by Tiffany Jade
"Oh the power I have," I toss it up in the air and we both crack up as he catches it and blows out a fake breath of relief.
"Is your foot okay?" I ask glancing around at the suitcases he has opened, one is almost full of his stuff but the other is empty. Must be for me.
"I'll survive," he sighs dramatically and begins searching through the pile of shoes. "Sorry I didn't pack for you, I just legitimately had no freaking clue what you would want to wear to this."
I nod, because honestly, same.
"Your dress options will be here any minute now, but you need to pack a couple of normal outfits for when we aren't doing fancy shit." Dean nods towards a section of the closet so I head for it. He had them replace a few of the heels with Vans, I smile back at him for the thought.
"How many dresses am I going to need?" I ask as I rifle through the shirts and pick out a couple of simple black ones and a pair of skinny jeans.
"There is a masquerade the first night," he rolls his eyes.
"Why the eye roll?! I've always wanted to go to a masquerade!"
"I guess it loses its appeal after the millionth time," Dean smirks as he pulls open a drawer, revealing a line of different masks. "I swear every wedding, the bride wants a masquerade party. I don't know where the hell that comes from."
"Chick flicks and romance books, Dean. It's programmed into us." He laughs as I run my fingers over the masks. I pull out a black feathery one, the shape of the eyes matches Dean's perfectly, and the side curves to accentuate his jaw line. It was clearly made specifically for him. "This one," I hand it to him and he nods and smiles, placing it in his suitcase.
"That's my favorite one," a knock at the door sounds and before we can open it, it bursts open itself.
A gorgeous woman appears, dragging behind her two racks of dresses. Her dark hair is piled in a bun on her head and her smile lights up the second she spots us. She herself is dressed in a staggeringly beautiful suit, with lines so sharp they look like they could cut your finger.
"Ooooooh Dean! I need my gorgeous new doll to dress!" Her Russian accent floats through the room.
"I'm so sorry," Dean mouths at my amused expression. He hooks his arm with mine and walks me out to the racks.
"Oh she's even prettier than I was expecting!" The woman walks around me, her six inch heels cracking with confidence on the floor. "Wow, hell of a body too, actual curves. An ass too! You've outdone yourself Cousin."
"Natalya, you could at least introduce yourself before you start commenting on her ass!" Dean scolds her but has a sparkle in his eye as he begins to look through the racks.
"Forgive me dear!" Natalya grabs my hands and pulls me into a hug. Her strength shocks me. I don't know why, I'm sure everyone here knows how to fight. Part of the territory and all. "I am so excited for fresh blood to dress, Uncle has had me out in the field working but my real love is fashion. So this wedding is just making my month!"
"Did you snag an invitation too?" Dean asks as he pulls out a boring white dress and sets it aside, I'm hoping to the no pile. White is not my thing.
Natalya laughs and shakes her hand. "My knuckles are still sore from the last time I came across Mr. Demonte, it's probably best I stay away." I look over at Dean, confused. He clears his throat.
"Um, did you ever notice Grayson come by with a bruised jaw?" He asks, trying not to smirk, and failing. I nod, remember his jaw had been bit sensitive for a few days a while ago.
Dean points over at Natalya and she smiles. "He shouldn't have followed me," she shrugs, "I have a nice left hook."
My eyes widen. The woman dressing me had straight punched Grayson in the face. I mean why not? Everyone else here was trying to kill him.
Dean notices the look on my face and quickly walks towards me with a dress. "Babe! Try this one please!" Without really looking, I grab the dress and head back for the room. I appreciate the save but the pain in my heart I had been trying to push down, comes back with a vengeance.
I shut myself into the room and shake my head. I have to focus. I have to get to him to fix all of this. To save my boys. I quickly change into the dress and walk over to the closet where I can see myself in the wall of mirrors.
"Huh," I tilt my head to the side. "I look good." Turning to the side to check out the back of the dress, I hear a chuckle from the room.
"How do you enter rooms so freaking quietly?" I step out of the closet ready to chew his ass for sneaking up on me, but his eyes widen and he inhales as he sees me. "What? Is it bad?" I flip around checking for something wrong with the dress.
