Third Wheel (Masters of Marquis #9)

Chapter 1

1

Amy

“What do you mean you don’t know where Jeremy is?” Amy stared at Jeremy’s best man, the man who was supposed to be standing beside him when she walked down the aisle, which she was supposed to be doing in less than ten minutes.

She was fully dressed.

Wedding gown. Makeup that had taken an hour to do. Hair that had taken nearly two. Veil. The only thing she didn’t have on were her shoes, which were her something blue.

Wes cringed, avoiding her gaze and staring at a point on her bare shoulder. She didn’t normally wear strapless dresses, but she’d made an exception for her wedding gown, stuffing herself into a strapless ballgown because Jeremy had once commented that those were the only dresses that truly looked ‘bridal.’ He’d had a lot of opinions about the wedding while they were planning it, which she’d thought was sweet. He’d shown more interest than many grooms she’d heard about.

Now…

Now, she was feeling trapped in a gown she couldn’t move very quickly in, and it was far too tight around her. It didn’t matter that she wore corsets on a weekly basis; the one she was now wearing under her dress felt as if it was tightening with every breath she took, cutting off her air. Her head buzzed as Wes cleared his throat.

“Well, uh… he didn’t show up this morning…”

“Why not? He was with you last night, and you’re here.” Her voice was going shrill.

Reaching up to adjust the tie at his throat, Wes’ gaze skittered behind her at her bridesmaids. Her mom. Amy could feel all of them staring from behind her. Silent. Waiting. Like she was waiting for Wes’ answer.

“He, uh, wasn’t actually with me last night.” Wes was starting to sweat, his round, pale face slowly turning red as he continued to tug at his tie. His dark blond hair looked damp, though that might have been the gel he’d used to style it. “He promised he’d be here today, though, so I kept covering for him, but…”

But it was almost time for the ceremony to start.

Jeremy hadn’t been with Wes last night. So, where had he been?

Amy felt lightheaded. She really couldn’t breathe. Putting her hand on her stomach, she felt the lace and the boning beneath her palm and tried to focus on that sensation instead of the buzzing in her ears. Someone came up behind her, putting their hand tentatively on her shoulder.

“Maybe something happened to him,” she said. “Maybe he was in a car accident. We should… we should call the hospitals. Or the police. Something.”

“Baby, if he’d had an accident, we’d know. His parents are out there, remember? I told you, I saw them,” her mom said gently, moving her hand to rub the center of Amy’s back under the veil she’d borrowed from her. Something old. Something borrowed.

Jeremy wasn’t coming. Deep down she knew that, could feel the truth of it in her core, yet she wasn’t ready to admit it yet.

Behind her, she could hear her bridesmaids muttering to each other. Marissa, her maid of honor. Morgan. Carolyn. Sam. Her group of girls. Her besties. Well… almost all of them.

Her brain nudged at her.

Noelle was missing, too.

Not that it was that surprising. Amy hadn’t heard from her all week. She’d been relieved. Relieved when Noelle hadn’t answered her texts. Relieved when Noelle hadn’t answered the one call she’d made.

Relieved when Noelle hadn’t shown up today.

No. It’s not possible. He wouldn’t… she wouldn’t…

Wes kept staring at her, sweating. Her mother was murmuring soothing platitudes— it will be okay. But it wouldn’t. She already knew it wouldn’t be. The wedding wasn’t happening. It couldn’t happen when the groom wasn’t here.

And my bridesmaid is missing.

She was putting all the pieces together, but she didn’t want to.

This couldn’t be happening.

This wasn’t real.

This was another bad dream. Another stress wedding nightmare, like the ones she’d been having over the past month. Not that she’d ever had one remotely like this. And none of them had lasted this long. Or been this detailed.

The annoying sound she’d assigned to Jeremy on her phone for this week rang out, filling the room. She’d wanted to make sure she didn’t miss any important calls from him this week.

“My phone!” She spun in the direction of the table where she’d left it and lunged forward, one of her feet catching in the hem of her dress. Something ripped, but she didn’t stop. She didn’t care. She needed to know. Needed to find out what was going on.

Because this wasn’t a dream.

Morgan was already at the table, picking up the phone. She hesitated a moment before holding it out in front of her toward Amy, her green eyes filled with worry.

Shame flushed through Amy.

Her bridesmaids knew. Everyone in that stupid little room where she’d been getting ready knew.

But she couldn’t believe it.

Not really.

Not yet.

It was a video call.

She hit the accept button.

The screen blurred for a second, then cleared. Amy found herself staring at her missing groom and missing bridesmaid. Jeremy’s handsome face smirked back at her while Noelle was beaming, neither of them appearing in any way upset, the way she was. Amy blinked, not quite believing her eyes.

