Chapter 3 Vaughn #2
“Thanks again. Sorry for the inconvenience, really.” She hesitated, though.
Like there was something else she wanted to say, then decided against it.
I waited until she was on the other side of the door before releasing a sigh of…
what? Relief? Sure, I was relieved. Who wouldn’t be?
She hadn’t tried to trap me. There were no tears or accusations, no suggestions that we wait around, let it ride, see what might come of whatever this was—a drunken night of poor choices.
Looking down at my phone to double-check her contact, I caught sight of the time.
“Shit,” I muttered before dragging myself to the shower against my will.
We were supposed to have brunch downstairs this morning.
The entire wedding party had been invited, along with family and friends.
Would Nova be there? I hated the indecision churning in my stomach.
Of all things I didn’t need, coming face-to-face with her again with my friends present and fully aware was not a happy prospect.
What a relief, then, that I didn’t catch sight of her twenty minutes later while standing in the doorway leading into the small event room set aside for our brunch.
A lavish buffet had been set up along one wall, filling a long table with chafing dishes, bowls of salad, fruit, platters of smoked salmon, deviled eggs, and even sushi.
A bartender prepared elaborate Bloody Marys, the sort with all kinds of unnecessary additives sticking out from the top—shrimp, bacon, olives and celery— which I never understood the point of.
Rather than bother with the hair of the dog, I kept an eye on the room before I located my friends seated around a small table in the far corner, thanks to the way Aiden’s thick shock of reddish-brown hair stood out.
From the look of it, none of them were in much better shape than I was, though at least none of them could say they married a stranger last night.
Then again, who was I to say? I didn’t know I was married, either, until less than an hour ago. Maybe we all had announcements to make.
The thought of telling them hardened my resolve against it. I would never hear the end. I had already tossed the ring before getting in the shower. It made me wonder how many such rings were discovered by the cleaning staff.
I could clear up this mess quickly and quietly without them being aware.
That was definitely for the best.
A carafe of coffee sat in the center of the table.
I took advantage of it, pouring a generous amount into the mug sitting at one of the untouched place settings.
“Good morning,” I murmured, keeping my voice low.
The herd of elephants hadn’t completely cleared out from inside my skull.
They had only been drowned out somewhat by other concerns.
“You look like shit.” Aiden offered a wide smile as I took the chair across from him. Asshole. It didn’t look like any of them had eaten yet. I didn’t have to imagine them sitting around, nursing their hangovers. That’s exactly what they all were doing.
The smell from so many dishes both intrigued me and turned my stomach a little. Maybe a Bloody Mary wouldn’t be such a bad idea, after all.
“So, how did everyone’s evening go?” Grayson asked before closing his dark eyes.
The way he rubbed his temples, wincing, told me I wasn’t the only one who had overdone it.
“I’m pretty sure I tipped one of the bartenders enough to pay off their student loans.
Booze makes me extra generous.” His fingers trailed absently down the thin scar running from his right temple down his jaw.
Sebastian chuckled before scrubbing a hand over his short, brown waves.
“Is that all? I was propositioned by a pair of twins who promised to tell me who was who if I took them back to my room. I’m not sure what they thought I was going to get out of the deal,” he admitted.
“I mean, was that supposed to entice me?”
“Help me figure this out. You had the opportunity to bed twins, and you’re sitting here complaining about it?” Aiden cocked his head back like he was looking at a stranger, narrowing his bloodshot blue eyes. “I don’t know you at all.”
“Oh, you know how it is. When they try too hard, it’s no fun.
It’s all about the chase,” Sebastian reminded us.
I had to bite my tongue or risk laughing myself sick.
I couldn’t remember having to chase Nova.
No, it was more like I swept in to… what?
Rescue her? Yes, because even without a clear sight of the bruising on her arm, I had picked up on that wounded quality—the innocent doe surrounded by hunters.
It was a weakness of mine, one of the few I was willing to acknowledge and admit.
“So we all had a good night, then?” Aiden looked like the cat that ate the canary as he grinned around the table. He might have been one of my best friends, but the impulse to wipe the smile from his face was very real.
“What the hell are you smiling about this morning?” I sipped my coffee slowly while the headache that was already plaguing me felt more severe under my friend’s eye. “Three-way last night? Maybe you convinced some poor, defenseless woman to leave her boyfriend for you?”
“As much fun as that would be, no,” Aiden sighed. “I do love the look a woman gets in her eye when she realizes she’s been missing out all along, though. Ruining her for all other men.”
“Then what is it?” Sebastian prompted, idly stirring his coffee. “You’re even starting to get on my nerves a little with this chipper attitude. Did you get a personality transplant overnight?”
“Please, tell me they switched you with somebody more interesting,” Grayson muttered.
Aiden took it in stride, the way any of us would.
We made a sport out of taunting each other, but it was all good-natured.
“Really, what’s so funny?” I had to ask, setting the coffee down, hoping he had a good story that might distract me from my irritation for a little while. A quickie wedding? Me?
Sebastian’s joke gave me something else to think about too.
What if that girl was already married or seriously involved with someone who decided to raise a shit ton of trouble?
A handful of lurid headlines flashed before me, each more nauseating than the last. Something about ‘the house’ being a homewrecker.
No doubt some shit-heel content creators would pat themselves on the back for that clever line.
“Someone at this table deserves to be congratulated.” Aiden’s smile was downright smug.
He was barely fighting off a laugh, not that he was trying very hard.
I eyed him suspiciously. What does he know?
Or was that my conscience tapping me a little too hard on the shoulder?
Creating a situation where there wasn’t one?
“It’s a little too early in the morning for guessing games.” Grayson’s scowl said he meant business. “What is it?”
