Trying Not To Love You

Part Forty Two

Chapter Forty Two,

A/N Double post day! Enjoy! :) 

As Martha clucked around, welcoming the two men into the house, Sonny was concerned that Johnny was about to lose it. Neither of them expected the results of the night, but other than being witness to Oldbury going off with Marcus, they’d done nothing wrong, well nothing illegal, not really. They’d tempted him there, virtually handed him over to the boss, but that was done innocently. It didn’t mean that either of them were coping with it particularly well.  But so far they’d not heard a word from Marcus,

                “You can have Sonny’s old room above the feed room if that’s ok, Johnny?” Martha appeared from the utility room with a bowl of curry that she’d cooked earlier. “And you can both have some of this?”

Neither had much appetite, but they needed to keep up the appearance that things were normal. Martha sat opposite Johnny and regarded him as he tucked into the meal she’d provided.

                “So you’re Carter’s friend?”

Johnny looked up at her for a moment and nodded.

                “And you know him how?”

It was Sonny’s turn to look up, and he gave a smile, “nosey much?”

She blushed and that was so endearing to him that he wanted to get up and push the table that separated them out of the way. His adrenaline, his fear and his lust were all bubbling over. Instead taking a deep breath, he gave a smile as she stammered, “just want to know who I’m inviting into the house. My house.”

Both men had the decency to look coy, and it was Sonny that spoke first, “we were cellmates, first few months of my time inside, then bumped into each other a few months back. Kind of reacquainted.”

Her eyes widened, “wow. So as deep as a friendship gets.”

Johnny laughed, “well, you tend to either love or hate the people you bunk down with, and there aren’t many who know what it’s like.”

Refilling her wineglass, Martha nodded, “I can imagine that.”

The three sat in quiet for a little while, until Martha gave a huge yawn, “I need an early night, I’ve got to be at the wholesaler’s by half eight in the morning.”

                “I’ll show Johnny to my old room, there’s still a duvet and stuff up there.”

Martha blushed at that remembering the night they’d spent there, and the fact that in her post coital rage she’d stripped and changed the bedding. With a nod she disappeared.

                “What are we going to do?” Johnny hissed once they heard her bedroom door close.

Sonny leaned back in his chair, “what can we do? We’ve done nothing wrong, honestly.” He took a slug of whisky grimacing at the bitterness of it. “For all we know those four went for a quiet walk in the woods. We’ve done nothing.”

Johnny jumped up, “we lured Oldbury into the hands of a man who murdered him. That IS what happened. We’re witness to that, that man, the one who did it, he knows we know.”

Sonny had thought of that somewhere before they’d started to eat, but he was sure that Marcus was absolving them both, he’d wanted Oldbury on the back foot, served to him in a contrived situation. Marcus WAS a man of his word, he was sure of that. They just had to both keep quiet. Maybe that was what this was, a way of keeping them quiet.