Chapter 6 Honeymoon Confession

Magnum

"Nothing's going on." She tried to hide it, but I didn't miss the way she dug her fingernails into her forearm.

Through the lace of her sleeves, it was obvious those damn marks on her arms had gotten worse. She was stressed and self harming.

Whatever secret she was keeping had led her to recklessly marry her fiancé's brother today.

My thoughts jumbled as I finished clearing the room and checking the front of the hotel for the tail. My brother's girl had worked some kinda spell on me today. Crying in her wedding dress in the rain, the raw terror on her face, I couldn't leave her there. Then when she'd agreed to go through with it, the words of the officiant had speared through my armor and left me defenseless. She had me saying all kinds of things I would never say.

I normally didn't allow myself to experience emotions like that. Deep, gooey, warm, affectionate feelings were banned in my world. I certainly never made empty promises or even hinted that I would do anything except fuck a woman and leave promptly. But when it had been my turn to make a vow to Wren, the least I could do was promise her she'd always be protected and I'd always tell her the truth.

Something about her eyes, the secrets there, the tender depth of them. She wasn't the fancy prep-school girl I'd originally thought. The dress was obviously second-hand and cheap. The way she clung to those gas station carnations like they were good enough for her. The crap ring on her pretty fingers. All of it was wrong and so unfair.

Fuck Gavin for doing this to her. Giving her hope. Lying to her. That's what this was all about. The lie Gavin told her that made her so desperate today.

I had to make it right somehow, even though it wasn't me she wanted. I was the wrong guy, but I was close enough to pretend.

Then I found out she lived in a bakery in a rundown neighborhood, and we were being followed. That's when this all became very real. Now it was important that she told me the truth, so we could make sure she was safe from whatever mess Gavin had dragged her into.

"Who followed us here?" I asked her.

"I didn't see anyone following us." She raised her chin and shook her head, but she didn't take her fingernails off her arm.

Lie number one. She'd had her eyes glued to the Merc the whole time, and she'd breathed a huge sigh of relief when we'd lost it. Her dishonesty lit a flame of annoyance inside me. Why lie? Why not just tell the truth so we could work together on this?

"So, how did you meet Gavin?" I took a seat in one of the chairs by the small table.

"He came into the bakery one evening." She sat down on the edge of the bed and looked around the room like she was seeing it for the first time.

"He just randomly walked into a bakery in Chinatown in LA? "

"He said he liked the Golden Dragon for lunch, and he was curious about the bakery."

"Huh." Gavin was not the type to wander into a bakery. He might've been the type to wander into a strip club, wander into a drug deal, sure. Wander in to get honey buns? Never.

"Is it a family thing? Song Bakery. Wen Li Song."

"It was my grandfather's bakery," she said carefully.

"Was?"

"He passed a little while ago." Genuine grief passed through her eyes, and I got the sense she was telling me the truth but not all of it.

"How did he die?"

"Cancer."

Illness meant he wasn't murdered by whoever was following us. "And so who runs the bakery now?"

"I do."

So she was running it but not making enough money to live in an apartment or buy a new dress. Was that why she was after Gavin's fake money? To save the family business?

"Is that what you've always wanted to do? Be a baker?"

"No. I don't even bake any of the stuff. It's delivered every morning. In fact, I need to be back at sunrise to receive the trucks."

"Are you in school?"

That caused her to look down. She stared at her clasped hands in her lap as she answered the question. "I was going to the state college to study computer science. I dropped out when my grandfather got sick, and I started running the bakery for him. "

Computers. Crypto.

"What's Gavin doing with the crypto?"

"Hmm?" She looked up.

"Gavin tried to pay for the food with crypto. You watched the whole thing."

"I don't know anything about that." Again with the fingernails, another lie.

Heat rose in my chest and the anger started talking. "You don't know much, do you? Just that you needed to get married urgently, and the guy you picked to fill that role didn't show. You got stood up at the altar. Do you at least know that?"

She looked down again. "Yes."

"Why do you think he didn't show?"

