Tears fill Olivia’s eyes, and she eagerly nods. “I just have to ask one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Can we have the wedding in New Orleans?” she asks.
“Yeah, sweetheart, we can have it wherever you want,” I murmur, squeezing her hand gently.
“Okay, then let’s do it. I’m sure I can plan something quick. Maybe . . . give me two weeks,” she whispers, and I can see her mind is already being filled with ideas.
“I’ll give you one,” I tell her, and her eyes widen in surprise.
“Seriously, you’re giving me one week to plan my dream wedding?”
“You’ll soon be a Brisbane, sweetheart. Sometimes in life we have to make great things happen quickly, and I’m certain you’ll pull this off with flying colors.”
“No lie, I’m a bit annoyed you’re making our wedding a test,” Olivia grumbles, rolling her eyes.
“I’m not making it a test. I’m giving you a challenge. Know the difference, sweetheart.” I shoot her a wink and pick up my whiskey, taking a good hard sip before I set it back down on the table. Olivia’s eyes lock with mine, and I know she’s in it to win it. She’ll prove she can have everything she’s ever wanted in this time frame, and I have no doubt about it.
“You should know I never lose, Finn.”
“Good. I want to be a sore loser, or wait, maybe I just want to be sore.” I glance up and down her body, looking at the way she’s dressed in this two-piece number she bought offline. She looks like a damn model, and I want to ravage her in the restaurant right now.
Fuck, she’s lucky I didn’t just fly with her to Las Vegas and take us to one of those drive-thru chapels. It would’ve been stupid considering our marriage license is for Louisiana, but at least we have the legal bit ready.
“Can we go home now?” she asks, a hint of seduction lacing her voice.
“Hell yeah, sweetheart. And for being a good girl, I think I’ll make you come all the way home.” I chuckle and flag down the waiter to bring me the check.
The waiter can’t bring the check fast enough, and Olivia decides she’s going to toy with me by pressing her bare foot in between my legs. She rubs it along my already stiffening cock, and fuck, I’m glad she didn’t try to do this with heels on. My cock throbs as she grinds her foot against me, and I see the enjoyment all over her face. Little does she know I plan on having my sinful way with her since she’s teasing me in public.
Finally paying the bill, I take Olivia’s hand and all but drag her to the car. I’m more than ready to have my mouth on her wet flower. Shit, I’m more than ready to have my cock seated inside her hot pussy. She’s everything I’ve wanted in a woman, and better yet, she’s everything I fantasize about.
My fiancée is definitely the perfect match for me, and in a week, I’ll be making her my wife. This is cause for celebration, and tomorrow morning, we’ll get back to New Orleans so she can get everything ready for our big day.
She’ll be Olivia Brisbane in one week, and I’ll be the luckiest fucking man on the planet.
Chapter Sixteen
Olivia
Here we are, back at the Ritz Carlton and I’m so excited to be back in my hometown. Finn gave me one week to get this wedding planned, so I’m doing it. Actually, I’m not doing it. I’m slaying it.
Ever since I was a little girl, I imagined one thing—a massive wedding. But before I can tell all my family and friends about this joyous occasion, I need to find a venue. It turns out trying to find a venue in this short amount of time is anything but easy. I’ve spent the last six hours securing a venue, and luckily I was able to finagle my way into securing the Roosevelt Hotel for us.
I’ve already called a florist, was able to find a caterer, and called in a favor to a local bakery. It’s one my brothers used to take me to all the time when I was younger. Félix was the one who’d take me out for something sweet after an exam, or maybe a hard day. A sinking feeling settles in my stomach as I think about my brother.
Even now, I can’t seem to understand why he’d tell Finn about what happened to me. I know he thinks what he did was right, but it wasn’t. My trauma is my own. My past belongs to me. The fact of the matter is no one should ever have the right to tell anyone else about something so personal. Félix, my dear brother, betrayed my trust and violated me in a completely different way.
