Their Bride (Marriage Lottery Series Standalone) Read online

  Vanessa made an outraged noise. “Did we not cover this back at the damn house? Which of the three of us survived in the wilderness for years at a time?”

  Logan only barely bit back the retort on the tip of his tongue. They were twice her size. If they ran across a bobcat, it could swallow her in a single damn bite.

  “There, look,” Vanessa said, pointing her flashlight at a muddy spot near a broken fence. The sun had just set and Logan didn’t know how she’d even spotted it. But the closer he looked, he saw what she meant. The dry grass was stained a dark reddish brown. It wasn’t mud like he’d first assumed. “That’s blood. They must have got something.”

  “All right,” Logan said, walking closer, “assuming it was them. But there’s no drag mark. The animal must have run.”

  “You don’t think they would have followed it deeper into the neutral zone, do you?” Cam asked, looking out at the large expanse of land to the east. The same direction the blood trail went.

  “Would you follow it, Vanessa?” Logan asked.

  “Yes,” she said, eyebrows pinched with worry. “If I was hungry or desperate enough.”

  “Then they followed it. Come on.”

  They hiked for another half hour when they noticed the smell of a campfire.

  Logan held a hand up for them to stop and put a finger to his lips. Both Vanessa and Cam nodded that they got the point. No talking.

  Logan crept forward, the others right behind him.

  It could be the twins. If they’d caught up to the animal, they might have decided to butcher it on the spot. The meat wouldn’t keep long without ice.

  But as they neared a small clearing, it was quickly apparent what had happened. A hog’s skin and innards were burning on the fire while an enormous man with an eye patch over his left eye hunkered over the carcass.

  And right behind him?

  Ross and Riordan were both gagged and tied to a large oak tree. Ross’s eyes look haunted in the firelight, and Logan soon understood why.

  The smuggler had dumped his pack—likely filled with weapons, judging by those the Security Squad had previously intercepted—and he was still butchering the hog, describing his work in detail.

  “You gots to take off the front legs,” he said, as he drove through them with his axe. “Tough work. It’ll be tougher when I get to the two of y’all. A man’s innards don’t smell the same on the fire, either. Bacon’s just as good, though. Y’all look like good eatin’.”

  Vanessa made a small pip of a noise, and Cam slapped his hand over her mouth.

  They hadn’t come as heavily armed as the smuggler, but Logan had the rifle, and Vanessa and Cam both had hunting knives. Logan felt confident he could get the upper hand with a little wit thrown in.

  “Cam. Cause a distraction at the other end of the clearing. Get him to move away from his weapons. Then I can hold him at bay while you untie the boys.”

  “I’ll get the twins untied,” Vanessa said.

  “No fucking way,” Cam said.

  “What? Why?” she asked.

  Enough. Enough was enough.

  She was reaching to pull out her knife but Logan stopped her, cupping her cheeks in his hands. Jesus, she was so tiny. His hands practically engulfed her.

  “We don’t risk you, that’s why,” he hissed. “Don’t you get it? You mean too much to all of us. If something happened to you, you think Ross could live with himself? Or Riordan? Would you do that to them? Without any one of us, the clan goes on. But you’re the glue. You hold us together.”

  Vanessa’s eyes searched his back and forth. “You’re wrong,” she whispered, her voice barely audible as she shook her head. “It’s you. We haven’t been right since you left us.”

  Her words hit him like a sucker punch. Jesus.

  He pulled her head down and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. “Go back to the four-wheeler, baby. Please. For me.”

  When he pulled back, her lips trembled like she was fighting back emotion, but she nodded.

  With that assurance, Logan nodded at Cam, who crept around the perimeter of the clearing. Logan waited to see what he’d do and, even though he was expecting something, he flinched right along with Ross and Riordan when a bush started to rustle. Christ, he was feeling so jumpy. It wasn’t like him.

  That’s because it matters. These people are important to you.

