Husband For Hire

by Caitlin Daire

  She could’ve very well gotten away with it all.

  Poor Dean had no idea how crazy his wife was beneath the surface. He was devastated by the shock discovery of her crimes, and he’d been flown out in a Medevac helicopter last night after needing heavy sedation to cope with the shock.

  I felt sorry for him, and I even nearly felt sorry for Amy. Her family abandonment issues had driven her mad over the years, culminating in the recent events. If she hadn’t brutally slain four innocent people, I would’ve felt sympathetic to her cause. All she really wanted all along was a family.

  She went about things in a truly disturbing and psychotic way, though. If she wanted a family that badly, couldn’t she have introduced herself to Ed back in LA and tried to see if he wanted anything to do with her? The poor man wouldn’t have recognized her after giving her up as a baby thirty years ago, like she so insanely believed. He deserved a chance to be asked. Maybe he wouldn’t have wanted her in his life…but maybe he would’ve. There was no way of knowing now.

  I let out a sigh of relief as the boat finally pulled away from the docks once all the crew and contestants had boarded. Sunlight was peeking out from behind a cloud, and I squinted up at it with a small smile. The weather might’ve broken, but my relationship with Blake had done the complete opposite. We came to this island without a clue that both of us wanted the other, and everything we’d been through had brought us closer. Brought us together as a strong couple.

  We would never break.

  Blake wrapped his arms around me from behind as I stared over the edge of the boat, watching Fremantle Island fade farther and farther into the distance. “Shame,” he said softly. “Such a beautiful island.”

  I nodded. “The most beautiful place I never want to go back to.”

  I turned to hug him. A few feet away, Vanessa and Jay Varrone were standing on the deck as well, hugging each other. Surprisingly, the tragedy on the island had brought them closer and made them vow to stop cheating on each other. Silver linings, I guess.

  Vanessa caught my eye and nodded at me. I nodded back. I still didn’t like the woman after she tried to seduce Blake, but we had an unspoken understanding now. Everyone who’d been through the terror of ‘I Do Or Die’ did. The experience had bonded us in a strange, twisted way, whether we liked it or not.

  “Hey, you two.”

  Blake and I turned to see Donna and Keenan approaching us. As it turned out, they were the only real friends we ended up making on the show.

  “Hi,” I said, pulling away from Blake so that I could quickly hug Donna. Blake and Keenan didn’t embrace, but they gave each other that typical manly nod which all men seemed to master the art of.

  “I’m so glad to be going home,” Donna said. “But I really hope we can still catch up occasionally. Maybe you guys can come visit us. Or vice versa.”

  I smiled. “We’d love that. But…” I gave Blake a hesitant look. It was time we came clean. He nodded at me, seemingly reading my thoughts. “We have to be honest with you two about something. You might not want to be friends with us after we tell you.”

  Both Donna and Keenan raised their brows. “What is it?” they asked in unison.

  “We’re not really married,” Blake said. “We faked a marriage certificate to get on the show.”

  “We did grow up in the same town together, but we never dated back then. I mean, we’re together now. But we weren’t before. And like Blake just said…we aren’t married,” I added. “I’m sorry, guys. We shouldn’t have lied.”

  Donna’s face was beginning to turn pink, and I worried she was about to explode with rage. I wouldn’t blame her if she did. I deserved it, after all. I’d tricked my way onto a show for money—money which a real married couple like Donna and Keenan could’ve used.

  “Please say something,” I mumbled. Donna was completely red now, and she looked like she was holding her breath.

  Finally, she opened her mouth, peals of laughter exploding out of her. Keenan did the same thing, heartily chuckling as he patted Blake on the shoulder. “Man, you two have some balls,” he said.

  “I actually kinda suspected something,” Donna said, still giggling. “But don’t worry, Indi. We don’t care. At least I don’t. I Do Or Die was an absolute shit-show from the start.”