Shaking my head, I force the thoughts about my brother back into my mind and grab my cell. I heard a notification go off a second ago, so I unlock my phone and find an email from the florist. She’s asking for some examples of what I’m looking for on my wedding day, so I send her the photos I found on Pinterest earlier. She asked about table setting colors, what I’d prefer for the flowers to be in during the reception, and a few other things. Honestly, it’s making me realize I’m so over my head.
God, I’m a one-woman show planning this.
With my phone in hand, I do something I didn’t think I ever would. I call in reinforcements, and by reinforcements, I mean my sister-in-law, Madelaine, and my sister, Sabine.
Within thirty minutes, both of the women are walking into my suite, and Sabine’s asking me a million and one questions. Madelaine, on the other hand, brought a bottle of champagne and some macarons. I rip back the plastic container and dive straight for the vanilla ones. God, they’re the absolute best. Tossing one in my mouth, I chew on the moist deliciousness shocking my tastebuds. There’s only one thing that can make this better, coffee. Don’t get me wrong, champagne is great, but coffee and fresh baked macarons are to die for!
Over the course of the next few hours, Sabine and Madelaine help me plan everything. Sabine is more of the organized one so she helps me head the charge, whereas Madelaine is here for moral support, I think.
“If it makes any difference, I talked some reason into your brother, and he feels like an absolute piece of shit.” Madelaine giggles as she shoves a grape macaron in her mouth.
I turn toward her in complete disbelief. There’s no way I heard her right. Félix has never gone back on what he’s felt . . . not ever. “Sorry, what?”
Even Sabine smiles, but she’s trying to keep herself from laughing. “I don’t know what it is about you, Liv, but Félix has always had a soft spot for you. Madelaine drilling into him, well, it fucked with him a bit.”
“I told him how much of a royal dick he was is all, and how he’d be lucky if you ever wanted to talk to him again.” Madelaine shrugs her shoulders, acting like this isn’t a big deal.
“You did not,” I immediately comment, and in true Madelaine style, she cocks a brow and stares me down.
“Bitch, when haven’t I? I will put your big, bad brother in his place whenever I damn well need to, and I needed to.” At her words, I immediately rise from my chair and go over to Madelaine, wrap my arms around her and hug her tightly.
“Thank you so much.”
“God, you’re such a sap,” Sabine comments, probably rolling her eyes from the couch.
I unclasp my arms from around Madelaine, and she gives me a soft smile. “It was my pleasure. He shouldn’t have done what he did, and I’m so sorry you had to go through that conversation with Finn. How’d he take it? I mean, is everything okay between the two of you?”
Madelaine might look like a badass bitch on the outside with her fire-engine red hair and her tattoos, but she’s got the most pure heart.
I nod. “Yeah, it’s better than ever. Finn is just . . .”
“Dashingly handsome, smart, evil but the type women like us adore?” Sabine fills in some of the things that come to my mind sometimes, and I cackle at her words. Even Madelaine joins in.
“He’s what I need.” I know my answer is simple, but I don’t have another way of saying how much he means to me. Truth be told, I’m glad he picked me.
“You’re in love with him,” Madelaine states and smiles so bright.
“I am,” I confess, and Madelaine smiles even more.
“I’m glad you’ve found
someone. You deserve it after everything you’ve been through and all,” Sabine tells me, and while my sister is the most callous of us all, I appreciate her kind words.
“Shit. We need to get back before your brother sends one of his minions to see where we are,” Madelaine says, practically jumping up.
“What? Is seeing me a secret?”
Madelaine laughs loudly. “Hell no, but you can bet your ass I want to be the one who drops the bomb we’ve seen you. The last thing I want is for one of his goons to tell him shit. I want to see the look on his face when he knows he fucked up bad, ‘cause if you’re hanging out with us and not him, well, my poor Félix will realize even more so why he shouldn’t have done what he did.”
“She’s enjoying this a little too much,” Sabine points out.
