Slipping the key into her shoe, Chloe glanced up at the dark sky, where ten thousand stars sparkled across the heavens. A half-moon shone down, silver light falling across the front driveway.
When she glanced along the road, dark trees formed hulking figures. Knowing what to look for, Chloe spotted two officers strolling about the front of the property. Her father’s security detail. It was comforting to see them there. Perhaps she could relax and enjoy herself, after all.
The faint sound of conversation, music, and laughter floated on the air as she stepped off the driveway to take the side path.
But suddenly, from out of the darkness, a hand grabbed her arm and Chloe let out a shriek, her heart leaping into her throat.
Spinning around, she stared straight into the eyes of Liam Esposito.
Chapter 13
“What in the world are you doing here?” Chloe demanded, shaking off his hand and ignoring the shooting sizzle that ran straight up her neck. “How dare you show up. I’m working a job, remember?”
“How could I forget? I sent you here.”
“It is my cousin’s wedding,” she hissed at him. “I’d be here anyway, although I don’t appreciate getting strong-armed into this. I’m not FBI anymore. Or did you forget that little tidbit? Wait a minute, how did you know where the Romano home was? Isn’t that classified information?”
“Oh, Chloe,” he said with an amused smile. “Classified is my middle name.”
“Go away, Liam,” Chloe growled. “You’re going to blow my cover for your little FBI ‘job.’” She added air quotes with her fingers to make her point, then stared down at his attire. “Why are you wearing evening clothes?”
“All agents wear suits and ties. It’s our uniform.”
“You know what I’m referring to. That’s a top-of-the-line suit, not off the rack. And your black shoes are way too shiny. I can see my face in them.”
“You have such a pretty face to reflect back at me.”
Chloe slugged his upper arm. “Stop that. I swear my next punch will be to your jaw to send you to the hospital. Remember my right hook?”
Liam chuckled. “I do indeed. I haven’t forgotten our sparring days at the gym.”
“Personally, I try hard to forget.”
“Chloe, come on,” Liam said, his voice turning soft. “Give me a chance to talk to you. You’ve shut me out ever since Jenna—”
“I said don’t,” Chloe warned, swinging her arm up again. Her voice suddenly cracked with emotion when Liam grasped her hand in his and pulled her closer. She swallowed hard as his breath warmed her chilly face.
Their faces were inches apart, and Liam’s dark brown eyes stared into Chloe’s face before grazing along her profile and mouth, making Chloe squirm, her entire body turning hot. She never dreamed she’d be this close to this man ever again.
“Don’t shout anymore, or you’ll blow both our covers.”
“What are you talking about?” Chloe spluttered. “You shouldn’t be here. How will I explain who you are?”
“I’m your date for the weekend. Your plus-one. Is that the correct term?”
“My date? Are you serious? I have a date—I walk down the aisle with Mark Westerfield’s best man; his cousin, Brett.”
“Ah, I see. It’s you and the cousin now.”
“Oh, please. Your innuendo is ridiculous. I barely met the man two hours ago.”
“A lot can happen in two hours,” Liam said, his eyes narrowing when he stared along the perimeter of the property.
“Believe me, I know what can happen in less than two hours. I was there. I watched Jenna die—and how you let her.”
Chloe’s voice broke. She bit down on her lips so hard she tasted blood. She hadn’t said the words before now. All the agony that had been eating away at her rose up like a ghostly apparition. Except her ghosts were much too real. And one was standing right in front of her.
She stalked back toward the front door to collect herself. It was cocktail hour, and she probably wouldn’t be missed for a few more minutes. Except that she was getting cold and hungry, and there were heaters surrounding the rehearsal dinner ensemble.
Fighting the tears that pinched at the corners of her eyes, Chloe gulped a breath of air and gripped the porch railing to steady herself.
“Chloe,” Liam insisted. “You have it all wrong. I wish you’d talk to me.”
“I know what I saw,” she said stubbornly, but that day had been a blur of intense fighting, gunshots blasting, and then the horrifying explosion.
