Page 34 of Cruel Honor

With that comforting knowledge in mind, I take his hand. It’s warm and strong around mine. Instantly, I feel more at ease.

The church is large and gaudy and nothing I would ever want to get married in.

But it seems I don’t have a choice.

Katya is our witness even though she’s adamantly against this.

“Are you mad?” Dimitri asks her as we enter the church.

“Of course, I’m mad! You locked me in my room, you doofus.” Her voice echoes through the almost empty church. A few of the other churchgoers glance at her with curiosity.

“Ah, Father,” Dimitri says, approaching the priest near the altar. “We’d like to get married.” He tugs me along behind him. My long wedding dress trails on the ground.

“You need an appointment, and we need to discuss your faith first,” the priest responds. “I know I’ve never seen any of you in my church before.”

“That’s because we’re not churchgoing people.” Dimitri pauses and looks at me. “Are you a churchgoing person?”

“Not really.”

“See? Already learning things about you.” He turns back to the priest. “Listen, we don’t have time to waste. So, if you could just marry us, that would be great.”

“As I said, you need an appointment, and—” He stops when Dimitri pulls his jacket back and reveals the gun inside the pocket.

“Don’t make me take this out, Father. Just marry us, and we’ll be on our way.”

The priest looks at me. I could plead with him for help, but I doubt he’d be able to do anything. Sure, he could call the police, but something tells me Dimitri isn’t the kind of man who’s bound by the police.

“Just marry us,” I whisper. I want to get this over with. The sooner it’s done, the sooner I can find a way to escape Dimitri’s crazy world and get back to my own.

Dimitri waggles his jacket, showing off the gun.

The priest gulps and nods. “Is that your witness?” he asks, pointing at Katya.

“Yep,” she grumbles.

“Ok, good. Uh … let us begin.”

He has Dimitri and me stand opposite each other and hold hands, and then he begins the ceremony. It’s short and simple. I suspect it’s because the priest wants to get us out of his church as fast as possible.

“Do you …” He looks at Dimitri. “I’m sorry. I don’t know your name.”

“Dimitri Ivanov.”

His eyes widen slightly, almost like he recognizes the name. How far does Dimitri’s power extend?

“And yours?” the priest quickly asks me.

“Evelyn Anderson.”

“Right.” He clears his throat. It’s loud in the quiet church. “Do you, Dimitri Ivanov, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” Dimitri says without a hint of hesitation. How can someone who never wanted to get married be so sure?

It’s because he’s calling all the shots, I realize. He can afford to be confident. Whereas me? I can’t afford to take my eye off the ball.

“And do you, Evelyn Anderson, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

Lawful?I think to myself. This is the furthest thing from lawful, but I know that if I run screaming from this church, Dimitri will justgrab me and plant me right back in this spot. I know he’s Katya’s brother, so I don’t believe he’d hurt me, but I don’t want to test that theory.

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