by Goode, Ella
The real problem comes at the end of seven days when the bindings of my promise are gone and Vieth doesn’t have an answer because there is no answer.
Ashford planned all of this because he, unlike Vieth, knew I could not be trusted with Cora. He saw something in her that would appeal to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if he planted the seed with Vieth—something like test him and see if he won’t break. When he falls to his knees, you can cut his head off.
“Ashford,” Kailler breathes. “I’ll kill him right now.”
“We can’t without proof.”
“Does that mean the wedding is off?”
“No. The wedding is definitely on. An alliance between Vieth and us is something he can’t have anticipated. Vieth hates men, and other than you and Notch, we are a crew of all men. If we present a united front, Ashford’s plans will crumble, and that will make him want to strike. That’s the proof we will need to take him out. Plus, if we work together, we can decimate Ashford’s gang with minimal bloodshed and no loss of valuable lives.”
Kailler smirks at my use of valuable. In this scenario, Ashford’s men are expendable. They will go down no matter who they are, where they are, what they are doing. “What should I do with Roxy?”
“Send her back to Vieth. Cora’s mother should be here for her wedding, don’t you think?”
Kailler’s phone beeps. “It’s the priest.”
“Feed him, give him booze, send him a woman. I don’t care. Make him happy for a few hours until Vieth decides to come and see what game we’re playing here.” I reach for the door. “And make sure Roxy conveys the message that I will be touching Cora all over in three hours so Vieth should get here before then if she wants to engage in any meaningful discussions. Once Cora is mine, Vieth will need to find new leverage.”
Kailler hestitates.
“What is it?”
“You won’t hurt her, will you?”
I narrow my eyes. “What kind of man do you think I am?”
My second bows her head. “Sorry. Too many books, I guess.”
I shake my head as I go back inside the apartment. I need to get my hands on this book and figure out what Lawson did. Kill a cat? Maim a dog? Throw his grandmother off a truck and run her over? The bedroom door is closed, and the rest of the space is empty. I knock once and then open the door. Cora turns from the mirror and looks over my shoulder.
“Is the priest here?” she asks. There’s a slight tremble in her voice and she hides her hands in the folds of her full frothy skirt. She looks like the white champagne cake. Jason knew what he was doing when he bought me that cake all those years ago to cheer me up.
“Not yet but soon. You look good enough to eat.” I stride over to her. From my height, I can see straight into her deep cleavage, her juicy tits pushed together and lifted up almost like an offering. I wonder what she would do if I scooped one out of its lace and satin prison so that I could suck on her nipple.
“I thought you weren’t touching me until after the wedding.” A slow creeping flush spreads down her neck to paint the tops of her breasts pink.
Temptation can only be resisted for so long. I whisper a thumb across that heaving flesh and watch as the color deepens. The column of her elegant neck is bare. Something flashy and heavy belongs here. I pull a string of diamonds and pearls from my pocket and drape it around her throat.
Her hand flies to finger the jewels as her gaze meets mine. “What is this?”
“It’s a bridal gift. Worth quite a lot, so if your life here turns miserable, take this and sell it. You won’t go hungry.” It’s a peace offering of sorts. She can try to leave me, and I won’t stop her. What I haven’t said yet but that she’ll soon come to learn is that I will find her, no matter where she goes, and I will always bring her home.
“I haven’t gotten anything for you,” she says quietly.
“Oh, but you have.” I glance at her breasts again. “Your soft cunt will be wrapped around my aching shaft in a few hours, and that is all the gift I need.” I grin. At this rate, she’s going to be tomato red. It’s adorable.
“Why a few hours?” she says, trying to avoid the rest of my statement. “I thought we were getting married within the hour.”
I chuckle. “Plans have changed. We’re waiting for your mother now.”
