Fall Into Place (Taking the Fall) (3 page)

W
e load into my truck
, but this time Sam does the driving since I can’t navigate and drive at the same time. Something still doesn’t feel right, but from what I’ve searched this should be straightforward. If Samuel wasn’t so twisted up about her I’d be pulling him out of this one, but as it stands we’re going to take care of this and then end it. I’m ready to get back to my woman and make her mine.

I’m watching the feed on my phone, and suddenly the phone starts buzzing.

“Shit. It’s my mom.” I contemplate hitting ‘Ignore,’ but I know that won’t do any good. I look over at Sam, and he nods, knowing the same thing. “Just keep straight at the light, then go up two blocks and it’s on the right. You can’t miss the Snake Eyes.”

“Got it,” Sam says. He’s cool and controlled, and it’s more like what I’m used to when we’re on a run.

I put the phone to my ear and smile. “Yo, Jeanette, what’s shakin’?”

“Don’t ‘Jeanette’ me, Anthony. Where are you?” She sounds pissed, and that’s not good.

“Well, Mom, if you must know, I’m in Vegas with Samuel and Mary. We decided to drive down for the weekend, you know, have a good time.” It’s mostly the truth, but I know with my mom, the truth is the safest bet. There’s a pause on her end of the phone, and I have a funny feeling. “Mom, is everything okay?”

“Your dad and I rode by your apartment and you weren’t there. And your landlord was kind enough to let us in. Mind telling me where all your shit is?”

Fuck. Not good. “I can explain.”

“When will you be back?” I can hear my dad mumbling something in the background, but I can’t make it out. ‘Shut up, Saint. I’m talking to my baby.”

Great, this is the last thing I need. I’m in the middle of catching a half a million dollar skip, getting married, and losing my virginity all in twenty-four hours. I don’t need my parents asking about my living situation.

“Tomorrow.”

My mom lets out a huff of frustration, but what can she really do besides wait? “When you get back, come straight over. And bring Mary with you. We need to talk.”

Fuck. They know.

“Sounds good, Mom. Love you.”

“Love you, too, Anthony.”

Goddamn it. I hang up the phone and lay my head back on the headrest. I don’t need this right now. I take a second, and I make my decision. I need to focus, and this isn’t my priority. Mary is. There’ll be time to make money later. I want to marry my woman now.

“Sam, I need to get back to Mary. I’m gonna have to call this one. I’m out.”

Samuel pulls into the Snake Eyes casino and parks off to the side. We can see the entrance from here, and he’s squeezing the steering wheel so tight his knuckles are white.

“I’m sorry, Sam, but this is off. I haven’t had enough time to do some research on this skip. We’re going in blind, and I don’t like it. On top of that, I came here to get married, not chase a bounty. That’s enough for me, man. I’m going back to the room, I’m getting Mary, and I’m making her my wife. You coming?”

He looks over at me, and after a second he closes his eyes and shakes his head. Relief washes over me, but then I realize he’s not disappointed, he’s telling me no.

He turns off the truck, tossing me the keys. “Sorry, Tony. I’m staying.”

“What about walking Mary down the aisle?” I can’t believe he’d miss that for anything on this Earth.

He gets out of the truck and stands at the open door. He puts on his leather jacket, covering his weapons and winks at me. “Oh, I’ll be there. You guys don’t start without me.”

With that, he shuts the door and makes his way into the casino. I should probably be worried, but I’m not. No matter what happens, Samuel can handle himself, and if all else fails I’ve got every camera feed in Vegas at my fingertips and about ten trackers on his body. I can find him anywhere on the face of the Earth. I climb over into the driver's seat and put the keys in the ignition.

Waiting just a few moments, I watch the feed on my phone as Samuel walks into the bar and heads straight for Nika. “Good luck, buddy,” I say out loud and crank the truck.

I turn around and head back to the Blue Diamond. I make one pit stop on the way back to the hotel. I’m thankful that nothing in Vegas closes. You can literally get anything you want twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Once I’m back at the hotel, I go to our room and knock on the door. After just a second, Mary opens the door, smiling at me, and steps out of the way for me to come inside. My arms are full of boxes, and she looks at me with shock.

“What’s all this?” she asks, seeing me set them down.

