RISEN
This is going to suck fucking cock. I’m not looking forward to the outcome of this, but China is asking and for some reason, I can deny this woman nothing.
Touching my face, asking me sweetly, I knew she wouldn’t relent until I caved. Why can’t I say no? Because you’re in love with the woman, dumbass. Three weeks of close quarters, years of admiring from afar, and amazing fucking sex, that shit will do a number on any hot-blooded male.
As everyone picks a spot on the chairs, couches, and reclining bench, I try to think of where to start. Do I start at high school when everything started going to pot, literally? Or do I start when she was killed?
“Are we going to need more to drink for this, because if we are, I’m taking that bottle of sweet ass tequila back, Catty.” Reaching for the bottle, Cathryne peels it back from Harlow’s greedy grasp.
“Nope. No more drink.”
“Fine.” Sitting cross legged, reclining on the bench, she glowers at Cathryne for invading her happy buzz.
Thinking that high school, namely senior year is the best place to start at, I sit back and start. “This isn’t for you, Tre, this is for the ladies who need a crash course on the subject. You can correct me if you want after, but let me get out how I see it played.” Looking at Trellis, his mask of murder is still set in place. He still wishes to beat me to a pulp. You’re not going to be happy, buddy.
Tre nods, waits, and sits in place with fire fueling his thoughts. Here it goes.
“So, in high school, I was a bit of a rebel. I was an asshole and I didn’t care who got hurt as long as my crew were on the upside of the receiving end. Knowing how cops thought, how to get around things that would land us in jail was part of what made me irreplaceable to the family. Using it to my advantage I ran the kids that pushed drugs for Maria Esposito. I was the heavy hand, and I muscled my way through the school without fault. I never touched the drugs that were dealt, but some of our friends were into it. Rich kids want for nothing. Money was never an issue so I made good cash. I directed things. Everyone, including Trellis, thought that Marnie was the good girl. She dated the captain of the football team, Trellis Anchor, my best friend.” Checking to make sure everyone is listening, and that Trellis is still calm, I organize my thoughts about that time.
“Marnie wasn’t doing drugs, but she wasn’t one of the richer kids, so she dealt. Mainly it was perc’s or steroids for the jocks, but she never wanted you to know, Tre. She made me promise you wouldn’t find out. She wasn’t doing it for status, she wanted to buy you something.”
Automatically, Trellis’ hands fidget, his eyes widen, and understanding becomes clear. She wanted to buy him a promise ring. The same ring he’s twirling incessantly on his left hand. Looking over, his expression softens a touch. Possibly, he’ll listen to me. Maybe.
“Anyway, she did that for our full senior year. That was before I dropped out to run the heavier stuff for Maria, and before you went off to university. On weekends, when you’d come home to visit family, she was visiting her players, topping them off and hooking them on her supply chain longer.”
“She didn’t need to.” Trellis states, a little calmer, but not much. “If you knew, why didn’t you stop her?”
“It wasn’t me. She was one of Maria’s favorite runners. Maria never had to worry about a run, never had to worry about payments, and never worried about her commitment to the family. Maria made it easy for her.”
Looking at Trellis, I see he’s on the edge of his seat. He’s ready to rise up and take another shot at me. “Do you remember the weekend you took her away to see friends in Hawaii? It was spring break, and you took your parents’ yacht.” He nods. I know it wasn’t just a weekend, because she got sick and they had to stay in Maui for more than a week extra. “That weekend cost her. Maria had a shit fit. She lost it on me, and pretty much told Marnie if she wasn’t able to finish her run by the week’s end, then there would be consequences.”
“She wanted to go home so bad. I thought it was just because of the illness. Because she wanted to be home, in her own bed, or that she was afraid of missing school time because break was almost over. I talked her into skipping out on the next few weeks and took her on a vacation, where I proposed.” The girls had been silent until now, but as the picture becomes clearer to all of them that Trellis had her away too long.
“Maria came knocking when you got back, so she hid out at my place. There wasn’t much I could do. I could only hold her off for so long. Hiding her wasn’t hard, but even I couldn’t stop Maria from doling out her justice. It was inevitable. I couldn’t help her.”
Trellis’ head is in his lap, the severity of every step, every move, every missed moment with Marnie made him see the bigger picture. Things he hadn’t known of were now the most important pieces to the puzzle. “She was pregnant. Did you know that?” His voice is quiet. Almost serene in its tenor.
I’ve quieted too. “Yeah, I knew. She told me.”
Smacking her hands together, Harlow breaks the silent moment. “So what happened? I swear you drag out a story, buddy.”
“Harlow!” the girls yell in unison, tossing pillows at her head.
Ignoring her, even though I know she’s just trying to cut the tension, I keep going. This is the part Trellis knows, but they don’t, and I might as well spell it out. “Maria sent a couple of the not so nice guys to visit her at my apartment. After roughing her up for a bit, they dragged her to the docks.” I look over at China. She knows where this is going, and you can feel her empathy, her pity for Trellis. To tell the rest of the story, it hurts me more than it does Tre. Picking up the bottle of absconded tequila, I swig a monster mouthful, wiping away the remnants.
