He pulled me to my feet and held my hand tight. "Don't do that again." He said in a stern voice and pulled me toward the doors, holding my knife in his hand. I let him pull me outside into the bright light and down the street. We never said a word and he pulled me behind him into Doc's bar. I saw Conner throwing darts and Romeo was sitting at the bar. They both jumped up and turned to face us. "Hey it's Marie!" Romeo said and I shook my head. "My name is Marietta." I mumbled as Murphy pushed me onto a stool.
"Where did ya find her?" Conner asked, coming over. "In a church, about to kill herself." All eyes were on me and I looked at the bar. Murphy pulled off my belts without asking and tossed them onto a nearby table. "What the fuck Marietta?" Conner asked, staring at me. "She thinks we blame her for Roc's death, thinks it's her fault. Thought she would save the Saints some trouble of tracking her and killing her by killing herself first."
Conner pulled my face to look at him. "Are you crazy!" I jerked my face away from him and stood up, but Murphy pushed me back down. "Will you just leave me alone?" I yelled and saw the door open and Doc come in. I pushed past them and grabbed some of the bags he was carrying. "Oh Marietta, I d-didn't know y-you w-were here." I smiled and sat the bags on the bar, making sure to elbow Conner in the ribs.
"Yeah, I'm back in town for a few weeks, thought I would see about getting a temp job here, ya know?" he nodded and tossed me a bagged sandwich. "Boys." He said and tossed them theirs. "You got extra?" I asked and he nodded. "Figured t-the boys w-would e-eat a few" I giggled and nodded. I sat mine down and hopped on the bar, facing the guys.
"I heard you guys were staying in my old place." I said and they nodded. "She used to live there?" Romeo asked and I smiled at him. "Yeah, had some good times there too, so if you fuck it up I'll have to hurt ya." I said and he gulped his eyes on my legs as I crossed them. Murphy cleared his throat and stared at me. "Marietta, I think we need to have a talk, alone." I glanced back at Doc. "Can you take the spic and give us a few minutes please?" I asked and he nodded, then left with Romeo following.
I sighed and watched as they smiled at me. "It's good to see you." Conner said and Murphy nodded. "But I would have rather not found you blaming yourself and trying to hurt yourself." I rolled my eyes. "I don't care about that anymore." Conner cut in and sat on the stool beside me. "What happened that night? We turned around and you weren't there anymore." I looked at my hands. "I couldn't stand it, knowing that my uncle did that, so I went after him. I ran into the guy my father sent after me and he let me stay with him until the trail. I was going to kill him that day, but we had to leave." "We?" Murphy asked and I nodded.
"I told him I would go back with him if I could just end this with my uncle, to get back at him. I couldn't, but I did say I would, so I did. What the hell happened to yall? I mean the man that tried to kill all of us was seen with yall at the courthouse." They looked at each other and nodded. "That night, after you disappeared, he came in to finish his job, but heard us saying a family prayer for Roc. He's our father." I blinked and then smiled. "That's good I guess, I mean you found him."
They nodded. "We had been living with him for these years, back in Ireland." Conner said and Murphy shook his head. "You said you went with the guy, which means you went back to your father?" my smile faded and I sighed. "Yes, and I was welcomed back with open arms, however, I refused to be apart of the family anymore. I shut myself in my room, refusing to come out, my only visitor was the mystery man, which turned out to be my fiancé, Matthew. My father thought we would be perfect to run the business."
I paused and smiled to myself. "What? You are married?" Murphy asked, looking at my hands for a ring. "No, Matthew finally talked me into coming out of my room after a few weeks; I was thrown into wedding plans, although I never really did anything. My mother was upset that I wasn't a proper young woman, so she and Matthew planned most of it. I spent my days training and spending time with my brother and sister. I grew to love them, even though we hadn't seen each other for years. I also grew to care for Matthew; he stayed with me for the years, slowly warming my heart for some of my family. However, I was still not whole, I couldn't figure it out. Something was pulling me back here, and one day I saw the new report about the priest." I stopped and looked at them.
"I know you didn't do it, but I had to find out who did, I guess I just didn't want you two to make the same mistake, I didn't want this to turn out the same way as last time." I brushed back my hair and Murphy touched my face. "Don't worry, it'll be okay." I hopped off the bar and picked up my knives. "You know who did this?" "I do, my father heard about it, but didn't tell me, I overheard him talking to his under bosses. It's my cousin, Papa Joe's son." They nodded and I put my belts back on, and then held my hand out for Murphy.
"Give it back." I said and he did, I placed it back and saw Romeo pop his head back in. "Are you guys finished? I'm hungry!" he said and I laughed. "Yes, I do believe we are." He came in and grabbed a sandwich, taking a bite. "Sorry I gave you a fake name, I didn't know if you were with the guys or not." He shrugged and drank some soda. "It's okay." His eyes founded my legs again and I smirked. "What was with the knives? You can fight?" I giggled and took out a knife.
I gently rolled it over my arms, not cutting, then spun around and threw it at the dart board, landing in the bulls eye. He stared at me wide eyed and I playfully punched Conner. "I saved his ass the first time we met." Conner laughed and Murphy grabbed a sandwich and sat down. "So how did they get stuck with you?" I asked playing with one of my knives.
"Stuck with me? What's that mean?" he said jumping up, but stopped dead when my knife point was at his throat. "Yeah, how on earth did they get stuck with ya?" I smiled and pressed it just a bit harder. "We met him on board a ship on the way over here." Conner said and I faced him, taking my blade off his throat. "I got here by ship too." I paused and glanced at Murphy.
"Then I stopped by the police station and heard about Smecker." The brothers looked at me and nodded. "Good man." "Aye." "Only sometimes." I said and looked at the stairs. "How does the place look?" I asked and Doc rubbed his head. "Doc used it for storage, so its messy." I nodded and Murphy turned to me. "Where are ya staying?" Conner asked and I smiled at him.
"I got a place for now." I replied and sat down beside Romeo, far from Murphy. "What place?" Conner asked and I turned in the stool to face him. "Just a place, don't want you guys finding out too much." I joked and we shared a laugh, except Murphy. I sighed and placed a hand on my lap, propping my other on the bar. "Hey Murphy, why you so quiet?" Romeo asked, staring at him.
I stood up and spun him around in his chair, making him look at me. "Don't worry." I whispered and took his face in my hands. We stared at each other for a moment, then Romeo spoke to Conner. "What's their deal?" I pulled away from him, letting my hands drop to my sides. "Nothing, just seeing how bad they got after 8 years." I said and went and got my knife out of the dart board. "I guess I should be getting back to my place. I'll see you guys around?" I asked, walking to the door. "Aye, you will." Conner said and I nodded. "Good." I opened the door and Conner hurried over. "I'll walk you; I want to talk to you anyways." I smiled and waved at the others.
Oh great, Conner wants to talk, this can only end well.