Adams, Eve - The Banished Bride [Brides of Bachelor Bay 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (7 page)

“I would have,” Andrew agreed with a nod and wiped the blood from his lip. “Someone has got to teach him a lesson. Since neither one of you will do it, you leave me no choice.”

Logan let out a long, tired sigh. “The choice is clear, and it doesn’t involve you killing your brother. Gage, send for Amelia. It’s time she makes her choice.”

“You don’t mean…” Gage fell silent before he finished.

“I do. We can no longer wait for her.” Logan swung a glare to Noah. “It’s obvious she doesn’t have the capacity while such temptations are at her disposal. Since the temptation lives here, there is only one other option.”

Andrew narrowed his eyes. “What option is that?”

Logan’s expression grew somber. “Gage, please ask Amelia to join us. I’ll make the arrangements while Lizzie packs her sister’s things.”

Reluctantly, Gage left the room.

“You’re sending her away?” Shock rattled across Andrew’s already too-sensitive nerves.

Andrew darted a shocked look at Noah, who had paled.

“Drew,” Logan said softly. He hadn’t called Andrew by the name their mother and father used to call him in years. “I can’t have her in this house tearing you two apart.”

“But she’s family.” Noah protested.

“No,” Logan countered. “She isn’t, but you two are. She needs this.”

“What she needs is a leash,” Andrew countered bitterly. “Not to be released into the wild. Sending her away is not the answer, Logan.”

“This is ludicrous!” Noah pulled the handkerchief away from his swollen nose. The man rarely took anything seriously, yet he looked ready to explode. “I have to agree with Andrew, Logan. Honestly, this is a terrible idea. She’s a beautiful woman. Without us watching over her, there will be other suitors.”

“Other suitors? Jesus Christ, Noah.
You
did this!” Andrew turned to Noah and charged, not stopping until he slammed his finger into his little brother’s chest. “It wasn’t another man who came into her chambers and seduced her. It was my own flesh and blood. Your betrayal can never be undone. No matter who marries her, he will never have the one thing reserved for her husband. You’ve stolen her virtue.”

“But I didn’t,” he explained in haste.

“Do not lie to me.” Andrew grabbed his collar.

Noah brought his hands up to protect his face from further damage. “I promise you, I’m telling the truth. Her virtue is intact.”

Andrew relaxed his grip on Noah’s shirt as he lowered his fist. The solemn look in Noah’s face said it all. He told the truth. He dropped his hold and pushed him back, disgusted.

Noah let out a sigh in relief.

“Andrew,” Logan started back in. “Regardless whether you believe Noah or not, the problem remains. Look at the two of you. I can’t allow this to continue.”

“Allow what to continue, Logan?” Andrew glared at him. “For Noah to parade around town and make a mockery of this family? Send me away to San Francisco every few months on business while the rest of you continue to live your blissful little lives uninterrupted?”

Logan fell back into his chair as his troubled gaze held on to Andrew’s. “Is that truly what you believe?”

“I’m clearly the disposable one of the family. You and Gage have Lizzie.” He turned his glare to Noah. “And you now have Amelia.”

Noah stepped forward, sincerity shining in his eyes. “Brother, I don’t want her, not like this. She is, and was always meant to be, your bride.”

“Then why, Noah?” Andrew felt the crack in his voice and stopped it before it made a fool of him and gave away how much this affected him. He swallowed thickly and drew in several breaths to pull his control back in. “Why take her from me?”

“You released her, Andrew! I’m not the only one who gave into his weakness. What I did was wrong and for that I’m truly sorry. I had no idea you still cared for her as deeply as you do. But what you did was far greater a crime.”

“What I did? Noah, you’ve gone mad. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Haven’t you? Releasing her, by telegraph no less, was the right thing to do?”

“I was angry,” he said as if that justified his actions.

“That doesn’t make it right. Brother, I’m just as much at fault for this as you are.”

Andrew looked at him and hated Noah for his playful, nonchalant ways. He hated him for making sense. But, most of all, Andrew hated himself for driving Amelia into his brother’s arms.

“So what do we do now?” Noah asked.

Logan spoke up. “It’s clear that you both have strong feelings for Amelia, stronger than I had originally thought. If you two can see past your idle differences, this could work.”

They both looked at him.

He stood from his chair. “Hear me out. Noah, you are what she
wants
. Andrew, you are what she
needs
.”

The epiphany nearly knocked Andrew over. He knew what she
needed
—stability, security, a long life of pampering and unconditional love. He also knew what she
wanted
—excitement, titillation, a long life of blinding passion and white-hot pleasure.

As Andrew looked at his youngest brother a plan conjured up in his brain. Yes, it was insane. Yes, they’d more than likely end up killing each other over her. Yes, it could be the answer they’d been searching for.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Noah snapped his brow into a frown.

Andrew grinned as an enormous weight lifted off his chest. He should hate his little brother for what he’d done. Instead, he wanted to hug him for finally forcing Andrew to see the obvious answer that had been right in front of them all along.

