Beauty and the Bodyguard

by Lisa Childs

  Why had he ever been interested in her? It was no wonder she’d doubted his feelings. She couldn’t believe even now that he’d ever really wanted her.

  Richard claimed he did, that he wanted to be her husband, wanted to build a life with her. He’d anticipated that this day would be the first of the rest of their life together. And now the man who’d stolen her once from him was about to take her away again...

  Only for her own protection.

  But she wasn’t sure he would tell Richard that. She wasn’t sure what Gage would say to the other man. She only knew that she was the one who should tell Richard that she couldn’t marry him. “I need to get out of this dress,” she told Nikki.

  “I know,” the other woman replied. But even with the tool, the buttons weren’t opening easily.

  During the long moments Nikki struggled with the dress, Megan imagined Gage walking toward the groom’s dressing room. Now she didn’t worry about what he would say to Richard. She worried about what could happen to him before he got there. She worried that he would take on those gunmen alone.

  “No,” she said, as she jerked away from the other woman. “We’re wasting too much time.”

  “We still have a half hour before the wedding is supposed to start,” Nikki said.

  But Gage had already been gone too long, long enough for Megan to worry that he would never come back. She’d lived through that nightmare once. She didn’t want to live through it again.

  Panic filling her, constricting her lungs even more than the heavy dress, she rushed toward the door and pulled it open. And just like the last time she’d tried to leave, the barrel of a gun stopped her.

  Unlike last time, this barrel pushed into her abdomen. And she had no doubt that this woman, who stared at her with cold blue eyes, would pull the trigger and bore that hole right through her.

  Chapter 6

  Just as Nikki had remarked, the church was too empty for a wedding that was less than an hour away from beginning. Gage didn’t know much about weddings, but he knew that people usually liked to get to them early so they could get the good seats. As he passed through the vestibule, he noticed that some of those front pews were occupied by little gray-haired people.

  Older people were always early. It was the younger ones that weren’t on time. Like the Paynes. Where was Logan or Parker or Cooper? Or had any of them even been invited?

  They were Penny’s kids. Not Woodrow’s agents. Of all the Payne Protection bodyguards, only he and Nick had worked for the Bureau.

  What about the agents, though? Where were they? Woodrow would have invited them for certain. Sure, Dalton Reyes hated weddings. But Gage had heard that after finding a bride in a car trunk, the agent had gotten married himself, so he must have changed his mind.

  And what about Agents Campbell or Stryker or Bell? They were all close with Woodrow. They wouldn’t have missed his daughter’s wedding.

  But the only one Gage saw from the Bureau was the ass kisser. The young guy had been even more of a rookie than Gage. But he’d been desperate to get ahead and jealous that Gage had. He was the one who’d spread the lies that Gage was only dating Megan for a promotion.

  Because it didn’t matter how much ass Tucker Allison kissed, he would never make special agent. There was nothing special about him. He didn’t have the guts for the job. Or to help Gage and Woodrow take down the armed suspects.

  Where the hell were they? He hadn’t noticed any of them as he’d crossed the vestibule. But as he stepped through the doors at the back of the church, a man straightened away from the wall. He wore a suit that didn’t fit him well. Even as big as it was, it couldn’t conceal the bulge of a weapon.

  Acting oblivious, Gage forced a smile. “Hi. Bride’s side or groom’s side?”

  He’d like to know who the hell the guy was here for. But he had a sick feeling that he already knew. It had to be for the bride.

  But why? Because of Woodrow?

  Or because of him?

  Keeping the grin plastered on his face, he studied the stranger. The guy’s hair was nearly shaved, just stubble showing on his skull. He could have been military. But what army? And more importantly, what side?

  “Are you an usher?” the guy asked. His thin lips curved into a faint, mocking grin. “I thought you were the best man.”

  Did he know Gage? And how? Had they met on opposite sides of the law or a battlefield?

  He could have been a supporter of the group that had taken him. He and the other gunmen could have been determined to carry out what the others had begun. For some reason his captors had thought he’d had information they’d wanted. But no matter how badly they’d tortured him, he hadn’t been able to tell them what they’d wanted to learn.

  That didn’t mean they’d given up, though. He resisted the urge to reach for his weapon and drop the guy. For one, he didn’t know if he would be fast enough, and for two, he didn’t know where the other armed people were.

  “It’s a small wedding,” Gage replied. “We’re all pulling double duty.”

  The guy nodded as if he believed him. But he doubted he’d taken him at his word any more than his captors had.

  “So which side?” he asked again. “Bride or groom?”

  He shrugged. “I’m the plus one, just waiting for my wife. She went to the restroom.”

  With her big purse with her heavy gun inside? Gage hoped like hell that was really where she was. The guy had answered easily, as if he were speaking the truth.

  Some people believed their own lies. Like the little FBI agent who nervously glanced back at him...

  Tucker had believed the lies he’d spread. Maybe that was why Megan had believed them so easily as well.

  But if she’d trusted Gage, if she’d loved him like she’d once claimed she had, she never would have doubted him. Like Gage doubted this guy.

  “Well, I hope your wife returns quickly,” Gage said. “The wedding will be starting soon.”

