by Dawn Ryder
* * *
It was a thing of beauty.
The way things came together when a man was smart and patient. Ricky peeked through a door, loving the old church so much, he could have kissed the floor.
Oh, that wasn’t on account of any soft feelings he had for the spirituality of the place. No, it was because sound bounced between the stone walls, letting him hear every word of Bram Magnus’s as he planned his private wedding.
And the door … it was solid wood, maybe a century old if it was a day. Which meant the doorjamb was loose, giving him a slot to peek through.
Saxon Hale’s team was buried alright but there was one thing they’d overlooked, and that was how remote the location of their new nest was. With the help of the information Ricky had lifted from Brendon’s flight controller access and thus had been in the area, just waiting for some of Saxon’s men to cross his path. He’d known they were there by the number of flights landing at the small area airport.
Brendon was a prime resource. Ricky was sure glad he only had to fuck the guy to get what he wanted because that way, he could tap the source over and over anytime he needed to look at flight plans.
Now it was just a matter of blending in and waiting for Saxon’s men to emerge.
They might know a lot about blending in but Ricky knew a whole hell of a lot about what trained men looked like. There was a way they carried themselves, a certain walk, the jacket, even in warm weather, that hid chest harnesses. The way they kept their eyes moving.
Yeah, he knew it because he behaved the same way.
A wedding.
It was going to be the perfect place to take them all out.
Perfect.
* * *
Damascus Ryland Hale looked up as Colonel Magnus came into her office. He wasn’t in his uniform, which raised questions galore in her mind.
“Sir?”
She’d worked with the colonel long enough to know he’d get straight to the point of whatever had sent him looking for her.
“Pack a bag,” he said with a jovialness she wasn’t accustomed to hearing from her commanding officer in the classified lab she worked in.
Not that it was a complaint. She loved her job. Totally adored it. In fact, she’d gone to great lengths to hide her connection with the colonel until it was too late for her father to stop her.
Her father had plans for her that included a political marriage to enhance his own career.
“We’re heading upstate, I told your husband I’d escort you this time,” Colonel Magnus explained. “Bring a dress, seems we have a wedding to attend.”
Damascus slowly smiled. The colonel offered her a raised eyebrow. “I think that smile is more for the fact that you’re going to get to see that husband of yours.”
Damascus shrugged as she signed off and locked her computer system. “The wedding will be great, too.” The colonel grunted, making it her turn to send him a questioning look. “Aren’t you happy to see your son tying the knot?”
“Truth is,” the colonel said, offering her a rare explanation, “I’m beginning to think Hale is some sort of pied piper. Both my kids seem to have fallen under the spell of his team members.”
“It’s a good place to be,” Damascus offered as she moved through a doorway into a passageway toward her quarters. She had to use her keycard to open secure airlock doors that were designed to keep the deadly diseases she worked with contained in the lab if there was ever a containment breach.
Her job was just as dangerous as her husband’s, just on a different level. She dodged germs while Vitus dealt with bullets.
The colonel followed her. Damascus didn’t let it bother her. She’d known the price of working in the lab was that personal freedom was limited. Not that Magnus abused his authority. He had the right to enter her quarters anytime he felt there might be a security risk. To date, this was his first visit.
“Can I invite my mother?”
The colonel was standing in the living room while Damascus rummaged through her closet.
“I imagine the congresswoman hopeful will enjoy a break from the press hounds. It will be a nice, private event.”
Damascus sent him a smile before she picked up her cell phone and typed something. She pushed the send button before tossing it toward Magnus.
“You’ll have to tell her where we’re going.”
It was a little bit funny, the fact that she didn’t know where her husband lived. Or maybe where he worked was a better way to put it. Not that it truly bothered her. Vitus would find her. Just as he had when she’d been kidnapped years ago. Once a SEAL, always a SEAL. It was a tad unconventional but she admitted it gave her a little tickle to think about him emerging from the shadows to surprise her.
Damascus zipped up her bag and joined the colonel. “So, am I going to meet the infamous Harley? Maybe Bram’s fiancée has a parrot.”
“Are you going to get around to telling me you’re pregnant?”
Colonel Magnus could always be counted on to make sure everyone knew he held all the information cards. Especially when she was letting it slip that Vitus had told her about the colonel’s pet parrot.
“I just assumed you already knew … sir.” She offered him a soft shrug. “I did take the test in the medical office. It’s your command … right?”
He offered her a soft scoffing sound before he was lifting her bag off her shoulder.
“Yes, you will meet Harley and I’m going to shoot Bram if he has somehow found a woman with a female parrot because the last thing I need are offspring from my baby bird. He’s enough of a handful.”
* * *
“You appear to have received some good news.”
Dunn Bateson was a recluse. Miranda Delacroix wasn’t surprised to find him all but hidden among the shrubbery at the afternoon reception she was attending. Her security escort was, though. She gave the man a quick wave of her hand to send him away.
“Replace him,” Dunn instructed. “If I’d been set on killing you, it would be done.”
“We’re not someplace where that sort of thing could happen.”
