7. Cassie
Cassie
The old ladies took me in without a second thought, and I don't have words for it yet.
I've never had a real friend, not one who wasn't put in my path by somebody else's agenda, and now I've got a whole table of them.
They tried to pry a little intimate detail or two about Ethan out of me over lunch, laughing and needling, but some things stay mine.
Some things I get to keep just for myself.
I feel eyes on me before I see him, and there's Ethan leaning against the wall watching me like he's been standing there for a while. I cross the room, wrap my arms around his neck, and kiss him properly. The old ladies holler and whistle behind me until I step back grinning.
"Everything okay?"
He nods, then looks past me toward the kitchen. "Abby, whenever you're free, let's get the fake marriage moving. The sooner the better."
"I'll start after lunch." Abby doesn't even look up from whatever's on her screen. "I should have it all lined up by the end of the week."
"Come on." Ethan takes my hand, tugging me out of the kitchen. "Let's go make some plans. You need a dress, flowers, all of it, enough to make this look real."
At the stairs he hoists me over his shoulder without warning, one hand landing on my ass, and I laugh the whole way up, even while some quieter part of me is asking whether any of this can actually hold.
Whether two people can build something real on top of a lie this big, or whether my past is eventually going to come to collect what they're owed.
I know my brothers won't take this quietly when they find me.
I know they'll try to drag me home. But I also know now, in a way I didn't a month ago, that this family, my new one, will stand between me and my family with everything they have.
My real brothers were never going to do that for me.
They handed me to a dictator and called it love, never once asking what I wanted. I mattered that little to them.
Ethan drops me on the bed once we're in his room. "I love you, babe. I want this to be real, for us, for good. But if fake is all you can give me right now, I'll take it and be grateful for it."
He kisses me, needy and slow, and I fall into it before I pull back to look at him properly.
"I love you too, Ethan. Marriage was always going to be something forced on me, to a man I'd never choose and could never love.
I know my family's already got a backup lined up now that Pablo's gone, and I don't even want to know who.
" I settle against his side. "I used to dream about a real wedding.
White dress, my family in the pews, walking toward a man I chose with my whole heart.
That's what I want, when it's real. I hope it's you, Ethan.
I really do. But that's the dream I'm holding onto. "
Something goes soft and sad in his face when I say it. "That's what I want for you too, Cass. Both of us." He pulls me tighter against him. "I don't ever want to let you go. But if that's what I have to do once all this settles, I'll give you whatever you want. Even if it's not me."
My eyes sting. This man loves me unconditionally, without a single string attached, and I still can't make myself say yes to him fully.
I think it's my brothers' fault. It’s the years of being handled instead of asked what I want that's left me flinching from every altar, even the ones built out of love.
"Grab the laptop," I say instead of thinking like that. "Let's go shopping. Use your card, I'll pay you back in cash. My brothers will be watching my accounts, and there’s no sense handing them a trail to follow."
He grabs the laptop and we sit together on the bed while he buys me everything on my list. He’s patient through every second thought and changed mind.
"Thank you. I love everything." I kiss his cheek. "Let's go find Abby, see what date she's got for us."
"Sooner the better, honestly." He takes my hand, and I let myself wonder, walking beside him, whether I could actually live in his world for good.
The Black Saints hurt people, I know that much by now, but only the ones who've earned it.
My brothers hurt anyone who got in their way, good or bad, innocent or not, a debt unpaid was a death sentence regardless of the person owing it.
I'm so far from that world already and some days I can't believe how much I don't miss it.
It would break something in me to leave Ethan and these women now.
They already feel closer than anyone I've ever called a friend, and my oldest friend from home, Aurelia, told me the week before I ran that she'd hated me my whole life.
That she was only ever nice to me to get into my brother's bed.
She said that I deserved Pablo and everything that came with him.
It should have hurt more than it did. Mostly it just confirmed what I'd already started to suspect; that nothing in that house had ever been real.
Abby's on Spooks’ lap when we find her, curled into him like she belongs there, and I love watching how easy these men are with their women, always close, and always touching them like it's second nature.
Ethan does the same with me, pulls me down onto his lap without asking half the time, and I used to think that meant giving something up.
It doesn't. It's the opposite. When I let him pull me in, I'm telling him something too.
