Shotgun Bridegroom

by Day Leclaire

  “Yes, ma’am. I was getting to that. Were you aware that your speed was well in excess of the posted limit?”

  So much for contrition. She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “It usually is, Bertie, but you’ve never—”

  “It might be more appropriate if you call me Deputy Hinkle for the time being.”

  She blinked, her mouth opening and closing like a landed fish. “You want me to call my own brother-in-law Deputy—”

  “Hinkle. Yes, ma’am.”

  “Bertram Hinkle, have you lost your ever blessed mind?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Have you gone crazy?” She turned to Sam. “He’s gone plumb crazy. It must be the stress of Pansy’s pregnancy. I told you what a hard time she gave him during the last one.” She faced Bertie again. “What’s she up and done, Bert-I mean, Deputy? Maybe I can help. Do you need a good, home-cooked meal? Is that it? How about a baby-sitter so you and Pansy can have a night on the town?”

  “Ma’am? I believe you’ve just tried to bribe an officer of the law. I’m afraid I’m going to have to take you in.”

  “What!” She struggled for breath. “What the heck for?”

  “Speeding. Driving without a license. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet. And attempted bribery. Would you please place your hands on top of your head and turn around. ”

  “You have got to be joking. At least you damn well better be joking!”

  Perhaps it was time to step in, Sam decided. “Er...Deputy?”

  “Sir, I advise you not to interfere with my arrest. To do so will force me to arrest you, too.” He looked at Sam hopefully. “Will you be interfering?”

  “Abso-damn-lutely,” he answered promptly.

  “I see, sir. Please turn around and place your hands on your head, as well.”

  “You’re going to handcuff both of us?” Sam asked, curious to see how Bertie intended to proceed from here.

  “I’m afraid I’ll have to handcuff you to each other since I only have one set of cuffs.”

  Sam grinned. “Got it.”

  Before Annie could protest, Bertie snapped on the cuffs, shackling them together. Sam fought to hide his amusement. Somebody had to have put him up to this. Pansy, perhaps, or even Myrtle. Well, fine. He’d play along.

  “What now, Deputy?”

  “Now I’ll have to take you in.”

  Bertie escorted them to his patrol car and helped them into the back seat. All he got for his efforts was a nonstop tongue-blistering from Annie. She threw in a few of her less-than-saintly words, which managed to turn poor Bertie’s ears a bright shade of pink. Switching off his flashing lights, he executed a quick U-turn and headed toward town.

  To Sam’s surprise, the police station was deserted except for a lonely dispatcher. Since there were only two policemen on the entire island, it meant that Rolly had turned in for the evening.

  “I’m not going to process you until tomorrow,” Bertie said, showing the first hint of nervousness he’d displayed all evening. “I need to wait and see if Rolly plans to press charges.”

  “You mean you’re going to lock us up until morning?” Annie demanded, outraged. “What about our phone call? What about my fingerprints?”

  Bertie’s professional demeanor vanished like fog in the sun. “Now, Annie,” he attempted to placate, “you wouldn’t want to wake Myrtle at this hour. You can give her a call first thing in the morning. And fingerprinting you will get ink all over your hands. You wouldn’t like it one little bit. That stuff’s a pain to wash off.”

  He urged them toward the back of the station and the jail cells. All two of them. The first was filled with boxes.

  “We haven’t gotten around to unpacking our new computer equipment just yet,” Bertie explained before waving them into the other cell. “So I’ll have to put you both in together.”

  The door clanged shut behind them. “What about the handcuffs?” Sam asked.

  “I’ll...ah...be along to collect those in a little while.”

  Sam bit off a laugh. “Right. No hurry.”

  “No hurry!” Annie protested, her voice rising an octave. “How can you say that?”

  “Relax, sweetheart. I don’t expect we’ll be in here for long.”

  She grabbed the bars of the jail cell, practically jerking his arm from the socket. “I don’t understand. What in the world has gotten into Bertie?”

