My voice sounded faint. “I’m ready.”
She held open the door, and together we walked along the dimly lit hallway to the back of the church. There, in front of the open doors to the cathedral, stood my uncle, wearing a tuxedo.
His smile looked sincere when he saw me. “I think your dad would be proud of me. For how I raised you.”
I gave him a tight smile, which was all I could manage while I lied to him. “He’d be proud of you, uncle.”
He grabbed my hand and tucked it under his arm. “Shall we do this?”
I paused. “Can you answer one question for me before we go in there?”
“Tell me.”
“Did Axel need any coercion to come to the church today?”
He blinked, and then a big belly laugh poured out of him. “You were worried you had a runaway groom?”
“It crossed my mind.”
He patted my hand. “You worry too much.”
I didn’t understand what that meant. The ushers opened the doors to the cathedral, and everyone stood up when we appeared at the doors.
The walk to the front was long, but it got longer when I saw the state of Axel’s face. The closer I got, the worse it looked. His lip was cut and swollen. He had a bandage on his neck, and one eye was starting to blacken. But it was the intensity with which he looked at me that made me almost afraid to take my place beside him.
CHAPTER TEN
A few moments earlier
AXEL
The room wascold and dimly lit, but I ignored the discomfort as I changed. My face was an absolute mess. I was standing in front of the mirror, adjusting the collar of my tuxedo, when someone knocked.
“Come in.”
Grisha opened the door, but he didn’t step in. He just stood in the doorway. “The men who jumped you were Volkov. They were just muscle. It’s been handled.”
We made eye contact in the mirror. “Who handled it?”
“I let Sergei do it.”
Grisha was using this as an opportunity to send a message back to the Volkov family, and it wouldn’t be pretty. “Thanks.”
The priest appeared behind him. “The ceremony is about to begin.”
I followedthe priest out the side door and took my place at the front of the church. Beside me was the best man that Lena had chosen for me. I wasn’t even sure of his name, but in this case, it seemed fitting.
I looked over the church. Most of the guests had been sitting and waiting for over an hour in the cold, drafty cathedral, and they now sat huddled quietly in the pews, wearing their spring coats. A small string quartet played softly.
The music shifted, and all the guests turned to look at the back of the church.
I watched with dispassionate interest as Mila’s lone bridesmaid walked down the aisle toward the front of the church.
Then the music changed again, and, on cue, all the guests stood up, signaling the arrival of my bride.
Mila stood in the doorway, looking soft, ethereal and feminine in her puffy white dress and carrying her trailing bouquet of pink roses.
My breath caught in my throat, and something that felt oddly like emotion slammed into me. Maybe it was the disparity between her soft innocence and the ruthlessness of the world I lived in. She deserved to be more than a pawn married off for the gain of others, including my own. Yet here she was, floating toward me in a puff of white. Instead of stepping away, I stood there, unable to tear my eyes off her.
