The Enemy Within (Daughters of the People Series Book 3) (17 page)

“Oh, well.”
Indigo stuttered to a stop. “No idea.”

“Robert, really.
Don’t put her on the spot.” Rebecca patted his arm. “I hate to bring up
business, but I need to borrow Indigo for a moment so we can go over the
marital contract.”

“I don’t think
so,” Bobby said mildly. “In fact, I want to review it before Indigo signs
anything.”

“Well, really,”
Rebecca said.

He cut her off. “I
have that right.”

“Bobby, please.”
Indigo touched a hand to his knee. “I told you I took care of this.”

“You told me you
gave her what she wanted so we could be together,” he said, and ignored the
flicker of guilt when Indigo paled and looked away. “I want to read that
contract.”

Rebecca’s
posture stiffened. “Do you not trust me to deal fairly?”

“Not for this,
no.” Bobby pinned her with a hard stare. “Especially if you have something to
gain.”

Robert’s
eyebrows shot up and he coughed into his hand. “Get him the contract, dear.”

“Oh, all right.”
Rebecca pulled her purse into her lap and extracted an envelope. “I’m sure
you’ll find it very favorable to both of you.”

Bobby rose and
took the envelope from her, pulled the contract out, and read it standing. He
didn’t miss the way Indigo’s shoulders tensed, the white-knuckled grip of her
hands in her lap, or the way her eyes fell to the floor; nor did he miss his
mother’s haughty gaze as she stared out the window and the way she twisted the
locket between her fingers.

Most of it was
legalese. He cut straight through that and hit the high spots. In lieu of
physical Retribution, Indigo would create a trust for children born of her union
with him, in which she would place a fine for forsaking a Son. Bobby whistled
at the amount. Elizabeth had been right there. It was a hefty sum, but no
larger than he’d expected. He read down, did a slow burn at the provisions for
children, and noted the blank space under the section titled, “Son’s Gift.”
When he finished, he started at the beginning and read the whole thing again,
item by item, and wanted to strangle his mother at the noose she’d slipped
around Indigo’s neck.

In lieu of
physical Retribution
.

He’d heard of
such things, harsh punishment doled out when a Daughter didn’t treat the
precious Son as his mother thought he should be treated. He cursed under his
breath. No wonder Indigo clung to him so fiercely. She thought Rebecca was
going to have her beaten to within an inch of her life if things didn’t work
out with him.

A wave of
dizziness washed over him and he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Bobby, what is
it?” Indigo said.

He shook his head
at the alarm in her voice.

Physical
Retribution
.
Often meted out with a whip on bare flesh until the skin was raw. He bent over,
bracing his hands against his knees, and sucked in a harsh breath as nausea
roiled in his stomach. By the Lady Goddess. His mother had threatened her with
a whipping.

Indigo’s screams
echoed through his mind and his gut clenched. He stood slowly and threw the contract
down on the coffee table. “I told you.”

Rebecca
flinched.

Indigo looked
between them, confusion replacing her alarm. “What?”

He ignored her
and speared his mother with a cold gaze. “I told you that if you tried to harm
her, I would stand in front of her. Did you think I was kidding?”

“No,” Rebecca
said, her voice barely audible.

“But you
threatened her anyway.” He stabbed a finger at the contract. “Physical Retribution.
Do you think I don’t know what that is, what it would do to her?” He yanked a
hand through his hair. “For something that wasn’t even her fault? How could
you, Mom?”

“I…” Rebecca
cleared her throat. “I did what I had to do to make certain you were cared
for.”

He laughed, a
harsh, bitter sound that made her flinch. “And if she left me and you went
after her, what do you think I would do? Do you think I’d let you whip her
because I wear her mark, a mark she had no hand in placing?”

“Bobby, please,”
Indigo said.

He hushed her
with a sharp wave of his hand. “I would stand in front of her and take
Retribution in her place. You know I would.”

“No!” Indigo said.
The word held a horror so deep it startled him.

Rebecca sucked
in a breath and the color drained from her face. “That would kill you.”

“What’s going on
here?” Robert said. “I thought that was standard language in the contract.”

“It’s not.”
Bobby nodded at his mother. “She put it in there to keep Indigo tied to me, to
make her have my children whether she wanted them or not. This is low, Mom,
even for you.”

Indigo stood
abruptly. “Bobby, I’d like a word with you please.”

