Wed or Alive

by Laura Durham

  Tina met Reese’s eyes. “I remember who you are, handsome. You can arrest me for tampering with the food, but I had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Not that I don’t want to tip my hat to whoever did it.”

  I wasn’t sure if I believed her, but I also didn’t know if I truly believed she could have pulled off the kidnapping solo. I felt a wave of panic as I realized we were back to square one. If Tina didn’t kidnap Kate and Veronica, who did?

  Chapter 26

  “Do you believe her?” I asked Reese as we traipsed back to the house, Mack still prodding Tina along in front of us.

  “She looked genuinely surprised to be accused of kidnapping, although she could be an excellent actress,” Reese said. “And I don’t know why she’d orchestrate a kidnapping and ransom drop and still be here. Either she’s part of a multi-person plot, or she’s doing what she says she was—trying to sabotage the wedding.”

  “That reminds me,” I looked toward the tents and garage, “I should check on Richard at some point. If all his food really is ruined, he’s going to be beside himself.”

  Leatrice slow jogged beside us to keep up, and her bells shook with every bounce. “If the food is ruined, what will he do for the wedding?”

  I spread my arms wide. “What wedding? We still don’t have a bride, and her father paid the ransom a while ago. Either something went wrong with the drop, or our suspicions were right and this wasn’t about the ransom in the first place.”

  Leatrice slowed. “What does that mean for Kate?”

  I bit the edge of my bottom lip and told myself crying wouldn’t help anything. Reese took my hand in his and squeezed.

  “It’s past time to bring in the police,” Reese said, holding up a hand when I opened my mouth to say he was police. “In an official capacity.”

  My shoulders slumped as the reality sank in. Kate and the bride had been missing for hours. The ransom had been delivered, yet they hadn’t been returned. Tina Pink probably didn’t have anything to do with it, even though she was the reason no one would be eating. The wedding I’d worked on for over a year was a total disaster and would be the only wedding to date we’d have to call off. I prided myself in never having had a bride or groom left at the altar or even a wedding canceled at the last minute. Now that was probably out the window, along with my assistant’s chances for being returned safely.

  I pressed a hand to my mouth as I felt the tears I’d been holding back all day spill out onto my cheeks. Reese wrapped me in his arms, stopping outside the French doors and letting everyone else go ahead in without us. His arms felt solid around me, making me feel safe and making me cry even harder. I felt my resolve slip away as fear and regret washed over me.

  “This is my fault,” I said through sobs. “I should have listened to you at the beginning and let the cops come in. If something happens to Kate . . .”

  Reese shushed me and rubbed my back. “You were going along with what the kidnappers said. You did what you did because you were trying to keep her safe.”

  “But what if I was wrong?” I gazed up at him through blurry eyes. “What if it put Kate and Veronica in more danger? You’re right that I’m always trying to fix things myself, which is exactly what I did here.”

  Reese brushed a few tears off my face. “Not exactly. You called me in right away.”

  “And convinced you not to call in backup.” I wiped at my nose.

  “But I didn’t listen to you and called my brother.” He grinned at me. “See? We’re both pretty stubborn and used to doing things our own way.”

  I leaned my head against his shoulder. “I promise if we get Kate back safely, I will never try to do your job again.”

  Reese laughed. “Bold words from someone who’s been poking her nose into my cases since the day we met. I don’t think you could stop yourself if your life depended on it.”

  I started to argue with him, realized he was right, and felt myself smiling despite my best efforts not to. “You don’t have much faith in my ability to change.”

  “Why would I want you to change?” he asked. “I love you exactly the way you are, crazy meddling and crazy friends included.”

  I stopped breathing for a moment as I realized he’d just told me he loved me for the first time. Not quite the romantic setting I’d envisioned for such a declaration, but nothing about our relationship had been as I’d have planned it. Maybe having something in my life I didn’t plan wasn’t such a bad thing.

