Chapter Eight
The Weeds
Same Time
Tuesday Morning
As he was sitting there, mouth open, and caught completely off guard, the words wouldn’t leave his mouth. Truthfully, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to marry Gamble.
No.
He was just so shocked that it was actually happening to him. In all of his life, he never expected to catch the eye of a Marine.
Gamble was gorgeous, sweet, and loved taking care of him. This man was one hell of a catch, and he knew it. This Marine wanted to be with him, despite the mess Hemmingway had made.
He loved him for him.
And that was a treasure.
“What say you, Duke of Gordon?” Gamble asked. “Will you do me the honor of being my husband, and starting a life with me? There’s no one I want to be with than you,” he promised. “You’re my whole world.”
Poe just blinked.
“Uh, is that a yes or no?” Gamble asked, grinning.
“Jesus,” Poe whispered. “I am not normally at a loss of words,” he stated. “But this…”
Gamble sat there, waiting.
Now, he was getting nervous that maybe Poe wasn’t going to say yes to him. Oh, he joked about putting a ring on it, but…
“I’m getting nauseous,” he warned Poe. “Like ‘puke because I’m about to be told no’ nauseous.”
At hearing that, Poe reached for his face, and stared into his eyes.
“Yes. A million times, yes, Gamble. I’ll marry you right here in the weeds if you can make an officiant appear. You’re the most important person in my whole world. You are my life now. From the minute you entered my home, to right now, you’ve been my full focus. I love you so much.”
In that moment, Gamble relaxed.
Taking the ring from Poe’s fingers, he made his own appear.
“We can make it official later,” Gamble said, “but I’m putting a ring on it, because you’re my soulmate, and I know that we’re meant to be.”
Poe’s heart was racing in his chest.
He couldn’t believe it.
Someone wanted his heart and to be his person. This was the best day of his life. There was no way this day could ever not be his favorite memory.
It was the day he got Gamble.
He’d caught his Marine.
Gamble leaned in, and he took Poe’s mouth with his. Then, he pulled him into his body.
Poe straddled his lap, and his hands were in his hair as he made love to his mouth. The whole time, the kiss was nuclear.
When Poe slowly broke that heated lip lock, Gamble moaned. His mate was sitting on his dick, and now, his lower brain was working.
“I want a fast wedding,” Poe admitted.
Gamble opened his eyes.
“So not a big production?” he asked.
To answer him, Poe took Gamble’s hand, and took the bigger ring from his palm.
This was going to be the moment he cherished.
“I promise you, Gamble Holloway, that I, Poe Seville, will love, honor, and cherish you for all of my days. I swear to be by your side, and to always care about your heart. You will be my one and only until my dying day. That’s my vow for you.”
He took Gamble’s gold ring, and slipped it onto his finger as he finished making that vow.
“With this ring, Gamble, I marry you for the good times, the bad times, and every moment in between. You’re the only person in this whole world who will have my heart.”
Tears filled Gamble’s eyes.
Because of this man, he didn’t feel lost anymore, and that was all he needed in life.
“My sweet Poe,” he began, giving him that very intimate moment of their private vows. “I will take care of you, and protect you for the rest of my life. You will be my one and only, and I’ll never stop loving you. We’ll make a world that is just ours, and we’ll do good things for us, for others, and for our children.”
Poe wiped his eyes.
Now, he got his man.
Officially.
“You will forever be my one and only, the man who saved me. You’ll always have my heart, Poe. I promise that no matter what happens, I’ll always be yours until my dying day.”
That hit him hard.
They weren’t alone anymore.
Poe had his person.
With his strong hand, Gamble gently slipped the ring onto Poe’s finger, making that vow official. They’d get the paperwork signed, but as far as he was concerned, they were bound together in marriage.
“So this is it?” Poe asked. “We’re making it official until we sign the paperwork? We’ve taken our vows?”
Gamble shook his head.
“No. That’s not it.”
Poe blinked.
“We didn’t seal it with a kiss.”
A slow grin slipped across his face, and Poe was giddy with the prospect that each day, he was going to be able to share these kinds of moments with Gamble.
“Oh, well, Mr. Holloway, let’s seal this with a kiss, and call it a marriage. We’ll get the paperwork signed as soon as possible. This is our wedding. Let’s make it count.”
