The Bride's Bodyguard

by Beth Cornelison

  She twitched her cheek in a grin.

  “Ready to go?”

  Paige jerked a nod. “On three?”

  He winked. Counted. And they ran.

  By the time they’d retrieved her laptop and reached Brent’s office, Paige’s heart rate was in the stratosphere. Shaking to her core, she plastered herself to the corridor wall, waiting for Jake to pick the lock on Brent’s office door.

  Her sister Zoey would have been far better suited to this kind of high-stakes errand. But Zoey was still who-knows-where with her loser boyfriend traveling from poker tournament to poker tournament and running headlong for a major heartache.

  Paige’s breath snagged. Her youngest sister had seen the truth all along. Marrying Brent had been a misguided attempt to please her father. But Zoey lived her life to the fullest, chose what made her happy and pursued her dreams without fear.

  Meanwhile, Paige’s perfect wedding had become a perfect nightmare, and she’d never been more frightened and uncertain of her future in her life.

  She heard the snick of the door lock, and Jake pushed the door open, swept the beam of his flashlight around the office and motioned her inside. After quietly closing the door behind them, he whispered, “I’ll search the file cabinet. You get us into his computer records.”

  Paige wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and dropped into Brent’s chair. The faint aroma of Brent’s aftershave hung in the room. The familiar scent had never been her favorite, but now it seemed cloying and made her stomach turn.

  She powered on his PC and immediately encountered a password-protected sign in. She bit her thumbnail, unmindful of the salon manicure she’d had yesterday for the wedding. Tonight, in light of the day’s turbulent events, her French manicure was of little importance. Paige closed her eyes, wondering if her life would ever resemble “normal” again.

  She knew she had only three tries to get Brent’s password correct or the office system would lock her out until the IT guys could reset his account.

  Sucking in a deep breath, she typed PAIGE. Hit Enter.

  The computer beeped and flashed an error message.

  Jake flipped quickly through stacks of paperwork, making split-second assessments of whether various documents or folders might have vital information. Without pausing from his work, he whispered, “Keep trying. Sometimes passwords are the most obvious things, nothing secure at all.”

  She tried Brent’s birth date.

  Error.

  She had one more guess. Pressing her hands to her cheeks, she leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes again. Searched her memory. What was important to Brent? What would he use as his private security code?

  The company was the focus of all his time and energy. His upcoming promotion.

  Hands shaking, Paige typed in BICEO.

  Bancroft Industries Chief Executive Officer.

  The screen blinked, then the hard drive purred to life.

  She was in. Paige waited impatiently for the start-up procedure to finish, glancing across the room where Jake was shoving folders of documents into a backpack.

  Her stomach whirled. She was helping a stranger steal company property. If her father knew…

  Paige laced her fingers and pressed her thumbs together, trying to calm her jitters. She was doing all this to protect her father and the company. To help stop terrorists. To save herself and her family from the men who’d opened fire at the church today. But breaking and entering, stealing files, hiding like a fugitive rankled her safe, law-abiding and orderly instincts.

  Once she was at Brent’s desktop screen, she searched the icons for one that might guide her to the list of his most recent work files. Jake finished ransacking the file cabinets, stuffing the materials in his backpack, and stepped closer to hover over her shoulder.

  She found another password-secured program and tried the code that had worked before.

  BICEO.

  Error.

  Growling her frustration and impatience, she tried again, typing PAIGE and holding her breath.

  Error.

  Jake said nothing, but his presence unnerved her. He was counting on her to work fast, find what they needed and not let simple passwords stop her from getting results.

  He swiped a hand down his jaw. “Want me to try?”

  “I can do this. I know him better than you do.”

  “Try VERONICA.”

  Paige twisted on the chair to meet Jake’s gaze. “What? Why?”

  “Veronica Salley was the love of his life in high school. I heard they got engaged in college. Don’t know why they broke up, but I’m betting it wasn’t his idea. He was crazy about her.”

  “He wouldn’t—”

  “Try it.”

  “But I only have one guess left. If you’re wrong, the system will shut down.”

