by Dahlia Rose
The crestfallen look on their faces almost made him tell the truth, but Nina was his priority. His life didn’t matter as long as he could get her safe.
“I need to eat something,” Mac said, thinking on his feet. He needed to get out of there and fast.
“Go to the kitchen,” Mrs. Humphreys said. “Get some of the chicken, or I’ll get it for you.
He held up his hand. “No, I can do it, I need a minute by myself anyway.”
He pushed the kitchen door and paced for a few minutes in case Haile or Jasper caught on to his lie and followed him. Mac went through the back door and jogged up the alley and in the shadows, he let the air out of Haile’s tires before moving to his car. He was parked far enough away they wouldn’t see him as he pulled away from the curb. Mac was heading to the showdown of his life, and Nina was the prize. Psyching himself up to beat Alec to death Mac knew exactly where to go, he’d spent more than once in that old packing plant. So, when it loomed in the darkness, he felt the familiar clenching of his gut as he prepared for a punch. Mac parked in the shadows. If there was a way to get Nina out and make a run for it, he would. But it was doubtful, and when he walked into the pitch-black warehouse, he knew it was a trap.
The lights came on and blinded him for a moment until his eyes got used to his surroundings. Mike sat at the far end of the ring made of old sandbags and crates. Handcuffs were on Nina’s wrists, and she was sitting on Alec’s lap. The fear in her eyes was palpable, and his anger burst to life. They would all pay; Alec was grinning in triumph and to Mac it was almost sad because the man didn’t know that he would be dying that night.
“Nina, are you okay, did they hurt you?” Mac asked gently.
“I’m fine, no worse for wear,” she answered.
Alec bounced the knee that she sat on. “How could she be anything but okay? She’s sitting on Daddy’s lap.”
“Oh please, like you could be anyone’s Daddy,” Nina said, repulsed.
There was laughter, and Mac noted there were at least fifteen men around the ring. It was clear that Alec meant he had to fight for Nina. If he had to knock them all to the ground that still smelled of stale old fish, then so be it. His ribs were already bruised, and he didn’t know how much he could take before he went down. If this was going to be his last day, then Nina would know his truth.
“I love you, no matter what,” Mac gave her a wink and a smile, hoping to abate her fears.
Nina’s beaming smile dulled the throbbing pain in his side. “I love you, too, we’ve got a lot to work out, Mac. But I need you to do one thing for me.”
“What’s that, sugar plum?” Mac said huskily.
Her eyes blazed fire. “You kick their goddamn asses! You fight because you deserve happiness, you deserve me!”
Mac nodded and flexed his neck. “So, who’s first? You ready to fight for Alec? He hasn’t proved himself like Bouchey did. I could at least respect him because he kicked my ass more than once in this ring. But Alec, he always hit the concrete hard.”
“Shut your fucking mouth!” Alec snarled.
Mac spread his arms wide, taking the gamble. “Truth is the truth. Trevor and I, we made these streets and you followed along like a little puppy looking for scraps. If you want to be king, fight me for the throne. If I hadn’t left, that would be my seat anyway.”
“The hell it would be, you fucking sod,” Alec snarled. “Go through my boys then you can have me.”
Mac laughed. “Since when are they your boys? Did you forget the rules we set up years ago: no one ascends to the throne. We have to fight for it! Blood in return for the spoils of the streets. Bouchey lived the code, now you should, too.”
“He’s right,” a voice called out. “Bouchey lived by the code, we all do. Blood for the throne.”
“I have your woman, so I call the shots,” Alec yelled.
Mac shrugged. And got into a fighting stance. “Trevor would never hide behind a woman’s skirt. He took what was his and the world could fuck themselves. Then there’s me. In only a few weeks I had already ripped it from his hands. With connections still loyal to me. He’s dead and I’m still here, so who should have the throne?”
“One of you get in the ring and fight him!” Alec shouted angrily.
“How about you do it?” It was the calm voice of Wayne from the brothel. “We lived the code for Bouchey, I ain’t following no one who is scared to fight.”
