Issued to the Bride One Marine (Brides of Chance Creek Book 4)

by Cora Seton

  She knocked his hand away. “You’re not necessary, either.”

  “Maybe not. But maybe I could be a good addition to your life.”

  “You know what my mother would say?” Lena exploded, pushed too far. “She’d say give the women of the world a freaking break and go be a priest!”

  Logan’s walk home was long and dispiriting. Just when he’d thought he was making progress, he’d screwed it up again. It was his own fault for bringing up marriage after fifteen minutes of a shaky truce between them. He was always stepping in it.

  Patience wasn’t his strong suit.

  He was surprised when he rounded a corner near the ranch and found Lena standing beside Atlas in the middle of the path.

  “Something wrong?” he asked.

  “Everything’s wrong. But at the end of the day, it’s not your fault, is it?” she asked dispiritedly.

  He was afraid to take the bait.

  “I just figured it out—how the General convinces you guys to come here and marry us.”

  Uh-oh. Logan thought fast. He knew none of the other men had told the Reeds the General had blackmailed them into taking this mission. He could only imagine their reaction to finding out. Brian, Connor and Hunter had all genuinely fallen in love with the women the General had matched them with. No harm, no foul, Logan thought.

  “You said you got transferred for interfering in that fight,” she went on. “Transferred to serve under the General, right?”

  “On his Joint Task Force for Inter-Branch Communication.” It sounded official enough—maybe it would put her off.

  “On his Joint Task Force for Lying Idiots, you mean.”

  “Lena—”

  “Don’t get your knickers in a bunch. I see how it turned out. Brian came because he had to, but he fell for Cass. He couldn’t fake that.”

  “He fell for her,” Logan affirmed.

  “Connor fell for Sadie. Hunter fell for Jo.”

  “That’s right. No one crossed a boundary.” He wanted her to remember that.

  “How is he getting it right?”

  Logan didn’t have to ask what she meant. “Jack and I were talking about that before I came—”

  Fuck. Had he just said that out loud?

  “Jack?” Lena raised an eyebrow.

  He had said it out loud. He thought about lying. Realized it wouldn’t work. “The guy your dad picked out for Alice.”

  Lena scrubbed a hand over her face. “Jesus. You realize this is insane, right?”

  “Believe me, I realize it.”

  She looked him over. “Did you really come here to marry me?”

  Logan nodded. What else could he do?

  “And you thought you could actually do that? Marry someone you don’t know a thing about? Make a life with her—me?”

  He chuckled. “I know a thing or two about you, Lena.” When she scowled, he went on. “I know you love this land more than your own life. I know you’ve wanted to be a rancher since before you could walk. I know a man treated you wrong. I wish I’d been here to stop that. I know that if I could ever prove to you who I really am, the two of us could have a hell of a lot of fun. You’re wild in the best of ways. You’re funny. You’re smart. You’re… amazing.” As he ticked off her qualities, Logan realized he really did know her.

  What’s more, he liked her. A lot.

  Not as a conquest or a mission or anything like that.

  As a woman.

  Even without the General’s interference, if he’d met her in the course of his travels, he’d have fallen for her. And he’d have done his best to capture her heart. Lena was alive in the best of ways. A true match for a man like him.

  “This is a strange situation. Stranger still because the man who’s trying to get us together is the one who’s keeping us apart. If your father hadn’t sent me—if you’d met me at the Dancing Boot one night and we’d played a game of pool, what would you have thought of me?”

  An emotion flitted across her features before she schooled them into a frown. “I would have been pissed that you beat me,” she said flippantly.

  But Logan’s heart lifted. He’d seen that emotion and knew what it was, because he felt it, too, all the time around Lena.

  Desire.

  She liked him despite everything she said. Despite her father. If he was smart, he’d get things back on track and stop talking about marriage for a while.

  “I know one thing we have in common,” he told her. “Our love of history. You’ve gotten me in the mood to read up on the Revolutionary War since you’ve been talking about it.”

