The Trouble with Three Husbands (Daughters of Venus 1)

I knew the second voice. It was Alé. My husband. I could sense the sweet nectar in his voice from miles away. He sounded angry.

“Stay with the boys,” I said to Connor.

“What’s going on?”

“Just stay with the boys, please.”

He did as he was told and I broke away from the crowd and headed towards the tree line. Something was wrong and Alé was involved.

The voices were coming from behind the barn.

I rounded the corner to see Alé and Robert, one of the other security members, with guns pointed at two unarmed men. The men had their hands behind their backs. Alé and Robert were forcing them to walk.

“Alé, what is going on?” I asked.

He looked over at me, surprised.

“Mi amor, go back to the house,” he said.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking these two to the jailhouse.”

“Is this how you treat guests?” one of the strangers asked.

I couldn’t see his face. It was too dark.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“He’s a piece of shit,” Alé said. “They both are. We caught them spying on you all from the trees, watching you and waiting for the chance to attack.”

“No, that is not true,” the second stranger said.

“Silence,” Robert ordered.

“Fuck you,” the first stranger said.

Alé slammed the barrel of his rifle against the man’s head. The blow was hard and the stranger stumbled and fell to his knees. Robert shined a flashlight on him and I saw him for the first time.

Even with blood running from the fresh cut above his eye, he was hot. And I don’t mean hot the way a teenage girl talks about her favorite pop star. I mean this guy was gorgeous. His blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he had a beard, not a full Grizzly Adams, but several days’ unshaven kind of beard.

He wore a dirty blue sweater and a black leather biker vest. He looked like a Viking wearing a motorcycle gang cut.

“I didn’t…realize…how violent you’d be,” the man said.

“Oh that was nothing,” Alé said.

“Stop it, dammit!” I shouted at Alé, surprising even myself.

By this time there was a small crowd behind me. Samantha was standing by my side and Twyla was right behind us. Three of the seven were on hand.

Robert moved his flashlight beam over to the second guy and I got a good look at him as well. He wasn’t handsome like the first. He wasn’t ugly either. He was just…there, with scraggly brown hair in desperate need of shampooing.

“What are your names?” I asked.

“I’m Harrison,” the second guy said. “And this is my buddy, Pike.”

Pike. The Viking had a name.