“MacKenzie!”
“Mack!”
“Mackey?”
“Mack?”
Like a spinning bottle, his name made the rounds, and Eliza could see that some sort of explanation was in order. “Look,” she began. “Mack didn’t plan to bring me to the wedding, but everything happened so fast we didn’t have time to think about appearances. Except that it was raining and the limousine had a flat and the next thing we knew you were all out here noticing that Mack was late for the wedding, even though he was sure you wouldn’t ask, and—”
“Eliza.” Mack’s interruption was commanding and cool. His grip on her arm tightened. “Let me handle this.”
“Don’t bother, MacKenzie.” Mother Bankston slipped a comforting arm through Leanne’s. “It’s perfectly obvious what has happened.”
“Would you stop that mumbling?” Mack’s grandfather demanded with a thump of his cane. “Speak up so we can hear you!”
“She said it’s perfectly obvious what has happened,” Mack’s mother yelled.
“Nothing’s happened,” the old man yelled back. “I thought there was going to be a wedding!”
“It appears not.” Mother Bankston glared at Mack as she patted her daughter’s hand. “We are all so disappointed in you, MacKenzie. I never expected you to display such a lack of respect and consideration for my daughter, our family, even your own mother and grandfather. It’s inexcusable and rude and—”
“Now wait a minute,” Mack’s mother turned to face Leanne’s mother. “I’m certain Mack can explain, if we give him the opportunity to do so.”
“We are not listening to a word he has to say as long as he’s holding on to that—that…”
“Eliza,” she supplied testily.
Mack’s mother glanced at her. “Let go of her, Mack,” she instructed.
“I can’t,” he answered. “We’re attached.”
“You’re engaged to Leanne. You can’t have known this girl long enough to form an attachment.”
“Have you been seeing her all along?”
“Where did you meet her, MacKenzie?”
Grandfather thumped his cane. “What did she say?”
“Why didn’t you tell me there was someone else?”
“How could you wait until the day of the wedding to spring this on us?”
“I can’t believe you would do such a thing, Mack.”
“Will you people stop mumbling and speak up?”
Eliza heard Mack’s deep sigh, although no one else appeared to. She cleared her throat and pitched her voice above the cacophonous din. “Does anyone have a pair of scissors?”
“Who said that?” Mack’s grandfather asked loudly in the sudden quiet. “And what did she say?”
“Excuse me.” A clergyman stepped forward. “I couldn’t help overhearing. Perhaps I could be of some assistance in resolving this dispute?”
“Father Placidus!” Mrs. Bankston grabbed the wide, flowing sleeve of his robe like it was a lifeline. “Yes, yes, please help us. Mack has done the most unforgivable—”
“Oh, Mack, how could you embarrass me this way?” Leanne covered her face with her gloved hands and began to cry.
Mack reached for her, but his hand was tied. “Leanne,” he said. “This is not—”
Squealing tires cut through his words, and Eliza looked over Mack’s shoulder in time to see the limousine careen around the corner and jump the curb in front of the church before it jerked to a stop. “Looks like Chuck got the tire changed,” she said.
“It is best if this sort of thing happens before the marriage,” Father Placidus said.
“What happened?”
“Will you be quiet, Dad?” Mack’s mother turned from the older man to her son. “What is going on, Mack?”
“Uh-oh,” Eliza said. “I think Chuck is coming after his tip.”
Mack frowned and glanced down the steps, which Chuck was climbing two at a time. When he reached Eliza and Mack, he ignored the simmering discussion going on two stairs up, turned his back on the family and leaned close to Mack’s ear. Eliza tried to over-hear what he said, but with Mack standing between her and the chauffeur, and the other voices getting louder and louder every second, all she actually heard was, “dollar,” “dress,” and something that sounded like “trouble.” From the stunned expression that crossed Mack’s face, she assumed she’d heard the last word correctly, and from the look he turned to her, she knew how to complete the equation. Dollar plus dress plus trouble equaled dead duck.
“It’s Mrs. Pageatt, isn’t it?” she asked. “She’s tracked me down, hasn’t she?”
