Chapter 3
Jed
My phone gave a muted burp in my suit jacket pocket, and I yanked it out to check the security situation. Unbeknownst to anyone, I had programmed my phone to piggyback onto Ethan’s exhaustive security system. Any time a vehicle or a human breached one of the choke points, my phone would notify me.
No one knew about this arrangement, for obvious reasons.
Freya would be worried and pissed about me being paranoid and not letting myself relax, and Ethan would be violently pissed about me breaching his bristling wall of security, and the Unredeemables working the wedding would be pissed at the implied lack of trust, as well uncomfortable at being once again stuck in the middle of fresh hostile weirdness between myself and Ethan.
And every last one of them would be right.
I would clearly be the unbalanced asshole of the situation. Even I could see that.
But I couldn’t change my behavior. It just wasn’t possible. Not even after that intense and sexually charged lecture from Freya last night. Her stern life-or-death mandate. Relax. Be happy. Or else.
Yeah, that was my girl. Hell on wheels. I worshipped at her shrine. Maybe I didn’t live up to all her high standards, but maybe, just maybe, I could keep my worst shortcomings hidden. A guy could hope. A guy could try. With all his might.
The security breach that my phone was warning me about was just a van from the catering company.
I checked the log of expected vehicles, and their make, model, and license plates.
The van checked out. So did the number of occupants.
Two more workers for kitchen staff, two for the wait staff. All in order. Perfectly aboveboard.
Calm the fuck down, bonehead. Or you will drive this thing you want so badly right into the ground.
“Yo, buddy. You ready?”
I jumped at Amos’s voice, and slid my phone back into my pocket.
Amos’s dark, keen eyes missed nothing. “Want a shot of something strong before you go up there to meet your fate?” he asked. “You look twitchy.”
I shook my head. I was too wound up to drink. If I started to unwind, I’d drill myself right down into the floor. “No, thanks.”
“Okay, dude. For what it’s worth, you clean up pretty good. That monkey suit’s not bad on you.”
I shot him a wry glance. Monkey suit, my ass.
Ethan had insisted that I get a bespoke suit from his own personal tailor.
He’d refused to tell me what it cost. When I protested, he just said, ‘look, man. You’re going to stand up there in front of God and everyone with my little sister.
You have to look good. I’m not saying as good as her, because that’s not happening.
Maybe not half as good. Maybe not even a quarter.
But you goddamn well better look at least one tenth as good as her. Got me?’
Yeah, I got him. He thought I’d never be good enough for his sister, and fuck it, I probably wasn’t. Freya Masters was miles out of my league, as gorgeous and brilliant and brave and unique as she was.
But I didn’t care. I was taking my shot.
So I had a bespoke suit. I looked at myself in the mirror, trying to imagine an alternate universe in which my parents were waiting upstairs to see this.
An idealized version of them, like I vaguely remembered from my childhood, before the booze took them.
The mom and dad that they might have been, if things were different.
“You need to be up there before Freya shows up,” Amos told me. “You have to wait for her, man. Not the other way around.”
“I got it,” I told him. “I’ll come on up.”
Amos looked good in his suit as well. All of the Unredeemable were dressed to the nines, and armed to the teeth. As was I. I was walking down the aisle with a Ruger strapped to my ankle, but whatever. A guy had to do what a guy had to do.
I followed Amos up onto the terrace. It was another warm day, not too windy, either. A light breeze, scented with the wildflowers.
I walked through the small crowd seated near the flowery arch. All were known to me, all had been vetted in every way, but I felt like there was a jump-scare in the wings, and my own brain was supplying the ominous music.
I had reason to be nervous. Nicole Volange had gotten the better of me multiple times. I was alive because of random luck, and Freya’s courage and wits.
The three Drake brothers, Amos, Remy and Darius, were my groomsmen.
They were waiting for me under the arbor.
So was Niles, Freya’s good engineer buddy.
He’d done an online course to be their celebrant, and he stood there, looking important, chest puffed out, bedecked with a hot pink bow tie, his glasses low on his nose, a handful of paper in his hands. The vows that we had written.
The other guests were all there, except for two Unredeemables who were manning security screens.
They meant to cycle shifts so everyone would have a chance to enjoy the party.
I heard the strumming of a steel guitar from the speakers.
