Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
“Aye, I do,” I say.
If there is one thing I know for sure, it’s that I love this woman standing here before me. Her wedding day is meant to be about her. Yet she’s allowed us to make this evening about something else.
She says we didn’t have a choice. I don’t believe that. Everything leading to this day has been a choice. Some choices were right, others were dead wrong.
I’m trusting this is one of the right ones. As long as everything goes according to plan, it will be. We need to give Misha and Uri the window to bring this all to an end.
We’ll catch the fox tonight once and for all. She wants my DJ. The one who got away. Someone was taken from her, and she wants to take from us.
While The Alliance is established, it’s the little bullshit like this we’re still cleaning up. The pieces Phoebe Romaine warned us about and the parts her grandson is still filling in. We will reign supreme.
Everything has its time and place. I have to remind myself of this constantly. One minute, we’re all ready to move forward with our lives, the next, something is trying to pull us back into our past.
I never wanted our wedding to be in this place. The thought of doing this in Ireland makes my skin crawl. This manor would probably jinx us if this were the wedding we have planned for Scotland.
After all, if these walls could talk, they would tell a tale of a madman. Aye, it was me. No need to whisper or speculate about it. I, “Brooklyn” Cole Patrick O’Brien, killed Oland O’Brien’s sorry ass. He deserved it.
I didn’t care who agreed with it; I only wanted him dead. When I want something, I make it happen. I could tell from the look in his eyes he understood that with his final breath.
“And do you, Deja Walsh, take this man to forever be the love of your life?” Uncle Joe says, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Aye, I’ll take him,” she says with a smile.
Everyone laughs and my smile grows wider. I love her smart ass. We’ve been bantering back and forth for years.
From those days when she wore bangs and pigtails while in a softball uniform, giving me shit about how Americanized I had become. I looked forward to every summer I would get to come back. Her smart mouth was something I longed for.
“The time is now. Two minutes.”
The words are spoken into my ear by the boy we’re all banking everything on. I reach beneath my tux jacket and pull the two Glocks from my holsters. At the same time, I step on the pedal beside my foot.
Smoke fills the air, giving my guys time to get into position and pull their weapons. I look around to make sure things are going to plan. At first glance, it seems to have worked like a charm; all guests who aren’t meant to be above ground vanish. All except my bride and her bridesmaids. Instead of falling to safety, they all pull guns of their own.
I don’t have time to process what’s happening as my bride pulls a semi-auto rifle of her own from beneath her dress and all hell breaks loose as the smoke settles. A bullet whizzes by my head and an explosion goes off, causing me to snap back into focus.
Uncle Joe has already moved into action with my cousins and brothers. This is happening whether I want it or not. All the arguing was for nothing.
I should have known better. This woman will go to death’s door standing right beside me, time and time again. As I glance out the corner of my eye, I have one thought.
These motherfuckers are getting more than the Alliance tonight; they have awoken the Bellas. Shit move.
“Ya will get over it, but I won’t get over losing ya. Focus, Cole. I told ya, this is my world too,” DJ calls at me.
CHAPTER 1
Change of Course
Onyx
About thirty-nine years ago …
“Net, my brothers and sisters aren’t interested, my friend.”
Ian snorts as he hears the same lie I do. I peek through the crack of my hiding place. The look on Aleksandr Krupin’s face confirms what my ears tell me.
He’s lying and that smug-ass grin says it all. I never did trust the Krupins. I don’t think Ian does either, with the exception of Lev. If you ask me, the entire family should be certified.
“Funny, when I spoke to Lev, he spoke a different story.”
“Da, but it is my approval you seek. I say no. It is disrespect to me you go to younger brother first.”
“Then why did ye come here?”
“I hear noise, I want to see who make. I like to see rat before set trap.”
“Are ye threatening me?”
“No threat. Just promise. The answer net, and we will not allow this.”