Prologue: Newlyweds

“Vincent Allen Bailey.” A wince supplemented Leo’s grumble. Damn, but Vinnie’s elbow was sharp, and he totally deserved the full name treatment for digging that pointy bone into Leo’s ribs. Even so, Leo grinned as he rubbed the sore spot.

Vinnie snorted. “You’re worse than me.”

Leo snickered and didn’t bother to pretend he didn’t know what Vinnie was talking about, let alone deny it. Bailey. It had been Leo’s surname since birth, but Vinnie had only acquired it a week earlier.

After Vinnie’d made the decision to change his name when he and Leo married, he’d gone around testing out the sound of the name. Vinnie Bailey. Vincent Bailey. Vincent Allen Bailey. Leo’d heard it softly sing-songed so many times over the past month—and written with a flourish on scraps of paper he’d found throughout their old home where Leo had last been stationed in North Carolina.

“Anyway,” Vinnie hissed as they stepped out of the dentist’s office and inconspicuously hitched his head toward the other side of the street. “There he is again.”

Leo had already noticed the object of Vinnie’s concern. Creeper guy, the man Vinnie was convinced was following them. Leo had paid close attention to the guy ever since Vinnie’d first commented on him. “He’s not stalking us.”

“He’s totally stalking us.” Vinnie’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “Bet he’s a homophobe. Seriously, we need to be careful and watch out for this guy.”

Leo chanced another glimpse in his peripheral vision. The man didn’t pop up in their vicinity any more than others did since they’d relocated to this small town in Oregon. Creeper guy sometimes reacted a bit disconcertingly around them, but it didn’t seem like they were under surveillance. “He doesn’t give off a bigot vibe.”

“Closet case looking for a threesome vibe?” Vinnie’s shiver added a touch of dramatic flair making his opinion on that matter abundantly obvious in case the tone of his voice hadn’t cleared that up.