Contention and Redemption
by Layne
The back of the Toyota Land Cruiser was barely half full. When you traveled with Ben Wade you traveled light, Liana reflected to herself, as she shifted a little in the passenger seat. Ben liked to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. It was the kind of life a man like him had always been used to living.
A man like him. She had to wonder if there really were any other men like Ben. A robber. A master thief. A killer. He was a man who lived life his own way, making his own rules. And, if you were going to be with him, you lived by his rules too. Liana had realized that about him almost from the moment she’d met him a mere six weeks ago.
She glanced over at him now, her face alive with affection and happiness, as he sat behind the wheel, eyes intent on the road ahead. “Tell me again what the house looks like,” she said.
Ben gazed over at her with a grin. Liana was a pretty girl with green eyes that danced when she was happy. They’d been dancing every time she looked at him through all those long hours on airplanes, into Sydney, Australia and the seemingly never-ending wait in lines through customs and all the other airport shit they had to contend with, before being allowed into the country.
Her hair was a soft, silky light brown. No permanents, no coloring, none of the crap that most women seemed to do to their hair these days. She was a down-to-earth girl with a natural-looking beauty. Damned different from any woman he’d known before. That was one of the things that had drawn him to her. That, and the fact that, when he’d told her how he made his living, she’d neither flinched in fear, or looked at him in disbelief.
The look in her eyes had been wondering and fascinated.
They’d met six weeks ago in Atlanta. Talked for six hours straight until Ben had to leave to catch a red-eye flight to his next robbery. During that six hours, Liana had revealed that some family friends had asked her to move to Australia. Someplace called The Glen. She had a nice piece of property waiting for her there. She was leaving in six weeks.
At that very moment, Ben Wade had made up his mind. He was going to Australia with her. He was a rich man. Had millions put away in accounts that no one could touch. People always said crime didn’t pay, but Ben’s career had been a long and profitable one. And in that one evening with Liana, he had made up his mind that it was time to retire.
Could he get her to ask him to go with her? Of course he could. Wasn’t his charm, his way with the ladies, every bit as legendary as his skill at robbery? He hadn’t even had to take her to bed. The very evening he’d returned to Atlanta, she’d asked him. A good thing too, because in the two weeks he’d been away, Ben had been busy. He’d sent his business manager to Australia with house plans and orders to have it built on Liana’s property in six weeks.
“And don’t tell me it’s impossible,” he’d told the man. “With the kind of money I’ve got, anything’s possible. Do whatever it takes.”
Two weeks later, Ben had bought the first breeding stock for the horses he intended to breed and raise. It was something he’d always wanted to do. Liana knew nothing about either the house or the horses. It would be a surprise for her. He hoped she’d be pleased and not upset, although he knew he could charm her out of it, if she was.
Ben never even thought of asking her about any of it. He was taking what he wanted. It was just what he’d always done. Liana would love it, because she loved him. He’d made sure of that.
So here they were. Fifteen minutes away from the Glen in New South Wales. From the piece of land that would be his, because she was his. From the house he’d had built just the way he wanted it over the past several weeks. And from the first breeding stock he’d bought and had shipped over.
All of it paid for with stolen money. Some from people he’d killed while he was in the act of stealing it. And there was millions more where that had come from. Ben Wade was a rich man. Now, he was going to find out if all that money could buy him a new start. A new life, breeding and raising the horses he’d always loved. With a new woman by his side.
“Wasn’t much of a weddin’ for a pretty young girl, was it?” he asked, watching her twist the gold band he’d put on her finger in the office of a justice of the peace, on their way to the airport. “Didn’t even have a weddin’ night before we got on that damned plane.”
Liana blushed and dropped her eyes from his intent blue ones. Those eyes always made her feel as though he were looking right into her soul. “It’s okay,” she said softly. “ I didn’t mind.”
Ben pulled the SUV over to the side of the road. He turned toward her and put a hand under her chin, lifting her face to meet his eyes.
“Well, I damned well minded, darlin’!” His blue eyes snapped with anger. Anger that he controlled and softened as he searched her face. “The Glen is supposed to be a small, close community,” he went on. “We’ll get to know the folks there and then we’ll have us another weddin’. Do everythin’ up right and proper. You’ll have the flowers and the pretty white dress. Everythin’ you oughta have.”
Liana looked at him lovingly, reaching out a hand to lay against his cheek. “I’ve already got everything I need right here.”
She marveled at Ben Wade’s eyes, as she looked deeply into them. They truly were the mirror of his soul. And his was a complicated soul. At any given moment, the look in those eyes could change from amusement to anger. It could be loving and passionate, and then as cold and distant as one of the stars in the heavens. Murderous.
She’d seen that look before and it had literally made her shiver. But it hadn’t made her turn away from him. It hadn’t made her even think twice, before asking him to come to Australia with her. Liana doubted that anything Ben said or did could make her say no to him. He had some sort of strong hold over her that she didn’t understand. Couldn’t seem to break. Didn’t want to break. She loved him. It was as simple as that.
Ben grasped the hand that lay against his cheek, raised it to his lips. “I’m afraid we’ll have to have our weddin’ night before then, though, darlin’,” he drawled softly with a grin. “Don’ think I can wait for that.”
Still blushing, Liana lowered her eyes again. “Then I guess we’ll have two weddings and two wedding nights. You have any problem with that, Wade?” she asked him teasingly.
“Not a’tall, Mrs. Wade,” he answered softly. “Not a’tall.” He leaned down to kiss her, his fingers tangling in that soft brown hair. Felt her quickening pulse and her slight trembling in response to his touch with a sense of satisfaction.
Breaking away from her reluctantly, Ben pulled the SUV out into the road again. “So, what do you figure are the chances that two Southerners would decide to pick up and move to Australia together only six weeks after they met?” he asked, with a touch of sarcasm. “ ‘Specially with one of ‘em bein’ an outlaw like me.”
“Two outlaws,” she reminded him with a grin of her own. “I’m now an accessory-after-the-fact. And I’m aiding-and-abetting you. Not to mention the computer databases that I’ve hacked into to get all our paperwork done for this trip in the past couple of weeks.” She still found it hard to believe that this man had turned her into a criminal just two weeks after she’d met him.
“And we’re still Southerners anyway. We’re just a lot farther south than we were a couple of days ago.”
“Here we are, darlin’.” Ben had stopped the vehicle in front of a split rail fence enclosing a large expanse of green lawn. A log house with a couple of tall rock chimneys sat cozily in the center of the mass of green. No cabin, but a real house, with a long porch and hanging ferns decorating the front of it.
They stood at the opening in the fence, gazing at their surroundings.
“Oh, my God,” Liana breathed, staring at the house in shock. “There’s supposed to be nothing here. Ben, did you-”
“Come on, darlin’.” Ben grinned, kissing her gently, as he put a hand in the small of her back, guiding her toward the stone walkway up to the porch. “Let’s go see what my ill-gotten gains have bought us!”
TBC