Saint James, Elle - Unbridled and Unhitched [The Double Rider Men's Club 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (27 page)

“Whatever,” Alexis murmured. “The good news is I found two men to marry, not just one. Did you know that, Brett? I have
two
husbands now. And they are going to kick your sorry ass when they find you.”

“Those Neanderthals are no better than the thug I hired in Las Vegas to kidnap you. He was a very big disappointment, I have to tell you. I don’t know what has happened to honor among thieves, so to speak.” He shrugged.

Alexis looked up, surprised for the first time since this bizarre conversation started. “You hired a sadistic monster to drug me, kidnap me, and then smack me around?”

“Well, I had to teach you a lesson, didn’t I? You shouldn’t have run from me. I planned to save you from that sadistic monster, as you call him, to show you that I can also be a hero. I’m not just a calm, caring man. I have many great qualities. You have overlooked all my amazing character traits in your zeal to get away. You would be lucky to get a man like me. I planned to save you from Virgil.”

Alexis let his words sink in and stir around. Something elusive bothered her, and she took a moment to consider the implications. “Wait a minute. Virgil tried to drug me several days before you showed up. How long was he supposed to keep me before you came to my rescue?” Her arms uncrossed and dropped to her sides.

Brett looked up into the trees with a frown as if he didn’t want to explain any further. “He wasn’t supposed to take you until the night before I arrived. I thought I could trust him with the simple job. He failed me.”

Alexis let the inference and appalling idea of several days alone with Virgil register in her head. Her anger boiled over. “He’s a sadistic monster. Why would you trust him?” she screamed.

Brett took a step closer and raised his gun a bit higher. “I don’t care for your tone, Alexis.”

Fury coated her mind and made her reckless. “But it doesn’t matter anymore because I’m already married.” She shouted the last two words.

He made a face, as if her marriage were a trifling matter and easy to resolve. “Obviously, we’ll have that wickedness annulled. Or I can just kill them.” He waved the gun in front of her. “I can get another gun, you know.” He puffed up his chest as if dispensing important knowledge. “I know people with criminal records and connections to the black market. They respect me.”

“I doubt it. They likely only want your money.”

His eyes got very wide. “That’s not true. I’m respected in that world.”

“Like Virgil respected you in Las Vegas? He was a true charmer, but he didn’t do what you wanted, did he?” Alexis was surprised that Brett had turned out to be such a dangerous prick. He’d hid his deviant side very well in the form of a harmless stalker. She never once suspected this level of lunacy.

Brett shrugged. He looked off into the distance as if distracted by his own brilliance and contemplating all the respect he’d gleaned from the criminal element he associated with.

Alexis shouldn’t poke at him, but her tolerance for his perverted machinations had hit the upper limit of her patience. “I’m never going to get my current marriage annulled. And I won’t let you kill them. You already killed my friend, Valentina. All she did was open the door. Listen to me, Brett. I will
never
forgive you for hurting her. You might as well walk away now.”

Brett squinted and then laughed as if she’d just said the funniest thing ever. “I didn’t kill her, Alexis. What kind of man do you think I am?” he asked incredulously. “I merely tranquilized her. More specifically, I paralyzed her entire body. When I left her in the entryway she was able to blink her eyes and most importantly, breathe. But that was all.”

Alexis breathed her own silent, guarded sigh of relief that Valentina wasn’t dead. Given that he acted fanatical, she wasn’t sure she could completely believe him. Especially since he admitted he’d planned to paralyze
her
for his crazed, convoluted plan.

Brett continued talking as if she cared what he said. “I’ll have you know I used my own special formula. Even my Aunt Silvia has underestimated what brilliant things I can do in the lab. She said my creation didn’t have practical applications. I’ve just proved her wrong.”

The video camera in the tree next to the deer stand had hopefully captured everything he’d just admitted to. Clay did like his security, and Alexis was suddenly convinced it was a great idea.

Derek and Jackson were at the security building where the remote feed for this camera was housed. They had explained to her on their many hikes this week that the cameras on the property only came on when there was motion or voice to activate it.

Since Brett hadn’t shut up about his brilliant plan to get her for his very own, she hoped that they might be here soon to rescue her.

Perhaps she should spend her time keeping Brett talking instead of making him angry. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

A rock suddenly came out of nowhere and hit Brett on his gun hand. He yelped and promptly dropped the weapon in a pile of leaves. From behind her she heard an inhuman roar and heard a stampede of footsteps approach. Alexis ducked to the ground wondering if something worse was about to come through the woods.

Jackson suddenly flew past her and tackled Brett to the ground. When he tried to rise up, Jackson punched him in the nose. Brett went down for the count with a single punch. He didn’t move again.

Derek had entered the clearing silently before she heard him. He kneeled beside her and hugged her close. “Are you okay?”

“I am now.” He helped her stand up. “I didn’t expect to see you this quick. Did you see the video footage at Clay’s security building?” Alexis pointed up at the security camera.

He shook his head. “We were on the way back from our meeting. We saw you run into the woods with that asshole over there chasing you.”

