GROOM UNDER FIRE

by Lisa Childs

  “C’mon, Nikki!” he prodded her again—more forcefully.

  “Rochelle sent Stephen some emails.”

  “Some?”

  She nodded.

  “I know she’s your friend.” Though he couldn’t fathom why. “But you need to be straight with me.”

  “She was begging him not to marry Tanya.”

  He wasn’t surprised. It was obvious that Rochelle was against her sister’s marrying Stephen even though she had showed up at the church for the wedding. Of course, Tanya hadn’t married Stephen, though. She had married him. His heart slammed into his ribs as the truth fully sank in—he was married.

  To Tanya…

  But he wasn’t the groom she’d wanted. That man was missing.

  “She’d written more than that in those emails,” he surmised.

  Nikki grimaced and replied, “She said that if he left Tanya at the altar and married her instead, he would get all the inheritance instead of just half.”

  That niggling feeling intensified until Cooper grimaced from the force of it.

  “Rochelle would probably be so embarrassed that I saw those,” Nikki said. “And especially that I told you. She must have been drinking when she sent those emails…”

  “Was she drunk or greedy?” Cooper asked. “Does she want the money all for herself?”

  “I didn’t think she wanted her grandfather’s money at all,” Nikki said. “She hated the old man so much.”

  “Maybe it’s not the money she wants,” Cooper said. “Maybe it’s the man.”

  “So you think she’s using the money to lure Stephen away from Tanya?” Nikki asked. Then, shaking her head, she added, “Never thought I would be happy I had brothers instead of sisters…”

  “She’s your friend,” Cooper reminded her.

  Nikki sighed. “I always felt sorry for her growing up in Tanya’s shadow.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t know?” Nikki asked in astonishment. “And she’s your wife.”

  “Only because Stephen disappeared.” Or had he really?

  “But you always had a crush on her,” Nikki said. “All the guys did. She’s beautiful and sweet and smart. It must have been hell having her for an older sister.”

  “So how much does Rochelle resent her?” he asked. “Enough to try to kill her?”

  Nikki gasped. “Rochelle can be a brat sometimes, but she’s not a killer.”

  “What about Stephen?”

  “She would never hurt him,” Nikki said. “Like you had the crush on Tanya, she’s always had a crush on Stephen.”

  “She has the two greatest motives,” Cooper pointed out. “Love and money.”

  Her lips curved into a teasing smile. “Well, I know which one motivated you…”

  “Motivated me for what?” Did she think him responsible for Stephen’s disappearance?

  “To marry Tanya Chesterfield.”

  “I work for Payne Protection now,” Cooper reminded her. “I only want to keep her safe.” But that niggling sensation told him something was wrong. He turned back toward Tanya’s room. Why hadn’t the person in scrubs come back out?

  “What’s wrong?” Nikki asked.

  But he was already heading back down the hall. As he approached the room, he heard a clang as something fell over and then that all-too-familiar sound of Tanya’s scream. Fear for her safety overwhelmed him. “Call security!” he yelled at Nikki. He was reaching for the door when it banged open and that figure in scrubs came running out.

  The person wore a surgical cap and face mask. Cooper would have reached for him, but the person also carried a gun, the barrel pointed at his chest. But he didn’t fire. Instead, he kept running.

  Nikki turned as if to follow, but Cooper caught her arm and tugged her inside the room with him. “Call security,” he repeated. “Call Logan…”

  Even as he barked those orders, his attention was on the woman in the bed. Or half out of the bed. The sheets had tangled around her, trapping her legs so that she hadn’t been able to free herself.

  She had been at the mercy of a madman while he’d been talking in the hall. He had failed to protect her. Again. Some husband he was proving to be; no wonder he had never intended to marry.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  Her face was flushed, but she was breathing—in pants and gasps.

  “Call the doctor!” he yelled that order at his sister now.

  Nikki, her eyes wide with shock and concern, hurried from the room to do his bidding.

  Tanya clutched at his arms. “I—I fought him off.”

  “Yes, you did,” he said, his chest swelling with pride that she had rallied her strength after having come so close to death just hours before. But then, she’d been fighting for her life, and he knew the fear of death could bring on a miraculous surge of strength.

  “He—he tried to smother me…”

  That explained the pillow on the floor. “He had a gun,” he told her—no doubt the gun that had already fired so many shots at them.

  She shuddered. “Why didn’t he just shoot me?”

  “Maybe he wanted it to look like you just stopped breathing again,” he said. “And he didn’t want anyone to hear the gunshot and catch him.” He should have chased after him. But when Tanya screamed, he had to make certain she was all right. His heart hadn’t stopped furiously pounding with his concern for her.

  Tears glinted in her eyes. “Will he ever get caught?” she asked. “Will this ever be over?”

  He silently cursed himself for not reaching for that mask. But with the gun pointed at his chest, he may have not lived to identify his killer. “Did you get a look at his face?”

  The tears brimmed on her bottom lashes before spilling over onto her face. “No…”

  Would she have let herself recognize her attacker if it was the person Cooper had begun to suspect? Would she be able to face the reality that someone she loved wanted her dead?

