“I see you found the letters. My condolences go out to you. How did he die again?” he laughs. He fucking laughs! I’m about to completely loose it and go ahead and just shoot his ass, when my door flies open. For the first time since I heard Carter speak from behind me, I feel relief as Wes stands in the doorway looking between Carter and me, holding a gun in his hand, pointing it right at Carter’s head.
“What’s going on?” Wes demands, looking at Carter but directing the question at me.
“Get him out of here,” I plead to Wes, trying to hold back tears of the overwhelming relief I feel right now. I don’t care why Wes is here or how he somehow showed up at the right time, but I am so grateful.
Never taking his eyes off Carter he speaks to me, “No. No. I don’t think so.” I can practically see the anger flowing off of Wes like a volcano about to erupt.
Shit. I can’t have Wes killing Carter in my apartment. I can’t have him kill him at all. As much as I want Carter buried six feet under and then some, killing him will bring evil like know other. It’ll bring his Uncle Olin and nobody wants that.
No one.
“Down boy. Marlie and I were just having a little chat and catching up.”
Carter looks at me and I can see the anger in his eyes. “I see you moved on…nice.”
I don’t respond to him because I don’t want to make things worse. I know Carter all too well. I know how jealous and possessive he is and seeing Wes right here, protecting me, must be making him go crazy. Now, I not only have to worry about Gemma and me, but Wes now too.
Fucking fantastic.
“Wes, you have to let him go.”
“Why?” he asks still not looking at me.
I ask him the same thing he asked in me, “Trust me.”
He stands there throwing as much hate towards Carter and for a split second it seems like he isn’t going to listen, but then he gestures towards the door with his head, “It’s your lucky fucking day. Count this as your one and only blessing.”
Carter starts to walk casually out the door, like he’s taking a Sunday stroll and his face looks way too cheerful, like Wes’ threat doesn’t bother him one bit. Like this whole thing doesn’t even faze him. Half way to the door with both Wes and my guns still pointed at him, he stops and looks at me. “I’ll be seeing you.” He threatens and then looks over at the coffee table by the couch where he left that envelope. I now know instantly what’s in there, my invite to the race.
“No, you won’t. Not if you know what’s good for you. Don’t come back or the barrel of this gun won’t just be pointed at you next time.” I see the anger rising in Wes to a level I have never seen him display before.
Just before the door shuts and Carter is out completely, I get stupid and yell out to him in panic. “Wait!”
He stops and turns my way, giving me a satisfied smile. My stupid mind is screaming at me to ask the one question I have been dying to know. Even though I try to keep telling myself over and over again that I absolutely do not want to know, I really truly do. “Did you do it?”
He smiles even brighter at me. “Do what?”
I close my eyes to avoid seeing his face. “My father… did you…” I trail off. I can’t even finish.
He laughs. “What do you think?” and before I can open my eyes and see the answer, the sound of the door being closed fills the room, leaving me with the answer I already knew.
My heart breaks into a million pieces all over again.
He killed my father.
Wes goes for the door and locks it instantly and then turns to me. “You okay?” All his anger he had just a second ago, depletes and is now replaced with worry.
“No.” I whisper, not caring anymore with holding back my emotions. I have strained to keep myself standing since the moment I heard that monster speak. So I let it all go. My legs give out and I collapse to my knees. I drop the gun and start to cry. I cover my face as I take short and fast breaths and sob into my hands.
Wes rushes down to my level, “Did he hurt you?” He starts checking my body for injuries that aren’t visible yet. I shake my head no and then he brings me in close to him and holds me tight, while I cry into his chest.
For the next several minutes, I let my emotions run free and once I am finally able to quit crying long enough to speak, I thank Wes for showing up.
“You don’t have to thank me. I told you I would protect you. I promise, I will never let him hurt you again.”
I pull back from him and stand up. I take a long, deep, breath and move to my fridge to get some water. “Why are you here? How did you know?”
He moves to my table and sits. “I didn’t, I came over to try to convince you to come back with me.” He shrugs his shoulders and looks down, noticing the letters from Carter to my dad. He picks them up. “What are these?”
I sigh and walk to the table; I take the letters from his hands and stare at them. “Those are letters from Carter to my dad. He wrote to him while he was in prison.”
“You didn’t know?”
I shake my head, “No. I found them after my father died while I was going through his attic, trying to clean it all out.”
“I’m sorry he passed, Marlie.” He reaches out and covers my hand with his. “Did you get my flowers?”
I look up at him. “That was you?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you leave your name on them?”
“Because you were hurting enough. I didn’t want to add more pain. I was an asshole by just leaving you like I did.”
“It’s okay,” I tell him, because it really is. He didn’t know what was going on with me at the time. So it’s my fault really.
“Let’s not think about that, okay?”
I nod my head and look back down at the stack of letters. “I miss him so much. I can’t believe my father never told me. I have read all of these and Carter had told him everything.” I look up at Wes, “Well, what he told him was a twisted version to make me seem like I was pure evil, but none the less, he told him and my dad never said a word to me about it.”