  I wrapped my arms around his waist. “I love you too. Despite the fact that you don’t have any crazy friends.”

  “I’ll share yours. You have plenty to spare.” He ran a finger along my jawline and tilted my face up to his, leaning down to kiss me lightly. My pulse quickened, and I felt like I was in danger of crying again. Happy tears this time.

  Throat clearing from the French doors pulled me back to reality. I opened my eyes and looked behind me to see Fern smirking at me with his arms crossed. “I hate to interrupt, but what are we doing with Tina? She’s not exactly keeping a low profile in here.”

  I could hear her loud voice from outside. Even if she wasn’t responsible for the kidnapping, she was responsible for sabotaging the wedding and needed to be questioned by the authorities. We would have to call the police, and I would have to explain things to the Hamiltons. I drew a breath to steady myself.

  “Can you call the cops to come get Tina while I break the news to the parents?” I asked Reese.

  “Sure.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “But are you sure you don’t want me to talk to them with you?”

  “You’re supposed to be a sommelier, remember?” I grinned at him. “I don’t want to have to explain that lie along with everything else. Besides, you and Richard are such a cute couple.”

  He gave me a look. “I’m going to let that slide since you’ve had a rough day.”

  “Look on the bright side,” I said. “I think he’s warming up to you.”

  “Really?” Reese asked, his face eager. “How long until you think he actually likes me?”

  I pondered for a moment. “Five years tops.”

  Reese sighed. “That’s encouraging.”

  We joined everyone in the kitchen where Tina sat at the oval table holding a dish towel to her nose with Mack, arms crossed, standing behind her. Her scowl seemed permanent, but her previously defiant posture had wilted as she slumped down in the chair.

  Buster had joined the group and had obviously been brought up to speed. He stood next to Mack with his hands on his hips glaring down at Tina with such menace I actually felt bad for her.

  “So you’re going to keep me here all night?” Tina asked, her voice nasal.

  “No,” I said. “We’re going to have the police haul you away. Attempting to poison two hundred people is a pretty serious matter.”

  “It wasn’t real poison,” Tina said. “No one would have died.”

  I bobbed my shoulders up and down. “That’s up to the police to determine. And the Hamiltons when they press charges.”

  Tina sagged further. “All I wanted was for you all to get some payback for ruining my life.”

  “We didn’t ruin your life,” I said. “You did that all on your own by marrying a criminal.”

  “Maybe if you stopped blaming other people for your bad decisions, you wouldn’t be heading off to prison as well,” Mack added.

  “Do they have his-and-hers prisons?” Fern asked.

  Leatrice shook her head, and the bells on her hat jingled.

  “What’s going on here?” Daniel asked as he and Alexandra entered the room.

  “We caught this one wearing a disguise,” Leatrice said, jerking a thumb toward Tina.

  “I’m assuming this is the rival wedding planner?” Daniel asked.

  “We don’t think she was involved in the kidnapping,” Reese said. “But she admitted to tampering with the food for the wedding so all the guests would get food poisoning.”

  Alexandra’s eyes flew t
o the towering wedding cake on the wheeled table off to one side. “You don’t think she . . .?”

  Tina looked up and followed Alexandra’s eyes to the elaborately designed cake. “I didn’t touch your cake.”

  Alexandra put the back of her hand to her forehead. “That’s a relief.”

  “Especially since cake may be the only thing guests will have to eat,” I said. “That is, if we’re going to have a wedding at all.”

  “No word about Kate?” Alexandra asked. “Or Victoria?”

  “Veronica?” I gave a quick shake of my head. “They should have been returned by now.”

  “We’re sure she didn’t have anything to do with it?” Buster’s deep voice made Tina jump as he directed his gaze toward her. “Or the assistant being attacked?”

  “Or the entertainment fellow disappearing?” Leatrice said.

  Tina sat up. “Wait a minute. I don’t know about any of those things. You can’t pin all that on me.”

