The Mafia's Stolen Bride

Chapter 4

Lexi POV

“What?” I heard myself gasp.

“You are going to marry me,” Ryker whispered to me seriously, his eyes cold and unyielding.

I felt as if all the blood drained from my body as I glanced to where Ivan lay on the floor, gripping his bleeding wound. Could I marry a man who had just put a hole in my fiance?

“Over my dead body!” Hector shouted, tearing my eyes from Ivan as my uncle tried to push his way toward us but was held back by Valentos’s men.

Valentos shrugged casually and pointed his gun at Hector. “That can be arranged,” he casually declared.

And as much as I wish he had actually pulled the trigger, my uncle’s confidence shrunk and he allowed himself to be shoved back onto the pew beside his sulking wife.

“Come on, Cupcake,” Valentos sighed as he lowered his gun and took my hand roughly in his. “Let’s get married.”

Cupcake? Did he really call me Cupcake?

I felt a frown fix itself on my face as Valentos’s men dragged the quivering minister to stand before us, a gun to his head as he began to recite the vows.

“Do you… ummm…” the older man looked blankly at Valentos who immediately inserted his name into the silence.

“Ryker Greyson Valentos.”

It was something in the way he said his name that triggered a flood of memories of how cruel Ryker had been to me as a kid. I remembered a boy with pitch black hair and grey eyes teasing me before he pushed me into the enormous wedding cake at Hector and Harriet’s wedding. I remembered him laughing and making pig noises as Harriet screamed at me. A thousand and one reasons adding up to him becoming my number one enemy.

“Alexandra?” The minister looked at me expectantly.

“Huh?” I responded, rather stupidly to which I heard Harriet snicker.

The minister glanced around nervously. “Do you take Ryker Valentos to be your husband?”

I felt Ryker’s grip on my hand tighten as Hector shouted “she does not” from the pews, only to be hit on the head with the butt of a gun. There was a shriek from Harriet as her husband slumped against her, and she frantically checked his pulse to see if he was still breathing.

“Get on with it,” Valentos grunted, drawing all eyes back to us.

The minister visibly paled once more, and I actually felt sorry for the poor guy.

Sure, I should have refused… but something in the desperate way he looked at me made me lose all of my senses and before I knew it, I heard my own voice respond instinctually.

“I do.”

Two words - two simple words were enough to seal my fate as my new husband didn’t even wait for the minister to conclude the ceremony before he bent down and kissed me possessively, stealing my breath from my lungs and leaving me dazed.

Without sparing me another glance, Ryker Valentos lifted his fist into the air in victory as his men cheered… and then he threw me over his shoulder, as if he was expecting me to run away at the first chance I got.

The last thing I remember seeing before the church doors closed on our exit, was my father gripping the minister by the front of his robe and punching him in the face.

“Put me down,” I demanded, hitting my new husband’s back with my fist as hard as I could.

The man chuckled, a deep sound which sounded as smooth as honey, but he continued without pause.

“I mean it, Valentos,” I continued, hoping a second hit would be motivation enough.

“You want to be put down?” he responded with a lilt in his voice, almost as if he were weighing up his options, and I almost thought I had got through to him when he dropped me - quite literally.

I looked up at him, somewhat in shock at his actions, before I pulled the shattered fragments of my composure together, and forced myself to stand. Ryker didn’t seem to notice how close I was to a complete mental breakdown. Either that or he genuinely didn’t care.

Instead, he looked me up and down with his lip curled upward in disgust.

“Are you emotionally attached to this… dress?” he asked, his voice sounding more like a growl than anything else.

My wedding dress had splatters of Ivan’s blood on it, and the hatred I felt for it seemed to be growing by the second. I shook my head, avoiding his piercing grey eyes which were completely unreadable.

At first I thought he would order me to change or something like that. But no. I had apparently married a cave man.

Valentos gripped my arm and spun me around before I felt his hands on the back of the dress and a loud ripping sound filled the air as the dress was torn from my body. I barely felt the cold air as red, hot embarrassment surged through me - standing half naked in the street wearing nothing but the aged lingerie Harriet had “graciously” gifted me.

Not even Ryker’s jacket, which was flung over my shoulders to shield my nakedness, could douse the anger which bubbled up in me. My emotions won out over rational thought, and I spun around in fury, my hand moving on its own to slap Ryker across his handsome face. Hard.

The man looked down at me, a faintly stunned look on his face for a few seconds until his mask of indifference slid back into place. I felt the blood freeze in my veins.

The man wouldn’t hit me back, would he?

His large hands found my waist and he pulled me roughly to him, my protests smothered by his mouth as his lips found mine. The kiss was intense, all consuming and possessive. And then just as abruptly as it had begun, it ended, and Ryker stepped away leaving me feeling cold once again.

“Next time you hit me, you won’t be lucky enough to get off so lightly,” he growled deeply.

I stood staring after him as he turned back to his men, barking orders in a language I didn’t understand. Part of me wondered if he would even know if I slipped away and made a run for it… it wasn’t as if I even wanted to be bloody married, especially to Ryker f*****g Valentos.

Too bad I didn’t get a chance to test my theory.

For the second time in less than an hour, a loud bang echoed through the air. I looked around, half expecting to see Ryker lying on the floor, dead. Instead, I saw Hector standing in the doorway of the church, his pistol hanging loosely in his hand by his side and a frown on his face as he glared at me.

And then I felt it.

A searing pain in my shoulder, before my legs gave out from under me and darkness clouded my vision.