Page 12

Tusk

F or the first time, I really pay attention to Brittany’s body as she heads back to the bedroom. I thought when I first saw her at the cabin that she looked a little different, like she’d put on weight. I have to admit that she looks downright lush with the way her ass jiggles when she moves. She’s thicker around the middle too, and her breasts look amazing. Maybe being in Alaska suits her and she doesn’t feel the need to conform to California beauty standards.

This situation with the baby is strange. I guess private childcare providers work overnight sometimes. But she seems really attached to that baby. She had three fuckin’ diaper bags and a ton of luggage. It makes me wonder if she’s taken this child to raise and doesn’t want to tell me because she’s not planning to reconcile with me, which means it’s none of my business. That would be my fuckin’ luck.

Brittany is just the kind of woman to do something like that. She’s always been good to me, selfless, kind and loving. If she saw a baby about to be abandoned, she’d try to do something to help. Maybe it’s a temporary fostering situation or something like that? Then again, that couldn’t be right. They wouldn’t let her leave the state on the spur of the moment with a foster kid like this.

I run one hand through my hair, trying to shove this baby thing to the back of my mind, because God knows, I’d get back with her whether she has a kid or not. I’m the one club brother who seems to be drowning in kids anyway, so what’s one more gonna matter?

I pack up the food, save what I can keep without refrigeration, and nibble on the rest so it doesn’t go to waste. I’m just deciding whether to sleep on the sofa or go back to waiting outside her room on a chair, when there’s a light knocking at the door. I pad over to open it.

Tex is on the other side. “Lemme in, brother,” he says.

I hiss, “Quiet. Brittany and the baby are sleeping.”

When I step back from the open door, he walks into the room. “They’re sleeping without you?”

“The fuck, Tex. Are you stupid? She’s not gonna have me sleeping in the same room as some stranger’s fuckin’ baby. This is her job, ya know?”

Tex rolls his eyes and mutters, “Someone’s fuckin’ stupid, and it ain’t me.” Pointing to the leftover food, he raises his eyebrows.

I say, “Help yourself, brother. If you don’t help me eat it, it’s just gonna go bad.”

He drops down into one of the chairs and grabs a piece of chicken.

I go ahead and grab another piece, so he doesn’t have to eat alone. “Clara and the twins asleep already?”

“Already? It’s almost midnight.” His expression tells me that I’m way off base in my thinking on this one.

“Yeah,” I admit. “I guess because I’m wide awake, I think everyone should be.”

Tex grabs a roll, pulls it open, and begins stuffing chicken inside to make a sandwich. I do the same ‘cause it looks good.

As we eat, I ask, “Do you know what’s going on with Brittany? ‘Cause I sure as fuck can’t figure it out.”

He freezes with his chicken sandwich almost to his mouth and says, “Oh no, y’all ain’t draggin’ me into your shit. You two need to talk this out, not use a go-between.”

“I tried talking to her, but all she did was listen. It takes two to have a conversation, you know? I did tell her about Gina’s latest stunt, and she didn’t seem too happy about it.”

“Yeah, you don’t say,” Tex mutters. “Did you ever think that maybe you’re expecting too much too soon? We just arrived with the twins today, she’s got that baby to worry about, then she realized that her awful ex had found her, and then you popped up out of nowhere.”

“Go back,” I say. “Tell me more about this fuckin’ ex of hers.”

“No way. If you want to know more about him, talk to Brittany. But from what she said, he’s not an ex so much as someone she was promised to.”

“You’re my club brother,” I tell him. “You’re supposed to have my back.”

“I do have your back, dammit,” he responds testily. “Remember, I’m the only reason you ended up with face-to-face time with her. And let me tell you, my old lady was not thrilled that I invited you to come here.” Pointing at me with a chicken leg, he states firmly, “Club brother or not, I ain’t stickin’ my neck out for you again.”

“Alright, be that way.”

We both angry-eat for a few minutes before I break down and apologize. “Sorry for fuckin’ pushing you so hard. It was hard losing her, and knowing the reason she left was because I fucked up is even harder. I know that I need to chill out and let her talk to me when she’s ready.”

“Glad you’ve finally got your head screwed on straight. Stay close to her, brother. Danger is closer than you think.”

I know better than to ask what kind of danger. If I did, he was just gonna clam up again. We go back to eating in silence, but this time it’s more comfortable.

Then, out of the blue, the fire alarm sounds—a loud, piercing wail that grates on my nerves. We both run in different directions without a word. I head towards the bedroom, and Tex runs out of the suite to get to his family.