She didn’t trust her memory as much as she used to, but she saw Liam run away from the house. The opposite direction from where Jenna had gone down. There was no mistaking it.
“We used to be friends,” Liam said softly. “Hey, you’re shaking.”
Chloe trembled at the touch of his hand on her arm. During their time at Quantico, she and Liam had actually met for occasional meals. They had taken long walks, talking for hours about everything under the sun—before their director told the team it was against the rules to fraternize. They had jobs to do. Emotions only confused and distracted everyone.
The director had been right. Because ever since the raid, Chloe’s feelings for Liam had turned to hatred, despite the hours she’d previously spent dreaming about what his lips would feel like on hers.
She shook her head, banishing the old emotions and attraction once again. “I hate being so close to Quantico. The memories are eating me up inside. I have times where I just feel so hollow.”
“You don’t have to grieve alone, Chloe.”
“Nobody else understands,” she said, taking the porch stairs to the front doorway with its beveled glass and inlaid oak panels.
She halted at the door, blocked by Liam. He touched her shoulder with his warm hand, and a firestorm of thrills crackled through her body. “Chloe, you don’t know the whole story. What really happened that night, but I do. And when you’re ready to talk, I’ll be here.”
“Don’t hold your breath. Meanwhile, I need to go fix my smeared makeup.”
Chloe sensed Liam’s demeanor go on sudden alert, noting the distant security guards dropping into a crouch when the neighbor’s dogs began barking at a single car passing along the road before disappearing.
He bent his head toward her ear, and Chloe closed her eyes at his nearness, willing herself not to swoon into his arms. “The stones arrive okay?”
She nodded, barely able to breathe at his nearness. “They’re in the safe. Mercedes is wearing the earrings tonight.”
“Huh,” Liam grunted. “Not sure it’s a good idea to be advertising the jewelry until at least tomorrow.”
“Tonight is just family. Tomorrow is going to be even crazier. A hundred people are expected, maybe more.”
“‘Just family’ is not comforting. You do recall who our prime suspect is?”
“Mark is independently wealthy, and he seems like a really nice man. I know, I know, appearances are deceiving. Con men are good at sweet-talking and entrapping. But what could possibly be his motive?”
“That’s what we need to figure out. Maybe it’s all a false alarm. Perhaps the diamonds will remain intact. I assume they still are.”
“It’s only been a few hours, but I’m doing another quick inspection now—and again later. As long as I’m going back into the house for a few minutes.” Chloe turned to face Liam under the porch lamps. “Do not go to the party in the back gardens without me.”
“I plan on being your watch guard in the front hall.”
“Suit yourself.” Chloe twisted the house key and pushed through the front door, but Liam spoke again.
“By the way, where is the Westerfield family staying this weekend?”
“Right here. The Romano mansion has eight guest rooms, although my parents are at the Hilton at Tyson’s Corner because my father needs security.”
Liam whistled softly. “That’s interesting, especially with Mercedes flaunting those gemstones tonight. That
means everybody has access.”
“What are you going to do—set up a sleeping bag in the foyer?”
Liam’s perfect white teeth glittered under the light. “It’s tempting.”
“Don’t entertain the temptation. I’ll kick you out myself.”
Chloe left him sitting in a chair in the shadows of the foyer and walked upstairs to her suite. Leaning over the bathroom counter, she fixed the black smudges under her eyes, blew her nose, and grabbed the diamond tool kit from underneath her underwear in the bureau.
Chloe’s stomach was in her throat as she descended the stairs and headed through the drawing room to the office again. In less than a minute, Chloe was clicking through the combination numbers.
Her heart pounded inside her skull. The quiet house caused her own movements to sound louder than normal.
Fleetingly, she wished Liam were standing beside her to calm her nerves, but when had Agent Esposito ever been adept at that? He’d caused her more agitation than anyone ever had in her life.
The safe clicked open, and Chloe brought out the box which held the necklace and tiara, laying them out on the desk. She snapped on the table lamp and took out the special UV light as well as the powerful loupe magnifier.
