Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Does she have something on her fucking face?
Lailani is standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by dead bodies, and she’s worried that she’s got something on her face?
“What the fuck happened here?” I ask, storming into the suite.
Lailani smiles at me. Fucking smiles. And my steps stop. I’m taken aback. “I found your mom,” she says.
“You found my mom?” I repeat.
“She’s in the bedroom. Can you check on her?” Lailani shifts her focus to Emmanuel.
“Lailani, I specifically asked you not to do anything,” I tell her.
“And I specifically don’t recall you being my boss,” she fires back at me. “By the way, John says that the Santiagos want The Strip and that’s what all this is about.”
“We know,” Louie says.
“Okay then.” Lailani looks around the room. “Maybe you should swap these carpets out for something red. It might hide all the blood better.”
“Or, here’s a thought, we could just stop killing people in the hotel rooms?” I suggest, walking towards the bedroom. I need to see if my mother is actually in there.
“She’s asleep,” Emmanuel says as I step through the door.
“She okay?” I ask him.
“Yeah. Just knocked out, it seems. She’s going to wake up and not know anything happened,” he tells me.
“Great, I suppose I’ll break the news to her that she’s not getting married,” I groan. “Fuck. There’s a wedding about to start downstairs in two hours. I need to cancel it.”
“Or… we could use it,” Lailani offers.
“What?”
“We could use the venue. I mean, you’ve already paid for all the catering and what not,” she says.
“Use it how?” I ask, because I’m not sure where her head is at and if she’s actually suggesting we get married today or not.
“We could get married. Today. I mean, you did ask me, remember?”
“I did.” I turn around to look at her. “Are you sure?”
Am I sure? Do I want this to be my life? Do I want to marry someone who can go from killing three men, to dancing and eating cake a few hours later?
The answer comes to me quick. Yes. I want this. I want her. I’ve never wanted anything more.
“I’m sure. I mean, my dad might actually try to kill you. But I’m sure,” she says.
“I’ll take my chances. Let’s do it. Let’s get married.”
“Okay, we’re getting married. Shoot! I need a dress. And, Louie, get Charlotte and Antonia here. We need Jazzy. I cannot get married without her. Also, E, I need the number for your jeweler. I need a couple of rings.” Lailani starts rattling off a to-do list.
“You have a jeweler?” I look at Emmanuel.
“You don’t?” he fires back.
“I’m going to go break the news to my father and get dressed. I will see you at the end of the aisle,” Lailani tells me, her tone oddly cheery.
“Okay. I love you,” I tell her.
“I love you. Sorry about the mess.” She winces.
“Thank you. For finding my mom,” I say, because I should have told her that already.
“Anytime. It was easy.” Lailani smiles and walks out of the room.
“Are you sure that’s who you want to marry?” Louie asks me.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?” Emmanuel grunts. “He’d be fucking lucky to marry that woman.”
“Okay, cool your jets,” I tell E before looking at Louie. “What the fuck do you mean by that?”
“She’s a little… unhinged.”
“She is a fucking angel.” I continue to glare at him. “And he’s right.” I point to Emmanuel. “I’d be lucky to fucking marry her.”
“Marry who?” My mother’s voice has me spinning around.
“Lailani. I’m getting married today, Mom,” I say. “How you feeling?”
“Like I’ve got the world’s biggest hangover? Why do I feel like this?” she asks.
“You were drugged,” I tell her. “By your fiancé. Well, ex-fiancé.”
“What?”
“I’ll explain it later. We need to get out of here.” I bend down and scoop my mother into my arms.
“Put me down! What are you doing? Sammie, what happened in here.” She pounds on my chest, and then I hear it. The scream she lets out the moment she sees John’s body. “What did you do?”
“He was a dirty cop, Ma, working for a rival family. He was using you as leverage against me.”
“No, I would never do that to you.” She shakes her head while clinging to my shirt. “No, that’s not right.”
“You wouldn’t. But he would and he did.”
“I was supposed to get married today.” She sniffles.
