come on!"

Isla tugged on Ace's hand, and Ace had no choice but to keep following her. The marble hallways of the Bellagio blurred until they reached the bridge between the hotel and the casino.

"Your mother is going to kill me," Ace said.

"She'll never know," Isla said, grinning, as she yanked Ace into the parlor of the casino. "Besides, Louis and I are best friends."

"Louis?"

Isla waved to the tall, muscular bouncer guarding the front of the casino. His face was covered in tattoos and when he smiled, Ace saw three piercings on his bottom lip.

"See you, Louis!" she said cheerfully, as she pulled Ace through the entrance and into the brightly lit, colourful den. "Golden retrievers are his favourite dog, like me. We're practically the same person."

Ace thought of Louis's bulging muscles and ink-covered face.

Practically the same person?

"Cats are better," Ace murmured.

Isla dragged her into the gift shop. "So, listen. We need a ring. And we just can't have a Ring Pop. That's so unromantic. It's like those movies with the skinny white dude who knocks up some girl but their parents don't approve and they're both broke so the guy thinks it's just so cute to propose with a dumb candy ring, and the girl is like, Aw, how sweet! Men are so fantastic!"

"That was . . ." Ace frowned. "Very specific?"

Isla huffed and tugged her harder. "Look, we have something borrowed and something blue. Now, we need something old and something new."

"Why?"

Isla spun around. "Why? Why?"

Ace's brows pulled together. She had no idea what something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new meant.

There were probably traditions in Russia, some kind of marriage rituals her family knew about, but as for her?

The only rite Ace had ever done was killing that hawk on her birthday.

"Oh, look!" Isla said, holding up a little pin. "It says, I Smoke Weed. That's something new, right?"

"I am not wearing that," Ace growled.

Isla sighed. "What about I'm A Gay Unicorn?"

Ace narrowed her eyes on the pin. "It does not say that."

"Oh, please, please, won't you wear this? It's so cute. Put it on your tuxedo."

"I am not wearing a pin that says, I'm A Gay Unicorn."

was wearing a pin that said, I'm A Gay Unicorn.

"It's almost time for the wedding," Isla hummed, practically bouncing as she waved goodbye to Louis, the bodyguard. "I can't believe I'm going to have a second mom!"

Ace froze.

It is conquered, or be conquered, whispered her mother's voice in her ear.

Isla slowed, her grip on Ace becoming hesitant. "I―I didn't mean that," she said. "I was just . . . you don't have to be my second mom."

Ace thought of the way her mother―no, Aleksi's mother―had once slapped her. Daughter of a whore.

"No," Ace said, and Isla's face fell. "I―do not mind. You are a wonderful daughter."

Instantly, Isla brightened.

"Come on," she said. "It's time to go to the church. It's almost midnight. And I have something for you."

"What's this?"

Isla was holding up a sticker with a little Spanish girl on it and a monkey. "Something old. This is from my favourite sticker collection. I want you to have it."

"Thank you," Ace said, and she didn't know why, but―her eyes were stinging at the thought of a Dora sticker.

The American air is rotting my brain, she thought.

Isla patted the sticker down onto her wrist. "Now, come on! For a Russian Mafia assassin, you're so slow."

People in the corridor looked up at them mention of Russian Mafia assassin.

"This is the best day ever," Isla said. "Mom never lets me stay up this late, and I get to see a wedding, and you're basically a ninja."

"I am not a ninja."

Isla sighed dreamily, as though she hadn't heard. But when Isla's attention drifted away, Ace smiled to herself.

to play.

It was midnight, and Ace was getting married to the woman she had been sworn to kill. The double doors of the chapel were closed, but the Beatles had already started playing.

The priest looked hungover.

Isla was jumping up and down next to Ace, but all Ace could think of was the fact that Galina had found Mavis . . . and Mavis had used pepper spray on her.

I think I'm in love with her.

Galina was Aleksi's lover―perhaps even his wife. She was ruthless, and cold, and calculating, and―

Mavis had pepper sprayed her.

Maybe Ace did not believe in love, but if there ever were such a thing, this was it.

"The doors are opening," Isla whispered.

Every thought dissolved inside of Ace's head when she looked up.

It was not often that Ace forgot herself. Her name. Her past. But when her eyes fell on Mavis Griffon, silhouetted in the vibrant lights of the casino behind her, Ace struggled to remember how to speak.

Mavis's hands were trembling, ever so slightly, against the silk of her white dress. She had never looked more like a goddess than in that moment, as she glided down the aisle with wide, shining eyes and heels that surely only Lyutsifer himself could have made.

