Denys, Jennifer - Wife for Three [Duoterra] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (13 page)

101

Marcus didn’t seem entirely happy with this turn of events, but he let go of Brianna with some reluctance as one of Garrett’s men came over to take hold of her instead. Before the man could take her, she flung herself trembling into Eric’s arms. But it was only for a moment as the man pulled them apart.

Curt swore. Moving swiftly to the porch, he pulled Eric to one side, but Brianna could still hear them talking urgently in quiet voices.

“I’ll go find Adam. You go with them, but for Heaven’s sake, don’t let them out of your sight. In fact, stay plastered to Brianna. I don’t trust her uncle and that man, Ford. I have a feeling they would capture her and run off given half the chance.”

“Don’t worry. I will.”

“Make sure you do. We’re not losing her. Not now.” Eric vocalized their fears, “But what about Adam?” It was Brianna’s fear, too. If he didn’t want her, would the other two still have her? She had come to care for them, deeply. Forget that.

She plainly and simply loved them and would love Adam, too, if he gave her a chance. She sighed.
But will I get the chance?

102

Jennifer Denys

Curt cursed as he reached the top of the rise and dropped his bag wearily to the ground. There was no sign of his brother.

“Fuck it.”
Where is Adam?
This was the third place he had tried, where he knew Adam liked to hunt for the burrowing creatures called babbits. Of course, his brother could have changed his mind about hunting the tasty, but elusive, creatures and gone after some jumpalopes, and that would mean he’d gone off to a totally different area.

Shaking his head decisively, Curt told himself that he’d been the one to see Adam depart, and the jumpalopes were west of the Farm.

Adam had departed to the east, so that meant he had to be hunting babbits.
So where the hell is he?
Dammit, he really wanted to be going in the other direction and following Brianna into town. He couldn’t believe that he had hesitated for a moment when they came to take her away. His stomach was still sick remembering it. How could he have had the slightest doubt about the woman he loved?

Just as he flung his rucksack onto his back to leave for the next possible location, Curt heard a sound and whirled around to see Adam coming down the cliff, carrying a brace of dead babbits and rope over his shoulder, his longblade slung to his back. Hunting on this world was an art involving rope, a knife, and a lot of patience.

Adam stopped short when he saw Curt, the babbits swinging in the wind. “What the hell you doing here?” His brother clearly didn’t want to be disturbed. Well, tough, thought Curt.
There are more important things now than my brother’s
peace of mind.

Wife for Three

103

“Thank God I’ve finally found you.”

“Why? Have the two of you had enough of the girl now?” He turned and continued down the path Curt had just walked up, not waiting for the answer to his comment.

Curt gritted his teeth and angrily yelled after his brother, “The
girl
has a name. And Brianna has been taken away.”

“What do mean ‘taken away’?” Now he had Adam’s full attention as his brother stopped in the middle of the path to glare over his shoulder.

“Her uncle arrived with several other men, including Garrett, the law enforcer from Frontier.”

Adam answered impatiently, “Yes, I know who Garrett is. The question is, why?”

Curt shuffled his feet looking down at the ground, unsure how to tell his brother the truth now he had finally gotten him to listen. “Um, well, the uncle claimed that her contract with you—with us—was null and void.”

“Why would he do that? I married her myself.” That clearly got Adam’s ire up. Curt grinned inwardly. He knew from experience that his brother was a stickler for doing things correctly, and there was no way that his contract was anything but proper, unless Marcus and Quinn could prove theirs was the real one, and that was what was worrying Curt.

“Garrett explained, or rather accused Bree of having already taken out a contract with another man called Quinn Ford. He was with them at the farm, and I didn’t like the way he looked at our woman.” Looking momentarily stunned, a shuttered look then came over Adam’s face. It bothered Curt. It meant that Adam had given up already. “She isn’t ‘our’ woman if she is already married to someone else. It’s for the best. Leave it, Curt. Let’s go home.” He turned away.

