Page 82 of Black Heart

“Oh? Do we haveanothersecret?” Marty asked mockingly with a hint of pure acid lacing her tone.

“Aw, shit,” one of the men, or him, whispered in fear, but he really wasn’t sure. The only thing that he was positive of at the moment was that his wife was seriously pissed off at him and whatever the men were here to do to him was suddenly sounding better and better with each passing second.

“Let’s see if I’ve got this right so far,” Marty bit out, tightening her hold on the sheet to keep herself covered as she got to her knees and in his face. It took everything he had not to scoot back from her and make a run for it, but common sense kept his ass firmly planted on the bed.

He was in deep shit and there was nowhere to run.

“You’ve kept the reason why you were a virgin all to yourself. You gave me some lame-ass excuse for keeping the bedroom down the hallway locked up-”

“Ah, that’s my room,” Shayne interrupted her, probably thinking that he was helping.

He wasn’t.

“Stop fucking helping!”

“Another secret!” Marty snapped, moving closer and almost falling off the bed when her legs got tangled in the sheets. He reached out and steadied her, only to have his hands slapped away the second that she was safe.

“I’m sick of the secrets and the lies, Tristan! I want to know what the hell is going on here and I want to know why you pushed me away and broke my heart!” Marty cried as the first tear trickled down her cheek, making him feel like the biggest prick on earth.

He tried to reach for her and take her into his arms, but she wasn’t having it.

“I want to know why you were such an asshole to me one minute and begging me for a chance the next. I want to know who they are!” Marty said, her voice breaking as she gestured to the men shifting nervously around the room. “And I want to know why you nearly broke my heart last month over that woman!”

“What woman?” he found himself asking. He had absolutely no idea who she was talking about. There had never been any other women.

“She means yer real ma, lad,” Shayne said, clearing his throat uncomfortably.

“That was your mother?” Marty demanded tightly before adding, “And you didn’t tell me?”

“She’s not my mother,” Tristan bit out evenly.

“You should have told me!”

“It was none of your business!” Tristan snapped back, only realizing how badly he’d fucked up when he saw the other men in the room wince in sympathy and Marty’s expression turned hurt.

“As much fun as this has been,” Liam said, pulling Tristan’s attention away from his wife and probably saving his poor balls, “I think that it’s time that we got this over with.”

CHAPTER31

“Fine,” Tristan said, looking away from her as he stood up, “but leave my wife out of it.”

Did he really think that she was going to be able to sit here while he found out why their house was being overrun by ghosts? As she climbed off the bed and pushed him out of her way, Marty had to wonder if he really knew her at all.

For the past month, she’d been battling fatigue and terrified that she was going crazy. She deserved some answers and she was going to get them. She grabbed one of Tristan’s tee-shirts and a pair of her panties from the bureau.

“This involves her as well, lad,” Liam, she thought his name was, said as she headed for the bathroom to change.

“Keep her out of it,” Tristan bit out, sounding pissed, the kind of pissed that usually sent everyone in the room running for cover, but it didn’t faze her one bit. To be honest, she was kind of hoping that he kept on pissing her off so that when she kicked his ass, and there was no doubt in her mind right now that she would, in fact, be kicking his ass, it would be justified.

“I’m going,” Marty said, pausing in front of the large man blocking the bathroom.

Something in her expression must have given away the testicle-mutilating thoughts racing through her mind because he took one look at her before swallowing nervously and jumping out of her way. That was probably for the best, Marty thought as she started to close the door behind her. She wanted to save her energy for the ass-kicking that Tristan most definitely had coming.

“No, you’re not,” Tristan said tightly from behind her, but she was done listening to him.

Whatever this was that she’d gone through over the last month, Tristan was definitely in the middle of it. Since she doubted that he was going to willingly give her the answers that she wanted that meant that she was going to have to deal with these men. One way or another, she would finally have all of her questions answered, and then, she’d deal with Tristan.

She dropped the sheet and quickly pulled on the shirt and panties. After catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she ran a brush through her hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. Once that was done, Marty headed for the door, determined to get this over with.

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