Page 25

CHAPTER 24

“N o, he’s an only child,” Mrs. Erickson answered seconds before Tristan’s jaw clenched tightly shut as the cold expression that Marty was now familiar with took over.

“Is there anything that you’d like to tell me about the charges against your son?” Tristan asked as he leveled a cold look on the woman that was shifting nervously in her chair.

“Just that I know my son didn’t do any of those things that they’re accusing him of. He’s a very good boy,” Mrs. Erickson rushed to explain.

With a sigh, Tristan stood up. “He’s a twenty-year-old man, Mrs. Erickson, and unless you were there, I’m afraid that I can’t help you,” he said, already heading for the door.

“But he doesn’t deserve this!” Mrs. Erickson cried as she got to her feet to follow Tristan.

Tristan simply ignored her and kept walking, but instead of walking towards the holding rooms, he walked towards Hank’s office. Before he reached the door, Hank walked out, frowning when he saw Tristan.

“Is everything okay?” her father asked.

Tristan shook his head, surprising Marty, but he shocked her a second later when he handed the file to Hank. “Have someone else handle this.”

“Why?” Hank asked, but Tristan obviously wasn’t planning on sticking around to explain it to him.

“Read the suspect’s mother’s maiden name,” was all Tristan said before he walked past her, acting as though he didn’t see her.

“Son of a bitch!” she heard her father snap and, as much as she would have loved to ask her father what was going on, she had to deal with another problem.

“Detective, I just need ten minutes of your time,” Mrs. Erickson said, stepping in front of Tristan to stop him from leaving.

“You can’t have it,” Tristan said, moving to step past the woman, but she refused to move out of his way.

“We’re talking about my son’s future here. I think the least you could do-”

“I’m off the case. If you have any questions, you’ll have to speak with the chief,” Tristan said, and when Mrs. Erickson went to stop him this time, he simply ignored her and kept walking until he was in his office and slammed the door shut behind him.

Marty ignored Mrs. Erickson as her expression turned determined and she moved to go after Tristan, but she didn’t make it two feet before her father went after her.

“Let him cool down,” Hank said, handing her the suspect’s file.

“But-”

“Let him sort through this on his own,” he said quietly as he walked past her. Before she could ask him what was going on, the suspect’s mother was begging Hank to speak with her.

As much as she wanted to go to Tristan, her father was right. Tristan obviously needed time to calm down. When the time came and he needed her, he would go to her.

At least, Marty hoped he would.

* * *

“I thought we were past this, lad,” Shayne said as Tristan focused on the file in front of him, ignoring his phone as it continued ringing.

“Do ye want to talk about it, lad?” Shayne asked as he pulled up a chair at the kitchen table. Tristan didn’t need to look up to know that Shayne was watching him with pity.

He didn’t need pity.

He needed to work and he couldn’t do that with Shayne hanging around, watching him like he was going to break at any moment. He wasn’t. Today might not have been the best day of his life, but he’d already moved on. He was over it and he didn’t need a fucking babysitter.

“Everything’s fine,” Tristan bit out coldly, hoping Shayne would take him at his word and leave him alone so that he could work through the rest of the files. He was more than halfway done and he’d like to finish them before he called it a night.

“If everything’s fine, then why aren’t ye with Marty?”

“Because I have work to do,” Tristan said, gesturing to the large stacks of files covering the small kitchen table.

“Last time I checked, lad, she was supposed to work with ye, so why isn’t she here?”

“She needed a night off,” Tristan said absently as he sorted through the files.

“That doesn’t sound like Marty,” Shayne murmured, sounding thoughtful.

“It wasn’t her choice to make,” Tristan said, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to stay focused and stop thinking about the hurt expression on Marty’s face when he walked past her without saying a word to her.

He knew that he fucked up and should have said something to her, but he just couldn’t talk about it. There was already enough bullshit in his life without dredging up the past.

“Why are ye pushing her away?” Shayne asked softly.

“I’m not pushing her away,” Tristan said, praying that Marty realized that since the last thing that he wanted to do was lose her. He loved her, wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but this just wasn’t something that he wanted to talk about.

Right now, he needed some space and he knew that he was already fucking this up, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to deal with anyone at the moment, even Marty. It was because he loved her that he was pulling away from her right now. She was going to have to deal with enough bullshit in order to be with him, he didn’t need to add to it with something that shouldn’t matter, but it did. Today was just another reminder of how truly fucked up his life was.

“Lad, I-”

“Just drop it, Shayne,” Tristan said on a tired sigh as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face, wishing this day would end.

The sound of the front doorbell echoed throughout the house, letting him know that his day was far from over. He glanced at Shayne to find the man shrugging.

“Who is it?” Tristan asked even as he stood up to go send whoever it was away.

On a good day, he hated having anyone over, forcing him to put on a show, and today definitely wasn’t a good day. He just wanted to get through the rest of the files, grab a beer, relax, and forget everything that happened once he’d made the mistake of leaving his bed this morning. He should have called in sick this morning and spent the rest of the day in bed with Marty.

