Chapter 8 – Truths Revealed

It was time. It was finally time.

Roman had decided it was time. It was time to tell the other's what he had learned after his visit with Dain. Then he had to figure out how he really felt about Kenzie.

Did he miss her?

Only every day that ended in y.

Did he think he could look past everything that happened or that she'd done to protect him in the last 2 1/2 years?

Absolutely.

Did he think they could get back to where they were before he thought he lost her?

Again...Yes.

But the big question on the tip of his tongue. The one he had not asked himself yet was still weighing heavily on his mind 24/7.

Did he still love her?

Yes he did. He still loved her eyes and hair and body and her soul. He still loved everything about her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

He longed to touch her body just one more time in the 2 1/2 years she'd been missing from his life.

And now that he found out she was still alive his fingers were itching to touch her naked flesh once more. He wanted to make love to her and re-claim her as his again; for the rest of his life.

He was starting to realize they really needed each other more than either we're willing to admit.

Roman sat in his house in Pensacola, Florida and was looking around. There were a couple of pictures of him and Mackenzie and the memories from those were flooding his brain. Jesus Christ he missed her more and more every day. He was going to talk with everyone while they were on the road, but he had been so busy with media and interviews he didn't have a minute to actually speak with anyone.

It was the whole reason behind why he'd sent a text out to all of his friends and asked that they come to his home. He was going to get everything straight with everyone before they had to go back on the road. The first to arrive was Dean and Jenaya. Jenaya was sporting a beautiful onyx diamond in the shape of a heart with two smaller regular diamonds in the shape of hearts as well. The ring was gorgeous on her left ring finger and it was completely something that represented Dean and Jenaya's love.

Roman was happy for Dean and Jenaya. Dean was like a brother to him; they were the same age but only a few months apart. It was almost as if Dean was part of the entire Reigns/Uso family. Dean got along best with Roman and his twin cousins Jimmy and Jey. They enjoyed working out together and even working in the ring together; coming up with new moves and strategies for upcoming matches.

Once Jey, Jimmy and Charisma showed up he knew they all had two days off with a lot of explaining to do in a short period of time. He knew when he was planning this he had to have more than just his word to get through to Jenaya. He knew she was the most upset about the lies Mackenzie orchestrated to keep everyone safe. Dean was on the fence because he was not entirely sure who to side with; Roman his best friend and the man he thought of as a brother or the woman he was spending the rest of his life with.

All eyes watched as Roman began pacing again. It had a familiar feel to it. Jenaya narrowed her eyes at Roman as she crossed her right leg over her left at the knee. "Roman if you brought us here to give us another Mackenzie pep talk you can save it. I already got to confront the lying bitch and said my piece. I don't need to hear anymore bullshit excuses." She stated honestly.

"That's my hellcat." Dean boosted as he shook his head.

Roman's eyes landed on Jenaya."What do you mean you confronted her and said your piece?" He hadn't seen what went down during the Halloween party.

Jenaya scowled. "I gave her a piece of my mind. I told her exactly what everyone else should have said to her when they saw her rather than hugging and dancing around in a circle like a bunch of fools."

Roman pointed at Jenaya. "You may have made the biggest mistake of your entire life; depending on what kind of piece of mind you gave Mackenzie. What I'm about to tell all of you can't leave the house. I've already told my parents what was going on and that was not easy at all." Roman sighed heavily. "After both of my dickhead visits to Mackenzie I decided I needed to go to a different source."

"So that's why you flew out to Sacramento. You went to see Alice and Dain." Jey stated the obvious.

Roman nodded. "Yea, I knew if anyone could give me answers it was Dain. Once I found out he was part of the US Marshall's service it was only too obvious who I would get all the answers to every question I had. And boy did he give me answers; answers I didn't realize I wasn't ready to hear."

Jimmy frowned. "What do you mean you weren't ready to hear it? I thought Mackenzie told you everything every single time you went to see her. How could Dain have any different answers for you?"

It was Roman's turn to frown. "Because no matter what she said. I didn't believe her. I got it in my head that because she lied about being dead that she was lying about everything else."

Charisma pursed her lips together. "But you were wrong huh." She smacked her lips together when she really wanted to smack Roman a good one upside his big Samoan head.

Jenaya narrowed her eyes at the large Samoan. "What do you mean you were wrong? I don't understand."

Roman again sighed heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose, before he walked over and grabbed his tablet. "Dain allowed me to take these pictures to show all of you with the promise that once we are done I delete everything. I agreed of course." He pulled up the pictures of all the evidence that Dain had collected regarding the hitmen and Jeff Walker and anything else he had.

"Roman…what are you showing us?" Dean asked as he flipped through the pictures with Jenaya.

"So, Mackenzie kept saying she went into witness protection to protect me, my family and our friends; which would obviously be all of you here. She wasn't lying. Those mug shots belong to every hitman that was hired by Jeff Walker to murder any one of us. The Marshall Service stopped over 50 hitmen from killing whoever their target was; whether it was someone in this house or someone in my family. We were ALL targets of Jeff Walker's."

"Jesus Christ." Jenaya frowned as she covered her hand with her mouth. "Are you seriously telling me all of our lives were in danger and at any minute it could've gone from Mackenzie faking her death to any of us being really dead?"

Roman nodded. "Yes…but that's not even the worst part about all of this."

"As if hired hitmen wasn't bad enough Holy shit Roman, you're seriously standing there saying there is something worse than this?" Jimmy asked as he stood up and pointed to the tablet.

Dean was now even more concerned because the last 2 1/1 years everyone just lived their lives completely oblivious to what was going on around them and at any point Jenaya could've been taken from him by some psychotic hitman that Jeff fucking Walker hired because he had a grudge against anyone who had been friends or related to Mackenzie or Roman.