“Well, I know this was last minute, so I stopped and got a few things. Sit your cute ass down and I’ll show you.” She laughs and goes over to the couch, and I walk over with the first box.

“New,” I say and set the box in her lap. She opens it up and puts her hands over her mouth in shock.

“Anthony, you bought me a wedding dress?” She pulls out the simple white dress that I know is going to look perfect on her.

“I know we’ll have a big wedding later, but I still wanted you to feel like a beautiful bride, even if it’s just for you and me.”

I see a few tears slip down her cheek as she touches the dress. I don’t want her to be sad, so I go to the next box and hand it to her.

“Old and blue,” I say, and watch her open it.

“Oh, my God. They’re beautiful.” She gently touches the vintage blue sapphire earrings.

“I tried to find a pair that matched your eyes, but nothing was as perfect.” I feel my face heat with embarrassment saying that, but it’s true. There’s nothing as perfect as she is. And no piece of jewelry can compare to her.

I wait for her to put them on, then I pass her another box. “Borrowed.”

“What’s this?” She pulls out the gold band and looks at it and raises her eyebrow.

I laugh and point to it. “That’s mine. I’m letting you borrow it for one hour, then I want it back.”

She laughs with me, and then I see more tears fall down her cheeks. I kneel down in front of her and kiss them away, then touch my forehead to hers. “Go get ready, princess. Don’t make me wait any longer.”

She closes her eyes and nods, taking her things with her to the bathroom.

While she’s getting ready, I check the feed on my phone and feel my smile spread from ear to ear. “Well, well, well. Looks like Samuel’s having fun.”

“
D
amn
. Seeing you in the dress makes me harder than this past Halloween when you dressed up like a slutty pussy cat,” Anthony growls against my mouth, taking my lips again. This time he picks me up and shoves me against the wall, my legs locking around him the best they can in this dress. So much for not kissing me again until we’re married, but fuck it, we’re at the chapel so close enough.

“Are you at least going to let me go outside dressed like this?” I tease. Pulling back, I try to catch my breath because he’s been all over me since I put this thing on. I didn't even make it out of our bedroom with that Halloween costume on, but I hadn't wanted to. The point was to once again try to bait Anthony into finally making love to me. He ended up doing everything but that that night, over and over again for hours. Who would have thought I should’ve just bought a wedding dress and walked around the apartment in it? My virginity would have been long gone.

“Only long enough to make you mine.” He pulls back, his voice husky as he nibbles on my neck.

“No marks. We have to see our parents this week for Thanksgiving. Let’s not add any fuel to the fire.”

“You saying I can’t mark you?” I feel him suck harder on my neck, and it makes me buck into him. My neck is my weak spot, and he knows it. He barely has to run his fingers across me there and I’m instantly wet and clawing to get at him.

“Anthony.” I moan out his name, my eyes falling closed, and I just enjoy the feelings running through my body. It’s all I can seem to say at the moment. I should tell him to stop, but I can’t, and I don’t want him to.

“You saying I can’t leave my love marks on you? I like my love marks on your body. Lets people know you belong to someone. Someone who can’t keep his hands off you. Someone who likes to see the signs of me all over you.”

“Yes, please.” He backs away a little, letting my legs drop from around his waist. I try to protest, wanting him plastered against me with no space between us. Using his foot, he pushes my feet further apart, and I feel one of his hands bunching up my dress. Then his hand is on my pussy, his other one going to my face, and I feel his forehead rest on mine as his thumb rubs along my jaw.

“Eyes on me, princess.” I look up into his eyes and see so much looking back at me. The power and intensity make my stomach tighten.

“I’m about to marry you. Make you legally mine. Because God and everyone knows you’ve been mine from the moment we both entered this world.” His fingers part my pussy lips as he starts to softly stroke my clit. My body pushes into his hand like it always does, always wanting to be as close it him as possible.

“I’m the only man on this Earth who’ll ever know your body like this. Just like you’re the only woman who’ll ever know mine. I know people gave us both shit about not seeing what else was out there. That we might one day wonder if we should’ve dated other people or some stupid shit like that, but I can promise you you’ll never have that thought. Because there won’t be a day I won’t give you everything you could ever need or want.”