Jackson, with Brett beneath him, called out to her, “I got cheated. I wanted to pummel him a few more times, but he went down with a single punch. Seems unsportsmanlike to keep hitting him.”

“Well, we all know that if I were down there, I’d still be punching him,” Derek said. He held up his hands. “Fists of Fury, remember?”

Jackson smiled. “Okay, next time our wife is being chased into the woods by a crazy stalker, I’ll throw the rock and let you take him down.”

Jackson pulled his phone out and called Clay. The police were already on the way.

“By the way, thanks for showing me the laundry chute in the second-floor bathroom, Derek. I used it for my escape,” Alexis told him when the police arrived and took Brett away. She walked between the two of them, headed toward the house.

His face lightened up. “Awesome. I knew that would totally come in handy one of these days.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Jackson said.

Derek stopped walking, turned and looked deeply into her eyes. “I want to be encouraged. Please tell me you’re planning to stay here with us.”

Alexis smiled. “I don’t know at which point of my daring escape I came to this realization, but I knew I didn’t want to leave you two, and Brett’s complicit behavior makes it easy to leave my other life behind and come here.”

Jackson grabbed her hand and kissed it. “I know this marriage was unplanned. And I know we said we’d annul it, but I’d really rather for us all to stay together.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Derek said passionately. He kissed her cheek.

Alexis smiled. “I agree. Even though we got hitched in Vegas unexpectedly, I don’t want to ever be unhitched from the two of you.”

Epilogue

Several months later

Alexis never once regretted her decision to leave North Carolina to move out West to Colorado. She’d returned to her workplace, given two weeks’ notice, and left without remorse after packing up her entire life.

Her mother was thrilled that she’d found a husband, even if it meant her youngest daughter was moving farther away. Alexis told her that they’d eloped to Las Vegas. She didn’t explain Derek to her mother. She wouldn’t understand. He would simply remain a good friend if her mother ever visited, which was only a remote possibility at best.

Luckily, her mother wasn’t a part of the digital age, and hadn’t seen the sexy Lexi Vegas video, as they now referred to it. That would have made her unhappy. Or, if she had seen it, her mother was closed-mouthed enough not to mention it.

She had gotten a new job very easily at the same pharmaceutical company where Valentina worked. While she rarely traveled for work with this new employer, Alexis didn’t miss picking up and taking off at a moment’s notice as much as she expected to.

Two weeks after she’d moved all of her things permanently from North Carolina to Colorado, the three of them had a second wedding ceremony to include Derek this time. Alexis was barefoot, but wore a simply styled, flowing, cotton, lavender gown that Jackson picked out. He said the color reminded him of the purple streak of rebellion she’d had in her hair the first time they met.

It was private outdoor affair set up in the backyard with a few members of the club in attendance including Valentina.

She was back to herself a few hours after Brett shot her with the debilitating tranquilizer dart. Her doctor-husband, Dillon, took very good care of her.

Jackson and Derek showed her quite a few more decadent things regarding their unbridled lifestyle. Any hiking trip would likely end up in a public sexual display of affection. With the abundant cameras Clay had strewn all over the DRMC property, more likely as not she’d starred in several outdoor sex videos since she’d been here. And something else she wouldn’t tell her mother about. She made a mental note to ask next time they were hiking and decided to drop their clothes and go for it. But truthfully, the idea of a camera catching them having sex made her so hot, she likely wouldn’t stop anyway.

Next week they would be going to a special ranch event at a property south of the DRMC land. There was going to be a tour of the working ranch, a rodeo of sorts with roping and riding, and the second part of the evening would be spent at the Stadium. She’d heard rumors that a Western-themed show was planned on the Stadium stage that night.

Alexis couldn’t wait.

For now she buttoned up her new lavender gingham shirt, squeezed herself into a pair of jeans that might as well be painted on her butt, and secured a sexy cowboy hat on her head. She’d found and put the purple streak in her hair as an accessory to match her shirt.

Derek came in as she slipped new cowboy boots on. “Wow. Sexy Lexi as a cowgirl. I like it. And I see you added the purple streak again. I love that.”

Jackson followed close behind and whistled when he saw the new clothes she’d purchased for the special events next week. “Not that I’m complaining, but what’s the occasion for the supersexy clothes?”

“I’m just trying on my outfit for the rodeo next week.”

“Okay. There is something else I’ve been dying to know but always forgot to ask you?’

“What?”

“The streak in your hair, why did you pick purple?”

She shrugged. “No big secret reason. I guess because it was the best color available at the time of my choices. Red or black seemed too Goth-like. The pink was too light to stand out in my hair color. The purple or rather lavender seemed feminine and special.”

Derek and Jackson traded a devious look between them.

“You are definitely feminine and special,” Derek said as his gaze roamed up and down her body. Twice.

“Do you like my outfit?”

They both nodded.

“But I hope you’re ready for us to help you out of it,” Jackson said. He turned to Derek and added, “What do you say, partner?”

“I say, let’s cowboy up and ride,” Derek replied, and started walking closer with a determined look in his eyes.