“We have to go with Chuck,” Mack said quietly, his back straight and oddly rigid, his grip on her arm becoming painfully tight. “Don’t say a word, just come with me.”
“Is she in the limo?” Eliza turned with Mack and squinted at the darkened windows. “You really can’t see inside from out here, can you? See, I told you we should never have left the Marry We Go parking lot.”
“Get going.” Chuck spoke softly, but sharply behind her, and she glanced back at him with surprise.
“Did she blame you for this, Chuck? Because I’ll explain to her that it was not your fault.”
“Don’t talk, Eliza.” Mack’s tone was threatening, and his grip on her arm was a warning as he steered her down the stairs toward the waiting limousine.
“Mack!”
“Mackenzie! Where are you going?”
“If you leave now, Mack, I will never speak to you again.”
“Where are you going, Mackey? Don’t you know it’s bad manners to run off with another gal on your wedding day?”
“Keep going.” Chuck’s murmur easily overrode the other commands, and Eliza wasn’t even tempted to stop. Mack didn’t seem to be bothered by their abrupt departure, either. She was sorry, though, that he hadn’t let her finish her explanation. Then everything would have been all right.
But Mack had wanted to handle it, and he hadn’t even tried that hard. She was the one who’d finally asked for the scissors. Not that anyone had paid her the slightest bit of attention. Not one of them had even called her by name. At least the Worth gown had survived intact. Mack’s wedding was ruined, unfortunately, but the marriage would probably work out just fine.
A gust of wind came out of nowhere, whipping her skirt into a froth of satin, sending a sudden chill right through the fabric. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, the raindrops started again, and Mack didn’t have to urge her to run. They crossed the sidewalk as thunder crackled overhead. Eliza grabbed for the handle herself, jerked open the door and scrambled inside just as she had before. Except this time, she pulled Mack in on top of her. She thought she heard someone yell, “Mack, come back here!” but she couldn’t be sure before the door was slammed shut behind them.
“Whew!” she said. “Are you all right? I thought Mrs. Pageatt might be in here. I guess she’s waiting for us back at the boutique. I wonder how she located Chuck so quickly? It was probably pretty easy to find him because of the flat tire. I knew we should never have left the parking lot. Mrs. P. is a stickler for—”
Mack kissed her abruptly and she went absolutely still, her heart taking over the rapid rhythm of her nervous chatter. He was kissing her to shut her up. She knew that. But the feel of his mouth on hers was magical and her breath caught in helpless wonder.
When his lips moved against hers, it took a moment for her to realize he was whispering. “Don’t panic. But he’s got a gun. We’re being kidnapped.”
His words had to battle upstream against a riot of impulses slugging it out in her brain. Kiss him back. Don’t panic. Kiss him. Kidnap. Don’t panic. Kiss… kidnapped? She struggled to sit up, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Did you hear me?” His dark eyes stared into hers, frustration, fear and angry determination shining clearly from their depths. “We’re being kidnapped.”
She realized the car was in motion. “Why?” she whispered back. “Why w
ould he kidnap us?”
He gave her a look of utter disbelief. “It’s the dress, Eliza. Chuck wants the million-dollar dress.”
Chapter 4
Eliza frowned at Mack, but his somber expression didn’t change. “He can’t kidnap us,” she whispered. “That would be a really stupid thing to do.”
“You’re right.” He sat up, pulling her with him. “No doubt he’ll quit being stupid any minute now.”
“There’s no need to be cynical. Maybe you just misunderstood what he said.”
Mack had been adjusting the awkward position of their juxtaposed wrists, but he stopped to look at her. “I haven’t understood anything that’s happened in the past half hour, but there is nothing wrong with my hearing.”
“Nothin’ wrong with my hearing, either.” Chuck turned his head and smiled at them over his shoulder. “So you two snuggle up and whisper all you want. I love to eavesdrop on private conversations. Do it all the time. Course, you’d be better off to try and catch a little shut-eye. This could be a long ride.”
“This is insane,” Mack said angrily.
“Where are we going?” Eliza asked at the same moment.
Chuck laughed, as if he were having the time of his life. “Don’t both talk at once, now. Ladies first. Eliza?”
