Reinstated Bond (5 page)

She felt conflicted. Part of her was moved by Carter's trust
that the system would do its job. He was a Marine: he believed in order,
structure--turning chaos into something sensible. But she knew that sometimes
the universe shit on people, and at the moment she was the dumpee. All she was
doing was getting out of the way to avoid the brunt of the impact.

She held up her clicker to unlock her car door, then stopped
when she got a good look at the vehicle. Her tires seemed a bit deflated. She
walked around the car. All four. She kicked the front left wheel. "Damn
it!"

"Baby, you may have got me twice, but I was just getting
warmed up yesterday. I'm all better now," Carter said as he came through
the back door shirtless, barefooted, wearing only his jeans. He unlocked his
truck and opened the passenger door, then walked over to Marilyn, slapped one
end of the handcuffs closed around her right wrist, and escorted her to the
open truck door. There, he slapped the other end of the cuffs closed around the
inside door handle. He bent down, gently framing her face with his hands, and
gave her a tender kiss on the lips. "Good mornin'." With a wink, he
retreated into the hotel.

Twenty minutes later, he returned, dressed, carrying the
backpack she had abandoned, and bearing an envelope in one hand. He tossed the
backpack into the crew cab and handed her the envelope. "There's your
deposit. Don't spend it all in once place."

"Funny."

"Yeah, you used to love that about me."

She harrumphed.

He steered the truck out the parking lot and toward Chowan
County. "So, what kind of spell you think your mother is going to cast on
me for turning her only child in to the police?"

He looked over in time to see one of her eyebrows dart up.
"What?"

"You can't tell me she's not up to something with the way
she's mumbling to herself all the time. Can't understand a damn thing she says
when she gets goin'. I thought when I was with you before, and she didn't like
me so good, she probably had a voodoo doll made in my image."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope."

"Carter, Momma may be cursing you…as in cursing you
out
.
Actually, knowing Momma that's pretty likely, but just an FYI, Mom's Jewish.
She's not from some mystical Central American jungle tribe. She's probably
telling you off in Hebrew. Or German. Or Spanish. Or some mix of the three. I
can never tell, either, when she gets going."

"Jewish?"

"Yep."

"Wait, are
you
Jewish?"

She straightened her ponytail using the mirror behind the sun
shade. "Yes. Always have been. You have something against Jews?"

"No, I'll take you any way I can get you, Jewish or
otherwise. I just never thought to ask before. I guess there's a lot I don't know
about you, huh? We were too busy hiding and groping to deal with the tough
questions. We need to have a serious getting-to-know-you session."

She felt her cheeks flush at his claiming of her. Was he
serious
?
There she was, handcuffed to his truck door with him hauling her off to the
police department, and he was admitting he wanted her? That he wanted to
rekindle some fire that had died down ten years past?

"Carter, are you on crack?"

"Nope. My body is a temple and so forth."

She cleared her throat and felt sore things down below start to
wake up. "Yes, I witnessed that."

"We'd make pretty babies."

"That's the same line you used back in high school. It was
funny then. Not so funny now."

"Why?"

"Because you sound serious."

"So what if I am? We would."

"Oh yeah, your parents would just love that."

He scoffed. "Baby, I haven't talked to my folks in
years."

That made her whip her head around. "Why not?"

He shrugged. "In the battle of nature versus nurture,
nature won. My sister and I are now blanks on the Aiken family tree."

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, baby. Can't help who you're born to. You
just deal. I'm sorry things didn't go right with us the first time around, but
I think we could be even better now."

"Carter, I might be convicted of a Class G felony."

He laughed. "Better than Class D. I'll come visit you in
jail. Maybe they'll allow me conjugal visits."

She covered her face with her left hand and groaned.

At the police department in Edenton, he reconfigured the
handcuffs so her hands were bound together and wrapped his arm around her
waist, walking her leisurely up the path.

"So, where do you live when you're not hiding in
cornfields, Mar?"

"I had a little house in Norfolk. I'm renting it out for
the time being since I'm unemployed and such."

"That sucks." He slowed their pace. "Maybe you
can move in with me when this mess is all tidied up."