Jeremy was wearing a bowtie, and his hair was styled the way he’d said he was going to do for their wedding day. Noelle was wearing full makeup, her hair pulled back from her face, and she had something white atop her head.

“Hey, Amy, how’s it going?” Jeremy’s smirk was mean. Amy wasn’t sure she’d ever realized how mean his smirk was.

“Where are you?” Her voice didn’t sound like her own; it came out in a high squeak.

“We’re in Vegas.” Noelle’s eyes were bright as she held up her hand. There was a bright diamond ring on her ring finger.

A ring Amy recognized. Suddenly, her legs couldn’t hold her up anymore, and she found herself crashing to the floor, surrounded by lace and tulle, as she stared at the phone in her hand.

“We just got married.”

“I… I don’t understand.” Somewhere behind Amy, a door opened and closed. Someone had left the room, but she couldn’t make herself turn to see who it was. It felt like she was about to break apart into a million pieces. A scream rose up in her chest, but it was trapped there, unable to get out.

“How dare you?!” That was Amy’s mom, who knelt down on Amy’s skirt, wrapping a supportive arm around her shoulder. “What the hell is wrong with you, Jeremy?”

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way, Mrs. Newhart, but your daughter has been cheating on me for our entire relationship.” Jeremy might have started with an apology, but he didn’t sound or look sorry. “She lied to me.”

“I did not! You said you understood! You agreed!” Now, the tears were starting to come at the unjustness of his accusation. She would never —never —have done anything without Jeremy’s consent.

“Your daughter is a filthy pervert,” he continued, as if Amy hadn’t spoken. “She told me she needed to be whipped and hurt, and I wasn’t willing to hurt her that way. I tried to be understanding. I told her she could fulfill her needs at a club that she goes to, but she was cheating on me there.”

“I was not!”

“I’ve seen the pictures,” Jeremy sneered, his expression turning ugly for the first time. “Noelle was honest with me when you weren’t. She showed me what you were really doing.”

“I’m sorry, Amy. I just couldn’t keep perpetuating your lies. Not when I saw how it was hurting Jeremy. Not when we were falling in love. Please don’t hate us. You can’t blame us for having feelings.”

Everything was going grey at the edges of Amy’s vision. She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t defend herself. Couldn’t scream. Fight, flight, or freeze, and she froze. Hard. She wanted to throw her phone away from her, as far away from her as she could, yet she couldn’t loosen her grip, clinging to it like she would tumble off a cliff if she did.

“None of this would have happened if you hadn’t cheated on me. Noelle was there for me, Noelle?—”

Someone plucked the phone out of her hand.

Marissa.

Amy felt her skirts move as her bridesmaids surrounded her like a phalanx, blocking her view from the phone. Blocking their view of her. It wasn’t quite a group hug; it couldn’t be because of this stupid, stupid ballgown skirt, but it was a protective barrier.

“You are both terrible people,” Marissa said coldly. “Noelle, you can fuck all the way off and never come back. Jeremy, you never deserved Amy in the first place, you shriveled little dickhead. Do not contact her again.”

“What’s going on?”

Oh God, Amy recognized that voice. But what was he doing here? She hadn’t even heard him come in.

This day just kept getting worse.

Kincaid

Something was wrong.

Kincaid looked over at his boyfriend, Zach, who was nervously adjusting his tie. Again. He tried to quiet the uncertainty that rose up inside him.

They were here for Amy Newhart’s wedding, and Kincaid wasn’t sure how his boyfriend felt about it. Zach and Amy scened together, platonically, at the BDSM clubs they all belonged to, but he wasn’t sure how Zach felt about her getting married. He also wasn’t sure he could ask.

Their relationship was still on shaky ground after a breakup. They’d just gotten back together recently. He still wasn’t sure where he could push and where he needed to back off, but Amy was one of the subjects he didn’t feel like he could push.

He couldn’t watch Zach keep anxiously fidgeting without checking in with him, either. That wasn’t who Kincaid was.

He reached over, putting a hand on Zach’s thigh so he could lean a little closer, keeping his voice low since they were surrounded by wedding guests. Though they were hardly the only ones talking. Everyone had noticed that the wedding hadn’t started on time.

“Are you okay?”

Rather than answering right away, Zach dropped his hand away from his tie and turned his head to give Kincaid a nervous smile. Kincaid smiled back as best he could, but he knew he wasn’t entirely hiding his concern.

