The Wedding Planner

by Millie Criswell

  In the beam of the headlight she saw the flicker of metal and realized he was holding a knife. She choked back a scream. Megan and Andrew were watching her, their eyes wide with fright, and she tried to brazen it out. “I don’t know what you mean, Mr. Tremayne.”

  Before she could anticipate his reaction, he stepped forward and grabbed her arm. “I think you do, Meredith. Now, unless you want me to cut off every inch of your clothing—something I’d be more than happy to do—you’ll tell me where the device is hidden.”

  “Tell him, Meredith!” Andrew called out, his voice frantic and pleading.

  Realizing she’d been outsmarted, Meredith finally relented. “It’s in my bra,” she admitted, knowing she’d just given up any hope of being rescued.

  He arched a brow, then gave her a sadistic smile. “Really? Shall I retrieve it, or will you?”

  Turning away from him, though he still gripped one arm tightly, she reached under her shirt and removed the tiny tracking device, bringing it forth to show him.

  “Very sensible of you, Meredith. Now toss it into the car, and we’ll be on our way.”

  Her eyes widened in fear. “But you said all you wanted was the money.”

  “I lied. I’ve decided that traveling alone is a drag. I think it’d be a lot more fun if I were to take you along.” She made as if to bolt, but he tightened his hold. “I wouldn’t do anything stupid if you have any feelings at all for those kids. I’d hate for them to see another murder victim.”

  “You disgust me,” she said.

  He shrugged. “Sometimes I disgust myself, but that’s not really here nor there. Now get in my car and be quick about it. I want to put some distance between you and your friends. They should be arriving shortly, unless they discovered upon leaving Morgan’s house that their vehicles had been tampered with.” His eyes shone triumphant.

  “You bastard!”

  “Tsk, tsk. Such language in front of the children. My dead wife would have been horrified. Allison never swore in front of Megan and Andrew. But then, she wasn’t filled with passion, as you seem to be. I’m a great admirer of passion.” His gaze roamed every inch of her, making her skin crawl, and it was all she could do not to scream.

  “Adam will kill you for this.”

  He laughed. “I doubt it. He’s not that kind of man, doesn’t have the stomach for it. All that money’s made him soft. Besides, as I’m sure you’ve already learned, he’s not a man who forms attachments. He likes his life uncomplicated.”

  “You don’t know him at all,” she flung at him.

  “It’s not Adam I want to know, Meredith. It’s you.”

  BACK AT THE MORGAN RESIDENCE, Adam was pacing back and forth in the driveway like a caged animal. “Dammit, Warrens! How could you let this happen?” He stared daggers at the FBI agent, who was in turn staring under the hood of his van and shaking his head in dismay.

  “I underestimated Tremayne. But don’t worry. This is only a minor setback. We’ll catch up to Miss Baxter.”

  “My car’s been tampered with, too,” Fines called out. “And so has Mr. Morgan’s.”

  Glancing at his watch, Adam knew real fear for the first time in his life. “Meredith left over fifteen minutes ago. How do you propose to catch up with her, now that you’ve given her such a healthy head start?”

  “The tracking device, remember?” Warrens replied confidently, then flipped on the small computerized screen in his van and fiddled with the controls. “I’m not picking up anything,” he admitted over his shoulder.

  Fisting his hands before he struck the older man, Adam let loose with a colorful epithet. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? Dammit, man! Do something. The woman I love is soon to be in the hands of a murderer.” The admission surprised him. He hadn’t voiced his feelings for Meredith until now. It made it seem real. He knew it felt right.

  Adam wasn’t a praying man, but he prayed to the Almighty that Meredith and the children’s lives would be spared. He prayed harder than he’d ever prayed before.

  “Fines, call in and get a helicopter to pick us up,” Warrens ordered. “And tell them to be quick about it. Miss Baxter is out there on her own.”

  ALONE WITH THE KIDS in what appeared to be a deserted mine shaft, Meredith comforted Megan and Andrew as best she could, trying to think of a way out of her present predicament. Tremayne had locked them in a roughly constructed storage area and had taken the key to the padlock when he’d left.

