brain.
Twenty-Five
Marley
I knew I needed to leave his apartment. I couldn’t stay there anymore. The walls were closing in on me.
I was aware of being the one who started the argument. The first thing I had done that morning was pick a fight with him, when he had just made me breakfast and coffee I badly needed. He tried to be sweet to me and I ended up kicking him in the balls.
Nonetheless, now I finally knew what he really thought of me.
He looked at me as a leech. As someone who had nothing better to do in life than sleep around with a guy she had just met and drunkenly married. He didn’t think I had a life, or anything worth going back to in Las Vegas.
He couldn’t wait to get rid of me.
Especially now that he had all his fun.
But where was I supposed to go now?
Back to Vegas?
Colin wouldn’t even expect me to be in the apartment when he got back from work. He probably hoped I’d be gone.
But I didn’t want to leave. Not yet. Not unless the annulment was finalized. I was going to go find a lawyer myself. I would go figure this out so that we didn’t need to be connected to each other anymore.
I didn’t want to leave New York with this fake marriage hanging over my head.
So I got dressed, scrolled through my phone and came up with a list of lawyers I could visit in town. I would use the little money I had saved in my bank account to pay the legal fees. I wasn’t sure of the exact procedure, but I hoped all it took was a few documents to sign.
At least that way, I would be sure that it was finally over. Colin wouldn’t have to move a muscle.
I got as far as just down the road before a black limousine pulled up beside me. I immediately got the sense that it was bad news.
I stopped in my tracks and tried to turn and run, but a man jumped out of the car and grabbed me.
In broad daylight, I was pulled into the car while I kicked and screamed. Even if there were people who heard and saw, nobody came to my aid because everyone knew to stay out of mafia business.
I was held down, pinned to the seat by the man who had grabbed me. Across from me sat Aldo Baron smoking a foul-smelling cigar. He even had a drink in his hand and he took a large sip before he turned his eyes on me.
“And where do you think you’re going, sweetheart?” he snarled.
I didn’t know where we were going. It seemed like we were just driving around in circles. The windows of the limousine were all dark tinted and I could barely see outside.
Besides, there was enough to see inside. Aldo Baron had all my attention.
“I was just going for a walk,” I replied, trying to remain composed.
“I heard Colin stormed out of the apartment earlier. The two of you haven’t had a fight have you?” He had that same oily smile on his face as before. The one that made me want to smack him.
After all, could he really do anything to me?
I was a police detective. Wasn’t there some sort of code?
And then I remembered that nobody would care if Aldo made me disappear. As much as I tried, I wasn’t a part of the ‘Boy’s Club’.
“We had a bit of a disagreement, that’s all. But everything is all right,” I said. I figured there was no point lying. Maybe he even had the apartment bugged, for all I knew.
“So you’re still working on him?”
I sat back in the seat, trying to relax a little. We were just having a conversation, right?
Aldo needed me. At least for now.
“I’m not sure he still wants me around.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Aldo snapped. He wasn’t smiling anymore. The possibility that the plan might not work, pissed him off.
“I told you already, and I’m sure you know through your own investigations—our marriage was a mistake. He wanted to have some fun with me and I went along with it. Now he’s had his fun. He’s done.”
I needed to prepare Aldo for the possibility that I may not be able to return to Colin’s apartment anymore. In all likelihood, he wouldn’t want me there.
Aldo narrowed his eyes at me and then leaned forward.
“You going soft on him?” he growled.
I tried to hide the truth from my eyes.
“He’s just a job,” I said with a grin. But maybe I pushed too hard. I wasn’t a good actor. Aldo could see straight through me.
“For fuck’s sake, you’re going soft on him!” he exclaimed and fell back in his seat. He threw the cigar on the floor with anger, which prompted one of his men to pick it up.
“I’m just warning you that Colin doesn’t want me around anymore. He’s had his fun. I’ve served my purpose. He’s talking to his lawyers to get the marriage annulled and if that happens quickly, then he’ll kick me out of his apartment.”
Aldo wasn’t buying it.
