Today is the day. My wedding. Never fucking thought I’d want it, and now I can’t wait for it. Today is the day I make Nicole legally mine. It’s stupid. In my world, papers and legal titles don’t mean shit. You fight and earn what you get, you fight to keep it. Still, with Nicole, I want to have her in every way physically and humanly possible. That includes, my ring on her finger, and giving her my name. I want…no I need that. I always hated my name; found it just another thing the world mocked me with. Nicole made it okay to pass my name on to our son or daughter. So, this wedding is pretty damned important for a lot of reasons.

So important, I find myself wearing a damn monkey suit to make my woman happy. Fuck, I hate this shit. Still, my woman wanted one day filled with the dreams of her wedding that she has secretly harbored for years. Wearing a monkey suit to give her that dream? It seems a small enough thing to do. She’s so upset over her girl and so withdrawn since she found out that Kavanagh has Dani, I’d do anything to make her smile, even tying this mother-fucking-god-damned tie around my neck. Except, I’ve tried a hundred times and still don’t have it.

“Fuck!” I yell out, looking in the mirror of the small chapel and trying to tie the damned thing and failing yet again.

“Having trouble there, Drag?” Dance asks, walking in wearing his own version of the monkey suit, dress pants, white silk shirt, but buttoned down and no tie. My men may kill me. I’m not sure I’d blame them.

“Fucking-son-of-a-bitching thing, I can’t get it tied.”

Dance comes over and starts to work on my tie, the smart ass look on his face pisses me off, but I’ve got enough fires going. I’ll beat him down a different day.

“Any word from Crush?”

“No, not since he stomped out of the school the other day.”

“He’ll come around, Bro’.”

“I’m not so sure, but that shit needed to be addressed.”

“What about Bull?” Dance asks, backing away from me as I look in the mirror. The tie is fixed perfectly.

“Who taught you how to do that shit?”

“I’m a man of many skills, Drag-o.”

“Whatever,” I say, adjusting the tie.

I’m tempted to yank that shit off, but I don’t. I’m already feeling guilty because I know I’m pushing Nicole into the wedding today. She would rather call it off and wait until we get Dani back and Kavanagh is not an issue. She told me what Kavanagh said he would do. I’m convinced going against him is the only way to draw him out. I need for him to lose control. Men who are not in control get sloppy—they make mistakes.

Plus, I want this marriage done. I do not want to wait. Hell, we’ve had too much of that shit and things keep coming our way. If I don’t get my ring on her finger soon, we may never get married and that is unacceptable.

“So, really, have you talked to Bull?” Dance asks again.

“No, something going on?”

“You see how he is. Brother’s got shit muddling in his brain Drag, I see it miles off, and I think he’s pissed at the ass chewing you gave him over Nicole.”

“She could have been killed, Dance. He knew better than to leave her alone.”

Dancer holds up his hand.

“I hear you, brother. I’m just saying, you’re doing an awful lot of ordering Bull around to do shit, that normally, a club enforcer does not do. And shit he used to do, you’re not relying on him to do. Brother has a crap load of shit to work through, but not having the trust of his Prez, well it ain’t going to help, Drag. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Moving in with a woman and living out of the club has turned you into a weeping whiney vagina,” I grumble, turning my back on him. He actually has a point. I haven’t been calling on Bull to handle shit. He needs time to recover and he has issues with strength right now. I should have talked it over with him though. If I can just get through this damn wedding, I will.

“Fuck you, I’m not the one wearing a tie and standing before a preacher.”

“You would if Carrie demanded it.”

“Care Bear wouldn’t. That’s why she’s perfect for me.”

“Whatever. She’s got a bun in the oven, women go bat-shit crazy when those hormones start talking.”

“Odd, from where I’m standing it’s you that seems all gung-ho for the wedding, not the bride.”

I flip him off. He’s right, and I don’t want to fucking talk about it.

Bull and Freak pick that minute to walk in. They’re dressed like Dance. Hell, maybe I should take the tie off too, just so we can match? Women like that shit, right?

“Drag, we got some problems.”

“What do you mean problems?” Fuck, I knew something was going to happen, I just knew it.

“Torch was going through surveillance video and found Kavanagh’s man visiting the church this morning,” Freak says, and I want to rip his face off.

“How the fuck was this not caught the minute he stepped foot on the fucking property?”

“Don’t look at me, it’s not like you put me in charge of security, Dragon,” Bull says and shit, he’s right, plus this just adds strength to Dancer’s remarks earlier.

“Do we know what that son of a bitch did while he was here?”

“Cameras lost sight of him for about five minutes so he couldn’t have done much,” Freak says, but he’s wrong.

“You can plant a motherfucking bomb in five minutes. Do we at least know in what direction he went?”

“Toward the rooms the women are using,” Freak says, raking his fingers through his beard.

I look at Bull. “You’re in charge, get this place on lockdown and find out what the son of a bitch did!”

Bull looks at me funny, but he doesn’t say anything. He nods once and takes off behind Freak. I follow them out the door with Dancer on my heels. I need to make sure Nicole is okay. Then I need to kill some people, because I’m pretty sure right now that’s all that will make me feel better.