The Bride's Bodyguard

by Beth Cornelison

  He was working on a plan, wasn’t he? Mr. I’m-trained-to-think-on-my-feet. His expression revealed nothing.

  Paige scrambled. Stalled. Maybe if she bought him time…

  As they were led into a windowless back room, she faced Steward, squaring her shoulders and faking a courage she didn’t feel. “How did you know we were coming here?”

  He turned up a palm dismissively. “Same way we’ve monitored you for days. We bugged your sister’s phone.”

  Fresh fear writhed in Paige, thinking of these men eavesdropping on Holly’s calls. “H-how?”

  Steward shrugged, his expression bored. “We followed her to the emergency room when they took Scofield in from the church. Let’s just say that during the commotion, she…wasn’t especially vigilant over her purse. I planted the bug in seconds, and she was never the wiser.”

  Paige’s stomach seesawed. “Don’t you dare hurt my sister!”

  Steward scoffed. “I have no interest in harming your sister. She was a tool to find you.”

  Just as Jake had warned.

  Guilt swirled through her. She’d defied Jake more than once to call Holly. If she’d listened to him…

  Scofield trusted me to see this through. Why can’t you?

  “That still doesn’t explain how you knew we’d be here,” Jake said. “Paige never mentioned Gates’s name or where we were headed when she talked to Holly this morning.” He sent her a glance, as if to confirm he was right.

  A prickle skittered down her spine. She hadn’t said anything to Holly about their plan for today! So how—?

  “I didn’t say she did.” Steward smirked. “Holly heard it from their father.”

  Paige jolted. “My dad? But—”

  Holly had said their father had talked to Brent.

  Call Paige and check on her. I have arrangements to handle.

  Her dad knew she was here? What else had Brent confided to her father?

  Her heart thundered, anxiety building. What arrangements was her father making?

  “Now, are you going to give us the ring with the nanotube—” Steward stepped toward her, his hand extended “—or do we have to cut off your finger to get it?”

  She gasped and shrank back, only to bump into the thick chest of one of the other henchmen.

  “She doesn’t have the virus. I do.”

  All heads swiveled to face Jake. His face was stony, unflinching. He sounded so sincere, she almost believed him. The staccato beat of her pulse kicked faster.

  Steward’s expression darkened. “She told us the nanotube was encased in a glass bead that Scofield built into her ring.”

  Paige swallowed hard, working to steady her voice. “I lied.”

  Steward swung his glare back toward her. If she could just stall a little longer, maybe…

  “I also told you the bead was in my engagement ring, didn’t I? I guess by now you’ve discovered that was a lie. And I told you I’d hocked my wedding ring. Also a lie.”

  Steward’s hands balled at his sides, and a muscle in his cheek twitched. His gaze narrowed on her as if he was trying to decide what to believe.

  “Hell, Steward, just off them both, and we’ll search ’em when they’re dead,” the goon behind her grumbled. “You know they have it here somewhere. This is taking too effing long.”

  A car door slammed outside. Voices drifted in. Young voices. Female voices.

  Gates tensed. Gasped. His eyes grew wild and desperate.

  “Will? We’re home!” a woman called. “The movie was sold out.”

  In that moment of distraction, Jake launched an elbow into the gut of the ape behind him. Spun. Sliced a stiff hand into the goon’s throat. One down. Four left.

  Following Jake’s lead, Paige stomped hard on the instep of the man behind her. He howled in pain but grabbed her arm, wrenching it behind her. Lashing out with her free hand, she gouged at her captor’s eyes. Kneed him in the groin. He sank to the floor, clutching his stomach, but still had the presence of mind to swipe at her legs. With a hard blow to the back of her knees, he brought her to the floor. Paige used the adrenaline coursing through her to fuel her fight. She kicked at the thug, battering him with her feet.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Jake battling two men at once.

  A door squeaked. “Will, what—?”

  A gun fired.

  “Elaine!”

  Children screamed. Gates lunged for the door. Another pop of gunfire.

