by Stasia Black
The twins sat down beside him on his left. He didn’t know them, he just recognized them from around town, cause yeah, identical auburn-haired twins. Kinda hard to miss.
Then that Michael guy was at the end of the row on the other side of the twins. He was a weird fucker. Always kept to himself except when he was doing shit for the Gazette. And even then, he’d freak out if anyone got too close to him.
Cam had seen him lose his shit one time in the mercantile when old Mr. Perkins accidentally knocked into him and then grabbed Michael’s arm to steady himself. Michael started screaming his damn head off and then he dropped into the fetal position. They had to close the store for an hour.
Cam shook his head. As if the wife weren’t unimpressive enough on her own, no way did he want to be associated with that freak.
Parker men are supposed to be the best. To have the best. Too bad you’re such a fucking disappointment. Do you know how embarrassing it is when people ask how my boy is doing and I have to tell them you failed out after one year of Berkley? Berkley! For fuck’s sake, it’s not even an Ivy League. But you still couldn’t hack it, could you? No, I’m the only world-renowned neurosurgeon with a fucking idiot for a son.
Christ, at least you’re not ugly. You can marry well. Just don’t pick a whore or some average bitch. They say genius skips a generation, so there’s still hope for the grandkids.
Cam shuddered and then caught sight of Logan Washington, sitting to his right. Ghost, they called him, as if he was supposed to be some kind of scary badass.
When Cam got back from the war, he tried to get a job in the Security Squad Because…why not? They had the best toys, they were respected around town, the pay was solid.
He would have done fine, too. He was quick on his feet, good with the weapons. He’d only been a medic in the war because his one year of medical school made him the most medically trained person around more often than not.
But Christ, he’d never had any intention of following in his father’s footsteps, especially by pursuing a career in medicine.
So, yes, everything had been right on track to start his new career as Security Squadron badass.
Until Logan fucking Washington.
That man was born with a stick so far up his ass Cam was surprised he didn’t choke on it. He’d taken one look at Cam and hated him on sight. Cam knew it was under Logan’s recommendation he’d been kicked out.
So Cam had ended up working in the town’s clinic. As little more than a glorified nurse. Oh how Dad must be laughing in his fucking grave. Cam could just imagine him leaning over his shoulder, critiquing his every move, making Cam second-guess even the application of a goddamn bandage.
Talk about ghosts… The ghost of Cam’s father was one sick mother. Was it any wonder Cam sometimes got a little restless and short-tempered? Like this morning with that bastard who stole his ration card… Third strike his ass.
Bullshit. All of this was bullshit.
“Sorry if I’m not what any of you were expecting.” The girl’s words had bite and, of course, it was Cam she glared at as she said them.
“What the fuck did I do?” He threw his hands up. None of the other guys were any more excited about the situation, but he was the one who got singled out? Bullshit. Just like always.
She ignored him, her gaze moving up and down the line of guys sitting on either side of him.
“But I can assure you,” she continued, steeling her resolve, “you aren’t what I was expecting either.”
“And what was that, sweetheart?” Cam asked, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. The quicker they got through this farce, the sooner he could talk to the Commander about fixing this whole thing and—
“For one,” she bit out, “I wasn’t expecting so many damn cowards.”
Cam blinked. What—? Did she just—?
Logan’s lips parted to speak.
“Cowards!” one of the twins sputtered. “You think I’m a coward?”
Vanessa turned on him coolly. “Aren’t you the one who hid the box? Cowards hide. Brave men roll the dice.”
Cam narrowed his eyes. So that one was Riordan. How the hell could she tell them apart?
Riordan scowled, but Vanessa was already moving on.
“I know I’m small,” she said, eyes on the move again, flicking back and forth between all of them. Her face was hard now. The weakness she’d shown earlier was totally gone and Cam sat up a little straighter in his chair, especially when she continued in that calm, cool voice.
“I’m used to being underestimated. That’s fine. I use it to my advantage. It’s always given me the element of surprise.”
