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"I'm sorry we don't accept that card."
"Oh well, that's all I brought." He turned to me. "I can't pay with crypto here. Can you do me a solid and pick up the tab?"
Crypto? Gavin was tied up in cryptocurrency? Total recipe for disaster. I'd heard way too many stories of people losing everything through that scam.
"Sure, brother." I placed my platinum card on the waiter's tray. "I got this. Consider it a wedding present."
Gavin nodded and I could see it in his eyes. We were good. I took care of him when he needed it, and right now, he needed me.
Wren's eyes followed our exchange. Something flickered there. The first sign of doubt I'd seen in her face all night. Then her gaze switched to mine and softened. Her lips pressed together and turned up in the tiniest hint of a smile at the edges. She was a mystery, her deep dark eyes holding in so many secrets, and I had no clue where to even start with her.
She was attractive. Gavin was lucky to have her. Hot sludge oozed in my chest. It tightened into a knot followed by a strong urge to grab her, force her to tell me everything, and then spank her innocent ass. I'd mess up her hair and smear her lipstick. Put a different kind of pearl necklace around that delicate neck.
I shook my head to break the trance. Fucking hell. What was wrong with me?
My brother's girl.
My skin felt hot. I was not in the right frame of mind for this. I needed to decompress after the action we'd seen earlier. My brain was not thinking straight.
I cleared my throat and looked around.
Where was that hostess?
I needed to blow off some steam and she would do just fine.
Chapter 3 Courthouse Stairs
Magnum
It rained that day. Rain in this part of Southern California was rare, but on the day my brother had picked to get married, the sky decided to drop some serious precipitation.
The collar of my suit jacket scratched against my neck and the pants constricted my blood flow, but after his biggive me a chancespeech at the engagement party, I owed it to him to look presentable while I showed my support for his union.
The security clearance was a joke, and I walked through with my weapon in my pocket. The lobby bustled with people wandering around trying to find their way in the courthouse.
No sign of my brother or his beautiful Asian bride with soulful eyes.
Upstairs in the public records office, the clerk pointed me toward a room designated for wedding ceremonies. A gaggle of couples waited outside, but none of them were Gavin and Wren.
The scene reminded me of intake in the military. Pointless waiting only to get some formal stamp on a piece of paper. They all looked nervous before the ceremony, bickering or doom scrolling on their phones. They'd get called in and disappear for fifteen minutes with a few friends and family, and they'd come out smiling with their shiny new rings. They took pictures they'd never look at again to mark the momentin time they were irrational enough to believe it could last till death.
The wedding concept was the biggest farce ever perpetrated on our society. Love was an illusion. More than half of these couples wouldn't make it a few years into marriage. Yet they were lined up around the corner, all of them spinning the wheel of luck hoping they'd be the half that would make it. Their lawyers would be fighting over who got to keep the ugly photos they had taken that day.
After about twenty minutes of watching disgusting displays of false hope and empty promises, I asked the clerk what time the Beaumont ceremony was scheduled for.
"Twenty minutes," she said. "No late exceptions."
Where were they?
I searched the whole place for them then determined they must've been outside, possibly looking for me. The sun had broken through, and the rain had stopped. The reflection off the wet pavement blinded me briefly as I scanned the area in front of the building.
Nothing.
I sent Gavin a text.
Me: Where the fuck you at?
Me: Where's Wren?