  “Who’s there?” the smuggler asked, standing up. Jesus, he was colossal. He had at least six inches on Logan, and that was saying something.

  The smuggler grabbed a flaming stick from the fire and stalked toward the sound, holding the torch in front of him for light. Before he got too close to where Cam lay hidden, Logan charged into the clearing and raised his rifle. “Stop!”

  The smuggler stopped, then turned slowly, arms out.

  “You’ve taken something that belongs to me,” Logan said.

  The smuggler chuckled. “Everyone’s a scavenger out here in the bush. You want one of the hams? Fine by me. I can’t carry it all back anyway.”

  “I was talking about my boys,” Logan said, tipping his head toward the tree.

  “Your—?” The smuggler glanced toward the auburn-haired twins as if he’d momentarily forgotten about them.

  “Those boys are my family,” Logan said. “And I don’t take kindly to anyone who fucks with my family.”

  Cam entered the clearing from behind the smuggler and moved to the tree to untie the boys. When he cut through the ropes, they both fell forward onto their hands and knees.

  “Tie him up,” Logan said, directing Cam, while the twins struggled to get to their feet.

  Cam made short work of it and as soon as he was done, Logan leaned his weapon up against a tree.

  Ross and Riordan clawed at the dirty rags that gagged them and looked back and forth across the clearing as if they were searching for something.

  “Relax, boys,” Logan said. “I’ll save the tongue lashing till we get home.”

  Then he saw the smug expression on the bound smuggler’s face—right as Riordan finally got his gag off and yelled, “Behind you!”

  Logan swung around right in time to see a second man snag the gun from the smuggler’s pack and cock it. He aimed it straight at Logan’s head. “Everyone, line up!”

  Logan’s heart hit his gut.

  Another fucking fatal mistake.

  He’d just led them all to slaughter. Was Vanessa far enough away? Please God let her be halfway back to the four-wheeler by now.

  What if these animals find her, too?

  She’ll die.

  Just like Jenny.

  And it will be your fault again. Oh God. What had he done?

  Logan, Cam, and the twins lined up in a straight line at the smuggler’s orders. Logan’s mind raced. He could lunge for the gun. Even if he got shot, Cam and the twins would still have a chance. If they moved quick enough. It would really only work if he could signal them what he was planning. Cam was former Security Squadron, he might pick up on it.

  “Would should I do, Jack? Plow them all down together, or make them watch their family go down one at a time?”

  “NO!” Logan yelled, but it wasn’t at the smuggler.

  Vanessa dropped from the trees right over the smuggler’s head, landing on the man’s back like a spider monkey.

  One second, she held a knife at his neck. The next second, a long scarlet ribbon split across his throat. His eyes and mouth opened in shock, and then he sunk to his knees.

  Vanessa landed gracefully on her feet while blood spilled from the smuggler’s neck. Another second, and he face planted onto the saturated ground.

  Even though it wasn’t the first time he’d seen her kill someone, for a second, Logan was just as shocked as the rest of his clan.

  Ross’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.

  More than shocked, though, Logan was furious. He’d told her to go back to the ATV. She’d fucking promised. What was she—

  Movement off t
o his left had him swinging around right in time to see the first smuggler taking advantage of the momentary lapse in everyone’s attention to yank away from Cam’s grip and start running into the darkness, hands still tied together.

  Vanessa saw it too. And with the same lethal swiftness, she grabbed the gun that had fallen from the smuggler’s hand. She obviously knew how to handle it, holding both arms out, one hand on the gun’s handle and the other underneath, bracing it.

  She lined up her shot.

  “Vanessa,” Logan yelled, lunging forward and shoving her arms down the second before she squeezed the trigger.

  “What are you—” she started but Logan was done. So beyond done.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he yelled. He yanked the gun from her hands and her mouth dropped open like he was crazy.

  “He’s getting away!” she shouted, looking after Jack.

  “You think shooting him in the back is the answer?” Logan shoved the gun in the back of his pants.