“I think we need
to…”

She cut him off.
“In the bedroom. Now.”

She turned on
her heel and marched out of the living room. Bobby shelved his argument and
followed her, ignoring the whispered conversation his parents were having on
the couch. He shut the door behind himself and stood facing her.

She sucked in a
breath. “How could you embarrass me like that?”

What the hell
. “She was gonna
have you beaten.”

“She was going
to do no such thing.” Indigo crossed her arms over her chest. “And even if she
were, do you think I’d let her bully me around like that? I’m not a child. It
was my decision to claim you,
mine
, and my decision to bring a suit
before your mother. I wouldn’t do that if I didn’t want you. I’m not some
weakling that I can be pushed into doing something I don’t want.”

“Indi, honey, I
didn’t mean…”

“Don’t you
Indi,
honey
me.” She dropped her arms and faced him with such a sad expression he
reached for her, and flinched when she stepped away from him. “When are you
going to trust that I’m strong enough to take care of myself?”

“I do. I know
you’re strong enough.”

“Do you?” Her
gaze went flat and cold. “Do you really?”

She brushed past
him and left the bedroom. He yanked at his tie, loosening it, and undid the top
button of his shirt.

Well, that
wasn’t how he’d expected that to go. For one, he’d hoped she’d be grateful he’d
challenged that damned lopsided contract. Two children in three years?
Ridiculous. He wanted kids, sure, but not like that, not rushed because his mom
had set a timetable to it. And he sure as hell would never let the physical
Retribution clause stand, even if he thought Indigo would never love him.

Why didn’t she
understand his need to protect her, to keep her safe and hold her to him and
say to hell with the rest of the world? He’d wanted to since the first moment
he’d seen her, when she’d walked into the classroom his tenth grade year and
stolen his heart with the gentle smile in her sapphire eyes.

He folded his
hands behind his head and ran through his options one by one. A triumphant grin
twisted his lips when he hit on a way to even out the contract and force
Rebecca to leave them alone once and for all.

A fire danced
merrily behind the tempered glass doors of the fireplace insert. Rebecca stared
at it and drew her legs tighter into the curve of her body. She took a sip of
the wine she’d poured earlier, a nice red grown locally. The fruity undertones
were lost to her, overwhelmed by the dismay ricocheting through her mind.

She’d severely
misplayed her hand where Indigo was concerned.

The fire popped
and sizzled, throwing warmth into the library. It was her favorite place, this
room, with its overstuffed couches and walls of books. She and Robert had spent
hours here together, and the children, too, when Bobby was younger. This was
where she came to relax and think.

And sometimes to
brood over her mistakes.

A woman of her
age and experience should have grown out of strategic errors. Her son’s life
wasn’t a battlefield, though, where the sides and issues were clear cut, where
she wasn’t so close to the action that she couldn’t direct it as she had
countless times over the centuries.

Perhaps if she loved
him less, she’d have dealt with it more rationally, but that was asking too
much from a mother, to erase the love she felt for her only son, and with it
her heart.

When he’d
learned the exact terms of the marital contract, he’d been so angry, and then
he’d turned the tables on her nicely.

She hid the
proud smile that rose behind a sip of wine. Yes, he was his mother’s son.

A house and
land. That’s what he’d demanded as the Son’s gift to his wife, not to enrich
his new bride’s pockets so much as to punish his mother for overstepping her
bounds. She’d done what she had for the best, but of course he wouldn’t see it
that way. All he saw was the harm that could come to Indigo, not the harm that
would come to him when she left him heartbroken and alone for the second time
in his young life.

The pain of that
memory still burned. Losing Bobby to the Army was one thing. Knowing what
Indigo’s rejection had pushed him to was another. All those years spent in a
system that had channeled his rage to its own calculated purpose. He’d been
wrong to think she wouldn’t learn exactly what he’d done during that time, and
wrong to be afraid when she’d invoked the Enforcer and pushed him into contact
with the woman he’d lost.

That had been
done for the best as well. It was far past time for Bobby’s heart to find
solace. Gentle Indigo was the perfect woman to help him find it.

Rebecca had
never intended to enact the Retribution clause, regardless of what Bobby
thought. It was there simply for leverage, to force Indigo to carefully
consider her options should she ever wish to abandon him again.

Of course, if
they had children, it wouldn’t come to that. Indigo would never leave her
children and Bobby would never allow them to be taken from him. If they were
stuck in a loveless union until then, so be it.