  “Try it.”

  Huffing out her disagreement, Paige pounded out VERONICA. Hit Enter.

  The computer flashed to a list of saved documents.

  Jealousy bit hard, and Paige gritted her teeth. Why she should care about an old girlfriend of a man she’d decided she didn’t love and couldn’t marry, she couldn’t say.

  Jake handed her a tiny USB flash drive. “Save them all to this. Hurry.”

  After plugging the device the size of a pack of gum into the computer, she hit a few keys to start the download.

  A green bar popped onto the screen to track the progress of the files transfer. Ten-percent complete. Fifteen percent…

  She angled her head toward Jake. “Is there anything else we should—”

  A series of loud pops sounded down the hall.

  Startled, Paige yelped, and Jake grabbed her arm, tugging her down from Brent’s chair and behind the mammoth wooden desk. She recognized the noise far too quickly, had heard it too often already today.

  Gunfire.

  Jake reached behind him for the gun tucked in his jeans. “Listen to me. I’ll hold them off as long as I can. Watch that download, and the second it is finished, pull the flash drive and stash it somewhere safe, somewhere you won’t lose it if we have to run.”

  Paige’s answering laugh was half irony, half panic. “If we have to run?”

  With his free hand, Jake cupped her face and drilled a hard, yet oddly comforting gaze on her. He was calm, assured, in control of the situation. “I know this looks bad. I know you’ve been through a lot today, and this is frightening. But you have to keep it together for me. Just stay calm, do what I tell you, and we’ll get through this.”

  More gunfire echoed in the corridor. Closer. Louder.

  The download read sixty-five-percent complete.

  Paige’s pulse hiked higher. “But they have us cornered in here! How are we supposed to get out of this office?”

  His grip on her face tightened slightly. “I’ll find us another way out.”

  Jake’s steady mahogany gaze penetrated the shroud of fear surrounding her. His confidence and skill bolstered her wavering courage. She trusted Jake. He’d already saved her, come through for her so many times today.

  She gave a jerky nod of cooperation.

  Jake smacked a quick kiss on her forehead and shoved to his feet. Dragging a chair below the air vent, he used a knife blade to quickly loosen the screws holding the cover in place.

  Download seventy-eight-percent complete.

  More gunfire.

  Paige snapped her gaze to the door. Three men clad in dark clothes and wielding large guns burst into the office.

  Jake dropped and rolled back behind the desk with her as a spray of bullets pelted the wall behind her.

  She swallowed her scream, too terrified to muster the breath needed.

  Download ninety-two-percent complete.

  Snatching up his gun, Jake aimed his weapon at the intruders and dropped two of them with deadly accuracy. The third man swung back into the hall for cover, shouting, “They’re in here!”

  Jake grabbed her wrist and shoved the gun into her hand. “Cover me.�
��

  She gaped at him. “Wh-what?”

  “Aim at the door and squeeze the trigger. Hold them off. I gotta get that vent open.” With that, he scuttled back to the chair where he stood to pry the air duct cover from the vent.

  The man at the door swung around from the hall and fired at Jake.

  “Paige!”

  Her heart leaped to her throat. Hands shaking, she pushed to her knees, propped her elbows on the desk and fired off two rounds at the man in the door. The man screamed and grabbed his arm.

  Download ninety-nine-percent complete.

  Jake popped the vent cover free and shoved the backpack stuffed with paper files inside the duct. “Paige, let’s go!”

  “C’mon, c’mon!” she begged the computer.

  The gunman fumbled for his weapon with his left hand, his firing arm hanging loose at his side. Raising his gun, he aimed now at Paige. She gasped and ducked, just as two bullets whizzed past her head. The wood paneling behind her splintered.

  “Paige!” Jake rushed back behind the desk with her and nudged her toward the vent. “Move it!”

  Download complete. Thank heavens!

  She snatched the portable storage device from the USB port and shoved it in her jeans pocket.

  Taking the gun from her, Jake finished off the guy at the door, just as his backup arrived.

