Page 17

Chapter Sixteen

MERRICK

Wedding day.

I had Lucille hold off on completely ruining Adriano for now. I decided to proceed with caution, mainly because Boden called me and reminded me to do that. If it wasn’t for that gentle reminder, a.k.a. demand, I would have told Lucille to pull the goddamn trigger and bury Adriano immediately.

A few days ago, I called in my partners, my brothers, for help, and thank fuck they were willing and able to drop everything. Now they’re here with a semi-plan in place to distract and cause chaos so that I can get Colette.

“You want this,” Theron announces.

He’s right. I do want this. It’s not even a question that he has to ask me because I want Colette.

“She’s my wife,” I state.

He chuckles, and I know what he’s going to say before he says it. “She’s not as of yesterday.”

That’s the truth, too. The annulment was filed with the courts and finalized yesterday. Something inside of me shifted when that news hit me. No longer did I own her. No longer was she a bride thrust on me, no matter how much I wanted her the moment I laid eyes on her.

She was no longer this creature that I could pretend was just given to me. I want her now more than I ever did, and the regret that swirls around inside of me is too much to even comprehend.

And that want is what’s driving me to continue this. I could walk away from this whole thing, go back home, and pretend that none of this happened. That the marriage was just a bad dream and nothing more.

I can’t do any of that, though, because Colette has been imprinted on my brain and in my marrow. She is part of me, and being without her has caused a sensation that I don’t quite understand, a mourning feeling inside of me that I didn’t know I was able to feel.

Hell, I didn’t know that I was able to feel anything after the childhood I had, so to have had her, lost her, and feel an unwavering need to get her back is something that I wasn’t even aware could happen.

It’s time to bring her home where she belongs. Whatever we need to build a foundation of a relationship, we can work on when she’s home. And then I can work behind the scenes to absolutely demolish her father and the fucker who thought that he could buy her off the dark web.

She was not for sale, and she is not for sale.

Even if I fucked up and didn’t fight for her—Colette is still mine.

She will always be mine.

“Are you ready for this?” Grayson asks.

I am beyond ready mentally, but the plan still needs to be thoroughly gone over. Boden is at the church right now, double-checking everything he can, including any surveillance that Adriano has set up there, so we can bypass it if we need to.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I say, reaching for the loaded gun on the kitchen counter. Sheathing it in the shoulder holster, I grab the other one and sheath it on the other side. Then I shove my phone in my front pocket before I reach for my suit jacket.

The wedding starts in just a few hours, but I want to be set up and in place before Colette arrives. I do not want to be fucking blindsided like I was a few weeks ago when they took her away at a totally different time than they had initially planned.

Hale clears his throat, lifting his hand as if to ask his turn to speak. Jerking my chin in his direction, I can’t help but smirk. “The car is waiting for you downstairs.”

“And there will be a van at the church before it’s time to leave?” I ask.

“The van will be there, and I’ll be driving it.”

Nodding, I look around the room before my gaze finds Theron’s. He must sense my hesitation about him being here, about all of them being here. I don’t vocalize it because they wouldn’t let me say the words anyway.

But I watch as he stands from his seat and makes his way over to me. He pauses, tilting his head to the side, his gaze searching mine for a long moment before he speaks.

“You stood behind me when I was dealing with Lucille, the Willow Club, and everything else that entailed. So I’m not going anywhere, I’m here for this, and when Boden, Grayson, and the rest of the guys find their women, we’ll be at their side for that shit, too. We’re brothers, Merrick—forever.”

Yeah, he sensed my hesitation, and since he knows me better than I even know myself, just like I know him better than he does himself, he answered my unasked questions and responded to my unsaid words.

“Let’s get your woman and bring her home.”

COLETTE

I’ve lost track of the days, but since there is a hustle and bustle that has not been normal around the cabin, I am going to go out on a limb and guess that today is my wedding day… or death day, because I can’t see how I’m going to survive any of this.

