Chapter 2 - THE BRIDE WHO BROUGHT A KNIFE TO THE ALTAR
Nobody in that room breathed.
Not Teddy.
Not the guards.
Not even Cash Mercer.
Vivienne Cross stood framed in the doorway like a vision cut from ice, her wedding gown spilling over the dark floor in waves of silk. She should have looked nervous. She should have looked embarrassed after walking in on her groom half-dressed with a maid kneeling beside him and blood-soaked gauze on the table.
Instead, she looked amused.
Marin’s hand closed around the money until the edges of the bills bit into her palm.
Cash’s voice came low. “What did you say?”
Vivienne tilted her head. “Don’t make me repeat myself, darling. It makes the moment less elegant.”
Teddy stepped forward. “Vivienne, choose your next words carefully.”
Her eyes flicked toward him. “Carefully? Is that what you did when you hired a nervous little backroom surgeon to close him up after last night? Because whoever touched him after the first stitching nearly ruined everything.”
Marin felt the floor shift beneath her.
The first stitching.
Vivienne knew.
Cash turned slowly toward Teddy.
That single movement changed the entire room.
Teddy had served Cash Mercer for fifteen years. He had stood beside him through raids, funerals, betrayals, and boardroom wars. He had whispered strategy in Cash’s ear when half the East Coast wanted him gone. Men bowed their heads when Teddy entered because Teddy carried Cash’s trust like a loaded weapon.
Now that trust cracked open in front of everyone.
Cash said nothing.
That was worse than shouting.
Teddy lifted both hands slightly. “Cash, listen to me.”
Vivienne laughed under her breath. “Oh, please don’t pretend this is complicated. He knew enough.”
Marin backed toward the wall.
She had seen dangerous families before. Rich families were dangerous in their own ways. They hid poison in smiles, cruelty in manners, and theft in paperwork. But this room was different. In this room, every silence had teeth.
Cash’s gaze stayed on Teddy. “Did you know?”
Teddy swallowed once.
That was the answer.
The room turned deadly still.
“I knew she was planning something,” Teddy said. “Not the attack itself.”
Vivienne rolled her eyes. “Men. Always polishing betrayal until it looks like loyalty.”
Cash took one step toward Teddy. “You knew my bride was moving against me, and you still let me walk into this wedding.”
“I let you walk into a wedding that would keep the Cross family from starting a war,” Teddy snapped, the mask finally slipping. “You think this is about romance? It was never romance. It was a treaty wearing flowers.”
Vivienne’s smile thinned.
Cash’s face did not change, but Marin saw his right hand curl once near his side.
Teddy continued, desperate now. “Last night was supposed to scare you, not kill you. A reminder from the Crosses. A warning. I had it handled.”
Vivienne’s laughter cut through him. “You had nothing handled. Your man was supposed to reopen the wound after the vows, during the reception. A little blood, a little collapse, and then Baltimore wakes up tomorrow with a widow instead of a Mercer.”
One of Cash’s guards reached for his jacket.
Cash raised one hand.
Everyone froze.
Marin’s heartbeat thundered so loudly she thought they could hear it. She needed to leave. She needed to put that money in her bag, walk through those iron gates, and never look back.
But then Vivienne looked directly at her.
“And you,” she said. “You have terrible timing.”
Marin forced herself to stand straight. “I was hired to clean.”
“You were hired to stay invisible.”
“I’m good at many things,” Marin said. “Apparently that isn’t one of them.”
For one brief second, Cash looked at her again.
Not surprised.
Interested.
Vivienne’s expression hardened. “Do you know what happens to people who interrupt family business?”
Marin thought of Pippa’s empty inhaler. The hospital bills. The cheap apartment with the loose lock. She thought of her grandmother stitching men by lamplight and telling her that fear was useful only if it kept your hands steady.
“No,” Marin said. “But I know what happens to wounds that aren’t treated.”
Cash almost smiled.
Vivienne did not.
A phone buzzed on Teddy’s desk.
Everyone looked.
Teddy’s eyes moved toward it, then away too quickly.
Cash noticed.
“Answer it,” Cash said.
Teddy hesitated.
Cash’s voice lowered. “Answer. It.”
Teddy picked up the phone and put it on speaker.
A man’s voice came through, rushed and breathless. “It’s done. The cathedral side exits are covered. Once Mercer gets inside, there’s no clean way out unless Cross gives the word.”
Vivienne’s face changed.
Just for a moment.
A tiny break in the ice.
Cash turned toward her. “The cathedral?”
She lifted her chin. “You were always sentimental about tradition.”
The man on the phone continued, unaware. “And the maid? The one who saw him?”
Marin’s blood went cold.
Teddy closed his eyes.
The voice said, “Cross wants her gone before the ceremony. No loose witnesses.”
Cash moved so fast Marin barely saw him cross the room.
He took the phone from Teddy’s hand and crushed the call beneath his thumb.
Then he looked at Vivienne.
“No wedding.”
Vivienne’s smile vanished.
Outside the mansion, church bells began ringing across Baltimore, calling guests toward a ceremony that would never happen.
Cash stepped close to his bride.
“You wanted to become my widow,” he said. “Now you’ll be lucky to leave this house with your name.”
Vivienne’s eyes glittered. “Cancel this wedding and you start a war.”
Cash looked at Marin, then back at Vivienne.
May you like
“No,” he said. “You already started one.”
Then, from somewhere downstairs, came the sound of gunfire.
