each line of those trite, well-worn wedding vows. Because regardless of who I was already legally married to, I was in it for the long haul with all three of them. I hoped they all knew that.
"...may now kiss your bride." The celebrant's declaration shocked me. I gasped as Archer threaded his fingers into my hair and claimed my mouth in a searing kiss that I felt all the way to my toes.
"What the fuck is going on?" I whispered against his lips, letting the fall of my pink curls hide our faces from the clapping fake-guests. "What went wrong?"
"I have no idea," he murmured back, his thumb stroking my cheek. "But I'm kind of glad it did."
And just like that, the chapel exploded.
Not metaphorically. A goddamn fucking bomb detonated and took the entire back of the chapel off. Archer threw himself over me, guarding me with his body even as he pulled his gun from his underarm holster. Gunfire rang out from every damn angle, and my gut churned with anxiety. Something had gone seriously wrong with our plan.
"Stay down," Archer barked as he lifted his weight off me somewhat.
I didn't argue, just scrambled to shelter behind our dead celebrant as Archer stood and started shooting at one of our attackers. One of our many attackers.
"Babe, you good?" Kody demanded, appearing beside me as he ejected the magazine of his gun and slammed a fresh one in. How had he already used an entire fucking magazine? Boy was a machine.
"Yep," I replied. "Go. I'm fine."
He jerked a nod, then rose to his knees and squeezed off at least five shots before reaching his feet. I had no doubt they’d all hit their intended targets too. Steele really had trained him well.
Gripping the long silk skirt of my gown, I quickly hitched it up and retrieved my own gun. No way in hell was I going down without a fight. No. Fucking. Way.
Still using the celebrant as a shield, I rose up enough to get a look at what was going on. Not that it helped, much. There was almost a wall of suited guys shielding me, so I couldn't see much of anything. That didn't stop a sneaky fuck from creeping up on me from the opposite direction, though. Only the flash of his movement in the corner of my eye tipped me off, and I reacted quickly, doing exactly as Steele had trained me.
Shoot first. Ask questions never.
The man dropped to the floor, my shot finding its mark as my heart raced.
Fuck. Fuck. We hadn't expected an attack like this, but luckily we'd planned for all circumstances.
"Hellcat!" Steele roared from somewhere past the line of suits protecting me. "Plan C, gorgeous!"
"Got it!" I shouted back, already having guessed that's what we'd do.
"Count of three, babe!" Kody shouted from somewhere else. Then, "Three!"
I surged out of my protected spot and dove through the gap between two of the suited soldiers, tucking and rolling in a snowball of lilac wedding gown. As I found my feet—totally blinded by dress and pink hair—I leaped straight into Kody's arms. Together we bolted down the short aisle and barreled straight into the waiting SUV at the front door.
"Go!" Kody shouted at Sampson behind the wheel, but he didn't need to be told twice. He was already thumping back down the short stairs, with the heavy-duty, off-road tires of our SUV handling it like a walk in the park. Kody yanked the door closed as we peeled into the street and left the shootout in our dust.
"Are you okay?" he asked, turning to me in concern as he tucked his gun away and grabbed the back of my neck. "Are you hurt? Fucking hell, I never would have expected them to blow the fucking church up; that was nuts!"
"I'm fine," I assured him, "not even a scratch. That was a hell of a lot more than four assassins, though, Kody. And they were working together?"
He grimaced but nodded. "They must have recruited help. We'll know more when we get to Club 22." His thumb stroked across my cheek. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Positive," I promised him. "Even though that wasn't what we’d expected, Plan C worked flawlessly. Right?"
"How many back-up plans were there?" Sampson asked from the driver's seat, looking at us in the mirror.
Kody just shot him a smirk. "Enough."
Sampson inclined his head. "Fair enough. Club 22, yeah?"
"Yep," Kody replied, snaking his arm around my waist and pulling me closer to him. "Hades