  “So you’re really not mad?” I said hesitantly. “I mean, we could’ve stood in the way of you two winning. You need that money.”

  “I’m sure you felt like you needed it too, honey,” she said, reaching out and squeezing my hand. “Besides, we would’ve been up against nine other couples either way, whether you two got on the show or not. If you didn’t, the producers would’ve found another couple. So it’s not like you ruined our chances or anything. It was always ten couples competing for the top three.”

  “I guess so.”

  “And this network can go fuck itself,” Keenan interjected. “I’m glad you tricked them. The assholes sure as hell tricked us with the horror shit. They deserve a little tit-for-tat.”

  “Exactly,” Donna said with a nod. “But hell…the show got you two together for real, right?” Blake and I nodded, and she grinned. “We’re fine as well. The premise of this show saving our marriage was bullshit, apparently, but I think we’ve saved it anyway.”

  “Just going through all this stress made us stronger,” Keenan said with a nod. “It made us scared at first, and we fought a few times. But we came through it. And now…now I think we’ll be renewing our vows as soon as we get home.”

  “We’d love for you to be there,” Donna finished.

  I smiled. “Wow, I don’t know what to say….other than yes. We’d love to be there!”

  Blake nodded as well. “Sure would. And hey, I didn’t forget—as soon as I get home, I’m gonna contact my lawyer to help you out of that mugshot problem that your ex keeps stirring up.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it,” Keenan said. “Anyway, what do you say we all get out of the cold air and go inside?”

  We murmured our agreement and headed inside. Blake squeezed my hand as we walked, and I smiled up at him. I had no idea what kind of furor we were going to face when we got home (the show’s awful murder debacle was sure to have stirred up the media), but it didn’t matter. We were going to face it together.

  That was all that mattered.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Blake

  I sighed with contentment and settled back into the private train carriage that I’d booked for Indi and myself the second we arrived back in Vancouver. We needed to get back to Seattle, but after the sight that greeted us at the Vancouver port, I couldn’t stand for us to travel on public transport.

  The media had been alerted to the incident that went down on Fremantle Island, and the frenzy upon our arrival had been insane—cameras flashing in our faces, reporters screaming at us for interviews, the general public staring and trying to take photos with their phones to stick on their little Instagram accounts or whatever it was people were using these days.

  I didn’t want to put Indi through any more of that, and so I booked the private carriage so that we’d be left alone during our journey home. We were both exhausted, and the last thing we needed was to be stalked around by journalists or gawked at by random passengers.

  Indi was snoring to my right, curled up on the seat. I smiled as I watched her, and then I leaned down and reached for my suitcase.

  I grabbed my iPad and switched it on, waiting for it to pick up some roaming internet connectivity. When it did, the tablet was immediately inundated with thousands of emails, along with several Facetime requests from my secretary, Jess. I ignored them, but then another Facetime request came through. She was trying to reach me for a video chat right now.

  I guess it was time to face the music.

  “Hey, Jess,” I said, answering the call and holding the iPad close to my face. I moved away from Indi so I didn’t wake her.

  “Finally!” Jess said, her forehead crinkled with anger. �
�I’ve been trying to call you for so long!”

  “Sorry. We weren’t allowed phones or computers on—”

  “On I Do Or Die?” She finished my sentence for me. I wasn’t surprised she knew where I’d really been. Everyone was bound to by now, given the media frenzy surrounding the show’s dismal failure due to the presence of a real-life murderer.

  I nodded. “Yep.”

  That was all I said. She (or anyone else) wasn’t going to get an apology from me. I went on the show for Indi, and I didn’t regret it for a second. Maybe the board would fire me for the unwanted publicity, and maybe they wouldn’t. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was Indi, and if I hadn’t agreed to go on the show, we might not have ended up together.

  Jess sniffed. “So much for the corporate retreat in Brazil,” she said scathingly.

  “How long have you known for?”

