“Go wait by the chapel door,” Ezekiel tells me, never taking his eyes off the scene.
“Call your dogs off!” Jericho tells Hildebrand in a voice that’s almost unrecognizable without ever taking his eyes off my brother.
“This is not the time!” Hildebrand hisses.
“You stay the hell away from my family,” Jericho tells Carlton, shifting one of his hands to wrap around Carlton’s neck.
“She’s not your family just yet,” Carlton taunts stupidly. “And since she will still have Bishop blood running through her veins, I don’t assume she’ll become that anytime soon.” I swear he’s trying to egg Jericho on. Even as he begins to choke trying to catch his breath.
“You god damned piece of shit,” Jericho starts.
“Get him off!” Hildebrand orders and two more guards arrive but before they can grab hold of Jericho, Ezekiel moves toward him, shoving one of the men who has hold of his brother away.
“Brother,” he says. “He’s right. Now is not the time.”
Jericho’s nostrils flare and I can see the effort it’s taking him to not kill Carlton.
“Jericho,” Ezekiel says more forcefully. Jericho closes his eyes, loosens his grip.
But Carlton doesn’t get it. “Not that being family would keep her safe. I mean, look at Zoë. Or your father.” Carlton’s grin is a hateful, ugly thing as he shifts his gaze to Ezekiel.
When Jericho closes his fist this time, he squeezes. I watch Carlton’s face go red. His eyes bulge. I scream, stumbling backward, my flowers falling to the floor.
“Go,” Ezekiel commands urging me in the direction of the chapel.
“You don’t know anything about my family,” Jericho growls.
I can’t move, and the moment seems to play out in slow motion. Jericho choking Carlton, Carlton’s face, his eyes looking so wrong.
“Enough!” Hildebrand calls out and it takes four of them to drag Jericho off. Four men the size of Jericho to free Carlton. They keep hold of Jericho as Carlton slumps against the wall, sputtering, choking, hand around his throat where I can see Jericho’s fingerprints. It takes him long minutes to stand upright but he does it and stupidly he steps toward Jericho who lunges like some trapped animal.
I scream again but the men have him and Carlton grins. Just grins. “Violence is all your family knows, isn’t it? Your father taught you well,” he taunts.
Around us a crowd has gathered. I look at all the faces, many masked, staring at us, enjoying the spectacle. Certainly no one is stopping it.
“Gentlemen!” Hildebrand says through clenched teeth as he tries to take control of the situation. “This is not a zoo. We are not animals. You’ll both be reprimanded for this spectacle but now is not the time.” He turns to Carlton. “Bishop!”
Carlton’s gaze snaps to Hildebrand.
“Out!” he spits.
“I just came to—”
“Out!” Hildebrand orders and his men move toward my brother who puts his hands up, making a show of backing away. When my brother is gone, he takes one look at me then turns to Jericho. “Are you ready? I need to bear witness, as you know, and I don’t have all night.”
Bear witness. Something about the way he says it makes my skin crawl.
Jericho takes a deep breath in, grits his teeth, and pulls free of the men holding him. He locks eyes with Ezekiel. “I need a word with my brother.”
Hildebrand studies them, then lets it go. When he’s gone, I’m left with the brothers and, beyond them, the collection of onlookers who are pretending not to watch.
“What the hell are you thinking bringing Angelique here?” Jericho demands.
Ezekiel may be the only man on earth who isn’t cowed by that tone. By the menace in it. By the energy crackling off Jericho’s body. And where I would have backed away, he steps toward his brother, the challenge clear. “It’s your wedding day. Don’t you think your daughter should be a part of it?”
Jericho didn’t want his own daughter here? It makes sense, doesn’t it? Considering.
“You don’t decide those things. And now you leave me with a mess to clean up.”