  Steward shouted to his men. In the chaos, Piage glanced toward Jake. He was bleeding but still fighting. She had to help him. Swing the odds in their favor…

  Her ears ringing, Paige searched the floor. Surely her thug had dropped his weapon. Or she could steal it. Or—

  Bingo! She saw a silver gun on the carpet…just a few feet away…

  She stretched toward it, reaching—

  And a hard shoe came down on her wrist, crushing her arm. Pain shot to her shoulder.

  “Nice try, Ms. Bancroft.” Steward crouched over her pinned hand.

  And wrenched the gaudy wedding ring from her finger.

  Horror sliced through her. She couldn’t let him take the nanotube!

  Brent’s desperate plea rasped in her head. Keep the bead safe…at all costs. National security…

  “Jake!” she screamed. “He has the ring!”

  Jake tensed, a sinking sensation settling in his gut.

  For a few moments, they’d had Steward and his men off guard, had been gaining ground. But with her panicked cry, Paige had given Steward exactly what he needed. Solid evidence that the nanotube was in the ring.

  And with the ring in Steward’s possession, he and his men had no reason left to keep any of them alive.

  The tumult and confusion he’d capitalized on when Gates’s family arrived unexpectedly was already fading to a tense standoff.

  Gates lay on the floor, blood seeping from his arm. His wife cowered beside him.

  Another of Steward’s men shuffled back into the room, dragging two preteen girls, both deathly pale and sobbing, in by the arm. Three more innocents caught up in this hellish situation. More lives at stake, more ways Jake could mess up and get civilians killed.

  The man who’d been holding Paige rose slowly from the floor, murder in his eyes as he seized her arm again. The man Jake had incapacitated was still unconscious, but another ape, the one who’d fired on Gates, still held his weapon to Jake’s temple.

  The advantage they’d gained briefly had swung decidedly back into Steward’s favor.

  “Please,” Gates rasped, “don’t hurt my family. They have nothing to do with any of this!”

  Jake met Paige’s gaze briefly. Her eyes pleaded with him to do something. His chest constricted. He’d rather take a knife in his gut than let Paige down. But what choice did he have now?

  Knowing how little he could do with Gates and his family at risk, with a gun at his head, with the ring in Steward’s possession, Jake was short on options.

  “Finally,” Steward crowed, examining the ring. “Hmm, damn ugly thing.” He arched an imperious eyebrow at Paige. “You let Scofield give you this as a token of his affection? Where’s your pride?”

  Paige stiffened, and rage roiled in Jake’s gut.

  “Watch your mouth, Steward,” he growled.

  With a dismissive sneer toward Jake, Steward turned to the thug holding Gates’s daughters. “Thurman, have a look.”

  Thurman released the girls, who rushed to huddle with their parents, and stepped over to take the ring from Steward. Pulling an elaborate-looking jeweler’s loupe from his pocket, Thurman walked to a floor lamp for better light. A hush settled over the room.

  Jake’s mind spun, thinking in fast forward.

  After examining the ring for several seconds, Thurman lowered the loupe and faced Steward. “Without an atomic microscope, I can’t be sure what it is, but there’s definitely something in there. And that is definitely cut glass, not a diamond. I’d say we’ve got a hit.”


  Thurman crossed the floor. Held the ring out to Steward.

  And Jake threw his head back as hard as he could, bashing the nose of the goon behind him. The next instant, while the man cradled his broken nose, Jake wrenched free and lunged. Tackled Thurman. Pried the ring from his hand. Rolled toward Paige.

  Gasps and startled screams from Gates’s girls peppered the air.

  Shaken from his smug sense of victory, Steward grabbed for his gun. As Steward and Thurman surged toward him, Jake scrambled mentally. He had to protect the ring, take it out of play, eliminate possession as a factor…

  Steward’s pistol swung up.

  And Jake popped the ring in his mouth. Forced enough spit on his tongue to swallow.

  “Jake?” Paige gasped.

  Steward’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You ass!”

  Thurman and Steward exchanged now-what looks.

  Jake eased closer to Paige.

  “Don’t. Move.” Steward angled his gun toward Paige. “Or your girlfriend is dead.”

  “Are you insane?” she hissed.

  “Trust me.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t see how—”

  The man holding Paige’s arm yanked hard, silencing her.

