I Now Pronounce You Husband and Wife

Chapter 3: Dominic

I sat on the couch, waiting for the meeting to begin. I wasn't sure what was taking Jeremiah so long to start. I had shown up about half an hour ago, as well as two other men. I recognized both of them. They were from smaller clans and not really important, which is why I was now sitting in Jeremiah's office, confused as to what they were both doing here and why this damn meeting hadn't started yet. I take a sip of the scotch in my hand and savor the bitter taste before swallowing it.

"Jeremiah, may I ask what is taking so long? We should have started half an hour ago." I say to the leader of the McKenzie clan, clearing my throat of the slight burn of liquor running down my throat. My father has had a grudge against the McKenzies long before I was born. About ten years before I was born, to be exact. As to what happened over thirty years ago, I have no idea. My father ignores me every time I ask him and my mother died when I was twelve, so I was unable to ask her. And I'm not about to sit here and ask Jeremiah McKenzie why my father hates him. As far as I can tell, Jeremiah isn't too fond of my father either.

"I apologize for the delay, gentlemen." Jeremiah says as he walks around his desk and sits in his chair. His wife, Claudia, joins us a second later, as well as Jeremiah's father, Macon. Claudia makes her way around the desk as well, standing slightly behind Jeremiah and resting her hand on his shoulder. I can only hope to find that one day. It isn't easy finding someone to give yourself to. They always tend to leave when they find out what you do for a living. Being in the mafia, especially when your family is one of the two most powerful mafias in the country, isn't something you put on your online dating profile.

"Before we start," Jeremiah says, " there is some other business that needs to be attended to before we begin." He says with an angry sigh and a look of what I can only describe as murderous on his face. He reaches up and touches Claudia's hand, looking back up at her. I watch the look in his eyes and on his face and find myself hoping that one day I'll be looked at like that. If I'm being honest, there is only one woman I want by my side for the rest of my life. Charlotte Rose McKenzie. I know what you're thinking, and yes, I'm in love with my enemy's daughter. That's part of the reason I decided to come to this meeting. Before I can continue my thoughts, Jeremiah clears his throat and pulls me out of my head, turning my attention to him.

"Charlotte, honey, would you come to my office, please?" He says through the intercom on his desk. There's a crackling sound and then I hear it. Her voice.

"Right away, Daddy." Her voice twinkles through the speaker. Jeremiah smiles slightly and then presses another button.

"Send Ethan in here." He says. His voice had hardened and he sounded different than he had a second ago when he called Charlotte into the room. There's a 'yes sir' in reply and then nothing. A moment later, the office door opens and Charlotte walks in. She's not wearing the jeans and hoodie she was wearing at school and her hair looks slightly wet, as if she had just got out of the shower. She's now in a pair of dark grey leggings that hug her lower body and a ivory crop top sweater that shows off her stomach and belly button. I got a glimpse of her belly button ring. She glances sideways and sees me and her face changes. First in anger and then in confusion. Looks like Jeremiah didn't tell her I was gonna be here tonight, despite me basically telling her at school today. I noticed that her right hand was busted and bruised, as if she had hit something hard a few times. I"m pulled out of those thoughts by the whispers coming from the two men sitting beside me.

"Look at that ass. And that tight stomach. I'll have her screaming my name in seconds." One says.

"I'd definitely tap that. I wonder how much it would cost to get her in my bed and squealing under me like a pig." The other one says back. I can feel my anger rising and I want to lunge at both of them and wrap my hands around their throats and cut off their air supply, but I can't. At least not right now. Both of these men are half my size and I could easily kill them both. I tune them out and returned my attention to Charlotte and her father. She has walked around the desk and is now standing by him, leaning a little and kissing his forehead.

"I've got something for you. I was going to deal with it myself, but decided to let you handle it." He says. Not a second later, the door opens again and in comes a man who looks as though he is on steroids. He's about the same height as me, but a lot bulkier. Seriously, what does this guy eat for breakfast? He stops in the middle of the room and stares at Jeremiah. He looks as if he is bored and can't be bothered by what is going to happen. I looked over at Jeremiah and there was a look of anger not only on his face, but on Claudia and Charlotte's faces as well. This can't be good. Well, not for this guy anyway. It's going to be entertaining for us though. I turned my head toward the stranger and smirked at him. He still looks bored and like he could be doing something better right now. Jeremiah clears his throat.

