CHAPTER 21 DANNY
I stare at the text from my father as I try to make sense of why he’d want to ruin our lives like this. Or her life, anyway. She never did anything to that asshole.
But I did.
And he’s punishing her for what I did…even though I did the right thing.
Peter Brewer: I went ahead and let my friend know she’s with you just so people wouldn’t be worried since she ran out on her wedding.
“Fuck,” I mutter again. I flash the screen at Alexis.
“Word is going to get out,” I say.
She nods. “Then…what are we waiting for?”
My brows draw together. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…we’re here to get married, and why are we putting all the things in place that really don’t matter when all that matters is us? Let’s just do it. Let’s get married.”
“We are, Lex. But my sister can’t be here until tomorrow.” The other guests, too—they’re arriving tomorrow.
She glances down at the ground. “Right. Okay. Then we wait.”
There’s more, too—not just my sister, but Cooper is coming with Gabby, and Rush will be here.
I want my friends and my sister here as witnesses.
But Alexis doesn’t have anybody coming to sit on her side of the aisle aside from Gregory.
What if we did do it today? Gregory is here. My mother is here. That’s all we really need. We don’t even have to tell anybody we did it early. If we’re not caught, well, then we can still have our symbolic ceremony in front of our friends in two days.
And if we are caught…we’ll be married. It won’t matter. Her dad can try to force her into marrying Brooks all he wants, but legally, she won’t be able to.
Legally, she’ll be mine.
I dial my mom’s number without saying my thoughts aloud to Alexis.
“Hey, honey,” she answers.
“Can you and Gregory come over to the house?” I ask.
Alexis’s head whips over to mine, and her eyes are wide.
“Right now?” my mom asks.
“Yes. Right now.”
“Sure. We’ll be right there,” she says, and she says goodbye and hangs up.
“Right now?” Alexis breathes.
I press my lips together, and then I can’t help a small smile. “Right now.”
She scrambles to a stand. “Oh, uh.” Her eyes dart all around the room. “What about your sister?”
“She’ll be here for the next ceremony.” I lift a shoulder. “This one will be just for us.”
“Oh my God! I need to go get ready!”
She runs upstairs to the primary bedroom where all our clothes are waiting for us, and presumably she’s getting into her wedding dress as I chuckle at her abrupt exit.
This is it.
The doorbell rings fifteen minutes later, and I peek through the peephole to see my mom standing there holding a book. Gregory has a garment bag draped over his arm—most likely my tux.
I throw the door open, and they both walk in.
“We had a feeling,” she says, holding up the book that says Officiant on the front.
I pull my mom into a hug. “It’s time.”
She nods, and Gregory does, too.
“I’ll head upstairs to see if she needs any help,” my mom says.
“Thank you,” I say, and I bend down to kiss her cheek.
That leaves Gregory and me alone, and he hands me the garment bag. “Your clothes, Mr. Brewer.”
“Thanks, Greg. I appreciate it. And please, call me Danny.”
“Call me Gregory,” he says firmly. Then he backs it up with, “You need any help getting ready?”
It’s rare he breaks character, but every time he does, I appreciate it.
I bark out a loud laugh. “I’m on it, Eagle Eye.” I turn to leave, and then I turn back to Gregory. “Just so you know, my father just let the media know she’s with me.”
He presses his lips together. “What would you like me to do?”
“Earlier you asked me if I wanted you to take care of the problem, and I told you I’d handle it myself.”
“And now?” he asks.
“I need help. I can’t continue letting him hold this over us,” I say. “It’s not right, and we deserve freedom from the blackmail.”
He nods. “Consider it done.”
I stare at him, a little alarmed that it’s just that easy. “What are you going to do?”
“Neutralize the threat.” He punches something into his phone then slides it into his pocket.
“Is that…is that code for you’re going to kill him?” I ask quietly.
“No!” he says, obviously a little offended that I’d insinuate that at all. “It’s code for I have people in places who can…neutralize the threat. They can find the video recording and erase all traces of it.”
“So when you just typed something on your phone, it wasn’t a direct order to go kill the guy?” I ask.
Gregory chuckles a little. “No. I can assure you, it was nothing of that nature. I’ve never killed a man, and I don’t have plans to start now.”
“Why didn’t we just do this in the first place?” I ask, my brows drawing together.
“You wanted to handle it yourself,” he reminds me.
Who the fuck is this guy?
“Well, yeah. I assumed you were going to eliminate the threat,” I admit.
He shakes his head. “Neutralize. And it’s not easy, exactly. A hacker friend of mine can hack into your father’s computer, his cloud, all of it, and he can erase it all.”
“Erase it all or erase the video of us?”
He doesn’t bat an eyelash at my question. “Whichever you want.”
“Eh, erase it all.” I shrug. “May as well pay the bastard back.”
“As you wish, sir.” He pulls his phone back out of his pocket and sends another message.
“Hey, Gregory?” I ask.
He glances up at me.
“Thanks, man. You’re a pretty cool dude for a watchdog.”
He raises a brow. “I know.”
He returns his attention to his phone, and hell, if my mom isn’t banging the guy, I’m sure I can find some lucky lady who would volunteer for that position in a heartbeat.