She pressed her lips together. She wanted to say she didn't know but didn't dare repeat that. She was pushing all my buttons, and I was about to say or do something I'd regret if this really turned out to be my brother's wife. I needed space from her and her stupid wedding dress. "Go change in there." I pointed to the bathroom.

She got up slowly and took her bag in with her, likely happy to be away from my questions for a few minutes. When I checked the front window again, there was still no sign of a tail. I'd have to survey the perimeter as soon as possible.

I glared at the bathroom door trying to figure out how to break this girl. She didn't react to me like most women did. The eye contact didn't work. My mouth seemed to spew foolish stuff around her, and she wasn't afraid of me .

This was not a normal woman and I wasn't going to fuck her so none of my routine stuff would work. I called Vander, my boss and friend, on a secure phone.

"What's up, Mag?" he asked.

"Got married today."

He coughed and cleared his throat. "Excuse me?"

"Kidding. I'm in a hotel room with my brother's bride."

"And your brother?"

"Nope. He was a no show. Can't find him."

"Hmm."

I'd asked Vander to have the team look into Gavin last week and he'd turned up nothing so far. "Then we had an audience today at the courthouse. Mercedes, no plates. I didn't get a good look at him before I lost him."

Another grunt as he took in the information. "You concerned about Gavin's safety?" he asked.

I wasn't until he'd said that. "You think he's at risk?"

"You don't?" he asked.

"He's always a risk. It's just his nature, but this, I assumed he got cold feet and bailed out."

"It's possible whoever was tailing you has Gavin." This was why I called Vander. He was always good for offering another perspective on a situation.

"But why follow me if they have him?"

"Watching out for their asset?"

"Her?" I laughed. "She's so squeaky clean, she's not an asset. I assumed she was in danger."

"And Gavin wasn't?"

Shoot. I'd defaulted to blaming Gavin for everything out of habit. "My mistake for not even considering it. "

"Until you know you can trust her, she's the enemy."

He was so right and spoke from experience. His wife was a Russian spy when they'd met, and I knew better than to trust anyone, especially a beautiful girl who looked harmless. "Got it. Found out today her name is Wen Li Song. Song Bakery in Chinatown. See if she's in the database."

"On it."

"Thanks."

I ended the call and stared at the bathroom door again. The water was running, and she was taking her time.

Maybe I'd been approaching this wrong.

What if Gavin was in some serious trouble and really missing? What if this seemingly innocent girl was behind all of it?

If she was working with the guy tailing us, I'd just helped her out by getting the certificate signed, and she was one hell of an actress.

She'd played me so good.

I really hated getting played, and I'd wasted valuable time messing around with her instead of looking for Gavin.

When she came out of the bathroom wearing the same pants from dinner the other night and the argyle sweater without the pearls, I was fuming mad.

That was her uniform.

She hadn't showered, but she'd washed off her makeup and pulled her hair back into her controlled bun at the nape. Very demure. Very pretty. I wasn't buying it anymore. Now she was a combatant.

The mission had changed .

Now I was out to save Gavin's ass, not protect this girl from him.

She placed her bag on the bed, and I rushed her from the side. She cried out as I pushed her up against the wall and pinned her, my front to her back.

"Ow! Let me go."

"I'll tell you the one thing I hate more than anything else is lying, and you've been lying since we got here. You saw the tail, and you knew about the crypto. You haven't asked about Gavin once. Aren't you worried about him?"

"Of course I'm worried about him." She grunted and squirmed but didn't strike out trying to dislodge me.

"Now tell me the fucking truth, or I'll tie you to the bed and make you watch duck hunting videos until you can't stand it anymore."

"I told you the truth. What more do you want?"

"There is so much you're not telling me, it's obnoxious. Tell me why you had to get married, what Gavin's doing with the crypto, and who is following us."

She pushed back a little against my chest, but there was no way she was getting away. I had her cheek flat to the wall. I didn't grab her wrists because of the marks, but she was tiny enough to control with just my weight on her back.

"Ugh. Fine." She stopped struggling and slumped against the wall.

I waited.

"Are you a cop?" she asked.