She took a deep breath before continuing. “But frankly, I don’t always win. I’m exhausted. The fact that I’ve survived this long…” She trailed off, her eyes going distant. Then she refocused on them, looking at Logan first. “I need you. All of you. Whoever you are. And that’s what I’d like to find out.”
She turned toward Michael at the end of the row and addressed him directly. “So I’ll start with you. Why were you chased into the crowd?”
“Oh,” he said, taken slightly aback. He looked to his right as if hoping one of the others could answer for him. “My…um…neighbor Ana… One of her, um, gentleman callers spotted me. He was looking to fight me, so I ran.”
“Ana?” Cam turned on him. “Like fifty-year-old Ana who works in the mercantile?”
When Michael gave him a questioning nod, Vanessa asked, alarmed, “Is she married?”
“What?” Michael asked, eyes going wide. “No!”
“I thought you said you can’t be touched,” Cam said, confused. Ana was older, but she was still hot. He’d admit it. Cam had thought a few times about trying his charms on her but there always seemed to be some man or other hanging around her. Frankly, he didn’t need the drama. He had plenty of magazines to take care of shit when the need arose.
And he just knew, deep down, one day his name would be the one called and he’d get to slip between the thighs of a real woman again. The kind he’d be proud to have bear his kids. To carry on the Parker line.
“I can’t,” Michael sputtered. “I don’t.” He shook his head vigorously. “She was only trying to be a friend to me.” He blinked, then glanced at Vanessa nervously. “She understands.”
“Exactly what does this woman understand?” Logan asked, jerking his chair in a quarter turn to face Michael directly.
Vanessa pulled her chair in closer, close enough to put her hand on Logan’s arm. Cam didn’t miss the way the “Ghost” sucked in his breath at her touch. From what Cam remembered, the guy had always had a hard-on for his dead wife. Wouldn’t even talk or joke about chicks with any of the guys and got pissed if they gave him a hard time about it.
“Ana understands I can’t be touched,” Michael said, bowing his head.
“What?” Cam asked. What did that even mean?
“Hey,” Vanessa said softly. “Hey. Look at me.”
Michael raised his head.
“When I was in school, I had a friend who was on the spectrum. Do you—”
“It’s not autism,” he shook his head, “if that’s what you think. Emotionally, I’d be the perfect husband. I mean, I’d try anyway. But physically…” He shuddered. “I can’t be touched. You wouldn’t under—”
“So, we won’t touch.” She lifted her hands in a hands-off gesture. “Maybe I don’t understand completely yet, but I’m willing to learn. So. Will you still be my husband?”
Michael blinked. Then he looked to Logan, to Camden, and then to the twins. His eyes finally returned to Vanessa, almost disbelieving. “You’d be okay with that?”
“Would you?” Vanessa asked.
“Yes.”
“Then that’s settled.” She turned to Cam with a scowl. “You’re up.”
Whoa, whoa, how had this suddenly turned on him? But fine. He crossed his arms. He didn’t care what anyone in this damn room thought about him. He smirked at her. “We
ll, I sure as hell wouldn’t want a wife I can’t touch.”
“I see.” She gave him a dismissive look like she’d already sized him up. “You’re the type who takes by force.”
“What the fuck? No. Fuck, no!” Cam’s chest swelled as he inhaled air noisily through his nose. “No woman of mine would need to be forced. I can assure you of that. What the hell do you take me for?”
“Nothing much yet.” Vanessa shrugged and then shifted forward in her chair slightly. “Only that all this machismo thing you’ve got going on…” She waved in his general direction. “Is probably to make up for some deficiency in yourself.” She glanced down suggestively at his crotch.
She fuckin’ did not.
Camden narrowed his eyes, his heartbeat speeding up so fast he could hear it in his damn ears.
Why are you such a fucking failure? Do you know how humiliating it is to have such a goddamned embarrassment for a son?
He leaned in and stared her down, breathing hard. “You don’t know anything about me, sweetheart. How many lotteries have you been to?”
