Page 38 of Colin (The Doherty Mafia)
Marley blushed, because obviously, she knew what I was thinking—that she didn’t actually belong in this group.
Reese complained about how Killian could go an entire day without uttering a single word if he had to, but if she tried to climb up to their cabin’s attic to fetch something important, he’d be shouting at her for putting herself in danger.
Leah admitted that Aidan was like that as well, and that he was also surprisingly sweet and tender when he wanted to be.
When they turned to Marley for her input, she glanced at me with her cheeks ruddy and hot. She clung to her mug of coffee like she was clinging to it for life, then she shrugged.
“I guess I just don’t know Colin well enough to have seen his Doherty side,” she said with a smile.
Isabelle laughed and the others laughed too.
I caught Marley’s eyes and she almost looked sad. Like there was a part of her that wanted what these women had.
Did she?
Was I just imagining it?
Was I just fooling myself into fantasizing a future for us?
Twenty-One
Marley
By the time the girls left, Colin had already changed and was ready to leave too.
“I thought you said I’d managed to change your mind and you were going to spend the day with me,” I protested when he emerged from the bathroom in fresh clothes and clean-shaven.
“That was a joke,” he said gruffly and left the bedroom. I followed him out to the living room, starting to feel a little anxious. I could sense he was unhappy about something. Was it the girls?
“So I’m just going to spend the day by myself again?” I asked and undid a few buttons of the shirt I was wearing, suggestively. It was one of his that I’d managed to grab when we heard voices in the kitchen earlier.
Colin gave me a glaring look.
“You said you wouldn’t need to be babysat,” he replied, raising his brows.
“No, I don’t need you to babysit me, I just hoped to spend some time with you today.” I was all jumbled up in my head by now and didn’t know if I wanted him to stay for my sake or for the information.
“Marley, I have shit to do, I told you this already. And do I need to remind you that this isn’t real? We’re not playing house together.” He sounded snappy, and the way he spoke cut through me sharply.
Even though it was the truth.
I put my hands on my hips. “No, you don’t have to keep reminding me of that, Colin. I am aware of how little I actually mean to you.”
“You’re twisting my words,” he said in a deep growl.
“Am I?”
He just walked to the door.
“Colin!” I yelled. I was desperate for something. At least a goodbye kiss. Why? What was I trying to cling to? This was a mistake and I felt foolish but there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop it. The wheels were already turning.
“What do you want from me, Marley?” he asked, in a voice that sounded almost like he was exhausted.
“Do you want me to leave?” I asked.
I didn’t want to hear him say it, but I knew it would be for the best. If I left now and never saw him again—I’d be able to forget about everything. I’d even destroy the photos I took if it meant never having to deal with a Doherty again.
Colin brushed a hand through his hair. The girls turning up at the apartment and me getting along with them—had clearly messed with his head. He wanted to distance himself from me. He didn’t want me getting too close to his family.
“You can leave whenever you want to, Marley,” he said. Then he threw a key in my direction which I luckily managed to grab or else it would have smacked me across the face.
Colin left the apartment.
I knew it was a key to the place.
So he didn’t want me to leave?
Not just yet.
I could have left the apartment if I wanted, since I had a key now, but I didn’t. Where would I go?
It wasn’t like I actually had anything I wanted to see in New York.
But I’d already rooted through the entire apartment. There was most likely nothing else to find there either.
Once again, I was left with the question of—why was I still sticking around? I could return to Las Vegas, walk into the precinct with the photos and the evidence I had.
It didn’t seem like Colin even wanted me there anymore.
So why was I still in his apartment, putting myself in danger?
I ran myself a bath to pass the time. As I sank into the perfectly warm bubbly water and closed my eyes, I tried to come up with all the ways in which I thought Colin Doherty was a danger to me.
