The Counterfeit Bride

by Liberty Blake

  “It was for the best. I could see instantly that girl would not bend to my will easily.”

  Theron would have to remember every word of this conversation for when he related it to Cassiopeia. She would get some satisfaction out of it. Plus she had a brother and sister who wanted to know her better. Perhaps even a mother.

  “Bend to your will? You greedy monster. I should hope she wouldn’t bend to your will. I was stupid enough to do so, and what did it get me?”

  “I have given you much. Jewels. Clothes. Money.”

  “I have been your whore for almost thirty years. I gave up my daughter for you. Now you can go to hell.” Her voice had remained flat throughout the entire confrontation. “Kirios Christofides, could you please escort me back to my flat? And perhaps loan me some of your security team. I need them to keep the undesirable element away from me.”

  “Your flat? I gave you those apartments!” Costas shouted.

  “You gave me nothing, Costas. I earned them, the old-fashioned way. I am ashamed to admit it, but earn them I did.”

  As they exited the building, Kelley Flynn looked at Theron with eyes almost as beautiful as her daughter’s. “Do you think she will ever forgive me?”

  “Your daughter is a pyrotechnia mikros, but she is also very loving. She truly cares about people. Give her some time.” Theron hoped he was right and that Cassiopeia would forgive her mama. The woman needed to have hope in her heart.

  ~*~

  Theron had arrived home anxious to tell his wife that the business deal was settled and the Jenkinses were out of their lives forever. He knew something was wrong as soon as he walked through the door. The vibrancy Cassidy brought with her was missing. He opened door after door. His feet moved faster with each step. By the time he reached the master bedroom door, he was running. Relief flooded his body as he threw open her closet doors and found her clothing still there.

  She must be visiting Enzio, he thought.

  Enzio wasn’t there and neither was Cassidy.

  He went back to his room and searched for her passport. It wasn’t on his bureau where he had left it. He should have put everything in the safe last night, but he had been too intent on bedding his new wife.

  Where could she be?

  Chapter 30

  When he had entered his mother’s living room, her face said it all.

  Lynda and Moose had glared at him balefully. His heart sank. His wife hadn’t turned to the people she thought of as parents.

  “Theron, what have you done?”

  He had been asking himself that same question for five whole, miserable months. He pushed his dinner away and walked out the kitchen door, heading for the barn. Maybe a good ride would put him to sleep. Maybe tonight his dreams would not be filled with images of Cassidy. He didn’t know which image haunted him more; the one where she glowed in his arms after making love, or the look of despair when she thought he had no faith in her.

  He had seen it in her eyes, but he could not reassure her. He wanted her out of that house before any more words could be said to hurt her.

  He should have read her look better that day in Costas’ office and sent Luca with her. He had thought she was safe with his driver and would be at home awaiting him when he completed his task.

  Where the hell was his wife?

  His investigators had tracked her as far as Sydney and then lost all trace of her. She had not returned to her ranch or her bar. When the Jenkinses had so foolishly returned to the Grandmother’s house, they were met by a gang of bikers who held them there until the police arrived with warrants for Jenkins’ arrest for the murder of Cassidy’s grandmother. But Cassidy had not been there with them.

  The three Jenkinses, Patsy, Joe, and Julia, had been lucky to escape Greece without having to spend a great deal of time in a Greek prison. Only Kelley’s intervention had kept them free. She brokered a deal with Theron to save Dolmides’s face and the company.

  He received weekly phone calls from Kelley inquiring about her daughter and grandson. He feared if Kelley found Cassidy first he would have to fight the woman to get his wife back.

  ~*~

  The wheels touched down at the very late hour of eleven at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. Cassidy had been traveling for more than forty-eight hours straight. Why was it whenever she had to take planes there were always delays and cancellations causing the travel time to double or even triple? The airline gods hated her! And having to spend time in airports and on planes with a cranky toddler was no pleasure. Even Stephen King couldn’t concoct a more dire horror.

  She still had hours of driving before her. If she rented a car and left right now she would be driving all night. However, if she picked up the car and drove out of Dallas, she could find a cheap hotel where she and Zio could get a good night’s sleep. Ah, sleep! Cassidy rubbed her hand over her undulating belly. Will you guys let your Mama get some sleep?

  She wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing coming home now, but Lynda assured her there were no strangers lurking around. And she really, really wanted to be home. Cassidy wanted her babies born in her house. In her country, so there would never be any question of their citizenship. The doctor in Australia had told her that if she wanted to fly, it was either now or never, or at least not until after the babies were born and old enough to travel.

  Yikes! That meant she might not be able to go home for another year. And the thought of traveling alone with three kids under two . . .

  Sure, Cassidy could have stayed and played gooseberry to her newly wedded cousin. Yeah, they said they loved having her and Zio there. And she had set them up with a therapeutic horse program similar to hers, but watching Maura and Cade bill and coo while she mourned her all-too-brief marriage and watched her belly grow with the product of her lost love . . .

  Well, it was just too much for her to handle. If she was going to be miserable she could be miserable in her own home.

  Once Cassidy got home, she was never going to leave it again.

