Page 51 of Bad Blood

Sorry, God, but there’s nothing holy about this marriage.

I stumble in my heels as we pass by the rows of empty pews, but his tight grip on my arm doesn’t give me a chance to fall. I hate that he’s won the first battle in this marriage. My outfit missed the mark, and now I feel like an idiot.

As we reach the altar, he spins me around to face him. “Well?” he says irritably.

“Well, what?”

“I’m bracing myself for your last stab of hostility as an unmarried woman.”

“Stab?” I yank my arm free, refusing to acknowledge how the cut of his dark gray wedding suit is doing strange butterfly-like things to my stomach. “That’s an interesting word to use with your partner-in-hate… And it will be my pleasure to disappoint you,señor. I’m all out of words.”

“Except for the ones that count in a place like this.”

“I’m a liar, remember?” I say through gritted teeth. “This should come easy to me.”

He lifts a slanted eyebrow, but he doesn’t comment.

There’s a scuffling noise behind us as a couple of his muscles-in-tuxes enter the chapel and take their seats in the furthest pew. Trailing behind them is a short man in a blue suit, with a pinched face and thinning brown hair. I recognize him as the man I saw walking through the casino a couple of nights ago with Santi.

“Ah, the witnesses,” he says, nodding at the justice of the peace who’s been staring in open-faced horror at my face and outfit. “You can begin.”

“Wait!”

All heads turn toward me. A flash of annoyance dances across Santi’s face but he kills it, stone dead. “I figured as much. Come on then, spit it out.”

“No, it’s not that…” I trail off, struggling to put into words the deep sadness I’m suddenly feeling.

Is this how my mother felt on her wedding day?

My fingers fumble for the pendant around my neck, the one she gave to me when I turned eighteen. The one I’d always admired as a child, and the one I wear every day. The same one my father gifted to her, over two decades ago.

It’s a silver chain with three diamond-encrusted numbers that seem so fitting for today.

666

“Well?”

If this pendant protected her from the worst of her devil, maybe it can do the same for me.

“Thalia?” he snaps. “I’m waiting.”

“I was just giving you the opportunity to back out of the deal,” I say, smiling at him sweetly—my sadness turning to acid. “My father always said it was a specialty of Carreras.”

Angry murmurs rise up behind us.

Santi’s smile is the stuff of torture porn.

“Begin,” he snaps at the officiant again. “And this time don’t stop until this Santiagoputahas a new last name.”

It turns out it doesn’t take long to dishonor your entire family. Five minutes, to be exact... In the end, it’s all a countdown of numbers to the ultimate anti-prize:

Three witnesses with their fingers on the trigger, should I decide to run.

Two vows of gut-churning deception.

One marriage, borne out of blood and thorns.

As a wedding ring is rammed onto my finger, I allow a single tear to escape from its strict confinement—turning my head away so my new husband doesn’t see. This is a temporary deal for me, but for Edier and Sam … for Ella… They won’t understand. Not until the truth comes to light.