"Gentlemen, ladies. I'd like to introduce you, Ethan Chambers. Mr. Chambers here was hired to not only be my daughter's driver but her body guard as well. You may be wondering what he is doing here. Well, you see, Mr. Chambers has failed in his duty. He not only failed to protect my daughter, it seems that he also never showed up to pick her up from campus today, resulting in her having to walk home. A walk where she could have been abducted and tortured for who she is. I was going to deal with this myself, but have decided to let Charlotte handle it instead."Jeremiah finishes. HE looks up at Charlotte and gives her a sly smile, in which she returns. Oh, this is going to be GOOD,

Charlotte walks around the desk and stands in front of Ethan, she looks so tiny compared to his big frame. It makes me want to get up and protect her. But the look in her eyes tells me that she is more than capable of handling herself. As I'm watching her, I tune into the whispered conversation of the two men beside me.

"Look at the size of him. There's no way she is going to be able to handle him herself."

"You got that right. She's just a little girl. She needs to step aside and let the men handle this. She can get back to the kitchen where she belongs and make me a sandwich while I deal with this fool." The other one says. I'm starting to get pissed. Sexist pigs. I'm too busy paying attention to the two douche bags next to me that I miss what is happening between Charlotte and Ethan. Next thing I know, I'm watching her and the metal hair pin from her hair, the Celtic knot clattering to the floor as she rams the hair pin into the side of Ethan's neck, yanking it out again and causing blood to spurt out of the wound and across her face. Her raven black hair falls down her back in beautiful waves.

Ethan screams and stumbles backward, trying to get away from her. The look on her face let me know that I didn't want to get on her bad side. She looks crazy and I find myself falling more in love with her than I already was. She is going to make an excellent leader one day. Charlotte stalks forward, the predator stalking her prey. She uses his body to hoist herself up, climbing him like she'd climb a tree. Locking her legs around his neck, she throws her body down and to the side, taking him with her and avoiding being crushed under him. She rolls away from him and stands, walking over to him once again. I look over at Jeremiah and find a look of pride is plastered on his face. Looks of disbelief are frozen on the two boys beside me. Ethan scrambles back and up on his haunches, bringing himself to his knees. Charlotte grabs the back of his head and brings her knee up, hard and fast, smashing it into his nose. I hear the bones c***k and I wince. Blood spurts out and all over her leggings and the carpet. I'm in total awe of this woman.

"Sorry about the mess, Daddy." She says sweetly. Damn, this girl is something else. Vicious one moment and sweet a second later. Jeremiah chuckles and waves his hand, signaling her to finish up. She turns back to Ethan and I can see she is no longer the sweet girl that just spoke to her father. She grabs the back of his head again, forcing him to look at her. He can barely keep his eyes open and tries and fails to push her away. Not so big and tough now, are we? I thought to myself.

"I warned you. I'm sure others have warned you about what would happen if you slipped up. Remember that I showed you mercy tonight, because next time, you won't leave this room alive." She growls in his ear, low and dangerous, sending shivers down my spine. She shoves him away and turns back toward her parents. Jeremiah has taken a stand and they are both staring at her. She isn't even breathing heavily, as if this little exercise had no effect on her at all. I'm truly amazed by her.

"Wow." I said before I could stop myself. She shifts her gaze toward us and glances at our faces. She doesn't recognize the other two, that much I can tell. Which isn't really surprising. Their families are so low in rank that no one really knows they exist. Her gaze stops on me, a look of confusion on her face as she locks her beautiful ice-blue eyes on me. She has no idea why I'm here and she isn't going to be happy when she finds out.

"Do close your mouth, Dominic. I would so hate for you to swallow a bug." She says to me, her voice filled with sarcasm. There is a deep rumbling and we both look at her father. Jeremiah is glaring daggers at her and she returns his gaze, refusing to back down. She knows how to challenge people and she's stubborn enough to just win.

"Charlotte, why don't you go and get yourself cleaned up?" He says to her. She nods and, glancing at me once more, leaves the room. We all turned and looked at Jeremiah in silence. Jeremiah stares back at us for a few seconds and then picks up the phone on his desk. He dials a number and waits a few seconds before speaking.

"Yea, I need you to come and clean this up. No, he ins't dead. No, I didn't do it. Charlotte did. I don't care, just get your ass over here and take care of it." He says into the phone and then slams it down. He pinches his nose and sighs. I set my glass down and stand up.

"Jeremiah." I said to him. He looks up at me and for a second I see the hate in his eyes for me and my family. I think he temporarily forgot that I was in the room. It's gone as quickly as it came. "We need to get started. While that was entertaining enough, we still have business to conduct." I said to him quickly, the air rushing out of my lungs as I spew the words out before he could shut me down. He nods his head and sits back down. Claudia rests her hand on his shoulder once again. I can see him physically relax the second her hand touches him. God, I'm jealous. Jeremiah goes to speak and there's a knock on the door. It opens to reveal another man. He is a few inches shorter than I am and has flaming red hair, the same color as Jeremiahs. He looked only a couple years older than me. I didn't know Jeremiah had a brother.

