Beauty and the Bodyguard

by Lisa Childs

  But he wasn’t just big physically.

  It was his personality that was so big. His voice carried to the point where she’d been able to hear him above the other men gathered in the family room around her father’s enormous TV. She and Ellen had bought him that TV for Mother’s Day because he’d been both mother and father to them. She’d been invited to sit around that TV, too, but she’d been too shy to join the group of rowdy guys to whom her father had introduced her when she’d come home from a short and boring date with Richard.

  Gage Huxton was the rowdiest with his booming voice and his even louder laugh. Or maybe he was the one she heard because he was the one she’d thought the most handsome with his golden-blond hair and smoky green eyes.

  She’d never seen a more beautiful man. And, thanks to her father being bureau chief, she’d met some good-looking guys over the years. But they had never noticed her; they’d never sought her out like Gage had in the kitchen.

  “Do you need something?” she’d asked him. “More beer?” Her father had a bar in the family room, but the fridge was small. With that many guys, they had probably already emptied it.

  He’d shaken his head. “No.”

  “Food?” she’d asked.

  Her father was an excellent cook. He’d had to be, or they would have starved. But maybe he hadn’t made enough for the number of guys who’d showed up at their house.

  Gage had shaken his head again. And there’d been something in his eyes, a wicked glint that had had her pulse racing.

  “Then what do you need?” she’d asked.

  He’d stepped closer then, so close that he’d towered over her, until he’d leaned down. His mouth tantalizing close to hers, he’d murmured, “You...”

  She’d laughed at him then because she’d thought he was just trying to be funny. Because men like him, men that beautiful, were never interested in girls like her. Chubby girls with unmanageable hair.

  “I’m not kidding,” he’d told her.

  She’d laughed harder then, though it had sounded high-pitched and a little hysterical. “I have a boyfriend.”

  “Dump him.”

  “Why would I do that?” she’d asked.

  “Because of this...” And then he’d kissed her. For the very first time in her life she’d experienced real passion. Her flesh had heated. Her heart had pounded so hard and so fast. Other parts of her had reacted, too—like her nipples tightening. Like the pulse that beat in her core, throbbing as pressure built inside her.

  She’d never felt anything like it before. She’d felt it every time he’d kissed her or even looked at her. She’d felt it just moments ago when he’d kissed her.

  She had never had that passion with Richard, and she never would. No. She couldn’t marry him. This wedding was not going to happen.

  She had to tell him. Now. Before the wedding began...

  She lifted her arms and tried to reach the buttons behind her back. They were too small, though. Penny Payne had buttoned her up before the beautician had arrived. And even she had had to use some kind of tool, which she’d taken with her. Megan couldn’t get out of her dress alone. Of course Ellen still wasn’t there.

  Her sister was beyond late now. Maybe she didn’t intend to show up at all. She hadn’t agreed with Megan marrying Richard. A loving and biased older sister, Ellen was convinced that Megan could do better. She wasn’t a Richard fan. She had been a Gage fan.

  But they had thought Gage was dead...

  She cursed and gave up the struggle with her dress. It wasn’t as if seeing her in it would give her and Richard bad luck in their marriage. They weren’t getting married. She’d hoped to slip out of the room and across the church unnoticed. If she wasn’t wearing the huge dress Richard had designed and made for her, she wouldn’t have been noticed at all. People rarely looked at her. And no man had ever looked at her like Gage had.

  Her fingers trembled slightly as she reached for the knob and pulled open the door. And fear washed over her all over again.

  She wasn’t afraid of telling Richard she wasn’t going to marry him. She was afraid of the gun pointed at her—afraid that it might go off and bore a hole right through that wedding dress and through her.

  Of course she’d already had a hole inside her—where she’d lost her heart to Gage.

  Now she was about to lose her life...

  Chapter 3

  Once Gage had realized who the bride was, he hadn’t thought about the rest of what Penny Payne had said. He hadn’t believed then that the bride could be in any danger aside from making a mistake.

