Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (35 page)

Drant looked from Vin to Emma, his eyes
narrowed and his mouth set in a grim line. “I can’t let this man,
responsible for the assault of four hundred men, go free without
any investigation.”

“
Three hundred and
seventy-six, sir,” Vin reminded him.

Sandra gasped, and Nate’s eyes widened.
But Emma only patted Vin’s chest again. “I’m sure he only did what
he had to do to deal with those horrible criminals.”

“
Miss Brand, I’m not sure
you understand how dangerous this man is,” Drant said.

“
General, the creation of
the Recon Marines was part of my studies in psychiatry. I’ve spend
the last forty days with this man. I’ve seen him in action, actions
that saved my life and others.” Emma folded her arms across her
chest, an imitation of the general’s posture. Despite her
diminutive size, something about her made her appear larger.
“Perhaps it’s you who doesn’t understand how dangerous getting our
mining interests in order is going to be. I need Vin at my side.
While my mother and Nate handle the home office details, I’ll be
traveling to every mining site we own. I’m sure you can imagine the
problems I’m bound to encounter.”

Vin thought of the rugged mining towns
he’d been in. Few were as civilized as Hovel Port. And the managers
running many of those mines were often nasty, vicious, men, caring
only about the mine production and nothing about their workers’
behavior or living conditions. No way would he let Emma go to those
places. But he had no say in what she did. The facts slowly fit
together.

Emma and her mother owned Hadrason
Mining, making them rich beyond imagining. The castle was her home.
And she was a doctor who cared about regular people like those in
Hovel Port. Everything about her was beautiful, inside and out. He
loved her so desperately that he closed his eyes, afraid the
emotion would overflow.

General Drant sighed. “I have to talk
to some people. Leave Vin here. The medical care is better than
you’ll find anywhere else on this rock. Now, allow me a moment
alone with my former marine.”

Emma leaned over and kissed Vin. Her
lips touched his and were gone before he could react. He watched
her walk to the door, noticing the way her slim gray dress clung to
her hips and thighs.

“
Well, son, I guess
somehow you’re going to come out of this smelling like a
rose.”

Vin actually thought he needed a shower
and even then he wouldn’t use rose-scented soap. “I doubt that,
sir.”

“
That’s some woman taking
up battle for you. Make sure you deserve her.”

“
I don’t deserve her,
sir.”

Drant nodded. “Most soldiers don’t
deserve the wonderful women that put up with them. I’ve been with
my wife for over thirty years. I try to keep the worse ugliness
from her but that girl of yours has worked with military vets and
knows more about a soldier’s life than most civilians. If she loves
you anyway, you better do your best to hold onto her.”

Emma had never said she loved him. “How
do you know a woman loves you, general?”

Drant snorted. “I would guess that she
would take on the most powerful man in the military for you. She’d
probably use all the might of her wealth to keep you at her side.
And maybe somewhere in the complicated female brain of her, she
understands you a bit, accepts you for who you are and forgives you
for things you can’t forgive yourself for. Those things tell you
she loves you more than mere words can.”

“
Thank you,
sir.”

Drant patted Vin on his bad shoulder,
sending shards of pain across his upper body. “It will get
straightened out, son. I didn’t want to see you in prison
anyway.”

After Drant left, Vin fought sleep back
as he tried to recall everything Emma had ever said to him. He
considered the way she looked at him, touched him, and now fought
to keep him at her side. It sounded like love by Drant’s
definition. But he’d still like those mere words.

Epilogue

Like many young girls, Emma had once
dreamed of a lavish wedding in an old fashioned long dress, flowers
by the bushel and her father walking her down the aisle to hand her
off to a handsome young man. They would dance for hours at a
reception attended by thousands with her new husband giving her
chaste kisses to the cheers of the crowd.

Though her wedding couldn’t be more
different than her childhood dream, the most important part was the
same. A handsome young man would be her husband. Instead of stylish
formal attire, he wore simple military garb of plain gray. His face
sported a few half-healed bruises and one of his hands hid beneath
a layer of bandages.

Her father had passed, killed at a
mining site, but her beloved friend Vannie would take his duties.
No glorious hall hosted the event, but rather a military conference
room with the table and chairs pushed to the side. General Drant
stood at the far end near Vin.

Emma’s mother and Nate stood there also
to bear witness for her. A stranger flanked Vin, a slightly taller
man with vibrant blue eyes who looked enough like Emma’s marine to
be his brother. She’d heard Joe Adell, consort to the Queen of
Giroux, had arrived but she had yet to meet him.

Joe exuded the same watchful grace as
Vin though there was also a warmth of peace in his eyes. Emma hoped
to see the same thing replace the ghosts in the haunted depths of
Vin’s eyes someday.

At the moment, Vin looked confused.
Emma had known better than to wait for Vin to ask for her hand. So
she’d told him what was happening. Now he waited for her, wary and
unsure of himself. They hadn’t had one private moment since he’d
been injured as she and her mother gathered the reins of their
business interests more firmly into their control.

The general and his staff had kept Vin
busy as they grilled him on his recent adventures. He’d been a one
man crime investigation team, exposing criminals no one had known
had been in league with Geoff Hadrason. The only concerns were
about the judgments he’d meted out.

Emma wore a long dress, not even new
but seldom worn. The silvery fabric moved like a cloud around her
legs, the skirt ending just above her silver boots. Silver and
shining black ribbons wove through her curls but she wore no
jewelry.

Vin stared at her as she walked to him.
Vannie set her hand on Vin’s arm with a flourish and a large smile
and then took his place beside Sandra.

Drant cleared his throat and called
Emma’s attention from Vin’s perplexed expression. “Against all
odds, sometimes two people find each other across the expanse of
the universe. May the one God bless this union as surely His hand
was in the making of it.”

