The Undercover Bridesmaid

by Kimberley Montpetit

  Chloe obliged, but it hurt. A second later terrible pain wracked her lungs, and she coughed and coughed. Water dribbled out between her lips, and she grabbed for a wad of tissues. “Oh my gosh, that was awful.”

  “I’m glad it’s coming up naturally, but I think we should do an X-ray to be on the safe side. I need to get a doctor’s order. Dr. Abbott will be in shortly to check you out. He’s in the next room. He just got done with his residency, so he looks like a baby.” Serena winked and Chloe gave a weak smile.

  At that moment, her mother and father parted the curtains. “Oh, darling, there you are,” Diana Romano said. She gave Chloe a gentle hug and smoothed the damp hair off her forehead to gaze into her face. “You’re looking better already.”

  Her father took her hand and kissed the back of it. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”

  “X-rays coming up, I think. But I’m better than I was. My sight and hearing are beginning to clear, but it’s very strange.”

  “All that water,” her mother said, biting at pale lips, her lipstick eaten off.

  “What time is it?”

  “Going on midnight now,” Governor Romano said.

  “I just want some aspirin and my pillow,” Chloe said. “How’s Mercedes? I’m letting her down.” Most importantly, she wasn’t there to keep watch over the diamonds in the safe. Uncle Max had probably already returned the earrings to the safe. At least he was there keeping watch. And Liam, too. If he hadn’t already left for his hotel.

  “Mercedes is perfectly fine now that Mark is with her. He has a calming influence, which is nice to see. Everybody is just worried about you and send their love and prayers for a speedy recovery. It was just a terrible accident.”

  “Did they ever figure out what was wrong with the power at the house?”

  “Not yet, hopefully soon. Right now, there are candles and oil lamps all over the place so folks can get around the house.”

  A great weariness overtook her, and Chloe lay back against the pillows just as Dr. Abbott walked through the door.

  “Hello, young lady. I hear you came straight from a wedding. Where’s your groom?”

  “I’m not getting married, I’m just the bridesmaid.”

  “We’re going to wheel you down to X-ray to get more information on what’s happening with your lungs so you don’t get pneumonia.”

  “I hadn’t even thought about that,” Diana Romano said, a note of concern in her voice.

  “How much does your chest hurt?” the doctor asked.

  “A lot before I came in, but it’s getting better.”

  “Good, good, that’s what we want to see. Improvement every hour. Coughing very much?”

  “Only a little now.”

  “I hear you had a certified person there who performed CPR, is that right?”

  Chloe nodded, lifting a finger to run it across her lips when she remembered Liam’s mouth on hers. At first, when she returned to consciousness, she had thought he was kissing her and pushed him away. How brazen of him. Had she really been unconscious? The idea of losing minutes of her life was so bizarre.

  She tried to imagine the three of them, Liam, Carter, and Brett, all jumping into the pool to rescue her. Obviously, Liam got to her first. She had no clue as to where he’d been when she was dancing with Brett. She’d been so focused on the best man and their flirtatious banter.

  Liam’s instincts as an FBI agent must have automatically kicked in. The lights had gone out, he heard the splash, and acted instinctively. Now that she was more coherent and out of her wet clothes, she remembered that his tie had been torn off, his suit coat thrown to the ground. She pictured him diving in, lifting her into his arms, kicking back to the surface, and then laying her at the edge of the pool steps.

  She must be the weirdest girl in the world to be thinking about Liam’s mouth on hers while she nearly died. She had despised Liam Esposito for the misery he’d caused her the last year, and yet he’d immediately jumped into a dark pool to save her, risking his own safety.

  He’d insisted there was more to the story of Jenna’s death than she’d assumed, but she’d refused to listen to him. What other truths could there possibly be? He’d deserted Jenna when she was unconscious, leaving her to die in that horrible, evil house amid the debris of a bomb.

  Once more Chloe cursed Agent Esposito and banished him from her thoughts. She wouldn’t succumb to any Nightingale Effect toward Liam.

