Weddings are funny things. They’re supposed to be all about romance and love, but in reality they’re filled with tension and worry. So much planning goes into the day and all eyes are on two people. When I stood on the stage, singing Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love” as the happy couple turned around the floor for their first dance, all eyes were indeed on them. All except one set.

Toby’s.

Instead of dropping me off at the reception hall and agreeing to come back when the event was over, he’d insisted on staying, stating he was there as my security. Now that I was singing, he was standing at the bar, drinking what looked like a neat Scotch and watching me intently.

There was something predatory about the way he watched me, something a little too intimate in his eyes. I’d thought our conversations in the car the day before had been a way to trip me up and test my loyalty, but what if it was something else? What if… what if he wanted me?

The idea made all the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, and not in a good way. Did he want me? The way he was watching me on stage certainly felt like it. It was eerily similar to the way Nate had been watching me that first night at the karaoke bar.

Was that what all the glares had been about? Was he angry that I’d chosen Nate? Was he angry that Nate had swooped in on me? “I did see you first.” Was he jealous of Nate because of me? Nate said he trusted him most, but was that a mistake? Was I in danger being alone with him?

I had been angry with Nate for not giving me freedom, but now I wished he was right there, glued to my side to make sure nothing happened to me.

“I trust him with my life.” It was why Nate sent him to look after me. “You’re part of that life.”

Perhaps Nate needed to rethink that.

“Why teach when you have a set of lungs like that?” Toby said, shaking his head in amazement when I walked to the bar to get a bottle of water during the speeches. The alcohol had obviously relaxed his normally guarded demeanour.

“Unfortunately, these lungs don’t pay the bills,” I replied, enjoying the cool liquid on my overused throat. I was seriously out of practise and should have spent a lot more time warming up before getting on stage. I was going to be croaky the next day.

“What bills? You’re a Cartwright now. You don’t even need to work. We take care of our own.” His eyes moved down the length of my dress, hovering in places he shouldn’t. There was a slight sheen to his gaze, telling me he’d sunk a few more of those Scotches than a man responsible for driving should.

“I guess that’s true. Although, I do really love my job—both jobs.” I seemed to always be defending my choice to work for a living to these people. “I don’t want to quit and be completely dependent on you all.”

“You mean like Alesha?”

“Alesha seems really happy with her role. I’m not trying to put that down, I’m just saying what makes me happy. I like some independence, and honestly this whole 24/7 detail I have on me is starting to wear a little thin.” I glared at him pointedly and stepped away, making a beeline for the ladies’. It was one place I knew I’d get a little privacy and distance from his gaze.

He followed me anyway. “I’m just following orders, Holland. I would personally trust you to come and go as you please, but you’re not mine to trust, you’re Nate’s. And he wants you under guard.”

I stopped just before I reached the door and turned to face him. “And I should be thankful that he doesn’t keep me under lock and key?”

He shrugged. “I suppose.”

“And if I was yours, you’d let me go?”

His eyes dropped to my lips and his brow knitted. My stomach knotted in response. I was playing a dangerous game. “Yes,” he said finally.

“Then give me your keys and trust me to get back to the house on my own.”

“How am I supposed to get back?”

“Uber?”

He looked at me for a long moment, then sighed. “I’m under orders.”

Leaning against the wall, I shook my head. Months of having my movements limited, my morals twisted, and my life turned upside down had finally gotten to me. I was sick of it. Sick of voicing my frustrations and having them stamped down. I just wanted them to let me go. I didn’t even want to run; I just wanted a little independence. Based on what Toby had told me about his stifled dreams, he should’ve been the one person to understand. Instead, he was stifling me along with the rest of them. “And you just follow those orders instead of having the balls to man up and do what’s right. That’s why you’ll never get out, Toby, despite your dreams. You don’t have any get-up-and-go. You were born to do what you’re told, born to follow everyone else.” I snapped, poking him in the chest while I used my other hand to steal his keys. I was going to do this the Cartwright way—by taking what I wanted.

He looked hurt, but in that moment, I didn’t care. I was tired of being told what I could and couldn’t do. I’d had ample opportunity to escape or discreetly call the police, and not once had I even attempted to cause trouble. I loved my husband; I wasn’t going to hurt him by sending him or his family members to jail. I needed a little credit for that.

“Just get out of my way.” Holding the keys behind my back, I placed my other hand on his chest to push past him to get to the bathroom, but I didn’t get far. He wrapped his hand around my wrist and pulled me back towards him, his lips crashing against mine in an intense kiss that I didn’t for a moment reciprocate.

Instead, I shoved against his chest, and the moment he released me, I slapped him. “No! I love Nate,” I hissed, registering the shocked look on his face while at the same time feeling confused because he was moving away from me rather rapidly. Then he was on the floor.

“Keep your fucking hands off my wife,” came the roar.

“Nate,” I gasped, covering my mouth in surprise. He was the last person I expected to see at this wedding.

“What’s going on?” a male guest demanded as Nate picked up his brother by the scruff of his neck.

“Stay the fuck out of this,” Nate growled, dragging Toby towards the exit like a rag doll.

