Stefan (The Marquette Family Book Three) (14 page)

“That’s unrealistic. I mean not the crazy drug dealer part because he was real, but there have been people in my life who thought they could put their hands on me.”

“And I’ll make them sorry for it.”

She grinned. “Thanks, but I got it.”

“I’ve
got it,” he insisted. “Anyway, this situation is different. From the way you’re shaking you haven’t had to deal with it before. I’m handling it the way me and my family see fit. I’m sorry you don’t like that.”

She grumbled. “I never knew you were so stubborn. It’s like I don’t know you.”

“Well, I’ll give you plenty of time to get to know me.” He kissed her, and he was happy she didn’t turn her head away. “Just hold on. This will all be over soon.”

Chapter Fifteen

Talicia sat in Shada’s kitchen at her and Creed’s house. She couldn’t believe she was in the same room with the woman, let alone having stayed at their place. The restaurant was closed for the day, and most of the Marquette men were in what they called a billiard room. Damen had gone to dog his wife’s steps at her job. Talicia didn’t have anything to do except ring her hands and wish she’d been able to get some sleep the night before. At least Stefan had thought to arrange to pick up Tyjon. That beauty queen was still in his room.

“If you want, I can help make breakfast for the guys,” Talicia offered. She was by no means a cook, but since Shada wasn’t calling her a bitch and telling her to get out, she figured she could make an effort.

“Why would I need help in my own kitchen?” was the snarky reply. Talicia sighed.

Upon closer inspection of the woman, Talicia noticed the dark rings around her eyes. So she hadn’t slept either. Talicia wondered if it had to do with the shooting or just being pregnant. After all, they had been trying to kill her not Creed. Then again Stefan could have been hurt, and they all seemed to adore him. She didn’t blame them.

Shada stood at the refrigerator with her back turned, heaved her shoulders, and then turned. “Look, Creed’s overprotectiveness means I can’t cook at the restaurant even though I have months to go before dropping this load. The only time I get to do it freely is here. So I don’t like sharing my kitchen.”

“Okay.”

Shada piled ingredients for the meal on the island counter, and Talicia drummed her fingers on the surface. Shada glared at her, and she stopped.

“I don’t cook anyway.”

The other woman blinked at her. “At all?”

“Not really. I live with my brother, and he’s the cook in our place.”

“Hmm.”

Talicia frowned. “You’re thinking how much of a woman can I be. Well, I’m plenty woman. I know I don’t look like much, but—”

“For real?”

“What do you mean for real?” Talicia snapped.

Shada set the green pepper she held on the counter and moved around it. Her chocolate gaze studied Talicia, and she frowned. Talicia stiffened but backed up. Shada stopped advancing on her, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“You really don’t think much of yourself?”

Talicia realized what she’d sounded like. “Of course I do. I’m damn good at my job. I made my club into a successful business when my partner couldn’t be bothered. Everything I know about accounting, marketing, business in general, I taught myself. No, I’m not rolling in money, but I’m damn sure not about to land on the street. Even if I did I’d—”

“Whoa.” Shada laughed. “I get it. That’s not what I meant.”

Talicia put her hands on her hips. “Then what did you mean?”

“Your looks.”

A hand flew to her hair before Talicia could catch herself. She smoothed the strands in place. Damn it if she was so self-conscious about it, why the hell did she cut it? She couldn’t have explained it if anyone asked.

Shada’s hair was messy from just rising, but it was freshly permed and swept up in a mid-length ponytail. Soft tendrils had escaped the band and curled around her face, making her look more beautiful than if she’d just come from the salon. A pang of jealousy touched Talicia when her gaze lowered to the woman’s fuller figure. She wondered if she would gain weight and get bigger boobs if she got pregnant.

What the heck am I thinking?

Shada shrugged and turned away. “I’m going to tell you the truth. I hate your guts. I’ve never seen the brothers like this.”

“So they’re not usually like the mob?”

“What?” Shada frowned at her.

“Never mind.”

