GROOM UNDER FIRE

by Lisa Childs

  “But if they don’t want money to give Stephen back, we’ll have gotten married for nothing.”

  His pride stung—at least that was all he hoped it was—that she obviously did not want to marry him. But then, Cooper hadn’t wanted to marry her either. “We can fix that then.”

  “An annulment,” she said with a sigh of relief. “I was going to tell you that you don’t have to worry that I’ll think this is permanent. As soon as I get my inheritance, we’ll get divorced. But an annulment is better…”

  Because with an annulment, it would be as if they had never been married. But the only way an annulment could be granted quickly was if the marriage was never consummated. He ignored the flash of disappointment he felt; he’d known this wasn’t going to be a real marriage.

  He wasn’t the real groom. Stephen was. Cooper was just the standin groom. Stephen was the man she loved; she’d told him herself. Cooper was…just the man she’d nearly shot.

  “Fine,” he agreed just as readily as she had agreed that they were just friends all those years ago. “We’ll get an annulment. But first we have to get married.”

  She shivered as if the prospect terrified her. “I don’t want to put you in danger, though.”

  And he realized she was terrified for him. He reached out for her hand and then tugged her back down onto the bed next to him. “You’re not putting me in danger.”

  She shook her head. “By marrying you, I am.”

  “You’re not the one trying to shoot me,” he said. “Well, at least not until just now.”

  “I’m really, really sorry,” she apologized again, her beautiful face tense with regret and fear. “I never should have taken the gun from your brother.”

  Anger surged through Cooper again. “He never should have left you alone.”

  Logan was the boss, but Cooper wouldn’t let bad decisions like that go unchallenged—professionally or personally.

  “He was worried about you and Parker when he heard the shots,” she defended. “I was worried, too.” She entwined her fingers with his. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  She probably only said that because of their past friendship—because they had once been so close. But they hadn’t been for years. She’d written letters after he left, but he hadn’t replied to hers. He hadn’t wanted to think about her moving on with her life when he had just moved.

  “I survived three deployments,” he reminded her. “I’ll be fine.” And he intended to make sure that she would be, too.

  She lifted her other hand to his face and skimmed her fingers along his jaw. Her fingers trembled. “I don’t want anything to happen to you…”

  His heart lurched. Could she actually care about him?

  “Your family worried so much when you were gone,” she said. “If something happened to you now…”

  “It won’t.” Because he wasn’t going to risk his heart on her again. She was more concerned about his family than she was him.

  She nodded. “Okay, then, if you’re certain you’ll be safe, I’ll marry you.”

  He wouldn’t be safe—not even with his resolve to not risk his heart on her. She was so damn beautiful that he doubted he would be able to control his attraction to her. Even now he was so tempted to lean forward, to close the distance between them and press his lips to hers.

  But then she was the one arching up and forward and closing the distance between them. “Thank you,” she murmured.

  Maybe she meant to kiss his cheek.

  She probably meant to kiss his cheek.

  But Cooper turned his head, and her mouth met his. It should have been just a quick peck then. But she gasped and the kiss deepened. Cooper couldn’t help himself—he dipped his tongue between her parted lips and tasted her.

  She was even sweeter than he remembered.

  Her fingers clasped his face and she kissed him back, her tongue flicking across his. Touching. Teasing…

  They weren’t teenagers anymore. A kiss wasn’t just a kiss. They knew where it could lead, and they were sitting on a bed. Cooper fought for control and pulled back, just as Tanya did the same.

  Her face flushed and eyes widened, she panted for breath. She moved her lips, but no words formed. Obviously she didn’t have any idea what to say either.

  Cooper glanced down to where the gun barrel pointed at them like that spin-the-bottle. But that wasn’t why she’d kissed him. She had obviously only meant to kiss his cheek—probably out of gratitude.