  “I suspect your antics have pushed him as far as he cares to be pushed.”

  “Antics?” She glared at him. “What antics?”

  “Come on, Annie.” He gently disengaged her fingers from the bars. “You know what I mean. First your. speeding and now riding without your helmet. You’ve gotten too reckless and thins is his way of stopping you.”

  “But why involve you?”

  He had his suspicions about that, too, but decided to keep them to himself. “Probably because he knew I’d raise hell once he arrested you,” he offered as an alternate excuse. “I’m guessing he threw me in with you so I couldn’t rout Rolly out of bed.”

  Her bewildered expression tied his gut in a knot. “Do you really think we’ll be stuck in here all night?”

  “Maybe.” At her crestfallen expression, he wrapped his free arm around her. “I doubt we’ll be locked up that long,” he reassured her. “The dispatcher saw what was going on. My guess is she’ll alert Rolly for us.”

  Annie looked around, her unease clearly apparenr. “What do we do in the meantime?”

  “Let’s see. We have a pair of handcuffs, a room all to ourselves, some privacy. I don’t know. What do you think we should do?”

  He’d taken the right tack. Her tension eased and she managed a smile. “I think we should talk.”

  He grinned. “Now why doesn’t that surprise me? Come on. Let’s sit down. We might as well make ourselves comfortable while we wait.” He helped her onto the one small bed the cell boasted and tucked her close. “So what do you want to talk about?”

  “Diana Staa.”

  That didn’t take long. He sighed. “What do you want to know about her?”

  “First...what did you whisper in her ear before she Ieft?”

  “I promised to invite her to our wedding.”

  “Oh, very funny. What did you really say?”

  “If you’re going to question every answer I give, I’m gonna catch some shut-eye. Now do you want to argue or do you want to talk?”

  “Talk.” About Diana, no doubt. Sure enough, she started in again. “She kept calling you lover. Is she really your lover? Or rather, was she?”

  “Nope. She calls everybody that. Including her husband.”

  “She’s married?”

  “Has been ever since we first met. And quite happily, too.”

  “Then why did she come here?”

  “She told you that. She came to try to talk me out of ending our partnership.”

  “I assume she wasn’t successful?”

  “Not even a little.”

  “So she’s left and won’t ever be back as long as she lives?”

  “Don’t sound so hopeful.” He tortured her for a full two minutes before putting her out of her misery. “Diana won’t be back any time soon.”

  There was a slight pause, then, “I thought her hairstyle was rather interesting. Didn’t you?”

  “Forget it, sweetheart. I like your hair just how it is.”

  “I don’t recall asking your opinion.” She wrinkled her nose in contemplation. “Purple spikes would give people something to talk about, don’t you think?”

  “Are you asking my opinion now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  “Okay.” She was silent for far too long, which didn’t bode well for him. Sure enough, she murmured, “There’s something else I think we need to discuss.”

  “What’s that?” he asked warily.

  “My...seduction.”

  “Getting impatient?”

&nb
sp; “No.” She glanced at him, her expression surprisingly serious. “You need to stop for a while, Sam.”

  He hadn’t expected that. He’d thought her enthusiasm for her downfall matched his own. Apparently, that had changed since this morning. “Diana is not my lover,” he stated in an even voice.

  “This isn’t about Diana.”

  “Then what is it about?”

  “You’ve only been back two short days and I...” She took a deep breath. “I can’t seem to control myself around you.”

  He struggled to hide his amusement. “I’m happy to hear it.”

  She tucked a windswept lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m not.” She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, dragging his arm along for the ride. “I need time to get my bearings, to decide if I want to be—”

  “A fallen woman?”

  She studied him with bleak eyes. “I almost was today,” she whispered. “You take my breath away, Sam. You steal every thought from my head.”

  “You’re not the only one, Annie. You do one hell of a number on me, as well.” Her mouth trembled and he struggled to harden himself to its appeal. “I’m not letting you go.”

