“What?” Hope looked at me through the rearview mirror. “They think you got married just to stay in the country?”
“They want to make sure I didn’t, that’s all.” I was trying to downplay the seriousness of our situation, although I wasn’t sure why.
Up front Sam laughed. “Can you imagine Will ever doing anything like that?”
Hope shook her head. “Not now. When he was a teenager, he could get pretty wild.”
“His mom seemed to suggest that,” I said.
“He’s all boy scout now. I’m sure it will be fine and you’ll get to stay,” Sam said.
I smiled, even though I knew my situation was much more precarious.
“So, are you getting a green card?” Hallie asked.
I nodded. “I’ve applied, and we still have our interviews.”
“Will has to be interviewed too?” she asked.
“In this case, because of marriage, yes.”
Sam laughed. “What sort of questions are they going to ask? Will doesn’t strike me as the type to like very personal ones.”
Hope joined in the laughter. “God, could you imagine him having to talk about sex?”
“Nope,” Sam said.
I don’t know why I felt the need to defend him. They weren’t wrong. Will liked to hold his thoughts and feelings to himself. But he was my husband, and I wanted them to know how wonderful he was.
“On our last meeting, he asked me if I’d told my immigration officer the last time we’d made love. And he said I should tell him how long it takes him to recover.”
“No!” Hallie burst out, leaning forward in her seat toward me. “Will?”
“What did you say?” Sam asked, turning back to look at me.
“That morning.”
Hope laughed. “What about the recovery bit?”
“A few minutes.”
Sam got a dreamy face. “Sloane men know how to get it on, don’t they?”
“So, when these interviews are over, and you’ve got your green card, you can stay?” Hallie asked.
“Yes, for a while anyway.”
“Can you become a citizen? I mean, if you wanted to?” Hope asked, turning into the parking lot of a strip mall.
“Normally I’d have to wait five years, but being married, the rule is that in three years, I can apply to be a citizen.”
“That’s a long time,” Sam said.
“But you can still stay and have a family, right?” Hope said, pulling into a parking spot.
“We could, but we’d probably wait the three years. It would be risky otherwise.”
Hope and Sam both looked back at me. “Risky? How?”
“If my green card was revoked, I could be deported. I wouldn’t want to leave my children behind.”
“That wouldn’t happen, would it?” Sam asked.
“I’ve read about it happening,” Hallie said putting her hand on my shoulder.
“Is there something we can do to help?” Hope asked. “I don’t know what, but it seems like if you have strong family ties and a job, you’d be able to stay.”
“We just need to live day by day,” I said. “It is possible someone from immigration will contact you to ask about our marriage.”
“Ask what?” Sam said, her brows drawing together like she found that offensive.
“Just what you know about it. Maybe questions about if there’s a possibility that it’s not legit.”
Hallie let out a pfft sound. “It’s legit.”
Hope and Sam nodded.
“Even though it was on a whim and in Vegas?” I asked.
“That part helps prove it. Will never does anything on a whim unless he’s one hundred percent into it,” Hope said.
Sam nodded. “Then there’s the way he looks at you. There’s no doubt it’s real.”
I smiled, feeling so happy about that, and yet at the same time so sad. It was a good sign that they bought into our marriage, but I knew that Will’s feelings weren’t love. This wasn’t a marriage of a lifetime. It was an arrangement for as long as I needed to stay in the United States.
Lunch was delicious, and I so enjoyed spending time with the Sloane wives. I wished I’d be able to be a part of their group for the long term, but knew I couldn’t, so the experience with them was bittersweet.
When I got back to the office, I texted Will about my afternoon with them.
Had lunch with Sloane wives. They wanted the scoop on you.
A few minutes later he texted back. Was your report positive?
I smiled as I typed my response back. It’s possible they’re jealous. They may have picked the wrong Sloane.
Good to know I rank so high. When do you plan to come see me so I can continue to reign supreme by having you on my desk?
My girly parts flared to life. Soon.
It would have to be in the next few weeks, as by Thanksgiving, I would likely be heading home.
Investigating the Investigator
Will
The first thing I did when I arrived at my office was call Mitch. Being with Adalyn was perfect. I wanted the opportunity to stay with her, but that asshole Bigalow seemed to have already made up his mind about her. I had to find out more about him to see what we were up against.
“Any chance I can meet with you?” I said to Mitch when he picked up.
“Can you come here? I’ve got the kids, and Hope has some sort of lunch thing going on today.”
I checked my watch. “Give me forty-five minutes.”
“I’ll have coffee ready.”
I put on my coat and headed out. “I’ll be on the road this morning,” I told my secretary. “I should be back this afternoon.”
In the car heading down I-95, I got a call from Cal. “Everything with moving your staff here is done on our end,” he said.
“Good. I’ve withdrawn from the contract, so all should be okay.”
“I think it helped that we’re nearly done. I’m told the team thinks it will be done before Thanksgiving.”
