Accidental Protector: A Marriage Mistake Romance

by Nicole Snow

  Stocky, cocky, and built like a brick shithouse, Brad Perez served right alongside me through more missions than I care to remember. Saved me and Eli more times than we'd ever want to admit, and we paid him right back.

  He's also the only man I ever trusted to talk past the FBI about Jess to share intel. The DEA only cooperates when it has to, thanks to the usual rivalries between Federal agencies. After eyeing me up and down, he gives Lucky one of the smiles I’ve seen girls around the world swoon for during our time with Uncle Sam.

  I pull her closer to my side. She glances up at me, eyes full of wonder.

  “He’s an army buddy,” I say. “It's okay.”

  Incredibly, it's true.

  “Does he live in Aruba, too?” she asks.

  Both Perez and I laugh.

  “Fuck no,” Brad says.

  “Perez lives south of here. Closer to Vegas.” Looking at him, I add, “Last I heard. Working for the DEA.”

  His eyes narrow. “You haven’t told Eli that, have you?”

  “Shit no,” I respond. “He'd think you're half-lizard alien or whatever the fuck, taking a government job.”

  He steps around me. “Now, I owe you two rounds, one for the laugh.” He gives Lucient a kick in the side. “And one for this sorry bastard.”

  I can imagine practically every governmental agency is looking for Lucient, probably from several countries. “Why are you out here looking for him? Thought you barely left the office these days?”

  “I do, but I like doing field work every now and again. At my rank, they let me.” He rubs his hands together while glaring down at Lucient. “Sometimes I just miss getting my hands dirty with scum like this.”

  “Don’t try to tell me there's not plenty in Vegas.”

  He laughs. “Oh, always.”

  “So, why here? Why now?”

  “Oh, my friend, that's a long story.”

  “And I’m all ears,” I say. My head is reeling, lost, about to go off to the stars.

  I can't wrap my mind around what the hell's going.

  He waves to the four men still standing down, waiting for his instructions. “Boys, get this prisoner cuffed proper, and get some extinguishers. Make sure this fire stays out. That's what tipped us off, Einstein. Your little brush fire wasn't far from the mess at the gas station from the air. Oh yeah, and we may have had this prick bugged after we caught his Escalade tooling around town a few days ago.”

  Lucky and I step aside, giving the men room to get their jobs done. Perez moves with us, to the front of the truck.

  “Got this FBI spook down here, Wayne Richardson. Good guy. He’s been working the border the last year, cleaning up cargo that shouldn’t be entering the good ole’ U.S. of A. He calls me last month, asks me about you. He’d captured Reyes DeLeon, got him talking, and was on the lookout for DeLeon’s replacement. DeLeon had his eyes on Lucient a long time, jealousy or something, and turns out he wound up snatching a pretty little lady this asshole got his hands on, when said asshole wasn't paying much attention.”

  Every ounce of my body snaps to attention. “Jess?”

  Fuck.

  “Where is she?” Lucky asks, grabbing hold of me. Both her tiny hands slide around my waist.

  “She’s in Reno,” Perez says. “Found that out a day or two ago from an FBI clown who said too much. A safe house. Would've told you sooner if I'd known.” Perez shakes his head. “At least, I hope she's still there.”

  “Hope? Still?” I grab the front of his shirt. At his throat. “Brad, what the –”

  “Don't panic.” He wraps a hand around my wrist. “She got away from Richardson once, just like she escaped DeLeon and Lucient, but Richardson found her before she got herself in trouble all over again. Guaranteed she'd stay put.”

  “She’s alive?” Lucky asks. “Right? She’s alive, oh my God!”

  She claps her hands together like a thunderbolt. Shit, before all this ends, I might join her.

  “Right,” Perez answers.

  Lucky spins around and buries her face in my chest, hugging me tight. “She’s alive, Noah! Alive.”

  I hold her tight, kissing the top of her head. I'm elated, but damn sure know better than to take anything for granted till I see her in the flesh.

  “Yeah. I'm not finished. See, I’m not sure if her plan worked or not,” Perez says.

  Plan? I glance up, ready to ask what the fuck he’s talking about, when headlights suddenly appear behind him. Several sets.

