by Lexy Timms
Actually, it wasn’t. It was the dratted heels that were giving her most of the trouble.
The second time she stopped to readjust her train, Katie prodded her in the back with the gun. The cold metal against her bare skin made her jump. It was taking all her self-control to not turn and take the wretched thing from the little girl just to show her how to properly handle the thing.
“Typically, the bridesmaid comes in before the bride,” Dani muttered over her shoulder. The gun was only pressed harder into her back.
“I’m sure no one will notice,” Katie snarled. “No one ever noticed me before when I stood next to you, so why should they see me now?”
Dani opened the door. The bright sunlight blinded her after being inside. A shadow fell over her, blocking the light.
“DAD?”
Katie whipped the gun up onto Dani’s shoulder but the bouquet caught on the cloth, spoiling her movement. Dani spun to grab the girl, but heard the unmistakable crack of a pistol.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“NO!” Dani jumped up and cleared the doorway as Katie fell, twisting in time to see a round hole blossoming in the younger girl’s forehead. Dani turned and looked through the door. Behind her father Marcus stood, his arm extended, the pistol in his grip still smoking.
“What the hell?”
“Language, Dani! What kind of daughter have I raised? Get your ass over here. We have to get the fuck out of here!”
Dani grabbed the gun from the dead girl and stared at her father, as if from very far away. “And you think I have a potty mouth?”
“COME ON!” Edwin Rinehart stood in combat gear, right down to the bulletproof vest. Was he carrying grenades? He motioned her toward a side door, leading outside. She could see sunshine and trees. A pastoral setting. Safety.
“Luke!” It was a retort and a desperate scream in one for the man she loved.
Edwin grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the door. “No time!”
“I’m not going without Luke!” Dani hissed, her ears still ringing from that single shot in such close quarters. They stumbled outside, getting lost briefly in a maze of roses, finally pushing through a hole in the hedge. Thankfully her father took the brunt of it. A tearing sound told her the dress was not holding up well to the abuse.
Across the small expanse of grass, the chapel area was erupting into chaos. People were storming through the doors. Marcus had his gun out, but didn’t fire. None of the people fleeing seemed to be Benny’s, though it was hard to say in all the chaos.
Dani stumbled to a halt, feeling the heel of one of her shoes snapping on the uneven cobblestones of the driveway. “LUKE!” she screamed into the crowd until she was hoarse.
Her father grabbed her arm and pulled, dragging her forward. Somewhere to the side, to some escape route he’d likely had planned out in advance. The great fucking Houdini, the escape artist at work. The man who’d left her and David to pay for his crimes, to where this had to be the only reason he’d come home.
Yet he’d come.
And she didn’t want him.
“NO! Not without Luke!”
“I need to take you to your mother!”
“What?”
“Your mother. She needs you!”
Dani stopped cold, and stared at him a long moment before backing away, the gun coming up. Pointing straight at his chest. “No. I’m done. I’m done with your games. I’m done with you.”
Then with that, she broke free and ran into the throng, her pistol extended in the air against accidental discharge. She could see him now, Luke pressing through from the other side. The relief, the joy, the amazing happiness she felt on seeing him sent a burst of energy through her, and she ran, really ran, despite a broken heel, and a stupid dress, and her father somewhere behind her. She met him at high speed, both making soft exclamations of pain as she wrapped herself around him, as he wrapped herself around her.
“There’s no time... there’s a bomb in there!” he yelled in her ear, and she looked back at the church, seeing how dreadfully close it was. Seeing, too, how it was built of stone and too much glass that would explode outward if they’d done it right, and that the casualties would be enormous. Joy dissolved into fear, but this was a fear she understood and knew well. She’d felt it every time a mission had gone south, and they’d been surrounded by enemy fire. The adrenaline was already there, pulling her along, pulling Luke in her wake as she ran, ran for all she was worth, wanting to put distance between them and Armageddon.