  Dr. Abbott returned, clipboard in hand. “We’re going to take your daughter to X-ray now, Mr. and Mrs. Romano. Then we’re going to settle her into a room, take her vitals every two hours, and monitor the chest pain and cough. Then we’ll discuss where she is in the morning and talk about when she can be released.”

  Worry creased her mother’s face. “Should I stay with you tonight, darling?”

  Chloe weakly shook her head. “Go home, Mom. I’m exhausted and I’ll be fine. I’m going to bribe Dr. Abbott for some sleeping meds.”

  Her father bent down to kiss her cheek. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “We have a wedding and I’m a professional, you know,” she said, cracking a smile. “Besides, my cousin deserves her bridesmaid.”

  “Only if you’re well and can be released,” Governor Romano said. “I’ll be telephoning the doctor in the morning.”

  “Please ask for my colleague, Dr. Gaspar,” Doctor Abbott advised. “I’m off duty at six a.m., but I promise that Chloe will be in excellent hands.”

  Her parents hugged her once more before they departed, her mother blowing kisses from the doorway. Then Serena, her nurse, wheeled her down to the X-ray room. They took pictures from every angle, front and back, which seemed like overkill, but Chloe succumbed just so she could finally go to sleep.

  Which she did after Dr. Abbott told her the test results. “Despite the residue of water, it looks like your lungs are clearing up. We’re giving you an antibiotic for ten days and a prescription for lots of rest. See your primary care physician for a checkup when you get back to South Carolina. We’ll be sending a report, too, so they’ll have a record of everything we did tonight for you.”

  Chloe nodded and within a few minutes, she was taken to her own room, given a sleeping aid, and dropped into sleep—until her cell phone rang.

  The caller ID read Liam Esposito. “What are you doing calling me at one-thirty in the morning, Esposito?” she demanded weakly.

  “I couldn’t sleep until I talked to you. What do the doctors say? How are you feeling?”

  “X-rays show fluid is clearing. Antibiotic. Checkup with my doctor back home. That’s my report, Agent. Anything else?”

  “Come on, Chloe. You know I care about you. You scared the heck out of me tonight. I thought I was going to lose you.”

  “Liam, I’m not yours to lose,” she said quietly. “I have no idea what gave you any idea that I was.”

  “Seeing you with that—Brett what’s-his-name—drove me crazy. You drive me crazy. We argue, we fight. You’re impossible; you won’t let me talk to you—and all I want to do is be with you.”

  Chloe stared at the phone. What in the world was this man saying to her? “Have you been drinking?”

  “Stone-cold sober, Chloe Romano.”

  “I hadn’t seen you in ages until a week ago,” Chloe told him. “I can’t forgive you for Jenna.”

  “I know. But you owe me fifteen minutes to tell you the truth.”

  “I’ll think about it, but I can’t promise anything else. I have a wedding tomorrow. And some very important gemstones to worry about.” She let out a cry of frustration when she thought about the diamonds. “Darn it, Liam, what’s happening over there?”

  “I had to take Max Romano aside and confide in him who I was. Showed him my badge. Your father also vouched for me. Your uncle brought the earrings down to the safe, and we locked them up together. As far as I could tell, nothing was out of place in the office or the safe.”

  Chloe shook her head, her brain spinning.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Yup. Same thing you’re thinking. The power outage.”

  “It wasn’t an accidental outage,” Chloe said quietly into the phone.

  “Doesn’t look like it. The power company said that the Romano house was the only home affected. The breaker box looked intact, no switches shorted out.”

  “What if there was someone in the house while we were all outside by the pool? Are you sure all the diamonds were in the safe when Uncle Max opened it?”

  “All there and accounted for, although I need you back tomorrow to verify the authenticity. A crew from the power company will arrive at daylight to check into it more thoroughly. Meanwhile, the kitchen staff had boxes of candles for everyone, plus a few lamps placed strategically about the house. But hey, it’ll be dawn in about five hours.”

  “Is Mercedes going out of her mind?”