  Perez glances over his shoulder, then back at me, using a thumb to point over his other shoulder, at the helicopter. “Backup. I knew our only hope of finding out where you hauled Lucient off to before the FBI would be a bird. They’d be driving around all night, sloths that they are, and that pile of shit might very well be a pile of ashes by morning. Couldn't blame you,” he adds, leaning in so nobody else can hear.

  I nod. Had Lucient’s answers been different, that’s what they might have found. I don't know if I would've kept my vow to turn Lucient in. After all this, coming away empty-handed, no lead on Jess...

  My jaw tightens. For a second, I'm grateful I won't have to find out what I would've done.

  Lucky loosens her hold on my waist as she lifts her head. Smiling, she steps to my side again.

  The vehicles, four black Suburbans, spew dust as they race forward. I look at Perez. “What plan, Perez? Whose? Jess’ plan?”

  “Well...shit, Richardson just ruined the surprise. I'd might as well let him tell you the rest.” Perez points at the vehicles slowing down to position themselves into a road block. “He knows all the sordid details better, anyway.”

  My nerve endings sizzle. It's too familiar. As in Iraq, the only time Perez lets someone else do the explaining is when he knows shit will hit the fan.

  Doors open and slam shut, and one of the passengers snags my attention, holds it as she starts running toward me.

  “Noah? Noah!”

  Lucky ducks out from under my arm as Jess arrives, bounding forward, her hair flying in a neat crop on her head. It's cut so short and she's twenty pounds lighter. Too damn skinny. Almost didn't recognize her, but fuck, now there's no way I'd miss her.

  I grab her. Hug her. Look her over, blinking, trying to convince myself it's real.

  Make sure it well and truly is her, that I didn't die fighting Lucient, and then I squeeze her again.

  Jess. I let go long enough to throw my arms around Lucky while she bawls into my chest, her happiness overwhelming me.

  “Holy fuck. You're here. How?” I'm stuttering.

  “I...” She backs up a couple steps, then she looks at Lucky. “Oh! Mindy, you're here too! This will be perfect.”

  Lucky has one hand over her mouth, shocked, and tears fall from her eyes.

  The two of them hug then, both crying, both saying each other’s names.

  I'm happier than I've ever been in my life.

  Meanwhile, I'm so damn confused I could start punching the ground.

  “Do you two...know each other?” I ask. It doesn't seem possible.

  “No!” they say, simultaneously, while crying, and hugging. “No.”

  “Richardson!” Perez shouts. “What the hell's a witness who's supposed to be in protective custody, under lock and key, doing out here on-site?”

  Jess lets go of Lucky and spins around, a heavy sigh on her lips. “It’s not his fault,” she says, pointing to a lean, sharp looking man approaching.

  She looks down. I've seen that look a million times when we were kids, the look where the guilt is heavy and ferocious, eating her from the inside out.

  “I overheard the call about Lucient being bugged and on the move, and then the explosion, about Noah capturing Lucient, something about gas and fire...so I escaped while Richardson and another guy changed over. Both playing babysitter for me. I hid in the back of the Suburban. He didn’t know I was with until the radio said you’d spotted them, and we were almost there.”

  She spins around then,
looks at me, and then Lucky. A tense look crosses her face. It's the same puppy dog eyes she gave me years ago, before she told me she'd dented the Harley.

  “Jess?”

  “I'd better just get this over with. Come clean. Noah and Mindy, Lucient didn’t have anything to do with the drugging at the casino. That was me.”

  I rock back a step like I've been shot.

  “You...what? Will somebody explain what the fuck is going on?!” My hands fly up at the sky because I'm too exhausted and bewildered to hit the ground. My brain hurts so much the flesh wound on my face throbs pure heat.

  Lucky and I look at each other. Her eyes are huge. Scared. Uncertain.

  Rightly so. I have no idea who's more dumbfounded.

  “Jess? What the hell do you mean, drugged?” I say, stepping forward. “What did you do?”

  “Remember the last time we saw each other?” she asks sheepishly. “I told you to stay out of it, Noah, but you wouldn’t listen...I wish you hadn't. I didn't listen and made a huge mistake. But you...you saved me.”

