Page 40 of Bloody Wedding (The Order of the Owed #1)

TWENTY-SIX

JACK COLLINS

LONI

W hen the blond-haired brute walked into my house, telling me that Adrian needed me at his office downtown, that my husband sent him to retrieve me, I panicked.

Worse, I believed him.

I only had enough time to gather Peaches up in my arm and return her to my private bedroom—since we haven’t had the chance to move her to a room closer to Adrian’s and mine—and grab a pair of sneakers before he was snapping his fingers at me, telling me that it’s urgent, that we have to go.

I was frazzled. I admit it. Since I returned to Harmony Heights, doing everything the Order expected of me, I forgot about the danger a secret society like ours can pose.

Not everyone is honest, and while I figured my dad was safe as long as I played my part, I never thought the Order would come after me.

So, yes, I believed this man when he said that Adrian needed me. After all, he knew where my husband lived, and he even flashed the Order’s brand on his palm. I had no reason to distrust him—which was my mistake because, in the rush of everything, I left my phone behind.

He put me in a car similar to the matte black coupe that Dallas Collins drove in Bridgewater. I asked his name, he grunted out ‘Luke’, and that was all he said despite me asking what was going on.

What happened to Adrian?

No wonder he didn’t answer me. Because now that I’m sitting in a heavy leather chair, swallowing my nerves as I face off against Jack Collins himself, I finally understand.

It wasn’t Adrian who wanted me to come to the downtown office.

It was the King.

The last time I ever was in the same room with this man, I was seventeen, he was standing with my dad, and the two of them were grilling me about that graduation party.

As the King, Jack was the only one I could prove my innocence, too.

He had the ability to keep me as an Offering or make me one of the Used.

I wasn’t innocent. I couldn’t lie, either, and in front of my father and the leader of the Order of the Owed, I admitted that I had been seeing someone.

I didn’t think it mattered. Really, the Order’s laws and rules were so ridiculously outdated, I secretly hoped that I wouldn’t get in trouble for sleeping with Adrian.

But I did. And if I’d admitted that Adrian was the one in the room that night, so would he.

I confessed to my own sins, but even when I felt betrayed… even when I hated him… I refused to throw him under the bus. He had a bright future ahead of him, the kingmaker who would rule Harmony Heights when the crown was on Dallas’s head, and I…

I would be one of the Used. That’s what Jack decided the last time I saw him. And, yet, sometime over the last ten years, he changed his mind. He gave me to Desmond. I became an Offering again, and I can believe what he’s telling me now…

“What do you mean, I’m not really married to Adrian? We… we had a ceremony in the church.”

“After he murdered the St. James boy, yes. I know.”

I ignore that sly jab. “We filed a marriage certificate. I have an appointment at the DMV to change the last name on my driver’s license. I’m sorry, Mr. Collins, but I think we are married.”

“Perhaps,” Jack says, steepling his finger on his desk. “And maybe I put that wrong before. You did marry my nephew, but Ms. Dougherty?—”

I swallow the nervous lump in my throat. “It’s Heller. Mrs. Heller.”

His lips twitch, but that’s no real smile.

“Yes. But that’s why I called you down to my office…

Mrs. Heller.” He makes a face like saying my married name is the same as sucking on a sour lemon.

His lips twitch again, his eyes dull yet angry.

“In the Order, an Offering is given to her Owed, but only if she accepts his Claim. It’s come to my attention that you were never given the chance to accept Adrian ’s Claim, were you? ”

Technically, no. He just walked into St. Catherine’s with a gun, and after Desmond was dead, he married me. I guess my saying ‘I do’ the wedding vows I repeated counts as my acceptance, but the way Jack’s watching me right now… I don’t think he agrees.

I fold my hands in my lap, trying to hide how shaky they are.

Something… something’s not right. “I married him,” I repeat.

“I am his wife. I’m sorry… is Adrian okay?

That man… Luke… he said something was wrong.

That I needed to talk to Adrian. But I’ve asked before and no one will tell me where my husband is. ”

Jack glances at the large clock on his wall.

It’s one-thirty. “I assume he’s out to lunch.

If not, he’ll be in his office. There’s a very important meeting he’s attending at two-thirty, and if I know my daughter’s boy, he’ll be preparing for it.