My heart rolled in my chest. Thanksgiving? That soon? It wasn’t much time. It was only a few weeks away. I remembered Adalyn saying something about being done soon, but I hadn’t really processed it. Now, I felt a little panicked. I wasn’t going to be ready for her to leave so soon. We were jumping through all these hoops so she could stay longer.
As I continued to drive, I realized I didn’t want her to stay longer. I wanted her to stay forever. I knew I was head over heels for her already, but I hadn’t figured out that it was a forever type of love. I felt certain she cared for me as well, but did she feel love? A forever love? That, I couldn’t be sure of. Yes, she talked about staying longer and even possibly applying for citizenship, but she’d also talked about going home. Plus, I knew she was a woman that liked change and adventure. What we had going on right now seemed to amuse her, but I was still uptight Will. Eventually she’d get bored of me, I was sure.
I pulled into Mitch’s driveway. He had a large beautiful home along the river that he’d built, with Gabe’s help, for Hope and their twins. I’d never been jealous of any of my brothers before, but now I envied all of them. Each of them had beautiful homes, lovely wives, and fantastic kids. I had a great penthouse apartment, a sexy fake wife that I had no future with, and therefore no prospects for children. Before I went to Vegas, I was perfectly fine with that. All of a sudden, I was pissed at my government for taking away the opportunity to have what my brothers had.
Even if Adalyn got her green card and stayed, she was still at the mercy of the immigration department. That meant she could be deported at any time. She’d have to become a citizen to ensure we wouldn’t be separated, and I wasn’t sure she wanted that.
Fuck.
I pushed all that aside as I knocked on Mitch’s door.
“It’s open.”
I heard the latch unlock and I stepped in. It always boggled my mind, all the smart house features my brothers had in their homes. In this case, Mitch had some so
rt of surveillance system, so he could see it was me on the porch and he could use a voice command to unlock the door.
I wouldn’t say I was old school, but I still had to flip the light switches at my place, and answer my own door. Then again, it was just me. If I had twins running in opposite directions, a smart house might be required to keep them corralled and safe.
“Hey, everything all right?” Mitch said coming down the stairs with a baby monitor in his hand.
“Yep.”
“You got here at a good time. Kids are napping. I’ve got coffee in the kitchen.”
I followed him into the large open space, which overlooked a fenced yard with the river behind it. He poured coffee for us as I sat at the table.
“So, what I can do for you?” he said, setting the mug in front of me and then taking a seat across from me.
“I want to ask you to do something questionable for me.”
He quirked a brow. “By questionable, do you mean illegal?”
I shrugged.
He laughed. “I’ll have to mark this day on my calendar. Let me guess, you want me to hack into immigration and change Addy’s status to citizen.”
“Could you do that?” That hadn’t even occurred to me.
“No.” He shook his head. “That wasn’t why you’re here, is it?”
“No. But it does have to do with her immigration. The officer seems to have it out for her. He’s already made up his mind that our marriage is fake —”
“Is it?”
Remembering my conversation with Mitch before, perhaps he wasn’t the right person to ask for help. “My marriage is as real as anyone else’s.” Adalyn always pointed out that we rarely actually lied, and I felt like my statement was true. We were married. We had sex. I loved her. Didn’t all those things make us real?
He held up a hand to stop me from defending my marriage any further. “So, where do I fit in?”
“I want to know what his deal is. Is he a fucker to everyone, or just us? Is he prejudiced against women or tech women or Canadians … whatever.”
Mitch just studied me. “What if he is? He holds all the cards.”
“I also want to know if he’s telling my clients and potential clients about me.”
Mitch frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I had to withdraw from my joint work with CTS because the government was concerned about my being investigated by immigration. I lost a big contract for the same reason. How would they know? Does a big asterisk go by my name automatically, or is that fucker Bigalow targeting my business because he doesn’t like me or Adalyn?”
Mitch sat back and thought for a moment. “It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that something would be added to the information the government has on you in regards to your contracting work.”
“In one day?”
His brows drew together. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we had a meeting with him, and the very next day I had a desk full of calls from my government contracts.”
“That does seem a little fast, I guess. I don’t know.”
“I want you to find out for me,” I said. “You’re the only one I can trust.”
“I don’t know, Will. That could be risky.”
I was desperate. Desperate enough to play into his ego. “You can’t do it?”
“Hell yeah, I could do it. But it's … questionable,” he said using my word.
“But you probably have a way to be undetected tech-wise. Look, I’m not asking you to change anything. I just want to know if I’m up against a hard-headed bureaucrat or someone with a personal vendetta against us.”
He blew out a breath. “Let me see what I can do. I’m not going to jail for you.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to.” I sipped my coffee.
“Could that be a possibility for you? I mean, if this Bigalow is questioning your marriage, that means he thinks you’re committing a crime.”
My jaw tightened. “Yes. If he decides against us, I could go to jail.”
“Tell me you have a lawyer.”
“I’ve talked to one. I’m not so worried about me. But if they put her in jail, or deport her …” I could even finish the sentence.