Only, there was no time.
It was Luke who realized how vulnerable they were and took them in closer to the building, grabbing her and pulling her around to the wall between the front doors and the start of the long graceful windows that ringed the building. All the glass and the double doors came off in a single instant with a bang that left her ears ringing. The wall they were braced on was the only part of the building that didn’t suddenly blow outward.
She couldn’t hear but asked anyway. “How did you...”
Then realization hit. Her brother. Her brother had been in there somewhere, and she’d never so much as given him a single thought. “DAVID!” Dani tried to claw her way past Luke, filled with such terror that she barely heard the words until he’d yelled them a dozen times.
“He’s okay!” Luke yelled. “Randy took him out the back. I saw them leave; he’s okay!”
“He’s okay?”
“He’s okay!”
“Who’s Randy?” She sagged against him, suddenly more exhausted than she could ever remember being. She was shaking. Funny how she’d never had the shakes in battle before, but here... she did. Out in the courtyard figures stirred, some crying, some moaning. A few didn’t move at all.
Her father was out there somewhere.
“How did you know?” She grabbed his shirt, dragging herself up to look at him. Really look at him. It was Luke all right, cut lip and all. Damn, but even covered in dust and dirt, he looked good in a tux.
“I couldn’t figure out why the impressive guest list,” Luke said, shaking his head, trying to clear his ears, too, as he helped her to her feet. “And Randy, too? Then Benny vanished with his men and it all made perfect sense.”
He wasn’t making the most sense himself, but she caught the gist as her ears rang still and the world seemed to still be vibrating. “Wait... you mean... Benny was taking out everyone?”
Luke nodded, sagging against the wall, his hand going to his abdomen. “I shouldn’t have been running like that. Yeah... all competition and all evidence.” He looked around. “Where’s Katie?”
“Dead,” Dani said, reaching a hand toward Luke, knowing he was hurt, but unsure of the protocol. Things had been so strained between them. Did she have a right to even assess his injuries? In the field it would be different. But this was Luke. And they weren’t in the field.
“Marcus killed her. He was with... my father. He came. He came after all.” Her fingers reached out to touch his arm. “You’re hurt.”
“No more than you... wait, your father’s here?”
She looked vaguely out at the field. “For all I know, he’s still here somewhere. Or... off to Morovia for all I care.”
“I don’t think that still exists.”
She leveled him with a glare. “So now what?”
“We find Benny. If he’s still around, we’re going to be hunted forever.” Luke seemed to notice the gun in her hand for the first time and grabbed it from her grip. “Wait here! I think I know where he’ll go.”
“Like hell!” Dani gathered the back of the dress and kicked off the shoes, which were completely useless now that the second heel having given way in her flight. “And give me my gun back! Get your own damn gun!”
Luke wasn’t listening. He was running full out to the parking lot, and Dani took off behind him. They were spotted almost immediately. Someone took a wild shot at them and Luke dove behind a limo, whose driver was trying to crawl under a floormat.
An
other shot and the bullet shattered the rear window of the limo. The driver began screaming.
“Give me my gun back!” Dani hissed. “I can get a shot.”
“You’re a civilian!” Luke snarled. “I can’t authorize...” Another bullet sparked the parking lot, ricocheting off a sign marking off handicapped parking.
“Are you...” Dani began to say, but the driver appeared to be more interested in self-preservation than in providing a shield for an escapee bridal party. The car they’d been hiding behind suddenly roared to life and drove away, leaving them uncovered.
Luke rolled right, Dani rolled left. He hid behind a Mercedes and she took a Lincoln. Two shots rang out as they rolled.
Luke looked over to her.
“GIVE ME THE GUN!” she mouthed, accompanied with gestures to make the meaning clear.
Luke shook his head.
Dani shot him a look of pure daggers and ice. “GIVE ME THE GUN!”
Another shot rang out.
