Page 14 of Ripped Lace (Ripped Bratva)

The silver blade scythes through the air…

And plunges into Josiah’s stomach.

I hear a scream from somewhere in the room. I don’t have to turn to know it’s my mother. Theo starts bawling, too, obviously terrified by the sudden wails. But I can’t bring myself to turn to him, either.

I’m rooted in place, staring at the blood burgeoning across Josiah’s white outfit.

He sways on his feet for a second and then he stumbles back.

“Matvei,” Phoenix says without inflection, “get this fucking pig out of my sight.”

Matvei and another of his men come forward and gather Josiah up by his armpits. Then they drag him down the aisle and out the wreckage of the doors.

“Phoenix,” I whisper, trying to feel something in my numb limbs. “What are you doing?”

He doesn’t answer me as he takes Josiah’s place on the raised dais.

“Now,” he says, glancing at Brother Raj, “continue.”

Raj looks at Phoenix like he’s the devil himself. But Phoenix just gives him a mocking smile. “Do I need to stab you, too?” he asks casually, raising the bloody dagger of the knife that’s still clutched in his hand.

Raj goes a blotchy red and stutters a few unintelligible words before looking down at the book in his hands. He flips pages and I almost want to laugh. It’s like he thinks this turn of events will be covered in the next section.

In the event of a violent assault on the ceremony, skip ahead to page fifty-five…

“Phoenix…” I whisper.

His eyes flicker to mine, but it’s as though he doesn’t want to look at me longer than he needs to. And even when he does look at me, it’s like he’s seeing right through me. Like I’m not even there.

He reaches out, snares my wrist in one hand, and tugs me back to my spot across from him. Behind me, I hear Theo and my mother crying in sync.

Raj starts saying something, but I can’t hear it or bear to understand it. The only thing I’m able to focus on is the man standing opposite me in his dark suit. My bloody guardian angel. The devil I thought I left behind.

“Do you take this woman to be your lawfully-wedded wife?” Raj asks.

Phoenix clenches his jaw. “I do.”

“And do you take this man to be your lawfully-wedded husband?”

Everything is happening so fast. I feel like I’m going to pass out or scream or both. How is he here? Why is he here?

I try and find the answers in his face, but there are none. Just a blank stone wall of secrets and anger and pain.

He’s lost a wife. A son. God knows what else.

I can see the weight of those collective losses have twisted him into this darker, angrier version of himself. He’s brutal and savage in a way I didn’t know a person could ever become.

It makes my heart crack in two.

Phoenix’s hand clamps down tight on my wrist. “Answer,” he orders.

For all his familiarity, he feels like a stranger to me. I know that face, those eyes, those lips. I’ve loved them and kissed them. I’ve given him a son—at least, maybe.

So how can he possibly look at me likeI’mthe monster?

“Elyssa?” Brother Raj tries again. “Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

A single tear falls from my eye as I nod. “Yes,” I say in barely a whisper. “I do.”

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