Darkest Sins - Page 110

All three of them nod like fucking bobbleheads.

“Good.” I lay the gun on the table and turn, taking Nera’s hand in mine.

“Blessed is everyone that fears the Lord . . .”

I stare into my cub’s eyes as the first priest speaks, followed by his Protestant counterpart and then the judge, but I ignore the actual words being said. The words are nothing but those early distant stars—their glow overshadowed by much brighter things. I don’t care about the words or the ceremony. The only thing that matters is this enormous, indescribable love I feel for the woman in front of me, and the look in her eyes that says she feels the same.

“. . . Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit . . .Um . . .” The priest clears his throat. “I need the Bible for this part.”

Without breaking our locked stare, I push the gun I’ve left lying on the table toward the priest. “That’s my Bible. Proceed.”

“Um . . . yes. So . . .And of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages. . .”

“You can’t have us married with a gun,” Nera whispers while the priest turns toward the east, lifting the weapon in the same way he would the Holy Scripture.

“I don’t know much about marriage vows, cub, but I know they mention loving, cherishing, and keeping their partner safe. In good times, and bad. I won’t swear to you over a bunch of old papers. I’ll give you my oath on the weapon which will take the life of anyone who would ever think of doing you, or our daughter harm.” I lift her hand to my lips and kiss the tips of her fingers. “I’m yours. And you’re mine.”

“I’m yours,” she whispers back, her eyes glistening. “And you’re mine, Kai.”

“. . . join them together, for by You is a wife joined to her husband. Join them together . . .”

Reaching into the pocket of my pants, I take out a pair of white gold rings. I bought them this morning while my florist buddy was depollinating the tulips.

“Would you please be my wife, tiger cub?”

“Always, demon.”

I slip the smaller of the two bands on her finger, and watch—breathless—as she slides the other one on mine. Then, I grab my wife around her waist and crash my mouth to hers.

“Amen,” the three voices say in unison.

Boisterous clapping fills the room, but it’s suddenly cut off by the sound of something big hitting the floor.

“Fuck, Mazur,” Sergei exclaims. “Your priest number three just fainted!”

“Is he really taking them with him?” I ask, watching Kai’s blond-haired friend trying to stuff the poor judge into the trunk of his SUV. The two priests are sitting tied and gagged in his back seat.

“Looks like it,” Kai responds.

Belov slams the trunk closed and, whistling to himself, gets behind the wheel. Two quick honks of his horn and he drives off, heading toward the gate. Kai tightens his hold on my waist. “Should we go consummate the marriage right away, or check on our prisoner first?”

Shit. I completely forgot about Armando. “Maybe we should—”

I don’t finish the sentence because Kai pushes me behind him and takes out his gun. Peeking around him, I notice a sleek black car advancing up our driveway.

“Who the fuck let that vehicle through the gate?” Kai yells.

The car stops a dozen feet from the stone steps. The driver’s door opens and a man steps out. It takes me a moment to recognize him without his prison uniform. He’s wearing a stylish gray suit and a perfectly pressed white shirt underneath, just as he was the night the police led him out of our home. But it’s the only similarity to that twenty-year-old man from so long ago.

“Hello, sis.” Massimo fixes me with his gaze.

“It’s okay.” I take Kai’s wrist and lower his hand. Only when he’s put away the gun do I face my stepbrother again. “Massimo, I didn’t expect to see you out for a few more months.”

“Me neither. But it looks like someone important pulled some strings and got me released sooner.” Massimo climbs the stairs and stops in front of us. “I hope you don’t mind?”

“I think I’m going to celebrate this day as my second birthday,” I say. “I fulfilled my part of the deal. Are you going to fulfill yours?”

A menacing glint flashes in Massimo’s eyes as he probes me with his unrelenting stare. Then, he switches his focus to Kai. He looks my demon over as if assessing the level of potential threat, and his attention falls on our joined hands. Ever so slightly, Massimo’s eyebrows rise.