Mitch studied me for a minute. “I’d fucking kill anyone who tried to take Hope away from me and the kids.”
“So you’ll help me?”
He nodded. “Let me see what I can find out.”
“It’s possible the immigration guy is going to contact you. Everyone in the family may get a call. I’m not going to ask you to lie or make stuff up —”
“I’ll tell him the truth,” Mitch said. “My brother loves his wife.”
I looked down into my coffee as my heart swelled at the reminder that I was in love with Adalyn.
“Takes you by surprise, doesn’t it,” he said.
“Yes, it did. And yet, I think I’ve always loved her.”
Mitch nodded. “That’s how it was with Hope. I’m glad you have her, although I’m sorry you have to deal with this shit.”
“The thing is, I’m not sure if it will ever end. Unless she decides to become a citizen, we’ll always be at the mercy of immigration. What if we went to war with Canada —”
Mitch laughed. “You worry too much. But I see what you mean. Would she be willing to become a citizen? Can’t you have dual citizenship here and in Canada?”
“We haven’t gotten that far. If she does get her green card, it’s three years before she can apply for citizenship. We wouldn’t be able to have kids —”
“Why not? They’d be citizens.”
“Because what if something happens and she’s deported? She’d be separated from us.”
“Jesus, could that happen?”
“Theoretically.” I wasn’t sure why I was caught up in worrying about children. Except for answering immigration questions, Adalyn and I hadn’t talked about it. Hell, we were in a fake marriage, so of course we weren’t talking about it. But right now, all I could think about was wanting her. Wanting a life with her. Wanting kids with her.
“That’s fucked up.”
I rolled my shoulders, and took another sip of coffee. “One thing at a time though. We need to get her green card.”
“I’ll check out this Bigalow guy.”
I gave Mitch all the info I had on Bigalow and then headed back up to Washington. I had a ton of other projects and contract pitches to make, so I needed to put my worries about Adalyn and immigration aside.
After lunch, I received a text from Adalyn saying she’d had lunch with my brothers’ wives. I was glad they’d taken her in. She was family, dammit. How could we get Bigalow to see that?
Letting that go for now, I got to work, trying to salvage my current contracts. I couldn’t afford to withdraw from them all, so I had to find a way to alleviate the concerns the various agencies and programs had about my being investigated.
“Mr. Sloane?” My secretary appeared at my door. “I’ve got a few more messages.” She handed me the small stack of papers.
Fuck, more contract liaisons. I hoped Mitch would find something that I could either use to get Bigalow off my back or would help Adalyn and I get through this process.
“Thank you.”
“Also, I don’t know if it’s okay to tell you, but I’m going to anyway.”
“Oh?” I looked up at her.
“An immigration man called and asked me about you and Mrs. Sloane. Why it’s anyone’s business about your marriage is beyond me. Especially the government. This is America. Land of the free.”
“Was there a problem?”
She huffed out a breath. “I told him the truth, that you’re a good and decent man. That you wouldn’t marry anyone if you didn’t love them.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
Her expressed showed concern. “He did ask if I knew about your dating and wedding, and I couldn’t lie.”
“I wouldn’t want you to.” I rose from my desk and went to her. I put
my hand on her shoulder. “Really. Just tell the truth.”
“I did tell him that it wasn’t any of my business about your dating and marriage, just like it wasn’t any of his.”
I smiled. “Thank you.” I just hoped that everyone would be able to share her conviction that despite the fact there’d been no signs of us being together before we married, that they believed we were in love.
“Do you think things will get better when all this immigration nonsense is taken care of?” she asked, with a nod to the messages.
“I hope so. We have many good business contracts, so we’ll be fine even if we miss out on some government ones.” But perhaps it was time for me to stop working so hard to salvage what I had, and looked to new private and public company contracts.
Sacrifice
Adalyn
The next weeks were pure perfection. Will and I were completely in sync. We spent our nights cooking together, and then watching TV, or checking out YouTube videos on grilling. When it was time for bed, we heated up the sheets, our bodies moving together in blissful harmony. In the morning, we often added extra steam in the shower before heading off to work. I made it up to his office once during this time to help him turn his fantasy of desk sex into a reality. There was a time I’d never guess my serious, uptight Will would engage in office sex. I’d been wrong.
I went a long time not thinking about the immigration investigation, not because we weren’t having to jump through hoops at the moment, but because the marriage felt real. At least for me. More and more, I was hoping Mr. Bigalow would see the love I had for Will and approve my green card, because I couldn’t imagine being away from him. But when I would have these thoughts, I quickly had to check myself. It wasn’t safe to think about forever. Even if I could stay, Will hadn’t given me any indication that loved me. Did he care about me? Yes, but that wasn’t the same as the enduring love I felt for him.
I finished my part of the CTS project the Friday before Thanksgiving. Technically, my job assignment took me through December, and I was still a resource for the team, so I would keep working. Cal had been talking to me about another project he thought I’d be good on, but I could see he was reluctant to commit to it since my immigration status was precarious.
Accidentally My Hero Page 20