Exasperated, Luke put the safety on and slid the gun over to her. Dani grabbed it as she rolled clear of the Lincoln, and fired three shots. She waited a moment and then stood.
Luke rose from behind the Mercedes.
“One down,” Dani said.
“Give me that.” Luke took the gun from her. Letting it dance across his palm until he got a good grip on it. It looked like he’d been burned from the heat of the barrel. Dani smile. Amateur.
“Look, if I shoot someone, it’s part of the job; if you do it, you can be charged with murder,” Luke snapped.
“That’s okay,” Dani said, laying a comforting hand on his arm. “I don’t really need the credit that much. You can have it.” She patted his head and ran to the man she’d just hit. He lay still and serene, a clean kill.
“Really?” Luke yelled after her. “Even when I have a gun? Really?” He caught up to her. The man she’d shot had three perfectly arranged holes in his chest. “Good shot,” he said, if a bit reluctantly.
“That didn’t hurt, now, did it?” Dani asked, searching the body.
“Not me anyway. What are you looking for?”
“Ammo; this idiot spent the clip, and I can’t find another one.”
“This is Benny’s driver,” Luke observed, pointing to the dead man, “so he’s still here somewhere.”
Cars were suddenly firing to life, and the parking lot turned into a game of million-dollar bumper cars as the wealthy kings of the underworld found themselves trying to run at the same time. Luke and Dani dodged through the melee, barely missing an antique Jaguar that was careening through the grass, carving a swathe that other cars began to follow when the exits became jammed.
“Well, the church is gone,” Luke said, “and the exits are jammed. Where would he go?”
“LUKE!” Dani grabbed his jacket, something that had been wandering through her mind finally taking hold. “My mother died when I was fourteen!”
Luke looked at for a long moment. “Is this something we can talk about later?”
“NO!” Dani cleared her head, “My dad, just now, he said he wanted to take me to her!”
“What, like a threat?”
“Why would he save my life to kill me?”
“No offense, honey, but in your family...”
She stared at him. “Did you just call me honey?”
“We’ll come back to that. In the meantime...” Luke looked toward the convention center.
Dani followed his gaze.
Of course. Where else would he be?
Luke took off running, Dani following in hot pursuit.
They ran back to the now-empty area between the buildings. The flower garden was deserted, bright with every color of the rainbow—stained-glass littering the paths in a glittering mess that was to not even be attempted barefoot. Dani flinched and looked beyond to the church itself. The roof had caved in; the whole place was a smoking wreck. As her hearing came back she heard the fire sprinklers hiss to life, activated by who knew what, as there didn’t appear to be any flames. What wasn’t destroyed in the blast was now soaked through with water damage. She sniffed the air cautiously, worried about natural gas, but detected nothing other than soggy drywall and her own sweat and fear.
From the front door, Dani could still see Katie lying where Marcus had killed her. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen someone she knew killed; she’d lost some very close friends overseas. But this was Katie. Despite the craziness she’d displayed, Dani still saw the little girl in the tennis skirt trying to hide her freckles. Her heart lurched in her chest, and for a moment she mourned, though she knew Katie wouldn’t have given her the same respect had their roles been reversed. But much as Dani had been trained to fight she hated the loss of human life, and regretted that this little girl had never had a chance at true happiness, nor would she now.
Dani was so involved in her thoughts that she came very close to joining the girl. A shot rang out at the very moment the door beside her splintered. A sliver of wood scratched her cheek, the bullet came just that close.
“Dani!”
They dove into the ruins of the church. A part of Dani was able to register annoyance at the filthy water that seeped into the weave of her once-white dress. She was shaking from rage, she told herself. She’d had bullets fly at her much closer back in Afghanistan.
But things like that didn’t happen at weddings, and her nerves were on edge. She gave herself a minute to think, to collect herself. Focus. You have to focus.
Why the hell couldn’t she focus properly?
“I count three,” Luke said.