“Well, somebody step in here!” I’ll take all you fuckers on!” Mac sneered the words with growing impatience, and his words gave him a sense of déjà vu, because it was reminiscent of his dream.
“Alec needs to fight,” Wayne called out. “Or we walk and anyone who is in his camp who tries to help will deal with me. Blood for the throne.”
Every head nodded in agreement, and they all stepped back as all eyes turned to Alec to see what his next move would be. Would he fight or step down? But Mac knew his thirst for any kind of power; being the man below on the totem pole no longer suited him. He wasn’t surprised when Alec shoved Nina off his lap and stood to take off his coat. He stepped over the barrier created with whatever was found in the old warehouse and raised meaty fists.
“You’re already hurting, Mackie,” he sneered. “This will be easy.”
A deadly smile crossed Mac’s face. “No, it won’t.”
Alec charged at Mac, swinging wild, hoping that one of his blows would land. After all the years gone by, he hadn’t changed his usual way of attacking his opponent in the ring. Mac used finesse and dodged the swinging arms easily. He moved in and landed two solid punches in Alec’s torso, but that left him open and he felt pain bloom like a red-hot dagger in his left side when Alec caught hold of him. Mac grunted in pain but didn’t go down; he looked to where Nina was standing and noted that Wayne had moved closer. That gave him less worry because Mac could tell if he went down Wayne would get Nina out. Mac’s nemesis brought down an elbow on the back of Mac’s head, and that dropped him to his knees. Alec took that as a sign of his defeat and walked around the makeshift ring like a rooster with his arms spread wide.
“Get up, Mac!” Nina cried out. “You don’t get to lose now you said you love me! Kick his entire ass to hell and back!”
“Yeah, Mackie, get up and fight,” Alec gloated. “Because when I leave you dead in this ring, she gets to taste my meat, all the way back in her throat.”
With a roar of rage Mac lunged at Alec and felt utter satisfaction when a punch caught the man in the throat. Alec staggered back holding his neck, and Mac smelled his victory. He fought savagely, landing blows to Alec’s middle, head, and face. It was his turn to be on his knees and then laid out on the ground. Mac saw red as he knelt over his opponent’s prone form and continued to beat him senseless until someone caught his arm.
“Enough, he’s done for,” Wayne said calmly. “The throne is yours.”
Mac staggered to his feet and spat the blood from his mouth. “I don’t want it, this shit is over, this street monarchy is finished! Go find jobs, move, marry a girl, and get some kind of life, I don’t care! But if I hear that anyone is trying to reclaim what I dismantled, there will be hell to pay!”
It was then that sirens were heard in the distance and everyone started to scramble. Wayne stayed to hold him up, but Mac shoved him away. “Go, you’re already on their radar; they won’t believe you helped me. Contact Haile in a few days when this shit dies down.”
Wayne nodded and walked away while Mac staggered to the chair Alec had vacated moments earlier. He was the only one left in the middle of the ring, his breaths whistling out through a broken nose. With a sigh Mac sat down heavily and held his side as Nina checked him over.
“Broken ribs for sure,” Nina said. “Mac, you need an emergency room and x-rays.”
“Okay.” He looked at her through an eye that was already swelling. “Marry me.”
Nina laughed. “This is how you ask me to be your wife?”
“This is how the bruiser was born;
it’s only fitting this be the place I put him in the grave,” Mac answered. He reached up and cupped her cheek. “I made the decision before I knew they'd taken you. I’m relocating my business here, and I want you to be my wife.”
Nina kissed him. “I would love to be your wife, because I love every part of you, Mac, even your past. By the way, your lap feels much nicer than his.
Mac burst out laughing just as Haile and a horde of policemen rushed in. Zeva was with him, Jasper as well, and they both looked like they were ready for a fight. He was grinning like a loon with Nina sitting on his lap. The police moved toward Alec lying on the ground instantly, while his friends came to where he sat.