She glanced at Mack, then repeated the question. “Where are we going?”
“For a drive in the country,” Chuck said good-naturedly. “Your turn, Mack.”
“You’ll never get away with this.”
The chauffeur tapped the horn. “Wrong! I’ll have to ask you to put that in the form of a question.”
“You can’t actually think you’ll get away with it.”
“Hmm. I may have to ask for a judge’s ruling, but I believe that is, in fact, a question, and the answer is…yes. Yes, I do think I can.”
“But why?” Eliza scooted forward, but the movement was caught short by a sharp pull at her waist, and she dropped back against Mack’s chest and felt his agitated breathing. “Why would you want to kidnap us?”
“Good question, Eliza. If you keep this up, you may make it to the bonus round by the time we get out of the city.” Chuck signaled a turn, completed it, then smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “Let’s see…why would I want to kidnap you. That’s a tough one. I could say it’s because that dress you’re wearing is worth a million dollars to somebody, and I figure it’s got to be worth at least a quarter of a million for me.” His grin grew even wider. “And you wanna know the best part?” He laughed again, as if he couldn’t believe his good fortune. “You stole it. They’re all gonna be lookin’ for you, not me.”
She swallowed hard. “Mrs. Pageatt doesn’t really think I stole it, does she?”
Chuck shrugged, still grinning. “I was in the shop before the policemen arrived. She wasn’t exactly calm, you understand, and she kept saying she was sure you’d been planning this for days, that you must have taken the dress the moment she left, which gave you about an hour’s head start. She said she’d always thought you was a little peculiar, but that she’d offer a hefty reward to get the dress back safe and sound.”
“I’ll match whatever reward she’s offering, if you’ll take us back to the church right now,” Mack said.
“She said I was peculiar?” Eliza couldn’t believe it. After she’d worked so hard for Mrs. Pageatt, too. “Are you sure that’s the word she used?”
“For Pete’s sake, Eliza,” Mack hissed in her ear, “is that important?” He raised his voice. “What do you say, Chuck? Double the reward money just for taking us safely back to the church. That’s a far better deal than you’re going to get from the FBI.”
“It might be,” Chuck conceded. “If I thought the FBI was going to come looking for a kidnapped dress.”
“They will most definitely come looking for the two people you’ve kidnapped with it, however.”
“Yeah,” Chuck said. “That presents a problem, don’t it?”
Several undesirable solutions to the “problem” ricocheted like bullets through Eliza’s thoughts. Mack must have imagined a few solutions, himself, because he patted her hand. “Take us back, Chuck,” he said. “It’s the wisest thing to do.”
“The way I see it, Mack, is if I took you back to the church, your fiancée would most likely take my gun and shoot you. Or maybe her mama would do it. But either way, I wouldn’t get the bonus money.”
Eliza nodded. “It would be better if you took us back to the bridal shop, anyway.”
Mack glared at her and she glared back. “It would be better,” she whispered.
“I don’t see how,” he whispered back.
“Sorry, Eliza,” Chuck said. “But I agree with Mack. Going back to the bridal shop is clearly out of the question. On the other hand, going back to the church isn’t an option, either. So I guess I’ll just move ahead with my first plan and get out of town with the dress.”
“You won’t make it out of the city limits.”
Chuck laughed as he tapped the horn twice. “Wrong again! Batting a big fat zero, Mr. Cortland. Eliza’s wiping the floor with you in this round.”
“This isn’t a game.” Mack lifted his head and met Chuck’s gaze in the mirror.
Watching them, Eliza felt the first cold ripple of fear.
“You’re going to get caught, Chuck. The police are probably already looking for this limousine. It won’t have taken long for Mrs. Pageatt to put together your presence in the shop with my disappearance. And Mack’s family was right there on the church steps as we left. Someone was bound to notice the license-plate number. I’m sure it’s been broadcast all across the state by now.”