  Holding her breath, Paige ran for the chair under the vent and scrambled to find a handhold. A large hand planted on her bottom, shoving her up and into the narrow vent. She wiggled and squeezed, hurrying to clear the way for Jake as a fresh round of gunfire blazed.

  Darkness swallowed her inside the vent. The tight passage reminded her of a tomb, and she fought off a cloying claustrophobia. Breathing raggedly, her arms trembling, she felt her way hand over hand, inching forward. Her hand bumped the large backpack full of files Jake had salvaged, and she pushed it deeper into the air return. When she found a side outlet, she pulled herself around the right angle. The side vent was large enough for her to sit up and turn around. Dim light from the open end of the vent illuminated the path she’d just come through.

  Jake wasn’t behind her. Panic roiled in her gut, filling her mouth with bitter fear. “Jake!”

  From the office, she heard muffled grunts, loud thumps and breaking glass.

  Her heart in her throat, she crawled back toward the office. “Jake!”

  “Don’t wait for me! Go!”

  Relief swamped her knowing he was alive, yet she hesitated. Go without Jake?

  A face appeared at the vent opening. Glowering. Bleeding.

  Not Jake’s.

  She saw the flash of metal as the man raised a gun to the vent opening. Then a spray of red as a bullet hit his head.

  Gasping, Paige scuttled back awkwardly, bumping her head and jamming her elbow. Her pulse thundered wildly in her ears, a harsh counterpoint to the sounds of violence echoing through the metal cave.

  Twisting around, she crawled back into the side vent, feeling for a means of escape. But the side tunnel led to a large fan, blocked off with a sturdy steel screen. A dead end.

  Struggling to keep her breathing even and not give in to the clamoring fear squeezing her chest, Paige turned around and crawled back the way she had come.

  Still no Jake. More thumps. More gunfire. More grunts of pain.

  Acid sawed in her stomach. If anything happened to Jake…

  Paige closed her eyes and sucked in slow, deep breaths. She had to fight the panic, had to keep it together if she wanted to be any use to Jake. If she wanted to survive this nightmare.

  Brent’s fault. She was in all this danger because of Brent, because of the bead.

  Anger slashed through her. How could he have claimed to love her, then put her in this position? How could she have ever believed she loved Brent?

  She rolled to her belly as she went back into the first, smaller duct. Shimmying forward on her hands and stomach, she scrunched along the tight tunnel, pushing the backpack in front of her, only to find that the duct narrowed as she crawled farther back. There was no way Jake, with his broad shoulders, would fit in this restricted space. And Paige wasn’t too keen on the idea of trying to squeeze through herself and risk getting stuck. The air-return tunnel wasn’t going to provide an escape.

  Swallowing her disappointment and a fresh wave of fear, she backed up. The hard floor of the metal duct bit into her knees and elbows as she wiggled toward the side outlet, where there was space to turn around. If they couldn’t get out through the HVAC ducts, how—?

  “Paige?” Jake’s deep voice was sweet music to her ears. No other noises came from the office. The silence was chilling.

  “J-Jake?” A hand grabbed her ankle, and she gasped, flinched.

  “Easy. It’s me.”

  “We can’t get through that way. One duct is too small, and the other is blocked.”

  “Forget it. I handled the problem. I’ll help you down.” Jake positioned her foot on his shoulder. “Bring the backpack.”

  As she found her footing, he skimmed his hand up her leg to her waist to help her balance as she crawled backward out of the vent. “What happened to—?”

  Her breath caught when she saw the carnage in Brent’s office. No less than six men—all clearly dead—broken furniture, scattered files, shattered glass. And blood.

  On the floor. On the walls. On Jake.

  Icy horror swept through her, and she clutched the backpack to her chest as if it could shield her from the grisly scene. “Oh, my God! Are you all right? How… What—?”

  “I’ll be fine.” He wiped his bloody lip on his shoulder then stooped to take a large gun from the hands of one of the dead men. Pulling the backpack from her hands, he shoved the assault rifle toward her. “Take this. We’re not in the clear yet.”