I bolt into the bedroom to find Brittany in a thin, long nightgown bending down to get the baby, who’s screaming her head off because of the harsh, high-pitched alarm. I rush over to them, grab a couple of the diaper bags, and usher them out of the bedroom. Before we can make it out of the suite, the sprinklers pop on.

Brittany starts panicking, clutching the still crying baby to her chest. “Please don’t leave us, Tusk.”

I wrap one arm around her, my Spidey senses going crazy. “I’m not. I promise. We stay together, no matter what.”

We meet Tex and Clara while moving towards the stairs. Each of them is carrying one of the twins. They were smarter than me because they also had a suitcase in their free hand. I wish I had thought of that. Brittany is soaked, and she won’t have anything dry to wear.

When I realize that she’s also barefoot, I sling both diaper bags over one shoulder and scoop her up in my arms, carrying her and the baby down the cold cement stairs.

She gazes up at me, with an expression I can’t place. No matter what, I’m not gonna let her go.

That’s the plan until we get to the bottom of the stairs and suddenly there’s people shoving past us and panicking. I set Brittany down on her feet and before I have a chance to lead her somewhere quiet, she’s swept away in the rush.

I start searching frantically, yelling her name. I’m standing by the entrance looking from left to right, but there’s no sign of Brittany and the baby.

“Brittany!” I yell.

She doesn’t answer, so I run around looking for her. When I pass Tex, I yell, “Brittany and I got separated. Have you seen her?”

Clara pulls the twin he’s carrying out of his arms, and Tex takes that as an unspoken command to help me look. “Stay right in front of the office, darlin’” he told her. “I’ll be right back.”

“We’ll be right here,” she promises.

Tex tells me anxiously, “If we split up, we can cover more ground.”

Something dark twists in my gut. “We stay together. My gut says look in the parking lot.”

“Fuck,” Tex swears. “I should have thought of that.”

Earlier, Tex told me to watch her closely because danger was near. That, to my mind, means someone might be trying to get to either her or the baby she’s caring for.

I know I’m on the right trail when a long, high-pitched scream spills out into the night as we hit the pavement. We run in the direction of the sound.

What I see infuriates me. Two men are trying to wrestle Brittany into a pickup truck. They’re both wearing some kind of weird black, homespun clothing—pants and jackets. It looks dressy but also extremely worn, like work clothing.

I barrel forward and yank one of them off her, and Tex goes for the second man. They both look like they’re in their early twenties. And neither of them is a strong fighter.

We quickly subdue them as Brittany walks away from the truck with the baby grasped tightly in her arms. When she approaches us, she’s still scared. I can tell by the look on her pretty face.

“Do you know these men?” I intentionally don’t use her name. If they don’t have it already, I want to keep it that way.”

“No, but I can guess.” Turning to them, she asks, “Did Silas Harper send you?”

Both of the young men gaze up at her, looking awestruck.

“All of us were supposed to seek you out and rescue you if we could.”

“Who the fuck is Silas Harper?” I ask.

No one pays any attention to me. Instead, Brittany frowns down at the two men. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Bishop Harper has decreed that you are his Eve. We are to protect you at all costs. You are important to the church.”

Skipping over his bizarre words, she asks, “How did he know where to find me?”

One of them lifts his chin, bringing his finger to his eye. “It was me. I was the one who spotted you one day while you were shopping. You look just like the fliers he sent out five years ago.”

I pick up in something in his tone. “Wait. Are you saying that this Harper guy didn’t talk to you directly? You’re doing this because of a flyer?”

When they both seal their lips shut, Brittany speaks up. “You might as well answer him. I want to know as well.”

“Our own Bishop wanted to present you to Bishop Harper himself. He gave us the gifts that were supposed to lure you back into the fold. When that didn’t work, he said you needed a sterner message.”

Brittany clutches the baby tighter to her chest. “It’s a shame they gave an unhinged old fool like Silas Harper his own church. Tell your bishop that I’m not some prize he can use to curry favor with a fellow bishop. If and when I want to come back to the church, I will. Until that time, he can leave me the fuck alone.”

Both of the young men go pale, wearing twin expressions of shock.

One lowers his eyes and stammers, “But you are Bishop Harper’s Eve. He waits for you.”

The other adds, “You must cleave to him.”

I squat down and mean-mug both of them. “Correction. She’s my Eve, and I don’t share. Tell that to your bishop.”