“They took her to Anchor Holdings. There they beat her a bit more, and left her to die in the vacant yard. Sun beating down, hemorrhaging from a miscarriage, she died at Anchor with a note attached to her torn and stained shirt.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Don’t leave me hanging now. What happened?” Harlow bursts out, peeling the bottle out of my grasp. No one stops her. No one cares if we all get blotto to erase the pain anymore as it doesn’t matter.
Speaking up, Trellis finishes part of the story. “I got a call from Marnie. She needed me to meet her. She sounded so out of breath and worn out. I told her I was out at the shipyard working on something for Tarrant and I couldn’t leave. It was just after our parents’ accident, and I was stuck in obligations. She was quiet for a minute, then said she’d make her way the docks. I joked that I’d hoped it was for a bit of tail, but she didn’t laugh it off like usual. I was so sidetracked, I didn’t notice she was distant.” His fire is gone, the danger subsided, and I feel we might have found a spot to fix this hurt.
Motioning to Harlow, Trellis takes the bottle, gulping down heaping amounts of the liquid fire. Seeing an opportunity, Harlow tucks into Tre’s side to comfort and console him, in her unique and innate way that I’m coming to like. She’s quirky, but full of soulful care.
“Maria called me. She informed me where to find my stowaway. In her sadistic way, she thought I might be able to collect Marnie before the buzzards arrived. Her words, not mine.” Looking at Trellis, the steam rises once more, “Anyway, when I arrived I found her tied, gagged, and bound to a chair. The note said she was a present from Maria, with her unique signature for the crew. My tattoo. While I was removing the ligatures, Trellis showed up. Seeing the paper, the Espositos Familia crest, Tre automatically assumed that with me being her hound, it was a fault of mine. That I had fucked-up. That this was a warning and a reminder of who was in charge. I never corrected Trellis in his assumption. It was easier to see me as the devil, and him as the white knight. So I left and never looked back.”
“Fuck me. You’re just all kinds of fucked-up.” Clipping off sharp words that bite and harm, Harlow is still in full form. The girls, of course, admonish her once more, but she just keeps up the barrage. “Look, it’s simple. If Marnie had dealt with her financial shortcomings,” she turns to me, “and that you’d told him the truth, Risen, then it would have been different. Then Marnie would still be alive.” She paws at Trellis’ leg, comforting him. “You two could possibly still be friends, and Maria may not have had a hold on her, but shit happens. Everything has a purpose, for fuck’s sake. Without this happening, would you be a cop, Risen?” I shake my head. “Would you have met my girl here and fallen in love?”
Fuck no.
Wait. Am I in love?
Pondering it for a few moments, I carefully answer. Giving Harlow ammo I’m learning is dangerous. “No. I don’t think things would have turned out the same. Everything has a purpose and a time.”
Sitting back, feeling absolutely full of herself, Harlow grins, pulling the nearly empty bottle back to guzzle its remains.
“Deep, Confucius. Fuck me,” Hallette says, checking her phone. Rising from the couch, she addresses China, requesting a hug. “CD, love you to bits. Party, awesome. Boy fight? Sorry. Man fight? Fantastic. Ensuing sad story? Epically fucked-up, but I get it. Hurt feelings all around.” Hugging her friend, she whispers in her ear, then pulls away to give the rest the same attention. “Love you, ladies, but I got a date. ’Night, boys.” Waving, she leaves the house in a whiff of perfume and consumed alcohol.
“I hope she’s got a ride.” Catty mumbles.
“Yeah, Trevor is picking her up here. I gave him the gate code weeks ago.”
Looking to Trellis, I see he’s still caught up in the whole truth about Marnie’s death, and that honestly, the only person responsible was Marnie. I’m hoping he doesn’t drive off. Actually, I’m hoping that he stays here at China’s for the night. I have this deep foreboding feeling that he’d do something utterly stupid if we weren’t around to watch him.
Seeing the same as me, China speaks up. “Tre, take Jamieson’s room for tonight. No one will bother you down there.”
His glassy gaze is filled with tears. The whole history of what he understood as truth has come crashing down, and I feel bad for him, but at the same time, I feel relieved that it’s off my conscience. I never was, nor was I ever, a part of her demise. Sure, I could have got her out of it, but she liked the money and what it allowed her to do.
He rises off the couch, slowly, with a heavy heart. “I’m gonna...go sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” Turning to China, Tre kisses her forehead. “Happy Birthday, love.”
Hugging him tightly, tucking herself into the crook of his arms, you see the rattle of a gasping breath rising to the surface. Trellis is about to crack.
With a fake smile, he steps back from the girls venturing my way. No longer am I anticipating a hit, a fight, or a nasty word. I think an understanding has been reached.
“You should have told me. I was your best friend.”
“You weren’t about to listen to me then. You can’t say—”
“You’re right,” he interrupts. “I wouldn’t have. But it would’ve been nice to know that you tried to help her, and my sons.”
I’d known that she was pregnant, but not with twins. Another set of Anchors. Without another word, he steps around me, traipsing to the stairs with a heaviness on his soul.