Oh, that sounded good to Gamble, but he would want another wedding at some point. Even if it was just a vow ceremony. He didn’t have a production with Storm, but he would with Poe.
When his family could be there.
Gamble’s mouth found his, and the kiss exploded around them. It was filled with love, heat, and pleasure. They were wrapped in each other’s arms, and the whole time, the world fell away.
The kiss was deep.
It was wicked.
And it was perfect for a wedding vow.
When Gamble laid back, Poe was above him, controlling the kiss. His hands were in his hair, and he was keeping his mouth locked to his.
Fuck.
This was the best day of Gamble’s life.
He was free.
He was happy.
He was in love.
Nothing would top this.
NOTHING.
As they rolled, Gamble got Poe to his back, and he took over with the kiss. It was deep, and he took what he wanted from that hot tangle of tongues. There was no question that he was crazy about the man.
Now, he wanted Poe to know how he felt as Gamble made love to his mouth.
When he slowly broke the kiss, Poe opened his eyes and stared up at him.
“I love you,” Gamble admitted. “I love you, my other half, my husband.”
Poe grinned.
To him, they had already created the vows to each other, and made a promise. There was no breaking this. They were going to be one from here on out.
A paper didn’t make a marriage.
Love did.
“I married a hot Marine,” Poe said, giggling.
His enthusiasm made Gamble smile. The day he’d married Storm, she’d not nearly been as excited. That should have told him one thing.
Gamble had deserved so much more.
“Oh, well, we’re going to do more than just take vows,” he admitted. “We’re going to get naked and have some weedy sex,” he promised.
Poe was down for that.
Hell!
He was down for anything when it came to Gamble.
“Oh, well, feel free to have your wicked…”
Only, that’s when Gamble heard it.
Diablo.
The horse had just made a noise that was not indicative of happily grazing in a pasture.
He saw something.
Without a doubt.
With his hand on Poe’s mouth, he could see the fear in his man’s eyes.
“Shhhh,” he whispered, pushing off of Poe, so he could stand up enough to see over the weeds.
That’s when he saw them.
Oh, he and Poe were not alone. Not far from the horses, there were some armed assholes, ruining Gamble’s moment with Poe.
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
Now, he had a problem.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
Poe was scared.
“Trouble?” he whispered from behind Gamble’s hand that was still over his mouth.
He crouched back down and moved his fingers from his man’s lips.
The very private wedding vows were now over.
“Okay, we have a problem. There’s two of them, and they are crossing the pasture,” he said, his whole demeanor changing.
It happened so quickly too.
Poe touched his arm.
“What do we do?” he asked, knowing this was Gamble’s area of specialty. He was officially in charge of this now.
Well, there was only one thing he could do. If he fired his gun, they would be alerted, and possibly radio in. That meant he needed to do this on the DL.
Those two mercenaries weren’t going to be getting backup here.
“Do you trust me?” he asked Poe.
He nodded.
Well, now, it was work time.
No one was hurting his man, and especially after they just made private vows to each other on Poe’s land.
Fuck.
That.
“Okay, Baby, I need you to stay here. If you hear anyone coming through the weeds, crawl out of here, and make your way back to the house by way of the trees. It’s like a game of hide-and-seek.”
“But you…”
He didn’t get to finish.
Gamble took his face in his hands.
“This is what I do. Let your husband keep you safe. Just stay off of their radar so I can handle it. I’ll pick them off, one by one, and then, I’ll get back to the house if you’re not here. After the wake and cocktails, we’re leaving. They are getting more brazen, and that’s not a good thing.”
What could he say to that?
This was not his area of specialty. It was time to put his faith in Gamble.
“Okay, my love. Please be safe. Don’t die on me. You’re all I have left,” he admitted.
Gamble wasn’t dying.
There was no reason to worry about that.
So, he kissed him on the lips.
“I’m hard to kill. Just be careful and listen to what I’ve asked you to do.”
Poe simply nodded.
What more could he say?
And then with that, Gamble slipped into the weeds to go do his thing, and Poe sat there silently, listening to see if anyone else was coming his way.
Now, he’d do one other thing.
WORRY.
A.
Lot.
If anything happened to Gamble, Poe was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to carry on. The Marine was all he had left.