  Her voice quivers. I grab her shoulders, pressing my thumbs into her bony frame. “I didn't do shit. I tried, remember? If I'd chased you down that day –”

  “No. It was my fault, Noah. Entirely. I thought I was sitting on a fortune, too much green in my eyes, and all I had to do was flirt with that clown.” She pauses, a shameful agony flicking through her. “It seemed so easy. I thought I'd land him his penthouse by Lake Tahoe and be on my merry way. Then he grabbed me one night, came with two men I'd never seen before.”

  Goddamn. Seeing it in my mind sends rage through my muscles.

  Sensing it, Lucky steps up, sends a calming hand drifting down my back.

  “You saved me because you taught me how to survive. How to play him. I realized fast what Lucient was, and I wanted to bring him down, turn him in. Things happened fast. He asked me a lot of questions about you, and then he got bored. I looked for an opportunity, a chance to get away, to warn you, every time. I escaped three times. Once from Lucient, then DeLeon, then the FBI...”

  I nod, still staring through her like a phantom.

  Disbelief curdles my mind.

  She shoots a look toward Richardson. “Well, after I was safe, I knew you wouldn’t quit looking. For me or Lucient. So, I escaped witness protection. We needed more time, to track down Lucient, and grab him for good. Dismember his entire group. When I saw you at the casino with Mindy –”

  “Saw me? You were there? Fuck me.” I run a hand over my face, lost for words.

  “Yeah. I was just going to step in, tell you I was okay, and to let the FBI do their job, but I know you. I saw how you were perched, looking for someone.”

  That someone was Harkness. Nodding, I listen as she continues.

  “It wouldn't have ended if I'd popped up. You'd still have gone for Lucient, too afraid he'd come after me again, and you'd want revenge. So, I decided to create a diversion. Something simple and innocent and yeah, freaking crazy, to keep you distracted.” She gives Lucky a pleading gaze.

  “That’s when I saw you, Mindy. You were so pretty, but you looked lost. I sat next to you while you won your first jackpot. The girl with the sunglasses and purple lipstick ring a bell? The one who insisted on margaritas for the big win? And then pointed you toward that hottie at the blackjack table?”

  Lucky stares at her, eyes going wide. “Holy hell.”

  “Yup. Awesome disguise, right? Well, you went for the tables like I expected, and I knew Noah was already tanked up. I paid the couple he was playing cards with to buy him a few drinks. Not that he really needed them after you started winning.” Jess smiles. I see her front tooth is chipped.

  Sympathy swells in my chest.

  This really is nuts, but how can I chew her out, say it's wrong? She made it through this whole ordeal on nothing more than hopes and memories, everything I'd driven into her by virtue of being my lovable, bratty, little sister.

  “I had to give you something to get you off Harkness' tail, and Lucient's. Of course, that didn't matter much when you were too good at tracking them both down. Still, I tried –”

  My astonishment grows ten-fold. “You drugged us? Both of us? You, Jess, personally, without me knowing? How in Hades –”

  “Noahhhh. Do I really have to explain everything?” She rolls her eyes and holds out her hands. “It’s Reno. All I had to do was find a guy with bartender experience on the floor and offer him some money. I flunked out of nursing school, but I remembered my stuff, the drugs, and where to get them. I got Mindy first, at the slot machine, after I told her she'd just love to celebrate her big win over at the card tables with that hot guy who's a ton of fun.” She winks. “Sorry, Mindy. Again. I know you don't remember what I slipped into your margarita when you weren't looking.”

  Lucky grips my arm like she's ready to faint.

  “You were a little harder, bro, but not by much. Like I told you, between Mindy and the couple I bribed, you were lit while you were still with the blackjack dealer. And those Reno bars are so busy. Didn't take much to have my new bartender friend from the floor sneak up and fix you a whiskey sour, your fave, with a little something extra added. Then set it at the edge of the counter for the real casino bartender to find and hand off to you. He probably figured he'd already made your drink and just forgot.” She winks again. This time at me.

