The Wedding Steal: The Wedding Steal, #1

By Layla Valentine and Holly Rayner

"He kidnapped me on the eve of my cousin's wedding,
And now he's the only one who can protect me…"

HER:

I've been to a few bad parties, but this is the first one that ended in me getting kidnapped!
My hot-as-hell captor tells me he used to be a SEAL, that he'll make sure no-one hurts me…
Would you trust a guy who just abducted you, ripped body and soulful green eyes aside?
He came here to steal the bride,
But he got me, the bridesmaid, instead.
And now we're both on the run.

HIM:

I served my country, but now I'm working for the mob.
And instead of saving women, I'm being hired to kidnap them.
It doesn't feel good, but in my line of work there's only one way out.
I just didn't expect to fall for the girl I'm being paid to steal.
I'm gonna make this my last job, and damn the consequences.
If they want her, they've got to get through me first…

This is the first book in the The Wedding Steal series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Layla Valentine
• Release date: Mar 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201161477

Book preview

THE WEDDING STEAL

Book One

LAYLA VALENTINE

HOLLY RAYNER

Copyright © 2022 by Layla Valentine

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

CONTENTS

1. Colton

2. Rachel

3. Colton

4. Rachel

5. Rachel

6. Colton

CHAPTER 1

COLTON

Iclenched my fist and leaned through the punch. Shockwaves moved up my arm, dampened slightly by the hand wrap and the thick boxing glove. Sometimes, using all of the safety equipment required at the boxing gym felt like using the bumpers at a bowling alley. But if I wanted to stick around, I had to follow Mickey’s rules, and Mickey’s rules were that nobody got hurt by being reckless. I understood his position—he had insurance to think about, after all—but that didn’t mean I didn’t occasionally itch to rip the glove off and crack my bare knuckles against the punching bag. Or Robby’s face, for that matter.

Robby worked at the gym as a trainer and trained at the gym in his free time. It was almost impossible to go for a workout without seeing him, and he really liked to offer his unsolicited opinion.

Move your hips, Colton, he shouted from across the room. Boxing isn’t about who can hit harder—it’s who wants it more. Put your body into it. Make love to the bag.

I groaned and rolled my eyes, throwing another punch, this time imagining I connected with Robby’s fat jaw. Make love to the bag. Who says things like that? I was convinced Robby thought his life was an inspirational sports movie. He imagined himself as the boxing instructor who used unconventional methods to inspire a down-on-their luck boxer to win the big fight and change their life. I refused to be that person.

Though, by all accounts, I’d been pretty down and pretty unlucky recently. The past year had not gone the way I’d expected. A year before, I’d had a good life, a good career in the Navy SEALs, and great friends in my SEAL platoon. A girlfriend would have been the cherry on top, but I was away from home for six to nine months every year, and I couldn’t reasonably ask any woman to sign up for that. Otherwise, things had been going well. And then, my dad got sick.

My dad and I hadn’t been close in a long time—we stopped having anything to say to one another about the time I learned to ride a bike. It wasn’t that he was a bad parent, and I wasn’t a bad kid. We just…didn’t have anything to talk about. We were family, not friends. So, when he wrote to me while I was deployed to tell me his doctor had found something unusual on some scans, I didn’t feel much of anything. And that made me feel like crap. My dad had cancer. I should have been sad. Instead, I felt disappointed.

Somewhere in the back of my head, I’d always assumed we would spend a long weekend together and unlock the secret to our relationship. We’d discover our common interests and spend the last twenty years of his life talking on the phone a few nights a week and going fishing. I hated to admit it, but I’d fancied myself in an inspirational movie of my own. But then, suddenly, I had a year at most left with him, and the majority of that would be spent working or deployed. So, after almost no thought, I retired.

I quit the SEALs, returned to my dad’s two-bedroom bungalow in New Jersey, and planned out how I was going to fix a lifetime of childhood disappointment in the space of twelve months. My dad died two weeks later.

So much for my inspirational ending.

You’re pulling back just before you make contact, Robby shouted again, breaking my concentration. You’re more likely to get injured if you’re holding back than if you move with confidence.

I gritted my teeth and spun around, finally ready to tell Robby where he could shove his unwanted advice. As I turned, however, I spotted a figure by the door. I’d thought Robby and I were alone in the gym, but a third man had joined us without me realizing. I wanted to tell Robby to mind his own business, but I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of a stranger.

And that was when I realized the figure wasn’t a stranger, after all. He was my boss.

Tony Gambino tipped his head imperceptibly towards me as our eyes met. His black hair was slicked back to his head with gel and hairspray, but his wide shoulders and tree-trunk neck looked rugged and tough. I’d never seen him throw a punch, but I suspected he could knock Robby out cold.

Can I help you with anything? Robby asked, slipping one of his gloves off and moving towards the front door. I’m not on the clock right now, but I’m a trainer here a few days a week.

Tony shook his head, stopping Robby in his tracks. I’m here for him, he said, nodding his head towards me.

I obviously knew that, but I was still surprised to hear him say it. Tony had never just shown up to talk to me. He would give me a call, we’d schedule a meeting, and I would be summoned to the family’s turf for a discussion with Tony and his dad and brothers. There was an order to things in a mob family, and they hardly ever broke from tradition. When they did, it meant something was wrong.

Robby