The idea of him squirming in her presence made me smile slightly in glee.
“What was that?” Dom asked.
I shrugged. I didn’t feel bad for upsetting Alex. He’d get over it. “He needed to know that he can’t covet what’s mine.”
My brother’s eyes, which reminded me so much of my father, looked at me, and I did my best not to squirm. He was giving me a look that made me feel as though he knew something I didn’t, and I didn’t like it. It was almost as bad as when he thought that he could reprimand me.
“What?”
Dom chuckled and shook his head. “You’ve developed a thing for Miss Hope.” His tone was smug as he spoke.
“Just because I don’t like my cousin drooling over my future wife, doesn’t mean that she’s got me pussy whipped. I’m not you.” Dom needed to back off. I wasn’t in the mood right now. Too much had happened over the course of the last few days, and I was on edge. Alex was lucky he hadn’t pushed me off.
Dom chuckled. He wasn’t going to let this go. Once my brother got something into his head, he was like a dog with a bone. “It’s fine that you like her,” he said. “Good even. You need someone like her in your life.”
“Someone poor and annoying?” I asked, not bothering to give credence to anything that he was saying. If I did, Dom would just take it as confirmation that I had a thing for Ivy. Just because I didn’t hate Ivy, and I wanted to screw her at every turn, that didn’t mean I had any feelings for her.
“Someone level-headed,” Dom said. There was a bite to his tone. I knew what he was implying. Dom thought that I was impulsive, and that I never thought things through. He might have been right, after all, acting without thinking was part of the reason I was getting married in the first place, but my actions kept us safe.
“I thought you didn’t like her?” I asked, changing the subject once more. “You were a dick to her during dinner.”
Dom shrugged. Like me, he wasn’t going to apologize for being who he was, especially when who he was kept the family safe. “I wanted to see who she was. Best way to do that is to push people. Dad taught us that.”
The mention of our father dampened my mood immediately. Thinking of him made this day so much worse. “Mom and Dad should be here today.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Dom and I had an unspoken agreement that we didn’t talk about our parents very often. Doing so was too painful, for both of us.
Dom laid both his hands on my shoulders once more. He looked me dead in the eye, and I swallowed heavily. “They would be proud of you,” he said. The words cut right through my heart, and I felt tears filling my eyes. I blinked them away. I didn’t cry. I’d learned long ago to never show weakness, even in front of Dom.
I pulled away from him and straightened my tie. “Thanks.”
We stood next to each other quietly, both thinking about the family who weren’t with us today. As I thought about them, I could feel my anger rising. They’d all been taken too soon, and while the people who’d killed them were either dead or in prison, it did nothing to lessen the grief.
“You’ve got to stop carrying it around with you.” Dom’s words brought me back to the present. “The anger is going to eat you alive if you let it.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Dom had never said anything like that to me. Up until a few months ago, he’d been just as pissed. He always claimed to have married Sasha to keep me safe from the Petrov’s, but I knew the truth. He’d planned on taking his revenge on her. Dom was just as angry as I was. She’d just been lucky enough to cut through it and survive.
I cleared my throat. “We should get going.” I looked down at my watch. It had been a gift from my father on my eighteenth birthday. For a moment, I rubbed the face recalling his look of pride when he’d gifted it to me. “The ceremony is going to start soon.”
Dom looked like he wanted to say more, but luckily, we were out of time. “I guess we better get you married,” he said. A grin appeared back on his face, but it wasn’t as wide as it had been earlier.
The jovial mood was ruined by darkness and grief, which was the story of my life. Ivy knew what that was like. Before the shooting, she’d told me about her early childhood, which has been littered with tragedy and disappointment.
They say that misery loves company, and I was glad that she’d been touched by just as much darkness as I had. It made me less concerned about her survival.
“Got any last minute marriage tips?” I asked Dom. I wanted to try and lighten the mood. Though I felt an unending heaviness on my chest, I wanted my brother to think that everything was fine. I knew if he dug too deep, I’d spill, and wasn’t ready to tell him that the Russians hadn’t been the ones to put out the hit.
The question got drew laughter out of my brother. “Happy wife, happy life.”
I snorted. “That’s all you’ve got? A cliché?”
Dom shrugged. “It’s a cliché for a reason,” he said. “The happier Sasha, is the happier I am.” His eyes twinkled, and I knew what he was talking about.
“Gross.”
Dom laughed and led me towards the ceremony space. This was the end of the line for me, and I was glad that my brother was by my side. Things might be tense between us now, but he was the only family I had left.
I looked down at my watch. Well, he’s the only family for the next ten or so minutes, I thought. Because in just a short while, I would be a married man.