didn’t even let us know she was alive. How could she do it?”
“Come on, man. I know you. You ran from Miami as fast as you
could. The same way I ran from Arkansas.” Rafe’s parents had been a
bit controlling. After they had divorced, he’d been trapped in the war
zone. He’d talked about it extensively over the years. And Cam had
taken the first scholarship out of his one-stoplight town and never
looked back.
“But I call my mom and my dad. I might not like either of them,
but I let them know I’m okay. What does that say about the way she
feels about us? I thought a good argument would solve this, but now I
have to wonder.”
“I’m staying.” Cam was sure of that. He didn’t have anything to
go back to anyway. He had a crappy apartment and no friends beyond
Rafe. He had a PI license but not a lot of clientele. “Until de Sade is
caught, I’m going to stay right here.”
He would find a job, and he would watch over her.
“Are you going to go to her wedding if we’re wrong and she’s
really involved with Meyer?”
The whole idea made his chest constrict. God, he couldn’t watch
Laura walk toward someone else while she wore a white dress, her
face shining with love. It would tear him apart. “Yes. I’ll do it. I owe it to her.”
He owed her everything. Guilt weighed on him, so much stronger
now that he could see her again. He couldn’t help but remember that
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day after they had made love for the first time. He and Rafe had gone
out for breakfast to discuss what had happened, and they hadn’t seen
her again until the briefing. Laura had looked so fragile as she turned
in her first major profile. She’d looked worse than fragile when
everyone had turned on her.
“Do you think she’s right? Could we have been wrong while she
was right?”
“About de Sade? God, Cam, I’ve thought about that every single
day. If I could change one thing in my life, it would be the way we
handled that fucking profile, but Edward was so sure.”
Rafe’s whole face had aged in a minute. Lines formed on his
forehead and around his mouth. This was why they hadn’t seen each
other much in the last several years, Cam realized. Neither of them
wanted to talk about what had happened. It had been so much easier
to concentrate on finding Laura. They had drifted apart because
staying close had been painful.
But why had it been that way? Why hadn’t they been able to talk
about it? They had managed to spend a lot of time drinking and
fighting, but not once had they had an honest conversation about what
had happened.
“Even Joe went with Edward’s profile. There wasn’t enough
evidence to push the notion that de Sade was law enforcement.” Cam
hadn’t wanted to believe it, either. It was too horrifying to think about the possibility that one of their own could do that. He’d grasped on to
Edward Lock’s alternative profile. He hadn’t meant to hurt Laura, but
he’d truly believed what Edward had said.
“Besides, after what happened with that reporter, can you really
still think she was right?” Rafe asked.
Cam couldn’t help the way his fists clenched when he thought of
the Washington reporter who had written a story on Laura’s profile.
She had been a friend of Laura’s, a long-term friend, and she’d
betrayed her for a headline. The story had hit the next day. Laura had
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been fired for leaking information, and twelve hours later, she’d been
a guest of the Marquis de Sade.
What if Cam had supported her? What if he’d put his career on the
line to back her despite his own beliefs? She probably wouldn’t have
felt the need to call her friend and commiserate. She wouldn’t have
gotten drunk and confided in that vicious bitch. She wouldn’t have
had her face plastered across the papers like a road map leading the
killer straight to her.
“I’ve read that letter a thousand times.” Cam straightened up. The
Marquis de Sade, or someone claiming to be him, had sent a letter to
the FBI and the reporter responsible for breaking the story, claiming
he was insulted to be called law enforcement. He’d written a long
diatribe on how he was smarter than any of them and the woman who
insulted him would pay for her crime.
“We’ve all gone over it a thousand times. The fact that de Sade
took her because he was insulted she’d said he was in law
enforcement fits Edward’s profile,” Rafe argued.
But Cam had finally pulled out Laura’s profile a couple of months
before. He’d been obsessing over it. And he’d been questioning the
entire case. “Or he fits Laura’s profile and he’s trying to throw us
off.”
Rafe’s fist came down. “I’ve thought of that, too. Fuck, this is
getting us nowhere. We have to convince her to come home with us.
She isn’t safe here. If she’s right, then she really needs to be
protected.”
“I disagree. Not that she doesn’t need protection, but I think
taking her back to DC is a mistake. He got to her in DC.”
Rafe obviously wasn’t buying it. “And you think he can’t get to
her here? Have you looked around this place? The door to her cabin
was unlocked. There’s no way she should stay here.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Cam offered. “I can protect her, and the
sheriff was right. A stranger will stick out like a sore thumb here.”
