The Trouble with Three Husbands (Daughters of Venus 1)

His voice trailed off to a whisper. He was reliving the moment and suffering through it. I climbed over him and lay down next to him, resting my head on his chest. I stroked his hair. I couldn’t stand seeing him hurt.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me,” I said.

“I just needed to use the bathroom,” he continued. “I was standing at the urinal when I heard her scream. God…that scream.”

He paused again and I looked up to see that he’d closed his eyes, pushing tears down from their corners.

“I ran out but I was too late. They’d slashed my tires and I saw them stuff her into a black van. I ran after them and got my hands on one, a big guy with a black heart tattoo with a snake wrapped around it. I pulled him out of the van door but he fought back and the van got away while I struggled with him. I killed the guy.”

“Baby…”

“I saw Maribelle again. Six months later. The cops found her on the side of the road wearing a slave’s collar. She’d been raped and beaten and killed.”

I was silent. No words I could conjure up would make sense. Saying I was sorry wouldn’t make sense. Somehow I knew silence was better.

“Pike is a bad guy,” he said. “He’s evil. I just know it. I’m not sure what his plan is. He’s here for something…and it’s not you.”

“Alé, that’s not fair. You don’t even…”

“You’re being naïve. He is up to something. When I saw him that first night in the woods I had a bad feeling about him. But yesterday, as I watched him getting his cock sucked by one of the younger, single Doves at the club, and I saw his head bent over, watching her do it, I saw it. On the back of his neck. A black heart with a snake wrapped around it.”

I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Pike belonged to the gang that killed his fiancée? I pulled away and climbed out of bed. My head was swimming.

“Lauren…”

“What if it’s a coincidence? That tattoo could mean anything.”

“It doesn’t just mean anything. It means he’s a killer. Even if he wasn’t directly involved win Mari’s death, he was part of that gang. He may still be part of that gang.”

“Then why would he be here?” I asked.

“How the fuck would I know? But he’s here for a reason, Lauren, and however you play into his plan I know his reason for being here isn’t you.”

He doesn’t understand. None of them do. They haven’t seen the way he looks at me. This isn’t just part of some kind of wicked plan.

I needed to get out of my house. I had my hand on the doorknob when Alé rolled off the bed, stood, and dropped down on his knees with his hands in a prayer like gesture.

“I’m begging you, Lauren. Don’t do this. I know you are my Dove and this is ultimately your decision. We all know that. Connor will agree because of it and Bentley will agree because of it and I’ll have no choice either. But I’m begging you. Please. Don’t do this.”

I walked out of the room and slammed the door behind me.

I was being a bitch. That much I knew for sure. Alejandro didn’t deserve for me to walk out on him. Connor didn’t deserve to wonder how he was unable to make me happy. Bentley didn’t deserve to question how many more husbands I would need before I would be truly happy. I was a bitch. Plain and simple.

But for some reason I still couldn’t get Pike out of my head. He’d bewitched me somehow and I wanted him.

I didn’t sleep at all that night. I walked the whole compound thinking. When it began to rain, I kept walking, enjoying the feel of the frigid drops on my skin. I felt like my sins were on their way to being washed clean. I was freezing but accepted the torture. I deserved it.

I went out to the suitor cabins and entered the one I’d used with Connor. The air inside was stale as the cabin hadn’t been used in a while. I lit a few candles and sat down on the bed. I opened the bottle of red wine on the nightstand, used my dress to wipe the dust from a glass, and poured myself a warm drink. I could spend the rest of the night in the cabin, alone, in the peace and quiet.

And it was so quiet. I dabbed at my wet skin with the bed comforter and sipped my drink to the sounds of the crickets and owls outside. They were my own low-volume soundtrack.

Any other night I would have been completely at ease, loving my peaceful alone time. But not this night. I had a thunderstorm brewing inside my head. My thoughts were so jumbled. I knew what I wanted to do and I knew what I should do but I couldn’t figure out what I would do.

The quiet didn’t last long. A soft rap at the slightly open door startled me.

“Who’s out there?” I asked.

“Me,” he said.