  “He’s a fucking cannibal!” she shouted, shoving Logan in the chest.

  Logan grabbed her wrists and pulled her close. Her words only reminded him of how dangerous it had been for her to come back for them. “Which is why you should have never come back in the first place!”

  Her mouth dropped open. “I saved all of your lives, you stupid oaf. You would have died!” She yanked her wrists, struggling to get free, but Logan wasn’t about to let her go.

  “I had a plan. You should have trusted me.”

  She stopped struggling for a moment to scoff. “What plan?”

  “I was going to rush him. The others could have used the opportunity to get the gun and—”

  “You would have let him shoot you,” she whispered, a sharp contrast to her furious shouting moments before.

  “It probably wouldn’t have come to that,” Logan said. “I probably could have gotten the gun away from him and—”

  She ripped one of her wrists out of his grasp and then slapped him hard across the face. “How fucking dare you?” she shrieked, back to full volume. “You’re mad at me for coming back when I had a plan to save us all that wouldn’t get anyone hurt and—”

  “You didn’t know it wouldn’t get you killed,” Logan shouted. He let go of her wrists and grabbed her shoulders, giving her the slightest shake. “When will you get it through your head? You’re too important. You’re— You’re—”

  “What?” she asked, eyes searching his as she grabbed the fabric of the front of his shirt and went up on her tiptoes so she could get right up in his face. “What am I?”

  “You’re my fucking wife.”

  He wrapped his arms around her and yanked her close enough to feel all of her against him, warm, solid, and alive.

  And then he gave into what he’d been wanting ever since he left her bed four weeks ago.

  He kissed her so hard she’d feel it into next week.

  Chapter Fifteen

  VANESSA

  Logan’s devouring kiss was like a strike of lightning.

  Shocking,

  Electric.

  Life-changing.

  Vanessa groaned into his mouth and lifted her arms around his neck. Then she hopped up, wrapping her legs around his waist.

  He caught her, one hand going under her ass, squeezing as he strode with her to one of the nearby trees.

  They passed Cam as they went and Logan broke from her mouth only long enough to toss Cam the gun from the back of his pants.

  “Anyone approaches, you shoot first and ask questions later.”

  Then his lips were back on hers. Consuming her.

  He could have died. He’d been about to do more than risk his life. Charging at that psycho would have gotten him—

  She ran her hands through his hair, nails scraping his scalp until she grabbed the sides of his head and dragged his head back from hers.

  “Swear to me that you’ll never think about doing something so idiotic ever again.”

  His eyes burned with lust and fury. “Just like you promised to go back to the four-wheeler?”

  “Goddammit, why do you have to be so—”

  “I know,” he said, then cut her off with a kiss.

  Oh God, she thought. They shouldn’t be doing this. Not now. They needed to get the hell out of here. That one-eyed smuggler… Jack… He was—

  But she couldn’t bring herself to let go of Logan as their tongues dueled and he pressed her back against a tree.

  Oh God, she could feel his hardness through his jeans. Her breath hitched and he kissed her harder, his hand moving from her ass up to squeeze her breast and then back down to her ass again.

  Then he was unwrapping her legs.

  She couldn’t help whimpering at the loss of contact, but the next second, she felt his hand at the button of her jeans, and the bolt of heat that shot through her sex almost had her coming on the spot. Did this mean— Was he finally going to— Out here of all places?

  She wasn’t going to second guess it, though. She needed it. God, did she need it. She’d almost lost him.

  She’d recognized Nelson. He traded regularly with Lorenzo, and Jack had been part of his crew back when she’d escaped. That eye patch Jack was wearing? She was the reason for it.

  Jack had been on guard duty the night she’d escaped. He’d underestimated her. He came close, playing with one of his knives, describing in detail which cuts of meat he liked best, just like he had been with the twins. Which cuts of human meat.

  He came so close, she’d head butted him, which had startled him into dropping the knife. One thing she’d say for Jack—he kept his knives sharp.