Somehow, though,
Rebecca didn’t think it would be loveless. Bobby loved Indigo fiercely, of that
there was no question, and Rebecca had noticed the shy glances Indigo had sent
him, the way she’d relaxed under Bobby’s hand, the soft blush that rose to her
face when he gazed down at her, all the love and pride and joy shining from him.
The love was there, or would be soon, and after that, surely it was only a
matter of time before Indigo submitted her will to Bobby and became mortal,
cementing their relationship.

The door creaked
open. Rebecca allowed a small sigh to escape as Robert made his way slowly
across the room on his hand crutches. Her beloved husband hadn’t been happy
with her either the night before.

She turned to
watch his progress with a tenderness that surprised her, even now, decades
after she’d fallen in love with her handsome Yankee scholar. They weren’t quite
into old age yet, and wouldn’t be for a while, but they were getting there. She
didn’t regret it, not one bit. Here was the man who had given her purpose and
reason, and a love deeper than she’d ever before known, even for her children,
as much as she loved them. They had their share of troubles, true, but nothing
they couldn’t overcome together.

And his heart would
always be hers.

“How was the
doctor’s appointment?”

He dropped onto
the other end of the couch facing her and set his crutches aside. “It went
well. Doc said what he always does. Take my medicine, eat well, get plenty of
exercise and rest.”

“And your progress?”

“Oh, that’s just
peachy.” He settled into the back of the couch with a contented smile. “Says
I’m gradually improving. If I’m lucky, I can get rid of the crutches soon, for
short periods, anyway.”

“That’s
wonderful.” She put down her wine and slid over to him. He placed his arm
around her shoulders, drawing her in, and kissed the top of her head when she
rested it on his chest. “I wish you’d let me go with you.”

“You were
supposed to go to work,” he chided. “I came home expecting an empty house and
found you playing hooky.”

“I needed a
little time to think things over.”

“Bobby?”

She’d never been
able to fool him. Seeing through to her inner self was his best trait, and his
worst. “Among other things.”

“He was right to
be angry.”

“I was doing
what I thought best for him.” She toyed with a button on his shirt, just above
his heart. “Besides, Indigo agreed to those terms on her own. I didn’t force
her into it.”

He coughed to
hide a laugh that she still heard. “Yes, you did. At least be honest about it.”

She huffed,
making his laugh deepen and rumble through his chest under her ear. “It’s
settled now, at any rate.”

“Only because
Bobby forced your hand.” His arm tightened around her shoulders. “You heard
him. Indigo gave you what you wanted so they could get married. That has to
mean something.”

It did. Hadn’t
her own thoughts drifted along similar lines? “We’ll see.”

“No more
interfering, Becca. I want to live out my retirement in peace without my son
and wife being at loggerheads.”

“It won’t come
to that. I promise,” she said when he gave a disbelieving
hmph
. “You’ll
see.”

She stared into
the flickering flames and pushed aside the worry in her heart. Bobby would come
around, Indigo would learn to love him, and life would settle down as it
should.

It just had to.

* * *

Indigo barely
had time to breathe the next day. As if the disastrous meeting of the night
before were a spur goading him into action, Bobby charged into the office
snapping orders and prodded everyone into working twice as hard as they usually
did, Indigo included. It didn’t leave them a lot of room to talk. Maybe that’s
why he’d done it.

She’d certainly
left him wanting on that score after that awful dinner with his parents.
Confronting his mother over the contract, distrusting his lover’s strength and
resolve. The heat of humiliation burned her cheeks. Their little talk in the
bedroom hadn’t helped at all. He’d marched back into the living room, demanded
a Son’s gift worth nearly four times the value of the fine Rebecca had imposed
on her, and completely stricken the language regarding Retribution.

And then he’d
shocked them all by looking his mother straight in the eye and telling her,
flat out, that they would have children when they were ready and
he
would pay any fines imposed in the contract for the lack thereof.

It had warmed
her through and through, even as his lack of faith clawed at her.

On the other
hand, the look on Rebecca’s face might’ve been worth Indigo’s own discomfort
over Bobby’s actions. She chuckled to herself and imagined the director’s
stricken expression, the slump of her shoulders when she’d initialed the
changes Bobby insisted on, and the small flash of pride.