  Liam chuckled. “She had a bit of a meltdown after the ambulance carried you away. She’s frantic about you and frantic that there may not be any electricity for the wedding tomorrow evening.”

  “Never had a power outage at one of my weddings before. This is a first.”

  “Right now,” Liam said softly, “you need to focus on getting better and not having any lasting side effects that might weaken your lungs in the future.”

  “Call me the minute you hear from the power company in the morning. Can you check the diamonds once more? I know you weren’t trained on them and you probably wouldn’t understand my diagrams, but it would be nice to know that all the pieces are accounted for.”

  “They’re accounted for, I promise. Besides,” Liam joked, his tone teasing her, “I’m not married or engaged, so how would I know anything about diamonds?”

  “Very funny, Agent Esposito. I’ll bet you have a new girlfriend every month.”

  “Chloe,” Liam said quietly. “I’m not a player and you know it.”

  “Actually, I don’t really know you anymore. Where are you sleeping tonight?”

  “Why? Do you want me to come to the hospital? I can be there in five minutes.”

  “Of course not.” Chloe glared at the phone even though she knew Liam couldn’t see her facial expression. “Ask Uncle Max if you can sleep on the floor in his office. You can deck anybody who tries to break in during the blackout.”

  “Already got my sleeping bag and air mattress set up. In fact, that’s where I’m calling you from. Just lying here on my pillow, missing you.”

  “Knock it off, Agent,” Chloe growled. “I’ll be home first thing in the morning to do a thorough inspection.”

  “Not if the nurses tie you to your bed.”

  “Believe me, I’ll break out of here. Besides …” Chloe paused, her thoughts running away with her again. “I—Liam—something strange happened in that pool. I swear that at the moment I was trying to swim to the surface, somebody pushed me back down. I was panicking, about to pass out, but I know I felt someone’s hand on top of my head pushing hard. Like how kids dunk each other horsing around. But it was so confusing, I couldn’t tell which way was up or down.”

  “I think you answered your own question.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were confused. You were panicking. It was dark. I’m sure your dress, your shoes, were dragging you under, hindering your ability to swim upward. Compound that with total darkness and vertigo and you have a perfect tragedy waiting to happen.”

  A rush of horror moved down Chloe’s neck. Even now, she could feel the imprint of someone’s hand pushing at her while she sucked in water. Could she really have just imagined it in her panic?

  But who would want to hurt her? To drown her? Everyone there tonight was family. Unless the diamond thief had been among them tonight and knew that she had been placed there by the FBI—and was trying to get rid of her.

  “Were you right all along, Liam? Is it Mark? Or his brother, Gary?”

  “We’ve been investigating, but know nothing for certain. At this point, we can’t do anything unless something happens to the diamonds. Then we get a search warrant for all the guests and their rooms.”

  “By then, the diamonds will be long gone.”

  “There’s nothing you can do about it tonight,” Liam finally said. “Put it out of your mind and sleep. I need you better. For me—for both our sakes.”

  Chloe let out another cough and then yawned loudly, her brain fuzzy with exhaustion.

  “See? Those sleeping pills are working. Good night, Chloe.”

  Chapter 17

  Clutching her X-ray results and a copy of her chart, Chloe dragged herself out of bed the next morning and rang for the nurse. She felt like she’d been hit by a Mack truck, she was so exhausted. Her body was like a rag doll, completely spent by the trauma of lying at the bottom of a swimming pool.

  Chloe didn’t have any regular clothes, either. Her sodden evening gown was hanging in the bathroom. It would probably begin to mold by tonight, so it needed to be taken to a dry cleaner as soon as possible for a rush job.

  She texted Katey and asked her to bring her a set of clothes, then she forced herself to eat a little hospital breakfast so the nurses wouldn’t try to detain her, citing no appetite. She willed herself to keep the food down, even though her stomach felt horrible.

  Once Katey arrived, Chloe hurriedly dressed as best she could with an IV still stuck in her arm.

  “Katey, please ring for the nurse,” she called from the bathroom.

