CHAPTER 30
CARA
Inside, the chapel smelled like smoke, candle wax, and damp. It was lit with candle sconces on the walls on either side, and dim daylight came in through the small stained glass windows. There were flowers at the altar, like someone had attempted to make this sham feel like a real wedding.
In the small pews that filled the space in two rows, several men in suits were seated.
They didn’t blink once as Dante was first dragged past them to the front of the church, and off to the side, then me – basically being frog marched down the aisle by my supposed future husband.
I assumed our ‘guests’ were family members, there to ensure everything was done legitimately to ensure Daniel’s claim as head of the family.
I stood at the altar, the white dress stained with Dante’s blood, dirt from the fall outside, and ripped around the bottom from the gravel.
My hair was escaping the confines of the hair grips, wild around my face for the most part, and my hands were bruising fast from the hits I’d thrown.
My wrist, which I thought might be broken, was throbbing angrily, and I was pretty sure my face was swelling from Daniel’s hit earlier.
Some bride I made, I thought to myself with some dark humour.
I hoped I was showing Adamian up by presenting myself – his daughter – as shabbily as I was.
Daniel was at my side, his bruising grip now tight around my wrist. He stood strong and silent, his eyes fixed ahead, calm as ever, just waiting for proceedings to begin.
I glanced from him to the priest before us.
He was a balding, aged man in black robes with a white collar.
He was working hard not to make eye contact with either me, or Daniel, looking down at the bible in his hands.
I figured if the bloody body, and clearly coerced bride being dragged in weren’t enough to put him on edge, the armed men, who lined the walls like guards at an execution instead of a wedding, were probably doing the job.
“How’d you coerce a priest into this mockery?” I asked Daniel, leaning into him as I spoke. I refused to allow him to think I had been cowed.
“You came here of your own volition, Cara,” he reminded me.
“Not after you broke the terms I agreed to. Now I’m a prisoner. Nothing about this wedding is of my own volition anymore!” I hissed back.
“Do not make this harder than it needs to be,” he told me quietly, the slight twist of my already badly swollen and throbbing wrist under his grip, the gentle threat.
I laughed once under my breath.
“You have to try harder than that,” I told him with a growl to the words. “Me and pain are intimately acquainted. It’s like an old friend at this point.”
“Don’t challenge me,” he replied evenly. “I’m not a man who loses.”
“You will be.”
“We’ll see.”
“You kidnapped me. Rafe will rip your head from your shoulders with his bare hands,” I threatened with utter confidence.
“Your father kidnapped you.” He glanced at me then, a small, cold smile filling his face. “But I look forward to the war he caused in doing so, immensely.”
“We both know he’s much more your father than mine. He raised you in his image, clearly. Monsters breed monsters, right?”
“I’m a much bigger monster than Grigor, little girl. You’ll see soon enough.” With those words he looked away, eyes focussed straight ahead again and I was left wondering what he meant?
Were those words just to scare me? It made sense, but something felt off. I felt like there was a bigger point to what he’d just said, something almost tangible that I couldn’t quite get a hold of.
I turned to look behind me again. Across the chapel, Grigor Adamian watched me with terrifying pride. I hoped like hell it was more Daniel he was watching. I didn’t want a damned thing from that monster.
He started to approach and I refused to turn away and show weakness. I set my eyes on him and watched him with every iota of hate I felt toward him.
“You secure your family legacy with this marriage today,” he told me as he stopped too close for my liking.
“This is not my family. You are nothing to me!” I told him vehemently.
“You said it yourself. We are blood. You could make a place for yourself at Daniel’s side.”
“I’d rather die!” I stated.
A flicker of irritation crossed his face, almost something parental. Like I was disappointing him, and I enjoyed every bit of it. My bitterness and anger were soaking up just how much I was not what he hoped me to be; how much of a disappointment I was to him.
“Then you probably will,” he sighed.
“So be it, but Rafe will make sure every fucker who was a part of this, dies bloody too.”
“So weak, just like that fool brother of yours,” he scoffed.
“Fuck. You.” I said it slowly, emphasizing every syllable, meaning it. I turned my back on him, determined those would be the final words he ever heard from me.
