Full House (11 page)

Kent
stepped as far away as the small room would allow and turned his back on Marco.

Marco could hear Kent grumbling to himself under his breath, so he took the opportunity to tuck his flaccid cock back into his jeans and zip up.

Kent
slowly turned around and Marco realised his lover wasn’t angry. The moisture threatening to spill down Kent’s cheeks were proof. Kent walked back over and fit himself between Marco’s thighs.

“When someone loves you, truly, deeply, loves you, they don’t stop and they don’t leave. I’m sorry you drew the short straw when it came to parents, but I’m not them. If I had my way, I’d tear down that damn house of yours so you and the kids couldn’t go back. I want you here, with me, until the day I die.”

Marco’s breath hitched as his eyes began to sting. Shit. No way was he going to cry in front of Kent. He swallowed around the lump in his throat and tried to get himself under control. No one had ever chosen him. He knew his brothers and sister loved him, but they were different.

The things Bruno and Nicky had both said to him started playing through his mind. Maybe he was good enough for Kent. Surely a man like Kent, who could have anyone he desired, knew what he wanted.

Four days.
Marco still couldn’t believe he and Kent had worked out their differences only four days earlier. He knew if Maria ever came to him after dating a man for four days and said she wanted to move in, he’d go absolutely ballistic.

“What’re you thinking?” Kent asked, interrupting Marco’s train of thought.

“That it’s only been four days.”

“Bullshit. This has been building for eight years. Eight years I’ve waited to get close to you. I’ve watched you, wanted you, loved you. I’m tired of waiting. I want it all, and I want it now.”

Marco nodded.

“What?”

Marco gazed into Kent’s hazel eyes. “Yes. I want it, too.”

Chapter Seven

Marco taped up yet another box and wrote Maria’s name on the outside in big black letters. He’d caught his baby sister several times wiping tears from her eyes. He knew he’d put off the conversation long enough.

“Come here, sweetheart.”

Maria finished stuffing her bedspread into a trash bag and walked over to sit in Marco’s lap. “I want to make sure you’re okay with this. I know you’ve only known Kent for a month, and I’m worried I’m moving too fast for you.”

“I like him.”

“But?”

“No buts,” she giggled and covered her mouth.

“And you’re okay with selling the house?” Marco asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then what’s bothering you?” He’d looked into Maria’s big brown eyes every day since she was born, and he knew when something was troubling his sister.

“I was talking to Kati the other day,” she began.

Marco knew Kati was Maria’s best friend in school. “Yeah?”

“When I told her we were moving in with Kent for good, she asked me which one of you was the husband and which was the wife. What did she mean by that?”

Marco took a deep breath. He knew the issue was bound to come up sooner or later, he’d just hoped he’d have a few more years.

“Well, some people think only a man and a woman should fall in love and have a family. They don’t understand how two men could fall in love with each other, so they try to fit them into categories that they understand. Does that make sense?”

“Kinda. So which one are you?”

“Neither. Kent is my partner. That means we share things equally like putting you to bed, cleaning the house, doing the million other things that need to be done. It’s my opinion, that in a lot of ways, two men can live together more easily because we don’t assign duties according to gender. Like some people believe women should do all the cooking and cleaning. I think if people treated marriage more like a partnership both sides would be happier.”

Marco could tell he was starting to lose his sister with his ongoing monologue. “Basically, Kent and I love each other. We work together because we want to and it makes both of us happy. Does that answer your question?”

“I know you can’t have babies, I learned that in health class, but do you have sex?”

Marco almost swallowed his tongue. “What do you know about sex?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “I’m almost eleven, Marco. I’ve heard plenty of kids talk about sex.”

Despite what she said, Marco had a feeling his baby sister wasn’t as educated as she proclaimed. He grinned. Which is just the way he wanted it to stay, at least for now. “Ask me again in about five years and maybe we’ll discuss it.”

“Fine. I’ll take that as a yes. Can I finish packing now?”

“Sure.”

Once Maria started on her sheets, Marco stood and wandered into the living room. He pulled out his phone and called Kent.

“Hey, babe,” Kent answered.

“I just had an interesting conversation with Maria.”

“Yeah? Is she upset about changing schools?”

“No. She was at first, but I told her she’d still be able to see her friends occasionally.” The sound of someone banging on the door made Marco jump. “There’s someone here.”

“Don’t answer it. I’m in the office. I’ll use one of the other lines to call Moody.”

“What if it’s a neighbour or the realtor?” The pounding came again. “Shit. Hold on and let me peek out the window.” Marco walked over and peered through the brand new mini-blind. His hand shook as he met his father’s angry black eyes. “Fuck!”

“I’m calling Moody. Stay on the line and don’t open the door.”

Maria came out of her room. “Who’s banging?”

“Go into the bathroom and lock the door, sweetheart.”

“I know you’re in there! Open the goddamn door!” Eddy yelled.

“Come in here with me,” Maria begged.

“I can’t. The important thing is for you to be safe. I’ve already emptied out the stuff from under the sink. Try and hide in there.”

“Not without you!”

Marco suddenly realised he only had the flimsy doorknob lock in place. It wouldn’t take Eddy more than a well-placed kick to get inside.

“On second thought, run out the back door and go to the neighbours.”

“No.”

“Maria Corrine De La Santo, do what I tell you to do!” he screamed.

With tears in her eyes, Maria ran to the kitchen. Marco heard the back door open and stepped towards the sound of his yelling father. He quickly reached out and turned the deadbolt into place, pulling his hand back like it had bit him.

“You there?” Kent asked in his ear.