"Kade. I'm sorry to interrupt your evening," Jeremiah says.

"Don't worry about it boss. I wasn't doing anything anyway. What is family for?" The man called Kade says.

"Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce Kade McKenzie. My nephew and adopted son. I adopted him when he was four, after my sister, his mother, died." Jeremiah says to us. I knew Jeremiah had a sister. She was killed in a car accident before I was born. I shake Kades hand and he shakes hands with the other two men as well. "If you could take care of this, that would be great." Jeremiah says, nodding his head at the unconscious Ethan on the floor and the pools and splatters of blood. The guy is breathing, but barely.

"Charlotte did this?" Kade asks. Jeremiah nods his head and Kade lets out a small whistle. "Damn, remind me never to ge on my little sister's bad side. I don't want to end up like this guy." He says, chuckling. He kicks at Ethan's ankle lightly, shaking his head. "What did he do?" I laughed, replaying to scene in my head. Kade looked at me and then back at his father, waiting for an answer.

"He forgot to pick her up from campus today. I didn't hear why he was late." I said to him. "I noticed her hand was bruised all to hell. I'm assuming she wasn't happy when she got home." I finished, looking back at Jeremiah, looking down towards the ground and back up through my lashes, a smile playing on my lips as I ran a finger over my bottom lip, waiting for him to answer me.

"No she was not. She broke a vase by flinging her backpack across the foyer and then tried to punch through the wall, which happened to be marble. She got about two or three punches in before I stopped her from breaking her hand," he says. Kades goes about his business and Jeremiah motions us to follow him. We exited his office and walked down the hall and into another office. From the looks of it, it belongs to Charlotte. The television is on and playing The Nightmare Before Christmas. I smile, remembering how Charlotte loves to watch Halloween movies when that time of year comes around. We did an introduction presentation at the beginning of the school year, a kind of getting to know your classmates type of thing. Jeremiah clears his throat and sits in her chair, facing us. I sit in a chair across from him and the other two take the two remaining seats. Claudia comes in after us and takes a seat on the couch, facing us as well and putting her arm across the back of the couch. Macon joins soon after, leaning against a wall.

"Now, gentlemen. I've called you here for a reason." Jeremiah says, folding his fingers together and resting his lips on them before he continues to talk. "There's been reports of an outside threat. A threat pointed specifically at my family. Several of my men have been killed and they are the reason for my sister's death twenty years ago. They have been after my family for as long as I can remember and it seems as though they now have the forces to wipe us all out. I don't plan on letting that happen. I will protect my family at any and all costs. I've called you here to discuss alliances. It would be best for us to do this now before anyone else gets hurt," Jeremiah said to us. I nodded at him, having had this conversation with him already. "The Mikelson's and the McKenzies have already come to an agreement. One that will benefit both of our clans." Before he has the chance to say anymore, one of the two men speaks.

"The best alliance would be an alliance forged by marriage. You have a daughter. I am not married yet. We can forge this alliance and my clan is yours," He says. His name suddenly pops into my head. Seth Carstairs. I gulp down my laughter before it can escape my mouth. Jeremiah looks at me, trying to hide his smile as well. This kid is serious. So serious that it's funny.

Before I can stop it, my laughter escapes from my lips. I snap my hand over my mouth in a fist, coughing and trying to hide it. A few seconds go by and I am able to calm myself and look over at this kid. He is glaring daggers at me.

"What's so funny, hot shot?" He snaps at me. "What, you think because you are the son of one of the two largest clans in the country, you can treat us lower clans however you want? Try it, buddy. See what f*****g happens. I'll put you on your ass real f*****g quick like." He practically growls at me. I composed myself before confronting him.

"I find your whole seriousness about this funny. You honestly think you'll be able to handle a girl, no a woman, like Charlotte McKenzie? She could snap you in half like a twig and not think twice about it. A marriage alliance between the McKenzies and the Carstairs is weak. Your clan is low on the totem pole. To be honest, I don't even know why you're even here. And if you really want to come at me like that, bring it on, buddy. Technically, your clan works for mine and I will end you in a matter of f*****g seconds, boy. Don't test my patients." I growled at him. I stare daggers into his head and he diverts his eyes, realizing that he wont win this fight.

Jeremiah clears his throat, drawing our attention back to him.

"My daughter will not marry into the Carstairs family. If I am going to be on top of this war when it's done, then she will marry someone higher up." He says to us.

"So, who is the lucky groom, then?" We heard from the doorway. We all froze for a few moments and then we all turned toward the door and found Charlotte standing there, staring at her father and waiting for an answer.