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“This isn’t about protecting her, is it? This is how you plan to
win.”
Cam went toe-to-toe with his old friend. “I’m not trying to win
anything. I’m trying to keep her alive. I think what you’re trying to do is have your cake and eat it, too. You want to haul her back to DC and
turn her into a sweet little wife. She was never going to be your
trophy, Rafe.”
Rafe’s face went red. “She’s not a trophy. I never wanted her to
get fired.”
“But you thought it was a dangerous job for her.”
“I was right. It was dangerous.”
“She should have been at home baking cookies?” Cam asked,
feeling his blood pressure rise.
“Fuck you, Cam. How are you any better? You’re the one who
wanted to get her pregnant. I had to remind you to wear a condom that
night. Do you think I don’t know why you wanted to do that? You
thought if you tied her to you, she would pick you.”
Cam felt his whole body flush. He hadn’t meant to do that, had
he? Sure, he’d thought about getting her pregnant, but he had just
forgotten in the heat of the moment. Of course, after what had
happened with de Sade, that wasn’t a problem anymore. He hated to
think about everything that bastard had taken from her. “Well, it
didn’t take long for that whole sharing thing to get tossed out, did it, Rafe? If you get her back to DC, we would always have to hide. No
one would understand. I’m going to assume since you’re the one with
the fancy jo
b that you would be the one to legally marry her.”
Rafe shrugged as though it was a forgone conclusion. “It makes
sense. I make more than both of you combined. I seriously doubt the
FBI will promote me if I’m flaunting the nation’s polygamy laws.”
“And no one cares what I do?”
“Damn it, Cam. What do you want me to do? I can’t force society
to accept what we want. I’m willing to sit down and work it out.
There’s not a place in the world where we could live openly. It
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probably doesn’t matter anyway since she’s made it plain she doesn’t
want to have anything to do with either one of us.”
“Damn, brother. This is some entertaining shit.”
Cam turned and saw two cowboys walking toward them with a
red-haired woman in between them. One cowboy wore a black T-shirt
and the other had on a denim Western-style shirt, but other than that
they were perfectly identical.
“Nate said they were going to be trouble, Max.”
The one in the western shirt shrugged. “I find trouble very
entertaining. Hey, you think I could get one of those boys to fight?”
“Maxwell Harper, you promised me you wouldn’t try to start
another fight until after Stef and Jen’s wedding.” The redhead with a
baby in her arms gave the one named Max a dirty look. “I am serious,
Max. I do not want Jen’s wedding pictures marred by you having a
black eye. If that happens, I’ll substitute Rye in with Photoshop. And
we will have a conversation, you and I.”
The redhead started to stomp off.
“But I like our conversations, baby!”
She turned and stared at Cam for a moment as though assessing
him. “If you hit him, you go for his gut. If you touch his face, I will
find you. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cam said immediately. Everything the redhead
said had an air of southern authority. Cam responded. He backed off
of the cowboy who he had zero intention of fighting. It had the added
effect of making him back off Rafe, whom he had kind of been
planning to fight.
The cowboy in the black T-shirt smiled. “You’re going to sleep on
the couch tonight, brother.”
“Damn, Rye, I wasn’t really going to fight. I promised Rach.
You’re just trying to get our wife all to yourself. When this little edict of Rachel’s is no longer in effect, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“Not if I kick yours first, Max.”
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“Stop, both of you,” Cam commanded. That was the second time
some dude in this town had mentioned sharing a wife. “What do you
mean by ‘our wife?’”
Identical faces turned to him. Cam felt Rafe move beside him. All
thoughts of beating the shit out of Rafe fled in a rush of curiosity.
“Rachel, that hot redhead with the gorgeous little baby, is our
wife.” The man in the black T-shirt whom Max had called Rye
crossed his arms over his chest. “And before you start calling in
Johnny Law, you should know we do things differently in Bliss.”
Max snorted. “What’s the sheriff going to do? Arrest us? How is
he going to lock the cell door from the inside?”
“Stop. Are you two talking about polygamy?” Rafe had a hand on
his hip. It was his cop stance.
Rye Harper didn’t seem scared. “The technical term for what we
do is polyandry. And we’re perfectly legal. Max married Rach legally,
and we’re not defrauding the government. We’re not illegal, just a
little on the fringe of what society finds acceptable.”
“No one cares in Bliss,” Max said with a questioning look aimed
at his twin.
“Yeah, well, Bliss isn’t exactly society,” Rye returned. “If we left
Bliss, people would think we’re freaky.”