She looked at his face and found his expression to be utterly
serious. "Thanks, but no. I think I'll probably stay with my parents until
I can kick my renter out."

"Why not? Don't say it's because you don't know me. I may
not know what your relationship with Jesus Christ is, but I know you love me,
Marilyn."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I loved eighteen-year-old
Carter. I don't know about
this
guy." It was lie, but she didn't care. It seemed kinder
to cut him loose now as opposed to later.

"Fair enough. I never stopped loving you, Mar. Being
in
love with
you. You know that?"

She stopped walking and turned to him. "You didn't?"

He shook his sleep-tousled head. "Never. No one holds a
torch to you, never did. You may not be the same sweet little girl anymore, but
that Marilyn who used to run and jump on me is still in there. I just know
it."

She sighed and leaned her forehead against his chest.
"Maybe."

He wrapped his arms around her and held the handcuffed woman in
an awkward embrace. "No
maybe
. She's there. When we get through his, and we will, I want to
spend the next year making up for the first one."

"And after that?"

"Well, if you can still walk, we'll see about making those
babies. You have to promise you won't let them play in cornfields,
though."

She groaned again. "If I get out of this mess unscathed, I
will voluntarily handcuff myself to you for you to use as you please."

"Promise?"

"Absolutely."

They walked up the steps and into the station.

"How are you, Mr. Aiken?" the desk sergeant asked. He
gave them a bare flick of his gaze before turning his attention back to the
paperwork in front of him.

"Fine. I've got Marilyn Skinner here."

"What for?"

"What do you mean, what for? Her bond was revoked because
she skipped her hearing."

The sergeant looked up, finally, and stared at them both over
the top rim of his glasses. "Charges were dismissed yesterday. Guy
confessed."

"Guy? What guy?" Marilyn shrieked.

"Your ex-boyfriend's brother, is who. It was an accident.
He didn't realize he'd started the fire until much later, which makes a heap of
sense, truth be told."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning he lit a joint, put it down, went outside to get
the mail, and forgot about the joint. He just walked off chasing squirrels or
something." The sergeant laughed.

Marilyn didn't think it was funny. Not even a little bit.

"Why didn't anyone tell me I didn't need to apprehend Ms.
Skinner?" Carter asked. "I've had my phone on me non-stop. Someone
could have called. They could have called her mother."

The sergeant shrugged. "Take it up with your boss."

Carter and Marilyn stared silently at each other for a moment,
then she held her wrists up to him.

He removed the cuffs.

They walked out of the station toward his truck without
speaking.

She climbed in.

He shut the door.

They were halfway back to Williamston to fetch her car when she
said, "Carter, it's okay. You don't really have to--"

"Shush. I'm trying to figure out how to tell your parents
we're back together without getting shot by your father."

"Daddy wouldn't shoot you."

"Oh no?"

"No. I'd worry more about Momma."

"You saying we should keep it a secret?" He looked
over at her, his expression wary and full of
Not this shit again
.

She gave him a playful jab on his right arm. "No way. I'm
saying stay away from the back door 'cause that's where she keeps the
gun."

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Holley Trent is a Carolina girl gone West.
Raised in rural coastal North Carolina, she has Southern sensibilities but her
adventurous spirit drove her to Colorado for new experiences.

Holley writes sassy contemporary romances
threaded with oodles of conversational humor, and fantasy/paranormal romances set
in her home state.

Her protagonists regularly fall victim to
her odd sense of humor and find themselves in improbable situations (with
happily-every-after outcomes). Holley's cast of characters tends to swear,
drink and do a fair amount of carousing, but they're generally well intentioned
and obey all laws and ordinances. Usually.

She’s a member of Romance Writers of
America as well as Colorado Romance Writers and CIM-RWA: the Cultural
Interracial and Multicultural special interest RWA chapter.

For Holley’s complete backlist, including
titles from Calliope Romance/Musa Publishing, Crimson Romance, and Rebel Ink
Press, please visit her website at
http://www.holleytrent.com
or her blog at
http://www.holleytrent.com/blog
.

Want to chat about
Reinstated Bond
or another Holley Trent
title? Catch her online on Twitter where she tweets under the handle
@holleytrent
or fan her
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