“Do you like Marko?” I asked him inquisitively.

He thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “I can’t say I know him on a personal level to say for sure.”

“But looking at him, what do you feel?”

He chuckled, catching onto my disdain. “He’s pretty weird, I guess. I get a very off vibe.”

I nodded immediately, looking out the window, muttering, “Me too.”

“You worried about Heath spending time with him?”

“Yeah,” I admitted, glad I could actually bring this to someone. “I don’t want Heath getting caught up in some kind of bad because of him. It’s just the feeling I get when I look at Marko, like he’s using him or something. It’s silly, I know.”

Matt nudged my shoulder, and I turned my head to look at him. His light eyes probed my face and a sincere expression crossed him before he said, “It’s not silly. Guys like him don’t just blow into this kind of town because they want to.”

No, they certainly didn’t. A chill ran down my spine as I wondered all kinds of horrific possibilities. What would bring a massive guy like Marko into Hedley? He’d come out of nowhere, stepping into the ring to fight and suddenly showing up at the same workplace as Heath. Some part of me considered he was seeking Heath out for something.

“Yeah,” I said quietly, “do you know anything about him? I’ve hardly stepped out of the apartment unless I’m going to school. I haven’t been keeping my finger on the gossip around town.”

He let out a slow breath, his eyebrows shooting up again – this time in distaste – as he muttered, “Yeah, I’ve heard lots about him, and uh… they’re not all that great.”

Now I was really curious. “Like what?”

He cleared his throat, looking a little uncomfortable. “He…Well… They say he raped his sister.”

My breath escaped my lungs in a whoosh. I thought he was a creepy bastard, but I never thought it was to this extent. My eyes widened in alarm as I gaped at Matt. He just nodded at me, sharing in my shock.

“He raped his sister?” I repeated. “Why would he do that?”

“Well, apparently, when he was a teenager, he was really fucking weird. He was possessive as hell about his sister, and then talk started that he was in love with her or some crazy shit like that. But that was after he’d put her boyfriend in hospital for sleeping with her. Broke his legs or something along those lines. Again, Allie, this is just gossip. I don’t know shit from the truth.”

“But what do you think?”

He shrugged, scanning the bus for a moment as if Marko might jump out of nowhere. “I can’t really say. A lot of people have a fucked up past, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s… a whole other kind of fucked up.”

He laughed and nodded heartily. “Man, that’s the kind of fucked up you don’t come back from. You can’t redeem someone that’s done that. If he has… well, shit, he’s insane and nothing can ever change that.”

I frowned, mulling this bizarre new information over for several moments. I wondered if Heath knew. He wouldn’t be able to defend Marko about that, unless there was a rational explanation for all of it. But even then, that rational explanation would have to be pretty freaking spectacular to fend against those kinds of accusations.

I pressed the button when my street approached. I was surprised when Matt got up to get out too. I gave him a peculiar look on the way out of the bus and he chuckled.

“I’m visiting my uncle,” he explained. “Not stalking you, I promise.”

I laughed. “Right, right. Is that what you say to all your victims?”

“Oh, yeah, every one of them,” he joked. “No, but seriously, he lives down the road here, half a block from your mom’s house. He’s disabled, so he can’t get a lot of work done. Today I gotta get him groceries. Been putting it off for too long now.”

“Putting it off?”

“He’s not very easy to be around, if you catch my drift.”

Thinking of Mom, I said, “I know what that’s like. But that’s very nice of you anyway. You don’t have your father to help you out?”

“No, my father passed away a very long time ago.”

Another thing we could relate about. “Well, I hope you don’t have to take the bus to get him his groceries, though. I thought you had a car.”

He grinned, that pretty boy face finally breaking through his exhaustion. “Got into a car crash last week. Fucker drove through a stop sign and slammed right into the passenger side of my SUV.”

“Holy shit, that’s awful.”

“It’s alright. Insurance is taking care of it. I’ll get it fixed, but I’ll be jumping buses and begging for rides in the meantime.”

Poor guy. “You can always call Heath up if you ever get stuck. I’ll let him know about it.”

He nodded and shot me a smile in thanks. We walked in silence the rest of the way, until he pointed to the house that belonged to his uncle. For a tiny house, it looked better than most on the block. It was tidy and clean, and the tended garden out front made it more inviting. As we separated, I waved goodbye to him and hurried in the direction of Mom’s house.

“Hey, Allie,” he suddenly called.

I stopped and turned around. He jogged to me, his face looking conflicted as he came to a stop in front of me. Without looking me in the eye, he got very close, and I would have stepped back had it been anybody else. But this was Matt. His intentions weren’t bad, plus he never looked at me in any other way than friendly.

“I have to get something off my chest,” he said in a solemn voice.

I held my breath and didn’t respond. What the hell did he possibly have to say to me? I was nervous by his uncomfortable demeanour, hoping it wasn’t something heavy. But the way he tried to gather his courage, it must have been.

With a sigh, he started. “In the beginning, when I saw you and Heath spending so much time together, I was worried. I didn’t want him to use you. I’ve known Heath for as long as I’ve known Ryker, and I knew he went through a lot of women. I didn’t want to see you hurt a second time, so… I went to Ryker in prison and I told him about it. I warned him about Heath getting close to you, and I told him I suspected there was something going on between the two of you. I shouldn’t have stuck my nose in your business, but Ryker had wanted me to keep an eye on you, and I guess at the time I felt like it was the right thing to do. I was wrong. I regret doing it, and I’m sorry.”