“Now, you can watch me get married instead,” I say softly.
My mother doesn’t respond. I know she’s still foggy from whatever they shot into her system. I should probably have a doctor come look her over—although, it’s not like she’s never been this drugged out before.
“I was clean, Sammie,” she says after a few moments of quiet contemplation.
“I know, Ma, and you can be again,” I tell her, while some part of me knows she will probably go back to her old habits.
Does it hurt that she got clean for a man she thought loved her but could never do it for her son? Fuck yes, it does. But now is not the time to dig around in that hole. Because I’m getting married.
“Guys, I’m getting married!” I yell out over a shoulder.
“We know,” Louie says.
I told Louie that Lailani was an angel, and I meant it. Seeing her walking toward me in a white dress with her father by her side confirms I was right. Because She looks every bit as angelic as I claimed. She is fucking breathtaking and she is mine.
“Look after her. She’s all I have,” Mr. Miller says to me when he hands her over.
“I will,” I tell him.
He raised her alone. He did a fucking great job too. His words ring true, though. She’s all he has. She is all I have. I mean, I have my friends. I have my mom sometimes. But Lailani? She’s it. She’s everything.
“Do you want kids?” I ask her before the minister says a single word.
“Uh, yes?” She looks at me, confused.
“Thank fuck, because I’m getting you knocked up as soon as humanly possible,” I whisper. “I want more of you, which means we need to reproduce you.”
“Um… we can unpack that later. Do you want to get married?” Lailani asks me.
“Let’s do it.” I smile and nod at the minister, signaling for him to start the ceremony.
I watch my wife dance with Jazzy and Antonia. My wife. I have a wife.
The thought makes me smile. She’s so fucking gorgeous.
And when she looks back at me with a huge smile on her face, I see it.
That sweet, not-so-innocent woman I fell in love with.
Lailani may still have some parts of her I don’t know, but I can’t wait to meet them.
I want to spend my lifetime learning everything about this woman, and we have the rest of our lives to do it.
“You know, having an assassin in the family might be useful,” Louie says from beside me.
“Fuck off, you are not using my wife to do your dirty work,” I tell him.
“Why not? She’s a professional.”
“She’s my wife, not your contractor. Find someone else,” I ground out. “Or better yet, do it yourself.”
“Fine. But when she gets bored playing house and starts torturing you for fun, I want front-row tickets,” he says.
“You think I’m going to let her get bored?” I laugh as I stand from my chair and walk over to the dance floor. I extend a hand and steal Lailani away from Antonia and Jazzy. “Mrs. Russo, I’ve been waiting for this dance all night.”
“We literally just stopped dancing two songs ago,” she says.
“Two songs is a long time to wait to feel your body against mine.” I lean down and capture her lips in a searing kiss.
“I can’t believe we got married. I never thought I’d ever get married,” she says.
“Why not?”
She shrugs. “Because I never thought I’d find someone who could love me. The real me.”
“Lailani, I love you. Every single inch of you. And I always will,” I tell her.
“Always can be a long time.”
“Let’s hope it is.” I swirl her around and then pull her back against my chest.
“Let’s start the honeymoon,” she whispers. “I’ve been desperate to feel you inside me since we said I do.”
Picking Lailani up bridal-style, I walk out of the ballroom, not bothering to say goodbye to a single person.
It’s not like we knew a lot of the guests anyway, considering they were here to watch my mother and John get married.
But I didn’t care who was in attendance because she was.
The woman who was always meant to be my wife.
“You should have told me sooner,” I say, stepping into the elevator and pressing the penthouse floor.
“Nope, take me to your lair. I want you to fuck me in your lair, Sammie.” Lailani blushes, despite her dirty words. Or maybe because of them.
I don’t need to be asked twice, though. I hit the card against the reader and punch in the code for the basement. If my wife wants me to take her to my lair, then that is exactly where I’m going to take her.
YES!! Emanuel and Evie are getting their own book (Insert scream here) You can find their story here in Dead or Alive.