  The annoyed look vanished from her face, only to be replaced with a devious smile. “I’ve known all along. I love trash TV, you know. And I’m not blind. I knew right away that the dressed-down ‘Blake Summers’ was actually you—bigshot CEO Blake Marsden. C’mon, boss. I’m not dumb.”

  “I wasn’t aware you liked reality TV,” I said. “Anyway, how long has the company known? Am I fired?”

  “That’s why I’ve been trying to call you,” she said. “The board found out when all this stuff appeared on the news two days ago. Some crazy shit about a bunch of murders on the show. Did that really happen?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Well, they weren’t happy. This kind of publicity is exactly the kind of thing they’d hoped to avoid when they let you head things up at your age. I mean, a super-rich CEO on a freaking reality TV show? It sounds pretty bad. But…”

  She trailed off dramatically. “But what?” I asked, my eyebrows raised.

  “But I convinced them to listen to this friend of mine. He’s a social media director. He gets hired by a ton of companies to promote their images, and he does super well. Anyway, he turned them around. They’re all on board with you being in the public eye now. With your...erm…wife.” She snickered and went on. “You know how things have been steady over the last few years, but not like… absolutely amazing?”

  “That’s a very businesslike way to describe the company’s turnover,” I said with a sarcastic smile. “But yes, I know what you’re saying. Things are good, but not terrific.”

  “Exactly. Anyway, the social media director thinks that having a company head who’s popular— or at least well-known—with the general public could actually help. A lot of laypeople are getting interested in buying stocks these days, but most of them have no clue where to start. They end up going for stock options with companies they’ve heard of. Companies they remember. Like Google, Amazon, and so on.”

  I nodded. “Go on.”

  “But if there’s a young, hot guy heading up Marsden Shipping, and he’s doing wild stuff like participating on reality shows and almost getting murdered…well, that sticks in people’s minds. And guess what?”

  “What?”

  “It’s already working. Everyone knows it was you on the show now, and our share price went up today by more than it’s gone up within the last year altogether. That’s just in one day!”

  “Jesus.” I let out a low whistle. “Gotta say, I didn’t see that coming. I would’ve thought people might still prefer a company that keeps under the radar. Seems more stable and trustworthy, right?”

  “Well, lucky for you, that’s not what’s happening nowadays. The future is here and a lot of people want ‘cool’ CEOs heading up the companies they invest in,” she said, putting the word ‘cool’ in air-quotes. “Otherwise you’d be out on your ass.”

  I chuckled. “I’d still own the company even if they let me go, Jess. They’d just bring in someone else to run it after they fired me.”

  “Whatever. You know what I mean.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, are you on your way back?”

  “Yep.”

  “With Indi, your beautiful childhood sweetheart?” She snickered again. “Oh, man. You’re lucky that your private life has been kept under wraps so far, because if it hadn’t, everyone would’ve already figured out that you two aren’t really married.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “So no one knows?”

  “Not about that, no. Except me, and I guess your close friends and family. But don’t worry, my lips are sealed,” she said. “You know, you should lock that down for real, boss. Indi is awesome.”

  “Yes, she is,” I said, looking across the carriage at my sleeping girlfriend. She was still snoring softly, her chest rising and falling with each adorable sound. Only she could make snoring cute and sexy.

  Now that I thought about it, I was sure she could do anything. I felt like I could too, as long as she was by my side.

  In the last month, we’d both been pushed to our limits. It felt as if we’d been thrown in the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim, but we paddled our way to the edge together anyway. As if we’d walked through a forest fire and made it out without succumbing to the smoke and flames. As if we’d been thrown from a plane without parachutes, but refused to shatter upon impact.

  Together, we survived it all.

  Together, we were our strongest selves.

  “You know what, Jess? You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’ve gotta go,” I murmured into the iPad.

  She frowned. “What? But I wasn’t done. Don’t you want to hear about who had an office affair while you were gone?”

