The Rivals - Dylan Allen Page 0,134

between Gigi’s physical recovery, the fallout from Remi realizing who she was, and the time it took for Hayes to be able to forgive her fully, this was the soonest we could have done it. Remi wasn’t at our wedding. Hayes hadn’t been able to hide his disappointment at the empty spot beside him at the altar.

His other brothers had been there, and we’d celebrated despite Remi’s absence. Hayes didn’t want to take a chance that the baby would be born before we could be married, and I wanted to have a wedding. With the church and the dress and the party afterward. So, I’d walked down the aisle of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas with my protruding belly proudly declaring that I had no business in my white dress.

Hayes’s mouth ravishes mine, our lips dance and part. Cling and nibble. We get lost in the current of love, triumph and togetherness that has become the river of our life.

* * *

I hope you loved that. I have written a bonus scene, set a few years in the future. If you’d like to read it, click here. If you are reading the print version, email me at [email protected] to receive it.

Also by Dylan Allen

The Forever Trilogy

Between Now and Forever

Between Now and Heartbreak

Between Now and Always

Rivers Wilde Series of Standalones:

The Legacy

The Legend

Complete Standalones:

The Sun and Her Star

Thicker Than Water

Symbols of Love Series of Standalones:

Rise

Remember

Release

I love to hear from readers! email me at [email protected]

Are you on Facebook? Come join my private reader group, Dylan’s Day Dreamer. It’s where I spend most of my time online and it’s a lot of fun! Click here.

The Legend

Prologue

Present day

* * *

Rivers Wilde

Chapter 1

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

REMI

* * *

“Please don’t leave angry. Please.” Gigi’s frail voice floats behind me, chasing me like a sinister specter. I’m nearly running by the time I reach the door of her hospital room. I pull it open and look back at her. She looks harmless lying there like that, cocooned in a hospital bed, anchored in place by the network of lines that run from a bandaged spot on her arm. But harmless is the very last thing she’s proven to be.

“I don’t know what kind of game this is. But I don’t want any part of it.”

Her eyes are glassy with tears and her face is as pale as the white sheets she’s lying against. “It’s not a game. Ask your mother. Read that letter.”

“Oh, I’ll be asking her. You stay the fuck away from me.” I point at her with the same hand I’m clutching the envelope she gave me. The slip of paper wrapped around a set of keys weighs nothing, yet my hand aches from holding it. I don’t want to read it.

I step out of the room and stare unseeingly down the corridor. The nurse’s station is a hub of activity—doctors, patients, family members dart past me. I just… stand still and try to process what Gigi Rivers has just told me.

For the first time in a long time, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next.

When my friend Hayes called and asked me to come to the hospital, I didn’t ask why. I got in my car and drove as fast I could.

Our families have been on opposite sides of the most mysterious cold war for almost thirty years now. When we both became the heads of our families around the same time last year, we decided enough was enough.

Since then, he’s become one of my best friends.

I spent the drive, my throat tight with anxiety, my heart hammering, preparing myself to console a him.

Instead, I walked into an ambush.

“Remi. You okay?” Suddenly, Hayes is standing beside me, his hand gripping my shoulder and his face drawn and etched with worry. I shake his hand off and turn so we’re face-to-face. He’s waiting for me to answer and looks as tense as a runner waiting for the crack of the referee’s gun to start his race.

I stare at him; my face feels like granite and the pressure in my jaw from my clenched teeth is giving me a headache. His discomfort grows with each second that passes. I watch him squirm and then ask the question his body language has already answered.

“Did you know what she was going to say to me?”

He closes his eyes for a beat and nods. “Yeah, man. I did. I’m sorry.”

“And how long have you known?” I ask him.

He grimaces in remorse. “Two weeks ago.”

“You’ve known this