“But it’s not just about what Colin may or may not do, right? You don’t want to follow through with the plan because you think you have
feelings for him.”
I flinched for a moment before answering and that was all Aldo needed to see. He shook his head and grabbed the cigar out of his man’s hand.
“What makes you think you know anything of how I feel?” I hissed.
“Okay, maybe I don’t know how you feel. Maybe I’ve got it wrong,” Aldo replied in a low lazy voice. He was sitting leaning back in the seat, slowly puffing on the cigar. The smoke filled the car, making me cough from time to time.
I just wanted to be left alone.
I’d made up my mind already—I wasn’t going to work with this man. I wasn’t going to assist him. In fact, I wasn’t even going to give the information on the Dohertys to my chief.
I didn’t want to be involved with Colin Doherty in any way.
I didn’t want to be responsible for any legal action taken against his family.
If I had any luck—I would forget about him in a few months and hoped to be able to focus on bettering my career in some other way.
“But I know some things about Colin Doherty that I can bet you don’t,” Aldo continued.
That part got my attention.
I sat with my back straight, staring at him, waiting for him to go on.
I knew there was plenty I didn’t know about Colin. He hadn’t really told me anything about himself.
“You want to protect him from me and the law, right? Because you think he’s actually a good guy. You think you’ve gotten to know him in the last few days and you want to give him a chance to prove himself to you.”
I said nothing, just allowed Aldo to talk. He got most of it right, and I didn’t want to admit it.
“But do you know the kind of man you’re actually protecting?”
I clenched my jaws hard. This sounded like a trap, and I wasn’t about to bite.
“He’s the kind of guy who will have a girl killed if it suits him.”
“What the fuck are you talking about!” I snarled.
Aldo smiled. “I figured he wouldn’t have filled you in on that. It wouldn’t make for sexy conversation. He didn’t tell you about the girlfriend, did he? His teenage girlfriend who died?”
My throat was dry. My heart raced in my chest. I didn’t want to believe what Aldo was saying and where he was going with this.
He continued. “She died in an accident, or at least what looked like an accident. The poor thing had her whole life ahead of her. The only mistake she made was falling for Colin Doherty.”
“Why would he do that? It doesn’t make any sense. You’re lying to me!”
“Then ask him yourself,” Aldo shrugged. “I don’t know why he did it. Maybe she found out more than she was supposed to know. Maybe she got knocked up and he didn’t want the burden of a child. I don’t fuckin’ have all the answers. But just think about the kind of man you’re protecting when you think you’re protecting him.”
At first I wasn’t sure if Aldo would let me leave, now that he knew I wasn’t keen on helping him. But, as it turned out, he was pretty sure of himself and the damage he had done by telling me about Colin’s high school sweetheart.
The limousine drove back around to the front of the apartment where I was pretty much as good as kicked out of the car.
I stumbled out and fell face first on the sidewalk, but quickly picked myself up, afraid that I was being watched.
The last thing I needed was any Doherty member seeing me falling out of Aldo Baron’s car.
I looked around and it seemed like nobody had seen me. I looked up at the apartment building and didn’t know what to do. How could I go back in there? The key Colin had given me rested heavily in my pocket. I could use it to see myself in. I could wait for him to come back, try to make up with him and continue to work him to gather as much information as I could.
That was what Aldo wanted me to do—and if what he told me was true, then that was what Colin deserved. He deserved to have legal action taken against him. He needed to be stopped from hurting people.
But I didn’t know who to believe.
How could I blindly trust Aldo?
He was a criminal too.
He’d neglected to mention all the women in his life whom he had killed.
But then, I wasn’t sleeping with Aldo Baron, so he was none of my concern.
I was not only sleeping with Colin Doherty, but I was married to him.
I had feelings for him.
No, I was in love with him. There was no point downplaying it. The only reason I hesitated to work with Aldo was because of how I felt about Colin.
But if he really was the man I was told about—a stone cold killer—who could murder his own girlfriend and make it look like an accident. What was he capable of doing to me?
And what would he do when he found out about my involvement against his family?