"If you think that everyone staring at you all night because of how good you look in that dress is bad, then uh yeah," Dean nods and spins his finger, signaling for me to twirl, I comply. "Definitely bad!"
I laugh, "Well who would have thought you had such wonderful taste?" I turn back to look in the mirror again, smiling as I take in the dress again. The halter style top wraps around my neck in a small band while a cutout in the front makes a v-line almost down to my belly button. Cinching in at my waist before the soft flowy fabric slightly fans out. The bottom of the dress has slits running up both sides that show off my legs perfectly. For sure not something that I would usually wear but, I couldn't help but fall in love with it.
Dean enters the closet with a black mask in his hand. He stands behind me and lifts it over my head to set it gently on my face and tie it. It matches the dress beautifully, delicate black lace and crystals wrapped in a delicate pattern of swirls emulating the feathers that are on his mask. It covers most of my face, almost rendering me unrecognizable, even to myself.
"Who would have known our little Livi could clean up so good?" Dean asks quietly as he watches me in the mirror. I smile.
"Don't get too excited, I'm sure I'll fall down a flight of stairs in my heels, or spill something on this dress in ten minutes flat and ruin the image." We both laugh, he knows it’s just as true as I do.
"We better get back out there to pick out the rest of your dresses before Natalya freaks out." I nod and we head back to the racks.
"Oh. My. God!" Natalya shrieks and fawns over the dress and mask, excitedly telling me how to do my hair and finding me shoes and jewelry to finish off the look.
"Two more dresses now Livi," Dean snaps his fingers. "Our flight is in an hour—gots to move it girl."
"Two?" I ask. I had yet to see an itinerary for this trip yet so was clueless at to what I was dressing for.
"One for the dinner the second night and one for the wedding," he sends me a gentle smile as he mentions the wedding. I take a deep breath. Dean's hands land on my shoulders and he kneads the knots that are forming.
"Come on, we are almost there. And you already look better than Serafina, we gotta make sure you are dressed better than her too." He squeezes my shoulders as I giggle. Nothing like pissing off Psycho on her wedding day.
Chapter 27
The man staring back at me looks like hell. Bags under the lifeless eyes, barely any color in the cheeks, what is turning into a permanent frown.
"You look like hell." Dax claps my shoulder as he appears in the mirror behind me. I straighten my tie and run my hand through my hair before shrugging at the lost cause.
"Is she here yet?" I walk over to my bed and begin to pull on the new leather shoes Dad had sent up to my room while I was in the shower.
"According to Nate, their plane landed an hour ago, so they should be arriving any minute." Dax clears his throat as he straightens his own tie. "Other guests are beginning to trickle in. A smirk turns up his face, "Serabitch is pissed you are not standing on the staircase with her watching the arrivals."
"Oh no! I should hurry!" I exclaim as I accidentally pull the lace on my shoe so it unties. I sigh dramatically and stand up to stretch as Dax breaks out in a laugh.
"I miss the days when we were young and I could just do your chores to get you to pretend to be me." I really, fucking, slowly, bend down and retie my shoe as Dax laughs again.
&n
bsp; "I love you brother, more than anyone on this planet, but even that is not enough to get me to marry that bitch in your place." Dax pulls out his phone, checks his messages and rolls his eyes. Clearly texts from said bitch, demanding my presence.
"Oh come on! I'll do the dishes for the rest of eternity." I only half-jokingly offer as I roll up the sleeves on my button down to expose the tattoos on my arm. Serafina hates my tattoos. If I weren't in my mother's house I'd walk out shirtless just to watch the smoke come out of her ears, but Mama Demonte has a back of the head smack that'll make your ears ring for days.
A pound at the door grabs both of our attention.
"Yeah yeah!" Dax shouts. "We are coming!" We both take a deep breath and head out.
Walking down the hall I can see the cameras following me and it takes every ounce of my strength not to flip them all off.