  Lena nodded. She seemed to accept it was time to change the subject, but instead of chatting about history, she turned and mounted Atlas. “Better get home before it gets dark.”

  He expected her to gallop away again, so he was gratified when she set Atlas to an easy walk, and he could keep pace. They finished their journey in silence, and when they drew close to the outbuildings, Lena surprised Logan again when she suddenly said, “I have a book you can borrow.”

  “I’d love to borrow a book.”

  Lena dismounted and led Atlas toward the barn. He helped her get the horse settled in his stall for the night. It was clear the other men had already accomplished most of the chores.

  When they were done, Logan headed for the door, but Lena said, “Hold up a minute.” She crossed to a ladder that led up to the hayloft.

  “Don’t think we’ll need hay tonight,” Logan said.

  She hesitated, one hand on a rung. “I was going to get you that book. But it can wait if you’re in a hurry to get to the house.”

  Logan worked to figure out the situation. Did she mean the book was up there? If so, he wanted to know why.

  “No time like the present. I can start it before bed tonight.”

  She began to climb, but she hesitated when he crossed to join her. He set down the basket, intending to climb up, too.

  “You don’t have to come up here.”

  “I’d like to—if you don’t mind,” he forced himself to say. He was going to kick himself if she refused him. He was far too curious to stop now.

  Was that a sigh? He was pretty sure that was a sigh, but she kept going, and he climbed after her.

  At the top of the ladder, the hayloft spread out before them, with bales stacked up just as he would’ve expected. But as they moved past them, he realized Lena had carved out a little space for herself. Under a window sat an old chest. Nearby, on the walls, hung two replica Revolutionary War swords and a musket, the kind of decorations you might find in any military enthusiast’s collection. He had to smile; his uncle had some items just like that hanging in the rec room in his basement. Once, as a kid, after watching a movie in which the hero sliced through a piece of parchment with his sword, Logan had tried to recreate the scene. The paper had survived intact, but his uncle’s old turntable had gone flying when the dull replica blade smashed into it. Logan chuckled at the memory.

  All in all, the loft was a cozy space. A private one. Lena opened the chest, and he caught a glimpse of a battery-operated lantern, a blanket and several books.

  As he took it all in, he realized of course a woman like Lena needed a place of her own. The barn made perfect sense. What surprised him was that she was a secret reader. He wouldn’t have thought she’d have to hide that particular hobby in a house like Two Willows. All the Reed women were intelligent; it made sense that they all read as much as they liked. But he was beginning to understand Lena was a private person. Maybe she needed a place to dream unseen.

  He thought of what she’d said back on the ridge; that she would go back in time to the Revolutionary War. Maybe she felt as out of place in this world as he sometimes did.

  When she closed the chest, stood up and handed him a book, he took it, perused the title and cover, and turned it over to read the blurb on the back.

  “Sounds good. Thank you.” Against every instinct that made him want to take advantage of the privacy of the l
oft to kiss her, and maybe even more, Logan turned and made his way back to the ladder. When they were both on solid ground again, he touched her hand. “You’ll never climb that ladder and find me in the loft. Not without an invitation. Got it?”

  After a moment she nodded, turned on her heel and led the way back out.

  The kitchen was crowded three days later when Alice suddenly slammed her mug of coffee on the table. She tossed her sketchbook aside and flung her pencil down. “It’s back!”

  No one had to ask what she meant. The drone trying to map the maze kept arriving day after day, driving Alice into a fury. Lena wasn’t used to seeing her normally calm sister so wound up, and when she joined Alice on the back porch, she meant to be soothing when she said, “Don’t even pay it any attention; it never gets past your barricade.”

  Alice didn’t answer. Instead, she grabbed the light work jacket Lena wore, yanked it open and reached for the pistol Lena carried in her shoulder holster.

