He chuckles. “You think that you can’t believe it? You should have grown up with them as your parents and seen on a daily basis how much they hated each other. You really wouldn’t be able to believe it if you were Mitch or me.”
Mitch reaches for Shaw’s hand. “I can’t wait to see what a fourth grandchild does to them.” All attention focuses on Mitch. “Shaw is pregnant. We just found out today.”
A series of congratulations are voiced at the same time from everyone around the table.
Sin gets up to hug his brother. “A second Breckenridge-Hendry child is on the way. One for The Fellowship and one for The Order. That is wonderful news, and I know that Mum and Dad must be thrilled.”
“They are very happy.”
“We were going to wait to make the announcement, but I guess now’s the right time to tell you that there’s going to be yet another Breckenridge. Ellison and I are expecting a baby too.”
Wow. There are three pregnant women at this table right now. I wish that I was one of them, but that doesn’t take away from the joy that I feel for my best friends.
I smile, and it’s genuine because I am happy for everyone, but I’m also a little sad because I feel left out. “I’m so happy for all of you.”
“You’ll be next, Lolo.”
“Hopefully.”
“She will be.” Leith looks at me and squeezes my hand beneath the table. “I’m seeing to it personally.”
Chapter 13
Leith Duncan
I carry Lorna’s bag to her car and place it in the back. “Where are the wives taking you?”
Her brow lifts. “I’ll tell you if you tell me where the husbands are taking you.”
It’s a stag party. The wife-to-be isn’t supposed to know anything about it.
“You’re going to be away from me for the first time in a month. I need to know where you’ll be in case something happens and I need to come for you.”
Lorna rolls her eyes. “Shaw is pregnant. Ellison is pregnant. Wes is pregnant and could deliver at any time. What kind of trouble could we possibly get into?”
Yes, we have an alliance with our former enemy, but I’m not sure that I’ll ever truly trust those people. “I’m not worried about you and the other wives getting into trouble. We’re Fellowship, and we never know when trouble is going to find us. So where will you be?”
She sighs. “The girls have booked a suite at the Balmoral. We’re having a spa and massage day with manis and pedis before we go out for dinner. There will be little opportunity for trouble to find us, but I imagine that the opposite is true about the night you’re going to have with your mates.”
Greer sent word to Lorna that she was going to be the stripper at my stag party. Of course, it’s a lie but Lorna has been uneasy ever since.
“We’re going to drink whisky at the bar until we pass out and wake up with throbbing heads. Nothing more.”
“Tonight is the last chance Greer will have to see you before we’re married. I don’t think she’ll miss out on her final opportunity.”
I’ve been expecting her to reach out to me in some kind of desperate last-ditch effort to try and talk me into being with her instead of Lorna. But she hasn’t. Maybe she’s moved on.
“If Greer or any other woman shows up at the bar tonight, she’ll be turned away at the door.” The plan is already in place. Nessa and Gwyneth will be there to serve us but that’s it. No other women allowed. I have no intention of allowing anything to happen that might bring my faithfulness into question.
“I don’t question your fidelity but Greer is sneaky. I worry that she’ll somehow manage to get into the bar.”
“And do what?”
“I don’t know exactly, but she’s crazy enough to try anything.”
“You think she would try to seduce me on the night before my wedding?”
“Absolutely.”
“One can’t be seduced if he isn’t willing to be seduced.”
“I know you wouldn’t choose to be with anyone else while you’re sober, but you’re going to get smashed. You won’t be in your right mind.”
“I wouldn’t be with another woman ever, sober or wrecked. I need you to trust in that.”
“Greer said that she wasn’t finished with you. She’s the one I don’t trust.”
“Her threats are empty.”
“I worked side by side with her for a long time. I know what she’s capable of.”
“She doesn’t have the power to hurt us.”
“I’ll believe that after we’re married without incident.”
“Then you’ll believe it tomorrow. Because at six o’clock in the evening, you will be my wife. Mine forever.”
“And not one minute too soon.”
* * *
“What do you have in mind?”
“I’m getting married tomorrow.” I touch the left side of my chest. “I want my wife’s name right here over my heart.”
It’s one of my gifts to Lorna. I’m going to show it to her on our wedding night.
“I do a lot of tattoos, mate, and many of them are do-overs to cover up a woman’s name after a breakup. The new ladies don’t tend to be too fond of the old ones being on their man. Are you sure you want to do that?”
This tattoo artist isn’t Fellowship. He doesn’t understand that there is no such thing as moving on to a new partner in our world. “I’m in this for life. There will be no do-over.”
“Says every man who comes in here and asks for a tattoo of a woman’s name.”
“I can go somewhere else to have it done if you’re so opposed to it.”
“It’s your body, mate. I’ll ink you with whatever you want.”
Good. I’ve had this appointment for over two weeks. I don’t have time to fuck around with finding another artist today.
“What is your wife’s name?”
“Lorna. L-O-R-N-A.”