  She’d made her biggest mistake nearly a year ago. Or maybe it had been before that, when she’d let him kiss her that first time.

  Maybe that had been the mistake she’d made.

  Gage had nearly made one himself. He’d started to leave the church. Again.

  He’d started leaving once after he’d refused Penny’s assignment. But he hadn’t been able to walk past the bride’s dressing room without looking inside to see Megan. That had been a mistake, seeing her in that sparkling white gown.

  Now he couldn’t get the image out of his mind. He’d thought stepping outside would help him clear his head. But he’d been seeking not just fresh air but also an escape. Six months of captivity had made that his first instinct. He’d had no intention of going back inside, either. He’d endured enough torture. Watching Megan marry another man would have been him torturing himself.

  He couldn’t do it.

  But he couldn’t leave, either.

  Not when he noticed the guns.

  They were discreet with them. A man dressed like a waiter carried one in his duffel bag. Another man, dressed like a guest, carried one beneath the trench coat he wore over his suit. There was a woman, too, with a purse that was big and—from the bulge inside it—heavy.

  Heavily armed...

  After Gage had realized who the bride was, he’d thought Penny’s claim about her being in danger had just been a ploy, a manipulation, to enlist him as the bridal bodyguard. But Penny hadn’t been lying about Chief Woodrow Lynch. He had a lot of enemies, maybe even more than Gage.

  And if those enemies wanted to hurt him, they would go after his daughter. Megan was the one with whom Woodrow had always had the most special bond, and he was so protective of her. So if his enemies really wanted to get to him, they’d go after Megan.

  She wasn’t his only family at the church, though. A minivan pulled up front and parked between the catering van from which the armed waiter had stepped out, and the long black car from which the armed wedding guests had exited. The side door slid open, and three little blond girls tumbled out. They were dressed in miniature versions of Megan’s lacy white dress. The sunlight sparkled off the rhinestones, but they didn’t seem to shine quite as brightly as Megan’s.

  Megan sparkled. But it wasn’t just the dress. It was her eyes—those fathomless dark eyes—and her heart-shaped face.

  God, she was beautiful.

  She couldn’t see it herself, though. She had no idea what she actually looked like. Whenever she looked in the mirror, she still saw the chubby girl from her adolescent years with the bad complexion and glasses. Gage had only seen that girl in old photos. There was nothing of her left in Megan the woman.

  One of the little girls looked like Megan must have when she was chubby—with rosy, round cheeks. The little girl was cute. She was also heading toward the church, her sisters running after her. Gage didn’t want them any closer to the danger. He rushed down the stairs to head them off.

  “Wait, girls,” he said. “Wait for your parents.”

  “My aunt Meggie’s getting married,” one of the girls told him.

  No, she wasn’t. Now Gage had a reason to stop the wedding. He just hoped he had time. No way could he let Megan’s nieces get inside the church. “You have to wait out here,” he told them.

  The chubby one shook her head. “We’re late. Mommy made us late.”

  The man who st
epped from the driver’s side hurried after his daughters. “Don’t let them inside,” Gage warned him. “Get them down here.”

  While he’d dated Megan, he’d met her brother-in-law. With a headstrong wife like Ellen, Peter was used to doing as he was told. He corralled his kids while his wife came around the front of the van. Her eyes widened when she saw Gage, and a little scream slipped out between her lips.

  He hurried toward her. “Ellen, shh...”

  He didn’t want her drawing the attention of the armed arrivals. He also didn’t want her falling on her face, since she looked like death. Ellen was usually so vivacious, with rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes. Now she was paler than her light blond hair, and her eyes were dull. She swayed, and he caught her.

  “You look as bad as I do,” she murmured.

  “You should’ve seen me a few weeks ago,” he replied. He’d finally started to gain back some weight and muscle. And he’d managed to get some sleep.

  “We should’ve seen you the minute you got back,” she said. “You’re not dead.”