  Lena grabbed her wrist. “Hey—that’s not cool.”

  “Then you do it. Shoot it. Take it out.” Alice’s eyes were wide, her brows furrowed.

  “Okay, I’ll handle it.” A flying, weaving target wouldn’t be that easy to hit, but everyone else was safely in the house, and this was private property. What could it hurt?

  She pulled out her pistol and took aim. She didn’t rush, knowing the drone would buzz around the periphery of the maze for an hour or more before it flew off.

  Her first shot went wide, and the door behind her swung open not a second later.

  “What the hell, Lena? What are you shooting at?” Brian shouted.

  She ignored him. Took a second shot.

  Missed again as the drone dove for the maze.

  “Damn it.”

  “Lena, what’s going on?” Cass called from inside.

  “Alice wants the drone dead,” Lena called back.

  “Well, so do I,” Cass said. “Go for it.”

  “You heard my sister,” Lena told Brian. She noticed Logan standing in the doorway. He folded his arms and leaned against the frame.

  She took aim again, but it was harder now that everyone was watching. She told herself to think of it like target practice. She couldn’t let her audience psych her out.

  After lining up her shot, she took a breath, aimed and breathed out again while pulling the trigger.

  The drone crashed to the earth.

  Alice whooped and raced toward it. Scooping it up, she headed for the maze. “Come on!” she yelled back to Lena.

  Lena emptied the remaining cartridges from her pistol, pocketed them and reholstered it, then jogged after Alice. Logan followed her, but she didn’t care. Taking that drone down made her feel ten feet tall.

  She caught up to Alice in the center of the maze. Logan, who’d stuck close behind her, came to a stop when she did. Alice held the drone up to the standing stone.

  “Your boundaries are sacred again,” she announced to it. “Next time I won’t wait so long. This is for you.” She dropped the drone on the ground and stomped it to pieces. Turning, she smiled triumphantly. “No one fucks with my maze!”

  “That’s right.” Lena cheered her on. When Alice marched past them, leaving the smashed drone behind her, Logan turned to watch her go.

  “Jack’s gotta be shitting his pants right about now,” he said with a grin.

  “Good.” Lena grinned back. “What’s he like?”

  “Honestly? Guy drives me nuts, but I think… I think he might be perfect for your sister. She’s perfect for him. He’ll turn himself inside out trying to figure out how she does what she does.”

  “That’s how it should be.”

  “That’s how it is for me, too,” Logan said as they slowly followed Alice out of the maze. Lena had a feeling he was trying to memorize the way.

  “You can’t figure out how I do what I do?” she scoffed. “All I do is ranch.”

  “And consume my every waking thought,” he admitted. “And most of my sleeping thoughts, too.”

  Lena didn’t know what to say about that. Truth was, she thought about him far more than she wanted to.

  “Ready to build that stable?” he asked.

  “Hell, yeah.” Relieved at the turn of the conversation, she led the way through the rest of the maze and down the rutted track toward the outbuildings. It was clear the weather wouldn’t hold for too long, and they needed the stables up and ready to house the horses over the winter.

  Several times during the last few days, she and Logan had gone over the building plans. Normally she would have resented his interference, but this time she had to admit he’d been helpful. Neither she nor Logan had worked with building plans before, and although it wasn’t a complicated structure, she wanted to take the time to make sure she understood them.

  They met up with the rest of the men at the foundation of the new stable. The next few hours would have been satisfying if Logan wasn’t always trying to carry things for her or help hold the boards she was screwing into place. Every time she told him she didn’t need help, he replied, “I know,” and then helped her anyway. By midway through the afternoon, she was happy with the progress they’d made, but she was also thirsty.

  “I need to run up to the house,” she told the men. “Need anything?”

  “A refill on my water would be great. Want me to come with you?” Logan asked.

