Free Saving Lawson (Loving Lawson Book 2) by R.J. Lewis Page B

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