I wasn’t a holy person, but I always thought one day I would get married, though a black wedding hadn’t been what I had imagined. The codes that these bikers followed were nothing like the codes or laws other bikers followed. If they were, then I would know of them. The only reason I knew of the black wedding was because I had read it on the wall.
I was expecting to head back to the clubhouse, so I was surpised when we pulled into a hotel. A shiver ran through me as we climbed off his bike. I hadn’t changed into something warmer and the fresh night air was on my skin.
Just as I was expecting to follow him, he scooped me up and carried me into the building. A squeal escaped my lip as I wasn’t expecting it, which caused his lips to twitch up.
He carried me into the hotel not stopping at the reception. I wanted to ask him what was happening, but I knew that one of the conditions of being his property was to never question him. Not even a simple question like why the hell he was carrying me into a hotel room.
A few men who were waiting for the elevator looked at us. Lucian gave them a clear look, and they didn’t get into the elevator when we did. Having the elevator to ourselves, I wanted to ask why he was carrying me but again, I couldn’t.
The elevator binged and he typed in a code. I was completely speechless when the doors opened. The room was lit with candles and filled with black roses.
He placed me on my feet, and I followed the path of black petals that led to a bath tub which was lit up with candles.
“What is all this?” I knew I wasn’t to ask questions but walking into this, I was completely taken by surprise and a part of me thought he had the rooms mixed up.
“It’s a black wedding,” he said softly and looked nervous. I moved back towards him, taking his hand.
“And what do you need me to do?” I asked, and his darkened eyes looked down at me.
“Tonight isn’t about me, it is about you.” He brushed my hair off my shoulder and cupped my cheek. “We have traditions to follow.” He peeled off his vest.
I went to take my skirt off but his hand stopped me.
“My job, Haylee.” He dropped his vest on the double-basin vanity. Spinning me around, he twisted my hair up and then took the hair band off my wrist, tying my hair up.
His hands moved down my body. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I could see the possession in his eyes in the reflection of the mirror.
Before I knew it, I was completely naked, but there was one word that was clear on my body. The word Lucian’s was tattooed across my hand. It was amazing how perfectly it fit in the spot I had picked. Lucian was surprised by the spot. Perhaps he wanted me to hide it or maybe he was expecting me to hide it.
Guiding me to the spa bath, I sunk into the bubbles and warm water. The hot water was welcomed against my skin. I looked up at him as I sunk into the bath.
He ran a hand down his length. “You know you’re stuck with me now,” he murmured and his eyes were on the fresh tattoo on my hand, which was hanging over the bath. “How does it feel knowing that?” His eyes lifted from my hand and he looked at me. “You’ll never be free from me.”
It only occurred to me now that I was stuck with him till the end. I took a staggered breath in. How did it feel knowing you were the property of a man who followed a code of laws this society couldn’t wrap their mind around.
Slipping into the end of the bath, he handed me a cold drink, which looked to be alcohol of some sort.
I hesitated before taking it. Something told me I wouldn’t be recalling this in the morning.
“Why you hesitating, darling? We are a dynasty in the making.” He lifted his glass as if he knew I wasn’t going to be drinking it before him. He swallowed the substance easily.
He moved towards me, his hands running up my bare legs. “Tonight marks the first night I accept you as mine.” His hands paused on my thighs. “And as a gift for you getting my tattoo, I’m going to give you one night where you will enjoy yourself and not remember it come morning.”
“You’re roofing me?” I shuttered after I had already had a sip from the glass.
“Darling,” he moved his hand to cup my cheek, “the things we are doing tonight, you won’t want to remember.”
“Then why do it?”
“Because we need to build up your pleasure so you can fulfil my needs. Right now, you’ve never been pushed. Right now, you don’t know what your body can take . . . but I do.”
I swallowed sharply, my eyes dropping to the glass.
“Drink it, darling, and I’ll reward you with a night you’ll be thankful not to remember.”
I put the champagne glass to my lips and drank the substance.
“How much won’t I remember?”
“You won’t even remember getting the tattoo.”
My heart sunk. How Lucian had held my free hand while I got my tattoo had made the moment easier—knowing that he wasn’t completely soulless and heartless.
His lips landed on mine, and so began the night I’d never remember.
13
Chapter 13
Haylee
As soon as I swallowed the substance, he took the glass from me and stood up. I was expecting sex, but he moved towards the towels.
“It’s tradition for the black wedding for me to rape you. I have to have that as your last memory, thinking that was exactly what I had done.”
My eyes widened. “So you have something worse than raping me planned for tonight?”
“Yeah.” His lips twitched up. “I’m putting my walls down for the night, and I want to get to know you.”
“Wait!” I got up from the bath, furious. “You drugged me to rape me, and now you want to get to know me? So, basically, I won’t remember our first real conversation!”