  He wasn’t sure he could accept it.

  “That’s fine,” he assured her. “We’ll catch him.” Or die trying…

  “I did something else, though,” she said, and she lifted her hands from the sleeves of Cooper’s tux to hold them up.

  Blood smeared her fingers.

  “You scratched him?” He hadn’t seen any marks around the mask, but that had covered nearly all of the attacker’s face.

  She nodded. “I only got his arms…”

  He whistled in appreciation of her strength and ingenuity. “You also got his DNA.” And a definite conviction once Payne Protection tracked down the would-be killer. “That’s my girl…”

  *

  THAT’S MY GIRL…

  He had said that, but Cooper had yet to act as if Tanya was his girl. He wasn’t even acting as if she was his wife, and they were on their honeymoon. They had spent the first night of that in the hospital. Cooper had stayed with her, but she didn’t mistake his vigilance for love.

  He wasn’t acting like a husband; he was acting like a bodyguard. Instead of carrying her over the threshold of their hotel suite, he carried a gun and peered around him. “You’ll be safe here,” he assured her. “Nobody followed us from the hospital.”

  “What if they followed the others?” she asked.

  “Then the plan worked.”

  The plan had consisted of Logan leaving the hospital with one of his female employees, who had worn a blond wig. And Parker had left with Nikki, who had also been wearing a blond wig. Since each of the men had worn the same ball cap, they had looked nearly identical except to her. Cooper was the most muscular and handsome. But someone else might have been fooled.

  “Will they be safe?” She didn’t want anyone else getting hurt because of her.

  “They’re all bodyguards,” Cooper reminded her. “Since it’s our job to protect others, we should certainly be able to protect ourselves.”

  He could. But, as a Marine, he had training that the others didn’t have.
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br />   “You’re not worried about them?” she asked.

  A muscle twitched along his tightly clenched jaw. “It’s not my job to worry about them.”

  But he clearly was.

  “It’s my job to worry about you,” he said.

  That was what she really was to him. Not his girl. Not his bride or wife. Not even his friend. She was just a job.

  Maybe she wasn’t as recovered from her asthma attack as she’d convinced the doctor, because she was suddenly so weary she dropped heavily onto the couch.

  “You just told me I was safe here,” she reminded him.

  He had driven such a circuitous route to the hotel that she wasn’t even certain where they were. But when they’d driven up, she had seen sunlight glinting off water and realized they were close to Lake Michigan. She would have stood up now and looked out the window to see if they had a lake view, but after what had happened last time, she didn’t dare risk it.

  “You’re safe.” He dropped onto the couch beside her and skimmed his knuckles across her cheek. “But I’m still worried about you. You’ve been through a lot the past couple of days.”

  She would have brought up that his mother might have been right about her wedding superstitions, but then she would have been bringing up the kiss that had happened when they’d been alone in a hotel room, like now.

  “The doctor signed my release,” she said. “I’m fine.”

  He studied her face as if he doubted the doctor’s opinion. Did she look that bad? Nikki had brought her makeup, which Tanya had used to cover the dark circles beneath her eyes. But maybe she should have left the circles since they had been the only color in her very pale face.

  Nikki had also brought the suitcase she’d packed for the honeymoon. But given that she and Stephen were only friends, her honeymoon clothes were more comfortable than sexy. She wore dark jeans with a green sweater.

  Cooper also wore jeans, ones so faded and worn that they clung to his muscular thighs, and a black sweater that clung to his muscular chest. He had ditched the cap and his black jacket before joining her on the couch.

  “You’re fine,” he finally agreed. “Physically…”

  She nodded, and his hand fell away from her face. But she could still feel his touch. Her skin tingled and her pulse raced with his closeness.

  He continued, “But emotionally…”

  Had he realized that she was falling for him? Was he about to give her the just-friends speech again?

  “I am emotional,” she admitted, embarrassed when she remembered how often she had cried in front of him just over the past couple of days. “But it’s because I’m worried. About Stephen. About your family.”

  And, most especially, you…

  But if she admitted that, he would know for certain that she’d fallen for him. And he would probably not only be appalled but offended that she didn’t think him capable of protecting himself and her.

  “And I’m worried about how naive you are,” he said. “And how badly you’re going to be disillusioned because of that…”

  “Naive?” She laughed in amazement that she had been accused of that twice in as many days. “You think I’m naive? I’m a supervisor at the Department of Social Services for the second-biggest city in Michigan. I wouldn’t have lasted a week on the job if I was naive or easily disillusioned.” Her laughter turned into a heavy sigh. “In fact, I’m realistic enough to believe that somebody from one of those cases I’ve handled may be stalking me.”

  “It’s gone beyond stalking,” he bitterly reminded her.

  She flinched. “Yes, Stephen was abducted.”

  “Someone’s trying to kill you,” he said. “And that person very nearly succeeded.”

  And he seemed more worried about her than Stephen.

  “It could be someone who got angry over how I do my job,” she said. She’d had to make some very unpopular decisions over the past several years.

  He shook his head.

  “You don’t believe that.” She studied his face now as intently as he had studied hers moments ago. “You’ve been acting strangely, like you have some idea who the culprit is. Do you?”