“There’s no reason to leave Bliss anymore. Not since we got
cable.”
Rye turned to his brother. “I have a reason. Reliable cell service. I
spent two hours on the landline trying to lodge a complaint with the
company. Seriously, how long does it take to fix one tower?”
“I don’t care about that,” Max said. “I don’t really want to talk to
anyone outside of Bliss. Hell, half the time I don’t want to talk to
people inside Bliss. It’s all gossip. Rach spent thirty minutes on the
phone with Callie talking about some weird plan Laura’s cooked up
where she marries Wolf so two dudes don’t know she’s been alone for
years.”
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A sly smile crossed Rye’s lips. “Yeah, now, I did hear about that.
I heard those men had been looking for her for a real long time. It
occurs to me that two men who spent all that time looking for a lady
must have some pretty strong feelings for her, and a woman who
hasn’t dated in a long time usually is hung up on a man—or two.”
Cam went very still. “Laura hasn’t dated anyone?”
“Well, she did go out with Wolf,” Max replied. “But as far as I
can remember, no one else. We were all a little surprised she said yes
to him.”
Rye shook his head. “Rachel wasn’t. Rachel told Jen that any
woman in her right mind would be after him.”
Max whistled. “Is that why you spanked her?”
“Damn straight. But she knew I was listening. She even winked at
me when she said it and slapped her own ass.” Rye adjusted his
Stetson.
Everyone in this town wore a hat. Cam’s own head was starting to
left Arkansas.
“She is just getting saucier with age,” Max said with a grin. “Oh,
well. There’s no way around it, Rye. She’s the boss of our little
family. What she says goes. We need to be careful. She told us not to
give up Laura’s little secret.”
“I won’t tell. Now let’s get going, brother. That damn bear won’t
eat himself.”
Max elbowed his twin. “He damn near ate you. You were lucky
the rangers came along when they did or Rach would be down a
husband and little Paige would only have me for a dad.”
The twin cowboys sauntered off talking about all the weird shit
they planned on eating this evening.
Rafe turned his head, a little grin crinkling the corner of his
mouth. “She’s not really engaged.”
A light happiness threatened to take over Cam’s body. She wasn’t
engaged. She wasn’t even sleeping with him. According to those two
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cowboys, she hadn’t really dated for a very long time, maybe since
she’d left DC.
“There’s only one real reason for a woman to lie like that,” Rafe
continued.
“She still has feelings for us,” Cam said, feeling a smile spread
across his face. She’d lied to protect herself. “She still gives a damn, and we just landed in a place where no one is going to blink an eye if
we share her. Hell, now I have to wonder how many of these people
are in weird-ass relationships. I saw a girl wearing a collar in town.”
Rafe s
hook his head. “Yeah. I’m still not sold on this place, but at
least we can go after her without any shame. We can do it completely
in the open.”
Cam suddenly wanted to get started on that little project. It was
time to show Laura that he wasn’t going to wait another five years to
get inside her again. He turned to his partner, all previous anger gone.
They might have to revisit that little fight, but not tonight. “What’s
the plan?”
Rafe leaned in and started to speak.
* * * *
Everyone was looking at her.
Wolf twirled her around the dance floor, his big hand leading her
this way and that in time to the music, but her focus was on the
multitudinous eyes that tracked her.
“Congratulations, you two!” Hank Farley said as he danced by
with his wife. “You should know our barn is available for the
reception.”
“We’ll think about it,” Wolf said with an easy smile.
He steered her toward the middle of the dance floor. Right where
she didn’t want to be.
“Laura, Wolf.” Stef Talbot held his fiancée in his arms as they
swayed to the music. “Jennifer and I have talked about this, and we
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want to offer to include your own nuptials in our wedding. It can be a
double ceremony. I’ll cover all the costs.”
Jen Waters had a smirk on her face. “And Brooke said she can put
together a dress in no time flat. We want to make this as easy on you
as possible.”
No they didn’t. They were being righteous bastards. It was the
whole damn town’s way of letting her know they disapproved of her
lying. She wasn’t stupid. No one in Bliss would blink twice if she was
lying to save a friend or protect herself from real harm, but the minute her heart got involved, everyone became a shrink.
“They’re going to give you hell, you know,” Wolf said as he led
her off the dance floor.
“I’m beginning to see that. I’ve already received lectures from
Marie and Stella on how I need to face my past if I ever want to move
on.” Getting married had turned Stella into the world’s biggest
authority on love. She was madly in love with Sebastian Talbot and
wanted everyone in town to be just as happy as she was.