  But Cooper was less concerned about why she’d kissed him than he was about why he’d kissed her. He knew she loved another man—a man who had always been a good friend to him, even when Cooper had physically and emotionally let distance grow between them. Kissing the man’s fiancée was an act of betrayal.

  Unless…

  No, he had no proof. Not yet. He had no reason for his suspicions. Except maybe he wanted to think the worst so that he wouldn’t feel so damn guilty.

  Shaking his head, he murmured, “That didn’t happen.”

  Her eyes still wide, she nodded in agreement.

  “I wasn’t even here,” he said.

  “What?”

  “If my mother asks, you didn’t see me last night or this morning…”

  Her lips curved into a slight smile. “Her wedding traditions?”

  “Superstitions,” he corrected her. “We are not to see each other until…”

  Light streaked through the blinds at the hotel room window. It was his wedding day.

  “Until we meet again at the church,” she finished for him.

  “Try to get some sleep,” he suggested.

  “What about you?”

  He shrugged. After that kiss? He doubted he would be able to close his eyes without imagining where that kiss could have led, without anticipating a honeymoon that would never happen, thanks to her wanting an annulment. “I don’t need much sleep anymore.”

  “Even after today?” she asked, her thick lashes blinking as she struggled against exhaustion to keep her eyes open.

  He’d had longer, more dangerous days. He gently pushed her back until she lay down on the bed. Then he pulled the blanket over her, as exhaustion overwhelmed her and she fell asleep. He needed to stand up, needed to step away from the bed before he was tempted to crawl into it with her and hold her. But he couldn’t stop staring at her beautiful face. It had been so long since he’d seen her. And tonight he’d nearly lost her—twice.

  But then he sighed as he remembered that she wasn’t his to lose. A shadow fell across the floor, and he reached for his weapon.

  “I thought you didn’t want to come to their wedding because you didn’t care anymore,” Logan remarked from the doorway. “But that’s not the case at all. You didn’t want to come because you care too much.”

  He pulled his hand away from his holster and replied to his brother, “She and Stephen were my best friends in high school. They helped me through losing Dad.”

  “She’s more than a friend to you.”

  He shook his head in denial, but still he couldn’t stop staring at her. “No.”

  “Maybe I’m wrong,” Logan said, but his tone indicated he thought otherwise. “But she was right. You should get some sleep.”

  “I need to make sure she stays safe.”

  “I’ll do that,” Logan said.

  When Cooper turned toward him, his older brother lifted his hands as if to ward off an attack. “I won’t leave her again even if you’re begging me for help.”

  “I won’t…” If he wound up begging, it wouldn’t be for Logan.

  “Take my help tonight,” Logan said, “because you’re going to be primary protection for her at the wedding and after…”

  On that honeymoon. But they wouldn’t get to that if they didn’t survive the wedding. Someone was so determined to stop that, judging from the recent shooting attempts, he or she didn’t seem to care who died—the bride or the groom.

  *

  HOURS HAD PASS
ED, but Tanya’s lips still tingled from that kiss. What had she been thinking to kiss Cooper Payne?

  He wasn’t the teenage boy with whom she had once been friends. He was a man now, and his kiss had proven that. But then, even as a boy, he’d kissed like a man.

  She released a shaky breath.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Mrs. Payne promised as she opened the bride’s dressing room door and ushered Tanya inside. Sunshine bathed the room, setting its soft pink walls and white wainscoting aglow.

  And Tanya nearly believed her. She had always had so much admiration for Mrs. Payne. Tanya’s mother had wallowed in self-pity after her husband chose money over a life with her and her daughters. But Cooper’s mother had lost the love of her life through a horrible tragedy and yet she had put aside her own anguish and heartbreak to be the rock her children had needed her to be.

  Tanya had leaned on her all those years ago herself. And she leaned on her now, giving her a big hug. “Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

  Mrs. Payne patted her back. “You’re like one of my own, sweetheart. I would do anything for you.”

  That was the kind of mother Tanya hoped to be someday. But when would that day be? She had to live through this wedding and subsequent annulment to have hope of ever having another wedding—a real one.