  He’d gone to make arrangements for their departure, that much she knew. And he intended to carry out his threat of taking her with him. His intentions had been made disgustingly clear after consuming over half a bottle of whisky he’d had stored in the mine, along with some other provisions. Apparently he’d been living in the mine for several weeks. It reeked of old campfires.

  Their only chance to survive would be to escape before he returned. She didn’t want to think about the consequences if they didn’t. A man such as he, who had killed a woman, would have no compunction about murdering another.

  Frantically searching her pockets for something she could use to pick the lock, which held the chicken-wire door closed, she came up empty-handed. “Think! Think! What else? What else can I use?”

  “Are we going to die in here, Meredith?” Megan asked, snuggling closer to her side.

  She tried to comfort the frightened child. “No, sweetie,” she said, patting her cheek. “I promise we’re going to be all right. I just need to find something we can use to pick the lock.”

  “I’ve searched through my dad’s stuff, Meredith, and I didn’t find nothing,” Andrew informed her when he returned from his hunt.

  Suddenly, as if God had provided a sign, her gaze landed upon Megan’s shiny silver hair barrettes. “Thank you,” she whispered, then said to the little girl, “I need your barrettes, sweetie. I’m going to use them to pick the lock.” She’d seen it done in a movie once and hoped it wasn’t just some bit of movie magic a clever script writer had dreamed up.

  The child pulled the items from her hair and handed them to Meredith, smiling tentatively. “Murphy thinks it’ll work.”

  “Me, too,” she said with a wink.

  “Me, three,” Andrew added, his voice shaking, though he was trying very hard to be brave.

  The padlock was old and rusted. Meredith reached her fingers through the chicken-wire covered door frame to grasp the lock, inserting the tip of the barrette into it. Jiggling it back and forth, she prayed all the while that her efforts would work. “Don’t fail me now, God. You’re going to make me look bad.” A few more twists and turns of the barrette and the lock sprung open. “Yes!” she screeched. “We did it.”

  With Andrew and Megan’s help, she pushed open the door and, grabbing their hands, ran for all she was worth, out of the mine and into the blackness of the night.

  When they came upon the dirt road, Meredith headed in the direction she thought her car was parked, using the glow of the city’s lights to guide her. Suddenly she heard a strange whirring noise in the distance.

  Excitement filled her, along with hope. “I think it’s a helicopter,” she told the kids.

  “Do you think Uncle Adam’s on it?”

  “I don’t know, Megan. We’ll just have to wait and see. I hope so.”

  “Look!” Andrew pointed down the road toward the approaching headlights, his face contorting in fear. “That must be my dad. He’s gonna be really mad when he finds out we left the mine. He might kill us, like he killed my mom.”

  The child’s point was well taken. “Quick! Drop down on your tummies and be very quiet. It’s dark, the weeds are tall, and he won’t be able to see us behind this outcropping of rocks.”

  They did as instructed, hardly breathing as they watched the SUV pass them by. When it had gone, they let out a collective breath.

  “Let’s go,” Meredith directed, and they ran toward the noise in the sky. Finally spotting the helicopter, they waved their arms frantically in the air, shouting,
“Down here! Down here!”

  “LOOK,” ADAM SAID, pointing toward the ground. “Shine your light down there. I see movement.” The light illuminated Meredith, Megan and Andrew running toward them, but Adam’s relief was short-lived as he spotted Tremayne’s vehicle in hot pursuit.

  “Put down, put down. Tremayne’s spotted them.”

  “It’s too rocky,” the pilot said. “I’m not sure—”

  “Then lower me down on a rope, dammit! I’m not going to watch that murderer kill the three people who mean the most to me.”

  “Do as he says,” Warrens ordered. “We’ll set down on the road and be right behind you.”

  “Yeah, right,” Adam said with a healthy amount of skepticism, latching on to the heavy metal cable and wondering if he had the skill to pull this off. He knew he had the motivation.