  She sliced through the rope tying her hands and then, when Jack lunged for her, she stabbed him in the eye with his own knife.

  Too bad she hadn’t finished the job—back then or tonight—because to see Nelson about to— She shuddered, remembering how he’d held the gun at Logan’s head. And Jack…that fucking psychopath…

  He’ll report back to Lorenzo. He’ll tell Lorenzo he saw you.

  But that was a worry for another day. If he was out here with Nelson, that meant he wasn’t one of Lorenzo’s crew anymore, so it would take him time to track Lorenzo down.

  None of that mattered now.

  Logan was alive and in her arms.

  She was safe. Logan was alive. They were all alive. Alive, alive, alive.

  Vanessa pushed Logan’s fumbling hands away, yanked her belt free, then shoved her pants down. He was doing the same with his jeans.

  The second she kicked off one leg of her pants, he grabbed her leg and hiked it around his waist.

  He pressed her against the tree and she felt him—oh God she felt him. So hot and hard, right at the entrance of her sex.

  There was a moment, the shortest moment where his eyes came to hers. He was breathing so heavily his huge chest pressed into hers with his every breath, and God, she loved the friction against her breasts.

  But it was what she saw in his eyes that had her insides turning liquid. She saw the fear he’d had for her—the abject terror at the thought of losing her. There was lust, too, and just so much emotion, she was overwhelmed.

  Also she saw a question there: did she want this?

  “Yes,” she whispered, reaching up to cup his face. “God, yes.”

  His face transformed then, lust burning away everything else in those expressive eyes of his. He reached down, grabbed her ass with both of his hands, squeezing and kneading her flesh.

  And then he lunged forward, taking her with one powerful, sure thrust.

  Vanessa cried out in pleasure and fullness. She ripped her shirt off over her head, undoing her bra with her next breath. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck so tight he might have trouble breathing.

  She didn’t fucking care. She needed to hold on to him with everything she had. She lifted her hips back and then dropped them down in rhythm with his thrust.

  “Deeper,” she cried. “Oh God, hard
er, Logan. Harder.”

  He wrapped one arm around her back to brace her so the tree bark wasn’t so abrasive—he was so considerate in everything, even this animal haze of lust—and the other under her ass.

  And then he let go of every inhibition.

  He slammed into her over and over and fucking over. He kissed and suckled and bit at her neck and breasts. He growled filthy things in her ear.

  “I’m gonna fuckin’ destroy this cunt. This cunt is fuckin’ mine, you hear me? Fuckin’ mine. You’re gonna walk funny tomorrow and every time you feel that soreness between your legs you’re gonna remember this. Me right now. Fucking every other thought out of your head.”

  “Yes,” she cried because it was the only thing she could say. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.”

  In the quiet of the evening, apart from the smugglers’ crackling fire, the slap of Logan’s balls against her ass seemed to echo across the night.

  Her orgasm rose so sharply all she could do was wrap her legs around him more tightly and hold on for dear life.

  He must have felt it because his thrusts became even harder and more frantic. “Baby. Oh fuck, Vanessa. I— You—”

  The pleasure rose.

  Higher.

  Then higher still.

  Oh God, she’d never— Surely it had to—

  But no, the wave crested even higher.

  “Logan!” she cried as the blinding light burst outward.

  He bit down on her shoulder and she dug her fingernails into his scalp as the light pulsed. One heartbeat.

  Two.

  Three.

  Four.

  Her and Logan, together in the light.

  Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd exhale.

  The wave crested and dissipated, but she wasn’t ready to let go. She stayed wrapped around Logan’s body, breathing him in. She wasn’t alone and she wouldn’t let him run.

  Even if he tried, she wouldn’t let him run again. Not after this.

  “Vanessa,” he murmured, dropping the gentlest kisses up and down her neck. “My sweet, perfect Vanessa.”

  That was when the tears came.

  He wasn’t running.

  This was real.

  Still, she clung to him, face tucked into the crook of his neck, too afraid to break the spell.