  “No.”

  “Does Megan know?”

  He nodded.

  “So I didn’t have to drag myself out of bed to attend a wedding that’s not going to happen...” She leaned heavily on the front of the van.

  “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

  “I thought it was the idea of my baby sister marrying that dweeb Richard that was nauseating me,” she replied. “Now I think it’s another pregnancy.” She shot a glare at her husband.

  Gage had no time for congratulations or diplomacy. “You need to leave,” he said.

  She sighed and admitted, “I would have liked to stay home. I fully intended to bail on my matron of honor duties. But Megan’s my only sister.”

  Ellen had always treated her more like her oldest child than her sibling, though.

  “She’s not getting married,” Gage assured her. “You can go back home. And take your family.”

  She shook her head. “They want cake. Even if there’s no wedding, there is already food here.” She gestured toward that catering van.

  Gage wasn’t so sure that they had brought anything other than weapons. He needed to find out. He also needed to call for backup bodyguards and police. But when he pulled his phone from the pocket, he found no signal. It would’ve been like Mrs. Payne to have some cell signal jammer so no ceremony would be interrupted in her church.

  “And if there is no wedding,” Ellen continued, “there will be explanations to make.” She narrowed her blue eyes and stared up at him. “What’s the reason the wedding is canceled, Gage?”

  He had no time for explanations, either. He just leaned closer and whispered, “Something’s going on, and you don’t want your family in the line of fire.”

  Her eyes widened now, and her face paled even more. “My family is already in the line of fire,” she said. “My dad and baby sister are already in the church.”

  Gage’s stomach lurched. He had to get them out—alive—before the gunmen made their move.

  If they hadn’t already...

  He had no time to drive far enough away that he could get a call out for backup. And he certainly had no time to wait for them to arrive. He had to get back into the church and make sure Megan wasn’t in danger.

  * * *

  Megan’s heart slammed against her ribs, and she backed up into the dressing room, trying to put distance between herself and the barrel of that gun. She raised her hands. “What do you want?”

  The woman holding the gun was dressed in a navy blue bridesmaid’s dress. But she wasn’t one of Megan’s bridesmaids. She had never seen the woman before, although with her curly auburn hair and brown eyes, she looked familiar.

  The gunwoman stepped inside the room and shut the door. As she did, she pointed her weapon toward that closed door.

  Megan didn’t breathe a sigh of relief that it was no longer directed at her. Her breath was stuck yet in her lungs, burning.

  “What do you want?” she asked the woman again. And why was she dressed like a bridesmaid? Megan didn’t have any besides her sister. She’d wanted to keep the wedding small, probably because she really hadn’t wanted one at all.

  “I want to protect you,” the young woman replied.

  “What are you?” Megan asked. “A bridesmaid or a bodyguard?”

  “Bodyguard,” she replied quickly and emphatically.

  “I already have one of those.” According to Gage, it was the only reason he was at the church. “And I don’t need that one.”

  The young woman shook her head and tumbled those auburn curls around her delicately featured face. “Yes, you do.”

  She did. But she wouldn’t admit it. She didn’t need Gage for protection, though. “I’m not in any danger.”

  “There are guys coming into the chapel concealing weapons.”

  Megan snorted. “My father is an FBI bureau chief. All of his agents were invited to the wedding. They don’t go anywhere without their guns.”

  They had all come armed to that Super Bowl party nearly two years ago.

  “I know your dad’s agents,” the woman replied. “These people aren’t them.”

  Megan’s blood chilled. “Then who are they?”

  The woman shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe people with a beef with your dad.”

  Megan bristled. “Why would anyone have a beef with my dad?” He was an honorable man—a fair man.

  The only person she could think who’d had a problem with him had been Gage when he’d quit the Bureau. But that hadn’t really been because of her father; that had been because of her.

  “He’s put away a lot of criminals,” the woman replied. “Any of them could want revenge.”

