Page 93 of Taking

Ciarra threw her arms around me, squeezing me tight against the beaded bodice of her wedding gown. “Thank you for all of this.”

My eyes stung with the tears I’d held in throughout the ceremony while standing behind her twin sister, Nissa, and watching as she pledged her life to her long-time boyfriend. “I wish you would have taken advantage of my money even more.”

She snorted and stepped back, beaming at me. “Seriously, thank you. What girl has her best friend pay for a wedding like this?”

“One who loves you.”

“I couldn’t be happier.”

I laughed. “Same.”

“When’s that boy going to put a rock on your hand?”

We both glanced over at Gideon who stood talking with Ciarra’s parents who I’d had Midnight Sun Air Charter Services fly into the city a week earlier. He stared at me, his gaze dark and promising, even though he carried on a conversation which doubtless wasn’t about getting under my silk dress.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” I answered honestly as warmth rose between my thighs.

“Your love transcends rings and paper.”

I smiled, letting the truth shine in how he and I gazed at one another.

“He got revenge for you, and you hid it from me.”

I jerked back toward my best friend, my smile fading as my stomach tightened.

“And I understand why,” Ciarra murmured with a soft smile, squeezing my hand. “But I love you like my brat of a sister, Nissa, and there’s nothing on earth that would ever make me turn on you.”

If she knew…

“I do know,” she stated quietly. “I see it on your face, in your eyes. You took yourself back, took control from him.”

My throat tightened as I fought for how to answer—if I even should answer.

“I’m glad you did.” Ciarra hugged me again when she realized I wouldn’t speak a word to confirm or deny. “He deserves to rot in hell.”

I breathed easier, my legs weakened by the shot of adrenaline that had rushed through me over our quiet conversation.

“Where’s my wife?” Ciarra’s husband strode our way, grinning like a fool happy in love. He winked at me over his shoulder while drawing her away toward others wanting to congratulate the newlyweds.

Both he and his parents had thanked me profusely for paying for the entire affair as my gift to my best friend.

The dresses, the hall, the catering, the flowers, the DJ…I refused to let Ciarra dish out money for a single thing.

Her parents still lived off-grid with little to their name, and I wouldn’t allow my best friend to have anything but the wedding of her dreams.

I’d wired the money to her from our home in the Cayman Islands where we’d moved three months after selling my parents’ house and my father’s business.

We had enough money to live comfortably for three lifetimes.

I felt Gideon’s energy before his arm slipped around my waist, and I melted against his hard body, soaking up his warmth, his security.

A latecomer slipped through the hall’s doors as we stood in silence, the sight of him causing us both to stiffen.

Leo.

We watched silently as he moved through the room, greeting Ciarra and her new husband.

The information Gideon had sent to the FBI had cleared Leo’s uncle and landed Devon’s father behind bars—where his life ended in a dark corner. Stab wounds had littered his body.

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