  “Nope. Be back in a minute.” She hurried up the track before he could join her, wanting a little space. She wasn’t gone long, so when she was walking back down the track, she was surprised to see a truck she didn’t recognize heading out the track that led from the outbuildings to the main road. “Who was that?” she called to Logan as she approached. She passed out water bottles and downed half of her own before setting the canister on a handy pile of wood.

  “Those twins who were so enamored of you at the Dancing Boot the other night.” Logan drank his entire bottle of water in one long gulp. “Needed that, I guess.”

  “The twins? You mean Harley and Ray? What did they want?”

  “They wanted to see that stallion of yours. Told them you were far too busy for that kind of nonsense. I sent them packing. I don’t think they’ll bother you again.”

  Lena couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You sent them packing? Without even asking me?”

  “Didn’t want to send those two goons up to the house. Besides, the other night you made it clear you didn’t want them around.”

  “That doesn’t give you any right to decide who I talk to or don’t talk to. You’re not my father.”

  “Believe me; I don’t want to be your father.” Logan waggled his eyebrows at her.

  Lena’s anger grew. He couldn’t distract her with a funny face. This was serious. She didn’t need some… man… making decisions for her.

  “Look, they’re troublemakers, anyone can see that. I did what needed to be done. I don’t know what the fuss is all about.”

  Now he was going to pretend he was the reasonable one? Lena’s throat burned with indignation. “First of all, they’re kids. Second of all, the fuss is about you sending away people who came to see me. You don’t get to make those decisions. Got it?”

  “No, I don’t got it.” Logan straightened up. “Your father sent me here to protect you. If someone sets foot on this property and I don’t like them, I’m going to send them away. I’m not going to let them think I have to ask permission before I do so.”

  “You do have to ask permission! This isn’t your home or your land. I’m the one who owns this place. I’m the one who runs it. And who the hell says I need protecting?” Lena hated the way her voice rose at the end of that question. She grabbed the closest thing to hand—a crowbar—unsure what she meant to do with it but needing to feel the heft of it in her hand.

  “Lena—” Brian said, straightening from where he was going through a pile of lumber. “Be careful.”

  “Far as I know it’s the General’s name on the deed to T
wo Willows,” Logan said, ignoring him.

  Lena blinked. The General’s name? “Like hell! Two Willows is my mother’s land. The General forfeited any right to it the day he walked away from her funeral.” She lifted the crowbar higher. Logan snatched up a shovel and deflected her blow when she swung the tool at him in a wide arc. He blocked her next blow, too.

  “Stop it. Jesus, woman, you’re going to get yourself hurt! Come on—we both know the General calls the shots here whether you like it or not!”

  Lena swung again as hard as she could. Logan repelled the blow with two hands on the shovel. The crowbar bounced off its handle and smashed back into Lena’s forehead. She fell to her knees with a cry. The crowbar hit the dirt in front of her, but Lena was too busy cradling her head in her hands to see it. She heard Logan swearing, felt his hands lift her up. As the world tilted, her vision blurred and everything went dark.

  Chapter Six

  ‡

  “Maybe it’s a sign you’re not where you’re supposed to be,” Anthony said.

  Logan clutched his cell phone tighter, pacing the short expanse of the kitchen, wishing he had more room to burn off the energy that raged through him. Lena was resting in the hospital overnight under observation, but the doctor who’d examined her said he didn’t think she’d gotten a concussion. She did have quite a bump on her forehead, though, Brian said.

  She’d refused to see him when Logan asked to have a minute alone with her at the hospital. Logan had tried to push the matter, but he was unanimously overruled and sent home.

  Now he couldn’t relax. He was burning with remorse and frustration. He’d only meant to block Lena’s blow, not brain her with the crowbar. The look Cass had given him when he’d run into the house, Lena passed out in his arms, should have struck him dead on the spot. Even Alice, who he swore was on his side where marrying Lena was concerned, had tsked at him as she rushed to help.

  “What do you want me to do, leave? Just walk out before I even know if she’s okay. Go AWOL?”