Once again, I was back at square one. I was back at not being able to trust anybody. Just when I thought I found someone I felt safe with, someone whose family I wanted to get to know…it was all falling apart.
How had I convinced myself it would work?
Why did I think I ever had a chance with him?
What if Aldo was right?
I knew I couldn’t ask Colin directly because he would want to know how I found out. That was an answer I couldn’t give him, especially not now when I knew what he was capable of doing to me.
But was I willing to take him down?
Twenty-Six
Colin
I called the family lawyer because I wanted them to take care of the annulment. Because Marley reminded me about it that day, because she made it very clear that she wanted to end things between us as soon as possible. And she was right. There was no point in prolonging something that didn’t have the right to exist in the first place.
But then, why did that phone call feel like a mistake?
As soon as I got off that call, I wanted to call them back and tell them to stop. To just give it a few days.
They said they would need to get in touch with her, they needed legal documents from her—and I told them I’d arrange a meeting.
But now I entertained the idea of not communicating with Marley about it. Just letting it drop and seeing how it went.
What if we did give it a few weeks? A few months?
What if we actually gave this marriage thing a shot?
I hadn’t forgotten the fact that we were practically strangers to each other. We had only been married a few days.
But that wasn’t how it felt to me.
It felt like I actually knew her. Like I had known her for a long time. I woke up in the mornings with her next to me and I woke up feeling fuckin’ great. No matter what else was messed up in my life, that feeling wasn’t. And I wasn’t prepared to let go of that feeling just yet.
What was the worst that could happen at the end of the next few weeks—if we discovered that it wouldn’t actually work? An annulment. A divorce. Whatever.
Didn’t this relationship feel like it deserved a chance? Or was I just kidding myself?
I regretted the things I told her that morning in a rage.
I reacted to the way she spoke to me. I was defensive when she brought up the annulment. It seemed like she was through with me and I wanted her to feel like I was through with her.
But I wasn’t.
I was falling for her more and more every day. I needed to tell her those things. I needed to tell her everything before I lost her.
I rode back to the apartment a few hours later, hoping she would still be there. But she wasn’t.
I checked every room of the loft, but she was gone. The bag she brought with her was gone too.
The dress and shoes I bought her last night were laid out neatly on my bed—so it was pretty obvious that she did this on purpose. She wanted me to know she was gone. Maybe she didn’t want me going after her.
But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t just sit in my apartment and do nothing.
I wasn’t going to let her walk out o
f my life like that.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Isabelle sounded pretty worried over the phone.
I’d already called a few guys who worked closely with the family as informants. I wanted to get the word out on the street that Marley needed to be stopped if she was seen trying to leave town. But apparently, nobody had seen her that day. Nobody knew where she was.
“I got back to the apartment and she was gone,” I replied.
I paced around the living room with a can of beer in my hand and the phone in the other. Alcohol was the only thing that was going to keep me sane.
“But why? Did you guys have a fight?”
“We argued a little in the morning,” I admitted.
Then I heard Isabelle sigh and I could almost picture her rolling her eyes.
“I mean, I don’t know what I have to do to drill this into your head. Into all of your heads. Stop fucking it up with these women who are good for you. Marley is good for you. You guys are good together. I get that it started off as a drunken mistake, but that wasn’t what it looked like to me.”
“Just call me if you hear or see anything, okay? Maybe she’ll go over to your place.”
“Or maybe she’s left the city already. Maybe she’s gone back home.”
“If she’s gone back to Las Vegas, I can find her. It’ll take me a few days, but I’ll find her.”
“You don’t have her address?”
“I don’t even have her fuckin’ phone number,” I growled.
Isabelle sighed again.
“And what did you guys fight about?”
I really didn’t want to answer the question, but it didn’t seem like Isabelle was going to drop it until I told her everything.
“She wanted an annulment. She wanted to know why I hadn’t spoken to the lawyers about it yet.”
Isabelle went quiet for a bit at that.
“She wants out?”
I didn’t reply.
“Then what are you doing looking for her, Colin? Why do you have all these guys combing the town for her?”