  “It’s Uncle Adam,” Andrew said, pointing at the man who was dangling from the cable that was slowly being lowered to the ground. “He’s coming to save us.”

  Meredith’s gaze followed the small boy’s, and her eyes widened in disbelief. Dressed to the nines in his Armani suit and wingtips, Adam was coming to their rescue.

  You had to love a man who had that much style, she thought.

  “Megan! Andrew!”

  Tremayne’s voice filled the night air, and Meredith looked back to see he had abandoned his car and was fast approaching on foot. “Hurry, Adam!” she screamed, then realized what she was saying. The man had a knife, and he’d kill Adam if he got the chance.

  “Come on, kids,” she urged. “We’ve got to run faster. We can’t let your father catch us.”

  “But my side hurts, Meredith,” Megan complained in a breathless voice. “And Murphy’s tired, too.”

  “Tell Murphy he can have all the ice cream, cake and cookies he can eat for a whole week if he keeps up.”

  “He said okay.” Meredith couldn’t help but smile at the child, despite their precarious predicament. Bribery was so very effective with children, she mused, ignoring the stitch in her side.

  “Come back here, you bitch!” Tremayne was gaining on them, but Meredith didn’t dare look back. If she had, she would have noticed that Adam was now behind them, as well. He’d let go of the rope and was at this very moment giving new meaning to the words “flying tackle.”

  “You murderer!” he shouted at Tremayne, punching the fugitive in the face with a hard blow after he’d landed on top of him. The sound of crunching bone was music to his ears. “That was for Allison.” Then he hit him again and again, his fury giving him strength he didn’t know he possessed. “And for Meredith, Megan and Andrew,” he added.

  Despite the vicious blows Adam delivered, Tremayne was strong and fought back, landing several punches of his own. “You blue-blooded rich boy! You’ve never known what it is to go without, to be on the outside looking in,” Curtis shouted back. “All your life you’ve had everything you ever wanted, while I had to settle for the leavings.”

  “Settle for this, you bastard,” Adam said, shoving a fist into his mouth to shut him up. Blood spurted everywhere, as did a couple of Tremayne’s teeth.

  The two men scrambled on the ground, rolling over and over; the sound of knuckles and fists scraping skin, bones cracking like dried twigs, and bloodcurdling screams filled the night air. Until finally there was silence.

  “What’s happening? I can’t see,” Andrew said, jumping up and down, trying to get a better look.

  “I can’t say for certain, but I think your Uncle Adam has beaten your father to a pulp.” She tried to contain her grin, not knowing how Megan and Andrew would respond.

  The kids took a moment to consider this, then let loose with a cheer.

  The FBI arrived and took matters into their own hands. Tremayne’s limp body was handcuffed and hauled to a waiting ambulance.

  “I’m sorry about the problems tonight, Miss Baxter,” Agent Warrens said when everything was finally under control. “Sometimes things don’t go as smoothly as we’d like.”

  His apology fell on deaf ears as Meredith ran toward Adam. He was bloodied and disheveled, and sporting a whopper of a black eye, but she’d never seen anything or anyone more beautiful in her life. “Adam,” she said, throwing her arms about him and hugging him close. He grunted when his bruised ribs protested. “I was so worried Tremayne was going to kill you. He had a knife.”

  Adam hadn’t even considered his own life. All he could think about was Tremayne putting his hands on Meredith and the kids, and that had made him wild. If the FBI hadn’t shown up when they did, he wasn’t sure what he might have done. He’d never hurt another human being before, but then, he’d never felt so angry and out of control before. And he’d never hated anyone the way he hated Curtis Tremayne.

  Kissing the top of her head, he winced. His lower lip was cut and swollen to twice its normal size. “If I’d known that, I might not have been so impulsive,” he lied.

  “Oh, Adam, please promise me you’ll never again do anything so brave or foolish. I died a thousand deaths watching you dangle from that cable.”

  “But, love, the heroes in your romance novels always rescue their ladies. How could I do any less?”