  Finally, Steward narrowed a menacing glare on Jake and stepped close. “Don’t think you’ve won. While I’d like to keep Ms. Bancroft alive until we verify the nanotube is in the ring, I’m not above killing some of the other deadweight we’ve acquired, if it will ensure your cooperation.” Twisting to look over his shoulder, Steward looked to the man holding Paige. “Do you have your knife?”

  Releasing Paige, the goon stooped to pull a smooth-edged blade from under his pant leg.

  Cold dread spun through Jake. Damn. He knew what was coming.

  Steward motioned to the other men. “Hold him.”

  Thurman and the two other thugs moved forward, surrounding Jake. He swung at the first man to reach him, battled the second man’s grip when he grabbed his arm, resisted, but within minutes, they had him subdued and spread-eagled on the floor.

  To Knife, Steward said, “Cut him. I want that ring back.”

  “No!” Paige rushed forward, and Steward caught her with an arm around her waist. She struggled, crying. “Please, stop! Don’t touch him!”

  “Paige, no!” Jake shouted. “Don’t give him a reason to hurt you!”

  When Knife dropped to one knee beside him, brandishing his blade, Jake shifted his attention to that very real threat, the imminent pain, the likely death awaiting him.

  An earthy obscenity filtered through his thoughts. This is gonna suck.

  Jake gritted his teeth and tensed his stomach muscles.

  Knife raised his weapon and plunged it into Jake’s gut.

  Lightning-hot pain streaked through him. Paige and the female Gateses screamed.

  Suddenly, with a blinding flash and deafening boom, all hell broke loose.

  Chapter 16

  Stunned by the bright light and earsplitting noise, Paige froze. What was happening?

  An instant later, men in flak jackets, helmets and gas masks swarmed the room, shouting, “Police! Everyone down! Drop your weapons!”

  By the looks of it, the entire Atlanta SWAT department now buzzed through the Gateses’ home, armed with assault weapons and riot gear. Steward was knocked to the ground, disarmed. Then Knife. And Thurman.

  Relief so sweet it brought tears to her eyes flooded through Paige. Help had arrived. Just in time.

  Or almost in time. Jake!

  Despite the police orders to lie on the floor, hands out, Paige crawled toward Jake in a rush. A large gash on his stomach poured blood on the carpet. Panic surged through her, and she whipped her shirt over her head to stanch the flow. “Help him! Please, he’s been stabbed!”

  “Get down! Hands out!” She was shoved unceremoniously to the ground beside Jake, and her hands yanked be hind her.

  With her cheek pressed to the floor, Paige fought the swell of desperation clamoring inside her. Jake angled his head to meet her gaze. Evidence of the pain he suffered radiated from his dark eyes, tightened his mouth and lined his forehead. His skin was growing frighteningly pale. “Paige…”

  Brusque hands frisked her. She squirmed, trying to catch the eye of the officer pinning her to the ground. “No! Please, he needs help!”

  “Hold still, ma’am.”

  “But I’m the one who called the police!”

  Jake rasped a sharp, strangled sound, drawing Paige’s attention.

  A new pain and disappointment filled his eyes. “You…called them?”

  Guilt sliced her to the core. She’d doubted Jake, defied him. Wounded him.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. But he turned his face away.

  “Just cooperate, ma’am, and let us get this sorted out,” the SWAT officer on her back said. “We actually had more than one call. Earlier today, we had two reports of a biohazard being delivered to this residence.”

  “Two calls?” Paige’s thoughts spun. Around her she heard the grumbles and grunts of Steward’s men being subdued and cuffed. The Gates girls crying. More police officers arriving.

  The SWAT member finished patting her down and helped her to her feet. “First call came in early today from Louisiana. A man. Said his daughter was in danger.”

  Her heart tripped. “My dad called you, too?”

  The officer gave her an appraising look. “Are you Paige Bancroft?”

  “Yes!” Now they were getting somewhere.

  The officer nodded. “En route, we received reports of gunfire called in by neighbors, then heard screams as we arrived. We had to consider everyone suspect until we knew we had the situation under our control. Just be patient, and we’ll sort this out.”