I cum at his words, my body giving in to the passion. His mouth takes mine, muffling the sounds of my orgasm. When I finally come back down from my peak, Anthony is straightening my dress with a satisfied smirk on his face. He looks as if he was the one that just got to cum.

“How did I get so lucky with you?”

“It’s not luck, princess. It’s fate. You were born for me, and I was born for you.” It’s true. We came into this world minutes apart, our families already linked together. We were always meant to be.

A knock sounds at the door, pulling us from our moment.

“Your brother’s here,” Anthony says, licking the finger he just used to get me off. He adjusts himself to try to hide his erection before opening the door to the entrance of the chapel.

“Jesus, Sam! What the fuck happened to you?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I hear my brother respond, and I turn to see him looking like he got in a fight. His clothes are a little wrinkled, and a bruise is forming on his jaw.

“Who did that to you? Are you okay?” I push past Anthony to get a better look at my brother. I’ve never seen Sam come out of a fight he didn’t win. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone land a blow on him. He’s as big as our dad, and most people don’t even try. Normally, just a look from Samuel did the job.

“It’s not a fight if I don’t fight back.”

“She do that to you?” Anthony asks as he eyes my brother. “She give you the slip?”

“She? Who’s ‘she?’ Wait, your skip was a woman?” I’d never heard of them going after a girl before.

“I got her. Let’s do this wedding. I’ve got to get back to her before she…” He pauses for a second, searching for his words. “Gets away.”

“You know what? I don’t even want to know,” I say, pushing past them. But before I can move, Anthony has me by the waist, pulling me back to him.

“While I love seeing the just-fucked look on you, princess, no one else gets to.”

Sam rolls his eyes and leaves, mumbling that he’ll meet me out front.

“Fix your lipstick, and I’ll meet you at the altar.” Placing a kiss on my nose, he follows Sam’s path. Quickly fixing my make-up and hair, I grab my purse. Feeling it vibrate, I pull out my phone. Five missed calls from my dad and one from my mom. Shit. I’m not even checking those messages right now.

When I make it out to Sam, I see he has his phone to his ear. I can tell by the look on his face he’s talking to Mom.

“No,” I mouth to him, and he nods his head in agreement. “Ma,” he says, but I can tell she must still be rambling on. “Ma. I’m on a date. Can I call you back?”

“A date!” I can hear her excitement through the phone, and I roll my eyes at him. Why did he have to say that? Now she’s going to have a million questions. “Ma. Slow down. Like I said, I’m on a date.”

He pauses for a second, listening to whatever it is she’s saying. Sam never has dates and has never talked about a girl or brought one around so I’m wondering why he said that. He should have known that wouldn't have gotten him off the phone with Mom any faster. “She’s the one,” he says to her, but he’s looking at me. I’m sure my eyes are bugged out. “I really gotta go, Mom. I love you. When I see Mary I’ll tell her to call you.” With that, he hangs up the phone.

“The one?” I ask.

“Today’s about you, Mary.” He grabs my arm, pulling me close to him, locking our arms together.

“Any last words?” I tease, looking up at him as we wait for the doors to open, allowing me to walk down the aisle.

“Not a one.”

“Really?”

“There isn't another person I’d rather give you to. In fact, if you tried to run right now I’d cuff you to Anthony myself.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

The doors part, revealing Anthony and the pastor standing at the end of the aisle, and my eyes instantly fill with tears. His dark hair is still a little tousled from our makeout session.

We walk down the aisle, and I can tell it takes everything in Anthony not to just come and pick me up and make me move fast to get to the end. But he’s patient and waits for me to get to him. He’s more patient than anyone I’ve ever met, and it’s one of the things I love most about him.

The ceremony is quick, sealing us together with simple words. And before I know it, Anthony is kissing me, picking me up, and carrying me away from the altar.

“You carry her over the threshold, not down the aisle,” I hear Sam joke behind us.

Anthony just ignores him until we make it out to the parking lot.

“Say goodbye to your brother, princess,” Anthony says, putting me on my feet. I give him a hug, pulling him close. When he goes to pull away, I cradle his face, looking into his eyes, eyes that match mine.

“Go get your girl,” I tell him.

With that he’s gone.