  The guy arched a brow as if skeptical of Gage’s claim. “Really?” he mused. “I’ve never known a wedding to start on time. Usually brides take longer to get ready than they plan for, especially if they’re nervous.”

  How did this guy know that Megan was nervous? Because he was giving her every reason to be?

  “You must have never attended a wedding here,” Gage said. “Mrs. Payne’s events always start on time. She has a way of quelling every fear of even the most nervous bride.” Or at least that was what he’d been told. But knowing Penny, he didn’t doubt it.

  It was clear she had her doubts, though. She and Woodrow stepped into the vestibule from the basement stairwell. His arm was around her waist, as if he’d had to help her up the steps. But her body was stiff—not trembling—and she pulled away from him. Penny was proud and tough. She had raised her kids alone and had survived her fears over all their brushes with death.

  And he knew they’d had many just since he’d met them.

  “Well, if you won’t let me usher you to a seat, I better assume my best man duties and check on the groom,” Gage said.

  “That’s who should be nervous,” the man remarked beneath his breath.

  Gage turned back. “What? Why would you say that?”

  The guy shrugged again, and a small, mocking grin curved his thin lips. Gage didn’t recognize the man but he recognized the look: condescension. Like he thought Gage was an idiot because he didn’t know what he knew.

  What the hell did he know?

  The guy shrugged again. “In my experience the guy always has more reason to be nervous when he’s getting married, especially when the best man keeps going into the bride’s dressing room.”

  Innuendo joined the condescension now. The man’s dark eyes gleamed.

  Anger coursed through Gage, making him tense. He didn’t give a damn that the guy was armed and had armed friends. He stepped closer to him.

  But then a small hand gripped his forearm. “Gage, you need to make sure Richard is ready. The c
eremony will be starting soon.”

  His stomach lurched at the thought of that actually happening, of Megan actually marrying her old boyfriend. But Richard wasn’t her old boyfriend anymore.

  Gage was.

  He stepped back and turned to Penny, who was smiling at him. But unlike all the times she had before, the smile didn’t warm her brown eyes, didn’t dispel the fear widening them.

  “Hurry up,” she urged him.

  But then his stomach lurched for another reason, at the thought of leaving her alone with an obviously dangerous man.

  “Go,” she said and her tone brooked no argument. She was stubborn.

  And he knew better than to argue with a stubborn woman. Annalise—his sister—had taught him that. So he turned and headed down the aisle toward the front of the church. The groom’s dressing room was behind the altar. Sun shone through the stained glass windows, sending a kaleidoscope of colors dancing around the room with its sparkling marble floor and whitewashed oak pews.

  It really was a beautiful chapel—a beautiful venue for a wedding. Too bad there would be no wedding today. He only hoped there would be no funeral, either.

  * * *

  Penny lifted her chin and stared into the stranger’s cold eyes. She was good at pretending to be brave when she was actually quavering with fear. When her husband had died in the line of duty, she’d had to pretend to her kids that she was fine, that she wasn’t scared of raising them alone. That she had everything under control when she’d actually had no idea how she was going to manage.

  “Well, you’re obviously the one running the show,” the man replied.

  She wished that were true—then her daughter wouldn’t be intent on using herself as a decoy. And her bride would be marrying the man she really loved, the one who was so stubborn he was probably going to get himself killed. That was why she’d intervened. She’d seen the anger course through Gage. She’d worried that he was about to lose more than his temper.

  She tilted her head. “Show?”

  He gestured around the chapel. “The wedding. This is your place, right? You’re Penny Payne.”

  She held out her hand, proud when it didn’t tremble. “Nice to meet you...?”

  “D,” he said. “Everyone just calls me D.”

  “The initial?”

  He nodded.

  It could have been for his last name. Or his first...

  “Are you here for the groom or the bride?” she asked.

  His mouth curved. “Everyone keeps asking me that.”

  And he obviously had yet to give an answer.

  “And what is your response?” she asked.

  His grin widened. “I’m here for my wife.”

  She glanced around. “Where is she?”

  “Powder room,” he said. “She wanted to touch up her makeup. Hope she doesn’t outshine the bride.”

  Penny doubted that was the threat this man and his wife posed to the bride. But they definitely posed a threat—to everyone in Penny’s chapel. No, she had never been more afraid than she was now.

  But she smiled. “Well, it was nice meeting you, D. I have quite a few details to see to before the ceremony begins. I hope you and your wife enjoy it.”

  He smiled back at her. “I certainly plan on it. Now as for my wife... I can’t imagine what could be keeping her...”

  * * *

  “What do you want?” Megan asked. She doubted it was to protect her, as Nikki had professed when she had walked into the bride’s dressing room with a gun in her hand.

  Nikki obviously didn’t know her. She didn’t greet her at all, but just quietly studied her.

  The woman tossed her long black hair over her shoulder and smiled. “Just wanted to give the bride my best regards.”

  What was that? A euphemism for a bullet? The way she pointed the gun at Megan certainly implied as much. She swallowed down a lump of fear as the woman stepped even closer and pulled the door closed behind her, trapping Megan and Nikki inside with her.

