I nod.
He holds out his hand to me.
I try to wipe the sweat off on my pants before I put my hand in his and he helps me stand.
He smiles at me, gently.
“Don’t worry, you’re still the boss. And I already know there won’t be any fucking.” He winks at me.
“That’s not what I’m worried about. I still don’t know if I can trust you.”
“You can. I didn’t realize who I’m working for. You have my complete loyalty.”
I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. You’re just a pawn I’m using to get inside that house. You’re still our prisoner. I will have no problem killing you when I no longer have a need for you.”
He grins. “I have no doubt that you will.”
We start walking down the aisle as a woman sits behind a piano and starts playing. The sudden music makes me falter in my step, but Maxwell keeps walking me forward until we are at the altar.
The music stops, and then our priest begins speaking.
I know he’s speaking, but I can’t hear his words over the beating of my own heart. I can’t believe I’m this nervous. All we are doing is speaking meaningless words before we sign a piece of paper.
I close my eyes and steel my heart, forcing it to close tighter than a bank vault. When I open my eyes, I feel strong and ready to do this. Ready to marry this man so I can do what I came here for—to get the damn treasure and protect Atlas in the process.
“Do you take Liesel Dunn—”
“Wait!”
I turn my head and see Langston jogging down the center aisle with Phoenix right behind him.
I blink rapidly.
Langston stops right in front of me, huffing profusely like he ran the whole way here. He doesn’t glance at Maxwell; he just grabs my hand and jerks me to the side.
“We’ll be right back,” Langston mutters as he pushes me out of the side door of the church.
We stumble outside—him out of breath, me not able to breathe. Finally, we come to a stop in a small alleyway between the church and the coffee shop next door.
“What happened?” I ask when I’m finally able to breathe and remove my hand from Langston’s grasp.
He growls as I pull away, but he doesn’t make a move to take my hand back.
“Don’t marry him,” Langston says.
I fold my arms across my chest and take a step back. “If you came here to tell me what to do with my life, you can forget it. I don’t want to be left out in the dark the next time. I’ll marry him, and then we’ll kill him. What’s the big deal?”
He runs his hand through his hair, and he huffs out a long breath trying to figure out his next words. His eyes are zipping around, crazy with anger.
I don’t understand why he’s acting this way. It’s not like—
“Phoenix and I aren’t legally married.”
“What?” I gasp.
“We aren’t legally married.”
“But I saw your marriage license. How could that be?”