Page 253 of Corrupted Kingdom

‘A toast to the lovely bride and groom,’ he called out, a hush settling over the crowd as Dornan took hold of my arm and dragged me towards his father. His fingers hurt as they dug into my arm. There’d be more bruises tomorrow to add to my collection.

‘My dear friends and family,’ Emilio said, ‘let’s give a warm welcome to my son’s new wife, and my new daughter. I give you Mariana Ross.’

There were claps and cheers, and hugs from Emilio. First he embraced his son, something I’d never seen him do in ten years, and then he hugged me, almost crushing me in his arms. He might’ve been old, but the man was strong. Just as I thought he was letting go, he leaned in and gave me a wet kiss, right on my mouth. I almost jerked my head back, stopping myself just in time. If I made him angry he’d kill me, and then there wouldn’t be any escaping for a new life and a chance to finally be reunited with Luis.

‘We’re a very affectionate family,’ Emilio whispered in my ear. ‘We share . . . everything.’

I gritted my teeth and kept my fake smile plastered on. Beside me, Dornan was oblivious, his friends and fellow club members congratulating him in a steady procession. Me, I was just there to look good. None of them gave me so much as a sideways glance. Then again, maybe they were too scared of Dornan yanking their eyeballs out for daring to look at his property.

As Emilio was finally disentangling himself from me, there was a scuffle and yelling from the edge of the room. A female voice. Juliette. I batted Emilio’s hands out of my path, rushing to where I’d been standing in front of Jason and Juliette only moments earlier. Jason was on the ground, curled into the foetal position, his older brothers standing around him but nobody paying him any regard. Only Juliette was helping him, on her knees beside Jason, her hands pulling his shirt up to look at the damage.

John appeared by my right side, and Dornan soon joined him on my left. Oh, the irony of being flanked by your husband and your lover as you look at the son one of them hid away from the other.

‘What happened?’ I asked, acutely aware that the entire room seemed to have eyeballs on us. Juliette looked up, her eyes wet with tears, and that’s when I noticed the blood on her hands.

I fell to my knees next to Juliette, searching for the source of the blood. Juliette lifted Jase’s shirt, and I saw a long red line across his stomach, one that was seeping blood at an alarming rate.

‘What happened?’ Dornan asked, his voice deathly calm.

The boys started to fidget. I mean, they were hardly boys. All six of Dornan’s older sons were patch-wearing Gypsy Brothers, ranging in age from Chad, the oldest at twenty-four, to Ant, the youngest at seventeen. Ant was only a few months older than Jase, but the difference in the two boys was stark. Ant was already a tattooed, drinking, drug-taking little smart ass, whereas Jason – apart from the tattoos he’d been forced to have inked upon his flesh – was relatively unmarked by the life.

Except now he had a dirty big slice in his belly, and his blood was all over the floor.

‘It’s just a flesh wound,’ Jase muttered, his ghostly pale face telling me otherwise.

John yanked Juliette to her feet and tucked her under his arm, apparently not worried about the blood on her hands making a mess of his clothes. He’d likely seen a lot more blood in his time, and while it was true that Jason didn’t exactly seem to be bleeding to death before everyone’s eyes, he’d still been gouged deep enough to make him hurt.

‘Dornan,’ I snapped. ‘Do something.’

He looked vaguely irritated by my directness. Well, fuck him. His son was bleeding on the floor at the hand of one of his other sons and he was standing there looking almost bored.

‘Which one of you shitheads did this?’ Dornan asked. There was much snickering and pushing between the brothers before Ant cleared his throat. Little fuck. I should’ve known it would be him. He followed Juliette around like a sick puppy, even though she told him constantly that he was like a brother to her, and no she would not date him. The kid was a date rape waiting to happen.

‘It was an accident,’ Ant shrugged, mirroring the way his father often acted when confronted with the truth. Deny, deny, deny.

‘How do you accidentally stab somebody?’ I interjected. ‘No, really, I want to know.’

Ant sneered at me. I wanted to punch his head in, but I was well aware that we had a rather large audience.

‘Ant, take your shirt off,’ Dornan ordered, snapping his fingers. ‘Now.’

With seemingly great reluctance, Ant took his shirt off and slapped it into his father’s open palm. Dornan fixed him with a hard stare before turning to me. ‘Here,’ he said, handing me the shirt. ‘For the blood.’

I took the shirt and pressed it to Jase’s wound. The blood had already slowed to a trickle, but that wasn’t the point. Who would do that? Hurt their own brother so brutally, so casually?

Little fucking savages.

‘Get the fuck out of here,’ Dornan said, and his older sons dispersed like rats in torchlight. ‘You’ll toughen up soon enough,’ he said to Jason, and then he walked away. I stared at him as he left, incredulous.

‘Let’s get you to one of the bedrooms,’ John said to Jason, kneeling beside me. ‘Clean you up.’

Jason nodded, and together we managed to help him into a guest room on the ground floor without making his wound bleed too much. By the time Jason was lying on the bed, Juliette sitting by his side, I was ready to find a knife of my own and slit Ant’s throat.

John located a first aid kit and I made quick work of the long cut. It looked like Ant had simply walked past Jason and dragged the tip of a knife along his stomach until it split open. I wanted to kill that kid.

Once Jason was bandaged, I left him to find some painkillers. I was barely two steps down the hall when an arm shot out of a doorway and yanked me inside. John. Before I could even open my mouth, he had the door locked and my hand held up to the light, examining the skull tattoo on my ring finger.

Our eyes met and I fought back tears. ‘I didn’t know where you were,’ he breathed, dropping my hand and putting his fingers up to my mouth. He leaned in and kissed me, so softly that I could hardly believe it was the same man who’d picked me up and fucked me against a bathroom basin less than a week ago.

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