9. Cassie
Cassie
The ceremony takes twenty minutes, start to finish, and somehow it still manages to undo me completely. When Pops has us say our vows, Ethan doesn't look away from me once, and when it's my turn my voice comes out steadier than I feel.
"I don't have a fairytale to offer you," I tell him, the words coming from somewhere true even though the paperwork underneath them is a lie.
"I have a woman who's spent two years running, who doesn't fully know how to stay yet.
But I'm choosing to try, with you, today.
That's the realest thing I've got to give. "
"I don't need a fairytale." Ethan's voice catches on it. "I just need you standing where I can reach you. That's the whole ceremony, far as I'm concerned. Everything else is decoration."
When Pops tells him he can kiss me, the whole yard erupts, there’s leather and flowers and old ladies crying happy tears, and for one whole minute I let myself believe none of this is fake at all.
That minute doesn't last.
The first gunshot cracks across the yard just as the party's getting started, and every single man in the clubhouse moves at once, guns drawn, women are shoved behind broad backs before I can even process what's happening.
I catch sight of my brothers walking onto Black Saints land like they own it, and my stomach drops straight through the ground.
They fire again when they spot me, and every shot goes wide, deliberately wide, because I know exactly what my oldest brother is capable of with a rifle in his hands. If he'd wanted to hit something, he would have.
Prez steps forward, Knuckles and Brax flanking him, all three guns raised and steady. "This is Black Saints property. You want to explain why you're firing on it?"
"You know exactly who we are, Razor. We've done business before." Dante doesn't lower his weapon. "I'm here for my sister. Cassandra. Or is she just your whore now? Seems about the only use you'd have for her."
"You mean Cassie?" Prez doesn't even blink at the insult, just tips his head toward me, an invitation, not a command.
"Cassie." Dante's mouth curls around the name like it tastes bad. "Cheap little stripper name."
"You don't know one single thing about me.
" I step out from behind Ethan before he can stop me, fury burning cleaner than fear for the first time in two years.
Ethan reaches for my hand and I let him keep it, but I don't stop walking.
"Only what you decided I should be. How could you hand me to a man like Pablo and call it love? Did you ever love me at all?"
"Of course we love you." Dante's jaw tightens. "We needed you inside that marriage, Cassandra. You were supposed to help us bring Pablo down from the inside, feed us what we needed. We thought you understood the assignment. Looks like somebody beat us to it."
"You wanted me to spy for you?" The words taste like ash. "You never once explained that. You just handed me over and expected me to read your mind."
He takes a step closer, but Prez, Knuckles, and Brax don't move an inch, there’s a wall of leather between us. "Cassandra. Come home. We love you, and we want you back."
"I just got married." I look back at Ethan and something in his face steadies me all the way through. "I belong here now. We were going to call you tomorrow, actually, let you know properly. Guess you beat us to the punch, just from the wrong end."
"We heard the ceremony was an hour out." Dante's face goes tight with something that might almost be regret. "We're too late."
"You are. The officiant had an unfortunate accident this morning, so we moved things up." I hold his stare. "Funny, that. Almost like somebody wanted us caught off guard today."
Dante turns to the men behind him, some silent order passing between them, and every weapon in his crew swings up at once, aimed now at Prez, Knuckles, Brax, and Ethan. "Then we kill the husband before the marriage gets consummated."
"You really want to try that? Here, in the middle of our compound?" Prez's voice doesn't rise even a little. "Take a look behind you before you make that call."
I follow where he's pointing and there's Shadow, flat on the roofline, rifle already sighted in on Dante's chest, still as stone.
"Man can drop a target from a mile out." Prez tips his chin toward the other side of the yard.
"And over there, that's Cash and Ramsay.
They get bored easy, and rocket launchers make for good entertainment.
Wave hello, boys." I hadn't even seen them move into position.
Neither had Dante, judging by the way his face goes pale.
"Weapons down." Dante's voice comes out clipped, and the guns around him lower in one motion, well drilled. "So where does that leave us. We came for my sister. We're not leaving without her."
I laugh before I can stop myself, sharp and disbelieving.
"Since when do you get to dictate anything about my life?
That ended the day I walked out that door.
I'm my own person now, married to a man who loves me without conditions attached.
He'll never sell me out. Not once, not ever.
" I look back at Ethan, who's already closing the last few feet between us.
"He's a good man. This whole club is good people, better than anyone I ever called family before this. I'm one of them now. I'm not leaving."
Prez glances between me and Dante. "We can sit down tomorrow, work out how to defuse this before it gets any worse.
Right now, we've got a celebration happening.
You're welcome to join it, but your weapons stay at the door.
" Someone behind him mutters something about him running a coat check, and he almost smiles.
"Tonight we party. Tomorrow we talk. That's the offer.
You try taking her out of here tonight, we bury every one of you on this compound. She belongs with us now."
Dante's men huddle close, murmuring, and after a long minute he says, "Tomorrow, then. We talk."
I walk toward him slowly, Ethan a half step behind me, and up close his face looks gray, exhausted in a way I've never seen on him. "You haven't been sleeping."
"My sister went missing. Of course I haven't slept." He studies me. "We missed you. All of us. We should have explained things instead of just handing you a wedding date and a groom. That's on us."
I can't tell yet if that's the truth or just what he thinks I need to hear.
I stay wary, every muscle ready to bolt, but I take a step in anyway and hug him, because some stubborn part of me still wants it to be real even knowing he could bundle me into a car the second my guard drops.
He wouldn't, not here, not with Shadow still perched on that roofline.
My other two brothers close in around us, and I cry into all three of them at once, something breaking loose in my chest I didn't know was still sealed shut.
We were never allowed this at home. My father ran that house like a boardroom, no room for softness, everyone expected to be granite all the way through. My brothers had it easier, groomed from birth to inherit the whole machine. I just felt like furniture nobody bothered naming.
"We took you for granted, Cassandra." Dante's voice comes out rough. "Didn't understand half of what you did for that house until you were gone. Nobody told us you kept the books."
"I was the one who kept the Famiglia's finances straight. I was the one who told Dad exactly who hadn't paid and needed convincing." My voice shakes. "When none of you ever came to me after he died, I figured you didn't want me involved anymore. That hurt more than you'll ever understand."
"We're sorry," he admits.
Prez steps back in. "Now that we've had ourselves a proper introduction, you staying for the party, or coming back tomorrow once tempers cool?"
"We'll stay. If Cassandra wants us to." Dante looks to me for the answer, actually waits for it this time.
I glance at Ethan. "Whatever you want, babe. Today's yours."
"Then stay. Send the rest of them home, just the three of you." I turn and walk back toward the old ladies, my legs finally starting to shake now that the adrenaline's got nothing left to burn.
"Well done, Cassie." Rosie pulls me into a hug. "You stood right up to them."
"There's a first time for everything." A slightly hysterical laugh claws its way out of me.
Ethan wraps around me from behind, his mouth at my ear. "You were unbelievable, babe. Watching you stand there and not back down, I about lost my mind." His voice drops rougher. "Gonna need to do something about that later."
Heat floods through me despite the day I've just had. "Later. Right now, let's party."
I turn in his arms and kiss him, and there's not another place on this earth I'd rather be standing.
The cheering picks back up, drinks are passed hand to hand.
The clubhouse itself stays locked down with uninvited guests still on the property, so Cam sets up a bar right out in the yard, music rolling, old ladies dancing, and somewhere in the middle of it I find myself actually laughing with my brothers for the first time in years.
It's been a strange, terrifying, unexpectedly good day.
Maybe I should have married Ethan for real.