Take Her to HeVan (Nephilim Book 6) (11 page)

While she didn’t really expect the marriage to last, probably only as long as Karlo still had no memory, she also didn’t expect to marry again. She had admitted loving Karlo, if only to herself.

The two of them got back to the courthouse for their appointment with the judge with just five minutes to spare. They laughed together as they rushed up the stairs after going through security. They didn’t want to be late.

Arriving at the judge’s chambers, they gave their names to his secretary and after checking her appointment log, she told them to go in. When they entered the judge’s office, in addition to the judge, there was another person present, an older woman.

“Marla Jones and Karlo Darvik?” asked the man behind the desk referencing the paperwork in front of him.

“Yes, that’s us, Judge Davis,” said Marla with a smile, giving Karlo’s hand a squeeze. “Thank you for having a witness ready, we didn’t even think of that.”

“Actually, Mrs. Lewis is here for another reason entirely. I’m not going to be able to marry you today. One of you is already married,” he said.

“Karlo?” Marla asked, turning to look at him.

A million thoughts were running through her head. Did they find him in their system? He was married to someone else?

“Oh, my God, Karlo! You’re married? We’ve been sleeping together for days!” Marla pulled her hand away from his and was starting to freak out when the judge exchanged a look with Mrs. Lewis and then interrupted Marla’s tirade.

“Ms. Jones, excuse me. Mr. Darvik is not the one who’s married
—
you are. You were married six months ago,” he told her.

“What?” Marla asked, looking at the judge with a look of total incomprehension. Then she relaxed and smiled.

“Okay, we can get this cleared up. You must have me confused with another Marla Jones. I’ve never been married,” she said with a smile.

“According to Mrs. Lewis, who works in the Office of Vital Statistics, your previous marriage was held here in Boulder via proxy. You wouldn’t have to be present. I’ve been a judge for nearly thirty years and like to think I’ve learned a thing or two about reading people. I believe you were unaware of this marriage. It is still a legal marriage, though, so I can’t marry you today. The prior marriage will need to be dissolved first.”

“What’s the name of the man she married?” Karlo asked.

“Yes, who’s the jerk who married me without my knowledge?” Marla reiterated.

She couldn’t believe that hadn’t been her first question. She was really losing it.

The judge looked down at the form again before answering. “A Jake O’Brien.”

“That snake. Why is he doing this to me? I don’t get it, we broke up before we even started talking about marriage. I broke up with him when I found out he was cheating on me with my best friend. That was almost nine months ago. Why would he do this? I don’t understand. Did he think he was helping me?” Marla started rambling.

“Excuse me, Miss Jones. I’d like to ask a few questions, if I may?” asked Judge Davis.

“You don’t need me here. I should get back to the office,” said Mrs. Lewis.

She got up to leave the room. This real life drama was going to be better than any soap opera, and she had played a part in it. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay. The judge’s secretary was an old friend so maybe later she’d get details. She did hear one question and answer as she crossed the floor.

“Why would marrying you help you?” asked the judge.

“It all has to do with my grandfather’s will,” Marla said.

She went on to explain why she had to marry. Karlo added in all the information about the sabotage around the ranch. He believed, and the judge agreed with him, that it was all connected.

“The way I see it, this man O’Brien has one major objective, to make sure your ranch goes up for sale. Is your ranch valuable in some way?” asked the judge.

“It’s just an ordinary ranch. Jake’s ranch is five or six times bigger than mine. My grandfather ran cattle and as Karlo mentioned, I’m raising alpacas. We won’t get rich, but we’ll make a nice living, and the ranch will stay in the family,” she explained, still bewildered at the entire situation.

She still couldn’t get around Jake marrying her by proxy. It was so bizarre.

Karlo reached out and touched her. She realized she’d missed what the judge had said. She asked him to repeat the question.

“I asked how long the ranch has been in your family.”

“We were ranching there when the gold rush hit in 1859. Rather than buy into gold fever, my many times great-grandfather leased the mineral rights for ten years, and the family hunkered down to weather the storm. According to the family archives, the biggest problem we had was keeping the miners away from our spring. We needed the water for our cattle, and they wanted it for sluicing for gold. We worked it out. Many people went bankrupt when the gold and then silver rushes ended and the price of silver dropped. My family held on when others lost everything.”

“Well, then, I think I know what makes your land so valuable. In Colorado, the water rights are rather complicated. I’m sure you’ve heard stories about people not owning the rain that falls off their roofs? I won’t go into detail, but the water laws were put in place at about the same time as the gold rush. Even though you have a small ranch, you probably own a large water right that’s tied to your ranch. I suggest you contact an attorney who specializes in water. I also suggest you bring a case of jactitation against this Jake O’Brien fellow. If you do, your family lawyer may be able to overturn that clause in your grandfather’s will.”

“What’s jacti
-
whatever you said?” asked Marla.

“Jactitation is the act of marrying someone without their knowledge and consent. We don’t have jactitation laws here in the US. It’s an old English law.

“Of course, there may be a different impediment to your marriage. Correct me if I’m wrong, but for a moment there, you thought Mr. Darvik here was the married one?”

“No, you’re right. I did think Karlo might be married because I knew I wasn’t. Or at least I believed I wasn’t, since I wasn’t actually a participant,” she groused.

“What made you believe Mr. Darvik might be married? It’s not a normal assumption,” he said, pressing her.

“Oh, well, you see,” she said, stalling and trying to think of something to say and realized she couldn’t lie to the judge, especially since he’d been so nice. “Karlo
—
um, was in an accident and he’s having some
—
um, memory issues.”