Dani kicked herself. She was a hell of a better fighter than this, and it irked her to no end that she was falling apart this completely. It was a beginner’s mistake, and she’d chastised others for being so stupid. Doctors don’t work on their family members for a reason, she reminded herself. Same principle. You shouldn’t assassinate those you love.
“He had a dozen people at the house,” Dani reminded him, getting her head firmly back in the game. She was a hell of a better soldier than this.
“No,” Luke countered. He pulled the clip from the pistol; a single bullet remained. “Remember, he commandeered your father’s men. That was half of his strength. Minus the driver, that makes five. If he sent two on already, or they ran...”
“Whoa, that’s a lot of assumptions! Marcus only just got here, could he have gotten all of Daddy’s men back? If he sent some on or they deserted? That’s assuming a hell of a lot, especially when you have only one bullet left!”
“Did you just say ‘Daddy’?”
The blood rushed to her face. “Oh, shut up.”
“Yes, honey.”
It was a good thing Luke dove through the door, running crouched low to the other building. Otherwise she might have been forced to hurt him.
There were no shots. After a moment Dani followed, zigzagging and making sure to stay low to the ground. This time there were shots. She felt a tug on the back of her dress as she tucked in behind Luke.
Dani pulled the back of the dress around. There was perfect round little hole in the hem. “They shot my dress!”
“Maybe that’s something else we can talk about later?” Luke hissed. “First, stay alive; second, dry- cleaning?”
“No!” Dani hit his arm hard. Too hard. The pistol went off, discharging the final bullet.
Luke turned slowly to her. The look on his face was priceless. Chagrined, she shrugged, wincing only a little as Luke took the gun in the other hand and presented her with the grip. “Please, feel free to keep it.”
“Ok, I’m sorry, how was I supposed to know you’d have a trigger finger?” She met his stare. “Nothing else about you goes off early.”
Luke nodded. It seemed he’d concede that point.
A rumbling from overhead caught her ears. Luke swore. A private helicopter came into view. From a distance, sirens split the quiet of the countryside and grew louder as they got closer. It had taken them long enough.
But then, the convention center, of course, had to be on the lake, with all that rustic charm.
“He’s getting away!” Luke called, and bolted to the door, leaping over the barely-lamented Katie. It seemed wrong somehow to just jump over her like that. But what could she do? The body was blocking the door. Dani leapt, her stomach lurching only a little, and followed as Luke bolted up the stairs. Dani stayed in hot pursuit. Another shot rang out but Luke ignored it, charging up the steps like a man possessed.
“STOP! LUKE! You’ll be killed!”
He wasn’t listening. The last time Dani had seen this kind of frenzy was in Eastern Europe, when their group had been pinned down for three days at a bombed-out orphanage. Finally, one of the men, Scully, had broken, charging out with a handful of grenades that he’d lobbed one after another at the approaching tanks. He’d been screaming, too, like Luke was now. Frantic to end it in an all or nothing attack.
It hadn’t ended well.
Silently begging Luke to not be another Scully she scrambled up the stairs after him, more often than not tangling her legs in her dress and stumbling to her knees, falling further and further behind. Her breath came in short bursts, and it was with surprise she found she was crying, only noticing when the salt of her tears met the open wound on her cheek.
Luke!
But all was silent. It seemed, however, that in this case, whatever possessed Benny’s boys to not bring extra ammo played against them, too. There were no further shots. Had they seriously not been expecting trouble? Or was Benny just that much of a skinflint?
The damn dress was slowing her down, despite her best efforts at trying to hold it out of the way. By the time she reached the top of the stairs, one of Benny’s finest was rolling down the stairs right at her. She didn’t take the time to check if the man was dead—there were other priorities. She leapt over the body and kept going.
From the landing of the second floor, she saw the banquet spread in the grand ballroom, everything laid out in a glittering array of light and elegance. The steps continued, and Dani cursed when she saw the sign that pointed straight upward. It was clearly marked HELIPAD.