“Noah, you and I must prepare.”

“For what?”

“For the taking of
our
bride.”

Chapter 5

Lizzie’s Journal, Saturday, August 12
^th
, 1865

Port Steele, Washington Territory

I had to take a moment to capture my thoughts before I lose them entirely along with my sanity. I’m far too busy with the plans for the new house Logan, Gage, and I will be building to move further out of town. Now that the price of lumber has escalated astronomically, we can afford the higher luxuries of life—but these luxuries were hard earned. Amelia feels entitled to that life of luxury without doing a thing to earn it. By moving her into this wonderful house when I married Logan, I’m sure I’ve had a hand in Amelia’s disillusion. Tonight that ends. As I write this, Logan is in his office breaking the news to Amelia. We’d talked about it for some time and I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but Amelia has left us no choice. If Amelia doesn’t make the right decision tonight—and in my soul I know she won’t—by morning, all of her things will be packed and ready for delivery to her new domicile. Logan will no longer support her and I agree with his decision. I pray she won’t hate me forever, even though I’m sure she will when she discovers this was all my idea.

* * * *

Amelia followed Gage down the hall in silence. She didn’t know what to say or what to do to defend her position, so she said nothing. She knew what Andrew saw, and no doubt now so did everyone else.

She’d never be able to face any of the Gallaghers again without the shame of what she’d done weighing on her. She had Lizzie help her into one of her proudest, most modest dresses in the hopes it would help her feel less exposed.

It didn’t.

“In here.” Gage gestured toward Logan’s office.

Amelia hesitated. Nothing good ever came from one of the brides being summoned to Logan’s home office. Amelia recalled her dearest friend, Patience Weber, being called in and then leaving married to Adam Steele all for sneaking onto the boat that brought the rest of the brides to Port Steele.

Logan had called Lucy Riley to his office, and she ended up married to the McTaggert brothers. Amelia was positive Logan forced the marriage on poor Lucy to those brothers only after Jason asked for Amelia’s hand. As a result, Jason and Tate were now with Lucy and Amelia was once again without a suitor.

Gage slid the doors open and stood off to the side for Amelia to enter first. She swung her gaze up to him in the hopes to sway him to her side. Just a few bats of her lashes should soften his stance enough for her to convince him that whatever injustice Logan was about to deliver should be stopped.

But Gage simply straightened his shoulders and turned his gaze from hers, and the air deflated from her lungs along with her hope.

“Have a seat, please.” Logan held out his arm and motioned for Amelia to enter and sit.

She glanced around the room, at the broken table and shattered remains of a lamp, and stopped. When she darted a look at Noah, saw his swollen nose, dried blood on his face and shirt, and his split lip, she gasped.

“What happened?”

“He did this.” Noah pointed to Andrew.

Amelia turned to face Andrew and gasped again. He also had a split lip, a large bruise on his cheek, and disheveled hair. He never had a hair out of place. “Why would you attack your brother?”

“As if you really need to ask that question,” he retorted, acid dripping from his tone.

“Me?” She whipped her gaze back and forth between the two men who’d clearly been in one hell of a fight. “You two did this to each other over me?”

She couldn’t hide the hint of satisfaction she felt over that.

“Sit.” Logan’s tone didn’t leave anything up for discussion.

Amelia kept her hands folded in her lap and her gaze lowered as she took a seat in Logan’s office. The heat of every last one of their gazes burned into her neck, and she couldn’t bear to look up to see the judgment in any of their eyes.

Logan walked over and sat on the arm of the chair across from her. “Amelia, we have a bit of a problem. You see, ever since you’ve moved into this house, Andrew and Noah have been beside themselves trying to gain your affection.”

Amelia knew better than to smile and kept her expression still, even though the news had her heart fluttering like a wild butterfly.

“And in doing so,” Logan continued, “they’ve also become at odds with each other, which has grown quite disruptive, both in their personal and professional lives. I need Noah and Andrew to work together in order to keep Gallagher Logging alive. Keeping our family business alive keeps Port Steele thriving. If we can’t keep harmony between them, everything else fails. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Not at all. Amelia shook her head but said nothing.

“Look at me.” He stood up from the chair.

She glanced up to see brown eyes as hard as steel as Logan held her in his gaze. He wore no expression as he crossed his arms in front of him and studied her.

“Look around this room. That broken table was a gift from Aunt Mildred when she still traveled the world. You see that chair? Broken as well, and another gift from Aunt Mildred. She is going to be furious that such lavish gifts have been treated so poorly.”

This didn’t make any sense. “What do those broken things have to do with me?”

“They are broken as a result of the fight Noah and Andrew got into over you. This
house
is broken as a result of you. I’m sorry to be so harsh Amelia, but you’ve left me no choice. Choose.”

She didn’t understand and crinkled her brow into a frown. “Choose what?”

“Whom,”
he corrected. “Amelia, I’m going to be very frank with you. We are all adults and have been living under the same roof for over a year now. You know the type of relationship I have with Lizzie.”