“You’re forgetting, Eliza, that you stole the dress. If the police are lookin’ for anyone, it’s you. And I’m betting that they’re not lookin’ for you in this limousine. As for Mack’s family, I can’t imagine that they’re gonna be too all-fired anxious to come after him, considering how he ran off with another bride on his wedding day. Just my opinion, though. You’re welcome to think what you like. But that’s the way I’m callin’ this ball game, folks.” Chuck laughed jubilantly and tapped the horn three times in quick succession. “Three strikes, you’re out! And Chuck the Champ wins a million dollars!”
“Chuck the Chump wins twenty years in Leavenworth Prison.” Mack’s epithet was low and pithy.
“Now, don’t be a poor loser, Mack, my man.” Quickly glancing at the right-side mirror, Chuck eased the limo into another lane and then accelerated onto the westbound ramp of Interstate 70. “Some days the good guys make it to the wedding and some days they just get their tuxedos in a tangle.”
“You should meet Auntie Gem,” Eliza muttered.
“Okay, kiddies, it’s time to contemplate our destinies.” Chuck held up a cassette tape. “Kick back, relax and meditate on my favorite song.” He popped the tape into the deck and began to hum even before the first track started to play.
Eliza was aware of Mack’s frustration. She’d have had to be brain dead not to pick up on the energy waves flowing directly from his body into hers. She was also aware of the muscular slope of his shoulder behind her head, the heat of his arm as it curved at her waist, the arrhythmic tapping of his fingers at her wrist. That they were actually in the threes of a kidnapping seemed patently unreal, despite the go-for-broke voice of Billy Joel spreading the philosophy of “Easy Money” over the stereo system.
“What are we going to do?” she whispered.
Mack looked down at her, his dark eyes made even darker with concern. “Try to get untangled, I guess. I don’t have a chance of overpowering him with my right hand tied up like it is.”
She sighed. “I wish I’d never even heard of this dress.”
Mack just leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes as Chuck turned up the volume and sang along with Billy.
“I’VE NEVER SEEN such a mess.”
Mack stopped contemplating avenues of escape and looked down at Eliza’s bent head.
The ring of satin flowers sat lopsided across her crown, anchored by sprigs of dusky hair. The lace netting was bunched and crimped by the frequent and unconscious pressure of her fingers as she pushed the veil out of her face. She’d tried to discard the entire headpiece about the time they hit Lawrence, Kansas, but despite his left-handed assistance, the satin roses refused to budge. A second attempt about forty miles farther west had only served to pull her hair and had brought tears to her eyes. So the veil remained on her head, caught by her tangled hair… just as the dress held tenaciously to the tangled fabric at their wrists.
His hand was asleep and his arm ached from fingertip to shoulder. He’d sorted through varying degrees of emotion to arrive at an angry truce with the facts as they now stood. He was for all practical purposes handcuffed to a woman he barely knew and did not want to know any better. He was being kidnapped by a chauffeur with delusions of wealth. He was being taken to an unknown destination, where who knew what kind of disaster awaited him. His wedding day was ruined. Ditto the honeymoon. He was hungry. And all because Eliza Richards had popped into his limo and his life like a bad case of poison ivy.
“I just don’t see how this could have happened.” Eliza’s remark drifted up to him through a veil of dark hair and white lace.
“So you’ve said.”
“Well, I don’t understand it. I mean, it only took an instant for this dress to upset my whole life, and in two hours, I haven’t been able to accomplish anything more than breaking three fingernails.”
“It’s been closer to three hours,” he said. “Why don’t you give it a rest?”
She shook her head and kept picking at the threads. “It’s my fault you’re in this limousine being kidnapped instead of at the reception celebrating your marriage. I can’t stop trying to get you out of this mess.”
He admired her determination, even as he marveled that she actually thought she could fix everything if she just undid the knot. Placing his left hand over her right one, he forced her to stop. “Take a break.”
She leaned back, and the veil fluttered down over her face. Sticking out her lower lip, she breathed out little puffs of air in a vain attempt to blow the lace netting away from her eyes. Sighing, Mack lifted his hand and drew the veil up and back, tucking it and several silky strands of hair behind her ear. His fingers lingered for a moment against the soft warm hollow there, and he fought against a wave of overpowering protectiveness. “There,” he said, abruptly dropping his hand.
Million-Dollar Bride Page 4