Lost in Bliss

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Lost in Bliss Page 11

by Sophie Oak


  didn’t even let us know she was alive. How could she do it?”

  “Come on, man. I know you. You ran from Miami as fast as you

  could. The same way I ran from Arkansas.” Rafe’s parents had been a

  bit controlling. After they had divorced, he’d been trapped in the war

  zone. He’d talked about it extensively over the years. And Cam had

  taken the first scholarship out of his one-stoplight town and never

  looked back.

  “But I call my mom and my dad. I might not like either of them,

  but I let them know I’m okay. What does that say about the way she

  feels about us? I thought a good argument would solve this, but now I

  have to wonder.”

  “I’m staying.” Cam was sure of that. He didn’t have anything to

  go back to anyway. He had a crappy apartment and no friends beyond

  Rafe. He had a PI license but not a lot of clientele. “Until de Sade is

  caught, I’m going to stay right here.”

  He would find a job, and he would watch over her.

  “Are you going to go to her wedding if we’re wrong and she’s

  really involved with Meyer?”

  The whole idea made his chest constrict. God, he couldn’t watch

  Laura walk toward someone else while she wore a white dress, her

  face shining with love. It would tear him apart. “Yes. I’ll do it. I owe it to her.”

  He owed her everything. Guilt weighed on him, so much stronger

  now that he could see her again. He couldn’t help but remember that

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  day after they had made love for the first time. He and Rafe had gone

  out for breakfast to discuss what had happened, and they hadn’t seen

  her again until the briefing. Laura had looked so fragile as she turned

  in her first major profile. She’d looked worse than fragile when

  everyone had turned on her.

  “Do you think she’s right? Could we have been wrong while she

  was right?”

  “About de Sade? God, Cam, I’ve thought about that every single

  day. If I could change one thing in my life, it would be the way we

  handled that fucking profile, but Edward was so sure.”

  Rafe’s whole face had aged in a minute. Lines formed on his

  forehead and around his mouth. This was why they hadn’t seen each

  other much in the last several years, Cam realized. Neither of them

  wanted to talk about what had happened. It had been so much easier

  to concentrate on finding Laura. They had drifted apart because

  staying close had been painful.

  But why had it been that way? Why hadn’t they been able to talk

  about it? They had managed to spend a lot of time drinking and

  fighting, but not once had they had an honest conversation about what

  had happened.

  “Even Joe went with Edward’s profile. There wasn’t enough

  evidence to push the notion that de Sade was law enforcement.” Cam

  hadn’t wanted to believe it, either. It was too horrifying to think about the possibility that one of their own could do that. He’d grasped on to

  Edward Lock’s alternative profile. He hadn’t meant to hurt Laura, but

  he’d truly believed what Edward had said.

  “Besides, after what happened with that reporter, can you really

  still think she was right?” Rafe asked.

  Cam couldn’t help the way his fists clenched when he thought of

  the Washington reporter who had written a story on Laura’s profile.

  She had been a friend of Laura’s, a long-term friend, and she’d

  betrayed her for a headline. The story had hit the next day. Laura had

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  been fired for leaking information, and twelve hours later, she’d been

  a guest of the Marquis de Sade.

  What if Cam had supported her? What if he’d put his career on the

  line to back her despite his own beliefs? She probably wouldn’t have

  felt the need to call her friend and commiserate. She wouldn’t have

  gotten drunk and confided in that vicious bitch. She wouldn’t have

  had her face plastered across the papers like a road map leading the

  killer straight to her.

  “I’ve read that letter a thousand times.” Cam straightened up. The

  Marquis de Sade, or someone claiming to be him, had sent a letter to

  the FBI and the reporter responsible for breaking the story, claiming

  he was insulted to be called law enforcement. He’d written a long

  diatribe on how he was smarter than any of them and the woman who

  insulted him would pay for her crime.

  “We’ve all gone over it a thousand times. The fact that de Sade

  took her because he was insulted she’d said he was in law

  enforcement fits Edward’s profile,” Rafe argued.

  But Cam had finally pulled out Laura’s profile a couple of months

  before. He’d been obsessing over it. And he’d been questioning the

  entire case. “Or he fits Laura’s profile and he’s trying to throw us

  off.”

  Rafe’s fist came down. “I’ve thought of that, too. Fuck, this is

  getting us nowhere. We have to convince her to come home with us.

  She isn’t safe here. If she’s right, then she really needs to be

  protected.”

  “I disagree. Not that she doesn’t need protection, but I think

  taking her back to DC is a mistake. He got to her in DC.”

  Rafe obviously wasn’t buying it. “And you think he can’t get to

  her here? Have you looked around this place? The door to her cabin

  was unlocked. There’s no way she should stay here.”

  “I’ll stay with her,” Cam offered. “I can protect her, and the

  sheriff was right. A stranger will stick out like a sore thumb here.”

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  “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 jo
b 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

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  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.”

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  “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.”

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  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

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  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 s
hook 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.”

  Cam suddenly wanted to get started on that little project. It was

  time to show Laura that he wasn’t going to wait another five years to

  get inside her again. He turned to his partner, all previous anger gone.

  They might have to revisit that little fight, but not tonight. “What’s

  the plan?”

  Rafe leaned in and started to speak.

  * * * *

  Everyone was looking at her.

  Wolf twirled her around the dance floor, his big hand leading her

  this way and that in time to the music, but her focus was on the

  multitudinous eyes that tracked her.

  “Congratulations, you two!” Hank Farley said as he danced by

  with his wife. “You should know our barn is available for the

  reception.”

  “We’ll think about it,” Wolf said with an easy smile.

  He steered her toward the middle of the dance floor. Right where

  she didn’t want to be.

  “Laura, Wolf.” Stef Talbot held his fiancée in his arms as they

  swayed to the music. “Jennifer and I have talked about this, and we

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  want to offer to include your own nuptials in our wedding. It can be a

  double ceremony. I’ll cover all the costs.”

  Jen Waters had a smirk on her face. “And Brooke said she can put

  together a dress in no time flat. We want to make this as easy on you

  as possible.”

  No they didn’t. They were being righteous bastards. It was the

  whole damn town’s way of letting her know they disapproved of her

  lying. She wasn’t stupid. No one in Bliss would blink twice if she was

  lying to save a friend or protect herself from real harm, but the minute her heart got involved, everyone became a shrink.

  “They’re going to give you hell, you know,” Wolf said as he led

  her off the dance floor.

  “I’m beginning to see that. I’ve already received lectures from

  Marie and Stella on how I need to face my past if I ever want to move

  on.” Getting married had turned Stella into the world’s biggest

  authority on love. She was madly in love with Sebastian Talbot and

  wanted everyone in town to be just as happy as she was.

 

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