by Lisa Childs
“Megan wants to see you,” Gage reiterated, “because she wants you to walk her down the aisle. Just like Nikki said, she’s determined to get married today.”
But Penny suspected it wasn’t for the reasons Gage obviously thought. His face was grim, his green eyes dark, his mouth drawn into a grimace. He was hurt thinking that she wanted to marry someone else.
Woodrow shook his head again. “It’s not going to happen.”
Nikki shushed him as she glanced nervously around. “It has to... That woman isn’t here alone. They are determined that this wedding takes place. I don’t think her threat that everyone would die was an idle one.”
Gage nodded grimly in agreement.
Penny’s stomach lurched. She felt sick. Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe Gage didn’t love Megan anymore if he could let her marry another man.
* * *
Megan’s lips tingled yet from the contact with Gage’s. She wasn’t sure what she’d been thinking to kiss him like she had. But he’d looked so upset with her, like he’d looked that day she’d broken up with him. Just like that day, he’d looked betrayed.
She hadn’t cared back then, because she’d thought she was the one who’d been betrayed, who’d been used. But when Gage had quit the Bureau and reenlisted with the Marines, she’d been afraid that she might have been wrong. Now she was all but certain.
“Gage,” she murmured, hoping he would come back.
She doubted that he would. He didn’t understand why she wanted to go through with the wedding. He thought it was because of Richard, but it was because of him. She didn’t want anyone else getting hurt but most especially not Gage. He had already been through too much.
Was that her fault? Had he reenlisted because of her? She would never forgive herself if she’d caused him that much pain. And the way he’d snorted when she’d said that she didn’t want anyone getting hurt...
She must have hurt him. She couldn’t go back. She couldn’t change the past. But she could make certain no one else got hurt because of her.
Over the tape covering her mouth, the woman narrowed her eyes and glared at Megan. She struggled against the tape binding her wrists and ankles, flinching as she aggravated her wound.
Guilt flashed through Megan. But she’d needed to disarm the woman before she’d shot someone. If she managed to get loose, someone was certain to get hurt. But she wouldn’t get loose, Megan assured herself.
She wouldn’t...
A knock at the door startled Megan, and a gasp slipped through her lips. She’d locked the door behind Gage. So it was probably her father. Hopefully, he would understand why she had to go through with the wedding. She had no choice.
Before she could unlock the door, a deep voice called out, “Andrea?”
That wasn’t her father’s voice. It wasn’t her father at the door, rattling the knob as he tried to force it open. Megan’s heart rate quickened as fear gripped her. She tightened her grasp on the woman’s weapon.
“Andrea, are you in there?” the man asked.
The woman struggled harder and murmured against the tape over her mouth. Megan pressed her free hand over the tape, making certain that no sounds could escape it.
“Sweetheart,” Megan said, pretending that she knew the man, that she thought he was her groom. “I know you’re anxious but you’ll have to wait until our wedding night. It won’t be long now.” Like never. While the wedding had to happen, there would be no wedding night—no honeymoon—no real marriage.
She held her breath, waiting to see if she’d fooled the would-be intruder. But the door rattled as the guy twisted the knob again. It was locked, but it wasn’t a dead bolt. It wasn’t going to hold out someone who really wanted to get inside.
Megan gripped the gun more tightly and made certain the safety was off. She knew how to shoot—at targets. She’d never pointed a gun at someone and fired. She wasn’t certain that she would be able to do it, to take another life.
Megan had only been able to overpower Andrea with Nikki’s help. On her own, she had no hope of protecting herself from Andrea’s very determined male friend, unless she found the courage to pull the trigger. And then she wasn’t certain she would actually hit him. Targets didn’t move, didn’t fire back. She suspected that this man, being a friend of Andrea’s, would. And he probably wouldn’t miss...
* * *
Woodrow tightened his grasp on his gun handle before releasing it—reluctantly. The guy wasn’t alone in the chapel. If Woodrow took him out, he would force the others to react. So he called out instead, “Hey, that’s not the restroom.”
