Chapter 112: Chapter Fifty-Seven

Alice

In my wildest dreams—I couldn’t have conjured up what my wedding day would be like. Most days, I thought it was out of my reach.

“It’s time.” Mo and Trace fixed my floor-length dress. It had a small train. I didn’t need anything special, but they wouldn’t let me argue. It was strapless, and because Andrei had a thing for red.

It was as red as blood.

As red as the blood we’d joined all those days ago.

Now we were making it legal on the outside the way it was on the inside.

I held the white roses in my hands and waited while the rest of the guys, all dressed in black and white tuxes, moved around the minefield of obstacles.

They went from a Ninja course to a strongman competition, then back to Ninja with paintball guns, but finally settled on more of an obstacle course that wouldn’t be too hard for Andrei to get through.

The rest of the guys were at different parts in the course, ready to boo his efforts.

“Is this really necessary?” I breathed out as I saw Nixon put his hands on Andrei’s shoulders and point him in my direction. He could have been miles away.

He was still healing, and now he had to go through more?

It didn’t seem fair.

“Tradition,” Trace said kindly from next to me. “It’s about tradition, and this is Andrei we’re talking about. He’ll thank us later.”

“Maybe.” Bee laughed and shook her head. “It’s not like the rest of us had to go through this.” She winced when she locked eyes with Luc, Chase’s wife.

She’d been tortured, not as bad as Andrei but bad enough.

For good reason.

But still.

El and Val were on the other side of Mo waiting while Renee made her way over to us, her expression amused. “Andrei’s restless.

“He’s yelling,” I pointed out. “In Andrei speak, that means he’s happy.”

The girls all burst out laughing while I clung to my roses and waited for him. It was like I was waiting at the end of the aisle, only a really intense aisle.

If Andrei could make it past Tex, then Tex agreed to marry us right there on the course, if not, well, we hadn’t really gotten beyond that, but I’m sure Andrei was prepared.

I gulped when Tex made his way over to the gladiator part.

The guy looked ready to rip Andrei’s head off.

Great. Would nothing be normal with these people?

I just wanted to marry him, rush into Nixon’s huge house, and celebrate with everyone, mainly with Andrei.

Andrei locked eyes with me from the other side of the field. Even far away, he was beautiful, angry, lethal.

Mine.

I smiled brightly.

He blew me a kiss.

And I nearly died.

“Girl…” Mo elbowed me. “Anyone else proud of this one for taming the Russian beast?”

“Monster,” I corrected. “Each and every one of them are monsters in their own right. But I’d rather sleep with the monster, hold his heart close and keep it safe, than take my chances with the man.”

“Amen,” Trace agreed while the rest of the girls wiped away tears.

“It’s not an easy life, but it’s so much more worth living when you realize how precious it really is.” She bent over and picked up her little girl Serena.

Trace set Serena back down. She stuck out her tongue at Junior, whose eyes widened as he reached for one of her curls and tugged.

“Junior.” Bee pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Say sorry.”

“I'm not sorry!” Junior stomped his foot. “She's mean!”

Trace exhaled. “Serena, don’t stick out your tongue and be nice to Junior, you’re stuck with him.”

I’d never seen a toddler’s eyes widen with so much horror in my entire life. And I wondered in that moment, if there would one day be a story there… between the two of them.

One could only hope.

“He’s starting!” Mo clapped her hands. “Man, the guy’s like a predator. Look at him run across that log.”

I sighed dreamily as he made his way across two obstacles.

Nixon and Chase heckled right along with Sergio and Phoenix. Dante stayed at the beginning with Vic. Tex raised his gladiator stick high.

Great, just great.

“He’ll be fine.” Mo winked. “Andrei and I have a plan.”