Page 31

I refused to take heed of the whole, ‘the groom shouldn’t see the bride before the wedding’ rubbish. So the morning of our wedding, I woke up in Zane’s arms with a smile because there was no place else I’d rather be.

His eyes fluttered open a moment later, and he blinked at me, before pulling me in to kiss my forehead. He let his lips linger there, breathing in the scent of my hair, and I relaxed into his embrace, so full of happiness I was sure I would be awarded some sort of trophy for the happiest bride to ever exist.

“I can’t wait to marry you today,” he murmured.

“I can’t either.” I peered over his shoulder at his phone on the bedside table. “I really need to get out of this bed and start getting ready though.”

He rolled on top of me, pinning me beneath him. “Not a chance. You stay here, and I’ll go make you breakfast. One last breakfast in bed as my fiancée.”

“I can’t! I have hair and makeup and bridesmaids—”

“Who are all downstairs, and I will make breakfast for all of them too.”

I pressed up to kiss his mouth. “You’re kind of perfect, you know?”

His nose rubbed against mine. “I love you. Go back to sleep. There’s plenty of time for everything else. Let me start your day right.”

I caught his hand, feeling sassy. “If you want to start my day right, it’s not breakfast that I need…”

He turned back, groaning at the look on my face that was as suggestive as I could make it. There was no confusion as to what I meant. He glanced at the door, then dove beneath the blankets, burying his head between my thighs and devouring a breakfast of his own.

Thirty minutes later, my skin flushed and glowing from an early morning orgasm, I wandered downstairs.

There was a squeal of excitement from Eve and Lyric, who rushed me, the two of them dressed in matching silk dressing gowns. I laughed with them, their excitement contagious, and I let them drag me into the living room where Lyric had already set up her makeup case and Eve had hot curlers ready to go.

But my attention caught on Zane standing with my brother and sister, the three of them thick as thieves.

“What’s going on over there?” I called to them.

All three of them glanced over guiltily. Especially my brother. Vincent never looked like that, so I knew in a heartbeat that Scythe was steering the ship today.

Not ideal for a wedding. I’d heard all about the chaos he’d caused at Ophelia’s wrecked nuptials. I narrowed my eyes at him. “You promised you’d be on your best behavior today.”

Scythe feigned innocence. “What did I do?”

I raised an eyebrow. “I know you’ve done something.”

He snorted on a laugh. “Fine. I did something. But for the record, it was Vincent who promised to behave. And he will. At the wedding. But we aren’t at the wedding yet.”

I huffed out an irritated sigh.

Zane gave me a small smile. “It’s my fault. I asked him to.”

“Asked him to what?”

The three of them were being so cagey, and though I’d noticed the growing bond between them over the past month, since Zane had proposed, I wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure my siblings weren’t corrupting my husband-to-be.

And as much as I loved them, Zane wasn’t like them. And that was one of the things I loved about him. I didn’t want a life where he came home with traces of blood on his hands.

I wanted someone who cooked with me in the kitchen, and who watched TV with me at night. I wanted Sunday drives and school plays and a quiet life, where family was all that mattered and I was never worried he wasn’t going to come home.

Scythe and Ophelia needed that excitement in their lives.

But I didn’t.

Zane glanced around. “Where are the kids?”

Eve nodded toward the back door. “Josh took them outside to burn off energy.” She pointed a curling wand at him. “Okay, now you’re all starting to stress me out too. Who’s lost the rings?”

My mouth dropped open, and I glared at my brother. “You didn’t!”

He rolled his eyes and took a small blue box from his pocket. “They’re right here.” He shook the box. When it didn’t make a sound, he cringed and popped it open.

The entire room let out a sigh of relief at the two gold bands wedged into a white cushion on the inside.

“See?” Scythe waved them at me. “I’ve got this best man gig down. And since you’re all being nosy, Ophelia and I were just filling Zane in on our trip to see his brother earlier today.”

A trickle of fear ran down my spine, and my heartbeat suddenly got too fast.

But Zane caught my fingers and squeezed. “Hey. Look at me.”

I did. Because I loved him so damn much I would do anything he asked of me.

“I needed to know Eddie was still locked in Guerra’s cells. I knew I couldn’t walk down the aisle with you this afternoon without knowing he was never going to hurt us again.”

I barely dared to whisper a reply. “And?”

Scythe rubbed his knuckles across his shirt. “Let’s just say, Eddie sends his best regards and blessings, but he’ll be unable to attend today. Or any day. Ever.”

Zane’s eyes bored into mine. “He’s never getting out of there, Fawn.”

“Not unless it’s in a body bag,” Ophelia muttered. She glanced at me. “You want him dead, you just say the word, little sis. But I’m not going to lie, it’s been very sweet watching him suffer the same way you did.”

That dark part inside me hadn’t been ready to let his suffering end yet. It fed something powerful inside me that I knew I should talk through with my therapist. Maybe it was the part of me that tied me to my siblings.

Or maybe Eddie was just getting what he deserved.

But I knew I had to let it go if I was ever going to be truly free of him. I sucked in a deep breath. And on the day I was to marry his brother, I signed Eddie’s death sentence. “End it.”

Ophelia and Scythe nodded.

Then I tacked on, “Painfully.”

Their eyes lit up like kids on Christmas morning, and Ophelia drew Scythe into the kitchen, the two of them no doubt planning Eddie’s bloody end.

But I didn’t want to hear it. I’d come out the other side, and moving on with my son and the love of my life was all I wanted.

I squeezed Zane’s fingers. “I just want to get married.”

Zane grinned down at me. “Then let’s go make you my wife.”

I n a room at the old Saint View library, with dark skies outside, and fairy lights everywhere I looked, I spun around the dance floor in Zane’s arms.

My dress was one I’d found at a thrift store, but it fit me perfectly, swishing around my legs as he twirled me.

When the song changed to something slower, I rested my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.

Because mine was full. Otis and his cousins, Lexa and Mila, danced together at our feet, the three of them laughing hysterically at Otis’s overexaggerated twerking. I stifled a laugh, no idea where he’d learned that, though I suspected it was probably from Uncle Scythe.

Eve swayed in Boston’s arms, their baby son cradled between them, the two of them looking so in love you couldn’t help but feel it too.

Lyric sat at the edge of the dance floor watching the rest of us, her hand on Zeph’s leg, his arm around the back of her chair, while he whispered in her ear.

From the pink blush of her cheeks and the soft grin, I was sure he was whispering something dirty. She’d filled me in on all their kinky adventures, and I would have bet that tomorrow, our girl group chat would be full of the details.

Phoenix, in a three-piece suit that fit him so well, leaned down and kissed Eve’s brother, Dylan, who melted into the bigger man like he was the sun and the moon and all the stars in his sky.

All around me were the people I loved. And in my heart were the people I’d lost who’d made this day possible.

“My mom would have been so happy to see this,” Zane whispered.

I stared at Otis, happy and safe. “She gave up her life for him.”

He nodded. “I know she’d do it all again just to see that smile on his face.”

I laid my head back down and let the slow, soft music drift around us.

The grief and guilt over Margaret’s death no longer crippled me. She would always be with us, a guardian angel we’d never forget.

Little fingers brushed against my leg, and Otis’s voice cut through the music. “Dad?”

Zane gazed down at him. “Yeah, buddy? What’s up? You want to dance with us?”

Otis nodded his head yes, his grin now with a gap since he’d had a tooth fall out last week.

Zane ducked and hoisted him up into his arms, and I wrapped my arms around both of them, the three of us swaying together, surrounded by a love I never could have imagined.

Our captive hearts, finally set free.

THE END.