  “I’m only asking for some time,” she pleaded.

  “You’ve had seven years.”

  “And now I’m asking for some more.”

  He tilted his head against the wall behind him and fought for control. “How much longer?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He clenched his teeth to keep from arguing, to keep from ending her doubts by taking what he wanted. It would be easy, so incredibly easy. One kiss and she’d be his. “Fine. I’ll give you a few days. As soon as we get back to Myrtle’s, I’ll move over to Soundings.”

  “Sam, I’m—”

  “What the hell were you thinkin’, boy?” Rolly’s voice thundered down the hallway, the intrusion as unwelcome as it was untimely. “You locked Annie and Sam up together?”

  “There was only one cell, Sheriff,” they could hear Bertie protesting. “But I kept them handcuffed. There’s not much trouble they can get up to with handcuffs on.”

  “Have you lost your ever-lovin’ mind? It’s probably a fantasy come true for the boy. An innocent girl, a pair of handcuffs, a jail cell. Good heavenly days, son. You’re married, aren’t you? Use your imagination.” Rolly appeared in the doorway, eyeing them suspiciously.

  “We haven’t done anything,” Annie announced, leaping to her feet. “Just in case you were wondering.”

  “I’m relieved to hear it.” He released a gusty sigh. “I’m sorry about this, Miss Annie. Bertie overstepped himself this time.”

  “It was my fault, Sheriff Rawling. I was speeding and riding without a helmet and driving without my license on me.”

  “Yes, well, you should know better than that,” he scolded. “Especially the helmet.”

  “You’re right. It won’t happen again.”

  “In that case, I’ll let you go with a warning.” Rolly glanced at Bertie and jerked his head toward the cell. “Open up, boy. And get those handcuffs off them.”

  “Yes, sir, Sheriff.”

  “What’s Beaumont in here for?”

  “He was with her.”

  “Did he do anything wrong?” Hope blossomed in the sheriff’s voice.

  “Nothing worth jailing him for,” Bertie hastened to assure.

  Rolly didn’t bother to hide his disappointment. “Guess you can let him go, too.”

  “Thanks, Sheriff,” Sam thought to say.

  “Don’t go thankin’ me, Beaumont.” Rolly offered a sharklike grin. “I have every expectation of havin’ you back in here real soon.”

  Sam returned the grin. “If Annie’s part of the deal, you won’t have to bother with an invite. I’ll hurry right over.”

  To Annie’s utter disappointment, Sam did just as he said. The minute they returned to Myrtle’s, he packed his bags and moved into Soundings. Supposedly, he was working on repairs to his house. Not that she knew for certain since she didn’t have the nerve to see for herself. But everyone she ran into took great delight in detailing his every movement.

  It wasn’t until after dinner of their sixth day apart that she even saw him and then it was only because Pansy lost her temper and insisted Annie go “put the poor man out of his misery.” Fortunately, she managed to come up with an acceptable reason to explain her visit, one she silently rehearsed as she trailed him to his boathouse.

  “Hey there,” she greeted, dithering in the doorway and looking around. The structure appeared unexpectedly sturdy, considering it hadn’t received any attention in the past seven years. The rough plank walls were all in place, as was the tin roof.

  “Hey there yourself,” he said, looking up from the box he was investigating. “This is a surprise.”

  “For me, too. In all honesty, I hadn’t planned to come over.”

  His grin flashed in the fading light. “Then why have you?”

  She shrugged sheepishly, stepping into the shack. “Pansy made me,” she confessed. “And I also wanted to see if you needed help. They’re saying on the weather channel that we could get a piece of that hurricane heading up the coast now that it’s decided to leave Florida alone. So...” She offered a bright smile. “Need any help?”

  “That’s one of the reasons I’m out here. I’m checking to see if everything’s secured. Although I doubt we’ll be hit. They say it’s going inland well south of us.”