  He just held her stare, his gaze locked on hers. Despite the brightness of the blue, there was also darkness in his eyes—as if the tragedy he’d witnessed was still there, haunting him. “I have my suspicions.”

  “Why won’t you share them with me?” They were husband and wife—weren’t they supposed to share everything? But they hadn’t even shared a kiss yet to seal their union.

  “I’m not sure you can handle it,” he admitted as if she was some fragile female needing his protection.

  While she did need his protection, she wasn’t fragile. “I’ve been through a lot in the past couple of days.” She smiled ruefully. “Certainly nothing like you’ve been through when you were deployed, but—”

  He pressed a finger over her lips as if to block her from putting her foot any further into her mouth. But he was smiling ruefully, too. “You’re tough,” he said. “You’ve handled getting almost run down and shot at, smoked out and smothered…”

  She shivered as he trailed off because she realized he considered this worse than all those things. Then she drew in a deep breath and asked, “Who?”

  “You think this is about revenge for something you did or didn’t do on your job.”

  Against her better judgment, she’d given him a list of names. But she suspected he had not pursued any of those leads. “And you don’t think so?”

  He shook his head. “I think it’s about the money.”

  “That’s why I needed it to pay the ransom.”

  “What ransom?” he asked. “There’s been no ransom demand.”

  Once she’d gotten her phone back from Logan, she’d kept it in her pocket. It hadn’t rung. Her stomach churned. “That’s not good for Stephen…”

  “No, it’s not,” Cooper agreed.

  “You think he’s dead?” If he was, she might as well have murdered him herself—since she was the reason he’d died. “That’s why they haven’t called?”

  He said nothing, just stared at her as if debating the wisdom of sharing his suspicions.

  Pain clutched her heart. She needed to know if Stephen was dead. “Cooper?”

  “I think they haven’t called because Stephen can’t make his own ransom call.”

  Maybe she wasn’t as recovered as she’d thought, but she couldn’t fathom what he was telling her. “What?”

  “I think it’s Stephen,” he explained himself. “I think Stephen’s trying to kill you.”

  The best friend she’d ever had? She laughed at the ludicrous thought of Stephen betraying her. Because if Cooper was right, Stephen didn’t have to shoot or smother her. The betrayal alone would kill her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Did her laughter have an edge of hysteria to it? Had his admission struck her too hard?

  Cooper studied her face for signs of distress. But he saw only the beauty of her flushed skin and sparkling green eyes. She had always distracted him. Maybe he wouldn’t have had so much trouble in school if she hadn’t been in so many of his classes.

  “You don’t believe Stephen could do this.” Did she love him that much that she couldn’t see him for the man he must have become?

  “I would sooner believe you were trying to kill me.”

  He sucked in a breath, as stung as if she’d physically slapped him. “You could actually believe that I would try to kill you?”

  “You’ve been gone a long time,” she reminded him. “I don’t know you anymore. I know Stephen. We’ve stayed friends all these years.”

  “Obviously you’ve been more than friends,” Cooper said, trying to keep any bitterness from slipping into his voice. He had chosen to leave; what they’d done in his absence was none of his business. And it wouldn’t have been even if he’d stayed.

  But now Tanya was his wife. So she was his business.

  Tanya’s face flushed an even
brighter shade of red. But all she said was, “Stephen has always been there for me.”

  “Until the wedding.”

  “That wasn’t his fault.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Cooper said.

  Her brow furrowed with confusion. “How can you think that? You saw the blood. The signs of a struggle.”

  “If there was really a struggle, why didn’t you or Mom hear it?”

  She jumped up from the couch as if unable to sit still for his accusations. While she paced the small space in the living room of the suite, she kept her distance from the window. She obviously didn’t feel safe.

  And she wouldn’t until they’d caught whoever was trying to kill her. But in order to do that they had to consider all the viable suspects.

  “Your mom was in the basement,” she reminded him, “talking to the minister. And I was in the bride’s dressing room, way on the other side of the church. Someone must have hit him in the head while he was distracted and knocked him out in the groom’s dressing room. That’s why we didn’t hear anything.”

  “We don’t even know yet if the blood that was found is his,” Cooper reminded her. DNA results didn’t come back as quickly as they did on television shows.

  “Now you’re saying he hurt someone else?”

  If Cooper was right, Stephen had hurt her—physically—a few times. And now emotionally…

  “It might be his blood,” Cooper amended. “But he could have drawn some earlier and sprayed it around the room.”

  She shuddered at the gruesome idea. “Why would he do that?”

  “So you would think he was dead or hurt…” And then she wouldn’t marry, forfeiting her inheritance to her sister.

  Obviously still in denial, she shook her head. “He wouldn’t do that. It wouldn’t even occur to Stephen to do something like that.”

  “He might not have been acting alone,” Cooper pointed out.

  She stopped in her tracks and stared at him. “Do you think he hired someone?”

  “I don’t think he had to hire someone.”

  “Someone was willing to help him?” She stared at Cooper for a few moments and sighed. “You already have someone in mind? Who?”