Page 17 of Grave Kisses
“He literally told you not to do it alone,” Marcus says, standing and taking the box from me. “Come on.”
Bellamy stands, and we all go inside and back to Alan’s office. Marcus sits and pulls me into his lap as Bellamy sifts through the drives. “They’re numbered, so we will start with one,” he says. I look over at Bellamy, slightly shocked, but Bellamy just grins.
They get everything situated and the computer powered on before pulling up the contents of the drive. It has one video, and Marcus opens it. We are immediately met with security camera footage of the living room. The three people who assaulted me that night are sitting on the couch. Archer is in the middle, drinking a beer. Thomas and Tyler are on either side. The doorbell rings, and they all chuckle.
“Fuck,” I sigh when the door comes open and it’s me. You can see it all over my face that I know it’s a setup. I was stupid for going there in the first place, but that doesn’t mean I deserved it.
We end up muting the video and speeding it up so I don’t have to see the details of everything. Most of the flash drives are much of the same thing, but from different angles. The last file is a simple spreadsheet with names, dates, and locations. At the top, and in bright red letters, Alan put “potential kills.”
“Yeah. This needs to go to the cops,” Marcus says.
“There are… a lot of names on here,” I say. “Initially, I’d like to reject the idea of turning him in for what he did because it means someone else is seeing that video, but… If he might have done something to even one of these people… Their family deserves answers.”
“I agree,” Bellamy says. “I obviously won’t try and force you to do anything, but this is far bigger than I expected.”
“Uhm… Okay. I’m going to box up everything from the safe,” I say, and I stand up. “And probably in here too. You two don’t have to stay. I can just drive his truck back to my place.”
“Ah. Here’s a box,” Bellamy says, ignoring me and picking up a box from the corner chair. “I’ll start on the safe if you two want to sort through things in here.”
“Bellamy,” I say with a heavy sigh.
“We should probably take his computer too. Really, anything that we don’t want Archer getting his hands on,” Marcus says. “The cops will take all of this, though.”
“Are you two ignoring me?” I ask.
“Sorry, I don’t speak bullshit,” Bellamy says. “Were you saying something?”
“Asshole,” I laugh. “No one is obligated to stay just because…”
“We are helping,” Marcus says with finality.
“How can I even be sure you are serious?” I snap at him. “You are like a fucking light switch, going from hating my guts to sitting me in your lap and rocking me while I melt down.”
“I’m here because I want to be, Kendra,” he says softly.
“You haven’t even apologized!” I yell at him. “You called me a whore, Marcus.”
Marcus stands up and takes a few steps forward before bringing himself down to his knees. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“Come here, Kendra,” he says, holding his hands out for me to take. This giant man is on his knees with a ten-thousand-dollar suit on, and I am hesitating? When I take his hands, he pulls me to stand in front of him.
“Marcus, stop. Just…”
“Kendra, I’m sorry. There is absolutely no excuse for how I acted toward you. You were trying to do right by Alan, and I made everything harder for you. I will do whatever it takes to make it up to you,” Marcus says softly. “I’m awful at apologies, and I’ve spent a lot of time avoiding them. I can’t do that with you.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because you deserve the man Alan knew I could be when he wrote that letter,” he tells me. “I will live up to what he promised you.”
“Just because Alan wanted something to happen doesn’t mean…”
“It means I owe it to him to try,” Marcus says. “I am choosing to dive headfirst and trust that he knew us well enough to make that judgment.”
“What does that even mean?” I ask.
“It means I am loyal to you, Kendra. You aren’t getting rid of me,” Marcus says, kissing the backs of my hands.
“Let’s start by getting everything sorted here,” I say. “And then we can talk about diving. Okay?”