Dunn wasn’t backing down. He sent her an even stare. “Your father used to look at me just that same way.”
Miranda nodded and drew in a deep breath. She regained her poise and smiled. “I did receive good news. It seems there is a family wedding this week. My daughter will be there and maybe even my son might make it.”
Dunn didn’t react. He swept the people around them, the Washington crowd of hopefuls. Miranda was running for Congress and set to sweep the votes. The fact that she was going to claim her late husband’s seat was just a personal little victory that very few people understood.
Dunn was one of them.
She was his mother. The woman who had been forced to give him up so her family could use her to further their political ambitions. His father hadn’t been their choice for their daughter. And they had threatened to destroy his father if she didn’t return to the fold.
But she’d risked her own good name to ensure he was born when it would have gone so much easier for her if she’d allowed him never to be born.
For that reason he was devoted to her.
It was the only reason he was seen so much lately. He’d turned out to support her and her causes.
“I hope you get to see your son,” he said at last.
Dunn reached out and shook her hand. She passed a small piece of paper to him and smiled as she walked off to finish with the afternoon’s festivities.
Dunn waited until he was inside his car before looking at the address she’d slipped to him. He had countless tasks waiting for him, but nothing was more important than family. And the opportunity to freely acknowledge his mother was very rare.
He stroked the screen of his phone. A tap and his assistant came on the line.
“Cancel my appointments for the week. I’ll be out of touch.”
* * *
Ricky snickered.
In fact, he was starting to turn pu
rple from holding his breath as he clamped his lips together tightly to keep from laughing like a lunatic.
It was just getting better and better …
Saxon Hale. Vitus Hale. Dare Servant. Thais Sinclair.
And now, the family was coming together for a wedding. Lady luck was paying up with interest.
That got him thinking. There was really only one thing he liked better than getting the jump on someone who had bested him.
Money.
The kind of cash that could see him living in style for the rest of his days.
Hell, that was the only reason he’d taken the job from Tyler Martin in the first place.
The guy had funds.
Of course, men in high public office didn’t get there by playing nice and they all needed someone to mop up their messes. Voters had such a bleached-out vision of the people they elected. Personally, he had no qualms about covering shit up because he felt if someone was going to be stupid enough to let men like Carl Davis pull the wool over their eyes, well, they deserved what they got.
It wasn’t his job to pop their fantasy bubbles.
But it was Tyler Martin’s job to blow those spheres where make-believe men served with valor and honor and never boned their secretaries.
Ha! All a bloke had to do was look at the secretaries heading into the Capitol Building in the morning to see what prime grade of ass they were. That was where the truth hit the pavement and anyone could see it.
That brought him back to Tyler Martin.
Carl Davis paid him to keep blowing happiness bullshit bubbles.
Bubbles that Saxon Hale’s team had the evidence to pop.
He reached over and tapped a number into his cell phone. His memory was razor sharp, always had been when it came to details and numbers. The line buzzed a couple of times.
“Who is this?” Tyler Martin asked.
“Someone you thought you buried.” Ricky let his Irish out. “I think you forgot just how much help I can be to you. That’s the only reason I can think of for you leaving me down south to rot.”
“You assume I was never coming back for you.”
Ricky grinned. He’d hand it to Tyler, the guy didn’t let a fleck of emotion into his tone. Which was good, because it was going to allow Ricky the chance to roll the dice and make a grab for some of the cash Carl Davis was investing in his run for the White House.
“No need now,” Ricky offered smoothly. “In fact, I’ve got a bit of something interesting happening right in front of my eyes. It’s the sort of thing I think you’d be interested in.”
“What might that be?”
“I know where Saxon Hale and his team are.”
There was a long pause. “How much?”
“Depends on what you want done.”
“I’ll be in touch.” Tyler said before the line went dead.
* * *
Jaelyn gently ran her finger across the registry book where her grandparents’ names were signed.
“Wow…” she whispered, conscience of how sound traveled through the stone church. But she was in a back room, a refectory where the book was kept. There were four of them, one each for baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and funerals.
“I hope you understand why it has to be a small, private ceremony.” Bram came up behind her, lightly resting his hand on her hip.
“It’s going to be a privilege to sign this book,” she said. “And the only people who are important in my life will be here. One of the realities of working contracts from a home office. I really don’t have a lot of social contacts.”
“You gave up your social life to take care of Milton,” Bram said as he rubbed her back. “He knows it, too.”
Jaelyn smiled and fluttered her eyelashes. “Grandpa and I have a system.”
Bram snorted. “Okay. Copy that. I won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.”
“You’re so smart.”
Bram had backed away with his hands up in surrender. His lips curled in a very smug grin. “Smart enough to get you into town to buy a ring before you change your mind.”
“Grandma left me her band,” Jaelyn said as she followed him and let him wrap his arms around her. “I know Grandpa would have put it in his travel bag. So I just need a dress.”
She’d surprised him. Jaelyn enjoyed watching it flash through his eyes, felt the way his arms tightened around her.