  “Of course...” Megan murmured, embarrassed that she’d been so naive. Of course there were criminals who wouldn’t appreciate how good her father was at his job. “But why here? Why now?”

  “Your wedding announcement was in the paper,” the pseudobridesmaid reminded her. “It provides a great opportunity for anyone looking for vengeance.”

  “But...”

  “Don’t worry,” the woman assured her. “I’ll protect you.”

  She was armed, but it sounded like the other people might have more weapons.

  “How are you going to do that?” Megan questioned her.

  The woman’s dark eyes narrowed, as if she thought Megan was questioning her abilities.

  “If none of those gunmen are my dad’s friends, then you’re outnumbered.” Even if Gage hadn’t left...

  “I have a plan,” the woman replied. “You need to take off that dress.”

  Megan couldn’t agree more.

  “No one can know that you’re the bride.”

  She wasn’t the bride, because she had no intention of getting married. “You’ll need to help me,” Megan said. “I can’t undo all the buttons.”

  The woman lifted the skirt of her own dress and slid her gun into a holster strapped to her thigh. “Turn around.” But she only fumbled for a few moments before cursing. “Damn it, I should have paid more attention when I’ve helped Mom out with weddings.”

  That was why she’d looked familiar. She was the spitting image of her mother. “You’re Penny Payne’s daughter.” Mrs. Payne had said that her sons were bodyguards. She hadn’t mentioned that her daughter was as well.

  “Nikki,” the young woman replied.

  “I’m Megan,” she said.

  “I know,” Nikki replied.

  She sounded like her mother—like a woman who knew everything except how to get Megan out of the heavy, constrictive wedding gown. She continued to fumble with the tiny buttons, but she only managed to undo a couple of them.

  “Cut it off me,” Megan urged her. She grabbed a pair of scissors that had been left on the vanity table.

  “That won’t work.”

  “Of course it will.” She didn’t even care if she got cut in the process. She just wanted it off. Now. And it h
ad nothing to do with fear of any suspiciously armed men. It had to do with fear of making a horrible mistake.

  Again.

  “I won’t be able to put it on if it’s ruined,” Nikki replied.

  “Why would you want to wear it?” She turned to face the woman.

  Nikki shuddered. “Not because I want to get married. I want to act as a decoy.”

  “For me?” Megan asked. “You won’t pass for me.” The other woman was beautiful.

  Nikki wrinkled her forehead. “Why not?” she asked. “We have the same coloring and build.”

  Megan shook her head. Her hair was darker, her body heavier. There was no way she looked like the beautiful bodyguard.

  “You’re a little curvier,” Nikki admitted. “But with how heavy this dress is, no one will notice.”

  Megan suspected plenty of people would notice. But she didn’t care as long as she wasn’t the one walking down the aisle. “No one will notice if you snip a few of those buttons off,” she said.

  “You really want out of this dress,” Nikki observed.

  “When you came in, I was just getting ready to cancel the wedding,” Megan said. “I can’t go through with it.”

  “Gage?”

  Nikki Payne might have been like her mother. Penny had pried out of Megan how much she’d loved another man—and how she’d lost that man when he’d gone missing in action and been presumed dead. But she’d lost Gage long before he’d been deployed again.

  “Where is he?” Megan wondered.

  He’d vowed to make sure no one would stop the wedding from taking place. If he’d noticed the men Nikki had noticed, he might have taken them on—alone. He might have put himself in danger—again.

  Nikki sighed. “I don’t know. But I could use his help. I left my phone in my mom’s office when she enlisted me as your maid of honor.”

  “Ellen canceled.” She wasn’t surprised. Her sister hadn’t wanted her to marry Richard.

  She had no other bridesmaids. She hadn’t wanted a big wedding; it was her father who’d convinced her to get married at Mrs. Payne’s little white wedding chapel.

  Nikki continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “So I couldn’t call for backup before I hurried in here to make sure you were safe. Do you have a phone?”