Freaking out, I raced behind them, pausing for a moment to address the shocked wedding party. “I’m so sorry. I’ll refund your money. I… I’m sorry. Please don’t call the police. We’ll go.”

Then I ran through the door and into the parking lot just in time to hear Nate roar and punch Toby in the jaw. “No!” I yelled, running to stop them but getting held fast by a set of arms going around my waist and lifting me kicking off the ground. “Let go!”

“Best to let brothers fight these things out,” Sam said as he set me back on the ground. I snatched myself away from him. “He’s not going to do too much damage,” he added, just as Nate let Toby get to his feet before pummelling him to the ground once again.

“Oh God, I feel sick. I can’t look.” I turned away.

“You should. That man’s fighting for you.”

“I don’t want this.”

“Ah.” He shrugged it off. “This was always going to happen. Tobes has had a boner for you since he saw you while doing recon on Leesh.”

“Toby was watching me?”

“He was watching your friend.”

“That friend is your wife,” I added before he could go on.

“And she’s a fantastic one. I worship her tight little—”

“Please stop,” I said quickly, holding up my hand to shield my eyes from the words about to come from his mouth.

He grinned. “I was going to say arse, but yeah, that’s tight too.”

“Oh my God.” I placed my fingers in my ears and closed my eyes. Everywhere I turned, there was either a fight going on or a man talking TMI about my friend.

Sam laughed. “Anyway, during that time, it seemed that maybe you’d be the better mark, but Toby forbade it. Then Nate went for you anyway. Toby has been furious ever since.”

“He thinks Nate cut his grass.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t. None of us knew Toby had a thing for you. He keeps all that shit to himself.”

So, he didn’t want me dead. He just wanted… me. I didn’t know what thought was more unsettling. These men had known us before we’d known them. They’d assessed our worth and viewed us as a business transaction, until feelings got in the way—until I got in the way. Now two brothers who would die to protect each other were fighting over me. I hated that, but at the same time, it was kinda hot. I wasn’t used to any man clamouring after me, but now two hot-as-hell brothers were going at it and I’d be lying if it didn’t inflate my ego a little. Did that make me a bad person?

“You had no right!” Toby yelled.

“She is my wife. Mine,” Nate spat back. “I trusted you to take care of her.”

“You did it to be spiteful and you know it.”

“No, brother, I don’t know it. You never said. I had no fucking clue.”

“Why do you think I didn’t want her as the mark? I fucking wanted her for myself!”

“How was I to know that?”

“It was implied!”

Nate stepped back, hands on his hips as his head shifted side to side. “I saw her. I wanted her. I took her. Now I love her. She loves me. I can’t change that. It’s something you need to accept.”

I stood beside Sam, my hand pressed against my chest as I listened to the exchange. I was angry with Toby for kissing me, but I felt awful that he’d been made to stand by and watch while Nate’s and my relationship blossomed. That must’ve been hard on him.

“You always win, don’t you?” Toby spat. “I wonder if she’ll still be devoted to you if she finds out the truth.”

I spun around to face Sam. “What truth?”

“He’s talking shit.”

I turned back to find Nate holding the front of Toby’s shirt, speaking so close and low that I couldn’t make out what was being said. “He’s not talking shit. What is Nate hiding?”

“There’s a lot you don’t know, Holland. It’s better that way, trust me.”

Letting out my breath, I looked up at him incredulously. “How can I trust any of you when you don’t trust me?”

“Because you’re alive. Because you have two men over there willing to fight over who would better make you happy.”

“None of this makes me happy.” I gestured towards the fighting men. “I either want to know everything or I want out. I don’t want to be kept in some glorified version of a gilded cage, allowed out but only on a leash. This is bullshit.” I threw Toby’s keys at him and he caught them without flinching. I obviously wouldn’t be needing them anymore.

Sam shook his head and laughed before he draped his arm over my shoulders. “There is no getting out, Holland. This is it. Like it or… well, I don’t need to explain what happens when people try to walk—or steal a car and drive—away from this life.”

“Your mother’s old crew walked away. She told me herself.”

“How naïve are you? They didn’t just walk away. They’re all either dead, disappeared or in prison. You don’t get a retirement cake and walk away when you know shit that can get people put away.”

“But you’re family. Surely if one of you wants out, the others would understand.”

“What’s to understand? Families don’t quit on each other.”

“Duchess!” Nate roared. “We’re leaving.” He started walking, leaving a bloodied Toby sitting on the ground, shoulders slumped in defeat. My heart went out to him. Knowing it was me who’d caused the fight made me feel sick to the stomach.

Sam gave me a light nudge. “Don’t keep your husband waiting.”

I followed Nate to his ute and got in, glancing back as Sam went to help Toby up.

“Don’t look at him,” Nate commanded.

I clipped my seatbelt without saying a word. There was so much tension in the cabin that I was afraid to make a sound. Then again, he didn’t say another word either, simply drove us back to the apartment, and fucked me until I was begging him to let me come.

When we were finally done, he pressed his forehead against mine, his chest heaving before he said, “You are mine, duchess. Mine. Don’t ever forget it.”