He knits his brows and looks at me. “Do you think maybe your dad didn’t believe him and just felt like it wasn’t worth mentioning? I mean, I haven’t known you for long and I know that you are a good person. Your dad has known you your whole life, Marlie. So I am sure he knew that whatever Carter wrote, how he described you, wasn’t truth.”
Wes is probably right. I may have lived another life and still do, but I am not how Carter had described me to my father and my father probably knew that. Still, I don’t understand him not telling me, or even responding back to him.
I look at the letters again and pull out the last one from the stack that was sent. “The last letter was sent from the address of the warehouse. It states that Carter was going to come visit my dad. There is no date on it, but Carter hasn’t been out for long and…” I trail off hoping Wes gets the idea of what I am trying to say.
“You really think he’s capable of something like that? Hurting your father?”
I glare at him. “Not hurting him, Wes, killing him. And yes, he’s capable of just about anything. I have no doubt in my mind, especially now, that he had something to do with my father’s death.”
I get up and throw the letters in the trash, not wanting anything to serve as a reminder of Carter being in my home. It’s bad enough that I have to deal with knowing he was here, I don’t need reminders. I’ll probably burn my couch and get a new one as it is.
I don’t want to discuss Carter and my father anymore. I move to change the subject. Avoiding the unavoidable, that’s me. “So, you came here to try and convince me to come back?”
He smiles up at me. “Yeah, I did.”
I smile back at him. “Well, that’s why I’m here. I was coming to gather some clothes and was coming back, but when I got here…”
“So he was here before you got here?”
“Yeah, I spent the last couple of hours driving, trying
to clear my head, then I went and switched vehicles. I was only home for a few minutes before you got here.”
“So he broke in then?”
“No. I let him in,” I say sarcastically. “Of course he broke in.”
“We’ll need to fix that,” he states.
“I’m already on it. I’m calling someone first thing Monday morning.”
Wes nods, “Sounds good.” He looks back towards my room. “You need help packing?”
“Sure.”
WE BOTH EMERGE FROM my room fifteen minutes later with a bag of my clothes and a few other things. The tension and anxiety from Carter’s intrusion is almost gone. He’s still lingering in the back of my head, but it’s more of a distant thought now.
I shut off the lights and make sure everything is locked up. I go to close the curtains of my bay window, when I notice the envelope Carter had left on my coffee table. Wes is already downstairs taking my things to my truck, so I grab the invite quickly and shove it into my purse. I want to look at it, but not with Wes around. He thinks I don’t have to do it, but I know that if I don’t go and race, the outcome will be much worse than if I do. I know what will happen when I go, my death will come. If I don’t go, not only will my life end once they find me, because they will, but so will everyone I have ever cared about end too.
I just can’t let that happen.
TWENTY-FOUR
Wes
WAKING UP NEXT TO MARLIE IS something I will never take for granted, ever. I never thought this would happen, that this would be my life, that she accepts me for who I am and what I do, but here she is, sleeping in my bed. I am fucking lucky as hell the way I see it. I have laid here for the last twenty minutes or so, just watching her chest rise and fall. Her hair is sprawled out across the pillow and she looks like a goddess wrapped up, naked, beneath my golden sheets.
After yesterday, the night before, and her divulging her secrets to me, she appears to be doing okay. The thing about her appearance though, is that it can be deceiving. No matter how tough she likes to act, she’s more fragile than ever and I got a glimpse of it yesterday when she broke down after that piece of shit ex of hers left. I feel like it’s my fault she had seen him. I should have fought to get her to stay with me. I would’ve given her space, I would have bought her a new wardrobe and whatever else she needed from her place, so long as she stayed, but I didn’t want to push her. I had just unloaded a bunch of shit on to her when I, myself, had confessed my secrets to her.
Today is a new day though, and I want to do something for her. To help to at least get her mind off of the last few days, since tomorrow is Monday and we both have our businesses’ to run. I had a meeting in Huston scheduled for Tuesday to get things going on expanding my company to there, but I cancelled. I am not going to leave the city knowing Carter is out there somewhere and could get to her.
I am not good with the whole romancing thing, but I could give it one hell of a try. I want to give Marlie everything. These feelings I have for her are like nothing I have ever felt before and it’s about time I truly accept the damn things. They’re pesky fuckers, creeping up on me. I have told her things that no one knows besides Jenner and Jesse. Things that would make most women run, but not her. Well, okay, so maybe she did try to run a little, but after I had told her the reasons behind my secrets, she stayed and that’s something that blows my mind. I have a dark, tainted mind and I am taking this opportunity and grabbing it with greedy hands.
I quietly get up and walk out of the room, not wanting to disturb her and let her sleep. After all, I did spend most of the night keeping her up. Just thinking of last night’s sexcapades makes me want to turn around, wake her up, and do it all over again. I mean, fuck, the things she can do.
I walk out into the hallway and collide with Gemma.
“Hey, Wes,” she says, looking over my shoulder and into the room. “She’s still sleeping, huh?”
“Yep.” I confirm.
She arches a brow at me, “She never sleeps in. That must be one comfy bed.”
I close the door and I smirk at her. “Or… I just kept her up most of the night.”
