Her mother had gasped in outrage, and looking from me to Piety and back like she expected us to tell her it was all some big prank.
“What are you going to tell Windsor?” her mother asked, her voice low, as if I wouldn’t hear them.
Of course, I was standing right there, and she damn well knew it.
“What do you mean, what am I going to tell Windsor?” Piety asked calmly. “I’m not going to tell him anything. Well, unless I run into him at a fundraiser or something. We hardly know each other.”
“You’ve been dating,” Silas said, his voice just as neutral as his daughter’s. But his eyes were…cold.
How could these two have created somebody like Piety?
She was so warm. So alive.
And they were like a couple of wooden dolls, complete with sticks up their respective arses.
“No, Daddy. You wanted us to date. I went out with him once or twice to get you off my back.” She lifted a shoulder and turned away, moving over to a long table stretched against the wall.
“Is that what this…this farce is about?” Silas demanded.
I tensed. I really didn't like the way they were talking to their daughter.
His eyes came to mine. “Is that it…what did you say your name was?”
I didn’t respond. If he was smart enough to handle the political claptrap, he was smart enough to remember my name. He just wanted me to feel like I wasn’t important enough.
Fuck that.
“Kaleb,” he said slowly. “It is Kaleb, correct?”
“Yep, sure is, mate.” I exaggerated my accent and gave him a glib smile. If Piety wanted to piss him off, I might as well give her – and him – her money’s worth. “I’m a bit of a bastard, really, going and stealing Piety away like I did, marrying her without so much as inviting you. But we just couldn’t wait, could we, sweetheart?”
Piety was back at my side now, and some of the stress had melted from her eyes as she leaned against me. “No. We couldn’t.” Head resting against my arm, she gave her mom a dazzling smile. “Maybe we can plan a real ceremony here in a few months…something we can invite everybody to. The drive-in Vegas chapel thing was so…lame.”
“You got married…” her mother paused, a hand pressed to her chest, “you went through one of those drive-through chapels?”
Piety waved a hand, forgoing the answer, which was probably a good idea since neither of us actually had any idea how the ceremony had gone. “It was just making things official. Kaleb and I knew what we wanted.”
Damn, she was good at this.
Sliding a hand down her back, I glanced at her father.
He was still skewering me with his eyes.
“Just what do you do, Kaleb?”
“Right now? Not much of anything.” I shrugged and turned my head into Piety’s hair, nuzzling her neck. “I had to quit my job so I could be with Piety.”
She gave me a smile so warm and sweet that my heart ached a little. Then it ached more as I reminded myself that this wasn’t real. None of it was. We enjoyed being with each other, but that was as far as it went.
“How…thoughtful of you,” Silas said. I could hear the fury pulsing in his voice. “And what was it you did before you quit?”
“Well, I didn’t hold the job long. I’d only taken it mainly to get some money and get over here to the States.” I had a feeling that would piss him off – and it did. His mouth tightened, and I could see the redness slowly creeping up his neck. He looked like he wanted to punch me already. And I hadn’t even gotten to the good part. “Back in Australia, I did a bit of this, bit of that. Planned on opening up my own surf shop, but that didn’t pan out. Anyway, I came over here after Flames Down Under took me on.”
“Flames…” It was her mother who said it. Amara’s face went white, and she looked from me to Piety before covering her eyes with her hand.
I bit back a smile. Her mother knew what Flames Down Under was. I’d have to point that out to Piety later if she hadn't caught it already.
“You’ll have to help me out there, Kaleb.” His jaw was tight, yet he managed to sound calm, casual even as he continued. “I’m not familiar with Flames Down Under. Is it a restaurant?”
“No. It’s a dance troupe…of sorts.” I paused and then added, “We’re – well, it’s not we anymore since I quit – but Flames are kind of like the Aussie version of the Chippendales. Strippers.”
I added the last part in even though it wasn’t necessary. He’d figured it out.
“You married a stripper,” he said, finally giving up the pretense and whirling on Piety with rage stamped all over his features.
“I married Kaleb.” She lifted her chin and stared him down. “I’m hardly a child, Dad.”
“That’s hardly evident!” He flung a hand in my direction. “He just outright admitted that he came over here for money, shakes his ass…for money, and you went and married him. You don’t even know him!”
“I know what I need to know.” Piety looked over at me and the smile on her face did little to calm the anger that had started to burn in me.
The anger had nothing to do with what her father was saying about me – I didn't give a damn about that – but he had no right to talk to her like that.
Bastard.
“And just what is that?” Silas held up a hand. “Never mind. I don’t want that answer. This is insane, Piety. I won't stand for it.”
After a moment, he turned on his heel and moved to pick up a phone. He spoke quietly into it and then replaced it before looking at me, eyes hard and cold as steel. “I’m having a car brought around. The driver can take you…wherever. But I need to speak with my–”
“I’m not going anywhere without my wife.” I took Piety’s hand. “Not unless she wants me to.”
“This is my house, you son of a bitch,” Silas said, voice choked.
