Vampires and Sexy Romance by Mercy Walker, Eva Sloan, Ella Stone

to pull this over on the US Government and failing is steep.  Five years imprisonment and a fine…”  He let that hang in the air for a moment.                Lucy felt her mouth go dry.  Prison?  She’d be just like her father.
    Luvici continued.  “Then there’s the mandatory two years you’d have to be married, and living as man and wife with this would-be suitor.”
    “WHAT?”  Lucy’s voice exploded from her mouth.  “Did you say two years?”
    Luvici gave her a shrug and raised his eyebrows.  “Two years is the mandatory minimum.  Plus you’ll have to go through the fed’s scrutiny for that entire time.”
    Two years...  The thought made Lucy’s stomach churn.  That’s a hell of a long time to pretend to be married to a stranger.  And even if I could make my family believe it...
    “So, how much are we talking about here?  Payment wise.  It would have to be a lot, right?”
    Luvici bit his lip as he mentally calculated.  “I’d say...somewhere between fifty to sixty thousand dollars.”
    There was a zero missing in that figure.  Lucy wanted to go to a good school, the kind that ran around a quarter of a million dollars to graduate from.  Not to mention she wanted to have nice things: great clothes, an apartment with a view, and a new car.
    Fifty or sixty grand would only get her to a state college, in a dorm, with a used car.  She wouldn’t even have enough to guarantee she finished.
    “The lump sum of that would be paid only after the two year...”  Luvici paused, obviously trying to come up with a better word than the one on the tip of his tongue.
    “Sentence?”  Lucy finished for him.  It was the word that was on the tip of her tongue too.
    “There would be some small disbursements, but the balance would be withheld until the end.”
    “Peachy,” Lucy fumed.  “So I sit around playing Little Wifey for two years before I’d get to even start my life?”
    “Breaking the law isn’t as easy as it sounds.”  Luvici snubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray, and then cracked his knuckles.  “And don’t forget, one little slip up and Immigration will bend you over until your knees bend both ways.”
    Ewwwww!  So freaking gross...  “Thanks for the visual.”
    Darla’s nasal voice buzzed over the intercom. 
    “Mr. Enoch is on line one.”
    For a moment Luvici looked down at the phone console on his desk like it was a snake ready to bite him.  Seconds ticked by.
    “Franky?  Did you hear me?”  Darla shrieked.  “You know I hate talking with that guy!”
    Luvici smashed the intercom button with his meaty forefinger.  “I freaking heard you!” he barked.  Lucy could’ve sworn he growled like an animal as he picked up the receiver and pushed the button for line one.  “Dante, I was just going to...”
    The blood drained from Luvici’s face again.  If anything, he was even paler than when Lucy had brought up Kenny Fry and Luvici’s father-in-law.
    “I know,” Luvici croaked, hand shaking as he reached for his smokes again.  “It’s just...you can’t find that kind of girl just standing on the street corner.  If you could, then I’d have a freaking chorus line of them for him to choose from.”
    Lucy didn’t hear the voice on the other end yell or scream, but whatever it was saying to Luvici was making him shimmer green.  Even his eyes seemed to be trembling in their sockets.
    And then he looked at Lucy.  He looked downright surprised to see her.  Whoever it was on the phone must’ve been scary enough to make Luvici forget what he’d been doing.
    I really, really never want to meet someone like that.
    And then Luvici’s eyes got that sharp, shark-like glint to them again, and his cracked lips peeled back into a rather disturbing smile.  “I think I might just have what you’re looking for.  Can I call you back?”  Luvici listened to the voice on the line, looking fairly anxious.  “Sure, I can put you on speaker