His hand under his jacket, the guy tensed. But like Woodrow, he didn’t pull his weapon. He turned to Woodrow, his lips curved into a forced smile.
His hair was buzzed so short that Woodrow couldn’t tell what color it was. His eyes were dark and cold. He seemed vaguely familiar. But that was probably because he looked like a thousand other perps Woodrow had either personally arrested or had arrested.
Was he here because of that—for revenge?
The guy betrayed nothing. No recognition. No flicker of emotion, of anger or of fear.
Woodrow gestured down the hall. “The men’s room is down there. But you better hurry. The wedding is about to start soon.”
The guy narrowed his dark eyes and skeptically asked, “Really?”
Woodrow nodded. “Of course. Everything is right on schedule.”
The guy nodded. “Yeah, I heard Mrs. Payne puts on the perfect wedding.”
Woodrow hoped that was true this time, too, that the wedding ran perfectly according to the plan they had quickly concocted just a short while ago in the coatroom.
“So you better use the restroom and take your seat in the church,” Woodrow urged the man.
The guy hesitated and glanced back at the door to the bride’s dressing room. “I was actually looking for my plus one,” he replied. “I thought my wife went into that room.”
Woodrow forced a laugh. “Not likely. My daughter has been obsessive about no one seeing her in her dress yet. She wouldn’t have let anyone in there.”
The guy chuckled. “The best man has been in and out of there since I arrived.”
“Best man?”
“The grim-looking blond guy.”
He’d described Gage perfectly, but he didn’t reveal whether or not he knew him. He hadn’t mentioned his name. If he wasn’t here for revenge against Woodrow, he could have been seeking revenge against Gage.
But if not...what the hell did he want? Why were he and his female friend—or wife or whatever she was—determined that the wedding take place?
The guy’s mouth curved into a smirk as he continued, “The bride has let him inside that room.”
Woodrow narrowed his eyes now. “Any reason you’ve been watching that room?”
The guy glanced around then stepped back. “No. Just anxious for the wedding to start.”
“It will,” Woodrow said. “So you better...”
The guy chuckled. “I know, take my seat.” And finally he moved back toward the chapel.
Woodrow knocked on the bride’s room door.
“Go away,” she said, her voice pitched low. “Please, go away...”
“Megan, it’s Dad.”
The lock clicked, the knob turned and the door opened. As soon as he’d stepped inside and closed the door again, she threw her arms around him and held on tightly, trembling against him. “I thought I was going to have to shoot him.”
He doubted his softhearted little girl would have actually been able to pull the trigger. Like Nikki had claimed, she had obviously overpowered the woman who lay tied up on the carpet. But taking a life... He didn’t think she could have. He hoped she was never put in the situation where she had to or risk losing her own life.
He would make certain she was never put in that situation. “It’s okay,” he told her as he held her like he had when she was a little girl frightened after a nightmare. “It’s okay, my beaut
y.”
While he had made certain to teach her and Ellen how to protect themselves, he had also tried to shield his daughters from the ugliness of his job, of his life. Now he’d brought that ugliness to her.
Or maybe Gage had. Again.
She pulled back and stared up at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears and irritation. “Don’t lie to me, Daddy,” she said.
He didn’t know if she was talking about his assurance that everything was okay or that she was beautiful. She’d always argued his nickname for her. She had no idea how beautiful she was.
“We have a plan,” he said. “It’s going to be okay.” He hoped.
Megan shook her head. Her hair had fallen down around her shoulders, the curls springing free for once. She looked even more beautiful than when she wound it into a tight knot on the back of her head. She also looked scared.
“They’re the ones with a plan,” Megan said, gesturing at the woman.
If there was time, Woodrow would have tried to get the plan out of the woman. He’d once been a master interrogator. But now he only supervised and left the interrogations and fieldwork to younger agents. There wasn’t time for him to try, though.
