Chapter 16 #3
The bodies were barely buried and here I was putting a ring on it.
Her hand trembled again.
I bent my head, keeping my voice low. “Still breathing?”
“Barely.”
“That’s enough.”
“No, Mason. Enough would be waking up tomorrow and realizing this was a fever dream brought on by dehydration and trauma.”
My mouth tugged despite everything. “You always this romantic at weddings?”
“I wouldn’t know. I usually attend weddings where the bride isn’t actively considering fleeing the jurisdiction.”
“Good thing you’ve got terrible odds.”
Her eyes cut to mine. “Excuse me?”
“You’d never make it past Regan.”
Sienna glanced toward Regan, who stood near the front row with her arms folded, veil emergency supplies tucked into one hand and a look on her face that said she’d personally tackle the bride if required.
Sienna’s shoulders eased by half an inch.
Good.
I could work with half an inch.
The Elvis officiant cleared his throat beneath the arch, smiling like he hadn’t watched three armed bikers argue over witness signatures ten minutes ago. “Alright, lovebirds, are we ready?”
“No,” Sienna said immediately.
“Yes,” Regan said from the front row.
“Legally, probably,” River added.
Edge leaned back in his chair. “Emotionally? Not even close.”
Tank grunted. “That’s most marriages.”
The chapel broke into rough laughter, and Sienna’s mouth twitched. Not quite a smile, but close enough that my chest loosened.
I leaned closer. “Prettiest bride Vegas has ever seen.”
Her twitch vanished. “Don’t start.”
“Beautiful bride,” I murmured. “Brave bride. Mean little desert-survival bride.”
Her elbow drove into my ribs.
The men lost it.
Edge slapped his knee. “There she is!”
River pointed at me. “That’s why I gave him forty-eight hours. She’s violent. He likes that.”
Sienna whipped around. “I heard that.”
“You were meant to,” River said.
“This is a marriage in name only,” she announced to the room, pale cheeks flushing pink. “Nobody is getting into anybody’s bed.”
A wave of hoots and whistles hit the ceiling.
Tank lifted a hand. “For the record, I’m betting on the bride.”
“Thank you,” Sienna said sharply.
“For ten days.”
Her jaw dropped. “Traitor.”
Edge grinned. “I’ve got a week.”
River scoffed. “Forty-eight hours.”
Regan rolled her eyes. “Men are so unimaginative. I give her a month out of pure spite.”
Sienna pointed at Regan. “Finally, someone with sense.”
I couldn’t stop looking at her.
Her color was coming back. Her chin was up. Her eyes were still too bright, still carrying the night behind them, but she was in there again. Mouthy. Furious. Fighting.
That was better than shaking silence.
That was better than watching her disappear behind fear.
The officiant lifted both hands. “Alright, alright. Before someone starts a gambling ring in the Lord’s chapel—”
River coughed. “Too late.”
“—we’re gonna get these two married. Do y’all have vows?”
Sienna went still.
Not stiff.
Still.
Every bit of humor drained out of her face so fast I felt it in my gut. She looked at the officiant, then at me, panic flickering under the makeup Regan had carefully put on her. Vows. Promises. Meaning.
Too much.
Too real.
I knew it before she said a word.
“I don’t—” Her voice caught. She swallowed. “We didn’t write anything.”
“I’ve got it,” I said.
Her eyes snapped to mine.
So did everyone else’s.
I didn’t look away from her.
Because this part wasn’t for them.
“I don’t know how to make wedding vows sound pretty,” I said.
Edge muttered, “No one is shocked.”
I didn’t even bother threatening him. Sienna needed my eyes on hers.
“I can’t stand here and promise you the kind of forever you didn’t ask me for,” I said, keeping my voice steady even though my chest felt like it had been pried open. “That wouldn’t be fair.”
Her lips parted slightly.
“But I can promise what I know.” I tightened my fingers around hers. “You don’t run alone again. You don’t face them alone again. Anybody who comes for you goes through me first.”
The room quieted.
Not polite quiet.
Club quiet.
The kind that meant men were listening.
“My name, my patch, my house, my truck, my brothers, my life—whatever I’ve got, it stands between you and anyone who thinks they can hurt you.” I took a breath. “You don’t have to love me tonight. You don’t have to trust all of this. You don’t even have to like me tomorrow morning.”
“I don’t like you now,” she whispered.
My mouth curved. “I know.”
Her fingers tightened around mine.
“But you’ll be safe,” I said. “That much I can give you. And I swear I won’t touch you unless you ask me to.”
That landed harder than the rest.
I saw it.
The way her throat moved. The way her eyes searched mine like she was trying to find the catch. The trick. The thing men said right before they took more than they were given.
There wasn’t one.
Not with her.
Not ever.
For a moment, nobody said anything.
Then Sienna blinked hard and looked away, but not fast enough to hide the shine in her eyes.
“That was rude,” she said.
A soft laugh moved through the chapel.
I frowned. “My vows were rude?”
“Yes.” She looked back at me, trying for glare and landing somewhere closer to wrecked. “You blindsided me with sincerity.”
Regan sniffed from the front row. “Hate when they do that.”
Sienna exhaled unsteadily, then turned toward me fully.
“I don’t know how to do this either,” she said.
