Page 118 of Gambit's Queen

“Dmitri should be here any minute. He insisted on bringing everything to wash your hair and put it up so he can style it tomorrow.”

“Time is slipping by, I’m nervous, we forgot something.”

“I promise, everything’s been triple checked. We missed nothing and you are in for so many surprises.”

We made it to the clubhouse with fifteen minutes to spare before the rehearsal was scheduled to start. Nola brought me a cute black swing dress to wear with purple and black striped tights. My low-heeled shoes were black leather with a wide silver buckle. They looked vaguely Puritan style. My hair is put into mouse ear buns. I was make-up free and a little tired, but extremely excited.

Gambit insisted on carrying me from the SUV into the bar area. The rest of the wedding party was there. Including the kids and the witch that was marrying us. Willow found a high priestess of a local coven to marry us. She’d been an ordained minister for more than a decade.

This was my first time meeting her. Easy to spot in a long flowing midnight colored robe dress. Her blonde hair pulled back away from her face laid down her back in a long thick plait. Her honey brown eyes filled with kindness.

She offered a few kind words after introductions before we started rehearsal.

Gambit

AFTER I GOT STORMYsettled into bed, I headed out to the Woodshed. I spent the next several hours cutting on turd. Thin cuts all over his entire body. I even sliced his eyelids before rubbing salt into his wounds. Turd cried and begged for mercy. He found none.

Over the next ten days my brothers and I planned to torture him. One day for every year he terrorized Stormy. We kept Sid and Dan alive as well. After we were through with Turd, we’d drop them all in the middle of wild hog territory while Dan would get a bullet between the eyes; the other two would be very much alive and aware.

Doc would administer a drug that paralyzed them but left them completely conscious and fully aware.

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Chapter 57

Stormy

Dmitri stood in frontof me with one hand on a hip. The other held over his open mouth.

“I’d say you look like a princess, but you don’t. You look like a queen.”

I expected him to add a joke or sassy comment, but he didn’t. If I didn’t get to look soon, I might lose my mind.

Finally, Dmitri said the words I longed to hear for hours, “Are you ready to look?

“Yes!” I nearly screamed the word as I turned around.

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