Page 49 of Black Wedding

Once he has gone, with my mother reluctantly trailing after him, Jimmy steps forward. He also has a strange look on his face. It’s almost a mixture of pride and sadness. When he sees me staring, analysing, he also schools his features. He steps towards me and holds his arms open wide for me. Instantly, I step into them. It’s so strange to see him in a suit, but he does look very debonair.

His arms fold around me, and when he talks, it’s so quiet I struggle to hear his whispered words. “You look so beautiful, Bumblebee. Thank you for inviting me to be part of your special day.”

I pull back from his hug but make sure to keep my hands on his arms as I stare at him, determined to show him my conviction. “Jimmy, you have been more of a father to me than anyone. I wish you could have more of a role, but he is my father after all,” I chuckle, and I see Jimmy roll his eyes. He is used to me slating my father.

“Bree, are you sure you want to go through with this? It’s not too late. I know the threats have been getting more violent in nature. Are you sure this is worth it?” Jimmy asks, and I pull away completely.

“I don’t give a shit about people who make threats with no name, hiding behind their anonymity. All that tells me is that they are too chicken shit to tell me who they really are, and that they’re too afraid to fight like a man. So the threats mean nothing to me, but Liam does. This stopped being a business arrangement a long time ago. Yes, it is too soon for us to marry for real, but we are doing it anyway. I fucking love him, Jimmy. My heart is racing, but not with nerves; I am excited about becoming his wife. So your question about if it’s worth it is really you asking if Liam is worth it, and he is. I would die for him,” I say confidently.

The small huff is quickly replaced by a fake smile. I thought once he knew how I truly felt about Liam, he would support the wedding, and it’s like he wants to be, but something is stopping him. He can’t help but look ominous. Like we are getting into the car to drive towards the apocalypse.

I go to get in first, but Jimmy insists on getting in first, leaving me to climb in afterwards with the photographer leaning through the window to get some shots. I have no idea what they will look like, as Jimmy’s haunted mood fills the air around us, and I try to push it away. I take my mind back to a few minutes ago, touching my tiara to remind me that I will always be Liam’s Princess. It doesn’t take long going down that road to bring the smile back on my face. The photographer climbs into the front seat, and the driver takes off down the driveway. We only live about fifteen minutes from the venue, so we will be there very soon.

After driving for around five minutes, I feel Jimmy become very rigid, and my danger instinct starts to kick in. I don’t know what it is, but something doesn’t feel right, my stomach is doing flips, and I know I am not all of a sudden becoming nervous about the wedding. Whatever the danger is, Jimmy knows. How had he seen it before me?

Just as I am going to ask him what is going on, the lorry in front of us stops abruptly, causing us to slow down, and out of a hidden side road, a large black vehicle slams into the front driver side of our car. The beautiful black Lexus we are in spins off the road, barreling down into the field next to us. The vehicle hits with such force that I feel my head smash into the glass window next to me. Blood starts to pour out of the wound, and pain ricochets around my body. I quickly use my hands to cover the cut on my head, desperate not to get blood on this beautiful dress.

My head is ringing, and my vision is blurry. I repeatedly blink, hoping the more I do it, the quicker my sight will return. I am disoriented, but I try to look at the others in the car with us.

“Jimmy!” I shout loudly, reaching over with my bloody hand to shake him awake, but he just lays there. I check his pulse and see his breathing is fine. The more my vision returns, the more I stare, looking for any apparent injuries. That’s when I notice that his eyes are scrunched together. Like he can’t bear to open them and see what has happened. What the fuck is going on?

I try to see if the photographer and driver are alive, but the door I’m leaning on opens, and I’m dragged out of the car. I look to see if a good samaritan has come to help us or if the emergency services managed to get here quickly. Instead, what I find is a man wearing a balaclava. He sees me looking and immediately hits me across the face using the back of his hand.

My hands fly to my cheek as I cry out in pain. My head already feels like a marching band is stopping through whilst playing the most annoying song, and now it is rattling. I feel like my brain is about to burst, the headache is so intense. His ring must have caught my face because a small trail of blood is leaking from my cheek, mixing with the blood still seeping from my head wound. I stand no chance of protecting my dress now.

The scrawny guy who dragged me out of the car wearing a balaclava pulls me into the muddy grass before trying to get hold of my arms. I fight him as much as my body will let me, body thrashing as I try to gain control. I think I would have succeeded if another person wearing a balaclava hadn’t arrived holding a gun straight at my head.

“Enough. If you fight, I will shoot you. Now put your arms behind your back like a good little girl.” His voice is deep and authoritative, and there’s something about the voice that seems familiar to me. Like I have spoken to this person before, but I just can’t remember where.