Annoyed by his brother’s defeatist attitude, Curt cried after him,

“Bree says it’s not true. She hadn’t married that guy!”
104

Jennifer Denys

Stopped in his tracks again, Adam was silent for a moment, gazing into the distance as he took in what Curt had said, before he finally answered, “You know, we really don’t know anything about Brianna. How do you know she was telling the truth? It is quite possible she could have run away from this guy.”

“I can’t believe you! She’s been with us for weeks, and two of us,” he said pointedly, “have spent time getting to know her. I would swear blind that Bree is not lying. And anyway, if she has run away from this bloke, that means she needs our help.”

“The law says if a woman takes out a contract, she has to stay with the guy,” Adam quietly reminded his brother.

“What, even if he murders her?”

Realizing how stupid that sounded, he wasn’t surprised when Adam chuckled derisively. “You know as well as I do she could go to the law enforcer if she is being abused, and there are recourses for getting the contract annulled in that instance, but the simple fact is, she can’t live with us if she is married to someone else. That is adultery, and it is illegal.”

“Okay, I understand that, but what if she is telling the truth—as I know she is,” he added firmly when Adam gave him a look of resignation. “I’m worried they won’t believe her and they’ll take her away. I know it’s only been a few weeks, but I care for her, and so does Eric. In fact, we both love her.”

“What do you want me to do, Curt? We can’t steal her away from the authorities.”

“Let’s at least go there and provide a united front. Eric’s already there. They might back down.”

His hands on his hips, Adam stared at his brother. The look on his face wasn’t promising. Curt knew he would depart alone if Adam didn’t want to go. His mind already started thinking of future scenarios. If Adam didn’t want Brianna back, then Curt would take her someplace else and start a new life, maybe with Eric. He was totally refusing to accept the fact that he might not get her back at all.

Wife for Three

105

Just as Curt was about to step away and start back down the hill, Adam stopped Curt’s forward movement when he stated, “Don’t you think this is for the best? It hasn’t really worked out, you know.” That really annoyed Curt, and he charged at his brother grabbing him by the edges of his jacket and pushing him, stumbling back against a tree. Adam was taken unawares, and Curt was able to move him easily for once in his life. Besides which, he was very angry, and anger gave a man strength. “It might not have worked out for
you,
you emotionless, uncaring, hard bastard, but Eric and I love her, and we will do anything to keep her.”

He jerked his hands back before his brother could get his bearings.

Adam was the one who usually won any fight between them, being the taller and stronger. Curt growled and strode briskly away, not caring if his brother came or not.

Adam did follow him, but Curt refused to slow down to let him catch up. It had been several hours since Brianna had been arrested, and he was worried that Garrett would just let her uncle take her away—her uncle and
that
man. Curt had scowled every time he thought back to the leering way Quinn had stared at her. No wonder Brianna had run away from home.

Tightening his lips, he wondered what the hell her uncle was playing at, arranging a contract with a man like Quinn who would not appreciate someone like Brianna. Then he suddenly realized he knew why her uncle had done it. Brianna had said once that she had overheard them agreeing on a sum of money a few days before she had absconded.

Curt shook his head. He had forgotten this when they had been confronted by Garrett and the rest of them earlier. His initial thoughts had been chaotic—that his marriage to Brianna was invalid, that she had fooled them all, that Adam would be pleased. It was this last thought that had hammered at him until her cry for him to believe her had penetrated. He hated himself for that moment’s mistrust and hated
106

Jennifer Denys

Adam for everything he had—or rather, hadn’t—done during Brianna’s few short weeks with them.

If they got her back, Curt swore to himself it would be different, very different.

* * * *

Back at the farm, they quickly saddled up some horses. Curt rode off quickly in his eagerness to get back to Brianna and, in part, to get away from his brother, but Adam soon caught up.

Neither of them said a word, but anger simmered between them palpably. Curt knew why
he
was angry with Adam, but why was his brother so annoyed with him? He had exactly what he wanted, Brianna out of their lives and everything back to normal.