“Hey, you watch it with your judgy voice. He’s married to me. He signed up for this shit,” Madelaine quips, causing us all to laugh.
Sabine stands, too, and they both head out of my suite side-by-side. They were a huge help today, and I can’t wait for everything to come to life next week. Finn might not think I can plan my dream wedding in a week, and while I haven’t done it all alone, I’m going to have everything I want.
Finn’s out tending to business, so I shut my phone off and put it on the nightstand. He was able to get the hotel to agree to a week lease here as long as we’re in the suite, so this is our home away from home until the wedding.
He won’t be back for a while and since things haven’t been as crazy lately, he’s said I can do a few things as long as they’re around the hotel. I found out we have a private rooftop pool exclusively for club members, so I bought a sexy little bikini. Maybe I can go up there and relax for a little bit? It would be nice, especially after a stressful day of wedding planning.
Figuring it can’t hurt, I strip out of my clothes and put on the blood-red bikini, slide on some sandals, and head to the elevator. Within a couple minutes, I’m on the roof. There are already towels out here and everything is so lovely. Man, relaxing will be so easy.
I sit back on one of the patio chairs and let the last of the day’s rays hit my skin before I head into the water. It’s maybe an hour or so that I have my eyes closed, simply breathing, relaxing for the first time in so long, and soon enough, I’m falling asleep.
By the time I wake up, it’s pitch black outside and I take a few minutes to compose myself. I stand from the chair and walk on the concrete until I hit the edge of the pool. Then I sit down and stick my legs in. The water is warm, telling me they probably have a heater, so I slide in and pinch my nose as I dip my entire head under the water. The way it moves across my body is so refreshing, and I’m so weightless in here.
Moving my hands in swimming motions, I rise to the surface and wipe my hands over my eyes, then pull my hair out of my face.
“I’ve been looking for you,” a familiar voice states, but I can’t see who it is. I blink my eyes a few times, but water is still in them, so I swim over to the edge to greet this person, but the moment I’m at the side of the pool, I’m shoved underneath.
I scream in shock and, in doing so, inhale a lungful of water. I kick and scream and move my hands. I do everything I can think to rid myself of this person, but I can’t. The pressure suddenly goes away, and I rise to the surface, coughing harder than I ever have in my life. I swim to where I think is the shallow end, but now my eyes are filled with even more water.
Everything is blurry, and I mean everything. The roughness of the concrete below the water hits my feet as, and I continue walking forward, only my entire body is met with pressure now. I go from being able to breathe air, to having something, or rather someone putting all of their body weight on me.
This can’t be it.
This can’t be the way I die.
I kick, scream, and try to fight for my life, but as much as I fight this person, I inhale more water and the coughing grows worse. I push at someone’s body and hope it would be enough for me to get away, but it isn’t. Instead, I only grow weaker and have a hard time staying awake. Soon enough, the darkness is all I see, and here pain doesn’t exist.
Chapter Seventeen
Finn
Olivia decided she wanted to go with a small wedding, just family and friends. When she said small, I figured she maybe meant fifty people, but no, I was sorely mistaken. She wants to have two hundred and fifty people in attendance, and she calls this shit small? Fuck, even now, while I’m out on business down in the French Quarter, I’m shaking my head. I’ll let her do whatever she wants because this is her big day, but damn.
I called her at the hotel thirty minutes ago to let her know I’ll be on my way back soon, but she didn’t answer. Now I’m meeting Félix down the street at one of the local bars. He and Olivia haven’t exactly spoken to each other yet since the night everything blew up. So, Félix texted me earlier and asked me to meet him whenever I had time. I finished a meeting early, so here we are.
I don’t know how this will go, but he needs to apologize. Our wedding is coming up, and I know for a fact Olivia wants him to be the one to give her away. Hell, he practically raised her. Olivia hasn’t reached out, though she shouldn’t have had to.
I walk into the bar and find him already seated at a two-seater small round high-top table. Weaving my way through the crowd I take the seat in front of him.