My chest tightened painfully at thoughts of Rafe though.
Of Cal, Arran, and Dario. They’d be at full panic stations, searching for me I was sure.
They’d be so angry with me for going. If I died there, those would be the last emotions they felt for me, and I hated that thought.
I hated what an idiot I had been to do that to them. To Dante. To my damn self!
Rafe. God, he was injured. The stress I had caused him.
The way I knew he would throw himself into trying to find me.
It would all make his injuries so much worse.
Tears threatened and I blinked furiously not to let them fall.
It was too late to regret. I was there and trapped.
I’d messed everything up and I couldn’t fix it in that moment.
I looked for Dante. He was off to the side of the altar, his hands bound in rope. He was laid on his side, motionless, his eyes closed. The only reassurance I had was the movement of his badly wounded chest. He was alive. For now.
“What are we waiting for?” Adamian called from somewhere behind me. I was just relieved he had moved far away from me.
“Are we ready, sir?” The priest asked, looking to Daniel.
Daniel opened his mouth to say something, but it was cut off. A crash exploded somewhere beyond the chapel walls. I cried out, ducking and covering my head on instinct. The old walls around me seemed to rattle and dust fell from the ceiling all around me.
The armed men started to scramble. moving to the entrance. Daniel shoved past me, as he turned around, but then gunfire erupted everywhere, all around me. The priest ran to the back of the building and I ducked lower.
Shouting followed, men moving and panicking. Daniel was calling orders above me but I had my hands over my ears to drown out the relentless thundering of shots.
Every soldier in the room had moved at once, their weapons raised as more shots drowned out everything all around.
I caught sight of Grigor, and he was sat in a pew, smiling. He looked demented.
“You were right. They came,” he called as his eyes met mine. I didn’t so much hear the words, as read his lips.
My pulse lurched as I realised he was likely right. This was Rafe. His men. My family.
It was as if my thoughts called to them.
The chapel doors burst open hard enough to slam against the walls at that moment, and Dio entered first with blood splattered across his throat, gun in hand, expression vicious enough to make half the room freeze.
Arran was beside him, firing before he’d fully crossed the doorway.
My heart skipped a beat at just the sight of them. They’d come for me.
Then chaos detonated. I dropped to the floor and covered my head as bullets tore through wood and stained glass, debris and destruction falling down all around me.
I could hear the distant sound of men shouting over and amongst the gunfire. I was sure I heard Arran roaring like a bloody bear, but I didn’t dare move to look for him.
Someone grabbed my arm from behind, wrenching me backward so hard pain shot through my shoulder and I scrambled to defend myself, pushing and twisting in his grip to get upright.
I gained my footing and instantly thrust back my elbow into the man’s hard chest with as much force as I had.
It was my right arm with the possibly broken wrist and I cried out in pain as it was jolted badly.
The grunt from the man holding me, made it worth it though.
He released me enough that I managed to twist from his grip and I moved to thrust my palm into his nose, but he caught the move and twisted my arm behind my back.
I cried out as he almost forced me to the ground, then he wrapped his other arm tight around me and I could only gasp for air, whilst he dragged me toward the side exit, which the priest had already fled through.
We were almost through it, but then I saw Dante, exactly where he had been. He still wasn’t moving and for a second, everything else disappeared for me, but him. It was the closest I had been to him and I could see every injury those monsters had done to him.
His face was almost unrecognizable beneath bruises, swelling, and dried blood.
One eye swollen shut. Split lip. His chest was a patchwork of blade cuts, bruises, and burns.
I was pretty sure he had broken ribs judging by some bruising visible through the layers of dried blood, and some swelling.
The rope cut deeply into his wrists where he’d clearly fought until his skin tore open.
“DANTE!” I screamed at the top of my voice.
A sob slipped from me when he jolted, then opened the eye he was able to, and lifted his head to look for me. Our eyes locked for a moment and I fought not to cry.
“Cara…” His voice was so weak, and the sound wrecked me. Tears threatened and my eyes burned instantly.
The soldier hauling me backward tightened his grip around me to crushing levels and I looked back to Dante as panic surged hard enough to choke me. I couldn’t leave him there. They’d shoot him if they got the chance. I had to do something.