It wasn’t just concern over Zach’s anxiousness but some trepidation about what it meant for them. Amy was important to Zach, Kincaid knew that… but how important? Did he sometimes wish Amy was single? Or was Kincaid projecting just because he knew he was the first man Zach had been with?

“I’m fine. I think I might have tied my tie too tight.” Zach slid his hand under Kincaid’s to hold it. The touch helped soothe some of the emotions that were buzzing under Kincaid’s skin.

Zach was here with him. In public. Showing affection. And he’d told his sister about their relationship, even if he hadn’t worked up to telling his parents yet. Baby steps. As long as Kincaid could see some progress, he could live with that. He knew it was hard for Zach, but he was trying.

In front of them, Rick—another member of the BDSM clubs they went to—leaned over to his wife, not bothering to keep his voice down.

“What time is it? Isn’t this supposed to have started already?”

Beside Kincaid, Zach glanced down at his watch, and Kincaid looked over as well, joining Zach in his frown. The wedding should have started five minutes ago. Zach twisted around and froze, and Kincaid looked up as well.

Sam, one of Amy’s bridesmaids, was striding down the aisle with purpose—not walking slowly like she was starting the ceremony—and her gaze was locked on Zach. Shit. Something was wrong. He could see that the moment he saw Sam’s expression.

She came to a halt in a sweep of chiffon, the stray curls from her coiffure swaying at the sudden stop.

“Amy needs you,” she told Zach. “ Now .” She looked up to meet Kincaid’s gaze. “You’d better come, too.”

The audience all burst into murmured noise as both of them leapt to their feet. Zach didn’t even look back as he darted down the aisle ahead of Kincaid, too intent on getting to Amy. Hurt darted through Kincaid, but he did his best to push it aside. Sam was not an alarmist. If she had come to get them, there was a damn good reason. Amy needed her Dom. This wasn’t about him.

The moment they burst into the room Sam led them to—she could move damn fast, even in three-inch heels—any hesitation Kincaid felt washed away the moment he caught sight of Amy. They’d never been close; Zach had always kept them fairly separate, and Kincaid hadn’t protested because, as far as he was concerned, Amy wasn’t really part of their relationship.

Zach had certain needs as a sadist that Kincaid couldn’t fulfill. He was fine with Zach playing with others platonically. Even when Zach had stopped scening with anyone else other than Amy, he hadn’t made an effort to step in because their dynamics were all well established by then.

But it would take a harder, crueler person than him to be unaffected by the sight of her surrounded by her bridesmaids, her mom beside her with her arms around her, all of them huddled on the skirt of her dress where she knelt in the middle of the room, with the most anguished expression he’d ever seen on a woman’s face.

Standing in front of Amy and the crowd was Marissa, a sub with a bad reputation at Stronghold, who was nonetheless one of Amy’s bridesmaids. She wore the same sage green gown as the others, and for a moment, Kincaid thought she must be the one causing the problem before he realized she was speaking to someone on a video call on the phone she was holding in front of her.

“You are both terrible people. Noelle, you can fuck all the way off and never come back. Jeremy, you never deserved Amy in the first place, you shriveled little dickhead. Do not contact her again.”

Jeremy. Amy’s fiancé. Noelle… another problem sub at the clubs. Also, one of Amy’s bridesmaids. What the hell is going on?

His brain was struggling to catch up, but apparently, so was Zach because he blurted the question out.

“What’s going on?”

Everyone huddled on the floor looked up at him as Sam went on her knees to join them, her arms going around Amy and hugging her. Amy’s pale face stared at him and Zach from over Sam’s shoulder, the look in her eyes piercing Kincaid’s heart.

He could see the shame, the humiliation, the pain, and it made his own chest ache in sympathy. He wanted to beat the hell out of whoever had put that look on her face.

“Noelle and Jeremy eloped, and they’re blaming Amy for their shitty behavior,” Marissa answered before turning back to the phone and glaring at it. “Do not ever contact Amy again. And Noelle, you can consider your membership to Stronghold and Marquis revoked.”

She hit a button on the phone, cutting off their voices as the two on the other side of the call started yelling back at her.

As Zach went down on his knees to join the group huddled around Amy, his voice soothing as he murmured something Kincaid couldn’t quite make out, Kincaid looked at Marissa and raised his eyebrow.

She shrugged.

“If anyone knows what it takes to get kicked out of Stronghold, it’s me. Noelle crossed one of the lines Patrick won’t compromise on—she took photos of Amy and shared them with a non-member. As soon as I tell him, she’s out on her ass.”

Kincaid would have replied, but a heartbreaking wail rose in the air as Amy flung herself into Zach’s arms and finally started to cry, sobbing as she buried her face in the shoulder of her Dom.

Fuck.