  Frustration and fear for Jake gnawed her stomach. “We don’t have time for patience! Jake’s been stabbed! He’s dying!”

  The policeman jerked his head toward the floor where Jake lay bleeding. “We’re doing all we can. An ambulance is en route.”

  Paige dropped her gaze to find two men huddled over Jake. One patted him down for weapons while another worked to stop the bleeding from his abdomen. His eyes were closed, and he remained eerily still. Terror climbed her throat. Squeezed her chest. “Jake!”

  Jake opened his eyes to slits. The commotion around him was a blur. Except for Paige. He focused on her, even as the edges of his vision dimmed. Pain burned his gut, but the sharpest ache centered near his heart. The only relief he had was in knowing Paige was safe.

  It was over. The cops would pick up where he’d dropped the ball.

  A dry thickening in his throat made it hard to speak, but as he held Paige’s gaze he mumbled, “Failed.”

  Then darkness swallowed him.

  “Paige?”

  Paige jerked her head up from her contemplation of the emergency-room floor. When she spotted the tall, silver-haired man striding briskly toward her, tears rushed to her eyes. “Daddy!”

  She threw herself into her father’s arms and sobbed on his shoulder.

  “Thank God you’re all right!” Neil Bancroft held Paige in a breath-stealing embrace. “When Brent told me what he’d asked you to do—”

  She felt the shudder race through her father that finished his sentence for him. For long, silent minutes, they simply held each other, and Paige fought to regain her composure. Now was not the time to fall apart. She’d already given her full statement to the police and repeated it for the FBI. But the nightmare wasn’t over.

  Jake was still in surgery, fighting for his life.

  As long as the doctors had to stitch up his belly anyway, they had decided, with encouragement from law enforcement, to surgically remove the ring from Jake’s stomach.

  The last word Paige had from William Gates, whose arm had been treated for a surface gunshot wound, was that the ring was in safekeeping with the Atlanta police. Arrangements were being made to transfer the nanotube to Gates’s lab at the Centers for Disease
Control once a pile of paperwork and red tape was cleared up.

  She should have been ecstatic. The virus was safe. Her responsibility to protect PMB-611 was finished.

  But Jake was not out of the woods yet. Even now, surgeons were scrambling to repair the damage done by Knife’s blade. The hurt, accusing look he’d sent her before he blacked out haunted her.

  You…called them?

  Swiping at her runny nose and damp eyes, Paige backed out of her father’s arms. “Jake was stabbed, Daddy. He lost a lot of blood, and—” Her voice broke, and her eyes filled with tears again. “I hurt him. He asked me to have faith in him, to trust him, but I…I was scared, and—”

  When she broke down in tears again, Neil Bancroft escorted her to a chair at the edge of the waiting room. “Ah, Paige, darling, tell me everything. Start at the beginning.”

  And she did. From Brent’s whispered orders to hide the “bead” after he’d been shot to the SWAT team’s storming of the Gates residence, Paige left nothing out.

  Except her feelings for Jake and the way they’d passed last night.

  Her father listened carefully, interrupting only twice to ask questions. When she was done, her father explained how Brent, consumed with guilt and worry for Paige, had summoned Neil to his hospital room and finally confessed to the senior Bancroft his culpability in the unfolding events. Learning the truth from Brent, Neil had immediately called the authorities in Atlanta to arrange police support for the exchange at Gates’s house and the company’s private plane to bring him to Georgia to find Paige.

  Paige shook her head. “But Brent knew Jake was with me. He’d asked Jake to hide the ring and protect me.”

  Neil leaned back in the formed-plastic chair and sighed. “True. But Brent wanted to be sure you were okay. Like you, he’s big on contingencies.” Her father paused and furrowed his brow. “Sounds like I owe Jake a great debt of gratitude for keeping you safe.”

  Her heart twisted. “And I repaid him by defying the one request he made of me. The one thing I knew mattered most to him. Proving my trust.”

  “Proving?” Neil frowned. “Honey, why should you have to prove—?”

  “Paige Bancroft?” a nurse in green scrubs called to the waiting room, interrupting whatever her father had been prepared to say.