Mother meets us at the end of the hallway, her glare informing me that I am seconds away from the head smack. I shoot her my best smile and wink, internally chuckling as her eyes instantly soften and a small smile turns up her lips. Being the baby paid off sometimes.
"You two look very handsome." Mom moves in between us and hooks her arms into ours.
"And you are stunning Mama," Dax plants a kiss on her cheek and I squeeze her hand.
"Oh stop!" she fakes modesty but we all know she loves it. We begin walking together towards the grand staircase. A silence falls between us.
There's not much to say at this point. I know she is as unhappy as I am at the situation, the things that we will have to do this weekend will not only change mine and Dax's life, but hers too. Drastically. The least I can do is try to make it easier on her.
I squeeze her arm and grin, the woman who is going to give up so much for me. She looks at me, a smile on her lips but a sadness in her eyes. She puts her eyes down to avoid mine but as she sees my arm her head tilts to the side.
"When did you add that crown tattoo to your sleeve Son?"
The sound of Grayson's jaw clicking as he tenses up at Mom's question makes my own jaw hurt.
His eyes meet mine but I have no story to tell. His dumbass was the one who decided to get a tat for a girl. He'd gotten it after he’d visited Dad’s office. He claimed it was to piss Serafina off and to remind him to not trust anyone again, but I'm not a fucking idiot. And last night just proved that he was stupid in love.
"Uh, just one of those dumb too much alcohol nights," Grayson spouts off as Mom inspects it. Mhmmm.
"It's very pretty," Mom looks about as convinced as when I tried to tell her that the nudie magazines under my bed in junior high were Gigi's.
"There you are!" Serafina's screech has us all looking up.
Saved by the bitch.
She rushes over as quick as her too tight red dress and six inch heels will let her, pulling Grayson's arm away from Mom and clicking her tongue.
Mom rolls her eyes as she grabs my hands.
"My poor boy. Thank God it's almost all over." She whispers as we follow them to stand at the area Serafina had set up. Well, had paid someone to set up.
I glance around at the gaudy decorations as Grayson's head falls back in annoyance at Serafina's whispered ass chewing.
Groups of people are slowly trickling through the door and waving up at us as they are led around to the guest rooms on the main floor.
"What the hell kind of flower has this woman had wrapped around my beautiful staircase?" Mom whispers with her nose scrunched up as she looks around. I can't stifle the chuckle as my eyes follow the hideous red, poky flower and red LED lights wrapped around Mom's hand carved banister.
"Are Christmas lights not all the rage for weddings this year?" I ask choking back more chuckling.
"It's true what they say you know, money can NOT buy class," Mom says it loud enough for Serafina to hear and I lose it as Grayson starts coughing from holding himself back.
"This was designed specially for our wedding by one of my closest friends. He does celebrity weddings all the time." Serafina's nose goes up into the air. "He has even done parties for the Kardashian's, he is HIGHLY sought after."
"I think you may need to rethink him being your 'closest friend' my dear," Mother waves her hand around. "He clearly does not return the feelings."
I'm fucking dying.
Serafina's face turns as red as the horrible lights. She huffs and turns to the arriving guests as Grayson's hand flies up to air high five Mom.
We smile and nod as a few more guests trickle in.
"THE PARTY IS HERE!" Liam jumps through the door with a bottle of tequila in his hand. Security tries to grab him as Mom, Grayson and I laugh.
"Let the boy through," Mom tells the guards as Liam sidesteps them reaching for his arm.
"Yeah, let the boy through, I got the goods!" He raises the bottle and winks at the glaring guards before heading up the stairs. He hands Grayson the bottle which he generously opened on his way up.
Grayson chugs while Serafina shoots daggers at him. He finally takes a breather and hands the bottle back to Liam.
"Better?" Liam asks, offering the bottle to me. I shake my head, one of us has to keep a clear head.
"Much," Grayson nods. Liam offers the bottle to Mom and both Grayson and I gasp in shock when she takes her own pull straight from the bottle.
"Hell yeah Mama Demonte!" Liam cheers as she hands the bottle back and daintily pats at her lips.
"What the..." Grayson's voice trails off as Mom gives him a wink.