Tex says, “Get the hell outta here before we forget that you’re just confused kids.”

I come to my feet. “You think it’s a good idea to let the two of them go? They tried to abduct Brittany.”

Tex shrugs as they run back to the truck and peel out. “What are we gonna do, give them dirt naps?”

Disgusted, I turn to Brittany and realize why the boys were lowering their eyes. The thin gown she’s wearing is clinging to her legs, leaving nothing to the imagination. When she doesn’t say anything, I do.

“Let me guess, we can talk about all this tomorrow too?”

She barely nods her head. “Do you think we can go back to our rooms now?”

Tex is the one who answers. He has his phone out already and is reading a text from his old lady. “No. Clara says the Fire Marshal has temporarily closed it down because of water damage from the sprinklers. She just got with some other guests and booked us a private twin-engine plane back to the mainland. They’re willing to do a red-eye, but it costs a mint. Looks like three couples chipped in.”

Looking up at Brittany, he adds, “She says you can wear some of her dry clothing. Tusk got the diaper bags out, so the baby has dry things. But it’s pretty clear we no longer have a choice about getting the fuck out of this area.”

I chime in, “I’m not wild about seeing the next thing these crazy religious fuckers pull out of their little bag of tricks.”

“What about our luggage?” she asks.

“Don’t worry, Tusk and I will get our luggage. The hotel doesn’t want to be responsible for dealing with our waterlogged bags.”

That makes perfect sense to me. Looking down at my wet clothing, I ask, “What about me? Am I just gonna stay wet for this plane ride?”

It’s not like we can shop in the middle of the night in a small town in Alaska.

Tex shoots me a wry look. “You can wear something out of my suitcase if you can find anything to fit you.”

He’s quite a bit taller than me, but I’ve got a bigger chest and arms. Something tells me that I’m gonna look real ridiculous in his clothing.

We head back, and this time I don’t take my arm from around Brittany. The baby has been crying even though Brittany is doing her best to calm her down.

When the baby finally settles, Brittany leans into my body, shivering from the cold. I take my shirt off and put it around her shoulders, leaving me wearing only a tight-fitting tank top.

It’s cold, but I’d rather her be warm, than me.

We clean up in the restrooms once they get the sprinklers turned off and verify there was no fire.

I know all the way down to my soul that those two fucking religious zealots triggered the alarm to get a chance to grab Brittany.

The whole religious thing is weird. I plan to have a long talk with her about that once things calm down.

***

By the time we make it to the airstrip, it’s three in the morning, and there’s one lone pilot waiting for us with a small plane. We pile onto the plane with fussy, but dry kids, and settle down for the flight to Washington state.

Brittany immediately covers herself and begins breastfeeding. She’s being discreet as hell, but I know what a breastfeeding mother looks like. Nothing about this makes any sense.

Then I feel like the world’s biggest fuckin’ fool because I realize she lied to me. She’s clearly not taking care of this baby for a mother who had a rough time giving birth. If that were the case, she wouldn’t be allowed to fly off with the child. I suddenly realize my math wasn’t mathing when calculating if the baby could be hers. She was using Gina’s shenanigans as an excuse to take off—all that time I thought she was my woman, and she was fucking someone else.

I lock my jaw to keep from pestering her with yet more questions that she is clearly not gonna answer. Turning to look out the window, feelings of confusion and anger multiply in my mind. I feel any hope I once had that things would work out between us slipping away.

I did my best to set the record straight about the mistake I made in trusting my ex-wife. But maybe I was wrong about that being what drove Brittany away. Maybe it’s because she got tired of being with me.

My chest aches more than I like to admit. And, if I’m being honest with myself, my pride is stung by her running from me, and then her lies add a second wound. It’s enough to make me wonder if she got pregnant by one of the brothers and didn’t want to tell because we were supposed to be exclusive at the time. That’s the only thing that makes sense here and it hurts like fucking crazy.

I find myself wondering when the right time is to cut my losses with Brittany. The thought of living without her is a new and special kind of pain.

Brittany clearly doesn’t want me. Maybe now is the time to step back before my persistence starts to feel like I’m pressuring her for a relationship she doesn’t want.

However, after the shitshow tonight, I decide that I’ll still protect her from this Bishop Harper person whoever the fuck he is. If he’s managed to target her in Alaska, then he must have a long reach.

I can’t help but wonder what religion this man subscribes to. He must be powerful among his people, but powerful men can still be taken down.

I vow to myself to do just that, so Brittany and her child can live their lives without always looking over their shoulders.