  She stifled the question that sprang to her mind—how had he overpowered all those men? Judging by the noises she’d heard, the odd angle of some of their necks and Jake’s obvious injuries, she didn’t want to know what SEAL-trained techniques he’d employed. Paige shuddered and stared down at the assault weapon in her hands. “M-maybe we should…call in the police now. This is all too—”

  “No.” Jake threaded his arms through the straps of the backpack and edged toward the door. “Brent was very clear. He said Homeland Security had been compromised. If we call the local police about this, they’ll be obligated to call in the Feds. Until we know who and what we are dealing with, who we can trust, we do this alone.” He peered around the door frame and hitched his head. “Come on. We need to hurry.”

  Paige stepped over a burly man whose dark eyes stared sightlessly at her. The urge to cry, to curl up and fall apart was strong, but digging deep and gritting her teeth, she crushed the temptation to give in to her weakness. Jake needed her to be strong, think clearly, be ready to follow his directions.

  He took her hand and led her down the hall at a jog. Jake was limping, favoring his right leg. They paused at the intersection, where there was another corridor, long enough for Jake to peek around the corner. When he gave her the all-clear nod, they set off again. At the end of the hall, the night guard’s body lay sprawled in a pool of blood. Her stomach rebelled at the sight. She remembered hearing gunfire before the terrorists had arrived at Brent’s office. Now she knew why. Jake’s grip on her hand was tight to the point of being painful, but Paige didn’t dare pull away. She was keenly aware how dependent she was on him to get out of the building—and this entire macabre situation—alive.

  Chapter 5

  When they reached the rental car, Paige dropped onto the passenger seat and closed her eyes. A shudder raced through her, and she mumbled a prayer of thanks that they’d made it out of the building in one piece. Most of Bancroft Industry’s security force hadn’t been as lucky, thanks to the terrorists. Whoever these people were, they played hardball and would ruthlessly kill anyone who stood in their way.

  Jake climbed in the driver’s side and cranked the engine, giving the ar
ea a searching glance before he pulled the car from the cover of the bushes where they’d parked. “Show me the flash drive.”

  Paige fished in her pocket and pulled out the tiny device. Jake nodded. They drove in silence for several blocks before he spoke again. “Hey, you did a good job in there.”

  She cast a blank stare at him as he pulled to a stop at a red light.

  “How can you say that? I crawled into the vent and hid. You single-handedly took out six men!”

  “Not all at once. And you slowed that one guy with a good shot to the arm.”

  She shrugged, not wanting to think about having to shoot at the man who was trying to kill Jake. “But you knew the password to Brent’s files would be his ex-girlfriend’s name.” She huffed with disgust. “That stung. How silly of me to think he’d use my name as a password. I’m only his fiancée.”

  He turned his palm up from the steering wheel. “Well, maybe that’s why he didn’t use it. Maybe he thought it was too obvious, not safe enough. They tell you to avoid things like birthdays and children’s names, because they’re too easily guessed.”

  “Maybe.” Paige rubbed her hands over her arms, still shivering in a post-adrenaline crash. “But his password was still another woman’s name. I think that speaks volumes. Don’t you?”

  He hesitated, casting a hooded side glance to her. “Yeah. I think it says he’s still in love with Veronica, and you were justified in your doubts about marrying him.”

  She opened her mouth to deny again that she’d been having second thoughts at the wedding, then snapped her mouth closed. His eyes were too incisive, and arguing seemed pointless. He was right, and the pretense she’d been living had blown up in her face.

  With a sigh she leaned back against the headrest. “Guess it also says he was using me to impress my dad and get the inside track on the CEO job when Dad retires this fall.”

  “Brent was always ambitious.”

  She grunted and turned to stare out the side window. “Very. I just didn’t realize I was nothing more than a rung in his climb up the ladder.”

  “He cares about you.”

  Her shoulders drooped. “Don’t patronize me.”

  “I’m not. I saw it in his face when he talked about you at the rehearsal. It may not have been love, but he cared. He cared enough to step in front of a bullet for you.”