“And he’s my husband.” Piety tightened her hand around mine. “If he’s not welcome…well.” She glanced up at me. “Come on, Kaleb. Let’s go.”
“Piety, wait.” Amara rose as she spoke for the first time in several minutes.
“I won’t stand here and have Dad talk to me like I’m an infant.” Piety lifted her chin.
“Then stop acting like a child!”
I turned on the senator then. “Exactly what is your problem?”
He blinked, clearly caught off-guard by the stripper daring to talk to him.
Next to me, Piety tensed.
I continued, “I couldn’t understand it, the whole way here. Piety has been so…well, she’s amazing. I’ve seen her give her heart to people. She laughs, and she makes me laugh. She’s kind and sweet and funny and confident. And then on the way here, all that changes. Now I get it – she was worried about dealing with you.”
He opened his mouth, but at that moment, a towering man appeared in the doorway, his bald head gleaming as if it had been polished with wax. The thought made me chuckle, and I shook my head, amused at the absurdity of it all.
“You think this is funny?” Silas asked, the words grinding between his clenched teeth.
“Sir, how may I be of assistance?” The giant eyed me narrowly.
“You aren’t needed, Timothy,” Piety said. “Dad was trying to make my husband leave, but if he can’t stay, neither can I. We’re both going.”
“Your husband…” Timothy – the giant – studied us for a moment, then nodded at Piety. “Congratulations.” Then he nodded at the elder Van Allans and left.
“She makes me happy,” I said without thinking. For a minute, this wasn’t a scam, wasn’t anything I was doing for money. I was just seeing the rage, the disappointment, all the negative emotions in the older man’s eyes – emotions directed at Piety – and it pissed me off. “And I think I make her happy. If you love her, I don’t understand what your problem is. Unless, of course, you’re more worried about your life than hers, and that makes you the son of a bitch here.”
A soft gasp escaped Piety at
my words, and I decided I needed to stop before I said something stupid – or more stupid. Taking her hand, I lifted it to my lips. “Come on, love. Let’s go.”
“Thank you.”
We'd been driving in relative silence for the past ten minutes, and the soft words were loud.
I looked over at Piety. “You’re not mad?”
She laughed. “No. I…hell, Kaleb. There have been so many times I’ve almost said those exact same words to him.”
“Not being related to the uptight bastard makes it easier.” Grimacing, I added, “Sorry. He just…I didn’t like how he talked to you.”
“It’s okay.” She smiled, her gaze locked on the road. “My parents love me, Kaleb. I know that. They just don’t understand me. Anyway…it went about as well as we could hope. Now we just…well, we’ve got the family reunion. Then you and I will have some massive blow-up, and we’ll call this quits so you can go on your way. I’ve got the money I promised you – half of it now, the rest after the family reunion. Okay?”
I swallowed hard. “Sounds good.”
“Oh, by the way…” She glanced at me. “Astra’s cousin is a lawyer. I don’t know if you’re wanting to stay over here or go back to Oz, but we can talk to him. He can help you figure things out.”
“Brilliant.”
But I wasn’t paying that much attention.
In a few more days, this would all be over.
I should have been relieved. I could focus on what really mattered. I could deal with Camry. Do what I'd come here to do.
Yet I wasn’t relieved.
And even though she was sitting right there next to me, I was already missing my wife.
12
Piety
I checked the time.
Again.
It was only ten minutes later than when I’d checked the last time.
Sighing, I dropped down onto the couch, determined to find some way to fill my mind.
Something underneath my butt managed to preoccupy my thoughts…for maybe two seconds.
I frowned as I pulled out a cell phone. Not mine.
“Kaleb’s.”
Had to be.
I rubbed my finger along the surface of it for a moment, nibbling my lower lip. Then I put the phone down and dropped my head back to the couch. He wasn’t here, and I was slowly going out of my mind.
Astra had indeed worked her magic and gotten him a meeting with her cousin Samuel. Whether or not anything solid would happen today, I wasn’t betting on it, but at least they could start the ball rolling.
I’d feel better if I was with him, but Kaleb had told me there was no need for me to go. Something told me that he wanted to go alone.
So I stayed home.
I wasn’t hurt or anything. It wasn’t like he needed me to hold his hand, and our marriage wasn't about a green card for him. Besides, I could use a little more downtime and relaxation before heading back to work next week. I certainly wasn’t going to be getting any over the weekend.
I snorted at the thought and tried to picture how things would go when my dad already looked like he wanted to explode just thinking about Kaleb.
Dad had tried calling, but I’d ignored him.
He’d even broken down and texted even though he'd always insisted that texts were so impersonal. He didn’t even like emails, but understood they were how people communicated these days.
But texts?
Senator Silas Van Allen didn’t text.
But he had sent me one earlier.
You need to stop acting like a child and talk to me. Please join your mother and I for dinner.
I’d responded with a simple question. And Kaleb?
We haven’t been able to spend time with you in several weeks. We need time to catch up. He can join us some other time.
I'd given him a simple answer.
No thank you.