“I see. Mr. Darvik, in order to be issued a marriage license, you signed an affidavit swearing you were free to marry. If there is a possibility you could be married, I can’t perform a ceremony for the same reason I couldn’t marry you and Miss Jones today. You’ll need to resolve this situation as well as your fiancée’s.

“Here’s my card, have your family lawyer contact me. I’d like to follow along and see how this turns out. I’ll help if I can,” he said, standing and passing over his card.

Both Marla and Karlo understood they were being dismissed in a very nice way. It was time to leave his office. Taking the card, they thanked Judge Davis and left his office. There was another couple waiting by his secretary’s desk. Marla could tell they had also come to get married. In that moment, she didn’t care about Jake and what he’d done. She just realized she and Karlo weren’t getting married and it broke her heart.

Becky Anderson Namkin yawned softly and took another sip of her coffee as she made her way to her office. Her
Ankida
had kept her up late last night and now she was paying for it. Even though she was able to set her own hours, she liked to put in full days for as long as she could. She’d be taking time off after the babies were born. Now that she’d finally admitted she was carrying twins, she was in full planning mode.

Once she got her computer up, she was checking her emails before she started some serious baby shopping online. She didn’t have anything for the nursery. With the big baby boom, the local stores were all sold out. She was having items shipped in. She had her eye on a particular baby buggy slash stroller.

She was mindlessly deleting emails that hadn’t been caught and junked by her email software, when an alert from a credit card company caught her eye. All of the Nephilim warriors were given an ID and also an emergency credit card. When they were posted to Earth, they were given a full financial history, including a checking account and regular credit accounts. Those warriors stationed at the gate had their Earth US passports and a card to use if they were stranded or had some other type of emergency. The card had no limit, so if they wound up on the other side of the world, they wouldn’t be stranded for long.

The alert told her one of those emergency cards had been used. Moments later, she was yelling for her
Ankida
.

Ishme came running into the room. “What? Is it the babies? Do you need an ambulance?” he asked her frantically as he ran his hands over her body.

She couldn’t help it. She started giggling, and he was tickling her.

“Stop, I’m fine,” she laughed, pushing his hands away.

“I was worried. Nyal went to the grocery store and he has the van. Maybe we should get a second car just in case of an emergency,” he said.

“We can get as many vehicles as you want, sweetie. Well, no more than will fit into the garage, okay? Now, the reason I called you in here is because Karlo Darvik’s credit card was used yesterday afternoon. That means he’s either alive or someone found the shuttle and found his stuff, or he got out of the shuttle and then someone found him and robbed him.”

Ishme took hold of her hands. “As much as I would like to think he’s alive, he would have contacted us. All the warriors know how to get in touch in an emergency. If he’s in a place where he can use his credit card, he could buy a pre-paid phone.”

“It’s no use speculating. His brother is searching the forest northwest of Boulder for the crash site. We should tell him what’s happening. At the same time, I’m going to get to work online and see what I can find out about these charges. Maybe it’ll give us some leads. Should I cancel the credit card? If he were robbed, I’d hate for the thief to be able to just spend our money,” she said.

“I’ll let you make that decision. You’re the expert on this sort of thing,” he said, kissing her on the forehead. “While you do that, I’ll contact Charl Darvik and let him know what’s happening. If you come up with any more information, he can look into it for us.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

Ishme got up to make his calls. He was about to leave the office when Becky called him back.

“Hey, a kiss on the forehead, that’s all I get?” she asked with a pout.

He turned right around and gave her a deeper kiss. “Better?”

“Much better, I love you.”

“I love you, too, my heart.”

Smiling, Becky turned back to her computer. “Now, let’s see who’s been buying what in Boulder, Colorado.”

While Becky did her thing on the computer, Ishme was in another room he and Nyal shared as an office/den. Becky had said it wasn’t much of a man cave. There were a couple of desks facing each other at one end of the room. The other end had a couple of chairs and a mini fridge. Becky had offered to decorate a room specifically for them to hang out in. They had turned her down, saying they’d rather spend time with her.

She let them get away with that because they were still technically newlyweds. At the same time, the twins would be arriving soon, so she was going ahead with her plans to turn part of the basement into a men only room. They had more and more Nephilim warriors visiting and it would be a good place for them to hang out.

Charl Darvik was carrying a SAT phone in his pack so it didn’t take long for Ishme to reach him.

“Hello?” said Charl.

“Charl Darvik? This is Ishme Namkin,
Ankida
to Becky Anderson.”

All Nephilim knew Becky. She was one of the first three women from Earth known to be of Nephilim descent. She was also the creator of all their Earth identities and a founder of the women’s Sanctuary.

“Ishme, greetings fellow warrior, do you have news for me?” Charl asked.

“Yes, your brother’s credit card was used in Boulder yesterday. Becky is looking into it. We should have some more information in a few hours. I thought you might want to head in that direction,” said Ishme.

“I haven’t found anything here in the forest. There’s still a lot of acreage left to search. I should have found something. I’m in the area where the traitor Hend must have landed the shuttle. If you have a stronger lead, then I agree I should look into it. I must find my brother’s body.”

“You don’t think your brother could be the one using his credit card?”

“No, Ishme. We have no other close family. He would not leave me grieving alone. If he were alive, he would contact me. No, a thief has stolen his credit card and possibly his identification. I will find this person and they will lead me to my brother’s body,” Charl said.

Karlo could hear the pain in his fellow warrior’s voice. “Anything you need to aid you, you only need to ask and it shall be given. May the Goddess bless your steps.”