“Any graphics?”
“Text only. Script with shadowing.”
“All right. Give me a few minutes to work up a design.”
It takes a few tweaks but I’m satisfied with the final design. “That’s exactly what I want. Let’s do it.” I have a stag party to be at in a few hours.
These are my final hours as a single man. I’m never going to be with another woman again. Lorna is my final taste.
And I couldn’t be more at peace with it.
* * *
Nessa brings another round of whisky. “Anything else I can get you?”
Kenrick reaches out and wraps his arm around Nessa’s bum. “Come here. I need to tell you something.”
She lowers her head and Kenny whispers something in her ear, prompting a big smile to form on her face.
“Okay.”
Kenny watches every step she takes as she walks away. They’re going to need to do better than this if they’re going to avoid Nessa being labeled.
“What was that about?” Sin asks.
I’m curious to see how my brother will handle answering our leader’s question.
“I told her to meet me in the back room in five.”
Oh shite.
“Shagging one of your barmaids, aye?”
“We aren’t just shagging. I love her. I’m going to claim her. Planning to ask her to marry me after we get through Leith and Lorna’s wedding.”
Well, fuck. Kenny is laying it on the line. I didn’t expect that.
“I’m happy for you. Nessa will make a good wife.”
“I don’t want my wedding to be a long time coming like yours.”
“Wise move. Because you don’t know what misery is until you’re living without the woman that you love.”
“Despite everything, you hung in there and fought for her. I knew you could do it,” Jamie says.
“I didn’t have a choice. I love that woman too much not to.”
“Wish that it could have happened sooner,” Sin says.
“You tried, mate. All I can say is that it happened the way that fate inte
nded for it to happen. That’s the only way to look at it, or I’ll spend all of my time regretting the past instead of enjoying the present with her.”
“Let me tell you about a new joy that you have coming.” Jamie closes his eyes and moans. “Being inside your wife for the first time. There’s nothing in the world like it.”
It’s already like pure magic. “I don’t know how it could be better than it already is.”
Jamie nods. “Well, it can be and it is. You’ll see what we’re talking about.”
“Where are you taking your bride after the wedding?”
“I booked a suite in town for tomorrow night, and then we’re leaving for Lake Como the next morning.”
“I wish that I had taken Bleu there before the babies were born; she won’t consider going without them now.”
“Take the babies with you,” Mitch says.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Lourdes would be fine but have you met my sons?”
“Take a nanny with you,” Kieran says.
“Bleu isn’t having any part of a nanny.”
“Ellison won’t consider having one either. Do you think it’s their American upbringing?”
“I wouldn’t count on that. Lorna says that we won’t have a nanny either.”
Mitch chuckles. “This is Leith’s stag party, and we’re sitting here discussing nannies. If the brothers overheard us, they’d say that our dicks are shrinking and being replaced by pussies.”
“And I’d have to agree,” Jamie says.
“All right. While you come up with a new topic to discuss, I’m going to step into my office and make a call.”
“You can’t call your fiancée during your stag party.”
Oh yes, I can.
“Pour another round of whisky; I won’t be long.”
One ring. Two. “Hello, husband-to-be.”
“You don’t get to call me that for much longer.”
“What will you have me call you after tomorrow night?”
“Master has a nice ring to it.”
“I don’t think so.”
“All right then. I’ll settle for husband. Unless you change your mind and decide that master is a better choice.”
“I think we’ll stick with husband.”
“Are you having fun with the girls?”
“As much fun as you can have with two women experiencing pregnancy nausea and another one who’s having pains.”
Oh shite. “Westlyn is having labor pains?”
“She says that she’s not, but she keeps closing her eyes and breathing in and out as though she is.”
Why hasn’t she called her husband? “Should Kieran come for her?”
“I don’t think so. At least not yet but it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him a heads-up so he doesn’t drink too much whisky. I know that he wouldn’t want to be drunk if the baby decides to come tonight.”
“No, he wouldn’t. I’ll let him know what’s going on. Where are you now?”
“Waiting outside the restaurant for Sterling to pick us up.”
I’m relieved when I hear that Sterling is driving the women. I’m still not a fan of them being without protection.
“Did you or one of the other husbands send a limo?”
“I didn’t and the others didn’t mention anything about doing so.”
“The driver of a black limo is here, and he says that he was instructed to pick me up.”
“It wasn’t me, babe.”
“Who sent you?”
Pause.
“No. Stop. Let go of me.”
“Lorna. What’s happening?”
No reply.
“Take your hands off of me!”
“Lorna?”
No answer. Only the sound of a struggle and then screams.
“Lorna… Lorna!”
No reply from Lorna, only unmistakable female screams, and there’s zero thought process happening in my brain. I’m operating purely upon a lifetime of Fellowship training, perfected by an innate instinct to protect the woman that I love.