” He laughs softly, but there’s no humor in it.

“But that brings me back to my point. What if he wasn’t? ”

“In his office, preparing for this meeting?”

“No, dear girl. Your husband .”

What? “I… I don’t understand.”

“Oh, I think you do. That fancy education you got outside of Harmony Heights… I think you know exactly what I’m asking.”

The way he mentions leaving Harmony Heights feels dangerous somehow. The lilt to his voice makes it worse.

“No. Sorry.”

He exhales roughly. Great. I’ve annoyed the King.

“Then let me make it clearer. I can annul your marriage.” He snaps his fingers.

“Just like that. I say the word, make a few phone calls, and you go back to being Loni Dougherty. You can leave Harmony Heights, go back to your new life as… ah, yes. Marie Howard. How would you like that, Marie?”

Jack knows. I shouldn’t be surprised that he does—like Adrian, it makes sense that he would know everything about his Order, including those who managed to escape it for a time—but I really, really wish he didn’t throw the fake name I uselessly adopted all those years ago in my face like that.

He leans back in his seat, his gaze roving over my face, looking for some sign that I’m going to crack.

I refuse.

And then he says, “You look so confused. I wouldn’t have thought that any of this would be news to you.

Especially since I warned Adrian right after that wedding of yours that he had to let you know that, if you don’t accept his Claim, there is no marriage.

But looking at you now… why do I get the feeling that my secretive, plotting nephew decided to keep that little tidbit from his wife, hmm? ”

Shit. “No. He didn’t. I knew…”

His face calls me a liar, and I am. “And you chose to stay? It’s okay, my dear. It’s just you and Uncle Jack. If I told you that your father could live out his retirement in the Order… hell, I’ll even promote him a rank… and all you’d have to do is refuse Adrian’s Claim, what would you say?”

Holy shit. He’s really pushing this. For some reason, and I have no idea what that is, Jack doesn’t want me to be Adrian’s wife.

Well, tough shit.

If he’d come to me six weeks ago and made that same offer, I would’ve jumped at it.

I know better now. Why didn’t Adrian tell me that our marriage would only truly be finalized in the eyes of the Order—in the eyes of Harmony Heights—if I did some kind of bullshit ‘acceptance’ of his Claim.

Jack doesn’t come out and say it plainly, but considering it’s coming up, I assume he wants us both to take part in the Claiming ceremony.

No. That goes against the rules of the charter.

I married him. That’s it. Whether I wanted to or not is a moot point.

We got married, and no one has a Claiming ceremony after that.

A delayed wedding reception, sure, but attending the Claiming ceremony with my husband is like him proposing after we’ve already gotten hitched.

No wonder Adrian didn’t mention any of this to me like Jack told him to. It was pointless—and that’s not all. My husband swore he would never let me go. If he thought that Jack would use his position as King to separate us, he would’ve done everything he could to put a stop to it.

It’s not lying, right? More like an omission of truth, and I get it.

I do. This is the man who spent ten years stalking me.

Even longer telling all of Harmony Heights—in words and in twisted actions—that I belonged to him.

He killed for me. And maybe I’m as broken as I once accused him of being, but to me, those are signs that when he says that he loves me, he is one hundred percent telling the truth.

I blame it on growing up in the Order. As a future Offering, I was warning that love might look different between the Owed I was given to and me. There might not even be love at all, but there would at least be an agreement. An arrangement.

So Adrian is a murderer. So he’s obsessed. He also adopted Peaches for us, and likes to watch TV with me, and cooks like a damn pro. His touch has me melting no matter what, and I finally believe him when he says that he worships me.

He loves me.

And you know what?

I love him. I think I always have. That’s why it hurt so bad when we were kids and he didn’t stand up for me in front of Jack Collins. He let me go, but now he’s promised that he never will again.

I’m going to hold him to it.

I give him an impish shrug. “No, thanks.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m okay. I don’t want an annulment. If the Order says I have to let him Claim me or whatever, I’ll do it. We can have a redo wedding where no one dies… but Adrian is my husband. I’m keeping him.”

Jack’s faux friendliness slips right off of his face. He sighs. “I should’ve known when he tried to Claim you after graduation that you would be a problem.”

Wait… he did?