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“I don’t know your first name either!”
His handsome face twisted into another sardonic smile.
“That, my dear, is a different story altogether.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Preacher
“Do they have tequila? This place looks too fancy for tequila.”
“Calm down, Preacher,” Trace said. “Its a five star hotel. I’m pretty sure they have tequila.”
I grumbled but the truth was, I was damned glad to be there. I’d missed the swarm but arrived in time for the wedding. Or the stag party, if there was one. That all depended on getting Vice down from the suite.
It was the night before the ceremony.
Also, if there was one.
Everything was extremely irregular, even for our crew. And that was saying something. Vice was in a bind, no joke about it.
Apparently, the bride didn’t know she was about to get hitched. Which I found fucking hilarious. I almost hoped for a runaway bride situation. That would be hard to beat.
Of course, I expected him to chase her down.
A man like Vice would do nothing less.
Truth be told, I was even happier than usual to see that particular one of my brothers settling down. He’d been through years of self inflicted isolation. A lifetime, really. He pretended he didn’t give a shit about home and family. About love.
And hell, maybe he hadn’t. He sure as shit had never shown the slightest interest or preference in any one woman. He barely seemed to notice they were alive, unless they were one of our old ladies.
Or if she was screaming.
I grimaced, thinking about the time Vice had killed a guy in cold blood for messing with a woman. Not even a woman he knew. Not that I would do any different. Smacking a woman around was the lowest thing you could do, other than hurting a kid. Vice had stepped in out of necessity. The guy had fought hard and he had fought dirty. Vice hadn’t had a lot of options. It had been self defense. But we all knew the way the law looked on a guy like Vice, fucked up and committing manslaughter in a parking lot. How they looked down on any one of us, truth be told.
Even a God fearin’ Minister like myself.
Not that I feared God. I definitely had taken umbrage with him in my past. But after I met Cynthia and the kids? Hell, now he was pretty much my best friend.
Lord knows, I owed him everything.
My life was better, more fulfilling, more loving, and beautiful than I ever could have imagined when I was living in a shack on the beach. The so called sweet life was not so sweet after all. Not in comparison to the life Cynthia had showed me.
So yeah, I wanted that for Vice too.
All the same, I planned to give him loads of shit about the situation he had found himself in.
A bride who didn’t even know she was about to be a bride. From footloose and fancy free, to handshackled to a woman who didn’t even know she was gettin’ hitched.
The poor sorry son-of-a bitch.
“Fuck,” I heard Cain say. “They’re early.”
A heavily accented and demanding voice rang out, so loud it was borderline obnoxious. Scratch that. It was extremely obnoxious.
“Where the hell is the vodka?”
“Oh shit, look what the cat dragged in.”
Nobody turned. We knew who Trace was talking about. And we knew why he was showing zero fear or giving those Russian asshats zero attention.
They might walk tall and carry a big fucking stick, but so did we. We had to show ourselves as equals. Even if we didn’t cut off people’s body parts when they pissed us off.
Not yet, anyway. I’d been tempted a few times. But not temped enough to actually do some sick-ass shit like that. So yeah, not showing fear was the only option.
We would kill someone if we had to. The Aslanov brothers did it for kicks. They were fucking scary. Thus, we all knew we couldn’t so much as flinch.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Vice
“What do you mean, my cousins insisted?” Beautiful eyes glared at me. If I had ever doubted that she sprang from the deadly Aslanov crime syndicate, I wouldn’t doubt it now. If looks could kill, I would literally be on the ground.
Or under it.
Six feet under it.
“I want to. More than anything.”
“You want to marry me,” she said accusingly, her eyes shin gin bright. “After they insisted.”
“I would never have dared to dream you would want to be with me!” I was practically shouting, I was so desperate to make her listen, To make her understand. Her eyes were wide with the force of my vehemence.
I immediately calmed myself. “I’m sorry. I just never imagined you would even let me kiss you. I already told you I would spend the rest of my life keeping you safe. The only way they will allow me to do that is if you agree to marry me.”