Perching on the edge of the swivel chair, Chloe picked up the bracelet, letting the piece dangle from her fingers while she shone the UV on the diamonds, the loupe eyepiece secured around her forehead.
The light refracted with a thousand glittering sparkles all over the ceiling. The edges were sharp and exact. The stones possessed a particular blue color, indicating their authenticity. Just as they had late that afternoon.
After finishing her inspection, Chloe compared the necklace and tiara to the diagram she had created earlier, including snapping a couple dozen pictures of the stones and the chart with her phone.
When she rose, she realized that thirty minutes had passed. She hadn’t inspected each stone for more than a minute or so, but they matched perfectly with the size and identifying flaws she’d jotted down in her notes. After this weekend, she’d have the diamonds memorized.
Quickly, she stuffed the jewelry boxes back into the safe, spun the numbers on the dial, and moved the filing cabinet back over the wall to cover it up.
Slipping out the office door, she returned her tools, and forced herself to take deep, cleansing breaths so she wouldn’t appear as if she’d been running.
At the bottom of the stairs, Liam held out an arm. “I’m your plus-one, remember?”
“I’m going to get the third degree from everybody about who you are.”
“Tell them I’m an old friend from high school in South Carolina. We used to hang out at the pool halls with our high school gang. Call me Stan Crowley.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? Pool halls? An alias?”
“If anybody in that wedding party is waiting for an opportune time to snatch those diamonds, you can bet they’re going to be looking into who I am. Especially since I’m a stranger showing up tonight.”
“You could have warned me, and I would have put you on the guest list.”
“We’d have only had an argument.”
He was correct on that point.
Chloe allowed Liam to lead her down the porch and to the side yard while she gathered her nerves.
That was another reason she’d dropped out of the FBI. She didn’t have the steely bravado the job took, but it was nothing compared to what had happened to Jenna, the star of their recruitment group.
When they reached the party, Chloe quickly dropped Liam’s arm. “If we’re buddies from high school, it doesn’t make sense that I’d be hanging on to your arm.”
“Touché,” Liam said, disappointment in his voice.
“Oh, stop it with the puppy-dog eyes.”
“I miss bantering with you, Chloe. I miss you,” he added under his breath.
Before Chloe could punch him in the arm again, he was accepting a drink from one of the waiters. Ice water. She took a glass of water as well, and the family descended thirty seconds later, swallowing her up.
“Where have you been, darling?” Granny Zaida asked.
“Bathroom run,” Chloe whispered. Which wasn’t a complete lie.
Her grandmother cocked her head. “Who’s your young man?”
Chloe turned to Liam, who was already chatting with her parents like they were old friends. Dad was a pro at this himself. He didn’t even flinch when he saw Agent Esposito appear out of the dusk and into the lights of the party.
“Granny, I’d like to introduce Stan Crowley, an old friend from high school.”
Her grandmother held Liam’s hand in hers and gazed up. “You’re a tall drink of water, aren’t you, Stan? An old friend? Why haven’t I heard of you before?”
“I live up in this area now, so Chloe and I don’t see each other very often. Last time was our ten-year high school reunion. And that was almost two years ago now.”
“Hm,” Granny Zaida said again. For some reason, Liam wasn’t fooling her.
Her grandmother pulled Chloe close and whispered, “Thought you hadn’t had a date in a year. Where’d you find this hunk?”
“He’s Stan. You know, Stan Crowley.”
“If you say so.” Her grandmother clinked glasses with both of them and went off to find Celine, who was standing on the outskirts of the gathering, arms folded over her chest as if she was freezing.
The heater and fire pits were glowing, and it was toasty warm—as long as you stayed close. The evening had a tinge of chill to the air, but wasn’t actually cold. Even so, Granny Zaida, Aunt Aurelia, and her mother were wearing shawls.
The entire yard had been decorated by Suze and her team in the nick of time. The gazebo and swimming pool were a spectacular sight of flowers and shimmering lights, glowing more vibrant as the sun disappeared behind the trees along the curve of the Potomac River.