Well okay then.
Serafina's phone dings as we deal with the shock of our mother drinking from liquor bottles. I glance at her right as she reads the message and an evil look lights up her face.
Fuck.
"Let's go downstairs, I hear some special guests are arriving."
Fuck.
She pulls on Grayson's arm and I rush to follow, knowing exactly who's about to walk in the door.
Serafina had originally been mad, no scratch that. Serafina had been pissed when she found out Devlov's son was coming in place of Devlov. Something about how her wedding deserved to have the true head's of the families in attendance, but the thought of tormenting Liv again had apparently lifted her spirits.
I keep an eye on my brother, who has a tortured look on his face. Liam sneaks him another drink. As we reach the bottom stair, Security opens the door.
"Dean!" Serafina exclaims and pulls Grayson, but he refuses to move and stays on the step. Dean enters and glances around with a worried expression. Grayson's eyes are lit up. His fists clench and his jaw locks. I place a hand on his shoulder but he shrugs it off.
Serafina wraps Dean in a very comfortable hug for someone she's never met in person.
Looks like our information was right.
As I watch the 'meeting' my eyes are drawn to Dean's right hand, which is still behind his back.
Fuck.
Grayson has wiped all emotion from his face, but his eyes rest in the same place. Waiting for her.
"You've got this Livi. We've been over it a million times." Dean whispers in my ear as we reach the door. My heart is racing so hard I'm pretty sure I'm going to pass out.
Dean grabs my hand and squeezes. We can't pause in our walking, we can't look suspicious, we can't mess this up. I nod as we reach the door. "I've got this." I whisper, more to myself than Dean.
The doors open as we reach them and one glance has me wishing I had not let Dean talk me out of dressing up. He had convinced me sweats were fine since we just flew in. But now I'm just thinking it was a stab at Serafina. I could punch him.
Wait are those red Christmas lights wrapped around everything?!
Dean guides me behind his back as he steps in. Knowing he's testing the water, I wait.
"Dean!" Ah there's SeraPsycho. I cringe as I see her arms wrap around Dean. Way to make it look like you are just meeting him. I can feel his back muscles tense up as he halfheartedly and one handed, hugs her back.
"I'm so glad you could make it!
It's so nice to finally meet you in person! I'm excited to finally have this chance to bring these families together." Her over exaggerated sweet voice damn near gives me a toothache. It's official. I'd rather die this weekend than ever deal with her again.
"Thank you for having us." Dean responds politely. "Grayson, Daxon, it is nice to see you again."
My knees buckle as he says his name. He's standing right there, on the other side of Dean. Standing with his fiancé, at his wedding weekend party. Well wedding weekend massacre if Serafina has her way. My head starts pounding.
"I see you missed the dress code on the invitation." Serafina tries to joke but I can tell she's pissed at Dean's hoodie and joggers. He shrugs.
"We were a bit late, seems my date was having a hard time deciding on a dress for your wedding. Trying really hard not to give you any competition on your day, but well...have you seen her?" I can hear the smirk in Dean's voice and I can't help but grin for a second.
"OH you did bring your plus one? " she feigns surprise. "I was so hoping to have another chance to speak with her. You see we met on horrible terms last time. Did she tell you? Poor girl was in my fiancé’s apartment, half dressed, I'm pretty sure they thought she was a strip—"
You've got to be fucking kidding me. Without waiting for Dean to bring me around when he felt it was safe as we had planned, I sidestep him. With every intention of making a smart ass comment. She stops talking as soon as she sees me but my eyes miss her and land ten feet behind her.
He's standing on the staircase with his arms crossed. Wearing a white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up exposing his tattooed arms and around his neck, a black tie. His hair is pushed back instead of the relaxed wave it usually was in. He looked menacing as hell, and for the first time, he looked like he belonged in this life.
His eyes land on me instantly. And the lack of emotion in them takes my breath away. He stands perfectly still. I watch for the smallest amount of body language, but nothing. I can't imagine what he's seeing when he looks at me, but whatever it is, it has no effect.