  It took hours to find a cheap motel that didn’t remind her of the Bates Motel, Hooker Haven, or a R,R,R, rat and roach roost She finally pulled into what looked like a family facility. The desk clerk had glared at her when she walked into the office carrying a fussing Zio. After she assured the clerk she wasn’t a fleeing wife with an irate husband hot on her heels, he grudgingly appointed her to a corner room.

  “That way the brat is less likely to disturb my other guests,” he said as he handed her the key.

  The next morning, after a late breakfast that still hadn’t decided if it was going to stay down, Cassidy was once again on the road. Home. She was going home. She wouldn’t go into the bar tonight, but she would check in the next night. She wouldn’t be able to stay very long because she was tired. Too tired to put in those late night hours and she wouldn’t be able to be as hands on as she had been before.

  She should sell the bar.

  Maybe she would open a coffee shop instead. Something that was open all day. It wouldn’t be any competition to the diner which only stayed open until two. It could be a place for people who needed a pick-me-up in the afternoon or early evening. Maybe the teens would like to have a place to do homework together or just hang out.

  It didn’t take Cassidy long to realize she should have stayed in Dallas until she could get a flight into Lubbock. Instead she was taking scenic route 180, in a car that had never seen a good day, stopping often for cold drinks, bathrooms, and diaper changes.

  Then of course, there were the regular stops to allow the car to cool down, that became more frequent the longer she drove.

  The Outback was beginning to look a lot better. Maybe she should have stayed in Australia to have her babies. At the rate she was traveling, it would take her a week to get home; and a week in that car was eight days too many.

  Cassidy was so tired she stopped for the night in Breckenridge. The next day she made even less progress and spent the night in Roby. When she called the car re
ntal firm to see if they could supply her with a replacement, they gave her a runaround that would make any cheating husband proud. Night three found her spending the night curled up with Enzio in Los Ybanez. It was all she could do not to howl out her frustration. Home was a mere matter of hours away, but Cassidy didn’t have the strength or the energy to go any further that day.

  She stretched her aching back out on the most uncomfortable mattress she had ever had the misfortune to encounter, and her days on the road had led to many bad mattresses. The “color television with 100 cable stations” didn’t work.

  She didn’t need the Weather Channel to warn her. The bones that had been broken when Jenkins had thrown Cassidy off her grandmother’s roof hurt like a son of a gun. A weather system was coming in.

  Great! Just what she needed. To drive the last hundred miles through a Texan sized winter storm.

  Maybe they should stay in this flea bag motel and wait out the storm. Cassidy could tell by her pain level that there was a doozy coming in. They could end up trapped in this room for days, without even a television to entertain her and Zio. Cassidy didn’t allow Z much television, but trapped in a small dingy room where she didn’t want him to touch anything, including the floor, it would be nice if he could watch Sesame Street. She could use some of Big Bird’s comfort and cheer, too.

  Cassidy had already been traveling for more than a week. Crikey, as her cousin Mauve liked to say, she had been in Texas for four nights. Was she delaying her trip on purpose? Didn’t she want to go home?

  Trepidation swept through her at the thought of finally returning home. Why, she couldn’t understand. Pegasus was hers and hers alone. It always had been. She and Rico had been partners in the bar, even though she was the one who ran it and did all the work while Rico pursued his dream of being a Ranger. But the ranch had always been her dream. Her sanctuary. Hers.

  Cassidy turned on her side. Her fingers began playing with the diamond wedding band Theron had placed on her finger one-hundred and thirty-four days ago. She had meant to leave it on his bureau for him to find, but she forgot to. For a while she wore it on a chain around her neck; she had been too afraid to leave it anywhere unattended. Theron was probably married to Julia now. He had enough juice to get an immediate annulment. She would have to find a way to return the ring to him as soon as she could. When Cassidy had realized she still had the ring she was going to send it to him, but then she found out the reason she couldn’t keep anything in her stomach was because she had a visitor in her uterus. Or as it turned out, two.

  The ring went back on her finger. If by some chance they were still married, the divorce would have to wait until after the babies were born. She was born a bastard. She knew the stigma that word still carried. She would not do that to her children. When she found out she was having two of them, the need to protect them increased exponentially. Although Theron needed to be free to marry Julia, no business deal was more important than her children’s emotional health!

  A familiar yearning washed over her at the thought of Theron

  Theron. Her husband for a day. She was only married to Rico for a day, too.

  Would she ever find herself in a marriage that would last a lifetime?

  Who was she kidding? She was about to become the mother of three. What man in his right mind would want to take that on?

  Cassidy snorted. There would never be another marriage. How could she ever trust another man? Who was she trying to kid? How could she ever trust herself? Her own judgment was obviously impaired.

  The realization finally came to Cassidy in that dank room. It wasn’t so much Theron’s betrayal that bothered her, although that hurt like h-e-double-hockey-sticks, what really hurt was the loss of her own protective shield.

  A scratching at the door drew her attention. As the door opened, the scruffy face of the desk clerk peeked through the opening.

  “What are doing here?” she gasped.