The music began. “That’s our cue,” he told her.
If everything didn’t go according to plan, there was a good chance that none of them would make it out of the wedding chapel alive.
Chapter 10
Gage stood uneasily at the front of the nearly empty chapel. He had never been anyone’s best man before, not even for his best friend, Nicholas Rus. Nick had chosen his half sister, Nikki Payne, to stand by his side while Gage had walked his sister, Annalise, down the aisle to the man she had loved almost her entire life. At least Gage hadn’t had to give Megan away. But he hadn’t imagined—even in his worst nightmares—that he would be the best man at her wedding.
Richard wasn’t thrilled, either. He probably would have refused had it not been for Mrs. Payne.
Nobody told Penny no, not even Woodrow. But the bureau chief had won one argument with the stubborn wedding planner. Gage would have wondered what the hell was going on with the two of them if he wasn’t more concerned about what the hell was going on at the church. Why would gunmen crash a wedding, not to stop it but to make certain it happened?
None of it made any sense.
The only one who had anything to gain by making sure the wedding took place was Richard. He gained Megan as his bride, as his wife. But that was good for Gage, too. He’d wanted the wedding to happen, too. He’d wanted Megan off-limits, so he wouldn’t be tempted to forget the pain she’d caused him. But her kisses tempted him. And her beauty. And her strength.
She was much stronger than he’d ever realized. He’d once been furious with her for not trusting him. But then maybe she hadn’t known him any better than he’d known her.
Even if he could forget the pain, he couldn’t forget what he’d been through the past six months. He couldn’t forget how it had changed him. Megan was stronger than he’d known, but she wasn’t strong enough to deal with what he couldn’t even manage himself.
The music began, an organ playing from the balcony above the pews. Everyone stood and turned toward the back of the church, where the veiled bride appeared on the arm of the debonair-looking father of the bride.
Gage and Richard were already standing next to the minister in the front. Richard was ahead of him but so much shorter that he didn’t block Gage’s view. He could see the back, but he studied Richard instead. Sweat trickled down the guy’s neck to wick against the collar of his tuxedo. His face was flushed, his skin red and blotchy.
Having never been a best man before, Gage wasn’t certain if Richard’s nervousness was normal. Or was it the knowledge of the gunmen and the plan that had freaked out the groom?
Richard had been opposed to more than Gage being his best man. He’d been opposed to the entire plan, almost violently opposed. But Woodrow had cut off his argument. If Richard really loved Megan, wouldn’t he be willing to do anything to protect her?
Gage was willing to do anything to protect her, even pose as Richard’s best man. He’d never liked the guy before, but now suspicion joined his dislike. The comment he’d made earlier, about coming back from the dead, and his reaction to their plan...
What the hell was the real story about Richard Boersman? He certainly wasn’t the harmless computer nerd everyone thought he was.
As Woodrow and the bride started down the aisle toward them, Richard began to shake. He wasn’t just nervous, though. He was scared.
If he had anything to do with the gunmen being in the church, he should be scared—not of the gunmen but of Gage.
* * *
Her mom had forced Nikki into a lot of different dresses over the course of her twenty-five years. But this was a dress Nikki had promised herself that she would never wear. If only there’d been time to get Megan out of hers.
But they had been too busy overpowering a crazy woman with a gun to use the tool Mom had given her. Nikki suspected there would have been time after they’d all agreed to the plan, though. Her mom could have helped Megan out of her gown and Nikki into it. Penny had insisted it would be easier for Nikki to wear this one.
Her gown...
It was beautiful, with its intricate lace and beading, but it was also a joke. A farce. This dress hadn’t brought good luck to Penny and Nicholas Payne’s marriage. It hadn’t stopped him from betraying his bride or from dying in the line of duty.
Nikki just hoped it didn’t cause her to die, too. Her fingers trembled slightly as she clutched Woodrow Lynch’s arm. Her knees trembled, too, as they started down the aisle. Not only had she vowed to never wear this damn dress, she’d vowed to never do this—have a man walk her down the aisle to some guy who would make empty promises. Like her father had made empty promises to his bride.
