Page 23 of The Ties That Bind (Fraser Crime Syndicate 2)

CHAPTER7

Kane

“It’s not too late to back out.”

I stop adjusting my dark red cravat and raise my eyes in the mirror. Lucas is standing behind me in the doorway of the suite my mother hired for today, his own grey suit matching mine.

Charlotte outdid herself with the venue. It’s grand, sickeningly so. It will meet every expectation Hamish has for his youngest daughter, no doubt. My mother has spared no expense on today, and not because she wants Elena and I to have a day to remember. No. This is about power and showing our enemies we have it. Money and means. It’s all part of a carefully crafted show we all put on.

It tells our enemies we are not to be messed with.

And that is important. It keeps us all safe and it allows our family name to continue.

Our legacy.

Fuck, I hate that word.

Legacy.

I hate that I covet the power our family has. I hate that I can’t see myself in a normal lifestyle, with a nine-to-five and a family to come home to.

I live to destroy.

Killing is in my blood.

I need the release almost as much as I need oxygen to breathe. I am a murderer. It excites me to take lives. I couldn’t think of anything worse than a mundane, normal existence.

Even so, what my mother has done is not going to go down well. In my brief conversation with my soon-to-be wife, I gleaned much about her. She isn’t showy. She doesn’t like grandeur. Elena will hate everything about this wedding, and for some reason, that bothers me.

“I’m not backing out,” I tell my brother, moving to fix my cufflinks. My father has given me a pair that have been in the family for generations. He didn’t get the chance to wear them at his wedding. His nuptials were not officially sanctioned and were hastily delivered. “Even if I wanted to, it’s too late now,” I add.

Hamish would rain down hell on my family if I embarrassed his daughter by jilting her at the altar.

For better or worse, this wedding is happening.

Lucas roams his gaze over me, as if testing to see if I’m level. Honestly, I’m not sure what I am right now, but I don’t feel the need to bleed anyone.

Yet.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did a runner.”

I loosen my cravat a little. Is he trying to give me an out to a situation that has no cooling off period? This wedding is happening.

“What’s going on with you?”

Fuck, I can hardly breathe in this stupid fucking suit. It feels like a straitjacket, cutting off my air supply. There’s very little that scares me, but standing in the front of that church, waiting for the woman who is going to become my wife, terrifies me. Not because I fear the hellcat I’m set to marry, but because I have no clue how to navigate the waters we’re going to be sailing down. My father prepared me to take over the business, to kill, to take care of my family, but he never taught me how to be married.

I have no idea what a happy marriage looks like. My parents are the epitome of dysfunctional. My father is pussy-whipped by Charlotte, allowing her to make decisions about his business that she should not be involved in, and Charlotte thinks she is queen. My father allows it because he is blinded by his love, but if she were anyone else, she’d be six feet underground, feeding the worms.

“Nothing’s going on. I just want to make sure you’re okay with this. Marriage is a long time, brother.”

Forever in our world.

We take those pesky until death do us part vows seriously.

“Are you purposely trying to start a war with the Adams’?”

He huffs out a breath. “I just don’t know that this shit is a good idea. Charlotte is kingmaking, and that worries me. What do we gain from this alliance?”

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