It was the
latter that kept Indigo’s spite in check and gave her hope that someday, far in
the future, she and Rebecca might meet as equals, united in their concern for
Bobby.

If she could
just get him to see her as something other than a shy, retiring dove, as a
woman who needed his heart, not his protection…

Later, after a
bemused Robert led his suspiciously silent wife home, Bobby had cajoled Indigo
out of her anger and into bed where he’d loved her for hours, bringing them
both to release after beautiful release with his whispered words and soft
touches.

She could love
him. It was there in the quiet longing of her heart, perched on the verge of
falling, but still fearful of the long cartwheel over the edge into love.

Near the end of
the workday, she cornered him in his office, after he’d spent hours evading
her, pleading work whenever she tried to get him alone.

“Don’t forget
our dinner tonight with Dani and her sweetheart,” she said.

He groaned and
threw his pen down on his desk. “Dave Winstead,” he spat, as if the words alone
left a foul taste in his mouth. “Can’t you go without me?”

She gave him a
stern look. “If I have to go out with your sisters this weekend, then you can
sit through one dinner with a former FBI agent.”

He hefted a sigh
and rubbed tired hands through his hair. “At least promise me this is the last
one we have to do for a while.”

She rose from
the couch and came around the desk. He opened for her and pulled her onto his
lap, and she nestled there, content for the first time that day. “I wish I
could,” she said softly. “Even after we’re officially married, it’ll take a
while for people to quit dragging us out to celebrate.”

“Kiss me, then,
and let me forget about it for a while.”

She did, drawing
his head down so their mouths could meet in a gentle kiss. She loved this, the
way his lips clung to hers and his tongue flicked and stroked, teasing her
while his hands roamed until she squirmed under his touch with a need that
ricocheted through her body, taking her heart with it.

She broke the
embrace before it could get out of hand and talked him into coming home. When
they arrived there an hour later, she stripped him down and led him to the
shower and let him press her against the tiled wall while he rocked into her
and drove them both to a sweet release.

They were
toweling off when his phone beeped with a text. He flipped it open, typed out a
quick return message, and dropped it back down on the counter. “Something’s come
up at work.”

She rolled her
eyes skyward. “Sure it has.”

“Really.” He
hung his towel up and reached around her for his brush. “Laura has some
paperwork she needs signed tonight so it can go out first thing tomorrow.”

She refused to
call the gnawing in her chest jealousy. Suspicion, maybe, but not the
green-eyed monster. “And why didn’t she ask you to do that before we left?”

“I don’t know.”
He lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “Maybe she just got it finished.”

“Right. Laura,
who is normally so efficient you can’t tell she has any work, has just now
decided that,
whoops
, she’s going to wait until the last minute to
finish something time-sensitive.”

Bobby’s grin was
knowing and a little too self-satisfied for Indigo’s peace of mind. “You’re
jealous.”

She gaped at
him. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“It’s just
Laura.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s
just
Laura who moons over you and follows you around like a puppy begging for a good
petting.”

His grin
slipped. “Are we talking about the same woman? Laura, the ice queen, whose
middle name is formality, the same woman who wouldn’t touch a man at work with
a ten foot pole?”

“That would be
her.” Indigo turned on her heel and marched out of the bathroom. “She’s got a
major crush on you.”

“C’mon, Indi.
Don’t be ridiculous.”

She whirled on
him and skewered him with a look that sent him stepping back, hands raised.
“Trust me, Bobby. She’s crushing on you.”

“Ok, fine.” He
dropped his hands and retreated to the bed where he dropped down to watch her
rummage through her clothes. “I’ll talk to her, sort it out, but I still need
to go in and sign those papers.”

“You do that.”
She slammed her underwear drawer shut. “I’ll be having dinner with Dani and her
reputedly gorgeous hunk of a man. Who knows? Maybe I’ll find another one of my
own.”

His eyes
narrowed. “Don’t push it, Indigo. It’s all I can do to let you leave the
apartment every day.”

“Let me!” She
huffed, saw that he was serious, and crossed her arms over her still-naked
chest. “The day you
let
me do anything is the day I hand in my Daughter
card.”

His lips twitched.
“Your Daughter card?”

She bit her lip
to stifle a giggle, and loosed it when he collapsed against the bed, laughing
so hard he rolled along the comforter. She pounced on him and rolled with him
until their bodies were joined and he was inside her, exactly where she wanted
him to be, always.