To begin with, they rode away briskly, but common sense made Curt slow after a few miles. It was a very long journey into town, even on horseback, and as much as he would have liked to gallop all the way, the horses really didn’t have that kind of stamina.

They made it into Frontier very early the next morning, having had to stop on the way to catch some sleep. The horses also needed rest and nourishment.

Naturally, Curt hadn’t wanted to halt and had turned on his brother. “I know exactly why you want to stop.” He had to grip the reins tightly to stop the horse bolting as it responded to his anger, turning around and around in panic. “You think that, by the time we get there, she’ll have gone off with her uncle or be given to Quinn or something, and that will be the end to it, and you can get back to your nice, well-ordered life. Well, fuck you. Even if she has been taken away, I will go after her and get her back.” Adam had looked at him, a weary, strained expression on his face.

“I was only going to point out how tired the horses are getting and that we’ll go quicker tomorrow if we rest them now.”
Wife for Three

107

With that Adam had gotten down from his horse, ignoring Curt who was still glaring at him, and had set up camp.

Curt’s anger still fuming, he had debated urgently for a few moments whether to leave his brother and continue on to town as his heart was urging him to do, but he had calmed down and acceded to Adam’s sensible suggestion, even if it did irritate him.

They had spent the night in the open, a barrier of resentment filling the air between them. Curt had been aware that neither he nor Adam slept at all that night, their twisting and turning attesting to that.

His initial urge was to get to town and see Brianna again, to make sure she was still there. His secondary need was then to persuade the judge that she was their wife and get her back.

He had pushed back any niggling thought of what would happen at that point.

Both had risen very early, not waiting to cook breakfast before setting off. Curt had been very anxious at that stage and had ridden harder than he should have. The horses were extremely weary when they finally arrived.

Their original port of call was the enforcer’s office, which was closed as was every other building. When Curt found someone, he was told that everyone in town—literally everyone, apparently—had packed into the assembly room which served as schoolroom, council room, and courthouse. School had been suspended for the day for this unusual event.

Not surprisingly, Curt was the first into the building while Adam stayed back, seeming to hesitate about entering. Curt didn’t care by this time what his brother got up to or what he was thinking.

Inside the building, it was indeed packed. In fact, Curt had to struggle through those unable to get inside, who were crowding in the corridor, anxious to hear this scandalous tale. They protested, but Curt declared firmly that he was related to the woman. When he said this, they gave him peculiar looks but let him through.

108

Jennifer Denys

His heart thudded in his chest as he looked around the room.

There was no sign of Brianna, and he nearly groaned loudly, clutching the doorframe in his fear that it was all over.

Wife for Three

109

Eric was ready to leap out of his chair. The law enforcer had insisted on taking Brianna away on their arrival in town late the previous evening, and despite Eric’s attempts to stay with her, he had been very firmly turned away.

He had been told that nothing was going to happen until the next day at the earliest as the judge was out of town, and since Garrett was worried about Brianna running away again, he had locked her in the jailhouse, which was usually only used for those charged with being drunk and disorderly. Eric had stood outside the building under the window of her cell, his hands braced against the wall as he listened to her sobs until she quieted down and there was just silence.

At the start, he had hunkered down disconsolately, his back against the wall until Garrett came out and insisted he go and get a room at the bar.

Emily had graciously put him up and discreetly stayed out of his way.

Now he was in the courtroom, one of the first to arrive, and had sat somewhat impatiently as everyone filed in. The mayor, who doubled as the judge, had arrived back from his trip to Eden as expected, and was sitting at the front. Garrett was standing to the left of the judge’s desk. Brianna’s uncle was sitting with the man, Quinn, near Garrett, facing the judge.

Eric, meanwhile, was sitting to the right of the judge. Although all the other people were there, there was no sign of Brianna, and he was concerned that she had already been sent away while he had been at Emily’s. He then let out a trembling sigh when she was brought in
110