Slowly, my friend’s gaze slid my way. Goddammit. He knew. How did he know? “Should I tell them, or would you like to do the honors?” he asked, his lips twitching. “I always warned you something like this would happen one day if you weren’t careful.”
Sebastian looked at me, narrowing his steely eyes. “Please, I’m getting bored of this,” he muttered, prompting Grayson to grunt in agreement. “What the fuck did you do?”
My mouth opened, but it was Aiden’s voice that sounded first. “Gentlemen, we are looking at a married man.”
“All right, I knew you should have laid off the shots that bartender was pouring,” Grayson muttered, snickering. “You finally pickled your brain.”
“I’m not the one who had a problem with shots last night. It’s this guy.” Aiden nodded my way, finally allowing himself to grin. “I mean it. Ask him yourself. I was a witness to the whole romantic event.”
The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. “Son of a bitch,” I whispered, staring into his gleeful face. I had never come so close to tossing an entire table out of the way to get my hands around somebody’s throat that much sooner. “You were there.”
“You needed a witness,” he deadpanned. When I could only glare at him, he lifted a broad shoulder. “Listen, I tried to stop you. Don’t tell me you forgot that part.”
“Wait. He’s serious. You’re serious,” Sebastian muttered. “What the fuck?”
“Who is she? Where is she?” Grayson craned his neck, scanning the room.
“I doubt she’s wearing a sign around saying I Got Married at The Chapel of Love,” Aiden pointed out before adding, “Though they do sell T-shirts at the gift shop. Rings too.”
“But who is she?” Sebastian pressed. “What’s her name?”
“It’s Nova,” I recalled. “Nova something.”
“Wait, I remember that too. Remember, I witnessed the signing of the marriage papers. Nova Mancini,” Aiden concluded.
“Mancini. As in Riccardo Mancini? The casino owner?” Grayson ran a hand over the back of his neck, whistling softly through pursed lips.
“No,” I muttered, pulling out my phone to open the web browser. “No fucking way. Mancini isn’t exactly an uncommon last name.”
“What are the odds?” Sebastian was starting to find humor in the whole situation. He had the luxury of seeing things that way. His normally steely eyes twinkled. “A casino owner marrying the daughter of a rival casino owner. At least we know he’ll approve of your profession.”
“Maybe you can inherit his casino when he’s gone,” Grayson suggested. “I can think of worse ways to expand the business.”
“Dammit, none of this is funny. You realize that, right?” One by one, I turned my stony glare on them, watching their shit-eating grins dissolve into something distinctly guilty.
“Obviously, I’m getting it annulled as soon as possible.
It was a stupid, drunken mistake encouraged by one of my so-called friends,” I added, glaring at Aiden.
At least he had the decency to look embarrassed, for once, rather than wearing his smug expression.
“Yeah, that’s kind of shitty,” Grayson agreed.
“I’m telling you, I tried like hell to convince him not to do it. You might not remember now, but you will,” Aiden promised.
“Oh wait.” Sebastian rapped his knuckles against the table before pointing a finger at me. “He did. He kept saying something about regretting it in the morning, but I didn’t know what he meant. I figured you wanted to keep partying, and he was trying to talk sense into you. How could I have known?”
The thing was, I vaguely remembered that too. I also remembered telling Aiden he could go fuck himself if he thought he was going to stop me. “Those lemon drop shots are fucking deadly,” I announced, elbows on the table, my head in my hands. “There’s a reason I stay away from sugary drinks.”
“You were doing lemon drops? You don’t deserve a quick annulment when you brought the whole thing on yourself,” Sebastian decided with a chuckle before getting serious. “Listen, things could be a lot worse. So you got drunk and made a mistake. It’s easily undone. Happens all the time.”
“It’s kind of what the city is known for,” Grayson agreed. “What happens in Sin City stays in Sin City.”
“Sure, and the problem with that is we live here,” I reminded them with a wry chuckle, lifting my head to look around the table. “We can’t escape the mistakes we make here.”
“You couldn’t escape having gotten married here no matter where you flew home to later,” Aiden pointed out. When the three of us stared at him, he shrugged. “What? It’s the truth.”
Squaring my shoulders, I muttered. “I’ll get it taken care of.”
“What I need to know is…” The lifting of Sebastian’s eyebrows told me what was coming before he asked, “Did you consummate your union?”
I didn’t have it in me to come up with a sarcastic reply. “I’m fairly sure we didn’t, no.”
A chorus of unhappy groans rose from the table before Aiden snickered. “Wow. What a waste. She was hot too. Those legs?” He grimaced like he was in pain.
Something flared up in me, potent enough to make strangling him look like an even better idea.
“Watch it,” I warned in a flat voice. “That’s my wife you’re talking about.
” Their laughter told me they took it as a joke, but I’d never been more serious.
He didn’t have the right to talk about her that way.
Nova Mancini. I wasn’t supposed to believe she picked me out on purpose?
But no, I had picked her, hadn’t I? All right then, there was no doubt in my mind she had jumped at the opportunity to head to the chapel once she knew who she was drinking with last night.
I must have said my name, or someone must have told her who she was hanging out with.
Riccardo Mancini. My father-in-law. He had a reputation around town for skirting the rules whenever he could get away with it.
The sort of man people referred to in hushed voices, a member of the so-called old-school crew who used to run this town.
His father had rubbed elbows with all of the big names back in the day—Frank, Dean, Sammy, not to mention the men whose job it was to silence anyone who made waves.
Was I honestly supposed to believe it was an accident, his daughter marrying a rival casino owner? Was this his play at taking what was mine since my father had never sold out the few times Riccardo had suggested an early retirement?
I would annul the marriage immediately.
No one took what was mine.
A satisfied, almost eager smile tipped the corners of my mouth as I raised the mug to it.
Mancini wasn’t the only one whose family had a long history around here. I had learned a thing or two myself.