That had set him off, and Mom had taken over from there, but I was ignoring her too.
It was weird how freeing this was. Granted, it was all a farce, and I needed to think through how things would be after this, but for the first time, both my mother and my father had stopped trying to talk through me, stopped looking through me.
Yes, they were angry, but I could handle that.
I couldn’t keep handling how they spent more time worrying about how my life was going to affect theirs.
If they were that hung up on it, they should have had a poodle instead of a daughter.
I checked the time again without any conscious thought, then groaned. It was going to be another hour, maybe two, before he was done with Samuel.
I was about to go out of my mind…
The phone next to me buzzed again and I looked down at it automatically.
A pretty girl’s picture flashed up across the screen, along with the notification that he’d gotten a message.
“Don't do it, Piety,” I muttered to myself.
He was a good-looking guy. He probably got messages from a lot of girls. Of course, he hadn’t told me that he was involved. I hadn’t asked.
But…
I'd married him, and we were having sex. It wasn't just about me, since I knew where we stood with each other. I didn't want to be the other woman. At least that was the excuse I gave myself as I swiped my thumb across the phone to unlock it.
Her name was Camry.
That was the first thing I noticed.
She was also flashing a wide, open grin into the camera.
She looked…happy. Sweet and young and happy.
Who was she?
The phone jolted in my hand as another message came through.
Are you there, K? Come on…I need to know. Things are getting desperate here. You got the money or not?
A strange, heavy sensation settled in my gut, and I closed the messages, putting the phone down.
I knew Kaleb needed money. He’d been honest about that from the beginning. Or had he?
Had he known who I was from moment one? Astra said she remembered how things had gone the night Kaleb and I had gotten married, but how reliable was her memory.
Had Kaleb been playing me this whole time?
And just who the hell was Camry?
13
Piety
It seemed like an eternity passed before my husband for hire finally returned from the meeting with Astra’s cousin, the lawyer. When he did, I was still dealing with the uneasiness I’d felt ever since I read the message from Camry.
Camry.
Who was she?
How did he know her?
Did she mean anything to him?
Of course she did.
How could she not?
She was asking him for money?
But even as that thought occurred to me, I brushed it aside. I’d had people I barely knew hit me up for money, guys I’d dated just a couple of times ask to hook up, telling me about this fascinating idea they had and just how much they could change the world if they had a little bit of help.
Money didn’t mean somebody mattered – it meant the money mattered.
I pushed the thought aside as I heard the familiar sound of the elevator, and I slid off the couch just as the door opened. He caught sight of me coming toward him and paused, as if I’d surprised him.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. For a moment, for that brief moment as my lips touched his, the chaos in my head faded away to nothingness, and it was just the two of us. It seemed that some tension drained out of him as well, and I wanted to curl myself tighter around him, pretend the world was gone.
But the world would just come back and find us.
So I retreated, rubbing my lips together to hold onto his taste a moment longer.
“How did it go?”
He shrugged, his voice deprecating and wry as he answered, “It went.”
He kissed my forehead before he cut around me and the feel of his lips lingered in the sweetest way. I leaned against the door, watching him as he moved deeper i
nto the loft.
“You left your phone,” I said. There. Nice and easy. I didn’t have to mention I’d gone snooping and seen his message, right?
“I noticed,” he said dryly as he pulled out a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He grinned at me. “I discovered that…oh, two minutes before I was supposed to meet the lawyer. Great timing, huh?”
“Could be worse. You could have left it back in Vegas.”
“True.”
Looking down, I fought the ugly monster brewing in my belly. It wasn’t like I’d gotten his girlfriend’s number or something. This wasn’t that big of a deal.
“Who’s Camry?”
The words popped out without any conscious thought from me, and I would have sucked them back in if there was any possible way of doing it. But that wasn’t possible, and I stood there, feeling blood rush to my face as he slowly lifted his head and met my eyes.
“What?”
“Ah…” Face flaming, I shifted from one foot to the other, feeling awkward and out of place. It wasn’t a feeling I was used to, and I didn’t like it – at all. “She…um…well, she texted you. I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I just picked up the phone and saw the message. She wants money.”
I half-expected him to just brush it off. Oh…it’s a woman I know on the tour…she’s always bumming money for a smoke. It’s a lady from home, sometimes she runs short right before payday.
It would be something small and easy.
But a muscle jumped in his cheek as he stared at me.
“She’s…” He turned away, the muscles in his spine going tight.
I could see the tension in him. He stood so rigid, I thought he’d break.
I wished I hadn’t said anything.
“Camry’s my sister.”
A harsh breath escaped me, the nervousness draining away to be replaced by giddiness.
But all of that evaporated in an instant when Kaleb looked back at me.
“She needs money to pay off her dealer. That’s why I came to Las Vegas and joined the Flames. She’s in trouble.” He stood there rigid, shoulders braced like he was preparing for a blow. “She’s been in and out of trouble since our parents died, and I can’t do shit to help her. But I couldn’t just ignore it…she’s my baby sister. I had to try.”