Vengeful Secret (The Burkes Mafia #3)

34. Gray

34

GRAY

Sutton and I go ring shopping the very next day, with security doubled around us and around the mansion.

Sutton’s wearing this little sundress that leaves little to the imagination, riding up her thick thighs, and I can barely think straight as we move around the jewelry store.

Sutton gasps. “That one’s so beautiful.”

I walk toward her, looking at the three-carat diamond, a princess cut. “You don’t want a bigger one?”

She gapes at me. “A bigger one? It’ll look like costume jewelry.”

I chuckle. “Okay, a ghrá . Whatever you want.”

Sutton looks to the cashier. “Can I see that one?”

“Of course.”

She slides it on her finger, and it doesn’t quite fit. “Do you have it in a seven?”

“Yes, miss.” The cashier leaves and comes back with a box. “Will you be looking at others?”

“No,” Sutton breathes, looking down at the wrong-sized ring on her hand. “This one is perfect.”

“We offer many payment plans?—”

I give the cashier my black credit card. “Just put it on this.”

“Yes, sir,” the cashier says happily, probably excited about the commission, and hurries off to run the card.

When she returns with the ring box, I pop it open and get down on one knee, right there in the store.

Sutton gasps, holding her hand over her mouth. “Gray.”

“Marry me.” I put the ring on her finger, and her laugh is musical.

“I don’t have a choice, huh?”

“You never had,” I growl, pulling her close and kissing her, and the applause of the people around us startles me slightly.

Sutton grins, her face flushed, as we head back to the car.

A month later, it’s our wedding day, and to my utter surprise, Sutton insisted we have it at the butterfly garden where everything went down.

Security is tight, with men at every entrance of the park and scattered around the grounds. Thomas is my best man, and he’s sobered up and moved on from his ex-girlfriend—for now.

“You’re freaking out,” he says, and I frown at him.

“I’m not freaking out.”

“Then why are your shoulders so stiff?”

“I’m just... at attention. You know Murphy is everywhere these days.”

“Not here,” Thomas says firmly.

I look over at him, sighing. “You’re right. I need to relax.”

“She's here.” He nudges me, and I look at Sutton in the back.

My breath catches in my throat.

Her dress is beautiful, cream-colored and with spaghetti straps to show off her shoulders. It’s cut shorter than most, just above her knees, and her legs look amazing.

I’ve always been a leg man. Or maybe I’m just a Sutton man.

Tears spring to my eyes as Ciara starts to prance down the aisle, throwing flowers everywhere.

Da is sitting in the front row. He is using a wheelchair not to move between locations, but he is sitting proudly in a chair next to Marisol and Sutton’s mom.

We asked the doctor for permission, and this last month there has been improvement in his condition, so as long as he travels home tonight, he was allowed to be here.

Ciara grins at me as she finishes, blowing flowers toward me, and I pretend to catch them.

She giggles and goes to sit down next to her grandmother, who is already dabbing at her eyes.

Sutton comes down the aisle, and it’s like a dream, a dream I’ve been having for years and years. I love her so much that it physically hurts.

I lift her veil as the priest announces that we’ve written our own vows, and Sutton clears her throat.

“Can I go first?”

I nod, not trusting myself to speak.

“I know that things haven’t always been great between us,” she starts, sniffling as tears start to stream down her face. “But I’ve always loved you, Gray. Since the first day that I met you. I made a bad decision when I kept Ciara from you. It was the wrong decision, even though I had good intentions.”

“Sutton,” I start, but she holds up a hand.

“All I want to say about that is that I’m sorry. I’m sorry, and I should have been here. But I’m glad I’m here now. I’m glad that you love me, and Ciara, too, and I know that you’ll keep us safe forever."

I’ve written my vows days ago, but the notes are wilted in my sweaty palm, and I can’t read them. I huff and shove them in my suit pocket.

“I promise I wrote my vows,” I say, and Sutton begins to laugh, and titters come from the crowd. I grin at her. “But now all I can do is speak from my heart. I’ve loved you, too, Sutton, since the day I met you. And the moment I met Ciara, I knew that the reason you left is because you wanted to protect her. I can’t fault you for that. I would have done the same thing. I’m just so grateful that you came back, and that you’re in my life again. You and Ciara are the most important people in the world to me, and I promise to love and protect you both for as long as I draw breath.”