  “I’m so sorry that I’m putting your family in danger,” Tanya continued. The Paynes had already been through too much tragedy. She hoped she wouldn’t bring another one upon them.

  “You are not responsible for any of this, Tanya.” Mrs. Payne chuckled. “And, honey, my boys have been putting themselves in danger since the day they were each born. Climbing trees too high. Riding bikes too fast. Then joining the police force and the Marines.” She shook her head and sighed.

  When Cooper had joined the service after high school, Tanya had been almost relieved that they had never taken their relationship beyond friendship. She would have been so worried about him, so devastated if anything happened to him…

  “Isn’t that hard on you?” Tanya asked. “After what happened…”

  “To their father?” Mrs. Payne uttered another sigh, a wistful one, and her face softened—the faint lines she had entirely disappearing so that she looked like the young girl she must have been when she fell in love with Mr. Payne. “Having them act so much like their father has kept him alive for me—and probably for them.”

  “But they put their lives at risk…”

  Mrs. Payne let out an indelicate snort. “Living puts our lives at risk—driving a car, taking a bus, going to the mall or a movie…bad things happen everywhere. Not just Afghanistan. Cooper survived that—he can survive anything.”

  Tanya wasn’t as confident of that as his mother.

  The older woman gave her a slight nudge toward the garment bag hanging from the hook on the wall. “Start getting dressed, honey. Your sister and Nikki are on their way.”

  “Rochelle?” She tensed with shock and concern. “She’s still going to stand up there with me?”

  “She’s your sister. Family sticks together.”

  The Payne family definitely did, but not the Chesterfield family. Money had always divided them and probably always would.

  Knuckles wrapped against the door. “That better not be Cooper. I told him to stay away from you until the wedding.” She opened the door to Tanya’s grandfather’s lawyer.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” Mr. Gregory said. “But I really need a word with Ms. Chesterfield.”

  “Tanya,” she corrected him as she so often had had to over the years. Her grandfather may have demanded formality but it made her uncomfortable.

  Mrs. Payne studied the handsome gray-haired man intently before nodding. “You’ll do…”

  The lawyer’s face reddened and he uttered, “Excuse me, ma’am?”

  Mrs. Payne had been single a long time. Perhaps she was finally ready to envision a future for herself instead of just helping brides and grooms get ready for theirs.

  “Tanya needs someone to walk her down the aisle,” Mrs. Payne explained. “I was going to enlist my eldest boy, but it would be better to have someone who’s been part of Tanya’s life.”

  Arthur Gregory had been a part of her life for a long time—since before his hair had gone gray and he’d developed lines around his dark eyes and his tightly lipped mouth.

  “I’m sure Ms. Chesterfield would rather—”

  “No,” Tanya interrupted him. “I would be happy to have you walk me down…” To her standin groom. If not for Stephen’s disappearance, Cooper probably wouldn’t have even attended the wedding.

  “I’ll leave you two to discuss it,” Mrs. Payne said as she bustled from the room and closed the door behind herself.

  The lawyer stared after the petite woman. “She’s something else…”

  If Tanya remembered correctly, Mr. Gregory had never married. “Mrs. Payne is wonderful.”

  “But misguided,” the lawyer said.

  “I’m sorry she enlisted you in the wedding,” Tanya apologized. “If it makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to participate.”

  “The whole wedding makes me uncomfortable,” he admitted.

  She had a million reasons of her own, but she asked, “Why?”

  “I’m worried that these people may be taking advantage of you.”

  If anything, it was the reverse, she was taking advantage of them. “They are helping me.”

  “But you wouldn’t need help if Stephen hadn’t disappeared,” he said.

  “Exactly.”

  “He disappeared from here.” The lawyer stared at her as if that meant something.

  She arched a brow in question.

  “And immediately after that, she suggested that her son take his place.”