Chapter 15
Cora
I pace back and forth. This isn't going to turn out well for anyone. I think Aidon is underestimating my mom. He still doesn't believe I’m really her blood daughter. I am my mom’s weakness. That’s a hard pill to swallow. I don’t like that I make her vulnerable. It’s why she’s kept me locked away from the rest of the world. To keep me safe.
I don’t think she’ll let this wedding happen. I have no doubt that my mom would die to save me. My stomach tightens at that thought. I have no idea what to do. I stop pacing to look at myself in the mirror. The dress that Aidon had made for me is breathtaking. I reach up to touch the necklace around my neck. It’s one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever seen.
He told me I could leave him. That I could sell the necklace if I needed to in order to get away. I don’t understand what he is doing. Why would he say that? Wouldn't that just mean I could walk away after the wedding? I let out a long sigh of frustration. That man is truly a mystery. I guess that’s why he’s so powerful. He’s unpredictable.
I spin around when I hear a door open. My eyes lock on my mom. I immediately run toward her. She opens her arms and then wraps them around me. She hugs me tight to her.
“Are you okay, amoureux?” She hasn't called me that since I was a little girl. It’s sweetheart in French.
“I’m okay.” My eyes meet Aidon’s over my mom’s shoulder. “They have been good to me.” I let my hold go, stepping back. Her eyes sweep down me and back up, inspecting every inch of me. I can see worry in her eyes for the first time in my life, which scares me. Her face may seem stoic to others but not me.
“I want a moment alone with my daughter,” my mom tells Aidon without turning around. Her voice remains firm, showing no sign of emotion.
“Not going to happen. After the wedding I might allow it.”
“Allow it?” How can he be both sweet and an asshole all at the same time? Each time I start to soften for him he does something to jerk me back to reality. “Is this what our marriage will be like? I’ll be a toy that you order around?” My nose starts to burn at the thought. I see a tick in his jaw at my words, but he doesn’t deny them.
“Do not cry,” he orders me. I roll my eyes at him. Mom’s eyes bounce between the two of us.
“Then let me be alone with my mom!” I shout. Aidon’s eyebrows lift, and a smirk pulls at his lips. “I’ll give you a couple minutes. The priest is waiting.” He steps out, closing the door behind him.
“You got him to fall in love with you.”
I shake my head no, even though I want it to be true. I don’t know what it is about Aidon, but there is this undeniable pull to him. I feel safe when he’s around too. The craziest thing is I don’t fear him.
“He’s not in love with me.” I drop my head to try and hide my blush.
“He’s demanding you marry him.”
I lick my lips. “It’s not a terrible idea. There could be a truce. Have you found anything out about the Poppy guy?”
“No.” She looks pained as she admits that. “I can’t let you marry this man. You weren’t meant for this life.” She reaches up, cupping my cheek. I lean into her touch, enjoying the comfort she brings me.
“But if it means saving you, I’ll do it. You sent me here to seduce him. I’m not very good at it.” A half smile pulls at her lips.
“Aidon is an honorable man. I knew he wouldn’t touch you, but I thought you could torture him some. Actually, I think you are way better at seducing him than you think. So good that now he wants to keep you. You’ve caused him to come up with a bullshit plan of why the two of you should marry.”
“Bullshit?”
I don’t understand. “We can’t stop this. We are outnumbered and I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” Especially Aidon or Kailler. “They will kill you.”
No fear shows on my mom’s face. She doesn't fear death. She’s told me many times there are things scarier than death. I’m guessing one of those things would be something happening to me.
Mom reaches into her shirt and pulls out a pen. She uncaps it to expose a needle. “You could do the wedding. Then tonight when he tries to take you to bed you use this on him. It will work within seconds, but you must be quick to strike.”
“I can’t kill anyone.” I take a step back.
“And I can’t let you marry that man without an out. I will kill him now or you can kill him later. Those are the only options, amoureux.”
“You’d die!” I hiss.