“Exactly. Switched on aren’t you.” He wrapped a towel around me. “I had to do it, Haylee, it’s tradition. But I’m not going to rape you. I think after everything you’ve been through, you deserve better than that.”
“So what do you want this to be? Tonight?”
“My one night with you where I can be myself, and you can wake up in the morning still hating me.”
“I don’t hate you.”
He scoffed, “As if. I’ve labelled you as my property.”
For the first time ever, I was seeing a side of Lucian that was somewhat human and that truly scared me.
“You aren’t as cruel as I think, are you?” I looked at him and tilted my head, studying him. “You should have raped me, it would have been easier on you.”
I knew that raping me would have been easier than him having an honest conversation with me. The question was why would he put himself in this position. He was showing me his raw side and I didn’t understand why.
The doorbell rang, and Lucian walked out of the bathroom.
My eyes drifted to the roses that filled the room, and I picked up a piece of paper on the basin, which had been in Lucian’s pocket.
Haylee,
Please forgive me for leaving you in this hotel room, but I had to drug you so you wouldn’t remember what I had done to you. The tattoo won’t come off, I can’t stop that, but I can stop the memories that would have followed it. I’m sorry for dragging you into this world. Ya brother is on his way, and you won’t remember anything from the night we spent together. But I wanted you to know that I wished I had realised that you deserved better before you got the tattoo. I’m sitting here watching you get it, and I wish I had stopped this before I marked your body.
I’m sorry for everything,
Lucian.
14
Chapter 14
Haylee
“That’s what I should be leaving you.”
My head snapped up. I saw him standing in the doorframe with a masked expression. I couldn’t pinpoint if he was happy that I had discovered the letter or not. A tightness pulled on my stomach as I saw a darkness cover his eyes as he looked be drinking me in.
“I thought I could let you go
, but once I saw that completed tattoo, I knew I couldn’t . . . nor did I want to.” He moved into the bathroom, his eyes holding mine. “Check the other pocket.”
My hands shook as I checked the other pocket. My fingers felt metal and as I pulled them out, I saw they were metal handcuffs.
“When you got that tattoo you agreed to being mine, correct?”
I gulped but nodded my head.
“You agreed when I made a claim on you, that you would obey me.” He paused in front of me, his hands going to the towel. “If you are mine, then why are you covered?” And with that, he pulled on the towel and it dropped down, pooling at my feet. “Hands.”
I extended my hands and watched as his eyes hovered on the tattoo on my right hand. Pride mixed with an emotion I couldn’t pinpoint swirled in his eyes.
I heard the buzzing of his phone in his pocket, and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He muttered that he would be there soon.
“Everything okay?” I asked then bit my tongue. I shouldn’t have asked that. It was none of my business.
He looked me up and down. “We will have to do this another night . . . shit’s happening at the club.” He picked up his clothes. “Get dressed, and put something warm on, it’s cold.” His eyes then widened as the words slipped off his tongue and I knew why—those words proved he cared about me.
I nodded my head, not telling him that those simple words sent a chill of smoothness through my body, knowing the man I was now claimed to wasn’t completely cold-hearted.
15
Chapter 15
Haylee
I don’t know what happened at the clubhouse that night. I was told to wait outside while Lucian stormed in. When he eventually came out, he was covered in blood. I wasn’t a girl who went weak at the sight of blood, but the blood he was covered in wasn’t a spray from a punch; no, it was more like a shower spray after stabbing someone to death.
My eyes locked with his, and I was more nervous than ever because I knew that what had just happened had something to do with me. I knew because before he climbed off the bike, he said that what happens next is what happens after a black wedding when a brother thought his property was threatened.
I nervously walked towards him. “Is everything okay?”
“No.”
And that one short reply filled my stomach with dread. I slipped my hand in his as people stared at him, judging him, clearly telling us that what had just happened went against the norm, and went against what was acceptable.
The moments from the hotel room to here were blurry—it felt like I was watching everything happen in third person. It felt like I was watching over myself as Lucian dragged me to his bedroom before locking the door. I remembered washing the blood off his back and bending over for him to take me, but that was all I remembered. Till this moment, as I tried so hard to piece together what had happened after we had sex, or at least I think we had sex . . .. I looked down at my hand and my throat tightened. It wasn’t the tattoo on my hand. No, it was the wedding ring on my finger.
There was water and aspirin next to the bedside table, and as I reached for them, that was when I saw the ring shine.
Folded over was a piece of paper next to the glass.
Opening it, I looked it over with wide eyes and spat out the water I had just sipped.
It was a wedding license with my signature on it . . . and Lucian’s.
16
Chapter 16
Haylee
I was blinking rapidly as I looked at the wedding license. A knock on the door pulled me back to reality. Throwing the blankets back, I got out of bed and walked with a sheet wrapped around me to Lucian’s bedroom door.