Her voice was quieter now. Not weak. Just honest.
The room faded around us.
“I don’t know how to be someone’s wife. I don’t know how to belong to a club. I don’t know how to wake up tomorrow and make sense of the fact that I’m married to a man who bought me vanilla vodka because club girls like it.”
The men cracked up again.
I rubbed a hand over my jaw. “I apologized for that.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I implied regret.”
“That is not the same thing.”
A laugh slipped out of me. Hers almost followed, but then her eyes softened and it got caught somewhere between us.
“But you came for me,” she said.
That shut me up.
All of me.
“You came into the desert when you could’ve decided I was too much trouble. You found me. You held on. You made the world feel less…” She swallowed. “Less impossible.”
My chest went tight.
“So I can’t promise forever,” she said. “Not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow. But I can promise I’ll stand beside you while we figure out the next step. I can promise I won’t run unless someone deserves to be chased. And I can promise not to poison you unless you truly earn it.”
Edge wiped at one eye. “Beautiful.”
River nodded. “Threatening, but beautiful.”
The officiant sighed happily. “That’s romance, folks.”
Sienna looked mortified. “Please continue before I change my mind.”
The officiant lifted his little booklet. “By the power vested in me by the great state of Nevada, and by the questionable judgment of everyone in this room, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Sienna went rigid.
Because we both knew what came next.
“You may kiss the bride.”
Every man in the room leaned forward like this was a title fight.
Sienna’s face flushed scarlet. “Absolutely not.”
Edge groaned. “Come on.”
Regan snapped her fingers at him. “Shut up.”
I turned toward Sienna slowly, keeping my hands where she could see them.
Name only.
She’d said it enough times to make sure I understood.
I understood.
Didn’t mean I didn’t want.
Didn’t mean my whole body wasn’t locked down tight, fighting the pull of her standing there in that little white dress with red lips and shaking hands and more courage than anyone I’d ever known.
I bent just enough that only she could hear me.
“Your call, baby.”
Her eyes lifted to mine.
For one heartbeat, two, three, she didn’t move.
Then she muttered, “Ceremonial only.”
“Understood.”
“And brief.”
“Of course.”
“And no hands wandering.”
I looked down at my hands, then back at her. “I’ll behave.”
“I doubt that.”
Then she grabbed the front of my shirt and kissed me.
Not soft.
Not sweet.
Not like a woman making a polite legal gesture in front of witnesses.
She kissed me like she was mad at me for making her feel safe and was mad at herself for wanting the kiss at all. Like fear, vodka, adrenaline, and whatever had been burning between us since that first sidewalk kiss all crashed together beneath the fake flowers.
My hands stayed exactly where they were for one brutal second.
Then one landed at her waist.
Just there.
Just steady.
She made a tiny sound against my mouth, and every bet in the chapel changed in real time.
The brothers erupted.
River shouted, “Twenty-four hours!”
Tank barked, “Pay attention, that woman’s winning the long game!”
Edge yelled, “No chance. Look at him. He’s gone.”
They weren’t wrong.
I was gone.
But I still made myself pull back first.
Sienna’s eyes opened slowly. Her lips were parted. Her breath came fast. She looked furious, dazed, and more beautiful than anything this city had ever faked into existence.
“That,” she said, voice unsteady, “was ceremonial.”
I smiled.
Couldn’t help it.
“Sure, wife.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Careful.”
The officiant handed us the paperwork before she could threaten me properly.
And that was the part that did it.
Not the vows.
Not the kiss.
The paperwork.
Sienna stared at the line where she had to sign her name, then at mine already printed beside it.
Mason Cross.
And beneath it, waiting like a dare:
Sienna Cross.
Her face changed, the color slipping again as the reality of it settled over her shoulders.
I moved closer, blocking the room a little with my body.
“You don’t have to take my name,” I said quietly.
Her brows drew together. “What?”
“My last name. Cross. You don’t have to use it. This is protection, not ownership.”
She stared at me.
The pen trembled in her fingers.
“I know that,” she said.
“Just making sure.”
Her gaze dropped to the paper again.
For a second, I thought she might break. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just fold under the weight of too much happening too fast.
Then she pressed the pen to the page and signed.
Sienna.
My wife.
Something hard and ancient shifted in my chest.
Mine, the darkest part of me said.
Protected, the better part corrected.
Both felt true. Only one deserved to be spoken.
The officiant checked the papers and grinned. “Congratulations.”
The chapel exploded again.
Regan swept Sienna into a hug. Edge slapped my back hard enough to move me a step. Tank pulled me in next, his voice low at my ear.
“You did good.”
I didn’t answer.
Because Sienna was standing a few feet away, surrounded by noise, looking down at the cheap gold band Regan had somehow found for her. It was simple. Tiny. Nothing like what I would have chosen if this had been real.
No.
That wasn’t right.
It was real.
Not romantic.
Not planned.
Not safe.
But real all the same.
She looked up and caught me staring.
For the first time all night, she didn’t look away.
The men were still yelling. Vegas was still pulsing outside. The world was still ugly and dangerous and full of men who wanted her silent.
But she stood there in white satin and leather, wearing my ring, holding my stare like she wasn’t sure whether to fight me or trust me.
I could wait for her to decide.
I’d wait as long as it took.