  Her eyes widened as his words sunk in, and she took a step back and looked up at him. “You read a romance novel?”

  His grin was lopsidedly wonderful. “Several, actually. I liked them. Especially the sexy—”

  “Stop! The children are coming.”

  “Uncle Adam! Uncle Adam!” Megan and Andrew cried out in unison, wrapping their arms around his legs. “You were just like Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Andrew said proudly. “You really kicked butt!”

  Meredith and Adam exchanged amused looks, then Adam, who had recently viewed one of the actor’s films with his nephew said, “Let’s go home. This terminator has had enough excitement for one night.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The morning after the longest night Meredith had ever spent, she was back at work at the bridal boutique. Despite Adam’s suggestion—make that demand—that she take a few days off to recover from her ordeal, she’d decided that returning to her normal routine was the very best stress-reducing therapy she could think of.

  And she needed time to get a few things in order before keeping her scheduled dinner appointment with Adam this evening.

  He had informed her after driving her home early this morning that he intended to cancel his wedding plans and would take his chances with the court on his own. But she had convinced him, after much wheedling and cajoling, that she had found the perfect bridal candidate, and that it would be rude and inconsiderate of him not to allow her to present the woman, after all the hard work she’d done on his behalf. He had finally relented, though he had made it very clear that there wasn’t anyone she could present who would change his mind on the subject.

  We’ll just see about that, Mr. Morgan.

  Sally strolled into the store wearing a big smile and an even bigger engagement ring. Rushing forward, she gave Meredith a hug. “When Peter finally told me what was happening, I was frantic with worry. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Tremayne’s in jail, the kids are scheduled to see a therapist, though they seem perfectly fine to me, just a bit shaken up, and I’ve been too busy making decisions to dwell on what happened. I’m looking ahead to the future.”

  Taking a seat at the table, Sally poured herself a cup of coffee, refilling Meredith’s cup as well. “Well, you’re a far stronger woman than I am, Meredith, so I’m not at all surprised by your attitude. I would have probably fallen apart.”

  Meredith reached out to pat her friend’s hand. “Posh! You would have done just fine. To tell you the truth I was more stupid than brave. And scared to death the entire time. I’m just glad the kids are safe and that Tremayne will spend the rest of his life in prison.” With no possibility of parole, if the D.A. had his way.

  “You said on the phone you had something important you wanted to discuss with me. You know I�
�m happy and quite willing to do anything I can to help. So, if you need to take some extra time off, I’ll fill in for you. After what you’ve just been through, I can certainly understand why you’d need to.”

  “I may just do that, Sally, and thank you, but that’s not entirely the reason I asked you to come in early today. I have a proposition for you that I hope you’re going to like.”

  “A proposition? Now that does sound intriguing.”

  “I want to make you a partner in Best Laid Plans.”

  “A partner?” Brown eyes rounded in surprise. “I’m sorry to sound like a parrot, but—I don’t understand. This is your business, which you’ve worked very hard to make successful. Why would you want a partner?”

  “Because I’m planning to take on another role, and I’m going to need more time to devote to it.”

  “You are?”

  Meredith nodded. “Are you interested? If not, I can ask Randall, though I know his heart is set on becoming a corporate attorney. He’s already been offered a position in a firm located in the middle of New York’s garment district. Just think, he’ll be close to all the designer clothes, and he’ll actually be able to afford them after passing the bar.”

  Sally grinned. “I’m so happy for him. And yes, I’m definitely interested in your offer. As you know, Peter and I plan to be married in the fall, but we’ve decided to wait awhile before having children.” Her expression grew thoughtful, and she chewed her lower lip. “I’m afraid I don’t have much money put aside to invest. How much were you thinking of asking?”

  As Meredith thought about the plan she intended to put into action, a mischievous smile crossed her face. Last night’s brush with death had convinced her that time and life were too precious too waste. “It isn’t your money I need, Sally, but your expertise with the video camera.”

  “The video—” The woman’s mouth unhinged as the import of Meredith’s words sank in. “No! You’re not going to—”