  “Depends,” Daniel said, sitting down next to Tina. “Do you have any medical training?”

  She looked at him like he’d taken leave of his senses. “What? No.” Her eyes darted around the room. “What’s going on? What is this about? I’ve copped to the food poisoning, but that’s all I’ve done.”

  “What is this about?” Reese asked his brother.

  Daniel stood again. “I checked on Sherry. She’s not unconscious because she was knocked out. She’s unconscious because she’s been sedated.”

  “What?” I rubbed my temple. “But she has a knot on her forehead.”

  “She might have been knocked out originally,” Daniel went on. “But I suspect it was done by someone who knew exactly how hard to hit her so she wouldn’t be seriously injured. From the dilation of her pupils, I think she’s been sedated to keep her from waking up and telling us who did it or what she knows.”

  “Well it wasn’t me.” Tina folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t know anything about sedating someone and I hate needles.”

  I knew now it wasn’t her.

  Chapter 27

  Reese slipped his cell phone back into his pants pocket. “Officers are on the way.”

  We were standing outside the front of the house so none of the family members would overhear the call and to get away from the hostility radiating off Tina. Despite the fact she’d been the one to sneak into the wedding and purposefully try to harm two hundred plus wedding guests, you’d have thought she was a freedom fighter being unjustly persecuted. Not that Buster and Mack were having any of it as they watched over her in the kitchen until the police arrived.

  “I should talk to the parents before they hear the sirens,” I said, reluctant to go back inside.

  I let myself soak in the relative quiet of the bubbling marble fountain and empty driveway. I knew all the action was taking place right around the corner of the house where the tents were set up and trucks backed up to the garage, but for now I was happy to be removed enough to hear birds singing instead of a band doing sound checks. I allowed myself a breath—the scent of freshly mowed grass mingled with the scent of roses in the floral arrangements Buster and Mack had placed on either side of the front doors. I reached out and touched a white flower petal. Would anyone ever get to see the breathtaking decor we’d spent a year planning?

  I brushed the thought from my mind. If we got Kate back, I wouldn’t care about getting the wedding featured in a magazine or on a blog. Those things had never mattered to me much before, and after today, they’d fallen even farther down my list of priorities. For me, wedding planning was about relationships, not showing off. Sure, I’d done some pretty spectacular weddings, but it was the friends I’d made along the way that really mattered. I felt a surge of affection for the cast of characters I’d chosen to surround myself with and felt certain no one had better or more loyal friends.

  “I should also check on Richard.” I cast a look toward the side of the house leading to the garage and his makeshift kitchen. “I haven’t seen him since he discovered Tina ruined his food. There’s a decent chance he’s slipped into a catatonic shock.”

  Reese put a hand on my waist. “I’ll check on Richard and make sure he’s okay.”

  “Really?” I asked. “You know he might be a bit unhinged and hysterical.”

  “Are you telling me the Richard I’ve seen is not him unhinged and hysterical?” Reese winked at me. “I’ve dealt with hardened criminals, babe. I’ll be fine. Unless you want me to come with you and talk to the parents?”

  “No.” I waved him off. “I’ll do it. I don’t want to get into who you really are with them. At least until we have to.”

  He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. “If you need me, you know where I’ll be.” He took a few steps backward, never breaking eye contact with me. “Either talking your best friend off the ledge or helping him cook dinner for two hundred.”

  He turned, and I watched him go, taking a moment to appreciate the view as he walked away. I gave myself a mental shake, reminding myself that there was no rest for the not very wicked and headed back into the house and toward Mr. Hamilton’s study. I’d start with the father and move on to the mother. I tapped on the wooden door and poked my head inside. To my surprise, both parents were still in the study where I’d last seen them, although Tarek Nammour was no longer there.

