Harkham's Choice (Harkham's Series Book 2) (31 page)

He’d never seen her with her hair up. It was pretty, but he liked it down better so he could touch it and grab it and smell it when he wanted.

“You look beautiful, and your hair is pretty,” he said.

Mari smiled and whispered her thank you, then said he looked more gorgeous than should be allowed.

The Justice of the Peace cleared his throat, and he chuckled. “If you’re both ready, we can begin.”

They both nodded, and the talking stopped.

All they did was stare at one another, and the officiator blabbed about stuff they didn’t care about.

He said things about commitment, family, and what it meant to take this step in their lives.

All Adam cared about was saying what he was supposed to at the right moment, hearing Mari repeat it as well and then he was going to kiss her so hard he would forget how to stand up straight.

“Adam, repeat after me,” the Justice began.

“I know my lines,” Adam huffed. He spouted them off before the Justice could say them first.

“Well, um . . . It’s not supposed to be done quite that way, but I suppose that’ll work,” Mr. Roberts said, flustered.

Mari grinned, and before the Justice could say another word, she said her lines too.

“Uh, yeah . . . I, uh,” the Justice rambled, pulling at his collar a little.

“Give me the damn ring, Adam,” Mari said, pulling her hand off his chest and fluttering her ring finger.

“If you ever take this off, I’ll cry,” Adam warned her.

“Oh, it’s glued on permanently,” she answered, tears leaking at the corners of her eyes.

“But I didn’t say,” the Justice began.

“Shut up. We know what we’re doing,” Mari said, laughing.

Adam shoved the ring on her finger. He couldn’t get it on there fast enough. Once it was secured in place, his shoulders shrank about four inches and he sighed deep and heavy. “I like having that there.”

“Me, too,” she said, and she put his ring on just as quickly.

The Justice’s head whipped back and forth like he was watching a tennis match.

“Why am I here?” he mused.

“To make it legal—nothing more,” Mari said.

Adam grabbed her in his arms, turned his head to Mr. Roberts and said, “Tell me I can kiss my wife so we can be done.”

“Uh, okay . . .” Mr. Roberts looked at the snickering audience, and one howling Zach, whose face was turning red from laughter, and said, “I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Adam Latham.” He looked at Adam dubiously. “You may now kiss . . .”

But Adam didn’t wait. He was already kissing her and had her so tight in his arms he could hear her struggling to breathe.

When he broke away, he said, “You really are mine now, and that means I want you to always be touching me and at my side.”

“No, that’s my line,” she said and smacked his backside with a wicked glint in her eyes.

She smirked as they walked around and chatted with their witnesses.

As it grew dark, Zach lit up the Chinese paper lanterns Adam had made.

Choppy followed the happy couple around. People were looking like they were ready to leave after most of the food was gone, so Adam sat down unannounced and played his song for Mari on the piano.

Choppy jumped up on the bench and sat next to him, resting her little paw on his thigh. Mari leaned against the back of the piano and people gathered around behind her.

When he was done, Mari was crying.

People clapped.

“I wrote this for Mari, because when all I could see was numbers, she made them scatter and she replaced them with a song of worship for her in my heart. I’ll never forget how she did that to me—how she saved me,” he said.

Kendra put a hand over her heart and made an almost pouty face.

He looked away. She still made him uncomfortable.

A few people praised him for his song and said he played it really well.

He got up and turned on the stereo they had put outside. Mari was surprised when he cajoled her into dancing with him on the basketball court as about half of their guests made their polite exit.

“I’ve never danced before,” Mari said as they swayed together.

“Not ever? What about when you were little? Didn’t your dad put you on his feet and hold your hands?” His eyes were wide.

“No. He hated dancing—he said he was born with bear feet and that’s why he had to hunt them down—to punish them for doing that to him.” She snorted and covered her nose to bury her laugh.

“He was funny sometimes, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah. He was actually pretty damn hysterical now that I think about it.” She leaned her head back and sighed. “Thank you for all of this, Adam. I love what you did to make your finishing touches. The lanterns made it exactly right.”

He cupped the back of her head, fingering one of the roses a little and then kissed her neck. “Anything for you, my sweetheart.”

“Almost everyone’s gone. Is it okay if I start putting away chairs and tables?” Zach asked, interrupting their intimate moment.

Adam broke away from her tasty neck. “Sure.”

“Don’t eat her up on the dance floor. You need to enjoy your honeymoon first before you do that,” his dad said, reaching out and squeezing Adam’s shoulder.

Adam smiled big. “I can do whatever I like since I’m her 
husband
,” he said, pretending to be snooty.

His dad smiled with a patient look in his eyes and without a word, went about helping Zach clean up.

The last few remaining people—Michelle, Daniel and Kendra—started helping a little, too. Kendra kept watching Daniel in a creepy way.

Eventually Daniel left out the side gate, and Kendra was gone a few seconds later.

He was glad they were out of his life.

Adam had ignored them while they were here as much as he could.

He kissed his wife some more and couldn’t stop roaming his hands all over her back. “I’m picturing you naked,” he admitted.

“I’m sure you are,” Mari said, chuckling.

“No, really, really naked, like where I can see all of you in bright lights. Not in the dark in my bedroom or in a shower, but in the full light. You’ll let me do that, right?” His voice wavered as his breath caught. What if she didn’t let him do that? He really wanted to.

The gate opened, but he didn’t bother to look. It was probably London. She said she’d be late, and she was—very late.

It was nice of her to show up, though. He knew it would mean a lot to Mari.