“Not before he does.” This is nuts. “I’ll come for you tonight. Take it.” She steps closer to me. I hold my hand out and take the poison pen. I know I won’t be able to use it, but I can’t let my mom walk out of here on a suicide mission. I slip it into my dress for safe keeping.
A knock sounds at the door before it swings open. “It’s time.” Aidon holds his hand out for me to take, motioning for my mother to go first. He keeps a tight hold on me as we make our way back to his office.
When the doors open, I see Kailler and a few of Aidon’s men standing around with the priest. The door falls closed behind us.
“You’re shaking.” Aidon looks down at me.
“Can you blame her?” It happens so fast. My mom pulls out a gun, aiming it at Aidon. Everyone else does the same, but their guns are trained on my mom.
“Please don’t hurt her,” I beg Aidon, stepping in front of him. He tries to pull me behind him.
“Do you really want your daughter to watch you die?”
“I got her into this mess. I won’t ruin her life to save my own.” They’re both fighting over me. A tug of war game that is going to rip me in half. Without thinking, I reach into the top of my dress and pull out the pen.
“What are you doing, Cora?”
I pull the top of it off, letting it fall to the floor as I bring it up to my own neck.
“What the fuck is that? Did you give her that?” Rage like I’ve never seen fills Aidon’s eyes. “Give it to me, Cora.”
I step back out of Aidon’s reach.
“Tell them to put their guns down.”
“Cora.” Mom snaps my name.
“Everyone, guns down,” Aidon barks. Everyone follows Aidon’s order, including my mom. “You’re shaking. You’re going to accidentally poke yourself.”
“Promise you won’t kill my mom and I'll marry you.”
“Deal,” he snaps instantly, holding his hand out. “Give it to me.” I slowly start to lower it away from my neck. Aidon moves faster than me, swiping it out of my hand and tossing it to the floor before he pins me to the wall. “Don’t you ever do that again. Do you hear me?”
“Let her go,” I hear my mom say.
“Never.” Aidon’s eyes stare into mine. This is so not the time to be getting turned on, but I can’t help my body's response to him, to the emotion I see on his face. He cares about me. I lick my lips. Aidon’s eyes drop there.
I tilt my head back, offering him my mouth. He takes it. The kiss is hard and almost punishing. I love it. I can feel his emotions in it. My fingers dig into his suit jacket, wanting him closer. For a moment I forget we’re in a room with other people. He pulls back from the kiss, dropping his forehead on to mine.
“What have you done to me?” He says it so low only I can hear him. I don’t think it’s really a question. “Are you ready now?” I nod my head. He takes my hand again.
“I’m going to marry him,” I tell my mom.
“Do you still not believe she is my daughter?” she asks Aidon.
“I believe you. You were willing to die for her.”
“Would you do the same?”
“Without hesitation.”
She stares at him for a moment. “There is one more thing you need to know.”
“Out with it. I should be married by now.” I have to fight a smile. I love the fact that he’s in a hurry to get us married.
“It’s about her father.” The mention of him not only snags Aidon’s attention but mine as well. Never once has she told me who my father is. “Her father is Jason Chu.”
Chapter 16
Aidon
Silence descends like a blanket, suffocating and hot. A couple of the crew can’t keep their gasps of shock quiet. I’d like to fold, too, but I can’t. Not with all these lives on the line. I haul a stunned Cora up to my side and turn to the priest.
“You can begin.”
“That’s all you have to say about this information?” Karin demands.
“He’s dead. What does it matter?” I glare at the priest. “Start the ceremony.”
Beside me, Cora is shaking, and whether it’s the shock of her parentage or the wedding itself or a post-adrenaline hangover from foolishly sticking the poison pen to her neck, I don’t know. I’ll sort it out later, once she’s no longer a Vieth.
“The ceremony,” I growl when I realize the priest has still not started. “Now.”
My words are accompanied by the cocking of a handgun. Good Kailler, still on my side for some things. The priest hurries through the vows. “Do you, Aidon Katsaros, take Cora Amber Vieth to be your wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better—”
“I do. Move on.” I don’t need all these words, and I’m certain they are unnecessary for the marriage to be binding.