  Mr. Hamilton sat behind his large desk, his head in his hands as he leaned on his elbows. His wife paced the floor in front of him, wringing her hands and muttering to herself. I knew this was not the best time, but I also knew they would soon see flashing lights outside their home.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton?” I said, stepping inside the room. “I hate to disturb, but I need to update you on a few things.”

  Mrs. Hamilton spun around. “Is it Veronica? Is she back?”

  “No,” I said quickly, not wanting to give her false hope. “If you don’t mind me asking, where is Mr. Nammour?”

  “Back home with his wife, I suppose,” Mrs. Hamilton said, the bitterness in her voice unmistakable.

  “If the security team let him leave,” I said, wondering if the man wasn’t in fact being held at the front gate.

  “They know him,” Mrs. Hamilton said. “He has the same company provide security for him.”

  If this kept up, I was going to need a chart to keep all the connections straight.

  “Is that why you told me to hire them?” her husband asked, red creeping up his neck.

  I jumped in before they started going at each other again. “I wanted to let you know we found someone trying to sabotage the wedding, and we’re turning her over to the police.”

  Mr. Hamilton looked up, his face ashen. “Is this connected to the kidnapping?”

  “We don’t think so, no.”

  “What is happening?” The bride’s mother threw her hands in the air. “Veronica gets kidnapped, Sherry gets attacked, and someone tries to ruin the wedding? My husband delivered the ransom. This should all be over.”

  “This was never about the ransom or the nerve gas,” I said. “Everything that’s happened today was personal.”

  I didn’t add that even Tina’s sabotage was personally motivated against my friends and me.

  Mrs. Hamilton’s eyes snapped to me. “What do you mean?”

  “If this was about the ransom, Veronica and my assistant would have been returned once it was delivered. But they weren’t because it was about making you suffer, Mr. Hamilton. Someone knocked out Sherry but didn’t kill her and has kept her sedated so she can’t talk. A terrorist would have killed her without a second thought.”

  “What?” Mrs. Hamilton staggered back into a leather chair.

  “I think all this has to do with what someone in this family is hiding.” I stared pointedly at the bride’s father.

  “It’s all my fault,” Mr. Hamilton said and put his head back in his hands. “You were right about me, Deborah. I’ve ruined this family with my secrets and lies.”

  Now w
e were getting somewhere.

  “It’s not only you.” Mrs. Hamilton’s voice barely reached a whisper. “I’ve been lying to you for over twenty years.”

  “You’ve been seeing Tarek for that long?” Mr. Hamilton glanced up, his eyes filled with tears.

  His wife shook her head. “Not that. That doesn’t mean anything. It was my way of getting back at you for all of your affairs over the years.”

  “Then what?” he asked.

  She took a shaky breath. “I’ve been keeping your daughter from you.”

  He jerked upright in his chair. “You? You kidnapped Veronica?”

  She held up her hands. “Not Veronica. Your other daughter. The one you didn’t know you had.”

  Mr. Hamilton shook his head like he was trying to loosen something from inside. “What other daughter? You’re not making any sense.”

  “I know about your fling with my sister when I was pregnant with Veronica. She told me the two of you got drunk one night when she was visiting us, and one thing led to another.”

  He blinked quickly. “That was over twenty years ago. I remember Connie coming on to me one night, but I’d had a lot of wine.” His voice rose. “How can she be sure it was mine? You know your sister got around.”

  “She had DNA tests done.” Mrs. Hamilton’s voice grew louder as well. “She showed me. The child was yours. I’ve been paying her ever since to keep her from telling our children.”

  He sank back into his desk chair. “Wait. Are you telling me . . .?”

  “Cara isn’t your niece,” his wife said. “She’s your daughter.”

  This I did not expect. I glanced at Mr. Hamilton’s stunned expression and wondered if I looked the same.

  Mr. Hamilton rubbed a hand across his furrowed forehead. “Does she know?”

  “She has no idea,” the bride’s mother said. “That’s part of the deal. I’d pay for everything, including her college, as long as she never knew.”