“What do you mean by that?” Simon asks over the radio, and I can’t help but grin.
“You wanted bedlam and mayhem,” I say as I look down at my would-be killer.
I’m not entirely sure what my plan is past the next day, but something about her makes me want to keep her around. She’s beautiful, and she took her own destiny in her hands when she tried to put a bullet through my chest.
“Sorry about your wedding being ruined like that,” I say as we pass by Michael who’s come out of the church carrying a black trash bag, most likely full of cellphone and wallets.
It’s only when we walk into the church that I notice how red her exposed shoulders are from being out there in the cold. I have a long-sleeved black shirt on, but this little one had nothing but fucking lace and whatever the hell dresses are made of.
“I wasn’t exactly a willing participant in it,” she mumbles.
Her hand briefly tries to pull away from me as we pass a dead body, but then she freezes up as if I’m going to hurt her or something.
“I can’t let you go, girl…” I say as I bend over a cowering white-shrouded priest.
“Why not?” she asks loudly as I yank the man up by the collar.
“Get the fuck up,” I growl at him before I notice the huge yellow stain on the front of his robes. “Did you fucking piss yourself?”
“He did. Did it right beside me when you guys were shooting,” she says beside me and I hear the tiniest of laughs when she says it.
Looking back at her bloody and dirty dress, I don’t see an ounce of yellow anywhere on it.
“Looks like you kept your shit together,” I grin at her.
“Right up to the point where the gun didn’t work,” she grins right back at me.
I shrug my shoulders. “So you didn’t like the fucker this priest was going to marry you to?”
“I’d rather have slit my fucking wrists. It would have been me or him tonight if we were married,” she says.
“Lord help me,” the priest moans quietly as I begin to yank him down the aisle with me and the girl.
“What’s your name?” I ask, ignoring the little bitch of a priest.
“Meghan, why?” she asks before she stops dead in her tracks.
She’s so rooted to the floor, I stop to see what’s caught her attention.
James looks up at us with a frown as he snips a guy’s thumb off. “I call dibs on the next bride. I’m done with thumb duty for the next couple of lifetimes.”
“Quit your bitching,” Andrew says with a gruff laugh as he elbows him to continue.
Pulling both the quivering priest and the now pale girl past the thumb show, I say, “Andrew, I’m going to need your help.”
“With?” he asks as he tosses the bag of thumbs to James.
“Need a witness, I think. Shit, I don’t know. I ain’t ever been to a wedding,” I say, and look over at Meghan.
“I’m Gabriel, by the way,” I add, wondering when she’s going to look at me.
She’s still staring at James even though she had to turn around almost completely to do it. She’s not really staring at him though, it’s more like staring at what he’s doing.
That’s good she isn’t staring at him. I’d hate to have to snap his neck.
Pulling her and the priest along, I look up at the large cross hanging behind the alter, then at the surrounding bodies left by the bullets that tore through them. It’s an odd feeling that all of these men died and I ended up only taking a ghost round through the chest.
“What are we doing?” Meghan asks as I stand us before the alter and shove the priest in front of us.
“Guaranteeing I piss off your old fiancé as much as possible. He’s going to be wanting you back,” I say with a smile.
“By what? Forcing me to marry you?” she squeaks out now that she’s figured out my plan.
Her voice hits a high octave at the end, and I’m pretty sure she’s not gonna be happy about this.
“Force ain’t got nothin to do with it, darlin’. You marry me or you stay our prisoner. You can’t go back to the Russians. We can’t let you go. My side or yours will be using you as a chess piece,” I say and elbow the priest.
“A chess piece?” she growls at me as her nails dig into my hands.
She’s trying to get me to let her go.
Yeah, that won’t happen.
“There’s no fucking way!” James shouts.
All four of us turn to James as he starts cursing loudly.
Oh shit.
Trying to contain my laugh, I watch as James tries to wipe the blood off his face that squirted up from one of the stiffs.