Blake, Abby - Wild Fascination [A Bride for Eight Brothers 3] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) (5 page)

The man took his glasses off, rubbed a finger over his left eye, and directed his attention to Mikayla. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Davidson, but this is liable to get very ugly, and you will likely cop the brunt of it. I want you and your husbands to be prepared for what you may encounter in court.”

Mikayla nodded, obviously determined to stand up to the woman bold enough to sue her husbands, but every instinct Ryan owned screamed at him to remove his wife from the legal line of fire.

“Can we still make an offer?” Ty and Peter were obviously having the same thought process because they nodded in agreement to his question.

“That would be a very bad idea. Making an offer now would show weakness, and once the sharks smell blood in the water…”

“No,” Mikayla said decisively, “I will not run and hide over a few nasty names. I know who I am, and I know why I married all of you.”

She glanced around the room, daring any of them to dispute her right to make that decision. Their lawyer looked quite pleased.

“Excellent,” he said. “I think it would be helpful if you were able to take the stand, perhaps explain the circumstances of your marriages. How you met them, why you decided to marry all of them not just one or t—”

“Hell, no,” Ryan said as he turned to Mikayla. “Sweetheart, you don’t have to do this. We’ll just pay the money. I don’t want you going through this.”

Mikayla smiled so beautifully Ryan’s heart hurt just thinking of her being savaged by Jessie Evans and her posse.

“It’s not about the money,” she said, touching his face with her fingertips. “It’s about right and wrong. Peter did nothing wrong. We can’t let her win like that.”

“But I don’t want you hurt,” Ryan said as he pressed her hand harder against his face and closed his eyes.

“I won’t be,” she said, sounding very confident, “because I have my husbands beside me, and I know that they’ll love me no matter what some nasty woman or her lawyers say.”

Ryan nodded, wanting to say more, but also stunned by his sweet wife’s conviction. She may have looked fragile, but she possessed a streak of courage a mile wide.

* * * *

Mikayla tried to sound very confident. She needed to fix this. Despite the fact that Jessie probably would’ve learned of Mikayla’s marriage to the brothers eventually, she couldn’t help but feel responsible for setting all of this in motion. If only she’d abided her husband’s orders… She shook her head slightly. Nope, she couldn’t even finish that thought. Following the orders of eight bossy husbands was a sure way to lose the person she believed herself to be.

It wasn’t easy to hide the shaking in her fingers, but somehow she managed. She glanced at Ty and Peter’s worried faces and forced herself to smile calmly. Going to court and standing up to this woman was the right thing to do, but a small worry niggled at the base of her skull. Despite everything she’d just told them about knowing they would love her no matter what, a small voice inside her whispered insidiously that maybe she was wrong.

Her husbands knew very little of her life before meeting them, and they knew absolutely nothing of her life before being abducted by people traffickers. They knew she had no family, but she’d always managed to avoid questions about her childhood. None of them even knew she’d been in the foster care system until the day she’d turned sixteen.

And not one of them knew what happened after that.

Their lawyer was still talking, and Mikayla tried to return her focus to the conversation.

“…we may well be able to convince the judge that Jessie Evans is actually the gold digger, but she plays the role of scorned lover quite well.” Mikayla smiled, very pleased to hear that she wasn’t the only one who could see past the woman’s act. “But we need to be careful, or Peter will just be seen as a man who moved on to greener pastures with scant regard for the woman he’d promised to love.”
 

He turned to Mikayla and held out his hand. “I will try to minimize the damage, but things will get a little rough. Let me know if you have any questions,” he said as he shook her hand. “I’ll see you in court on Thursday.”

She nodded and followed him to the door. Once he’d gone, she turned to face her husbands. They all looked a little pale, and almost as one they started talking about her involvement in the court case. She held up her hand to silence them.

“Simple fact,” she said very clearly. “Nasty things are going to be said about me whether I am there or not. At least this way I get to defend myself.”