Félix slides one of the two beers across the table to me.
“Is this supposed to be an apology?” I ask, quirking a brow at him.
“Take it as whatever you want,” he mutters. “I hear you’re getting married this weekend.”
“Yeah.”
“So, she’s still pissed at me,” he grumbles.
“Man, think about it, you talked about her darkest secret without taking a fucking second to think about how she’d feel about it.” My words are hitting home within seconds of me speaking.
“Yeah, I fucked up. I only spoke about it because she’s my baby sister. She’s always been the most vulnerable, yet most lively. Sabine can be a hard ass and doesn’t take shit from anyone. Hell, she keeps the most secrets from us all. Desirée, she’s determined to be this woman I don’t even know anymore. Since she went to Stonewall, she’s not the person she was, and she’s become distant as fuck.”
“I get it. I do, but you hurt her, Félix. She’s not a little girl anymore and she’s not the fragile woman you think she is. She’s a hell of a lot stronger than you think. Those motherfuckers might have done some horrible shit to her . . . but it wasn’t just degrading. It was demoralizing, and she’s overcome what they did to her.”
Nodding, Félix lifts his beer to take a long pull from the bottle. When he pulls the bottle away, he meets my gaze. “I’ll talk to her.”
“About damn time,” I mutter, taking a sip from my own. I know one thing about siblings, even if I’ll kill mine the first chance I get. You don’t come between them. They have to work their own shit out.
Félix opens his mouth to say something when Bourn comes rushing in.
“What is it?” I demand, my gut tightening from the way he’s heading this way.
“Casen, we found him knocked out, and Olivia’s not in your suite. Conor, Marc, Iasan, and Chance, Dean’s men, are looking for her,” Bourn tells me with a concerned look on his face. He’s trying to act impartial, but not even he can keep his cool right now. Dean O’Connell is the head of the Alliance from the east coast while I’m the head of the southwest.
Fuck!
I knew Marc was coming to the wedding this weekend with Dean, Dean’s family and from what I’ve heard from my cousin Ezekiel, Marc’s bringing a very important person with him. The fact he’s here a few days earlier than planned can only mean one thing. “Ashton’s here.”
Motherfucker.
Ashton’s been missing since Félix’s wedding. Of course, he’d show up right before mine and Olivia’s. I rush for the door, not caring if I knock anyone down in my path.
Bourn and Félix are
right behind me as we all run for the hotel. I’m lucky it’s only a couple blocks away. If Ashton’s here, then he’s not going to take Olivia somewhere else. He’ll do what he wants right at the hotel. I know my brother, and I know how his sick mind works.
Iasan meets us at the entrance, and as he runs through the doors, Marc’s just coming out of the security office.
“Pool now,” he orders, taking off in a determined run.
I rush after him, praying to whoever the hell will listen to me, to keep Olivia safe. I tell them she’s been through enough and doesn’t deserve to go through more.
Fuck, but there’s more than that. I pray because I need her. I need her in my fucking life, and without her, I’m nothing.
I make it to the doors that lead to the pool and I see red at the sight of Mason. He’s standing there acting like he doesn’t have a care in the world until he sees us coming. He draws a weapon and points it in my direction. “Don’t even come close to this door.”
Who the motherfucking hell does he think he is? We’re not playing this game.
I draw my own gun from under my shirt and point it at his leg. I’m not ready to kill his ass just yet. Pulling the trigger, I maim him in the leg, causing him to scream out in pain like the pathetic pussy he is.
I run past him and nearly fall to my feet as I see my brother in the water, drowning Olivia.
Once again, I lift my gun and do the only thing I can at this point. I pull the trigger, hitting him in the only open area I can from my position. I pray she doesn’t get hit, too, but fuck, anything can happen at this point.
The bullet slices through Ashton square between his eyes. It happens in slow motion and it’s like I watch the bullet pierce through his skin as he lifts his head to grin maliciously at me. He falls into the pool, taking Olivia into the depths of the water.
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