Page 43 of Red Retaliation
But I’m still going ahead with it.
CHAPTER
29
Red
IGET LITTLE USE from my Mayfair apartment because I’m usually at my club. I only bought it, along with some other properties to launder money, being as I’d run out of viable places to clean huge sums fast enough.
This particular apartment also served as a base to enjoy myself with the string of women I amused myself with, but since Lorna backstabbed me in the worst possible way, the place has become redundant. However, I’m not thinking of that whore today. It will only impede what I need to do.
Gritting my teeth, I stride across to the suit hanging on the wardrobe door of the vast bedroom, and a further twinge of uncertainty rumbles through me. It happened frequently throughout the night, interrupting my sleep. My mind arguing with itself about whether marrying Arianna isreallythe best thing to do haunted the long hours. But because everyone is so opposed to it, I’d be blind and deaf not to question myself.
I snatch the three-piece suit off the hanger and lay it on the bed.
I’ve made my mind up and nothing, not my brothers, Del,no one, will dissuade me. This marriage is the answer. It will twist the knife in the backs of those Italian bastards. I only wishmyhand was physically holding the blade. However, this is the next best thing and will pave the way for the future.
Eyeing the suit, I hope the tailor has done a good job of making the alterations as I cannot bear anything ill-fitting.
But I don’t likethat.
My gaze lingers on the waistcoat with an unpleasant gold sheen. That’s definitely not my taste, but with twenty-four hours’ notice, I appreciate there was a minimal choice of off-the-shelf wedding suits, especially considering the alterations I required. I guess I should be grateful.
Shrugging, I pull my T-shirt over my head. I’d better get this done. The sooner this wedding happens, the sooner the news will be delivered, courtesy of the press, to my dearest Italian “friends” and show the world exactly where I now stand.
As well as what is now mine.
I glance up as the door opens. “Have you never heard of knocking?” I snap, immediately deducing from Liam and Oscar’s faces this will be hard work.
“What would you be doing in here that you wouldn’t want disturbed?” Liam eyes my wedding suit with distaste. “Is that waistcoatgold?”
Shoving the waistcoat to one side, I snatch up the crisp white shirt and slip it over my shoulders. Liam especially will make today as difficult as possible. I’m already dreading seeing Arianna in a wedding dress.
Under normal circumstances, a wedding is about the beginning of your life together - the tease of waiting the whole day before ripping that famed “dress of promise” off your bride.
But this ismywedding day, and it’s far from normal.
There will be no ripping off of clothes - no nothing, short of playing to the press that we are blissful newlyweds.
How ironic.
I just hope Arianna’s dress is as ugly as my waistcoat because otherwise my sanity will be even harder to maintain.
Oscar studies me as I fiddle with the starched wing collar of my shirt and accompanying cravat. “Have you told Sheena yet?”
Pausing from placing the gold collar studs, I turn away from the floor-length mirror. “Why would I tell her?”
Liam chuckles bitterly. “Course he hasn’t told her! She’ll go mad! She’ll go even madder when she finds out from the newspapers. Nice move, Red! Not!”
I grit my teeth. “It’s not like Sheena could get here in time.”An excuse, yes, but true all the same. Even if this wedding was real, the last thing I want is Sheena sticking her beak in.
Liam laughs loudly. “Anyway, I doubt there’ll be room at the wedding breakfast for Sheena’s troop. She’s probably had another ten kids bynow!”
I scowl. “That’s enough! Sheena’s our sister, regardless of her turning her back on us.”
“Yeah, well, since she married that dickhead and started popping out his offspring, the less I think about her, the better!”
Placing the cravat, I shrug on the waistcoat, grimacing at the taffeta, and study myself in the mirror. I’ve calmed my thick, unruly hair into a neat ponytail and tamed the waves over my crown with wax. I look all right. I turn my head from side to side. Apart from a hint of the very end of the scorpion’s sting, the tattoo is concealed too. Not bad at all.