Ryan and Ty nodded thoughtfully, but Peter still looked miserable. Before he could apologize again, she moved into his arms and pressed a kiss to his lips. “First, I want a nap,” she said on a yawn, “and then I want to go back to California for a couple of days.” He nodded, pulled her closer, and turned toward the bedroom.

“Oh, no, not this time, brother,” Ryan said as he followed them into the bedroom. “You can sleep in the chair if you want, but I want my wife in my arms. So you can either sleep on her other side or watch from a distance. Either way, Ty and I aren’t going to be left out. Not today.”

Surprisingly, Peter nodded, perhaps in resignation, and then climbed onto the bed and dragged Mikayla into the middle. He didn’t look comfortable when Ryan slid onto the other side, or when Ty stretched out at the end of the bed and wrapped a hand around Mikayla’s ankle, but Peter stayed there and held her as she fell asleep.

* * * *

Traveling back to California was a very good idea. Ty watched his wife talk animatedly to Tracey and her partners. Mikayla appeared relaxed, and it was certainly distracting her from the stress of the upcoming court date. As childish as it seemed, Ty was still hoping for a miracle so that he could spare his wife the pain and humiliation of having her life with them dissected and vilified.

Tracey laughed as her partners pulled her in for a tight hug. The four of them seemed very happy together. Rick, Tony and Ashton seemed very protective of Tracey in much the same way Ty and his brothers were toward Mikayla. They were also cops, and even though Ty worried for Tracey’s well-being if her partners were hurt on duty, he also felt relieved that Tracey was well protected.

He shook his head minutely as he realized his faith in the human race had certainly been tainted by their experiences on the ice planet. Although, the realization didn’t make him want to protect his wife any less.

“So have you set a date?” Mikayla asked in a very excited voice. He tuned in to the conversation hoping to catch on to whatever he’d missed.

“We’re not planning anything over the top. Rick’s parents and sister aren’t pleased with their choice of lifestyle.” Mikayla could tell by the way Tracey spat the words “choice” and “lifestyle” she was not thrilled by her soon-to-be in-laws’ opinion. “And you know I have no family, so we thought we’d just have a civil ceremony with a couple of work colleagues and a few close friends.” Tracey glanced up at Ty and then back to Mikayla. “When do you go home?”

By the beautiful, excited smile across Mikayla’s face, Ty figured they weren’t going home until after Tracey’s wedding. And at the moment he couldn’t think of anything more perfect than giving Mikayla a good memory of this trip to Earth.

He nodded when Tracey looked at him, and then the women giggled like teenagers and got down to the serious business of planning a wedding.

* * * *

“As you can see, Your Honor, Mr. Davidson and his brothers are all married to Miss Mikayla Noone. I offer these marriage certificates as evidence that clearly supports Ms. Evans’s claim that her engagement to Mr. Peter Davidson also included his brothers.” The bailiff handed the paperwork to the judge who looked through them without changing the expression on his face.

Jessie Evans had arrived at the courthouse wearing a simple, yet elegant and obviously expensive, summer dress. She was the picture of sweet innocence, and it made Peter want to strangle the woman. Obviously he’d given her far more ammunition than he’d realized.

It would’ve been difficult to sell the claim that Peter would fall for two such wildly different women, but by dressing in a similar fashion to Mikayla, Jessie had a much better chance.

How the hell had he missed Jessie’s real personality? He’d once thought himself in love with the woman, but clearly the person she’d pretended to be was not the real person underneath. Peter clasped his hands together tightly, trying to still their shaking, as the judge turned to speak to Mikayla.

“Mrs. Davidson,” he said in a kind voice. “Can you tell me the circumstances of your marriages? Where did you meet your husbands?”

She explained in a clear and concise voice exactly the circumstances of their first meeting, holding her head high as she explained about the human trafficking ring and her brief time spent in the world of prostitution. She left nothing out, and he couldn’t have been more proud. Mikayla was one in a billion, and he’d thank every deity known to man for the rest of his life for bringing her to him.

Peter glanced at the woman he would’ve married and frowned at the malicious smile on her face. It was the only hint he’d seen that the woman wasn’t quite as in control as she seemed. Surely the judge wouldn’t consider that smile sweet.

