“I don’t want—” I clear my throat. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but no.”
He stares at me like I’ve just grown a second head. “No?”
“No.”
My words appear to be beyond his comprehension. “What the fuck do you mean, no?”
“You don’t want this. You’re backed into a corner. You’ll treat me horribly. My love for you won’t survive it. You’ll make me hate you on purpose, and after you’ve proven your point that all women forever will fail you, we’ll be stuck with each other. I can’t… No. I’d rather die than live that way.”
Rolling his eyes, he says, “Don’t be so fucking dramatic.”
“I won’t marry you, Rafe. Not like this.”
“We’ll see,” he says, apparently unconcerned by my refusal. “Good night, Virginia.”
Apparently, Rafe does not require my consent to marry me, because the following morning, Juanita makes me breakfast and inquires as to what kind of flowers I’d like for my bouquet.
“My bouquet?” I question, pausing in reaching for a strip of bacon.
She nods cheerfully. “For the wedding.”
I don’t know what Rafe has told this poor woman, but her good cheer leads me to believe it was bullshit.
My next hint is when Rex takes a break from guarding me to help Shane bring the entire contents of my apartment and deliver it to Rafe’s foyer. Rex knows enough to remain quiet, but Rafe’s cousin, Shane, flashes me a smile that tells me he’s completely in the dark. He thinks I’m one of them now so he’s congenial, unaware that just last night his boss nearly executed me for my ability to tear them all down.
“Hey, congrats on taming the beast,” Shane tells me. “None of us ever thought it would happen.”
Rex offers a faint smile, but he’s aware that I didn’t tame the beast, so he does not offer me congratulations. I have no idea how to respond. It makes sense that Rafe wouldn’t want his men to know I’m a “risk” and he’s letting me live anyway, so I go along with the charade. I offer Shane a smile like a normal bride before sending him on his way.
As wedding days go, mine is a joke from start to finish. The whole day passes as if in a fog. Rafe doesn’t so much as text me to let me know what’s going on, he communicates through Rex, furthering my fears that he’s going to emotionally destroy me.
This is so much worse than loving Rafe from afar.
I don’t unpack my things because I don’t know where to put any of it. Everything was thrown into boxes haphazardly, so I spend most of the day reorganizing them so that when I do have a room to put it all in, I’ll know where to find everything.
Rex lets me know when it’s time for me to get ready. The only semi-appropriate things I have are the things Rafe has bought me, so I dig out the case containing the pearl bracelet he got me for Christmas, and the dress and heels he bought me when we went to the night club.
I’m surprised that Laurel hasn’t so much as sent me a text message, particularly when I slide into Rex’s car and he tells me Laurel and Sin will be there with the babies, and Laurel doesn’t know anything.
I’m too disheartened to expend much effort questioning it, though.
Rex takes me to the strip. We drive past the club where this all started and ultimately arrive at Rafe’s casino. I don’t know if we’re meeting him here or this is where I’m getting married, and I don’t bother asking. Even though I knew Rafe owned the casino, I’ve never been to it. I always imagined coming here with him for the first time, not with Rex.
From looking online (not for this, just in general) I do know Rafe’s casino is set up for weddings, and I’ve seen the photographs of fancy events that took place here, but the space is way too big for what this is. It’s not a quickie Vegas wedding space, it’s for the kind of wedding that costs as much as a house.
We don’t enter on the casino floor. Rex clearly knows his way around more than I do, because we come in a side entrance into a calmer room with marble floors and columns. There are separate rooms back here, but I don’t know what any of them are. Perhaps space for private games? There’s a sitting area with lots of natural light, and the centerpiece of the room is an indoor waterfall that spills down into a long, rectangular pool of gleaming water. Rafe, Sin, and Laurel are all gathered in front of it, and while I assume normally this room would be populated with other people, today it’s only us. Laurel is holding Nicky, while Skylar is in Sin’s arms wearing a fluffy dress, pointing at the waterfall.
Rex clears his throat and glances over at me. “Do you, uh, want to do the whole walking you down the aisle thing?”
“God, no.”
He looks relieved. I think I would cry if a guy not even legally allowed to drink walked me down the “aisle” in jeans and a leather jacket toward the gangster I’m being forced to marry.
For a moment,
the absurdity that is my life catches up to me and a burst of laughter shoves out the doom and gloom. Rex glances over at me uncertainly. “What’s funny?”
“Everything. I could put him in prison, so I lose my freedom. Is that not funny? I think it’s funny. Criminals, man. I picked the wrong side.”