This isn’t going to be a marriage.

It’s going to be an ownership situation, and I don’t want to be owned by Malcolm.

The bedroom door opens, and the man who has been sleeping here and giving me food and water, all in complete silence, speaks for the first time. I try to take in what he’s saying, but I’m so surprised that he actually has a voice that I have to ask him to repeat everything he’s just said to me.

“Shower and use the bathroom. We leave in twenty minutes. The makeup artists and hairdressers will be at the church in an hour for your arrival. The wedding planner should be arriving in two hours to ensure that everyone is where they need to be. The wedding is in three hours.”

I can’t imagine a world where it takes me more than an hour to get ready, but I am also not in charge of any part of myself. Sliding my legs over the side of the bed, I stand and make my way to the bathroom.

The man walks out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him. I’m glad since there is no door for the bathroom. Malcolm must have expertly measured this chain connected to the headboard because I can move around the bathroom but can’t go anywhere else in the cabin.

Once I shower, using the shampoo and conditioner left for me, I comb out my wet hair and brush my teeth before I put on another outfit. I’ve been wearing the same thing every day, just in different colors.

Thankfully, someone has been doing my laundry. Otherwise, I can’t imagine what I would smell like right about now. Pajama shorts and button-up pajama tops are all that’s possible for me to wear since nothing can go over my head with the collar around my neck.

Once I’m ready, I stand at the end of my bed and wait. I only stand there for a few moments before my usually quiet babysitter appears. I expect him to look at me, but he doesn’t. He looks right through me.

I watch as he moves toward me, reaching into his pocket and producing a key. I wonder how long he’s actually had this key in his possession, but I don’t ask. Instead, I give him a smile and wait to be released.

Although I know it won’t be for long. I’m going from one chain to another and probably to a physical one again after I’ve said my binding vows. After the last three weeks, I am expecting the worst to happen after today.

And then there’s tonight.

The man who is going to have sex with me. The one who paid for a night with me on my wedding night. I haven’t allowed myself to think about it or to focus on it, but now that it’s here, it’s the only thing going through my mind.

Tears well up behind my eyes. I try to blink them away but end up sending them streaming down my cheeks instead. I’ve cried so much the past few weeks that I assumed I had cried all possible tears out of my body.

But apparently, I haven’t since they’re falling down right now. It’s just because everything is becoming a reality. I was hoping with all my might that Merrick would come riding in on a white horse like a fairy tale and rescue me.

But I’m not the beautiful princess, and he is not the handsome prince. I’m a piece of property, sold to the highest bidder, literally. And Merrick is a man who has so much going for him that he doesn’t need my baggage.

I pushed myself on him, and while it was amazing while it lasted, we are not meant to be—ever. My time with him, even if it was short and he didn’t want much to do with me, were the best moments of my life.

“Follow me,” the man announces, breaking me of my inner thoughts.

Jerking my chin toward him, I follow behind him. As we walk toward the front door of the cabin, I stop. He turns his head, his gaze lifting to mine, and holds my attention for a long moment.

“Where are my bags?” I ask.

Just when I think that maybe, just maybe, this guy isn’t necessarily an evil entity, his lips curve up into a smirk, and he lets out a snort.

“You don’t need bags where you’re going.”

His words come out smoothly, too smoothly. He chuckles, and it sends a chill down my spine. Closing my eyes, I pinch them tightly before I open them again, focusing on the man in front of me. His dark gaze is still focused on me, and his lips are still turned up into a smirk, a cocky smirk that is not sexy in the slightest.

In fact, it’s creepy as hell.

Instead of giving him the response that he’s looking for, I only lift my chin slightly higher in the air and look down my nose at him. I’m trying as hard as I can not to burst into tears again.

A few moments later, we are in a car. Me in the back seat, and he is in the front, driving back to the city. I feel as though there should be gloom and doom music playing, a warning for what’s about to come, but there is nothing.

Just silence.