  Tanya wasn’t exactly certain why Mrs. Payne had pushed Cooper into that—unless she wanted them together. Had she been aware all those years ago that Tanya had had a crush on her son?

  “That was very sweet of her to help me out. I only have a couple of days until I turn thirty.” And Stephen hadn’t been found yet. She didn’t dare wait until the last day—in case that ransom demand was made.

  “It was perhaps too convenient,” Mr. Gregory suggested.

  “What are you saying?”

  “Your grandfather always worried that you and your sister would be taken advantage of because of your inheritance.”

  Like their father had taken advantage of their mother. What little money her father had left her, their mother had used to track down their father. She’d obviously intended to use it to buy back the man’s love that her father had bought off. Tanya and Rochelle hadn’t seen or heard from her since she’d left.

  Her voice sharp in defense of her friends, she replied, “That is not the case with the Paynes.”

  “Your grandfather did not trust Cooper Payne,” Mr. Gregory said. “He warned the boy years ago—”

  “He what?” she gasped, both shocked and horrified. “Did he try to buy off Cooper, too?”

  The lawyer shook his head. “He just pointed out to him that you were out of his league.”

  She would like to believe that her grandfather wouldn’t have done such a humiliating thing to her and Cooper, but she knew better. The old man had enjoyed humiliating and manipulating people, especially his own family.

  “You still are out of his league, Tanya,” Mr. Gregory continued. “The only reason you’re marrying him is because your real groom conveniently disappeared.”

  Remembering all that spattered blood, she flinched. “There was nothing convenient about Stephen’s disappearance.” Terrifying? Yes. Convenient? No.

  “It is convenient for Cooper Payne since he’s stepping in as your groom. I can’t believe that his mother managed to obtain a marriage license at such short notice.”

  Neither could Tanya, but Mrs. Payne was definitely a full-service wedding planner. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for a bride.

  It wasn’t awe in the law
yer’s voice, though. It was suspicion. Tanya narrowed her eyes and glared at Mr. Gregory. “If you’re implying that the Paynes are responsible for what happened to Stephen, you’re dead wrong.”

  “This is why your grandfather put the stipulation on your inheritance,” the lawyer said cynically, “because you tend to be too naive and trusting.”

  She laughed. No one had ever accused her of being either of those things. “Grandfather didn’t know me.” Because he’d never made the effort. “And neither do you. Moreover, you don’t know the Paynes at all. They are known for their honor and protectiveness. They would never harm anyone.”

  “You think that is still true of Cooper?” he asked her. “He’s been to war. You don’t know how that can change a man. He isn’t the boy you remember.”

  Tanya had thought so, too, but then she had seen glimpses of that boy—in his camaraderie with his family and his concern for her and Stephen. And in his kiss…

  “Why would Cooper hurt Stephen?” she asked.

  “Jealousy,” he suggested. “Over you…”

  “We were never anything but friends.” Because that was the way he’d wanted to keep it.

  Mr. Gregory chuckled. “The kid mooned around after you. He had a major crush on you. That was why your grandfather told him to stay away from you.”

  She’d thought he’d stopped coming to her house because he’d considered it a mausoleum. She hadn’t minded. She and Stephen had both liked it at his house better. The Payne household was warm and noisy and full of love.

  “That was a long time ago,” Tanya reminded him.

  The lawyer shrugged. “So maybe it’s about money now. He’s probably not making much working for his family. But marrying you…”

  “You think Cooper is marrying me for my money?” She nearly laughed again since it was really the reverse. She was marrying him for her money. “That’s ridiculous.”

  She’d overheard his argument with his family. The last thing he’d wanted to do was marry her.

  “Then have him sign a prenup,” he suggested, and he patted his ever-present dark leather briefcase, “and prove that he has no interest in your inheritance.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t ask him to do that…” Not when he was already making a sacrifice for her. Or, actually, for Stephen. He had only agreed to marry her in case someone demanded a ransom for his return.