Double Dare by Rhonda Nelson

logic, made Sam feel marginally better.
    He ambled down another aisle and finally
found the Fudgy-Nutty display. He tossed a couple of boxes into his
cart, then, with a scowl, added a third box for good measure.
    On the way to the front of the store, he
passed through the bakery. Remembering Lou’s breakfast preferences,
he paused at the muffins. Blueberry, banana, and lemon poppy seed,
were the choices. He debated over them for a couple of minutes,
then berated himself for the unwarranted delay. Hell, they were
muffins, for pity’s sake. He grabbed one of each and, cursing
himself for a fool, continued to the check-out.
    In the process of unloading
his cart, a headline snagged his attention. Kidnapped Heiress Forced Into Sex Cult
with Abductor . A tremor of fear shook Sam
to the core even before he saw the grainy black and white
photograph of him and Lou lip-locked in the pool.
    Sam’s jaw dropped as he grabbed for the
magazine, overwhelmed with shock, humiliation, and rage. He felt a
tic begin near his left eye. His hands tightened into fists,
crumpling the magazine in the process.
    “ Hey, you can’t—” the clerk
began to berate him, but faced with Sam’s furious glare, the girl
simply shut up.
    How in the hell had this happened? he
wondered wildly. He knew Lou’s father had threatened to keep the
gossip hounds after them, but Lou hadn’t seemed all that concerned
about it, so he’d let her lull him into a false sense of security.
High-strung, she’d called him. Accused him of having delicate
nerves. Sam scowled.
    Well, his high-strung nature and delicate
nerves were certainly feeling the strain now, he thought, ready to
punch his clenched fist through the nearest wall.
    Despite his anger, common
sense prevailed and Sam hurriedly gathered every copy of the Global Grapevine from the
store. Sam supposed his odd behavior had frightened the clerk,
because within minutes, the manager had posted himself at her
quivering side and stared at Sam as though he were some sort of
deranged lunatic.
    Under the circumstances, Sam couldn’t blame
them. He happened to be concerned for his sanity as well.
Undoubtedly by the time Lou’s little adventure ended, he’d be
sealed off in a padded room devoid of sharp objects.
    Once in the parking lot, Sam unloaded his
purchases and took the time to read the actual article which had
accompanied the photograph and headline. 
    He shouldn’t have.
    Unbeknownst to Sam, apparently he was the
ringleader of a little-known sex cult. He was also purported to be
adept at brainwashing and hypnosis, and he supposedly possessed a
penis that was the envy of porn stars everywhere. Apparently the
combination of all three had ruined more than thirty women. Bigamy
appeared to be another of his sins. According to the article, at
last count, Sam had married more than twenty-five woman and had a
whopping forty-five children, with six more on the way.
    Were he not so mortified, Sam might have
found it funny.
    At the moment, he didn’t.
    With grim determination, Sam forced the
hysteria choking his brain away, and made himself think logically.
Damage control had to begin, most importantly in Atlanta. If his
mother saw this... God forbid, Sam thought, feeling sick to his
stomach.
    Fortunately the article hadn’t given his
name-probably to avoid a lawsuit since there wasn’t a word of truth
in the whole damned thing-and the picture had been hard to make
out. With luck and a lot of fancy footwork, he could lessen the
impact this nightmare would have on this life, and he hoped, his
business.
    Wondering why he’d ever imagined that this
would be an easy adventure, Sam pulled out his cell phone and
dialed Mona’s home number. Getting her out of bed would be a chore,
and he dreaded listening to her lazy drawl on top of his migraine.
But Mona had to recruit the guys who were back in the office and
get out and gather up as many of these magazines as she
could…otherwise they would all be looking for another