Doing as I am told, I hold my arms as tightly as possible; it’s a trick Jimmy taught me. If I tense up my arms and pull them out just slightly, making sure the other person doesn’t notice, then when I relax my arms there will be some slack in the knot. Best-case scenario, you can use that slack to get your hands out completely. Worst-case, it leaves the knot slack but not enough to help you escape. At least it means they won’t rub on your wrists as much.

“Make sure they are as tight as you can get them without cutting off circulation. Relax your hands, bitch,” he sings like he knew I would try that. I mean, I don’t profess to be the only one to know that trick, but I am surprised he just knew I was going to do it.

Before I have a chance to try and contemplate more of what is going on, a bag is pulled over my head, and lanky guy number one pulls me up. I wait, listening for signs of his movements, and once he is standing in front of me, I kick him as hard as possible in the leg. His ear-splitting yell rings out, and it would appear I connected with his cock by mistake. Oops.

I smile to myself until I feel the barrel of the gun being pressed against my forehead. “That’s strike one. I have a two-strike rule. I will pull this trigger, do you understand?” the loud voice grinds into my ear.

I listen as he helps his partner up, and they both grab one of my arms and drag me towards where the road is. My bruised and aching head takes a moment to mourn the loss of this beautiful dress before allowing the whole situation to register. I hear the man with the gun murmuring, but I can’t tell who he is talking to.

“You okay? Sit down, remember the plan. Look, I have a job to do; you knew it would get rough. Now fuck off and let me do my job,” he mutters, and at first, I think he must be talking to someone on the phone. But if that were the case, how would he know they were standing up. He is talking to a third person, and I listen intently, trying to find out who is doing this, but they don’t talk about it nor say their name.

When we reach the car, it’s different to the one that ran us off the road. I must have missed this car pull up in all the chaos. I’m roughly dragged inside, my veil is torn off my hair, but thankfully I don’t lose the tiara that Liam gave me.Liam. I breathe deeply as I realise he will be standing at the altar wondering where I am. I hope he doesn’t think I changed my mind. I wish I had told him I loved him. Tears stream down my face as thoughts of what I am missing flash through my mind. This should be the happiest day of my fucking life.

It doesn’t take long for sadness to be replaced by fucking raging anger. I am going to slaughter everyone for ruining this day for me. Then, using the skills Jimmy taught me, I take my thoughts back to immediately before the crash. I knew something was going to happen, but how?

Jimmy! Jimmy must have known something was going to happen. He made sure I put a seat belt on. He insisted I sat on the side closest to the driver, essentially so he could be as far away from the impact. He must have been who the kidnapper was talking to. It’s hard to imagine that he sat there while I worried about him and let me get kidnapped. More than that, am I really saying he was part of it?

That’s when the realisation hits. If Jimmy is involved, the most likely scenario is that he is acting on my father’s orders. The more I think about it, not only does my head feel like it might explode, but I know I am right. Liam and Kellan both suspected my father of being the one responsible for sending the threats. Then sending us on a wild goose chase to find guns that were never stolen. I should have listened to them.

Fuck, as if I’m being kidnapped by my own fucking father.

The morning of the wedding passes by in a blur. I’m surrounded by my brothers and Kellan, and surprisingly we all get on really well, just like we used to do when we were kids. Even Evan loosens up a bit and seems to have a good time. I was shocked he agreed to be a groomsman when I asked him. I wasn’t exactly planning on it, but the more I thought about who I wanted by my side when I got married, it just seemed so obvious to have my brothers here.

We deliberately didn’t invite my father to get ready with us, not needing that kind of stress. Kellan said when he took Hallie for a walk around the castle grounds this morning to try and calm her down, he was sure he saw Bree’s car. That made me chuckle. I knew my little control freak wouldn’t be able to hand over the reins completely. I had seen her mother flying around shouting orders before she fled again, no doubt to help Bree get ready.

My mind wanders as I think about the type of dress she will have chosen. Before she started giving me hints, I would have thought I could guess what she would pick, but after hearing the clues, I have no idea. She was using words like tulle, sweetheart neck, A-line, and she lost me. I could just about keep up with words like sexy, lace, and ballgown, but they all didn’t exactly mesh together. Kellan thinks she has two dresses. I can’t wait to see her.

We get to the Lantern Room early, as I was instructed, and see that the room is all set up for us. We are only having a few close family members or allies that will get pissed if we don’t invite them. There are a couple of people milling about, looking a little bit lost because they have come too early.

---