“This isn’t about protecting her, is it? This is how you plan to win.”
Cam went toe-to-toe with his old friend. “I’m not trying to win anything. I’m trying to keep her alive. I think what you’re trying to do is have your cake and eat it, too. You want to haul her back to DC and turn her into a sweet little wife. She was never going to be your trophy, Rafe.”
Rafe’s face went red. “She’s not a trophy. I never wanted her to get fired.”
“But you thought it was a dangerous job for her.”
“I was right. It was dangerous.”
“She should have been at home baking cookies?” Cam asked, feeling his blood pressure rise.
“Fuck you, Cam. How are you any better? You’re the one who wanted to get her pregnant. I had to remind you to wear a condom that night. Do you think I don’t know why you wanted to do that? You thought if you tied her to you, she would pick you.” Cam felt his whole body flush. He hadn’t meant to do that, had he? Sure, he’d thought about getting her pregnant, but he had just forgotten in the heat of the moment. Of course, after what had happened with de Sade, that wasn’t a problem anymore. He hated to think about everything that bastard had taken from her. “Well, it didn’t take long for that whole sharing thing to get tossed out, did it, Rafe? If you get her back to DC, we would always have to hide. No one would understand. I’m going to assume since you’re the one with the fancy job that you would be the one to legally marry her.” Rafe shrugged as though it was a forgone conclusion. “It makes sense. I make more than both of you combined. I seriously doubt the FBI will promote me if I’m flaunting the nation’s polygamy laws.”
“And no one cares what I do?”
“Damn it, Cam. What do you want me to do? I can’t force society to accept what we want. I’m willing to sit down and work it out.
There’s not a place in the world where we could live openly. It probably doesn’t matter anyway since she’s made it plain she doesn’t want to have anything to do with either one of us.”
“Damn, brother. This is some entertaining shit.” Cam turned and saw two cowboys walking toward them with a red-haired woman in between them. One cowboy wore a black T-shirt and the other had on a denim Western-style shirt, but other than that they were perfectly identical.
“Nate said they were going to be trouble, Max.” The one in the western shirt shrugged. “I find trouble very entertaining. Hey, you think I could get one of those boys to fight?”
“Maxwell Harper, you promised me you wouldn’t try to start another fight until after Stef and Jen’s wedding.” The redhead with a baby in her arms gave the one named Max a dirty look. “I am serious, Max. I do not want Jen’s wedding pictures marred by you having a black eye. If that happens, I’ll substitute Rye in with Photoshop. And we will have a conversation, you and I.” The redhead started to stomp off.
“But I like our conversations, baby!” She turned and stared at Cam for a moment as though assessing him. “If you hit him, you go for his gut. If you touch his face, I will find you. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cam said immediately. Everything the redhead said had an air of southern authority. Cam responded. He backed off of the cowboy who he had zero intention of fighting. It had the added effect of making him back off Rafe, whom he had kind of been planning to fight.
The cowboy in the black T-shirt smiled. “You’re going to sleep on the couch tonight, brother.”
“Damn, Rye, I wasn’t really going to fight. I promised Rach.
You’re just trying to get our wife all to yourself. When this little edict of Rachel’s is no longer in effect, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“Not if I kick yours first, Max.”
“Stop, both of you,” Cam commanded. That was the second time some dude in this town had mentioned sharing a wife. “What do you mean by ‘our wife?’”
Identical faces turned to him. Cam felt Rafe move beside him. All thoughts of beating the shit out of Rafe fled in a rush of curiosity.
“Rachel, that hot redhead with the gorgeous little baby, is our wife.” The man in the black T-shirt whom Max had called Rye crossed his arms over his chest. “And before you start calling in Johnny Law, you should know we do things differently in Bliss.” Max snorted. “What’s the sheriff going to do? Arrest us? How is he going to lock the cell door from the inside?”
“Stop. Are you two talking about polygamy?” Rafe had a hand on his hip. It was his cop stance.
Rye Harper didn’t seem scared. “The technical term for what we do is polyandry. And we’re perfectly legal. Max married Rach legally, and we’re not defrauding the government. We’re not illegal, just a little on the fringe of what society finds acceptable.”
“No one cares in Bliss,” Max said with a questioning look aimed at his twin.
“Yeah, well, Bliss isn’t exactly society,” Rye returned. “If we left Bliss, people would think we’re freaky.”
“There’s no reason to leave Bliss anymore. Not since we got cable.”
Rye turned to his brother. “I have a reason. Reliable cell service. I spent two hours on the landline trying to lodge a complaint with the company. Seriously, how long does it take to fix one tower?”
“I don’t care about that,” Max said. “I don’t really want to talk to anyone outside of Bliss. Hell, half the time I don’t want to talk to people inside Bliss. It’s all gossip. Rach spent thirty minutes on the phone with Callie talking about some weird plan Laura’s cooked up where she marries Wolf so two dudes don’t know she’s been alone for years.”
A sly smile crossed Rye’s lips. “Yeah, now, I did hear about that.
I heard those men had been looking for her for a real long time. It occurs to me that two men who spent all that time looking for a lady must have some pretty strong feelings for her, and a woman who hasn’t dated in a long time usually is hung up on a man—or two.” Cam went very still. “Laura hasn’t dated anyone?”
“Well, she did go out with Wolf,” Max replied. “But as far as I can remember, no one else. We were all a little surprised she said yes to him.”
Rye shook his head. “Rachel wasn’t. Rachel told Jen that any woman in her right mind would be after him.” Max whistled. “Is that why you spanked her?”
“Damn straight. But she knew I was listening. She even winked at me when she said it and slapped her own ass.” Rye adjusted his Stetson.
Everyone in this town wore a hat. Cam’s own head was starting to feel bare. Damn, he hadn’t worn a cowboy hat in years, not since he left Arkansas.
“She is just getting saucier with age,” Max said with a grin. “Oh, well. There’s no way around it, Rye. She’s the boss of our little family. What she says goes. We need to be careful. She told us not to give up Laura’s little secret.”
“I won’t tell. Now let’s get going, brother. That damn bear won’t eat himself.”
Max elbowed his twin. “He damn near ate you. You were lucky the rangers came along when they did or Rach would be down a husband and little Paige would only have me for a dad.” The twin cowboys sauntered off talking about all the weird shit they planned on eating this evening.
Rafe turned his head, a little grin crinkling the corner of his mouth. “She’s not really engaged.”
A light happiness threatened to take over Cam’s body. She wasn’t engaged. She wasn’t even sleeping with him. According to those two cowboys, she hadn’t really dated for a very long time, maybe since she’d left DC.
“There’s only one real reason for a woman to lie like that,” Rafe continued.
“She still has feelings for us,” Cam said, feeling a smile spread across his face. She’d lied to protect herself. “She still gives a damn, and we just landed in a place where no one is going to blink an eye if we share her. Hell, now I have to wonder how many of these people are in weird-ass relationships. I saw a girl wearing a collar in town.” Rafe shook his head. “Yeah. I’m still not sold on this place, but at least we can go after her without any shame. We can do it completely in the open.”