“Isn’t this a sight, you sitting in that beat-up chair, looking like death but laughing your ass off,” Haile walked up. “You owe me a set of tires, you bastard. It can mess up my rims and axle doing that shite, man! A Rover is heavy!”
“I don’t owe you shit, they can be re-inflated,” Mac said.
“Why the hell are you grinning looking like you do?” Zeva asked in exasperation then asked Nina, “Is he concussed?”
“He has broken ribs for sure, a concussion might be in there,” Nina laced her fingers with his.
“Meet my wife-to-be,” Mac announced. “Haile, we need to find me and my fiancée a home, and I need a set of offices for the relocation of Black Enterprises. It’s about time you start returning some of those favors I do for you.”
“That I can do,” Haile slapped him on the shoulder, and Mac winced.
Jasper chuckled. “Welcome home, Mac, it saves us from tying you into a chair until you saw the light.”
Mac looked at Nina and said softly, “I already have.”
With the police around them and during a ride in an ambulance, Nina never left his side. He had almost lost her, and now he thanked the heavens that he'd had the chance to save her and tell her how much he loved her. He'd spent so much time running from his past that he'd almost lost his future, his world, and everything he'd found in Nina. Mac vowed never to take that for granted again, for it was time to stop separating the man he used to be and the man he was now. They were one and the same and enabled him to survive. Plus, they had brought Nina into his world. Mackenzie “the Bruiser” Black was home to stay.
Chapter Ten
Nina never knew love like what she felt for Mac. Their New Year’s wedding may have seemed rushed to some, but to her it was perfect. Mac did have two broken ribs and while she was okay with waiting for the ceremony, he was dead-set on standing in a tux for his bride. Bandaged ribs or not.
Bouchey’s body had been found, and Alec had been arrested for kidnapping. His crime ring was officially disbanded, and the women from the underground brothel could breathe a sigh of relief as they healed. Raine already was living with Melissa and slowly settling into her new life. And they had managed to get three of the young women back home to their families. The process to place and find suitable homes for the rest was ongoing—with everyone’s help of course.
There was no new home for Mac and Nina yet, and that was okay. There was so much going on, house-hunting was not something she could fit between work and a wedding, plus injured Mac. For right now he was staying with her in the flat above the Celtic Cross, and they were snug and warm there as they made plans for a life together. It would be a small wedding with their friends in attendance. Jasper and Zeva insisted it be at the manor house with a small dinner party afterward. Donnie and Britt would be at the nuptials before they set off on their own adventure of a new life. Nina watched the brothers work through their issues and form a bond again, all the while finding a new start for the young, troubled man.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Mac asked Donnie and Britt.
They looked at each other and smiled before saying in unison, “Yes.”
“Well, that sounds pretty much like a done deal to me,” Nina laughed.
They had settled on moving to Sydney, Australia; there was a nice rehab facility there, and it was close to the beach. Warm weather and a place for them to heal appealed to them both, so Mac made sure they had the best of everything to start out. There would even be a job waiting for Britt as a barista, and Donnie would be going back to school after his treatment was complete. There seemed to be good news all around, and for that Nina was thankful because it all could have ended badly, including her own abduction by Alec. It was all settled. Alec would be in jail for a very long time, and Mac was staying. At first, she wondered if he’d change his mind but so far, he seemed solid in his choices. He was working from a temporary office until he relocated his business, offered his employees the option of staying in one of the small offices he had in the United States or to live in Northumberland. Amazingly enough, many of them had decided to cross the pond to the U.K.
It was January fourth and the day they would become man and wife. It was a flurry of activity at the manor house as it was decorated, and she was hidden away in one of the upper bedrooms to get ready. Mari and Zeva would be standing with her, wearing a pink hibiscus print dress as a nod to her favorite flower in Barbados. It was amazing the resources they all had combined because her bouquet held the same flowers, and it was part of the decorations below in the formal dining room of the manor. Melissa fussed and fixed her dress as they got ready while Raine sat quietly, shy and still hesitant around them on the bench seat by the window.
“Are you sure you didn’t want family here?” Mari asked. Her baby bump was a little more noticeable under the dress, and the terrible morning sickness was fading.