  Fuck me with a screwdriver. If I didn't love this girl like a sister, if I wasn't so glad she's safe and alive and home...I might just kill her.

  “You were easier than Mindy, Noah. You were already in a mood to let loose. It made me happy to see you laughing. Think the crap I gave you just made your natural hangover worse.” Her smile vanishes. Slowly, she comes up to us again, and hugs us one at a time. “Look, I know this is bananas. I know it's a hell of a way to make an introduction, Mindy...or an apology. But that's the truth. I kinda lost my shit during all the back and forth with these cartel creeps, took matters into my own hands, and...and I'm really, really sorry.”

  I grip her arms, staring into her eyes. “Never again, Jess.”

  “Never again,” she repeats, wiping a tear. “I'm just glad that...Jesus, this is over. Finally.”

  Slowly, I let her out of my arms. Then I replace her with Lucky.

  We gaze into each other's eyes, sensing the same crazy thing. Don’t say a word, but we know.

  Jess might've been the catalyst, but it wasn't her who caused all this that night.

  It was the hand of Fate. And that big, overpowered, unbelievably psychotic heavyweight has fingers like King Kong.

  “Noah? Are you going to be okay?” I see a different fear in Lucky's eyes. She's wondering if I've snapped, if I've completely lost it, ruined by the revelation of what really happened.

  Maybe I should be. But as long as I've got my family and my woman in one piece, there's no way this is any kind of ruin. “Nah. Just thinking about something Aunt Judy said once.”

  I smile, remembering her words. That big, mad hand of Fate and a really screwed up diversion from Jess led us straight to destiny.

  So did Lucient's nightmare.

  So did blind luck.

  So did our own two tripping hearts.

  “Logic doesn't work here, Noah,” Aunt Judy said. “Not with love. Not by half.”

  23

  Hella Mine (Mindy)

  Months Later

  The butterflies in my stomach fly all the way up my throat.

  The woman looking back at me from the mirror can’t be me. She’s too, well...too beautiful for one.

  I slowly turn around, away from the image. “I wonder if I was this nervous before my first wedding?”

  Jess laughs. “Nah, no way. You were laughing too much. Way too under the influence to be nervous.”

  “I still can’t believe you were there the whole time,” I say.

  “Well, technically, I wasn’t.” Jess steps up to the mirror and straightens the pearl necklace hanging around her neck.

 
; She's beautiful, too, because she's got a lot of Bernard in her. Tall, slender, with eyes as blue as Noah’s and Judy's. The same shade as her dark blue bridesmaid dress.

  “I wasn't really going to let you guys get married. I mean, if I'd been able to stop it. Richardson found me as the limo pulled up, the one that took you to the wedding chapel, before I could shoo it away...” Jess spins away from the mirror, grinning, her eyes sparkling as she glances down at the ring on her finger.

  “Next month this time, you’ll be the one getting married,” I say, as excited to be in her wedding as she is to be in mine.

  “To an FBI agent. My glorified freaking babysitter. How flipping crazy is that?”

  “About as crazy as me marrying a bounty hunter after you drugged us.” I shrug. “And now I'm marrying him for the second time.”

  We both laugh. We're still laughing when there's a knock on the door.

  “Come in!”

  The door opens, and my dad, looking handsome in his black tux with the emerald green cummerbund, peeks around the edge. “It’s time, honey. You gals ready?”

  My heart takes flight as I nod. “Yes.”

  Tears press at my eyes. I blink. “Good grief, I’ve been married to Noah for months already, but this –” I point at my dad, then Jess, and then my long, form fitting white dress. “This is all so surreal. It’s like a fairy tale.”

  “It should be. Because you’re the princess today,” Dad says, holding out his arm for me to loop my hand around.

  He's so good to me. Of course, I didn't tell my parents the whole truth about who drugged us, and why. They calmed down fast once they got over the initial horror, hearing about my accidental 'drunken' marriage to Noah, as soon as I told them we'd be getting hitched for real.

  Mom actually apologized. After the naked truth about who Charlie was came out, she wished I'd dumped him years ago.

  Jess hands me a bouquet of white roses with two red ones in the center. “And Noah's your prince charming.”