1
Mercy
Just one more day untilI’m free.
I held onto that thought as I looked around the restaurant. The light of the brass chandeliers glanced off the long table that stretched down the middle of the room, covered in a white tablecloth and set out with fine china and silverware. Soft jazz spilled from the speakers through the chatter of the arriving guests.
This was a classy place, about as nice as you could expect to get in the Bend. Colt had picked it, since his family was hosting the rehearsal dinner. I liked it, which felt like a good omen.
“There you are, Mercy.” My aunt Renee adjusted the pendant on my neck before flashing a grin at me. “You look beautiful, honey.”
That was all that was supposed to matter in our kind of life—if you were a woman. But as much as I hated that fact, I couldn’t exactly have shown up in one of my typical tees and beat-up jeans. I smoothed my hands over the silky turquoise dress that fell to just past my knees and smiled back at her. She meant well. “Thanks. Turns out I don’t clean up so bad, huh?”
She scoffed. “Anyone could have seen that. Your husband-to-be should consider himself very lucky.”
I glanced toward Colt automatically, but my gaze caught on another man first. The one who made my stomach tighten.
My father was easily the tallest man in the room—and the most intimidating one. Tyrell Katz held the kind of ruthless magnetism that made even the toughest men shake in their boots. That was how he ruled over the Claws, one of the most powerful gangs in the Bend, without challengers.
That was how he’d ruled over my life for the last twenty-one years. But tomorrow, I wouldn’t behisanymore. I couldn’t wait to be out of his iron-clad grasp.
And I would be out, thanks to the man poised next to him right now.
Colt Bryant stood only a little shorter than my father, laughing politely at some probably off-color joke dear old Dad had told. I let myself smile again, watching him. He filled out his dark suit to impressive effect, and the chandeliers’ light brought out the gold in his pale hair.
What I really liked about him, though, was that he acted like he gave a damn about more than how I looked in a dress. Over the year of our engagement, we hadn’t gotten into the deepest of conversations. We both knew this was primarily a business arrangement, after all, and the truce between his gang and the Claws had still been shaky. But he listened when I talked and had intelligent things to say back instead of spending the whole time ogling my boobs, unlike the other two assholes Dad had brought around before him. Thank God Dad hadn’t liked their terms.
Colt could make me laugh. He’d spent more time considering my comfort during the dates we’d gone on than Dad had in my entire life. So I’d call this a win. Tomorrow’s wedding would solidify the truce between the Claws and the Steel Knights, and I’d stop being Dad’s bargaining chip and become Colt’s partner.
Maybe it wasn’t a perfect kind of freedom, but it was the best I could hope for given Dad’s insistence on using me to expand his reach through the Bend—and, he imagined, to bring about the male heir he’d always wished I was.
Colt caught my eyes across the room. He excused himself and strode over to me. “Hey, you okay?”
I nodded, shoving aside all thought of my father. Just the fact that Colt had come over to check on me proved he was the better man. He’d been leading the Steel Knights since he was just nineteen, after his father had died several years back. He knew what it was like being underestimated and having to prove yourself to doubters.
Soon he’d see I was just as capable as the guys who helped run things for him—that I could be arealpartner in every way. We could call the shots together.
And who knew? Maybe someday this battered heart of mine would even feel love again. If it was going to happen with anyone, I had to think it’d be him.
“No wedding jitters, then?” Colt asked in a teasing tone.
“Not yet,” I shot back. “Just stay on your best behavior.”
He laughed and clinked his wine glass to mine. Honestly, I wished we could skip all of this family nonsense and get married straight away. The celebratory buzzing felt like it was for everyone but me.
Or maybe that was just me being cynical. Grandma was walking over to me with tears in her eyes. She dabbed at them with a tissue. “You’ll be the most beautiful bride when you walk down the aisle tomorrow.”
I wagged a finger at her. “Hey, hey, no crying until the ceremony. There are rules about these things, you know.”
“The first rule is no telling your grandma what to do,” she informed me with a light swat.
I laughed and hugged her, and she hugged me back tightly. Grandma had always been there for me in the periods when Dad switched from training me like the son he’d wanted to pretending I didn’t exist at all—or punishing me for being a daughter instead. She hadn’t stood up to him over how he treated me, because everyone knew telling Tyrell Katz he was wrong never went well, but she’d done her best to make up for it.
My two uncles, Dad’s right-hand men, ambled over. Their swagger seemed a tad subdued—possibly they felt a little naked without their usual weaponry. In recognition of our newfound alliance, both sides had agreed to attend the dinner unarmed, other than the bodyguards posted at the door for protection.
There was still plenty of testosterone to go around. Aunt Renee’s husband, Uncle Steven, bumped his elbow against Colt’s. “You’ve gone all out for us here. It’s a nice place. Say, I’ve heard you’ve got quite the MMA tournament running these days. Now that we’re relatives, maybe you can score us ringside seats.”
Aunt Renee rolled her eyes, but Colt chuckled. “Sure. We’ve got a new fighter who’s become a real talking point—a woman who’s been taking on the men, and she’s good enough to topple them. You should see her.”