My voice is fierce and low, shaking with unshed tears. One tear finally slips down my face and Sutton thumbs it away.

“Gray Ronan Burke, do you take Sutton Leah McIntyre to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

The priest’s words come to me on a cloud. Everything’s dream-like and perfect.

“I do.”

“And do you, Sutton Leah McIntyre, take Gray Ronan Burke as your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do," she says, and it comes out like a sob she’s crying so hard.

“I now pronounce you man and wife. May I present Mr. and Mrs. Gray Burke.”

We run down the aisle as our friends and family pelt us with birdseed, and Paige gets it in her hair, and Lara can’t stop laughing.

I can’t keep my hands off Sutton in the car, but she pushes me away.

“It’s our wedding night,” she insists. “I want it to be special.”

“It can be special right here, in the backseat of this car.”

She giggles like a schoolgirl, and I give her a dopey, lovestruck grin.

“Later,” she promises, and I groan and take my hands off her upper thighs as we arrive at the reception.

It’s an old, historical house in town that Sutton had fallen in love with.

It is beautiful all decorated, and I’d had my worries about that.

We sit down at the table and cut the cake, and of course Ciara wants the first piece.

Sutton and I share it with her, and Lara comes over and gets a big piece of her own.

Lara and Paige were in Sutton’s bridal party, and especially Lara had become close to her.

Her maid of honor had of course, been her best friend Sarah, but Lara had been the first bridesmaid.

Sarah and Rose are on the dance floor, tearing it up, when Lara grabs Sutton and they join them.

I watch Sutton dropping it low, laughing and having fun with Lara and Sarah and Rose, and I can’t believe this has happened to me. I can’t believe that I’m this lucky.

Sutton finally gets me out on the dance floor for the first dance, and then Ciara and I have a daddy daughter dance with her bare feet on my shoes.

Sutton takes a million pictures, crying the whole time.

Lara sniffles, too, watching the dance and leaning against Sutton, having had too much champagne halfway through our reception.

We can’t exactly go on a honeymoon, given Murphy’s threats, but we plan to have a little staycation at home.

Ciara will be staying with her grandmother for a week to give us some privacy.

Sutton throws her bouquet, and it’s Lara who catches it, screaming and jumping up and down.

Then it’s time to take off Sutton’s garter, and I get down on my knees, biting it and dragging it off her thigh, making her shiver.

Thomas catches the garter, but he seems a bit conflicted about it.

“It doesn’t really mean anything,” I tell him, laughing. “It’s just an old wives’ tale.”

“Tell Lara that,” he says flatly, and I laugh and laugh.

It seems to fly by in a haze of champagne and cake and crab cakes, and Sutton and I are both exhausted on the way to the room at the villa we rented for the wedding.

Most of the bridal party is staying over. A few are going back home. Like Declan and Bree. Bree was afraid to travel even half an hour away from her ob-gyn since she’s a couple of weeks away from popping, if such. And of course, Da, Marisol, Sutton’s mother, and Ciara are going home too.

It turns out that our wedding night is special all right, but there’s no sex—just holding her and sleeping soundly because we’re safe and happy and alive.

When I wake, I groan as Sutton isn’t in the bed with me.

“I can’t believe we didn’t have sex last night,” I grumble.

“Come on, Gray. We have all our lives to have sex,” she jokes. “Let’s go get some breakfast. I'm starving.”

We walk down to the lobby, and almost everyone’s there—Sarah, Rose, Sophie, Paige and Kael, Thomas.

“Where’s Lara?” I ask halfway through breakfast. I haven’t seen her since last night, but I’m sure she’s just sleeping in.

“She’s usually the one waking me up,” Paige says, grinning. “I’m going to be the annoying one for a change.”

She heads off to Lara’s room as I chomp on bacon.

Paige doesn’t return for about ten minutes, and when she does, she’s breathless, holding her pregnant belly as if in defense.

I stand up immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“Lara isn’t in her room. I don’t think she was even there at all.”

My heart drops to my toes as I rush to Lara’s room to confirm Paige’s suspicions.

Lara is gone.