Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
I start forward but I’m grabbed on both sides. “Let me go,” I shout but Armand at my left and Cora at my right refuse to let me go. And then it’s the Ubeli’s men in black dragging me backwards away from the fray.
“Logan wouldn’t want you anywhere near that,” Armand shouts in my ear and that’s the only thing that makes me back away. Which unfortunately only gives me a better view of what’s happening to Logan because we head a little ways up the hill and now I can see down on the unfolding tableau.
There must be twenty men surrounding Logan and he’s swinging and brawling like an enraged animal. He’s past reason. That man threatened me and I know, I know that all Logan could see in that moment was that he wouldn’t be able to protect me if they succeeded in taking him away from my side.
“Stop it, please you have to stop them!” I cry, slumping to my knees, my beautiful wedding dress all but ruined by the wet grass outside the tarped area.
But I can only look on in horror as the cops finally get Logan face down on the ground. Only barely, by the looks of it, and it’s taking several men to restrain him there. And then one of the men in scrubs approaches, something in his hand I can’t make out.
Until he raises it to Logan’s neck and with a sickening realization, I realize exactly what it is.
A syringe.
He presses it to Logan’s neck and within thirty seconds, my big, beautiful, virile brand new husband is passed out, sedated like a large, dangerous animal on the floor. Of his own wedding.
And the news cameras were rolling the whole time, capturing the entire thing.
Seventeen
Daphne
Logan had no chance. Not with the video from the wedding. Not just on all the news stations playing 24/7, but also all over the internet.
It would have gone better for Logan if he wasn’t so damn strong. But he just kept knocking them down. Even I haven’t been able to avoid the videos. I was there and they make it look so much more dramatic, maybe because of the filters and the cinematic music always layered on top—
And the fact that an ambulance had to be called for four of the policeman didn’t help his case—even though I know for a fact that none of those supposed ‘terrible injuries’ actually lead to anyone needing to be taken to the hospital and that it was likely all just more fanfare and showcasing by Adam to win points in the press.
“It’s a mess,” I confess to Armand, face in my hands.
“It’s bullshit is what it is.” Armand stands and paces back and forth in my beautifully restored Thornhill living room. Every day I’m living in the reminder of Logan’s love and every day it pierces all the deeper that he’s not here with me to enjoy it.
We should be on our honeymoon right now, and instead, he’s locked away in some cold, padded cell at Maniae Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
Just, what the fuck, world? Why can’t we get a damn break? Incurable cancer wasn’t enough? Separating us for almost a decade? Fighting past misunderstandings and insecurities and finally finding our way to each other, having the wedding of our dreams only for it to be stolen away before we even get to our wedding night?
I officially give up on fairness in the universe.
Armand is feeling less despair and more righteous indignation.
“Cora wants to get involved. She and Marcus have wanted to clean up that corrupt police force for years.”
I just gape at him.
“Oh darling, haven’t you realized that the Ubelis are the real power in this city? Metropolis, too.”
I look around uncertainly, not wanting to gossip about my friends. “But aren’t they sort of…I mean I’ve heard rumors that… Aren’t they sometimes involved in some criminal things… Occasionally, I mean?”
Armand laughs out loud, a full-bodied chuckle. It goes on for several minutes and he’s wiping his eyes by the end.
“Cora would die laughing if she heard that description of their businesses.”
“Oh please don’t tell her. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to malign—”
But Armand just sits beside me on the couch and puts an arm around my shoulders, giving me a squeeze. “I’ll let you in on a family secret. I think you’ve earned it. Cora and Marcus are the criminal underworld, darling. And they aren’t ashamed of it. They’re on the side of the people. On the side of good,” he says earnestly in the way only a true friend can.
“They know that if they are running it, the whole world is a lot safer than if the truly evil fucks had their hands on the pulse.”
Finally, his jovial expression collapses. “Like those dick-faced cunts at the Metro police that Archer has bought out. Nobody likes a sellout, least of all the Ubelis.”