Meanwhile…
The mercenaries for hire were moving slowly through the pasture, keeping their eyes open.
A daytime assault on this place was dangerous, but they were getting desperate.
Von was getting desperate.
Earlier, the hired help had dropped the ball, and got himself shot in the arm. Luckily for him, it was just a graze, but now, they were floundering in finding that key.
The boss was pissed.
“They have to be out here. That one horse is saddled up,” the man said. “The attempt this morning at the house didn’t go well.”
The other man looked around.
“I don’t like this. The guy he’s with is dangerous. If we encounter him…”
The first guy shrugged.
“So shoot him. Your gun isn’t afraid of him, is it?” he asked, sarcastically.
The man rolled his eyes.
He’d heard from Von that the doctor had new help, since his last babysitter had died.
The question was, where was he getting the super soldiers?
Did he have an endless supply?
“We should probably split up and look for them. There are more of us than them. We have backup nearby. One of us will find them. Remember, Von wants the doctor in one piece. He doesn’t give a shit about the other man. Kill him.”
The mercenary nodded.
“Oh, it will be my pleasure,” he stated, grinning a little too brightly. “I like to earn my paycheck.”
Well, he hoped so.
This crypto key was proving elusive.
Breaking off, they went their separate ways. When the man reached the tree line, looking for any sign of them, what he didn’t realize was that he was not alone.
Not.
Even.
Close.
He had company, and he’d made a huge mistake. As a ghost, this was Gamble’s thing.
Hide-and-seek with the enemy was his job in the Marines. You didn’t become a ghost if you weren’t able to blend in and sneak up on your prey.
And that was what this man was.
PREY.
Nothing made a person more dangerous than when you tried to hurt what was cherished and loved. Poe was off limits, and Von had annoyed him.
So his men had to pay.
The whole time he was stalking him, he never saw Gamble once.
In fact, the man was three feet from him, and he had no clue that Gamble was right there.
Waiting.
As he stepped by him, Gamble popped up, had his knife in hand, and sliced his throat. The man gawked as blood squirted from his body, spraying the foliage, but he couldn’t shout or scream for help.
The look on his face said it all.
“Have fun in Hell, asshole,” he whispered. “You don’t fuck with a Marine, or his husband.”
The man’s eyes were huge as the blood ebbed from his gaping neck wound.
Well, a good rain would take care of that.
As the man dropped to the ground, the last of life leaving him, Gamble knew that he couldn’t leave a body lying around. How he wished Zayn was here. He was good at having the remains removed.
Now, Gamble was on his own, so he had to think on his feet.
Leaving him there for his partner in crime to find wasn’t an option.
It was time to hide the remains.
Dragging the man into the trees, he used his hands to dig into the dead leaves and debris under the trees.
Yeah, Poe was going to have to keep this estate closed down for a while until this dude decomposed.
If the cops got wind of this…
Jesus.
This was a mess.
He put the dead man on the bare dirt, and began covering him with leaves and all the decomposing material on the forest floor.
It was a good thing Poe had five hundred acres. They were going to be littering bodies everywhere at this rate.
When he was covered, he moved toward the opening to see where the other guy was.
And that’s when he saw the tall grasses waving around.
Oh, shit.
He was moving toward Poe.
Who he’d left helpless.
That wasn’t good.
Gamble had to haul ass to save his man because losing him on day one of their new lives was NOT an option.
Not to him.
Meanwhile…
When Poe heard the rustling, he grabbed the first thing near him that might act as a weapon of sorts.
The champagne bottle.
Taking a swig from the bottle to steady his nerves, he dumped the rest out, and held it by the neck like he was going to swing a baseball bat.
He wasn’t sure if it would work, but it would buy him enough time to knock the asshole out and run for his freaking life.
Where was his ax now?
Damn, but that would come in handy.
Slipping backward into the weeds, he tucked himself away, hoping that they hid him enough to be able to surprise the person heading his way.
If they didn’t…
He.
Was.
Screwed.
When the man cleared the weeds, he stopped to take in the picnic spot.
“Mother fucker! They were right here,” he muttered angrily. “They must have heard us coming!”
Uh-oh.
Poe knew they had a problem.
Why?
The man pulled out his phone, and that meant he was calling for reinforcements. Then, Gamble would be outnumbered.
So, something had to be done.