Vanessa squirmed in her chair, for the first time since the tears losing a little of her composure. “This is my first. Obviously.”
“This is my eighty-ninth. You see that many good women come and go, you start to get an idea about who you must be destined for. So pardon me, but a practically bald, half-starved weakling isn’t exactly what I had in mind. You’re going to have to cut me some slack if it takes me more than five minutes to wrap my head around that.”
“Hair grows,” Michael said, “and Vanessa’s beautiful even without it.”
“Maybe so,” Cam said, and it was even sort of true. Now that he was looking at her closer up, well, she was bruised and cut up all to fuck, but her lips were the pouty kind that could give a man ideas. Not to mention she had thick, sooty lashes framing those huge doe eyes of hers.
Vanessa blinked as if she were surprised by his admission, so he went on before she could let it settle in. “But the woman I marry is supposed to be a force of fucking nature. One of a kind.”
“Vanessa nearly decapitated that smuggler with her bare hands,” Ross blurted out, and everyone, including Vanessa, turned to look at him. He swallowed hard and then bowed his head, addressing the floor. “At least that’s what I heard, ma’am.”
“Rumor,” Cam said leveling his eyes back on Vanessa.
“I saw—” Logan started to say, but Vanessa had already leapt from her chair. In one motion, she pulled the knife from Logan’s belt and threw herself at Cam.
What the— Cam didn’t even have time to get his hands up. —Fuck!
She slammed into him, toppling him and his chair backwards. The impact knocked the wind out of him. He was still gasping for air when he finally got his bearings, looking up to find Vanessa straddling his hips.
With the damn knife at his fucking throat.
Holy.
Mother.
Fucking.
Shit.
This, he could work with.
With his looks and this killer instinct of hers, they’d have gorgeous, badass little warrior babies. Suck on that, Dad, you motherfucking asshole. And rot in hell while you’re at it.
“Don’t feel bad,” she winked at Cam, flipping the blade and running the dull side along his jaw as if she were giving him a shave. “I told you, most people underestimate me.”
He grinned at her. Turned out fate might have finally done him a solid after all. It was about damn time.
Cam’s grin grew even wider and he chuckled. “Got it, sweetheart. Won’t be making that mistake twice.”
Looked like he was getting fucking married.
Chapter Seven
ROSS
Ross was terrified by the tiny wild woman. Impressed, yes, certainly. But terrified. Nothing about today was going the “right way,” and his dad, God rest his soul, always said, “In all things, there’s the right way, or the highway.” He was the one man who showed Ross the “right way” to do just about everything.
Riordan never listened, of course. Riordan was all about making a splash, finding the shortcut, catching the spotlight. If Riordan was the hare, then Ross was the careful tortoise. A tortoise who knew that the right way in this situation was supposed to be sweet smiles, longing looks, a couple weeks of respectful courtship, all leading to an Irish Catholic marriage in a church with a chaste kiss.
Jacob’s Well had never had a Catholic priest, though it had a pastor of sorts. Sure he was stoned most the time, but he could usually remember enough of the traditional marriage ceremony to stumble through it credibly.
But good Lord, would none of the protocols be observed with this courtship and marriage? It made him feel off-balance.
“Dude. Is she a big enough force of nature for you now?” the guy in white asked the guy on the floor. Michael, Ross thought, trying to learn everyone’s names. And Camden?
“Yep. And she’s clearly one of a kind, too,” Camden said with a smirk. “I was just checking.” Then he winked.
“Jesus,” Logan muttered.
Ross agreed with Logan—Ghost; a man he knew to respect even before today. How did this Camden guy have the gall to wink at a young lady who was holding him at knifepoint? He was so completely arrogant. Did Vanessa like that trait in a man?
Ross wrung his hands. What if he was too boring to run with these people—even with his own brother? Good Lord, the wild woman had barely looked Ross’s way yet. It was as if she already knew he was all the things Riordan called him: Mama’s boy, dork, nerd, loser.
