Page 74 of DeLucas After Dark

Gaia gets up from her seat, walks to the piano to the left of the arch, and smiles at me.

I watch as my sister closes her eyes and strikes the first chords ofYou Are The Reason.The double doors open, and Piper and her father step out just as someone steps from the left of the house.

Calum Scott begins to belt out the lyrics of his song, and I watch as my fiancé’s head swivels in his direction. Her mouth drops, and she turns back to me with tears in her eyes.

For the first time in a long time, my heart is full of joy, peace, and love. Despite the warnings triggering in my brain, I’m determined to marry this woman today. To claim her as my own so that she’s always loved, protected, adored, and honored by me.

Piper is the epitome of a princess in her beautiful handcrafted one-of-a-kind gown with the diamond tiara taming her curly hair into a graceful ponytail with curls cascading down over her shoulders. She drew a picture of the gown several years ago when I was still married to Graziella. I kept that picture all these years, and last year, I gave it to Silver Wang, a couture designer who took the fashion world by storm a few years ago.

At that time, I had no idea that Piper would take my hand in marriage. I was still a broken shell of a man, but I knew her love could make me whole.

I watch her now as she waltzes toward me, and I think about the conversation I had with her parents when they arrived. I think of how I promised her father I would never hurt her and that I promised to always place her life before mine.

I think about how I promised her mother that I’ve already planned for Piper to be taken care of if anything should happen to me. I think of how they accepted my promises, though I know they’re still not happy with the man she chose to love.

I’m grateful that they chose to honor her wishes and support her despite their feelings. I don’t expect we’ll become a happy family overnight. What I do expect is that they will respect me, and I’ll do the same for them as I give every day of my life, honoring the promises I’m about to make her now.

“PJ,” I say when her father places her hands in mine.

“Baby, you made my dream come true,” she says, waving a hand around to indicate the wedding décor, our families, and her friends.

I lean in and kiss her lips as the priest clears his throat.

“May I have the privilege of performing the ceremony first?” he asks, causing our guests to laugh.

I nod, and the ceremony commences. Every word that is spoken, every vow taken, I commemorate in my heart. There is nothing about this day that I want to miss or forget. Yet, I’m still vigilant.

Though I have my best men on duty today, I’m as alert as always. This is my family. This is my heart. And this is our home.

“You may now kiss your bride,” Father Gallo pronounces as we conclude our vows.

I pull my beautiful bride into my arms, and I know she feels my arousal, my desire for her pressing through the layers of fabric because she grins into the kiss.

“Later,” she promises against my lips.

Just as I’m closing my eyes to kiss her again, but this time a little sweeter than the first, I catch a glint of metal in the woods from the sun’s reflection.

“Get the women and kids out of here!” I yell, throwing Piper to the ground and covering her with my body as the first shot rings out, hitting the arch where we were standing. Father Gallo drops to one knee and begins shooting.

A firestorm of bullets rains down around us, and I look at Piper, who’s under me and staring at me in bewilderment.

“Are you having second thoughts?”

“I knew what I was getting into when I said, ‘I do.’ You said you’d protect me, right?”

“As long as I’m still breathing, Tesoro.”

“Don’t stop breathing.”

I pull two guns from the inside of my coat and jump back up. “Nico! Get Piper!” I order as he runs toward me. No sooner than my brother grabs my wife, I begin shooting in two directions toward the trees to cover Nico as he runs to the house with Piper. He’ll be back fighting by my side in no time.

Alessandro runs around the house to the right, and Massimo heads to the left. My men are scattering around and shooting. Father Gallo and I take off running in opposite directions as my father helps Tony and Piper’s father usher the women inside.

Rage rips through me, and I feel the blackness begin to take over. I feel the emptiness ripping me inside and the demons clawing at my soul.

Every fucking body will pay for this. I hear a barrage of gunfire in a cluster of trees on the other side of my property. I take off towards it.

When I arrive, Nico’s foot is crushing a man’s chest. Another man lies dead near Alessandro and Massimo. I walk to the dead man and lift his head. That’s the motherfucker that bumped into me at the bar when Piper and I first arrived in town.

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