“It will be worth it. Besides, it’s not bribery. It’s anincentive,” he retorts with a grin tugging onhislips.
I screw up my nose. “An incentive to stay in his room so you can screw his mom senseless before you gorge onpancakes?”
Hugo doesn’t attempt to answer my question. Lying has never been hisforte.
Epilogue
Hugo
Six monthslater…
“And just like that,Hugo Marshall isundead.”
After a few more lightning keystrokes, Hunter snaps the screen of his laptop closed and puts it back into the hemp bag dumped at the side of the chair where he issitting.
“Was it that quick to make me dead?” I ask, shocked it only took him five minutes to undo something that caused Ava yearsofpain.
Hunter arches his brow and stares into my eyes. “I didn’t make you dead,” he advises with a shake of his head. “If I did, you’d have no chance of beingresurrected.”
I watch him in shock. For the past six months, I’d assumed it was Hunter who made me dead to keep me hidden from Col Petretti. If it wasn’t him, whowasit?
Hunter throws his hemp bag onto a chair in the corner of the room before running his hand along his scruff-covered jaw. I eye him with even more curiosity when a sly smirk peeks out from behind his scraggly beard. Before I have the opportunity to ask what his odd look is about, his spine straightens and his dark eyes shifttome.
“Did you want me to file the paperwork for you today? Or do you want to do it thelegalway?”
I smirk and slap him on the back. “Now that I’m undead, the legal way will begreat.”
Snubbing the confusion muddling my brain, I move to the corner of the room and check my tuxedo in the full length mirror. Today, Ava and I are getting married. Putting it bluntly: I shit bricks the day I asked her to marry me. It wasn’t a fear of commitment that had me quivering like the earth was shaking beneath my feet, it was the fact I had to lure Ava away from her office long enough to give Belinda and Joel the chance to decorate it with the two hundred long-stemmed roses I’d purchased that caused my greatest concern. It is no hidden fact I’m not a fan of dentists. I love Ava, but my fear of sitting in her dentist chair is the cause of my greatest panic. Thankfully, Ava’s constant reminders to make sure I floss regularly were implanted into my brain from a young age, ensuring her dentist drill remain holstered on the side of her dentist chair and not buzzing in mymouth.
While I'm being forthright, I’ll admit my proposal to Ava was brazen, particularly as we weren’t even an official couple. But I’d already lost so much time with her that I didn’t want to miss one more moment. Since my last two attempts at asking her out were pathetic, worse than any fifth grader could have conjured, I decided I either had to go big or go home. I went gung-ho. Thank god shesaidyes.
After loosening the constricting bowtie around my neck, I run my hand through my hair to fix it into place. I grimace at the small scattering of gray hairs forming on my temples.Getting old sucks.Even with the room air-conditioned at seventy degrees Fahrenheit, a beading of sweat glistens my forehead. My eyes shift to the side when a white handkerchief is placed on my tuxedo-covered shoulder. With a grin, I accept the handkerchief and run it over my sweat-drenched head before spinning on my heels to face the smirking face ofIsaac.
“Why are your shoulders so tense?” he queries, his voice its normal deep, demanding tone. “You and Ava are already a family. Nothing screams of lifetime commitment more than raising a childtogether.”
I cock my brow and stare into his jeering face. “Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?” I ask, my tone doused withcheekiness.
Isaac’s nostrils flare as his face lines with anger. Although he’s tried numerous times the past six months to drag Izzy down the aisle, her feet have remained firmly planted on the ground – outside of the church. I don’t see Izzy’s strong stance budging an inch until Isaac takes the pre-nuptial agreement he had Regan draft off the table. Since I don’t see Isaac’s position weakening anytime soon, I don’t expect to hear the sounds of wedding bells for them in the nearfuture.
Catching sight of Isaac’s furious scowl, I cockily wink. Most men would be shaking in their boots from the wry look he is directing at me. But I know his threat doesn’t hold any heat. No amount of scowling can hide the massive heart he has in the middle of hischest.
“Don’t make me fire your ass,” Isaac warns, his voice a vicious snarl when he spots mygrinningface.
“Again! What will that make it? The sixth time he’s fired you the past year?” Hunter asks in a cheeky tone. “That’s nearly a new record, even for someone as fire-able asyou,Hugo.”
Hunter’s boisterous chuckle bounces off the wall and jingles in my ears when I punch him in thebicep.
“It’s not my fault Izzy is always up to mischief,”Imutter.
Neither Isaac or Hunter attempt to refute my accurateclaim.
Hunter is still rubbing his arm, feigning injury when my mom enters the room. Her hair has been pulled back in a fancy up-do and she is wearing a pale light bluedress.
“We will meet you out there,” Isaac advises, gesturing his head to the door my mom justentered.
Once Hunter and Isaac exit the room, my mom paces to stand in front of me. With tears in her eyes, she adjusts the collar of my light blue dress shirt before running her hands down the lapels of my jacket, smoothing everything into place. When her eyes lift to my face, a smile curls on my lips. Nothing but pride is projected from her eyes.There’s my mom Iremember.
“Ava is five minutes out. Are you ready?” she queries, her voice shaking with both nerves andexcitement.