  “That’s what rm hoping, too.” She glanced around, looking for an excuse to linger. “I didn’t realize you actually had a boat in here.” It rested on supports, its wooden hull clear of the dirt floor. “Is it seaworthy?”

  “It will be, when I get around to the repairs.”

  “Will you take me out in it?”

  “Count on it.”

  Behind her, the door creaked closed, startling her. Odd. There wasn’t much of a breeze tonight. “Well, I guess I should be going. It’s getting late and...” He started for her and she froze, dragging in a quick breath.

  “And Myrtle will worry.” He brushed past. “Let me get the door.”

  “Sam, wait.” She gritted her teeth and said the words she should have offered seven long years ago. “I wanted to apologize.”

  He hesitated, his hand on the latch. “What for?”

  “For hurting you. I should never have sent the Musketeers after you.” She twisted her hands together. “I know you said you were going to seduce me to get even, but it’s not necessary anymore. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Come again?”

  “You don’t have to keep up the seduction routine,” she persisted doggedly. “Everyone gets the point. You had every right to try to even the score. And now that you’ve had some fun at my expense, you can end the game.”

  He tilted his head to one side, his eyes unreadable in the gloom. “What if I don’t want to end it?”

  “Don’t you see?” she said earnestly. “If you keep it up, it could get serious. People think it’s funny now. But if it goes much further, that will change. They might turn on you, Sam. And I couldn’t bear for that to happen.”

  “Believe it or not, Annie, I know precisely what I’m doing.”

  “Then you’re still going to ruin me?”

  He leaned down, his lips inches from hers. “A promise is a promise.” He turned back to the door and tugged at the latch...and tugged some more. “Dammit! Not again.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  His mouth compressed in a tight line. “You’re not going to believe this, sweetheart. But the door’s locked.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ANNIE stared in disbelief. “It’s what?”

  Sam shrugged. “You heard me. Locked. Bolted. Barred. Or barricaded. Take your pick.”

  “You know, this is getting downright ridiculous.” She planted her hands on her hips. “I’ve lived on this island for twenty-five years and I’ve had more freak accidents happen the past couple of
weeks than in all those years combined.” She looked at him sharply. “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

  His expression of innocence would have done an angel proud—a fallen angel, that was. “You think it’s my fault?”

  “Did you lock us in here?” she demanded point-blank.

  “No.”

  Absolute. Unequivocal. And totally believable. “Then how did it happen?”

  “That’s an interesting question. One I’d even give some of my IBM stock to have explained.”

  Now she really was convinced of his innocence. “You must have some idea.”

  “Oh, I’ve got plenty of ideas. Just no proof.”

  She glared at the door. It was growing late, and unless the Three Musketeers got wind of their predicament soon, rescue before dawn was fast becoming an unlikely event. “How long do you think we’ll be stuck in here?” she asked, hoping Sam would give her the reassurance she sought.

  He shrugged. “Until somebody decides to come by and unlock the door.”

  “I know that!”

  He made himself comfortable on a pile of burlap bags. “Then why ask?”

  She didn’t answer but strode to the door again and shook the latch. “If I weren’t a lady, I’d pound on the door and scream my fool head off. Aw, shoot.” She balled her fists and banged as long and hard as she could. “Let me out of here!”

  “Give it up, Annie. You’re only going to hurt—”

  “Goldang it!” She cradled her hand.

  “—yourself. You did, didn’t you?”

  She peered at the meaty part of her palm and winced. She’d scraped it up good. “I think I got another splinter. Or maybe this one’s left over from when I climbed down the oak tree.”

  “Fell out of said tree.”

  “Whatever.”

  He held out his hand. “Here. Let me see.”

  “I can take care of it.”

  “Like you’ve taken care of all our other predicaments?”

  She lifted her chin. “That’s right.”

  He released his breath in an impatient sigh. “Stop being so damned stubborn and get over here, Annie. Let me see what you’ve done to yourself.”