“So? Can I? See you?” he asked, pressing for an answer.

“Yes, sweetie, I’ll let you do any damn thing you wa—”

“It was a nice wedding—Samara would be proud,” Daniel said, interrupting them, his hands in his pockets.

Adam startled, not realizing he was standing right next to them. Why did he return?

Adam thought he saw some movement back by the gate. What was going on?

“Thank you,” Mari said, her lips stiff as they moved.

“Only one thing would make her prouder,” he said, and in a blinding flash, he had a gun pointed at Mari.

“No! You can’t hurt her!” Adam growled and launched himself at Daniel.

The gun went off, and all he could think about was tearing Daniel’s arms off and swallowing the gun down so it wouldn’t be a threat to his darling wife.

“Move, Adam! I don’t want to hurt you!” Mari yelled, shoving him off.

She somehow removed him and had her hands ripping into Daniel’s throat. He still had the gun, but she had his arms pinned down with her knees.

He bucked, and his hand was trying to aim at Adam, off to the side.

“Yaaaaaah!” Adam yowled like a dying animal. Choppy barked hysterically behind him.

Then he remembered with his next heartbeat those moments last night before he’d stolen his pet back into the house.

The icepick!

He ripped it out of his pants pocket and 
whiiiiiiiiiipphh
!

His hand flew up and then down, landing straight into Daniel’s wrist, the one holding the gun. He barely missed Mari’s leg and her beautiful white dress.

But then blood spurted out as Daniel screamed. “I hate you! You destroyed Samara—the one woman I loved!”

“What the hell is g—” Dustin’s voice cut off. He flew to Adam and ripped Mari off Daniel.

Zach stood Daniel up and put in a choke hold.

It sounded like Michelle was on her cell, talking to 911 officials.

Kendra was the most surprising. She raced right up to Daniel and kneed him in the groin. “You asshole! This was supposed to be their perfect day!” She slapped him right after she spit in his face.

Zach laughed, and Adam could have sworn his brother leaned back with his arms interlocked around Daniel’s arms he had behind him. It made Daniel’s body round toward Kendra so she could take another cheap shot at him.

“I never liked you, you freak!” Kendra continued berating Daniel. “I knew you’d be here. I just didn’t think you’d actually have the guts to do anything. That’s why I was following you around and why I stayed until you left—making sure you left them alone.”

Mari gasped almost inaudibly, but it was there.

“I hope they put you in prison just like your messed up, weirdo girlfriend!” Kendra said, pointing in his chest. “She paid me to come here, too. She wanted me to do the same thing, so I lied and told her I would for a large sum.” She groaned. “Jesus—who does this at a wedding? I can’t believe you!” She pointed at him once more with her shaking finger, then dropped it to her side. “You’re pathetic!”

“She what?” Adam choked on his words.

“Yeah, I’ve been watching out for her for you guys. She called me a few times, asking me to do stuff to you guys for her. I always told her I would and then gave her some lame reason that I didn’t go through with it so she’d keep trusting me. But I figured out where she was calling from. I have a cousin who actually found her in France. Samara is in jail for attacking your mom,” Kendra said, her eyes apologetic.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Adam asked, his hands shaking inside of Mari’s. He hadn’t even realized he was holding her hands. They were wet.

He looked at them for a moment and cringed at the blood on both their fingers from when he’d stabbed Daniel’s wrist. It was on her dress, too.

Well, he wanted the red roses to symbolize blood.

“I’ll kill you both!” Daniel hissed. “You deserve to die!”

Dustin got in front of Daniel, looming over him. “Say one more word, and I’ll finish you off with my son’s icepick!”

“You too! I’ll kill all of you! That’s what I was going to do anyway. After everybody left—I was going to make sure every last fucking Latham that ever hurt Samara would pay!” Daniel groaned, and it turned into what sounded like a ferocious war cry.

Adam dragged Mari behind him until they were inside the house.

“We can’t leave them out there with that maniac,” she said, pulling away from him.

“I know—but we don’t have to listen to his shit,” he said. “I’m gonna shut him up. He can’t talk like that.”

He went to the laundry room, found the duct tape and went straight back out there.

Instead of just taping his mouth shut, because that was too nice, he wrapped it all the way around his head. That way, when the police removed it, it would rip out gobs of hair.

Yes, he was a genius.

And the cops told him that later, before hauling off a crying, broken Daniel.

They even congratulated Adam on the sly about having an icepick in his pocket to defend himself and his bride on his wedding day.

Adam watched them drive away with Mari’s bloody hand tucked up under his arm, against his ribs. He could feel his heart pounding there. He almost lost her on the day she finally became his.

“Let’s leave before somebody else tries to off me,” she teased.

“Yeah, let’s. I’m gonna lock you away forever in a room with me so nobody can reach you.”

“Not if I do it first,” she said, taking his hand, pulling him over to the car and all but shoving him in.

It was her wedding day too, and the woman had plans, it would seem.

He would never stop her from fulfilling them. Because that was what a good groom would do.

Chapter 17

Mari drove fast. He liked that.

“I’m in a hurry, too.” He smiled at her.

“Not in as big of a hurry as I am,” she said. “I’m dying to have you.”

His tummy jerked at the expression on her face, along with other parts of his body.

Why not get started now? His fingers pulled the roses out of her hair one by one along with the pins.

Before long, her brown hair was overlapping the white dress. The contrast was beautiful.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too,” she responded, her voice soft but a little shaky.

Mari had them at the hotel and out of the car before he could say those three little words again.