The dinner tables were laid with fine china and crystal goblets. Idly, Chloe wondered who was assigned to wash dishes. Suze Perry’s jurisdiction, not hers, thank goodness.
Mercedes sidled up to Chloe. “Where’d you find that hot man of yours? He’s delicious and has such a tall, commanding presence. I thought you said you didn’t have a boyfriend.”
“I don’t. That’s Stan. From high school. Back home.” Chloe’s answers were short and sweet. The less said, the better, she had learned as a professional bridesmaid. At least here she didn’t have to answer to her bridesmaid alias, Sadie Chapman.
“Well, grab him, honey. I would in a heartbeat if I wasn’t in love with Mark.”
Just then, Katey spoke up from behind them. It was obvious she’d been listening in. “If he’s not taken, I’ll claim him.”
Chloe was suddenly possessive, and the realization was perplexing. She wasn’t going to hand Liam over to every woman there. “Believe me, you don’t want him. Boring. Shoe salesman.”
Katey arched an eyebrow. “With those looks, I’ll bet he sells a lot of shoes.”
Chloe observed that the Romano family and the Westerfields were hovering on opposite sides of the yard. When the groom’s family and the bride’s family didn’t know each other very well, that was typical wedding behavior.
Mercedes grabbed Chloe’s hand. “You must get to know Mark’s family better. You met earlier, but that was so brief.”
She waved a hand across the pool at the Westerfield clan, and Chloe followed—anything not to be in such close proximity to Liam. His presence was unnerving.
“Chloe, this is Mark’s brother, Gary, and his wife, Debi,” Mercedes said.
Chloe smiled and nodded. “We met briefly when they all arrived at the house earlier. You have beautiful girls,” Chloe added, gazing at the shy twin daughters hanging tightly to their mother’s hands. “I love their matching dresses.”
“Anna and Amy love to dress up,” Debi said. “They’re so excited about the wedding tomorrow.”
“The twins are going to be my flower girls,” Me
rcedes said. “They get to practice during rehearsal with the basket of rose petals. It should be somewhere around here.”
“Sitting on the table where the guest book will go tomorrow,” Chloe said, her response so automatic from her experience as a paid bridesmaid that she almost laughed out loud.
“You’re a lifesaver, Chloe,” her cousin told her. “You always have an answer.”
“That’s what a bridesmaid is for. To do all the behind-the-scenes work and let the bride enjoy her day.”
Mercedes winked just as Chloe’s brother, Carter, and her sister-in-law, Julia, walked over.
“You’re here! I didn’t see you earlier,” Chloe said, giving them each a big hug.
“Our plane was late, so we just arrived fifteen minutes ago,” Julia explained. “The taxi driver knew just how to get here, though.”
“It’s a long way from St. Louis,” Chloe said sympathetically. “Especially when you’re about to have the baby. I’ll bet you’re exhausted.”
“Two planes and our connection was delayed. Hence, the late entrance,” Carter said. They had moved to St. Louis for his new job as an accountant with a tech company since Carter had a minor in computer software, too.
“As soon as we eat, we’ll probably say good night,” Julia said, nodding. “Isn’t that right, my little missy?” she said, speaking to her protruding belly.
Carter smoothed a hand over his wife’s abdomen and then put a protective arm around her. “Six more weeks.”
“Do you have a name picked out yet?”
“We’re still debating between Megan and Bailey.”
“Both are adorable,” Chloe said. “You’d better call us as soon as you go into labor.”
“I promise,” Julia said. “If you promise to babysit sometime.”
“When she’s old enough to be out of diapers,” Chloe said wryly. “And now, excuse me—duty calls. As in, let me check on my bride.”
It was just an excuse to walk off her nerves. Besides, Liam kept watching her from wherever he was standing. She couldn’t quite catch her breath, and it took all of her self-control not to repeatedly glare at him.
The Undercover Bridesmaid Page 10
