Page 60 of The Book of Wrath

“Not together. He’s coming with us,” Roark said, his eyes watching the entire confrontation go down. Of course, he was safe where he standing. I couldn’t make it to him first. Max walked up behind me putting his arm around my shoulders.

“She would’ve grabbed my gun and shot you all for coming into our room. Did none of you think that maybe just maybe fake kidnapping Megan would send her into a PTSD spiral?” Max asked them. I watched all of them go from cheeky smiling to sadness. None of them thought of it. Hell, I didn’t even think about what that would do to me.

“You’re right, we didn’t think of that. I’m sorry, it was supposed to be a fun little, grab you and take off,” Ally said. I walked down a few steps and gave her a hug. She wasn’t doing it to be malicious, she was trying to have fun. I couldn’t fault her for that.

“I’ll grab my bag, just give me five minutes,” I said, letting her go and heading up the stairs. I heard a collective release of breath as I walked away. Max was now tearing into the guys for the stunt, but they were here for him as well. I guess it’s a good thing we got it on when we did.

I tossed a black dress and some strappy heels into a bag, threw on some comfy sweatpants and a tank top and stepped into my flats. My sneakers were missing, Ally must’ve already packed them in whatever bag she made up for me. I walked back out of the room and down the hall. Max had ushered everyone down the stairs and into the living room. He was waiting in the hallway for me.

“They seem apologetic about the bullshit,” he said, kissing me on the cheek. “Just do me a favor and make sure you text me when you guys get wherever the hell they are taking you.”

“I will make sure my location is on so you can stalk me the whole way,” I said, kissing him back.

“Alright love birds, enough. Megan let’s get going before these three duke it out over our plan,” Ally said, giving Tony a quick kiss on the cheek before she ushered me out the door and into the waiting car.

The rest of the night went by in the blink of an eye. Ally’s driving did a great job of putting myself to sleep. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on her, but I was just exhausted from everything from wedding planning to event planning for the library to just the daily grinding of work and home life.

I needed this more than I wanted to admit.

I woke up as we pulled up to the hotel by the beach, Ally looked over and smiled at me widely. I looked out the window at the large historical looking stone building. The white shutters around the windows looked freshly painted, the blue door also looked freshly painted. I guess this close to the water you’d have to keep up the paint jobs so there’s no paint chips.

“Welcome to your weekend getaway!” Ally exclaimed, hopping out of the car and grabbing our bags from the trunk. I saw two dress bags and looked at her with a sideways glance. I stepped out of the car and put my hands on my hips.

“What are those?” I asked her, her grin only widened at my confusion.

“Some of us don’t like our dresses getting wrinkles on them. One is for the club; the other is for the brunch your sister set up in about two hours. I hope you can get yourself looking presentable in that short amount of time,” she said, ushering me into the hotel like I was a child in need of guiding. Her grin didn’t falter when we got to the stairs and through the front door where a huge black banner with white letters was draped across the main foyer.

“Congratulations Mrs. Carter!”

I looked back at Ally who was wearing the biggest grin I had ever seen on her face. I didn’t even notice that Gwyn was standing by the door, also grinning from ear to ear. I looked around for the front desk, there wasn’t one. No staff bustling about for breakfast either.

“Where is the staff?” I asked, the puzzling look on my face must be hilarious because they start giggling like school girls. Alice and Lexi come down the stairs by the door, looking at us all like we had six heads.

“I’m glad you made it here safely, but what is with all the laughing,” Lexi stammered out still rubbing her eyes. She gave me a hug and looked around the room, “Where the hell is the kitchen? I need coffee.”

“Megan do you think we are at a hotel?” Alice asked as she gave me a hug, before leading us down the hallway and to a beautiful cottage like kitchen. Honestly this was the kitchen of my dreams, it looked like something out of one of a fantasy books. Plants and ivy vines were everywhere, the wooden table in the room looked hand made and rough. It was beautiful.

“I thought maybe a hotel by the outside but seeing this, you rented a house for our weekend?” I took a seat at the table, admiring the craftsmanship. Lexi pulled out a coffee machine that was not modern by any sense of the word and had Alice helping her make coffee. It’s too damn early for everyone to be this awake.

“Guilty. But this is more than just a get bachelorette weekend. It’s a funeral for your single lady life!” Alice exclaimed, again too fucking excited for this early in the morning. I am still tired, and I want to find a bed and curl up in it!

They started giggling together planning out the rest of the day, but I was too busy looking out the window at the beach across the backyard. There were a few canopies set up in two rows with chairs underneath them. I looked closer at the small number of chairs, there were only four underneath each canopy. I looked back at my friends, they were smiling and giggling as if this was the best day of their lives.

I abruptly pushed away from the table and walked out of the kitchen. I could hear the commotion behind me, Ally running after me shouting something that I wasn’t paying attention to. I got to the entrance, searching our bags for the two dress bags that Ally had carried in. I couldn’t find them.

I spun on her, “Where are they?” I asked, each of them looking at each other, the smiles and laughs left fading in the kitchen.

“Where’s what?” Ally questioned me as if she didn’t know what the fuck I was asking for.

“The dress bags Ally. Where are they?” I demanded. Lexi stepped toward the closet by the entrance, opening the door to reveal the two dress bags hanging up like they were being hidden. She looked down at the ground as she passed me.

“You weren’t supposed to see her bring them inside,” Gwyn said, putting an arm around Lexi in comfort. Alice took a step toward Ally as if I was about to rage. I reached for the bigger dress bag, pulling the zipper down to expose the white wedding dress inside. I opened the one next to it to find Ally’s burnt orange maid of honor dress inside of it. I looked back at them all, Ally was texting away on her phone. Alice was also sending out a message as well.

Before I could say anything to anyone, I heard tires roll over the rocks out front. I looked out the peep hole in the door to see Roark’s truck pull up. I opened the door and watched as Roark, Tony, Pete, Andy and Max piled out of the damn truck grabbing their bags from the cab.

“Don’t kill Ally, she only did as I asked,” Max said, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me into his arms. Confusion settled across me at why the hell they were at my bachelorette party and why my dress was in the hall closet.

“I told you she would figure it out. I swear you guys aren’t that bright,” a male voice called out from across the yard. I turned to see my brother and Mike walking across the yard up to us. I pushed out of Max’s arms for the first time ever and ran to my brother. I hadn’t seen him in so long.

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