  “I’m on it!” the young woman said, pressing the Call button. “This is just like a movie. We’re escaping from the hospital so we can see a woman in love get married before it’s too late.”

  Chloe smiled at her. “They’ll get married whether I’m there or not, but I appreciate the cloak-and-dagger aspect.”

  “How do you feel?” Katey asked, taking Chloe’s hands in hers. “Your skin feels warm and normal.”

  “My last vitals were about two hours ago, and they were all perfectly normal. I’m back up to 98.3, my normal temperature. I haven’t coughed since four a.m. I ate my breakfast, even though I feel a bit nauseous. But that’s our little secret.”

  Katey crossed her fingers over her heart. “Mum’s the word.”

  “How was everyone at the house last night? Anything unusual?”

  “Most of us went to bed—or tried to—after you left in the ambulance. Mercedes was crying a little, but I gave her a Tylenol PM and she slept pretty good.”

  “I’m glad she was able to sleep. It’s her wedding day, after all.”

  “I told her to stay in bed until at least ten while I picked you up. Since the wedding isn’t until six o’clock, there’s plenty of time to get ready.”

  Chloe nodded. “Perfect. Exactly what I would have told her.”

  “She said Brett is beside himself with guilt. He feels terrible, the poor man. He went over and over again what happened. It was so freaking dark out there. Since the neighborhood is a bit more rural, there weren’t even any city lights.”

  “Without streetlights, I couldn’t even see my own hand in front of my face.”

  “I was stumbling around and stubbed my toe on one of the patio bricks.” Katey glanced down at her left foot, where her big toe was wrapped in a Band-Aid.

  “That’s how I fell when it went dark. I was twirling, so it didn’t take much to trip and crash right into the pool.”

  “It’s a good thing the water lilies weren’t already floating on-site. You might have gotten caught in the roots and strangled.”

  Chloe grimaced. “That’s a sobering thought.”

  The nurse arrived and frowned at Chloe already dressed and ready to leave. She was the new morning shift nurse, an older woman who obviously thought her patient should still be in bed. “I don’t have your discharge paperwork ready, young lady.”

  “I have a wedding to go to. I’m the bridesmaid.”

  The nurse pursed her lips. “Not sure that’s more important than the bride.”


  “Well, I really do need to go, and I’m feeling much better now. I even ate—a little.”

  She studied her chart and marked a couple of things with a pencil. “Doctor’s ordered another chest X-ray before you leave.”

  “Okay, let’s do it,” Chloe said, heading for the door.

  “Not so fast. I’ll be taking you there in a wheelchair.”

  “Can I get the IV out before we go to the lab?”

  “Nope. Just in case we need to give you anything, it stays in until we officially discharge you. Who will be picking you up?”

  Chloe lifted an arm toward Katey. “My ride is already here.”

  “Let’s boogey down to X-ray,” Katey said, putting both thumbs up.

  “Let’s not overdo it, girls,” the nurse said drily. “I’ll get you out of here as soon as I can. It’s only eight right now. I’ll get you in for an X-ray no later than nine. Will that work for you?”

  Chloe smiled, wanting to stay in her good graces, but antsy to get back to the Romano mansion. “We’ll sit tight,” she finally said, sliding back onto the hospital bed.

  Katey sat across from her in an armchair. “Mercedes was upset last night when that man, Stan Crowley, showed up as your date. She had you all lined up with Brett. You two looked great together last night dancing to Frank Sinatra. At least, I think that’s his name. Your grandmother loved it when the DJ played his stuff.”

  “Frank Sinatra is an oldie, but goodie.”

  “It’s got to be hard to choose between Brett or Stan, but you and Brett were pretty tight during dinner. I could tell Stan was so jealous.”

  “Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Chloe said vaguely.

  “He was shooting daggers at you two while you danced. Every time Brett pulled you in close or whispered in your ear, he was ready to punch the guy’s lights out.”

  “Now that’s interesting.” Seriously? Or was Katey just having fun talking boys like they were still in high school?

  “By the way, Katey, do you have a boyfriend?” she asked to change the subject.