Page 144 of I am Dressed in Sin (Death by Daybreak MC 2)
“I don’t want to look at the test until after the wedding,” I admit, and he slides his arms around me from behind. Everything feels so uncertain right now. Not just things with the club, but with these men.
We haven’t fully agreed to anything, the five of us.
But the wedding is happening. The pregnancy thing is … ugh. And I’m in love with four dudes.
That’s about all that I know.
“Regardless, I told you: once you said I could have you, that’s it. I’m not going anywhere.”
I squeeze his hands and close my eyes for a brief moment.
That sense of wrongness I felt the other night when I was with Sin is the same that I feel now, like something terrible is going to happen. My stomach is twisted into knots, and my head is spinning.
With my eyes still closed, my other senses are heightened.
Sin’s touch is electric, his breath stirs my hair, and I swear that I can taste the faintest tint of blood and ash on the breeze through Beast’s open window.
The old church has never been so packed. I mean, this obviously isn’t the first wedding to take place on this compound (far from it, considering even Nellie and Cat got married here), but it’s certainly the most well-attended. As far as I know, nobody involved with Death by Daybreak is religious, but the stone church we’re standing in now has been here since the club bought the place in the early eighties.
Every single fucking member of DBD is here, their wives, their kids. The Lost Gatos chapter is here; the even larger Seattle chapter is here. Anyone who turns out to have been missing will be a pariah for sure.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” I growl at Sin under my breath. He casts me a quick look, but it certainly isn’t a light or inconsequential look. His silver eyes remind me of the stormy sky outside, the one filled with floating pieces of ash from the wildfires. It bathes the world in charcoal flakes that catch the wind, spreading like dust across the compound.
“Why not? I’m not the groom.” His words are a tad bitter, but not without reason. He knows better than anyone that we have to do this. That I want to do this. Beast isn’t lacking, the other guys just stack up. “I’m not leaving you alone, Gidge.”
I give him a look.
We’re standing outside a set of doors that lead to the nave of the church. Whatever domination this place once was, it’s lost in some barbaric form of club worship, an entity of Death by Daybreak and nothing more. It’s fine by me. I don’t know if I believe in God.
But I sure as fuck have seen the devil.
“I’d hardly be alone,” I retort dryly, gesturing over at Nellie, at the gaggle of teenage girls who are going to be my bridesmaids (against my will, obviously), at Reba who’s giving me one of her looks. Behave! This is a place of worship, she says. Don’t be obscene, Gidge.
Obscene, her eyes say, but it’s one of my favorite things to be.
“What I meant was, we came up with a deal: you are never to be separated from us. You agreed to that.” He lets his gaze scan the church, searching for threats. Technically, we shouldn’t have to worry about any of that, surrounded by the club, on club property, with hundreds and hundreds of soldiers at the ready.
Still, I am. Sin is. If the mafia were to launch an attack, now would be a good time. Just like the club did to them.
Instead, I focus on the shape of Sin’s face as the sunlight comes through the broken stained-glass windows on our right. Colton’s face looks so young in that light, so determined. His dogged resolve to protect me, no matter what, shines through.
My right hand comes up, fingers tapping lightly against the back of his neck, teasing the throb of his pulse. His blue faux hawk is slicked back down the center today, the color vibrant and fresh, and the silver rings in his ear play back the pretty light from the fragmented windows like a prism.
He shifts his gaze to mine.
“You ready for this?” he asks, and I nod.
This is it, the start of something new.
“I’m ready.”
Cat enters the room, nodding his head at Sin, relieving him of his duty. Because of course he would be walking me down the aisle. Giving me away. It’s what he’s always wanted. Even if I find the tradition to be a disturbing bit of prehistoric patriarchal nostalgia, I’ll allow it.
Because then I’ll be done with my father in so many ways. Out from under his roof. Away from his rules. Apart from his scrutiny and cruelty.
Sin gives my arm one last squeeze before slipping in the side door to find his place at the front of the room with the rest of the groomsmen. The girls I don’t know, daughters of powerful men in the club, take their places before the doors, waiting for them to open. Reba is just ahead of me; Nellie has left to take her seat.