“Tristan?” Denny yelled as Tristan walked into the foyer just in time to see his brother let himself in. When Denny spotted Tristan coming down the hallway, he sighed with irritation as he gestured lazily behind him. “Where the hell have you been? Dinner’s almost done.”

“I’m not hungry,” Tristan said, gesturing for his brother to leave.

“And if I cared, that might mean something to me, but sadly, it doesn’t,” Denny said with a shrug as he gestured for Tristan to move his ass. When Tristan opened his mouth to politely tell his brother to fuck off, he was cut off.

“You haven’t come to dinner in more than a month and a half, which means that I’ve been left to deal with Mom,” he explained before stressing, “ alone .”

Tristan couldn’t help but inwardly cringe on his brother’s behalf. Their mother could try the patience of a saint with the way that she babied them, but at least when they were both there, it divided her attention and made it somewhat tolerable. He’d have to make it up to his brother, but not tonight.

“Tonight’s not good, Denny. I’m working on a case,” Tristan said, once again gesturing for his brother to leave when the bastard had to go and say the one thing that would get him to move his ass.

“Mom started interrogating Marty as soon as I left.”

* * *

“Your children are gonna be adorable,” Beth announced with a heartfelt sigh that almost made Marty choke on the sip of water she’d mistakenly taken to buy herself some time during Beth’s rapid-fire interrogation that started the second she’d walked into the kitchen.

“Don’t you think their babies are gonna be cute, sweetheart?” Beth asked Tom, smiling dreamily as she kept her eyes on Marty. The pleased expression on Beth’s face actually terrified her.

She shot a hopeful look at her father only to find the man ignoring her silent cry for help as he took a sip of beer. It didn’t exactly surprise her that her father wasn’t coming to her defense since he knew better. Marty could only imagine what Beth would do if he made the mistake of setting her straight. She’d spend the rest of the night focused on him. Still, it would have been a sweet gesture if he’d sacrificed himself for her. Not that she’d actually expected him to, but it would have been nice all the same.

“Adorable,” Tom said, earning a glare from Marty.

He mouthed, “Sorry,” gave her a shrug, and took a sip of his beer as his attention went right back to the Yankees game playing on the small television sitting on the long counter and easily ignored the inquisition that refused to end.

“Tristan’s house is perfect for a large family,” Beth pointed out as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth, no doubt trying to decide which room would be perfect for a nursery.

“We’re just dating,” Marty felt obligated to point out even though she wasn’t really sure that was true any longer.

She wasn’t a hundred percent positive, but she was pretty sure that she’d been given the kiss-off earlier. It was actually a really depressing thought and if her father hadn’t wrestled that pint of ice cream away from her and practically dragged her over here, Marty would still be in her room preparing for the heartache that she knew was coming. The only reason that she hadn’t made her escape yet was because she knew that Tristan wouldn’t be here.

When Denny announced that he was going to get Tristan, she felt a surge of panic that quickly disappeared when she reminded herself that Tristan was stubborn and would probably find a way to get out of this. From what she’d been told, he hadn’t come over for dinner for close to two months, but that was understandable since he was recovering from a gunshot wound and had been in too much pain to indulge his mother.

Lucky bastard.

As much as she loved Beth, and she did, she really did, she just knew that she wouldn’t be able to deal with Beth like this for the rest of the night. When Beth did this to Denny, it amused her, but the way the woman was sizing her up, almost as if she were trying to figure out how many grandbabies Marty would be able to give her, it terrified her.

It also made everything worse.

The only man she’d ever loved was pushing her away and she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do. It never bothered her before when a relationship ended, mostly because she never really cared. None of the men she’d dated before ever made her feel the way that Tristan did, but more importantly, she never loved them.

Tristan didn’t let anyone get close to him, not even his own family and why she ever thought that she was special was beyond her. She’d learned over the last couple of months that she was anything but special to Tristan. For all she knew, he’d slept with her just to scratch an itch and now history was repeating itself. All those years ago, he’d hurt her when he suddenly dropped out of her life and now, he was doing it again.

“Marty?” Beth said, drawing her attention. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

“I’m fine,” Marty lied, forcing a smile that she didn’t feel at the moment and prayed that Beth took pity on her and let the subject of her and Tristan drop.

“You don’t look okay,” her father said, frowning as he looked at her.

Marty started to tell him that she was fine again, but she just couldn’t do it. She wasn’t fine. Nothing about this was fine. Her stomach was twisted up in knots as she waited for Tristan to break her heart and she couldn’t help but wonder why.

Why was she waiting for him to drop the bomb? If he wanted to end things, then he was damn well going to tell her to her face this time, Marty decided as she moved to hunt the bastard down. She’d rather have her heart shattered quickly than to deal with this gut-wrenching uncertainty for a minute longer.

“Marty?” her father called after her.

“There’s something that I need to do,” Marty said, not bothering to look back as she stormed out of the kitchen and headed for the living room, more than ready to kick Tristan’s ass if that’s what it took. If it turned out that he was done, she’d accept it, but this time, she would be the one walking away.

Only she wouldn’t be coming back.