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Something in my brother’s expression has a tingle of déjà vu running up my spine, and I flash back to when he shoved my face in my birthday cake when I was seven years old.
He’s going to do it to his bride. Goddamn it. I jolt to my feet, my chair shoving back, but he’s too far away, and I’m too late.
The photographer is poised to catch the shot. They cut the cake, then he kisses her, and there goes that hand to the nape of her neck. In one quick flash he jerks his arm and that beautiful unsuspecting, smiling girl goes face-first into the cake.
Stunned silence fills the room for a moment, and then the laughter starts, mostly with Elliott’s idiot sophomoric buddies. I’d heard them chuckling about something in the ante room before the service. Now I wonder if this was it.
I scan the ballroom, and everyone is laughing it off, some more nervously than others, like they’re in shock and don’t know how to react.
“Elliott, you promised,” Elaina cries.
My gaze follows her as she dashes from the room. I feel for the poor girl. My eyes snap to Elliott. This time my asshole brother isn’t getting away with this stunt. Not this fucking time.
I stride across the room and grab him by his tie, jerking his face to within an inch of mine. “You’re going to apologize to that sweet girl, the one you don’t fucking deserve, and if I ever hear you pull another stunt like this, I’ll hunt you down and beat you to within an inch of your life. Understand,brother?”
He wants to laugh in my face, but I’m not the same kid who went off on that military bus so many years ago. Now little brother is the bigger man with a height and weight advantage.
Still, there’s shock and the resistance. He’s never had to do what he was told his entire life. Until now. That shit stops today.
I turn my attention to the room. “You think this is funny? My asshole brother pulls this stupid stunt, shattering that sweet girl’s trust, humiliates her, breaks her goddamn heart, and you all think it’s a fucking joke? Is that how friends and family treat each other? Every last one of you should be ashamed of yourselves.” I can’t imagine any of my MC brothers disrespecting his own or a brother’s ol’ lady like this. Fist fights would break out. And they call us Royal Bastards the uncivilized assholes.
“He didn’t mean any harm, Dylan.” This from my father.
“Is that how you see it? Is there no line too far with him, Dad? Is Elliott always so damn perfect in your eyes? You never see him for what he is—a selfish, cruel asshole.”
A murmur goes up around the room, but I don’t give a shit. I grab my brother’s arm and drag him out the exit. He tries to fight me, but gives up when he realizes its useless.
Elaina’s maid of honor stands down the wide, carpeted hall at a door, like she’s talking to someone through it, and I know Elaina must be on the other side. It must be the ladies room. I haul Elliott that way, and the girl turns when we approach, her eyes getting huge.
“Hey, I’m Dylan, this idiot’s brother,” I introduce myself, extending my hand. She hesitantly takes it.
“Maggie.”
“Is she in there?” I tip my head to the door, and she nods.
“She locked the door and won’t let me in.”
Lifting a hand, I tap a knuckle on the wood. “Elaina? Can I talk to you a minute, sweetheart?”
The lock flips, the door opens a crack, and I see a sliver of her face, rubbed red from scrubbing the cake off, I imagine. Her eyes widen when she sees me.
“Hey, honey. I’m sorry we didn’t have a chance to meet before the ceremony. I got in late. I apologize for that. Are you okay?”
She shakes her head, and tears spill over her lashes.
“Can you open the door? My brother has something to say to you.”
She sucks her lips into her mouth, and for a second, I’m not sure she’s going to do it, but then the door swings open a foot. I jerk Elliott forward.
“Apologize, moron.”
“Elaina, I’m sorry you’re upset.”
I slam my hand into his shoulder. “That’s not an apology.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done what I did. It was all just supposed to be funny.”
“Well, everyone laughed, so you got what you wanted, even though I told you repeatedly I didn’t want any dumb stunts at our wedding and you promised me, Elliott—promised me—you wouldn’t do anything like this.”
