Page 85 of Black Heart

Their touch also didn’t make her wish for death. Their touch was warm, comforting, and familiar. It was odd, but then again, wasn’t everything about this situation odd? For the past month, she’d been hearing voices, and today, she was seeing dead people and was apparently pregnant. She wasn’t sure how, but she’d be willing to bet everything she had that they were all connected.

The fact that Tristan wasn’t freaking out over everything that was going on also clued her into the fact that this situation wasn’t entirely new to him. Then again, nothing really fazed Tristan. He’d always been levelheaded and thought things out before he reacted. Even when they were children, Tristan would get the facts first.

Like the time that she’d caught one of his friends looking in her window and watching her change into her bathing suit. Before Tristan broke his friend’s nose, he’d patiently listened to the boy ramble on and on about getting lost when he was looking for the basketball that rolled across the street. Then, how he’d accidentally tripped over a plant and pressed his face against her bathroom window and watched her for five minutes. Tristan had a temper and could be an asshole, but he usually managed to maintain that deadly calm that kind of freaked people out while he figured things out.

She looked at him to find him slowly studying everyone in the room, no doubt taking in every detail and storing the information away for later when he figured out a way to use it to his advantage. When his gaze landed on her, his eyes narrowed as they conveyed the silent promise of locking her in their room for the rest of her life if she didn’t move her ass and leave the room, but since she wasn’t afraid of him, Marty simply ignored him as she turned her focus back on the men that were going to answer all of her questions.

“How exactly is Tristan your brother?” Marty asked when it became clear that they weren’t going to be able to stop sending pitying looks at the big baby curled up into the fetal position.

“Someone,” he began only to pause so that he could release a whimper, “kill me.”

“Yer already dead! Now, man the hell up and stop embarrassing us like this!” Shayne, she thought his name was, snapped with open disgust and inadvertently answered one of her questions.

The man pulled one of his hands away from his abused manhood long enough to flip Shayne off and earn a few lighthearted chuckles from the rest of the men. Definitely brothers, Marty thought as she shifted to get more comfortable, but the way her stomach suddenly churned had her pressing her hand against it and holding her breath while she waited for it to pass.

“Marty, are you okay?” Tristan asked, shifting slightly so that he could place his hand over hers.

She opened her mouth to answer him when her eyes landed on his shoulder. It was swollen and painted an angry red. It looked like it hurt and, judging by the way that he kept his arm tightly by his side, it did. It took everything she had not to ask him about it. Her father taught them both to never give away a disadvantage and, if he was hurt, then they were definitely going to be at a greater disadvantage than they already were.

This situation might be fascinating, but that didn’t mean that she was blind to the dangers. She wasn’t sure what they wanted with her. So far, they’d been very gentle with her, babying her a bit, leading her to believe that they were concerned about her. Tristan, on the other hand, seemed to have pissed them off, which wasn’t exactly a surprise since he did seem to go out of his way to piss people off, but this situation felt different.

“Marty?” Tristan said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze to get her attention. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she lied, forcing a smile. If he wasn’t going to give anything away, then neither was she.

“No worries, lad. It’s just morning sickness,” Shayne explained.

“Aye, the lass always has a tough time of it when she’s pregnant,” the man leaning against the wall added with a shrug while she struggled to make sense of what he’d just said.

“She’s never been pregnant before,” Tristan pointed out and before she got the chance to add anything to the conversation, her head began to spin as nausea once again took over.

“Marty?” Tristan said, sounding worried.

“I’m fine,” Marty lied, closing her eyes as she willed the nausea to go away.

“No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m good,” Marty said, shifting on the couch until she found herself lying down with her head cushioned on Tristan’s warm jean-clad leg, and once she was there, she never wanted to leave.

The dizziness went away and took some of the nausea with it. She decided then and there that they were just going to have to learn to live like this because she was never getting up again. The only thing that sounded better than staying here for the rest of her life was a hot bath and curling up in her own bed. Since she didn’t trust Tristan or these men to hold off on having this conversation until she could move without passing out, she had no choice but to suck it up and stay there.

“Let me take you upstairs where you can rest,” Tristan said softly, and for a second, she was tempted, oh, so tempted to take him up on that offer.

“No,” Marty mumbled, well aware that she was probably pouting and not really giving a damn at the moment.

“Get off yer lazy ass and get the lass an apple pastry!” someone demanded.

“My balls are about to explode, ye insensitive bastard!”

Knowing that it was only a matter of time before she was forced to seek out the comfort of a bathroom, Marty interrupted the bickering men with the hopes that they could just get on with it. “I’m fine,” she bit out.

“Maybe we should just get this over with,” one of the men said, sounding almost sad.

“Why don’t ye tell it, Liam?”

“He always tells it,” someone grumbled.

“That’s cause he doesn’t get distracted when he tells it!”

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