In a fraction of a second, I’m out of my office chair and on my feet, sprinting toward Sin, Jamie, Mitch, and Kieran. Adrenaline surges through my veins, speeding up everything, including my perception of time. It feels like time is moving in rapid speed and I can’t get to my brothers quick enough.
“Something is happening to the wives. I don’t know what.”
“Slow down. What are you talking about?” Sin says.
“I was speaking to Lorna, and someone got out of a limo and approached her. And then she stopped talking to me. I think someone was trying to take her.”
Within the next two seconds, Sin’s phone rings. But not mine.
Fuck. That can’t be good.
Slow down.
They didn’t say what they wanted?
You don’t have any idea who took her?
How long ago?
Which direction did they go?
Sterling is following them?
The one-sided conversation that I’m hearing between Sin and Bleu confirms exactly what I don’t want to hear: Lorna has been taken.
“The women were waiting outside of the restaurant for Sterling and a limo pulled up, parking at the curb. Two men got out and pulled Lorna into the back of the car. Bleu said that they were entirely focused on her and didn’t show any interest in the other wives.”
“Why Lorna?”
“I don’t know but Bleu said that Sterling was a few cars behind the limo. She believes that he must have seen what happened because he didn’t stop for the women. He drove past them.”
“Call Sterling. Now.”
Chapter 14
Lorna Frazier
“Is this her?”
A light shines on my face, and I realize that the man who just dragged me into this car is FaceTiming with someone. “Is this his whore?”
“That’s her,” a woman replies.
I’m forced to kneel in the back of the limo. My face is pushed into the seat by a tight grip on the back of my neck while my hands are being tied behind my back.
“Who are you? What do you want?” My voice is muffled because my face is being squished against the leather seat.
“Don’t recognize me, huh, bitch?”
I’m obviously not dealing with the brightest kidnapper. “It’s hard to know if you remember someone or not when you can’t see his face.”
The grip on the back of my neck tightens, and it’s used to yank me upward. I fall onto my back, but my bound hands behind me take the brunt of my fall. A bearded man leans over me, his face only inches from mine. “Take a good look. Remember me now?”
He’s familiar. Or at least I think he is, but I can’t be certain. “I feel like I’ve seen you before.”
“You have. Keep thinking about it. Maybe it’ll come to you.”
I can’t place who he is, but given the current situation, I believe it’s reasonable to assume that any prior encounters between us weren’t good.
“What is your name?”
“Gordon Acheson.”
“Are you from The Order?” I’ve never been more terrified in my life, but my voice somehow manages to come out steady.
“Aye.”
“The Fellowship and The Order have an alliance. You can’t do this.”
“I never agreed to an alliance with The Fellowship.”
“Maybe not but your leaders did.”
He points his finger at my face. “I’ll never make nice with the bastard who killed my brothers.”
“Who killed your brothers?”
“The man you were planning to marry tomorrow.” Past tense.
“You’re mistaken. My fiancé is a bartender, not a foot soldier.”
“He’s a bartender who killed my brothers.”
I study the man’s face and it slowly comes back to me. “You came into the bar and tried to kidnap me and another barmaid.”
“It’s all coming back to you, aye?”
No amount of training really prepares you for something like this.
“What did you think would happen when you came into Fellowship territory and tried to take two of their women?” That’s straight up asking to be killed.
“Doesn’t matter what I thought. Your almost-husband is going to be sorry that he killed my brothers when I’m finished with you.”
This man means to hurt me in order to hurt Leith.
Order men rape, mutilate, kill.
Which one does he have planned for me? Perhaps all three?
I need to make him nervous. Reconsider what he’s done before this goes too far. “Do you know who Leith is with tonight?”
“No, and I don’t give a fuck.”
“Sinclair Breckenridge. Mitch Breckenridge. Jamie Breckenridge. And Kieran Hendry. Four brothers total. Two leaders, one from The Fellowship and one from The Order. Your leader. I was with their wives when you took me. What do you think that those four brothers are doing right now?”
He stares at me, perhaps surprised to learn what kind of company Leith is keeping tonight.
“You didn’t plan for that, did you?”
The two men in the back seat with us tense, their grips on their weapons tightening.
“You look worried. Are you afraid of what will happen to you when they come for me? Because they will come.”
Gordon scoots to the edge of the seat and grasps my lower jaw. His narrowed eyes study me and I don’t so much as blink. I refuse to. My eyeballs will dry up and fall out of my head before I do.
“You have a big mouth, Miss Frazier.”
We play the stare-down game for a few moments before he slides back in his seat and laughs. “Breaking you is going to be so much fun.”
Breaking you is going to be so much fun.
The reality of my situation is sinking in, but I keep my poker face on display for my kidnappers. I won’t give them the satisfaction of seeing my fear.
This isn’t how tonight was supposed to go. I should be in the hotel suite drinking champagne with my friends and preparing for my wedding day. But instead, I’m scared and I’m pissed off.
Redemption: A Sin Series Standalone Novel Page 16