“Yeah. I made Maria go out the back to one of the neighbours.”

“Where’re you?”

“In the living room, but I’m seriously thinking about going into the bathroom and locking the door.” Out of nowhere, the front window seemed to explode.

Marco jumped back as a large yard ornament went sailing inches from his head. “Shit. He broke the window.”

“Run!”

Marco did just that, locking himself in the bathroom as he heard Eddy enter the house. He sat on the floor and braced his back against the vanity and his feet against the door. “How long did Moody say it would take?”

“He said he was calling the black and whites, but he’d be over as fast as he could get there.”

Eddy began to scream obscenities through the bathroom door. “Come out of there, you fucking faggot!”

As predicted, Eddy kicked the door, splintering the wood around the lock. Only Marco’s feet braced against the hollow-core door kept his father out, but the continued battering against the wood was having a painful effect on Marco’s, not quite healed, knee.

“I can’t hold him off any longer,” he told Kent.

“You have to, baby. Just a little longer.”

“Go away!” he shouted. “I don’t have any money!”

Eddy’s next kick went right through the flimsy door. Marco looked around for something, anything, he could use as a weapon.

“I gotta put the phone down.” Marco dropped the phone to the floor beside him and reached up to the towel bar beside the sink. He wrapped his hands around the square bit of chrome and pulled down with as much of his weight as he could as Eddy steadily chipped away at the door.

A knife appeared through the door and swung down towards Marco’s feet just as the bar broke free. Marco swung at the hand holding the knife with all his might, hearing a satisfying scream from his dad as the metal connected with its target.

“You little sonofabitch! You’re gonna pay for that.”

Marco continued swinging the rod back and forth in front of the hole. He heard the police sirens pulling up in front of the house. “Here that, Eddy? They’re coming to take your ass to jail.”

“Fuck that!” With one more body slam, the door gave way and splinters, wood and his father came crashing down on Marco.

“If I’m going to jail, it’ll be for murder,” Eddy growled.

“Hold it right there,” a deep voice shouted from the hallway.

Although Marco knew it was Moody, he couldn’t take his eyes off the knife clutched in his father’s hand. On instinct, he blocked the downward plunge with his forearm, taking the knife deep into his flesh.

The sound of a gunshot filled the small bathroom as Eddy was thrown forward, the knife imbedding even further with the weight of his father’s body.

The knife forgotten, Eddy sat up and spun around to face Moody. It was obvious to Marco by the crazed look in his father’s eyes he was on something.

“Next one will be between the eyes,” Moody growled.

With an animalistic scream, Eddy launched himself towards Moody. Another shot went off and his dad fell to the floor in a heap. Marco stared at the pool of blood blossoming onto the floor from under Eddy’s body. Although he knew he’d never admit it to anyone, he came close to enjoying the sight of his dad’s life draining away on the scarred wood of the old house.

In Marco’s mind it seemed fitting. How much blood had already been spilled in the small home at Eddy’s hands?

“Are you okay?” Moody asked, stepping over Eddy’s body.

Marco gazed into the face of his saviour. “I will be now.”

The paramedics rushed into the house. They started to check Eddy, but Moody growled at them. “He’s dead. Take care of the victim.”

Now that the excitement was over, Marco realised he still had a large knife running all the way through his forearm. He swallowed around the bile that began to rise. “I think I’m going to throw up.”

A small pan was thrust in front of him as he emptied his stomach contents. He barely heard Moody as he picked Marco’s phone off the floor and began talking to Kent.

Spitting one last time into the pan, Marco slumped onto his side, his head hitting the floor. He tried to keep his eyes open as he addressed Moody. “Tell him I’m okay. And someone needs to find Maria.”

* * * *

By the time Kent arrived, the paramedics were loading Marco into the back of an ambulance. He rushed over, sick at the sight of the blood-soaked towel wrapped around Marco’s arm.

“Wait!” he yelled before they could close the doors.

Relief flooded him when Marco opened his big brown eyes. “Hey,” his lover said, his voice sounding odd.

“Hey, babe.” Kent turned to the ambulance driver. “Where’re you taking him?”

The guy gave Kent the name of the hospital.

Kent
nodded and gazed back at Marco. “I’ll follow in my truck.”

“Maria,” Marco reminded him.

“I won’t forget her. You just concentrate on yourself for a change.”

“We need to go, sir,” one of the paramedics informed him.

“I love you,” Kent told Marco as the ambulance doors were shut.

As soon as the emergency vehicle took off, Kent turned to search for Maria. He found her sitting in the backseat of Moody’s police issued sedan. He opened the door and knelt. “Hey, sweetheart.”

Maria blinked several times before turning to look at him. “Eddy hurt Marco.”

“I know. I’m going to find Moody and tell him I’m taking you with me to the hospital, okay?”

“Okay,” she said in a soft voice.

Kent
walked towards the front door and was stopped by a uniformed officer. “Sorry, sir, but you can’t go in there.”

“The hell I can’t.” He cupped his hands over his mouth. “Moody! You’d better tell this guy to let me through before I start showing my ass.”

Moody came to stand in the doorway, an amused smirk on his face. “Let him in. I’ve got a strong feeling he’d do it.”

The officer moved aside and Kent pushed by him and into the house. “Where’s he at?”

Moody gestured to the body in the hallway. “We’re just waiting on the coroner.”

With more hatred in his heart than he’d ever felt for another soul, Kent walked over and kicked Eddy’s corpse.

“Hey, hey,” Moody admonished. “As much as I’d like to join you in kicking the shit out of that asshole, it might be a little hard to explain the post-mortem bruising to the coroner.”