Happy endings actually happened.
Even to someone like her.
* * *
“Tell me your price for dealing with Hale’s team.”
Ricky grinned, enjoying the sound of Tyler Martin’s voice.
“Make a transfer and I’ll call you back if it isn’t enough.”
There was a pause. “Fine. I want them dead. All of them.”
“I’ll need a passport, too,” Ricky continued. “Planning to retire, back to the home country.”
“I’ll deal with that,” Tyler said. “Just make sure you get them all. The deal is off if you fail.”
* * *
Carl Davis finished waving to the press and ducked inside the open door of the jet he was using to fly on to his next campaign stop. Tyler made sure the door was shut before he headed into an office to make the transfer.
He didn’t blink over the amount or the fact that he’d never be able to retrieve the money.
Saxon and Vitus Hale knew too much.
“Where is that going?”
Carl was in the doorway. He was smart, Tyler would give him that. He stepped further inside so that the door could close.
“My man has located Saxon Hale’s new nest.”
Carl’s face lit. “And you’re … doing what?”
Tyler finished typing in his passcodes and the account information lit the screen. “I’m going to clean up the mess.”
Carl was looking at the screen and the amount Tyler typed in. “I thought you advised me to keep my eye on the big picture.”
“Don’t get cheap on me,” Tyler advised. “The Hale brothers know too much about you. Add in the fact that Bram Magnus is there, getting married, and I bet we might be able to deal with Colonel Magnus as well.”
Carl’s eyes glowed with anticipation. Tyler hovered over the enter key for a moment. Carl nodded.
“Oversee the operation personally, Ty,” Carl said. “I don’t want anyone else involved.”
“It will be my pleasure.”
And it would be. Carl was ahead in the polls and everything Tyler had sacrificed for was about to come to fruition. He would be Carl Davis’s head security man.
It was best to tie up any loose ends and Saxon Hale’s team was a mighty big one. Tyler pushed a button on his phone.
“Tell the pilot to hold off on liftoff. I’m disembarking.”
* * *
“Jeanie would be real happy to see you choosing that ring.”
Milton’s eyes were glossy with unshed tears. He started to work his own band loose but Bram stopped him.
“I can’t accept that, sir,” he said. “Truth is, I feel like I’m cheating somehow by not buying Jaelyn her own ring.”
The ring came free with a pop. “They went up to that church together the first time, so they’re returning there the same way, son.”
Milton held out the ring but Bram hesitated.
Milton set his wedding band down on the table with a firm look. “I should have taken it off years ago. I’d be proud to see you wear it.”
He winked at Jaelyn and went straight for the coffee.
“Well…” Ginger Hale emerged from the bedroom. “As long as you’re happy with vintage…”
There was a rustle of fabric as she lifted up a dress and laid it out on the dining room table.
Bram choked.
Making Ginger chuckle. “You bet I saved it, Magnus, and you have no idea how hard it was to get a hold of someone in Dunn Bateson’s employ who would go retrieve it from that cabin. But it was my wedding dress after all.”
The dress had a flared-
out skirt that would fall just past her knees and a crossover top that would give a great view of her cleavage. It all came together in a tight little waist.
“Try it on,” Ginger encouraged before she looked toward Bram. “Bye.”
Bram rolled his eyes before heading toward the door. Ginger grinned. “Now we can have girl time.”
Such an innocent statement for so important a subject. Jaelyn discovered herself drifting into a surreal state.
Was she looking down the barrel of a loaded gun that would go off in her face?
Ha! That sums up your entire relationship with Bram …
It did, which just made it so simple to keep moving toward the moment when she would marry Bram Magnus.
There were butterflies in her stomach and she realized the sensation was part of the punch the moment should deliver.
The size of the ceremony didn’t matter, the dress Ginger offered was great. The fact that it was going to be a Wednesday wedding day only meant she didn’t have to wait until Sunday to know Bram was hers.
Ginger made a low sound of admiration as she zipped the dress up.
“Now that will turn some heads.”
But the only thing Jaelyn found herself longing for was for Bram to return her love.
* * *
“Are you sure you don’t want your own ring?” Bram was leaning against the boulder fence, waiting for her. “You’re having to compromise on everything.”
“Not everything.” She came closer and laid her hand on his chest. “You are perfect, Mr. Bram Magnus.”
He liked what she said. Jaelyn watched enjoyment flash through his eyes.
“Honestly.” She pulled the rings out of the little zippered pocket in her sweatshirt that she’d placed them in and looked at them. “I feel like I need at least a decade before I even start coming close to living up to the challenge of these rings.” She looked up, locking gazes with him. “My grandparents were devoted to each other. I feel like I’m still trying to understand what makes that sort of lifelong relationship.”
“And yet you’re marrying me.”
She shrugged. “I can’t help myself.”
He nodded slowly. Something moved between them, something deep and so strong, it sent tears into her eyes. She was more exposed in that moment than she’d ever been in her life, more open to having her heart smashed, and absolutely certain she would die if he didn’t return her feelings.