Page 54 of Black Wedding

“What’s gonna happen next, Vinnie?” I ask, my vision starting to go hazy from all the talking and the shallow breaths.

“Jimmy and Vernon are luring Liam here as we speak. Once he is dead, then they will come and make it look like they are rescuing you. You are not supposed to know any of this. If they think you know, they will slaughter us all. So please...please don’t say anything. I need to know I didn’t make the wrong decision in telling you. I just want to get out of all this shit. I made a stupid mistake, and now it’s messing up my life,” he cries, and I can’t help but feel so incredibly sorry for him. Now I know he is the scapegoat and not my natural enemy. All I see is a scared little boy. He is no criminal mastermind.

“I promise, I won’t say a word, but I do want just one favour,” I say, and he looks at me suspiciously. “If you do everything you can to help me and Liam get out of this alive, not only will I free you of whatever debt you owe my Family, I will secure you for life. You want a job; it’s yours; you want money, it’s yours. But only if we both survive.”

Vinnie looks conflicted, but then his face turns to a small smile. “I don’t know how much I can help, but I will do whatever I can. You have my word. What can I do? I can’t even make a phone call or use the internet. The paranoid fuckers took my phone.”

“Are we near anywhere that has CCTV?” I ask, and Vinnie nods.

“There’s a supermarket down the street,” he explains, and a big smile spreads across my bruised and battered face.

“You see that tiara over there. Take that and very deliberately hold it up in front of a CCTV camera in the middle of the store. Make sure it’s visible along with your face. If you can hold up a sign with any information on it, then do that as much as you can, but make it clear,then pull the fire alarm. Leave the tiara outside the house we are in, somewhere that might be visible to an outsider but not to the people here. Can you do that?” I ask, the plan forming in my mind.

“I will try. If they catch me, they will kill me.” His voice sounds small and lost, but he’s not wrong. Sadly, the moment my father dragged him into this mess, his life was at risk. I, at least, am giving him a chance to live.

“Then don’t get caught, kid,” I add with a smile. He laughs before leaving the room.

Pulling the door closed behind him, I am once again plunged back into darkness, only the pain overtaking my body to keep my company. Everything in me, every bit of training I have endured, tells me that going to sleep right now is a bad idea, but I can’t help it. The darkness creeps in, and I fall into oblivion.

Kellan and I race back to the house, desperate to get some answers and hoping to find some clues about what the hell is going on. Paddy stormed off on his own, shouting down his phone at only God knows who. He agreed to meet us at the house. Mum and the girls are staying at the venue. We still have the room that Kellan and I stayed in last night booked and they can stay there. Hopefully, they will be safer there. We manage to convince Finn that the best thing for him is to stay and keep them safe. I need ruthlessness for this mission, and he is not that. Desmond and Evan are surprisingly all in.

On the drive over to the house, feeling more than a little antsy, I ask Desmond why he would help us. What is he getting out of saving Bree? My father never does anything if there isn’t something in it for him. He may have agreed on a truce with Bree, but a truce is very different from going to war for her.

“Believe it or not, boy, I actually like Bree. I think you are punching above your weight with her for sure. She is a force to be reckoned with, and yes, she is standing in the way of something I desperately want, but like I told her, I’m playing the long game,” he explains. I must admit I am a little shocked. I had no fucking idea he really liked Bree. I didn’t think he was capable of liking another person, let alone a rival.

“No matter how much you may like her, she is a rival. Agreeing to a truce is one thing, but this could potentially mean going to war for her. I am willing to jump in headfirst because I fucking love her. Why are you really doing it?” I state firmly, and the car erupts into chaos.

“What?”

“You love her?”

“Your relationship is real?”

My father, Evan, and Kellan speak all at once. It is difficult to tell who is saying what, but I get the general idea.

“Yes, our relationship is real. It became real a while ago. Yes, I realised a few weeks back that I love Bree, but stupidly I never told her. I wanted to wait for the perfect moment, and it never came. The closer I got to the wedding, the more I realised this was the perfect opportunity, but now I know it doesn’t matter what the hell is going on around you. You don’t need the perfect settings or even romance to tell someone you love them. I should have just manned up and told her those three little words. She never got to hear them, and I never got to say it. So, the minute we rescue her, I will spend forever telling her because life is too fucking short.”

I can feel all of their eyes on me, even Kellan’s, who should be watching the road, something I quickly pointed out to him. I notice Evan appears very sombre and glances down when he sees me looking at him. Maybe what I said hit a little too close to home with Teigan. I hope he pulls his head out of his ass soon.

“Well, I’m not sure I can follow that award-winning pussy moment,” my father jokes. I’m reasonably sure everyone in the car rolls their eyes. “But I already told you. Despite what I originally thought, I do think she will be a good leader. Better than that giant cock, Vernon. The fact I get to start something with him after all these years and it not be classed as me going to war with him, that’s a massive bonus.” I can’t help the chuckle that escapes. It’s dark and deep, not exactly a laughing situation. Everyone stares at me to make sure I’m not cracking up.

“Wait, so you are here to fight Vernon without any repercussions?” asks Kellan, and Desmond just nods.

“Look, you can call me a monster, but who doesn’t capitalise on a situation like this,” Desmond sings, and I hear Evan groan out loud. I gasp since I have never seen him go against Father in any way, let alone in public like this.

“Okay, so changing the subject since I appear to have pissed off both my sons. Kellan...what’s going on with you and that gorgeous little mouse...the bridesmaid. What’s her name?” questions my father, and for once, I’m glad he doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. I have to admit I am curious to hear the response. They haven’t spoken since that shitshow excuse for an interview, as far as I know. But when things were kicking off, and he needed to leave Mia with someone, she was top of his list. Plus, they looked very cosy as he comforted her about Bree.

“Mia is her name,” Kellan grinds out like it physically hurts him to talk to Desmond. He was raised by him for a few years too, and although I did everything I could to keep him out of any real danger, he still got in the way at times. He took more than one beating when I was too broken to take one for him. I’m sure he took some for me the way I did him. That’s what brothers do for each other after all. Sadly, Desmond just saw him as another mouth to feed that was bringing nothing to the table. I’m glad he has no clue how powerful Kellan really is.

“She seems nice,” Evan adds with a small smile. “Hallie looks so beautiful, too. I don’t know how you do it, man.”

Kellan gives him a small smile in return. Talk of Hallie is always enough to brighten up his day. Desmond, obviously out of the loop, looks confused.

“I don’t understand. So the baby she had with her...this Mia, girl. She has your baby, but it isn’t her baby? I’m confused,” Desmond speculates, and now Kel really laughs.

“I had a baby almost six months ago with my last girlfriend, Shayla. She left Hallie and me just five hours after her birth. So I have been making do since then. I am staying with Liam and Bree because they are helping me with the baby. I said I wanted to hire a nanny, so I could get back to work. Bree recommended Mia. I met with her and did some background information which she did not like. When I then confronted her about it, we had a big argument. As soon as I start thinking about Bree being in danger, and knowing I’m going to put myself in the line of fire to find her, I found myself wanting to talk to Mia. Don’t read into shit. I obviously just realised that despite her background, I can tell she is good with Hallie. I didn’t even hesitate when she offered to look after her,” Kellan muses. He looks like with each new sentence, he is contemplating what the words may mean.

“Fuck, I had no idea Shayla was the mum. How the fuck do you get over a woman ditching her baby?” Evan asked, and I have to admit I am a little shocked. I thought Evan was lost, that he was too much like my father to ever be redeemed, but here he is discussing feelings and trying to relate to others. While it’s clear Desmond is listening for gossip, other than that, he has very much checked out.

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