He clears his throat and turns to Cora. “Do you, Cora Vieth, take Aidon Katsaros to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish, till death do you part, according to the Lord’s holy ordinance, and thereto dost thou pledge yourself to Aidon?”
“I do,” she answers without anyone sticking a gun in anyone else’s face. The words were nice. I liked them. Richer and poorer, till death parts us, she pledges herself to me. Maybe I should’ve let him finish.
“And I pledge myself to you in all things,” I add as the priest fumbles to bring forward the rings.
Karin Vieth glowers but says nothing. She’s probably thinking that Cora will make a good widow. I place the ring, a giant five-carat flawless diamond on Cora’s left hand. Her face registers surprise when the priest hands her a ring for my hand.
“I didn’t think men wore these.”
“They usually take them off when they cheat on you, darling,” Karin says. “That’s why you’re used to not seeing them.”
“Since she’s not had a man before, I don’t know why she would have a personal knowledge base of who wears rings and when,” I say with no small irritation in my voice.
“Who said she’s never had a man before?” Karin taunts.
“Mom!” Cora interjects, throwing out an arm to stop me from charging her mother. “We all know I’m a virgin.” She blushes when she says this. “It’s part of my value.”
“I’d have you regardless,” I say. “It’d just be that I’d have to kill anyone who touched you before me, so you and your mother have done countless men a favor. They still live tonight because of your virgin state.”
“Can you please stop saying that?” Cora groans.
“Why?”
“It’s embarrassing. What if I shouted out how you were a virgin?”
I shrug. “Everyone knows that I am.”
Her jaw drops, and Karin Vieth mutters Bullshit into her fist.
The priest coughs. When we turn our gazes to him, he coughs again. “I’m sorry, but I have not yet finished.”
“We’ve exchanged the rings,” I answer, annoyed. “What else is there to do?”
“I must pronounce you man and wife.”
“Then do it.”
“Ah, well, before we get
to that part”—the priest turns a page in his little black notebook—“we have to say a pray—”
“Announce that we’re man and wife,” I interrupt.
“But—”
“I seriously doubt that we aren’t married because you didn’t say a few magic words.” I take Cora by the shoulders. “I’m your man. You’re my wife.” I slam my mouth down onto hers, sealing our union more thoroughly than any priest’s invocations. She moans and wraps her arms around my neck. She may be frightened and confused, but my touch turns her to liquid silk in my arms—soft, malleable, enticing. My groin tightens, and lust flares up. If I don’t put a halt to this kiss, I might take her to the floor and fuck her in front of the priest, her mother, and everyone else. I pull away reluctantly, swiping a finger across her plump lower lip. “Later,” I promise. I turn to Kailler, who has been looking at the ceiling. “The contracts.”
She whips out the paperwork, the real stuff, that will cement this marriage. “If I die, Cora Kasteros will inherit everything and by everything, I mean this empire and all that pledge their loyalty to it. Right, Kailler?”
“Yes.” Her chin nod is firm. It’s the one thing I’ve done that she’s approved of since Cora was dropped on my doorstep.
“You’re serious about this.” Karin blinks in surprise as she runs over the contract. “This is a better deal than I could’ve conceived for you,” she says to Cora.
“I don’t want this, though.” She squeezes her hands together. “I just want…” Her voice trails off so quietly that I almost don’t hear the word that comes out: peace.
“Sign it.” I press a pen into Cora’s hands. “Sign it and those things that you wish for will come.” I suppose the unstated warning is that if she doesn’t sign it, there’ll be war, but I won’t lie to her. Not now or ever.
She lets out a deep breath and then scrawls her signature across the paper. I match hers and then stamp it with my seal. Kailler takes the original and puts it in a briefcase, which she locks and sets behind her. Karin is given an unsigned copy.