"First open date's Saturday," Abby says, glancing up. "Five days out. There's a slot three weeks from now too, but I figured you'd want this handled fast."
Ethan looks at me. I nod. "Saturday's fine. It's still fake, right?"
"Filed, legal, and the officiant will think it's the real thing start to finish. If you two ever decide you want the genuine version, I can make it look like this marriage never happened in the first place." Abby shrugs, easy, like rewriting legal history is just a Monday for her.
"Thank you. Truly." I mean it more than I can put into words.
Prez's head appears in the doorway. "Ethan, Cassie, my office." He’s gone again before either of us can answer. He's got that way about him, commanding the room without ever raising his voice, and I like that about him more than I expected to.
We follow him next door, and Ethan pulls me onto his lap the second we sit, same as always. Prez leans back, looking pleased with himself.
"So, a wedding this weekend. We'll throw a real party for it, loud enough that nobody watching suspects anything." His face sobers. "We also need to talk about your brothers, Cassie."
Panic rises fast, my whole body going tight. "I'm not inviting them. They'll kidnap me, or kill Ethan, or both."
"Nobody's touching you, babe." Ethan tightens his arms around me, and kisses the top of my head.
"I'm not that much of a bastard, Cassie." Prez's voice stays level. "Once you're married, we contact them, try to get that bounty pulled off your head before it turns into a full war with the Famiglia. I don't know how they'll take the news, so we plan for the worst version of that conversation."
I close my eyes, breathe slowly. "You don't know my brothers. They won't take it well. I don't want this family paying a price for something I did just by being born into the wrong house. Maybe I should just go home and end it clean."
"No," Prez and Ethan say it in the exact same breath.
"Not happening, babe." Ethan's jaw sets, eyes cutting to Prez like he's daring him to disagree.
"Not on my watch." Prez leans forward. "Your family's tried buying their way into business with us before. We've said no every time. Might be worth reconsidering that, if it buys peace instead of a war nobody wins."
"What would you even trade them?" I look between the two of them.
"Club business, Cassie. Don't lose sleep over it.
We'll handle it and tell you when it's safe to breathe easier.
" Something softens in his face. "For what it's worth, I hope you stick around once it is safe.
The old ladies have taken to you fast. Rosie's already told me twice I'd better do whatever it takes to keep you here. "
"I love them too. They've been so good to me. It's like there's a whole club running inside the club, just for the women."
Prez laughs, low and real. "That's about the size of it." He turns to Ethan. "Now, other business. If you're taking a wife, we're not sending you down that aisle as a prospect. We voted. Church tonight, we're giving you your patch."
Ethan goes rigid under me, and I feel his heart pick up against my back. "Tonight? Seriously?" His voice cracks a little around the word. "I've been waiting for this since the day I walked through that gate. Any hint what my road name's gonna be?"
I already know enough about this world to understand road names aren't handed out at random. They're earned, tied to something you did or something that stuck to you, a story the club decided was worth carrying around for the rest of your life.
"You'll find out with everybody else." Prez's mouth curves, entirely too satisfied with himself.
He glances at me, and there's something almost conspiratorial in it, like he already knows exactly what name is coming and is enjoying keeping it from both of us.
"Go on, get out of here, the two of you.
Cassie, we call your brothers Sunday. I want you in this room when we do. "
"I'm going to be there too, Prez." Ethan doesn't say it like a request.
"Wouldn't dream of leaving you out. This affects you most of all."
We stand and head back out into the clubhouse, and Ethan grabs us both a beer before I settle onto his lap at one of the tables. "This is really happening," I say, leaning my head against his chest. "We're getting married."
"We sure are, babe. Won't find a happier man walking this earth. Saturday, I'm all yours."
"I can't wait." And for once, sitting here in a room full of people who chose me for nothing, I actually mean it.
Lily-Rose finds us a few minutes later, dropping into the seat across from us with a notepad already out.
"Heard there's a wedding to plan. I do flowers.
I've got a standing order with a place two towns over, and I am not letting Cassie walk down any aisle, fake or not, without something beautiful in her hands.
" She grins at me, warm and immediate. "So.
White, or are we doing something with a little more bite to it? "
For the first time since I ran, planning feels like something other than survival.