  “Storms comin’ in. I thought you could use somethin’ to keep you warm.” His green toothed smile made her feel bilious. When he grabbed his crotch and started bouncing his meager “package” up and down, Cassidy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  Finally she let instincts take over. She reached her hand under the blanket and firmly grasped her new Louisville Slugger between her two hands as she rolled out of bed. She landed in a fighting crouch and confronted the pervert.

  “Hey, lady, don’t get your panties all bunched up. I was only offering you another blanket if you wanted one,” he said, trying to slime his way out of it.

  “Really, let’s call the Rangers and see if they see it that way.”

  Taking one hand off the bat, she picked up her cell and started dialing the familiar number. He rushed her, but since the bat was her weapon of choice, she swung it at his knee and heard the satisfying cracking of the bone. Then she pulled the bat back to get the momentum needed to bury it in his groin.

  A few hours later, after repeating her story over and over again to several local officers and Texas Rangers, an older Ranger arrived on the scene and asked, “Cassidy, where on earth did you get a baseball bat in the middle of winter? I know they don’t allow those things on planes nowadays.”

  “When I arrived in the big D, I went to an all night chain store. It’s almost Christmas. You can get anything there, whether it’s in season or not, at Christmastime. You know my motto. Never leave home without proper protection.” Cassidy flashed him a tired grin. She was tired, but it was good to be home. Good to hear the Texas twang. Good to see friendly faces.

  The Ranger cast a look at her belly. “Seems to me somewhere along the line you lost your protection.”

  Cassidy curved her hands protectively over her babies. “You don’t use protection when you’re reaching for a goal.”

  “It’s good to know some things are goal results and not mistakes.”

  “Captain, I could never consider a baby a mistake.” Tears glittered in Cassidy’s eyes as she wondered how Theron would view the results of their one night together. It was the most difficult thing she had ever done, but she had finally decided somewhere between the blow to the knee and the shot to the stomach that she would have to have call Theron. He had a right to know about his progeny. Rena had a right to meet her grandchildren. But not now. Not tonight. Later. After the babies were born. When it wouldn’t hurt so much to see him again.

  Chapter 31

  Cassidy and Enzio were wide awake. The nasty room was empty of law officers and it totally creeped her out. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep. At least not here. It was time to go home. With any luck she would get there before the weather front blew in. There was no way she wanted to travel the dark Texas back roads in the middle of the night in bad Texas weather. But at the end of that long dark road would be the cozy little ranch house that was their home. It was worth the effort to get there. It was always worth the effort to get home to friends and family and security.

  ~*~

  Somewhere a shutter had loosened from its mooring. The house lights were blinking in rhythm with the howling wind. Theron saved his work on the laptop in the small home office he had been working in. He would have to fix the shutter before it pounded a hole in the house. He’d never be able to sleep with all the noise.

  He walked through the house, barely observing the Christmas lights and decorations Lynda had insisted were de rigueur. In the mudroom he shoved his feet into his new winter boots and grabbed his sheepskin-lined jacket off the hook. The wintery blast hit him full in the face as he closed the door behind him. It served to remind him he was a long way from the warm Mediterranean breezes of his homeland; not that he needed the reminder. Once his errant wife returned he intended to sweep her into his private jet and take her somewhere where she would never be able to escape him again.

  Stop thinking about Cassidy and find the damn shutter. Then get yourself back into the warm house before an important part freezes off. After that admonition to himsel
f, he quickly worked his way around the house, checking the latches on all the shutters until he came to the loose one on the living room window. He did not want to, but his glance quickly went to the scene inside. The brightly lit tree with cheap, childish ornaments sat in the bay window like a beacon in a lighthouse signaling Santa Claus. But Santa was not needed here. He, Theron, had already stacked the area under the tree with gifts that were sure to please both his wife and son. If he ever saw either of them again.

  It took a few minutes to fix the shutter. The bolt attaching it to the house had been pulled out of the shingle siding, completely stripping the hole. Theron was required to use brute force to create a new hole to secure the hook and bolt.

  As he entered the house he left the door unlocked and the light on in the mudroom. With the weather so vicious he wanted to make sure Mountain Man had access to the main house, just in case.

  Theron stopped in the kitchen long enough to fix himself a mug of hot chocolate. Then, with mug in hand, he padded on bare feet into the living room. The fire in the old river stone fireplace had burned down to embers. Maybe it was foolish, but since autumn had arrived and now the winter, he always kept a fire burning in the hearth. He didn’t want Cassidy, when she finally arrived, to walk into a cold, dark house. The fire rose to a comforting blaze. After carefully replacing the fire screen. Theron sat in the overstuffed chair next to the hearth and stretched his legs out in front of him. Eventually he fell asleep. He wasn’t sure when he fell asleep or for how long, but his mind was groggy and his eyes blurred when he awoke with a start. He had heard something crash. Probably that damn shutter again. He could hear the wind lashing against the house; the rain pounding relentlessly on the roof. A groan rattled in his throat as his muscles protested his movement as he rose from the chair. He would secure the shutter, or rip it off the wall, whatever it took to stop the infernal banging. Then he would go in and stretch out on Cassiopeia’s bed for a while. He could never sleep in there surrounded by her belongings, but he needed to feel her close to him.