"Why do you think I'm a cop?"

"Gavin said you were a commando for hire. "

"Private security. I'm not a cop." It was a common misconception and wrong of Gavin to tell her anything about my work. "Is that why you haven't trusted me? Because you think I'm a cop?"

"I also don't want you to get hurt."

That was nice of her, but she could've been lying to distract me. "Don't worry about me. Tell me everything." I nudged her with my body, and she grunted as the air left her lungs.

"I'll tell you if you get off me."

I pressed against her tighter. She was a tiny little thing. More curvy and soft than I expected based on what I'd seen so far. "I'll let you up if you tell me."

"I'm in trouble. Alright? I owe this guy Kenny money, and I haven't paid. He's been threatening me."

"Why do you owe him?"

"It's insurance for the bakery. My grandfather was paying him, but when he died six months ago, I didn't know about it and I didn't pay. Then I got a message that I owed Kenny money. I ignored it. More messages started coming, and I told Gavin about it. He came up with a plan to get Kenny off our case, but it took too long."

Now it sounded like she was finally being honest with me. "Why did you have to get married?"

"Kenny must've lost his patience. Last week, he sent someone with a gun to bring me to his place. A big mansion in the hills. Kenny said he'd take me as a wife to repay my debt." She started to cry, and I took my weight off her.

She bent forward and held her head in her hands. "I panicked and lied. I told him I was marrying someone named Gavin. It worked. He let me go and wished me a happy marriage. Said he wanted an invitation. I didn't invite him, but I think he found out about it and sent someone to the courthouse today."

I knew it the second I saw that Mercedes. I knew this was all for someone else to see. "So I was right. We were putting on a show."

"Yes. Gavin was trying to help me. We were dating, but it wasn't serious. When I told him about the threat, he said he'd marry me to keep Kenny away, but he didn't show up today, and I was scared. I was terrified if I didn't marry Gavin that Kenny would come after me again."

"Jesus. Who is this Kenny person?"

"Kenny Zhao. He runs the streets around the bakery. Head of a Chinese gang called Red Dragon Triad. I was researching him on the dark web. My grandfather always told me to watch out for them. I think he was protecting me, and then when he died, they came after me. Gavin was trying to hack into his computers so he could cyber ransom him and tell him to leave me alone."

Say what now? "Gavin tried to hack this guy?"

"I thought it might work. I didn't have anything else. I don't have any money. I won't pay him. I can't be his wife. I just want him to go away."

This whole story was not what I expected at all, but at least she was telling me the truth. "Have a seat."

She moved over to the bed and sat on the edge with her legs crossed. I brought her a bottle of water from the mini-fridge as she wiped her eyes and dried up her tears. Some guilt washed through me for roughing her up, but her evasiveness held us back. Now that we had the truth between us, we could make progress.

"Am I going to prison?" she asked after taking a sip of water.

"Why are you worried about that?"

"I've been on the dark web. Gavin and I tried to set up a trap for Kenny. It didn't work."

"I'll look into it but poking around on the dark web isn't illegal. Did you do any deals on there?"

"No. I wasn't very good at it anyway. Now I'm worried about Gavin. It didn't even cross my mind that Kenny might go after him. Kenny doesn't even know who Gavin is."

This was a ton of new information, and I needed time to parse it all together. "Alright. We'll stay here tonight. I think it's safe enough. I'll check the perimeter to make sure."

"I need to receive the deliveries at six in the morning."

She'd scheduled herself to work on her honeymoon. "I'll take you to the bakery in the morning."

She nodded. "Thank you."

"When I get back, we'll order some food, and you'll give me all the details that you can about Kenny and Gavin."

"Okay."

Finally, I had her cooperation. "What do you like? Greek, Italian, Chinese, Mexican?"

"Delivery is expensive."

"Don't worry about that." I crouched in front of her and took her hands. "You did the right thing by telling me. I'll help you get out of this. We'll figure it out. Try to relax now. You're safe here. I need you to promise me you'll tell me the truth right away if anything else happens."

She smiled. "I will. I promise."