"So what's the worst part big man?" Dean inquired.

Roman sat down with his elbows on his knees as he tried to get his head wrapped around everything he'd been told while still trying to process it. "Well it would seem there is a dirty Marshall that Dain is secretly investigating. The Marshall as it were basically coerced Mackenzie into signing the contract to go into Witness Protection. Her wound was puking blood and she was anemic, the nurses shot her up with pain killers and that asshole wormed his way into pre-op and lied his ass off about Jeff heading to Sacramento to go after her sister, nieces and nephew only after telling her he attacked me and I was barely hanging on. He lied to her face was she was near death and it literally scared the shit out of her; she figured she only had one option so witness protection plus saving me, my family and our friends won."

Dean stood up. "What do you mean a dirty Marshall? You mean like some asshole who is working both fuckin sides?" Dean's temper was slowly skyrocketing.

Roman nodded. "Dain thinks he was being paid off by Jeff Walker to keep tabs on Mackenzie while she was being hidden in New Mexico. Her life was just as much in danger if not more because Jeff could've gotten to her at any point while she was in the program."

Dean scowled. "So how long have you known all of this?" He asked curiously.

"I found out before the Halloween party where Mackenzie showed up with her boss Robert, but I didn't have time to sit you guys all down and tell you what I learned until now. We've been going extra hard for TLC and we absolutely had no time for all of us to sit down together like this." Roman explained.

"Yea but bro, she's been trying to tell you this for months. Every time you went to see her she told you what was going on. You could've gone to see Dain at any time and you waited until after your second visit with her because you didn't believe her. So she's basically living alone in Chicago, cut off from all of her friends and friends she considers family because you won't get your head out of your ass." Dean growled out.

Roman glared at his best friend. "What do you want me to do about it Dean?" Roman stood up and stood toe to toe with him. "I felt betrayed and lied to by my girlfriend who I thought was dead for the last 2 ½ years."

Jenaya stood up as she pushed herself between Dean and Roman. "Okay you two enough with the growling back and forth. Dean I made the same mistake Roman did or don't you remember me slapping Mackenzie across the face when I saw her at the Halloween party?"

"You what?" Roman exclaimed.

"You know Roman you weren't the only one hurt to find out Mackenzie faked her own death and YES I may or may not have over reacted, but I can apologize for the way I behaved towards a woman I consider a sister because I am thrilled to know she's really not dead and she's not going to miss my upcoming wedding. I might have been a royal bitch but all I can do it hope she forgives me. I know some of the things you said to her…do you think she will forgive you for your mouth?" Jenaya asked honestly.

Roman planted his hands on his hips as he looked at Mackenzie's best friend. "I don't know." He answered honestly, because honestly he didn't know. He didn't know how she would address him the next time he saw her. She could tell him to go fuck himself and that would be the end of them ever talking again. She could call him everything in the book and he would go back for more because he deserved it. He actually deserved for her to kick his ass and if she wanted to do it he would let her over and over if it meant she was back in his life forever.

Mackenzie hadn't seen Roman and the others since Halloween but she was not above watching them on the WWE network. Jesus she was pathetic. She sat in Robert's office with her heels kicked off. The grey pencil skirt with the white crisp short sleeve dress shirt and the vest she had over it matched her skirt. Her raven corkscrew curls were piled high up on her head with a couple of tendrils hanging down.

She was looking over some legal documents as she got up and walked over to the windows. She heard someone walk into the office and could tell by the smell of the cologne that it was Robert. "So you've got a busy schedule tomorrow."

Robert chuckled. "When don't I have a busy schedule Kenzie?"

"Yes well if you don't leave now you'll never get home in time for dinner with Kathy and you'll be riding sofa city buddy." Mackenzie teased. "You need to get some sleep anyways. You've got court first thing at 7 AM so get some dinner, have a little wine and sex your beautiful wife up then get some good sleep." She giggled softly.

Robert walked over and squeezed her shoulder. "You know eventually living in Chicago will get easier. I know it doesn't seem like it now because you miss your friends, but you can always go see your family in Sacramento, you know you are allowed vacation time." He pointed out. He knew the transition from Witness Protection back to real life was not going to be easy on her and it was even harder since she wasn't able to keep the connection to her friends, because she didn't want them to have to chose between her and Roman. They'd technically known him longer since they all worked together first before she'd started working in the legal department at WWE.

Mackenzie nodded. "I know. I just feel like the last 2 ½ years were nothing but a vacation." Technically she'd been out of the Wit Sec program for almost 6 months now. She still didn't feel like she was at home, even when she was sitting in her own living room. It was just after the new year and the beginning of January and cold as hell outside. She would go into the office early and stay later than anyone else; rather than go home to her empty apartment. She needed to get a cat or dog; hell maybe even an iguana…Something that could keep her company at night.

It was about 7 PM, when Robert said his goodbyes as he wrapped himself in his scarf and coat and left for the condo. Mackenzie sat on the couch in the office as she turned on the youtube channel for WWE and got caught up on the Monday Night Raw's, Tuesday Night Smackdown's and the PPV's she'd missed.

About an hour later Mackenzie closed the laptop as she stood and threw the garbage away from the take-out food she'd ordered after Robert left. She walked into the bathroom and used the facilities and then washed her hands afterwards. She walked back into the office and looked out the window again. They weren't calling for snow but it was damn cold and she knew the longer she waited to go home the colder it would be. She heard the office door open again and figured the janitorial service was there to finish clean the office like they did every night. "Don't worry you don't have to kick me out; I was just leaving."

Mackenzie turned around and saw Roman standing there.

"Roman…"

"Kenzie…"