It was quite possible that, if Ross didn’t do something fast, Vanessa would forget he was even in the room.
Vanessa pushed herself up to her feet and handed the knife back to Logan, handle first. Ross thought it was gracious of her not to mention how easily she’d disarmed him. If she liked the kind of politeness she showed Ghost, Ross saw his opening.
He quickly stepped forward, linked his arm through hers, and escorted her back to her chair, holding the metal backrest while she sat so it didn’t move on her.
It did the trick. She seemed surprised at first, like she didn’t know what to do when he took her arm. But when she looked up, she seemed to appreciate his chivalry after all. And good Lord, the way she looked at him. Her eyes were so dark, so round, so beautiful… He sucked in a deep breath.
“Your story next,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. “What’s with you and your brother?”
“Um…” Ross glanced over his shoulder at Riordan, whose mouth was still hanging open, even as he sunk back onto his chair. Ross knew his brother well enough to know that all the anger he’d been feeling earlier had drifted away. Of course Riordan would be jazzed by Vanessa’s action-hero display. She was exactly Riordan’s type. He might not have wanted a wife when he walked into this room, but he was obviously warming to the idea.
“We came to the lottery,” Ross said, “because our mother insisted. She wants…” He cleared his throat. “Grandbabies.”
Vanessa’s neck jerked back, and the pretty shade of pink in her cheeks quickly faded to pale.
Shit, that was obviously the wrong thing to say. Leading the courtship with talk of procreation, pregnancy, and childbirth wasn’t the likeliest way to a woman’s heart. Christ, she was so tiny. Could she even carry a child?
“But we don’t!” Ross said quickly, trying to recover. “At least not yet, ma’am.”
“Oh. Well… All right,” she said, “And it’s Vanessa.”
“We have things we want to do first,” Ross explained.
“Like what?” she asked.
Ross looked back at his brother again. Vanessa’s curiosity seemed to have placated him even more.
“Like adventure,” Ross said.
Logan leaned forward. “And you don’t think marriage is a big enough adventure?” He sounded almost angry.
Ross swallowed hard. Why did he keep saying the wrong thing? He knew Ghost had once been married. Clearly he kn
ew what he was talking about and Ross felt instantly chagrined. He knew nothing. He was so out of his league.
“I’m sure it is…sir,” Ross said. “In fact, it’s completely new territory for us. We don’t even know—”
“Don’t,” Riordan said, voice cutting. Ross looked back at his brother but Riordan’s eyes were on Camden, as if preparing to defend himself.
“You don’t know what?’” Vanessa asked.
Ross ducked his head, then swung back to face Vanessa. “We don’t know how,” Ross said, ignoring his brother’s warning. He whispered the rest, though he didn’t know why, because everyone in the room could obviously hear him. “To consummate a marriage, I mean.”
“Speak for yourself, asshole,” Riordan said, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m sure it’s not exactly rocket science.”
“Oh, like you’ve had sex, Riordan!” Ross said, his own irritation breaking through, and Riordan shot him a killing look. “Might as well admit it now. It’s gonna be embarrassing enough when they figure it out for themselves.” Ross jerked his chin in the other three men’s direction.
“That’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Logan said, but Camden’s look of superiority begged to differ.
Michael merely shrugged and added magnanimously, “Y’all are only…what? Twenty?”
“Nineteen,” the twins said in unison.
“See?” Vanessa said. “Plenty of time to learn. I’m sure Logan can teach you how.”
“What?!” Logan asked, and Ross could have sworn he saw him pale.
“You’ve been married before,” she said. Ross glanced at Vanessa. She was new to town. How did she know that?
Vanessa dipped her head to gesture toward Logan’s left fist. “You have a tan line on your ring finger. You only took off your band recently. What happened?”
Ross would have been impressed by her keen observation skills, but he was more focused on Logan’s clenched teeth, and the line of muscle that flexed along his jaw. Looked like Ross wasn’t the only one who had a problem with blurting the wrong thing today.
“You know what happened,” Logan bit out.