She wasn’t being forced to do any of this. In fact she’d had to argue for the right to switch places with Megan. Eventually, she had convinced everyone else that this was a good plan, such a good plan that it would work.
She had only been able to convince them because Logan wasn’t in the church. Her oldest brother would have nixed her plan for certain. Maybe she was so used to his doing that, though, that she hadn’t considered all the consequences of what she had plotted to do. Like her either getting married or killed...
* * *
Megan’s stomach churned with nerves and guilt. She should have been upstairs, walking down that church aisle on her father’s arm. Instead she’d slipped out of the bride’s dressing room and down the back stairs with Penny Payne.
The wedding planner hadn’t taken the time to help Megan out of that damn dress. Instead she’d thrown Woodrow’s trench coat around Megan’s shoulders to cover up her and the gown. Then she’d hustled her down the stairs to the hallway leading to her office. But they’d passed the door to it.
They were heading to a hidden door to a secret underground tunnel to the courtyard outside the church.
Penny held Megan’s hand to lead her down the dimly lit corridor. The reception area, with its stone walls, rafter ceiling and twinkle lights, was at the other end of the basement. This area looked even older. It was also eerily quiet except for the faint echo of the organ music drifting down from the chapel above them. The traditional wedding march...
Megan’s nerves and guilt increased. She squeezed Penny’s hand. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I shouldn’t have let Nikki take my place.”
Penny stopped walking and turned back toward Megan. With her free hand, she gently patted her cheek. “Don’t feel bad,” she said. “You had no choice.”
That was what she’d thought—that she’d had no choice, that she would have to go through with the wedding. But then they had all come up with another plan, one to protect Megan. She and Mrs. Payne were the only ones who would be safe. Everyone else was in danger.
“But I shouldn’t have let her risk her life for mine,” Megan insisted.
Penny sighed. “I know my daughter. There is no one more stubborn than she is.”
“Gage.” The name almost unconsciously slipped out of Megan’s lips. He was always on her mind, though. He had been since that day she’d met him in her father’s house. “He’s more stubborn than Nikki.”
Too stubborn to ever forgive her.
Penny squeezed her hand now. “That may be true. He is an obstinate man. But in Gage’s case, that’s a good thing.”
Megan gasped in surprise that the older woman would say such a thing.
“Being stubborn is probably what kept Gage alive those six months he was missing,” Penny explained. “But Nikki...” She was clearly worried that her daughter’s stubbornness would get her killed instead. “Gage wouldn’t be here, he wouldn’t have come back to you if he wasn’t stubborn.”
“Gage hasn’t come back to me,” Megan said. “He would much prefer that I was the one getting married right now.” Earlier he’d promised her that he would make certain nothing disrupted her wedding. But he’d broken that promise. He’d agreed to Nikki’s dangerous plan.
Penny chuckled. “I think Gage would only prefer that if you were marrying him.”
That wasn’t likely to happen. But being a hopeless romantic must have been an occupational hazard of being a wedding planner, like being in danger was an occupational hazard of being a bodyguard.
A librarian really had no occupational hazards, except maybe reading all those books had made Megan a bit of a dreamer. She found herself wistfully asking, “Do you really think...”
But she couldn’t even complete the thought. It was too ridiculous, not after their horrific breakup.
Penny finished the thought for her. “That Gage loves you?”
“No.” Her face flushed with embarrassment. She’d broken up with Gage because she hadn’t been able to believe he’d loved her then. He had even less of a reason to love her now. “No. I know that isn’t a possibility.”
She listened to the music drifting faintly down from the chapel. “Do you really think the plan will work?”
Mrs. Payne didn’t need to answer. The reply to Megan’s question stood at the end of the hallway ahead of them. A man, dressed as a waiter, blocked their way out with his burly body. He also held a gun, pointed at them.
