Page 105 of Lethal Lover

THE WEDDING DAY

My sister Tori shakes her head as she looks at my reflection in the mirror. “Val, I’ve never seen you look so gorgeous. Or happy.”

I let out a breath and slowly do a half twist in my wedding dress. There’s been a perpetual smile on my face ever since Quinn’s proposal two months ago, making the muscles in my cheeks burn from overactivity. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, for real this time, and with a man I actually want to spend the rest of my life with.”

“And just wait until he sees you in that dress.” She lets out a long whistle. “You might get pregnant from him looking at you.”

I chuckle and put my hands on my hips. The strapless silk and tulle gown fits me like a glove, highlighting every curve. Long white gloves complete the look, my large diamond engagement ring perched on my right ring finger, the left one anxiously awaiting a wedding band.

Tori takes my hands and squeezes them. “There’s definitely a pattern with our family. Seems like the females need a bit of coercing to bring them around to the idea of marriage.” She shrugs and hands me a flute of champagne. “But it seems to work out damn well for the guys.”

We clink our glasses. I lift mine to my lips and sip the chilled bubbly. It makes my nose tingle. “So delicious.”

I watch Tori toy with the stem of her glass for a few seconds. “What’s on your mind?”

She raises her eyes. They shine with tears. “I just can’t believe you’re really here, finally, after everything that’s happened. When you disappeared five years ago, I was afraid we’d never see you again.”

A lump forms in my throat, my eyes stinging. “Don’t make me cry, Tor. Think of all the time it took you to do my makeup.”

She giggle-sniffs. “I can’t help it. I just missed you so much. And losing Mom, Dad, and yeah, even Dima…” She pulls a tissue from the box and dabs at the corners of her eyes. “The thought of losing you to that monster, too, it just killed me. But what’s worse was that I couldn’t do a damn thing to help protect you. I should have been the one to get married off to that scumbag Stepanov. I was older. But you made the sacrifice. You gave up so much for your future and ours.”

Tori’s blue eyes glitter, her cheeks flushed pink. “You really are a hero, you know that?”

“Okay, are you trying to make me look like a complete hot mess when I walk down the aisle?” My lips tremble as a giggle slips from my glossy pink lips. “I’m no hero, believe me. If I was, I’d have been able to save Charly. I just did what I knew I had to do. There were so many secrets I had to keep. I wanted to tell you about everything so badly, but I couldn’t or else I would have put you all in danger.”

“I wish we could talk to Dad again,” Tori muses. She takes a gulp of champagne and sighs. “I mean, all that shit Denis Stepanov told you at SLK… I don’t believe it. Dad would never do that to us. He’d never hurt us by putting the family in the line of fire. Denis was a fucking lying sack of shit who needed Dad. His ego was just too big to let him acknowledge that.”

“I wish we could talk to Dad, too. I have so many questions… questions I’ll never get answered.” My shoulders slump. “He’s not here to give me away on what actually is the happiest day of my life. I’ll never smell his aftershave or hug him or Mom again. They’ll never hear me tell them how much I love them.”

“But they both know.” Tori pulls me in for a hug and I relax in her arms, finally settled and looking forward.

“I just wish I had more time. Maybe I could have come up with a different plan, a way we’d have all been saved.”

“You gave up everything for us and our own families. You did everything you could. Never question that. And even if you don’t want to believe it, you are my hero.”

“Hey, I thought that was me.” Konstantin, Tori’s husband, walks into the bridal room set up for the beachfront ceremony.

“Different kind of hero,” Tori quips, winking at me.

He leans over to kiss me on the cheek. “You look gorgeous. Quinn’s a lucky guy. He also pounds beers like nobody I’ve ever seen. I think the bar might have gone dry because of him and his brother Patrick.”

“It’s the Irish blood, I guess.” I smile. “Although, I’ve seen you shoot vodka like a champ.”

Konstantin snickers and wraps an arm around Tori’s waist. “Ready?”

“More than you know.” I drain the rest of my champagne. “Where’s—?”

Before I can finish my question, Boris pops his head into the doorway, a faint smile on his worn face. His pale skin hangs loose, his face etched with lines like he’s aged twenty years since that firefight in Vegas.

A sudden rush of déjà vu chills me to the bone as my eyes sweep over his thin, slightly hunched-over frame.

The nightmare.

Taras and Alexis’s wedding.

How troubled Boris looked.

How my entire family was decimated in the blink of an eye.

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