  Nikki was armed, too, though she hadn’t drawn her gun. She’d had no time to react because Megan had been the stupid one—the one who’d opened the door without checking to see what danger might be lurking on the other side.

  “I don’t know you,” Megan said. “And I don’t know why you have that gun. Who are you?”

  The woman uttered a pitying sigh. “That is a problem when you have a big wedding. You have no way of knowing all your guests. You don’t know who the groom has invited.”

  “Richard invited you?” she asked. She doubted that. Richard had invited very few people to the wedding. An only child of only children who were now deceased, he had no family. And because he worked so much at his IT job, he had few friends, either.

  The woman continued as if Megan hadn’t spoken. “You probably have no way of knowing who all your own family invited. Friends or acquaintances of your parents.”

  Fear clutched Megan’s stomach. This was about her father. He was out there in the chapel somewhere. Hopefully, Gage was with him, protecting him.

  “It’s much better to marry like I did,” the woman said. “It was just me and my husband. The only two people who really matter in a marriage.”

  Megan nodded in agreement. “That’s true. You’re right. I didn’t want this wedding.”

  She didn’t want this marriage.

  “The chapel is beautiful,” the woman said, almost wistfully. She had claimed her wedding was better, but she wasn’t as convinced as she’d tried to make Megan. “The flowers.” She jabbed the gun into Megan’s bodice. “Your dress.” Her dark eyes narrowed as she studied it. “Your dress...”

  That damn dress. Megan wanted it off. Despite the few buttons Nikki had freed, it was still too tight—too constricting, too heavy...

  “It’s a mistake,” Megan said.

  “The dress?”

  “The wedding,” she said. “You didn’t need to come in here with the gun to stop it. I have no intention of getting married.”

  The woman’s face paled, and she emitted a nervous laugh. “Oh, no, stopping the wedding is not my intention at all.”

  “Then why the gun?” Nikki finally spoke, repeating Megan’s earlier question that the woman had already ignored.

  The woman glanced down at the barrel as if she hadn’t realized she held it. “This isn’t to stop the wedding,” she said. “This is to make certain that the wedding goes exactly as planned.”

  Megan shook her head. “No.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Nikki said. “You and your gun are disrupting the wedding, not making it come off smoothly at all.”

  The woman snorted. “She just admitted she has no intention of going through with it.”

  Megan silently cursed her admission. She’d just assumed the woman intended to stop the wedding. That was why she’d admitted she had no intention of getting married.

  “You couldn’t have known that,” Nikki prodded her. “Unless...” She glanced around the room as if looking for cameras.

  When they’d hidden the cell jammer, they might have planted a camera, as well. It made sense, or as much sense as any of this did.

  “The man who keeps traipsing in and out of this room,” the woman said, “is not the groom.”

  “Do you know Richard?” Megan persisted. Or was it Gage she knew?

  “I know you are to marry your groom today,” the woman said. “And you’re not going to let any other man dissuade you from doing that.”

  Megan’s brow furrowed. “Gage isn’t trying to dissuade me.”

  Disbelieving, the woman snorted again. “A man like that...” She emitted a lustful sigh. “He doesn’t have to do anything to distract a woman.”

  “He’s not distracting me,” Megan said. But for the first time she lied to the woman. She realized now it was what she should have done in the first place. Honesty had only put her in more danger.

  She’d only really lied once in her life, and that had had horrible consequences. Ga
ge had quit his job and reenlisted because of it.

  So Megan had vowed she wouldn’t lie anymore. She saw now that had been a mistake, though.

  “Then why were you chasing after him?” the woman asked.

  Sticking with the lying, Megan protested, “I wasn’t!”

  The woman struck her—thankfully not with the gun—but with the palm of her hand. Megan’s cheek stung, and her eyes teared at the pain.

  “Don’t lie to me!” the woman said. “That’s what you were doing when you opened the door.”

  And that must have been why she’d drawn the gun. She hadn’t wanted Megan to leave the bride’s dressing room unless she was heading down the aisle.

  “You really want this wedding to take place,” she mused in confusion. What the hell could this stranger hope to gain from Megan’s marriage?

  “It will,” the woman replied, her dark eyes wild with a determination so fierce it almost appeared to be madness. “Or you will die right here.”

  And Megan realized that maybe she would rather die than marry a man she didn’t love, whom she would never be able to love because another man had already claimed her heart.

  Chapter 7

  Gage glanced to the back of the church to reassure himself that Penny Payne wasn’t in any danger. She’d slipped away from the gunman. And he had let her leave.

  The man stared back at Gage, then slowly, mockingly nodded his head. Who the hell was he?

  Gage should have taken him down. But it was too great a risk when he didn’t know where the other armed people had gone. Where was the guy’s date, really?

  Gage’s blood chilled and pumped heavily through his quickly beating heart.

  If Megan was in danger...

  Even though Nikki was with her, he shouldn’t have left her. But she’d wanted him to check on Richard. After the cryptic remark the guy in the back had made—and the mocking nod he’d just given him—Gage realized he needed to check in with the groom. He lifted his fist and pounded hard on the door behind the altar.