“Why did you agree to marry all seven of the Davidson brothers?” the judge asked, seeming just a little perplexed that a woman could want so many husbands.

“Because I love them,” she said simply. “And it’s eight brothers. I met Bryce a few months after I married Lachlan, Brock, John, Matt, Peter, Ryan, and Ty in a civil ceremony the last time we were on Earth. My marriage to Bryce was filed, witnessed, and approved via intergalactic channels several months ago.”

“Who the fuck is Bryce?” The woman’s screech was so unexpected that Peter didn’t even realize it was Jessie’s voice until she jumped to her feet and screamed the question again. She looked like she intended to march up to where Mikayla sat and confront her nose to nose. Peter and his brothers were on their feet in an instant, but fortunately her lawyers and her father held her back. It didn’t stop her from hurling obscenities. “Can’t you tell the little whore is lying? Why would they even want that pathetic excuse for a woman as their wife? Let go of me!” she yelled at her father and pushed the man away. “She probably just gives them really good blow jobs.”

“Ms. Evans!” the judge growled as he hit his gavel against the desk. “Counsel, control your client, or she will be removed from my courtroom.”

The whole room had turned to watch Jessie throw her tantrum, but Peter’s eye were only for his wife. She gave him a soft smile and sat serenely while the courtroom exploded in movement. He could hear Jessie’s nasty words spewing from her mouth, but none of it meant a damn thing. Mikayla was his soul mate, his one true love, and he would cherish and protect her to his last breath.

* * * *

Mikayla couldn’t quite believe the relief coursing through her. Some of the accusations that had been pointed her way had been completely hideous and very untrue, yet others had hit just a little too close to home. Living in such isolated circumstances, she really hadn’t given much thought to how society would judge a woman with eight husbands. How ironic that the worst vitriol came from a woman wanting to steal seven of them from her.

She watched, surprised and maybe a little concerned for the woman and her mental health. The way she seemed to have completely lost her composure didn’t quite seem normal.

Mikayla sat there, trying to look calm and composed but jumped in fright when the judge banged his wooden hammer against the desk and ordered Jessie be removed from the room.

When Jessie’s frantic screeching finally faded down the hallway, the judge turned to Mikayla. “Mrs. Davidson, in light of the fact that Ms. Evans was obviously unaware of an eighth brother and, therefore, not as knowledgeable of the Davidson brothers as she claimed, I am dismissing her claim and finding in your favor. The court thanks you for your time.” He smiled then said with a suspicious gleam in his eyes, “Go home to your husbands, Mrs. Davidson. It’s obvious that they love you, and it’s exactly where you belong.”

She nodded as tears filled her eyes. She did belong to her men, and they belonged to her, and hopefully the past would leave them alone now to get on with their lives.

Chapter Five

Proposed Mining Planet M789zi.

Mikayla sighed as she entered the last report into the computer. Her satisfaction lasted all of two seconds before Ty dropped a heap more onto her desk. They’d been working their collective asses off since returning home three weeks ago. Tracey’s wedding had been perfect, and she’d promised to contact Mikayla as soon as she returned from her honeymoon.

Tired but happy and relaxed for the first time in a long time, Mikayla put off starting the new pile of work and instead watched the newest specimen they’d collected. The cute little fur ball held a piece of vegetation between its paws as it munched away and watched her at the same time.

“What are you going to call it?”

Ty spared a glance at the cage and replied, “I’ll need to do a complete genetic workup to be able to classify and name it correctly, but for the moment I’m calling it ‘mouse.’”

Mikayla rolled her eyes. Men. He could’ve called it anything he wanted—they were the only ones on the planet for heaven’s sake—but no, Ty had to call it a mouse. Plain, old, boring, little gray mouse! It may have looked a little like an Earth mouse, but it was far prettier. It had a cute elongated snout that twitched when food was near and luminous, expressive eyes that reminded her more of the marsupials in Australia back on Earth than common field mice. She watched it turn in a circle several times like a dog, and then it settled down for a nap.