The French doors across the terrace opened, and the wedding party emerged.
Freya held Ethan’s arm on one side, and Holly’s hand on the other.
Her eyes met mine as she walked across the terrace toward me.
She had flowers in her honey blond curly bob.
Daisies, roses, baby’s breath. A veil, sweeping down behind.
Her eyes were bright with tears. She wore a beautiful, strapless ivory thing.
All its beauty was derived from the fact that it was clinging to her.
She carried a bouquet of colorful wildflowers.
Columbine, lupine, Indian paintbrush, balsamroot, rock lilies.
Holly beamed, holding a basket of wildflowers. Ethan looked tense, and I didn’t blame him. Freya was followed by four of bridesmaids. All were beautiful girls, but I couldn’t even see them. Freya filled up my eyes completely.
The ceremony passed like a dream. I kept my eyes locked onto her.
She was my north star. I got my vows out somehow, voice uneven, shaking, clutching her hand.
Heard her say her vows, and could hardly believe what I was hearing.
A woman that special, that rare and unique, promising to love me forever.
Too good to be true. I couldn’t shake that thought. That if I dared to reach out and take this, something would slap my hand so hard, it would break all my bones.
I pushed the ugly intrusive thought grimly away, and took the rings that Amos passed to me. I slid the narrow gold band onto Freya’s slender finger. Let her put the much larger one on to my own. A few more words from Niles that I could not follow, and finally I tuned in to the crucial phrase.
“…may now kiss the bride!” Niles announced, in ringing tones.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I seized her, flowers and all and kissed her desperately. Her arms went up around my neck, and people hooted and clapped.
Music began to play. Ethan was saying something sarcastic, but I didn’t follow it. I just had to be closer to her.
The Drakes were unnerved to see me get all emotional, but they might as well get used to it. I was going to live my whole life in this heightened state.
Eventually, Freya laughingly detached herself, dropping gentle little kisses on my jaw. Then she took my hand and we did the rounds. She dragged me from guest to guest, to accept their hugs and best wishes. I had never been so grateful for the limited guest list as I was during that interval.
Then, it was on to the champagne and the appetizers. Some food got into me, I think, but I didn’t taste it. I even forgot about the security monitor on my phone, the gun strapped to my ankle.
Freya and I sat at the head of a long table, as an incredible dinner was served.
The Drakes and the other Unredeemables roasted me without mercy, and I dutifully laughed at all the right places at all the compromising and embarrassing stories about me.
Her girlfriends did the same for Freya, but I hung on their every word.
I was hungry to hear of all the experiences she’d had before I knew her.
There was a spectacular wedding cake, some kind of brilliantly colored chocolate concoction covered with ganache, and swirls and curls of chocolate art.
We fed each other wedding cake, and that seemed like an appropriate moment for another very public, very passionate kiss.
The crowd agreed, based on the laughter and cheering and clapping.
Then the phone burped in my jacket pocket.
Panic exploded deep inside, racing through my body. It blotted out my champagne buzz as if I’d never drunk a drop. I got up, and mouthed something to Freya about the bathroom. Smiled at her, waved at the crowd, and fled.
As I hurried down the table, I overheard the Colonel, talking loudly over something that Rose was trying to say.
“Of course you have to put your knowledge of drugs and chemicals at your country’s service!” he lectured. “It could be a matter of national security. Aren’t you ready to serve your country? Don’t you want us all to be safer?”
“Of course, but I don’t want to serve in a military capacity.
That’s just not me,” Rose said. She was a lush, curvy redhead with big shadowy eyes and long red hair, and she was staring at the colonel’s empurpled, bulldog face with naked alarm.
“I really believe that using these drugs at all is a huge ethical problem, and that we don’t really understand the full—”
“Our enemies aren’t worrying about goddamn ethics!” the Colonel blared.
“Dad, would you please stop?” Milla hissed. “Leave Rose alone! She doesn’t have to obey you!”
“We all have to do our part,” the Colonel persisted, ignoring his daughter. “And your skills are badly needed by my—”
“Rose?” I broke in. “Sorry to interrupt, but Freya’s got a problem with her dress. Could you go help her out with it?”
“Sure, of course!” Rose shot to her feet, giving me a grateful glance.