“It’s kind of late now,” Zeva laughed.
Nina smiled. “We’ll visit, and they’ll meet Mac eventually, but my family has some really convoluted views—and I was never one to conform to them. I won’t fight that battle at my wedding. We’ll deal with it when the time is right.”
“This will be a happy day,” Zeva agreed. “At least you don’t have to worry about them trying to trap you in the moors.”
Nina shook her head. “Jasper’s family did not know who they were messing with that day.”
“It’s a folk story around here,” Melissa commented as she fussed with the hem of Nina’s dress. “The duchess who walked of the moors and punched the hell out of the McTavish ladies. There . . . Nina, you look amazing. Doesn’t she look beautiful, Raine?”
Raine nodded shyly. “Yes, very much so.”
Nina smiled at the young woman. “Thank you, Raine, I hope you enjoy yourself today.”
Raine nodded and looked away, out of the window, still uncomfortable with the attention on her. Nina assessed herself in the mirror, the simple off-the-shoulder white satin dress with a lace-over-satin fabric was a good choice. The hem was at her knees, but behind her was the flowing train that would trail her as she went down the stairs to Mac. Her stomach clenched with excitement and fear all at the same time, and she pressed her hand against her stomach, hoping to quell the butterflies that took flight.
“Do not throw up in this dress!” Melissa ordered and handed her a glass. “Here, take a sip of this.”
Nina took the glass and gulped before coughing. “Holy Christ, Melissa, that is straight vodka!”
Melissa nodded in satisfaction. “That’s what my mum did for my wedding, and it worked just fine.”
“So, you went down the aisle drunk,” Zeva laughed.
“I think my mum was more snookered than me,” Melissa smiled. “It was the best day of my life and the best marriage, until my man passed. It will be for you, too, Nina.”
“I love being married to Jasper,” Zeva sighed and took a swig from the same glass.
“What I found with Haile, I couldn’t fathom my life without him,” Mari agreed. “If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d take a sip.”
“I’ll do it for you,” Melissa took a gulp. “One for the team.”
There was a knock on the door, and Jasper poked his head in. “Are we ready up here? Mac is ready to chew his leg off and come sweep you away and elope.�
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“Tell Mac to hold his horses,” Zeva ordered and kissed him. “Cue the music in two minutes, and we’ll be ready.”
“Understood, you look beautiful Nina,” Jasper frowned. “Wait, is that vodka on your . . .?”
Zeva closed the door, firmly cutting off his words. “Nina, let’s do this thing.”
Nina looked to Raine. “Will you help with my train going down the stairs? You’re part of this merry band of ladies, too.”
Raine smiled brightly and nodded while Melissa mouthed a “thank you” to her friend. As they filed out of the bedroom, the music started, and it was Nina's favorite song: “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. Melissa snuck by to take her seat before Zeva was the first down the stairs, then Mari. Finally, Nina took a deep breath and descended the stairs slowly, two steps behind her friends. When her gaze met Mac’s, she was breathless at how handsome he was in a black tux with a silver tie. Their eyes never drifted away from each other, and when she stood beside him, he took her hand.
His voice was husky with awe. “You look exquisite, sugar plum.”
“You are quite dashing, Mr. Black,” Nina smiled up at him.
“Ready to do this?” he asked.
Nina nodded. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
“Thank goodness, because I got dressed up to marry people today,” the priest of the local church announced. That moment of levity made a laugh go through the guests in attendance, and he began the ritual of marriage. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”
The ceremony was simple, without of the pageantry that would keep them from saying I do all the sooner. Mac would have been impatient, and so would she, to say yes and seal their union with a kiss. When that time came and the priest said, “You may kiss the bride,” Mac took her lips before the sentence was even complete. The feel of his kiss drowned out the clapping and whistles that surrounded them. It was a perfect evening wedding where the candles and the flowers enhanced the area as guests ate and laughed. For Nina, the smell of tropical flowers filled the air and reminded her of home.