“I can tell you’re not after Stefan’s money. Still, you have to admit you’re bad news. Last night he could have been killed. Stefan is the sweetest man. I love Creed to death, but I don’t mind admitting Stefan is beyond genuine. He doesn’t deserve someone like you. I pictured him with this innocent little thing who thinks he hung the moon and hangs on his every word.”

“Not me who punched your husband and—” She cut herself off because she’d been about to blab how she fought Stefan the night he barged in on her and Kevin. That’s all she needed. If she told Shada, the woman would think she abused Stefan and probably cut her with the knife she sliced the peppers with.

To tell the truth, her feelings were hurt. Here she was thinking she would try, and it didn’t even mean anything. She was too hard-edged, and the issue with Colby made matters a million times worse.

“So what you’re saying is you’re never going to accept me?” Talicia asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“You’re Stefan’s wife, but I don’t have to sleep with you. Just stay out of my face.”

“We’re agreed,” Talicia said and saluted. She spun on her heel and walked out of the kitchen. By the time she reached the room she and Stefan had been assigned, she had a raging migraine and a stomach ache. She sat on the side of the bed and stared at the bag that had been brought from Stefan’s house with her things. If she wanted, she could pack it and walk out the door. No one would notice or miss her except Stefan. He would get over it eventually.

Talicia considered the plan. She could disappear and let the insurance company know to give her portion of the money to her brother when the time came. Tyjon could support himself from it for a long while.

“Who am I kidding?”

She couldn’t leave her brother, not with Colby looking for them. Stefan showed his stubborn nature last night, which meant he wouldn’t give up searching for her either. He was determined to do things his way, and she was going to fall in line. Oh, he wasn’t mean like Creed, but Shada didn’t know him like Talicia was learning about him. Stefan was that arrogant man’s brother after all and had the same stubborn, bossy genes.

Talicia stood and stripped the clothes she had donned that morning. She stepped into the shower and turned the temperature as hot as she could stand it. Then for the first time in so long, she let go. She sobbed nonstop for what felt like hours. Her heart seemed to shatter, and she sagged against the wall of the shower, shaking, sick, cold, and hot all at the same time.

When arms came around her, she started and tried to pull away. Stefan wouldn’t let her. He turned her by her shoulders to face him and plastered her wet body to his. He was naked, but she couldn’t think of him sexually at that moment. All the energy in her had drained away. Clinging to him for dear life and willing herself to pull it together, she cried harder.

“Stefan,” she murmured into his chest.

“Go ahead and cry, honey. As much as you need to.”

“Don’t encourage me.”

His fingers danced over her spine in a gentle caress. Then he cupped the back of her head. She whimpered. He raised her up and wrapped both her legs around his waist. For a long time, they remained beneath the spray. When her fingertips wrinkled, Stefan turned off the water and stepped out of the shower still holding her. He didn’t let her down but did his best to dry them both.

“You’re crazy,” she muttered.

He carried her into the bedroom and lay on the bed with her. Talicia snuggled against his side. She sneezed and shivered, and like a protective bear, he jerked the tucked sheets out from beneath the mattress and cocooned her in them.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“Not really.”

She waited for him to push, but he said nothing. A sudden urge to come clean and let the chips fall where they may came over her. If the two of them weren’t going to make it, at least he would know.

“I’m not an innocent little thing who thinks you hung the moon and hangs onto your every word.”

He screwed up his face. “Was there a question of that?”

“No, I mean I’m not the ideal.”

“Who’s ideal?”

“Yours or…anyone else’s.” She lowered her gaze because it was getting stuffy in there, and it had nothing to do with the sheets. Creed liked the A/C on full blast, so the covering was welcome.

“If my brother said something he shouldn’t have, honey, tell me. I’ll have another talk with him.”

“You can talk until you’re blue in the face. It won’t matter, Stefan. What they all think of me is what they will always think of me.”

“You don’t know that. I happen to believe they’ll come to love you. They’ve already started to accept your presence in my life.”

“Um, no they haven’t. You’re delusional.”