  I cut her off, holding a hand up. “Not now. Later. I’ve got something important to do…”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Indi

  I opened one eye. I was still on the train back to Seattle. Opening the other eye as well, I yawned and sat up. “What’s the time?” I mumbled.

  It was only then that I realized Blake wasn’t right next to me, like he had been when I fell asleep on the seat. I looked around. He wasn’t in the main part of the carriage, so I assumed he’d gone to the bathroom.

  I was about to settle back into the seat and finish my nap when I realized how light my left hand felt, and my stomach lurched.

  Oh, shit.

  The wedding and engagement rings that Blake gave me all those weeks ago were missing. I must’ve let them slip off somewhere along the line, and I hadn’t even noticed till now. Shit, shit, shit!

  I frantically checked everywhere around me—on the seat, under the seat, on my clothing to see they’d simply gotten caught on my cardigan somehow.

  Nope.

  Gone.

  I thought back to the boat earlier this morning and tried to recall whether or not I had the rings on then. Surely they hadn’t slipped off before that?

  Honestly, I couldn’t remember. I’d become so accustomed to wearing the gorgeous rings that I barely felt their weight most of the time. It was only now that they were gone that I finally noticed.

  A sound made me look up, and I saw Blake entering the main part of our private carriage. “You’re awake,” he said. Affection was twinkling in his eyes, and my heart sank. I had to tell him that I’d lost the rings, and he might not be so affectionate then.

  The white gold wedding band once belonged to his beloved late mother, and the diamond engagement ring was purchased by him for a large amount of money before we left Seattle a month ago. He told me weeks ago that it simply looked far more expensive than it was worth, but I now knew that was a lie—that was back when I didn’t know what he did for a living, and he was trying to keep it from me.

  I didn’t blame him for that; men in his position had to try their hardest not to reveal their substantial wealth immediately, just in case of gold-diggers.

  I wasn’t a gold-digger, but I was an idiot for losing the rings.

  “Blake, I’m really sorry,” I began, a tremor in my voice.

  He frowned. “Sorry? For what?”

  I held up my left hand. “I lost the rings you gave me. I’m so sorr
y; I didn’t even notice them fall off. I don’t even know how they fell off! They were the perfect size for me. But obviously they did, because I can’t—”

  Blake was smiling inexplicably, and he cut me off midsentence with a ‘shh’.

  “Why are you shushing me?” I asked, my forehead crinkling with confusion.

  “You didn’t lose the rings. I took them off your hand a few minutes ago,” he replied.

  My shoulders sagged. “Oh,” I mumbled, looking down at my lap. That made sense. They belonged to him, after all, and we weren’t actually married. Still, that didn’t quell the disappointment in my heart right now.

  “I took them off your hand,” he repeated. “Because we aren’t engaged or married. But I’d like that to change.”

  My eyes snapped back up. “What?”

  Blake grinned and dropped to one knee, and he held out the sparkling diamond engagement ring that had sat upon my left ring finger for the better part of the last month.

  “I know this is fast, and I know it seems sudden. But Indi, in the last few weeks you and I have gone through far more than most couples will in their entire lifetimes, and we survived. We got each other through it, even when we were mad at each other, and we came out shining,” he said. He paused to let those words sink in, then went on. “I’m so in love with you, and I can’t imagine going home with you just as my girlfriend. I want more than that. I want you to be my fiancée, and then my wife. For real this time. So what do you say, Indi? Will you take back this ring and agree to marry me?”

  My eyes were as wide as saucers. I was so shocked I wasn’t sure if I could speak, but somehow one word tumbled out of me anyway. “Yes!”

  He slid the ring back onto my finger, then stood up and wrapped me in his arms. “I love you so much,” he said. His voice had dropped and was hoarse with emotion.

  “I love you too,” I replied, my face nearly splitting open from how much smiling I was currently doing.

  I would never get tired of hearing him tell me he loved me. He could say it a hundred times a day and I would still crave the sound of those words.