You didn’t tell her the rest of it, a voice inside my head said as we got on the road to Vegas.
I scrubbed a hand over my face and focused on the road. No, there were things I hadn’t told her. But I was tired, and this wasn’t over yet. She’d see I was right. I just had to get us into the city first.
We were getting close; the traffic into Vegas was congested, slowing to a crawl. Dani had put her sunglasses on and taken off her shoes, sitting cross-legged in the passenger seat, gazing out the window, thinking. The future Mrs. Wilder.
She’d agreed, which was crazy. Now we just had to go through with it.
“Cav,” she said, breaking the silence. “Look.”
She nodded at the rear view mirror. I checked it and saw four bikers a few cars behind us in traffic. They were hanging back, taking their time, but they were close on our ass.
“You recognize anyone?” I asked Dani.
She moved closer to the mirror, raising her sunglasses and squinting. The guys had helmets and sunglasses, but she gave it her best try. “No.”
“Probably the local club, then,” I said. “It’s bold. This is Lake of Fire territory.”
“It’s another message, I think,” she said. “They’re telling us they know where we are, but I’m sure they don’t plan to do anything. Even McMurphy wouldn’t be that crazy.”
She was probably right. Just showing their faces and their cuts in Lake of Fire territory was a provocation, since the clubs were rivals, but it wasn’t enough for the Lake to take retaliation. McMurphy knew where the line was; he’d push it, but he wouldn’t cross it. Not with Robert Preston’s daughter in Robert Preston’s territory.
I didn’t change my route and leave the highway. There was no point. The traffic was moving slower and slower, and there was nowhere to go anyway. Vegas was only half an hour ahead. “We’ll wait it out, and keep an eye on them,” I said.
She nodded and put her sunglasses back on. “They’ll tell McMurphy we’re in Vegas,” she said. “I know him. It’s going to drive him crazy, wondering what we’re doing here.”
“He’ll find that out too, soon enough,” I said. “I won’t even have to call him. These guys are going to do all the work for us.”
She looked at me. “You really think this will work? If we get married he’ll leave me alone?”
“You know him better than I do,” I replied. “What do you think?”
She thought about it and looked back at the mirror, watching the bikers. “I wish I could see it. His reaction,” she said. “I never want to see McMurphy again, but I’d like to see that. Someone telling him that you and I got married. It would be funny if it wasn’t so scary. I worry about you, though.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”
“Considering you’re making plans for when you get killed, I’m a little skeptical,” she said, her voice tight.
“I told you, it’s an insurance policy. I’m going to try my hardest not to get killed. Though if I actually manage to live, you don’t get to become a billionaire. You just become a billionaire’s wife.”
“Stop it,” she snapped. “This wedding was your idea. I’m not marrying you for your money.”
“You should,” I said. “It’s pretty much all I’m good for.”
“If you keep talking like that, I won’t marry you at all,” she said harshly. “And don’t you dare fucking die.”
I shook my head. She had no idea what a fuckup I was, how I had hurt people, the disappointing things I’d done. But I had no desire to get into the pointless shit show that was my life up to now. I just had to stick to the plan. “They’re leaving,” I said to her, nodding at the rear view mirror.
Behind us, the four Black Dogs were taking the exit, peeling out of traffic and heading back south. One of them was probably the same guy who had clocked me last night. I hoped his balls still hurt.
Ahead, a sign told us we were entering the Las Vegas city limits.
“They’re gone for a little while,” I said to Dani. “They don’t want to push their luck in Lake territory, but they won’t go far. We have a few hours. Let’s hurry the fuck up and get married.”
Eighteen
Dani
When your father is a murderer and you have an unhealthy penchant for bad boys, you don’t think much about weddings. Maybe I had a fantasy or two as a little girl about a white dress and a nice husband, but the boys I picked when I was older disabused me of that pretty fast. And with McMurphy, marriage was the last thing on my mind. When I thought about the future at all during those seven months, I figured I’d be an old lady until he found a replacement and kicked me out. It was what he’d done with the old lady before me, and the one before that. Romance wasn’t McMurphy’s forte.