He sat up and drew her higher on the bed to lie between his legs. Talicia leaned on his chest. She traced fingertips along the goose bumps on his arms, but he didn’t seem to notice the cold. That was white people, she assumed.

“You seem to think
I’m
the innocent little thing that hangs on your every word person,” Stefan complained. “Do you know how many years I’ve been fighting against that image? Damen and Creed both think of me that way, a fragile person who can be broken and who needs pampering. Just because I look on the bright side, I’m weak?”

“I don’t think you’re weak. It’s just the short end the youngest gets. Tyjon likes to call me baby sister, and I know we’re twins, but he is a few minutes younger.” She laughed. “I think of him as my little brother, and therefore I have to look out for him.”

“Have you ever considered letting him be a man?”

She gasped.

“Talicia, I don’t mean to offend you.” He held up his hands like he was scared she’d get mad. She was offended and a little angry, but she knew what he said was true. Tyjon
should
take care of himself.

“My dad used to try every trick to get Tyjon to man up.”

“He beat him?”

“No. Everything but that. Nothing he did was good enough or strong enough. I started getting in between them almost from day one. Then we went to school, and it was worse.”

Stefan stiffened. “How?”

“Boys started beating him up because he was so soft and acted like a girl. You know Tyjon. The way he is now is the way he always was, even as a kid. Way over the top, loud, with a look at me attitude. It got his ass beat in the ghetto on the regular.”

“Kids can be cruel. I’m sorry, Talicia.”

“Thanks.” A lump rose in her throat remembering, but she wanted to tell him everything. “We are both really small built, and we were skinner and shorter back then. I tried to stick up for him, but they kept throwing me aside and hurting my baby brother. You have to understand what it was like seeing him swollen and bruised every day telling me, ‘It’s all right, Licia. I’m going to get them next time.’ In a way, he’s like you. He smiles a lot, always sunny. But I think Tyjon’s attitude back then was an act.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because one day I heard him crying in his room. I ran in and asked him what was wrong. He said why did he have to turn out like he was. Why couldn’t he be strong like our father? Why him?”

Talicia’s voice cracked, and she slapped a hand over her mouth. Stefan’s arms surrounded her, and he pulled her tight to his chest. She refused to give into crying again. He had already seen enough of her blubbering for a lifetime.

“Didn’t anyone help him?”

“Funny enough, my dad recalled what it meant to be a father. He went up to the school to talk to the principal, and he even started getting off work earlier so he could walk us home. That was nice.”

“I have the feeling it didn’t end there.”

“No.”

“I got boobs, and a bit of ass. Then my dad died.”

“Huh?”

She laughed because she’d said it vague like that on purpose. His confused look was worth it. “What’s your body have to do with it?”

Talicia drew her knees to her chest. “Where I come from the minute a girl starts looking more like a girl, the boys start pulling on her, thinking they can touch whenever they get ready.”

“Licia.” His voice grew so tight she realized her mistake and whirled to face him.

“Calm down, Stefan. It’s not what you think. I was never forced into anything.”

“You’re not lying to me?”

“No. It’s the truth. I said grabbed like a smack on the butt, a pinch in the wrong place. Plus I was never dumb enough to walk anywhere alone. When my dad died, we were unprotected again because my mother had to work twice as hard to take care of Tyjon and me. That’s when I knew it was up to me.”

“What did you do?”

Talicia lost her nerve. She didn’t want to tell him. In a way, it could have been much worse than it was, but she couldn’t be sure of Stefan’s reaction. Would he look at her differently or think less of her?

Someone knocked on the door, and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Who is it?”

“Mr. Stefan, Mrs. Talicia,” came the lilt of a Hispanic woman’s voice, “breakfast is served.”

Talicia frowned in confusion at Stefan. “I thought they didn’t have a maid.”

“They do, but she doesn’t cook at all.” Stefan grinned. “Not unless she wants to incur Shada’s wrath.

“Ahh.” Talicia started to tell Stefan to go down without her that she wasn’t hungry. He took her hand when he slid to the edge of the bed to guide her to her feet. A rush of love washed over her, and she didn’t want to let him go just yet.