She looked like salvation, and Ace wanted to fuck her.

But first, she had a wedding to attend.

"Doesn't she look beautiful?" Isla whispered, nudging Ace.

Ace could not breathe, let alone speak.

Here comes the sun . . .

The song was certainly fitting.

Mavis smiled tentatively as she stepped up onto the altar, smoothing her dress at the hips.

The priest coughed. "So, uh―let's begin."

And then Mavis's eyes drifted to Ace, and the world around them vanished.

The plastic gold chandelier above them painted Mavis in a thousand shades of sin, outlining the lush curve of her breasts, the swell of her full hips. Dressed in that sexy white dress, her warm brown skin seemed bright and full of life. Ace had never imagined a woman's legs alone could be so attractive to her.

And when the corner of Mavis's mouth tugged upward into a half-smile, Ace thought maybe love might not be a hoax after all.

The priest cleared his throat, and Ace realized he was talking.

"Love is really amazing and holy," he said. "Every―uh―couple should engage in holy matrimony because personally, it's great. And you―are one smoking-hot woman."

Ace's attention snapped back to reality.

The priest's eyes were flicking, casually, up and down Mavis's body.

"You're really beautiful, and I'm free tomorrow evening," said the priest. His eyes were bloodshot. "Like I was saying, holy matrimony is―"

Was that―was the priest hitting on the woman Ace was about to marry?

"I really don't think this is appropriate," Mavis was saying.

Red flickered in front of Ace's vision. Without a second thought, she reached into her jacket and pulled out her gun.

It barely took a moment for her to slam the priest back against the stained glass window, hard enough that she heard the sound of it cracking.

She shoved her gun against his neck.

"What," she whispered softly, coldly, "did you just say to my fiancée?"

The Adam's apple of his throat bobbed. "I―I―you know Las Vegas weddings aren't permanent. You'll probably be divorced in like forty-eight hours anyway." He smiled dreamily. Maybe hungover wasn't the right word. He was high. "She's thick. Worth a shot, right?"

Ace unclicked the safety.

"Don't kill him!" Mavis said. "We still need to get married."

Ace smiled grimly. She was so close to him now she could detect the stench of weed and cigarettes was heavy on his breath.

"You're going to marry us," Ace whispered calmly. "And you're not going to hit on my fucking fiancée again, or I'll put a bullet in your skull right here, church be damned."

When she let go of him, he swayed on his feet.

"Okay," he slurred, "you are now joined in marriage, wife and wife, just say I do and kiss."

From the corner of her eye, Ace saw him wink at Mavis.

"Can you grab the rings?" Mavis asked Isla. "I forgot them in the hotel room."

Isla growled and ran back down the aisle, disappearing through the double doors.

"I do," Ace said.

"So do I," Mavis whispered.

The priest let out a wolf-whistle. "This is like lesbian porn. I've always wanted to see two girls making out―"

Ace closed the distance between her and her wife, curling her fingers over the back of Mavis's neck. Mavis gasped in her mouth, gripping the collar of her suit. Her lips were warm, soft―she tasted like coconut. With her eyes closed, kissing the woman she had just married, Ace shot the priest in the head.

"Did you just murder our officiant?" Mavis whispered against her lips, still looking at Ace.

"Yes," Ace said.

"Fuck," Mavis groaned. "I know murder is bad, but I'm really turned on right now."

Then she blinked―as though she had not meant to say that.

A slow smile formed on Ace's lips. "It is a good thing we have two hotel rooms."

The church doors flung open.

"I'm back," Isla said breathlessly. "What did I miss?"

Mavis pulled back from Ace, and Ace resisted the urge to glance behind them.

"Dios mio," Mavis said. "That was fast."

"I have the rings!" Isla announced. "Look, do you like them?"

Ace slid her hand down to the curve of Mavis's ass, and Mavis turned a beautiful shade of pink.

"Yes, they're―they're lovely," Mavis said. "Mood rings?"

"Yes, and they actually work! Look, I have one, too, and it's orange for excitement!"

Ace shared a secret grin with Isla, and as Isla fumbled to take out the rings from the boxes, Ace leaned towards Mavis's neck and whispered in her ear, "What colour do you think it will be if you are turned on?"

Yes, it was possible for Mavis to turn a deeper shade of pink.

Isla slid the rings onto their fingers. "There! I hope you're―what's that on the altar? Why is the priest laying down?"

"He's drunk," Mavis said smoothly. "Come on, Isla. It's time to go to bed. You get a hotel room all to yourself tonight."