She shakes her head and teases playfully, “Oh, I know. I could hear. Kept me up most of the night too, ya’ know.”
Now it’s my turn to tease, “Are you sure it was us and not Jesse?”
Her cheeks flush and she looks embarrassed. “Maybe…”
We both laugh and head in the direction of the stairs.
I like Gemma. She seems to be a good person and just like Marlie, she doesn’t take anyone’s bullshit either. I am surprised at how well she is handling the fact that she is a target and anyone could be after her, but I chalk it up to her feeling safe here. We’ll see how she is and how everything else goes tomorrow, when I leave some of my men from the company to guard them. I’m not going to lie, I even fear leaving them under the protection of someone else besides Jesse and me and fear doesn’t show up much with me.
“So…” I try to say casually. Fuck this is going to a hard conversation to have.
“So…” she mimics back to me.
I clear my throat, “I want to do something nice for Marlie today. Ya’ know, to help take her mind off of all the bullshit going on.”
She giggles, “And are you asking me for help or advice? Mr. I think I’ll deliver some soap anonymously to the girl I likes door step?”
I stop at the bottom of the stairs and stuff my hands into my pockets and shrug at her. I’m nervous as hell and I don’t like it. This isn’t something I just ask about in my everyday life. I don’t fucking like it.
She grins at me, “Well, I can tell you what I think she would like, but I need to do something first.”
“And that is?”
She rolls her eyes at me and starts to walk away. “Eat, of course.”
I laugh lightly and proceed to follow her. “Right.”
We sit down at the breakfast bar in my kitchen and sit while I drink some coffee and Gemma eats an English muffin.
“Alright, before I give any advice on how to woo Marlie, I gotta do the best friend thing and threaten to cut off your balls or something.” She points the butter knife she used to spread peanut butter on her muffin with at me.
I put my hands back and in the air to show in exaggeration that I mean no harm. “Whoa there, killer, I won’t hurt her.”
She smiles and sets the knife down, but then her carefree expression changes. “Look, Wes, I like you and I feel like you really are a good guy, despite your extra-curricular activities, but no matter what Marlie has told you, Carter really fucked with her.”
At the mention of that fuckers name I can feel my blood start to boil. Should’ve blown that fuckers head off yesterday when I had the chance. I’ll get that chance again, I’ll make sure of it. “I know, Gemma. And I can promise you that isn’t the kind of person I am. I would never do something like that to her, I get it.”
“No, Wes, I don’t think you do get it. You weren’t there when she met him. You weren’t there when she was living, what seemed like, a whole other life. You weren’t there when she was at her lowest point. Or when she was unconscious on the floor in a pool of her own blood from what he did to her. You weren’t there when she spent the last couple of years trying to get over it. You weren’t there to help her. But I was. I was there for everything and I don’t ever want to see that happen to her again. Ever.”
She gets up and places her empty mug and plate into the sink. She crosses her arms as she leans against the counter. “She has changed and grown so much in these last couple of years. Especially this last year when her nightmares had finally stopped, until recently.”
I knit my brows, “You think they are recurring because of me?”
She waves her hand at me, “Oh no, I don’t think it’s because of you. Actually, I know it isn’t because of you, it’s because of Carter. Ever since she found out he got out early, she has had them. You haven’t noticed?”
“No. Jesu
s, I want to murder that guy.”
“Join the club, bud.”
How does Marlie hide these things so well from me? I’m thankful the nightmares aren’t caused by me though. “Look, Gemma, I am so glad of how protective you are of Marlie, but right now, I am too, of both of you. I will show her, and you, that letting me in was not a bad decision.”
Gemma walks back over to the breakfast bar, opposite to where I still sit and leans over and places a hand over top of mine. “I can only be so protective, Wes. We both need you to help us, no matter what Marlie thinks or says. I don’t know if you have noticed, but she’s a stubborn one.”
I lean back and laugh, “I think stubborn might be an understatement when it comes to her.”
She laughs with me, “Yeah, I think you’re right.” She stands up and claps her hands, “So, now that I got the threatening out of the way, what do you need help with?”
“Well, I’ve never done this whole thing…”
She arches a brow at me, “You mean the whole girlfriend thing?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I’ve had girlfriends before, but it’s been a while. I just want to do something nice to show her I care and to help get her mind off of everything that has been going on. At least for a little while.”
She smiles at me, “Well, I can tell you this, she isn’t the kind of girl who enjoys the typical romancing. She is easy honestly. Want to get her flowers? Pick wild ones. Don’t get store bought. Want to take her out? Grab some horses or ATV’s and take her on the trails through the mountains. She doesn’t want to be fine dined, she likes things simple and original.”
“Original. Got it.”
“It doesn’t have to be original, Wes. Honestly, just show her you care and it won’t matter what you do.”
I nod at her, “Thanks, Gemma. I think I have an idea.”
I get upstairs after planning what I want to do for Marlie. Once I enter the room, I notice she isn’t in bed, but I hear the shower running and the sound of her voice singing. I sit down on the chair by my window and listen to her I as wait for her to come out.
Underground Secrets (The Underground #1) Page 24