I popped the door open and my eyes locked with Dash’s.
“I’m calling in that favour,” he said calmly, and I had no idea what he was talking. Then he opened his hand. “If you want to remember last night, you’ll tell me what I need to know.”
I swallowed sharply. What the hell was on that USB he held? I nodded my head. “What do you want?” I realised I would tell him anything to remember last night. To know what happened after Lucian grabbed me from the lot, and how the hell it resulted in a wedding. “I want details on your brother,” he said harshly and a sickness filled me. Would I really betray my brother?
17
Chapter 17
Lucian
Lighting up a cigarette, I needed to calm the fuck down. It was crazy how one night I had all my shit together and the next, I was marrying a woman to keep my head above water.
Just as I went to throw my cigarette to the ground and light up another, Haylee came storming out of the clubhouse.
“How could you!” she roared at me, and I was taken back from her confrontation. She knew the laws, she knew her place . . . or at least that was led to believe.
“How could you do this to me!” She threw a USB at me, and the rage on her face told me she fucking knew. How the hell was that possible?
She stepped up to me, her hands clenched into fists. “If you come near me, I will destroy you and this club. Don’t think I’ve got the power?” Her tone dared anyone to test her. “This tattoo right here, tells the world I’m part of the mafia. This one here,” she pointed to another, “tells everyone that I’m part of the glory.” She looked back at me. “I’m telling you now, I will destroy you before you ever come near my family again.”
I grabbed her hand as she was about to make a mistake. “And what about this tattoo?” I whispered in her ear, hoping she wouldn’t walk out those gates. I looked at my name tattooed on her hand.
“That one is a fucking mistake.” She threw the words in my face and stormed out the lot. She probably thought she just walked out of my life. Little did she know that when she was marked as my property, everyone knew and no one would touch her.
Just as I was about to go after her, the sirens of police cars raiding the place turned up.
Haylee turned and looked at me. “Consider this just the beginning of my pay back to you.”
She called the fucking cops! With a body on the property! Was she fucking insane! Did she want me to get the injection? Then I saw the look in her eyes before she turned and left. She wanted me to get the injection because it would save her from doing it herself. But for a spilt-second, I thought I had seen regret in her eyes as I was taken down to the ground to be arrested.
Did she regret that I was being arrested, or was she jealous because she wasn’t getting the chance to kill me herself? After everything I had done to her, I couldn’t blame her . . ..
18
Chapter 18
Haylee
I lit up a cigarette, taking a long drag while I watched my brother give out the weekend’s orders. We hadn’t discussed what had happened while I was gone.
I blew out the smoke. I knew I couldn’t give up but at the same time, it was all I was thinking about. Just walking away from this way of life. It was tough trying to keep afloat when I was cracking and drowning.
“Imogen is coming over tonight,” Harley said, but I didn’t look up from my cigarette. Had nothing to say to him, he was acting like everything was a-okay and it wasn’t.
The marijuana was numbing my brain but that was about it. It wasn’t getting to the nitty-gritty of what I was feeling or the heart pulses I felt when I heard a motorcycle. Hell, Harley hadn’t even looked at the tattoo on my hand.
I knew I had to get up and act like nothing had happened, but it was so bloody hard.
“Alright by you if her niece stays?”
I nodded, not interested in her niece or her. She was nothing but a complete brain-dead slut. I personally wouldn’t let her look after my child.
“So how long are we putting up with this one for?” The words came off my tongue like a slice of a blade through the air. I looked at my brother. “She’s moved in.”
“I like her.”
“She isn’t the one,” I muttered, pushing my chair back as I got up. “Trust me, brother, she�
��s just a fill-in for the right one.”
His hand wrapped around my wrist as I went to leave. “Don’t speak about her like that.”
“Ya bending rules for her?” I titled my head to look at him, giving him a calculated look. “Don’t think I’ve noticed how you are breaking our codes for her.”
He scoffed, “Well, you know all about codes, don’t you.”
My expression dropped, he hadn’t seriously just gone there. “Excuse me?” I spoke clearly, hoping he would take back what he said or at least, not follow it up with something smart.
“I’m just saying that if anyone is giving a lecture about breaking codes it is you. You shouldn’t even be back here according to the codes. Don’t think I know he fucking broke them by handing you back!”
I was speechless, and he got up to leave. “Wait.” I stopped him from leaving. “You didn’t want me back, did you?”
He shook his head. “That isn’t the point, Haylee. The point is we keep our words and you pledged yourself to him, and the result was you running?”
“I didn’t run.”
“Uh-huh.” He crossed his arms and it seemed as if we were about to get into it.
“I didn’t!” I stood up. “I fucking called it in.” I couldn’t believe this was how I was going to tell my brother the truth.
His expression dropped. “You are the reason their charter was taken down?”
Property of Lucian Page 5