Emma’s heart swelled with gratitude.
The general’s words were his way of giving his blessing to their
marriage despite all his attempts to talk Emma out of
it.

“
Do you, Emma Brand, take
Recon Marine Captain Vin, to be your husband for now and always
under the laws of the Galactic Union?”

“
I do.”

And do you promise to honor and love
Vin for all the days of your life, through sickness and health and
into old age?”

“
I do.”

“
You do?” Vin asked. “You
love me?”

Emma’s throat closed up. Why hadn’t she
told him sooner? Of all people, she understood that he couldn’t
have deduced her feelings for him. “I do now and always
shall.”

Vin swallowed. “Thank you for teaching
me that love isn’t limited in quantity. I thought I could love only
one woman and when she died, I expected to be alone for the rest of
my days. I’ve learned from knowing your heart that humans have an
infinite capacity to love. I love you, Emma Brand, now and always.
I will protect you with my life and support all your endeavors. I
am your man in every sense of the law under mankind and God. This I
vow.”

Emma could wait a moment longer. She
pulled Vin’s head down to kiss her.

Drant cleared his throat. “Well, that
was better than what I planned to say. I pronounce you man and
wife. I present Doctor Emma and Mister Vin Brand to the
world.”

Hugs were exchanged, much to Vin’s
apparent discomfort when Sandra clasped him tightly to her. The men
slapped Vin on the back. It surely hurt his injured shoulder, but
he endured it with a small smile.

Joe Adell gave Emma an awkward hug,
clearly a man new to polite mannerisms but trying. “I’m glad he
found you. You’ve healed him of a wound I thought would kill
him.”

“
I’m glad he found me too.
I didn’t realize how alone I felt against my stepfather until I had
Vin to help me. Thank you for being here. I know it meant a lot to
Vin that you came.”

Joe nodded, a curt military gesture.
“He’s my brother. My best friend since I can remember. I’ve missed
him, and my wife informed me that I’m to invite you both to Giroux.
She couldn’t be here as our baby is due shortly.”

Emma thought Joe would likely father a
lovely child and smiled, imagining her own dark-haired little Vins.
“We’ll take you up on that but I’m not sure when. We have a lot of
traveling to do until we get things in order.”

“
Speaking of that,” Drant
said, stepping into the middle of their conversation and gesturing
for Vin to join them. “I might need Vin for a little while. From
our interrogation of Admiral Lester, we’ve learned more about the
man called Nemon. Seems Lester and some of his friends started an
experimental lab to produce their own style of super soldier. They
worked on manipulating the brains of genetically designed strong
men. Their goal was to eliminate all empathetic thought processes
and limit independent thought. Nemon was only one example of their
products from over thirty-five years of experimentation. They ran
their epigenetics programs concurrent with the Recon Marine’s
program and continued after the legitimate study was shut down.
They used numerous bases and the only one Lester claimed to know
was the moon base he took Emma to. We need to find the other labs,
arrest those men and find out what else they’ve been up
to.”

“
You have an army to do
that.”

“
I can’t assign a regiment
to this,” Drant answered. “I’ve been ordered to keep these crimes
top secret. I need a small group and a Recon Marine has more
experience in a variety of environments than any other soldier.
Vin, you’ve probably visited more planets than any human
alive.”

“
General,” Emma said
before Vin could obey an order without remembering he didn’t have
to. “Vin, Vannie and I will begin our tour of our mining interests
five days from now after we’ve had a short wedding holiday. I
wasn’t exaggerating when I said I needed Vin.” And there was no way
she wanted Vin confronting another monster like Nemon.

“
I have an idea, sir,” Joe
said. “Mak is a bit restless at the moment. Acacia has gone off to
teach at a university, and he needs a job.”

Drant nodded. “Tell him to come at
once. I’m putting a hunting team of scientists and soldiers
together. I’ll give him command of the military side of the
venture.”

Emma’s mother interrupted and drew Vin
and Emma away. “Why don’t you two go ahead to the house? We’ll be
along. I’m looking forward to getting to know my son.”

Vin’s expression amused Sandra as much
as it did Emma. He looked between the two women with a hint of
panic in his beloved gray eyes that Emma had once thought cold and
emotionless. “How shall I address you, Mistress Brand?”

Sandra smiled and stretched up on her
toes to kiss Vin’s cheek. “I guess you’ll have to call me,
Mother.”

Emma led her stunned-looking husband to
the covered hover waiting for them with a driver. Vin quietly
watched the city pass as they navigated the streets to the Brand
manor. They’d had a hundred workers cleaning and repairing the
place. She didn’t understand how Vin had cut the window on the top
floor to enter the house, but it was replaced now.

“
Are we going to live in
this castle?” Vin asked as they walked inside.

She’d grown up in the massive house,
thinking little of how it might appear to others. That Vin called
it a castle only further fulfilled her childish dreams of a
fairytale marriage. “It will be our home base, but we’re going to
be traveling a lot. I think we’ll outfit our star cruiser like a
home with a room for Vannie and quarters for a crew.”

“
The ship Lester brought
us here in would be a good size. It’s a top of the line
model.”

“
Do you mind traveling so
much?”

Vin smiled. “I love traveling, but I’ve
never had such company before.” He wrapped her tight with his one
arm and lifted her chin with his bandaged hand. “I’ve never
traveled with someone who smells so good.”

She opened her mouth beneath his,
welcoming his hungry kiss. They broke apart to make their way to
her bedroom.

Vin needed her help getting his
clothing off. Bruises darkened his torso in an uneven speckled
array. She kissed them one by one until his ragged breath told her
he could take no more. He wanted to help her with her dress but his
bandaged hand couldn’t manipulate the zippers.