Before the call could be made, Poe popped up and clocked him with the bottle in the back of the head.
HARD.
Caught completely off guard, the man went down. When he did, Poe didn’t stick around to see what would happen.
Instead, Poe grabbed his phone, and slipped out of the circle and into the weeds to do what Gamble had told him to do.
He had to get back to the house.
That was going to take some time since it was a two-mile walk, or run.
He just had to do it carefully and without drawing any attention to himself.
As he slipped through the weeds, what he didn’t know was Gamble was ten feet from him, moving in the opposite direction to get to him.
Only, Poe wasn’t paying attention.
Instead, he was on a mission.
TO SURVIVE.
Meanwhile…
Gamble was a man on a quest.
That was all that mattered.
Gamble was myopically focused on getting to that circle to reach Poe, and he wasn’t letting anything stop him.
Nothing.
At.
All.
When he finally arrived, what he found there surprised him.
There was an unconscious man laying down, face first in the picnic basket.
He had blood on the back of his head, and Gamble saw the empty bottle of really pricy champagne resting not far away. Putting the clues together, he realized what had happened.
Apparently, his man had been right. He had a wicked swing, after all.
To say that he was proud of him would be one hell of an understatement. The love of his life was able to hold his own when need be.
First with the ax back in NOLA, and now here with a champagne bottle.
Good for him.
While the man was still out, Gamble patted him down, and didn’t find any communication equipment. He’d already taken everything off of the other man, so this dude came without any, or Poe had taken care of business again.
All that was left was a single, solitary earbud.
Gamble crushed that between his fingers, making sure no one was hearing or listening to anything again.
Flipping the man over, he took his gun, and he placed his knife above his heart.
“Hey, sunshine. Wake the fuck up,” he said, kicking him with his boot.
When the man woke up, Gamble saw the intent in his eyes.
Someone was pissed.
“Oh, I wish the fuck you would,” he said. “Please. You came here and ruined my picnic. I’ll bleed you out right here.”
The man said nothing.
“What does Von have planned?” he asked.
The man shrugged.
“We were told to get into place this morning. He’s got plans for tonight.”
That’s what he expected.
“How many are we talking?” Gamble asked, knowing the man was going to lie or under exaggerate.
They always did.
“It’s a small group. He doesn’t want this out in the open. We are the scouting party.”
Yeah, he figured as much.
“You don’t screw The BlackStone Group,” the guy said, laughing. “Your family is fucked.”
Gamble actually laughed.
“Oh, no, don’t go after the people who did irreparable harm to me as a child and take them out. Boo fucking who. As for my real family, Douchebag, he doesn’t want that war. Trust me.”
“You’re nothing but a shit Marine,” the man said. “Your people are dead. Whoever came to the farm and tried to take out Von is dead.”
Oh, don’t bet on that.
Then, because he annoyed him, Gamble shoved his knife into his chest, right through his heart.
He blinked, and then, slowly died.
That was how you took out the trash.
For now, though, Gamble needed to get this piece of shit somewhere to rot in peace.
Or he could leave him in the weeds. When winter came, the snow would press them down on him, and he’d have his grave.
Yeah, and now, this was one more place where they couldn't let the police wander around or they had issues.
Dragging him into the weeds, he dropped his body onto the ground and tried to make it look like he hadn’t been there.
When he stood up, he checked the grass all around him. Nothing was moving, so he assumed that Poe was doing what he told him to do.
Heading back to the house.
Now, it appeared that he had to track his man down to make sure he was safe.
Thinking about what the now-dead guy had said, he hoped there was only a small scouting party of two.
What were the chances?
They were going to find out.
Leaving the safety of the weeds, he took a chance, and got to the horses.
There was no way he was leaving them out here to be targets. For now, everyone was safer at the stable.
“Hey, Diablo, I need you to take Honey and go home,” he said, and the horse nudged him with his head. “Go on now,” he said. “Go home!”
Then, he slapped them both on the ass.
That was all it took. Diablo was smart, and he knew a few key words.
Home.
Honey.
Apples.
Orchard.
As for Honey, she would follow the stallion anywhere. That he understood since he loved Poe the same way.
When they took off, they were, indeed, going back to the stables. So, with that handled, Gamble moved into the surrounding trees, and he began hunting down his husband.