by Beth Abbott
It was white and flowy, classy, with a vintage look to it.
“I wish I could have worn my Jimmy Choo’s for the wedding!” Suzy lamented for the umpteenth time. “They make my legs look freaking awesome!”
Ellen laughed. “I told you I didn’t care if you wanted to wear your Crocs! As long as you turned up, that was all I asked.”
Sally stood back, admiring her creation. “You look beautiful!”
Suzy looked across at her. “You really do scrub up well!” She grinned.
“Thanks, I think!”
“Five minutes!” A disembodied voice announced outside the changing room.
Ellen’s eyes widened, making Suzy laugh.
“Come on!” She snorted. “Time to get sand in our cracks.”
Sally nearly choked on her wine.
“The cracks between your toes!” Suzy said huffily. “Jeez, you two are so common!”
Ellen snorted. “If I know you and Matt, you’ll be doing the whole ‘Maid of Honour has sex with the Best Man’ thing, before the reception’s even over! Then you’ll definitely have sand in your crack!”
Suzy nodded in agreement. “Tell me about it! Matt loves beach sex! He reckons it helps him forget all those godforsaken missions when the boys were out in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, I stashed a couple of beach towels down by the pergola for later. Sand rash on your bits is no joke!”
Sally shook her head at Suzy. She’d quickly come to adore Matt’s little spitfire, and the fact that she was an angel to Ellen, only made Sally love the girl more.
There was a rap on the doorframe, and JT stuck his head in. “All set?” He asked.
Ellen nodded. “Absolutely!”
When they’d sat down to discuss wedding planning, on the day they’d found out she was pregnant, Ellen had surprised everyone by announcing she wanted a beach wedding, instead of a marrying in church.
When he’d realised she’d been serious, Luke had set off on a crazy mission to find the best beach wedding location on the planet.
And here they were just three weeks later, on Valentine’s Day no less, on the beautiful island of Barbados, their wedding just a few minutes away.
They’d flown in a few days earlier on a private plane, so they could have some time in the sun before the wedding. Ellen was especially glad of it, as she’d been ridiculously pale following her hospital stay.
Their friends and family had all flown in with them, although most would fly back home in two days, leaving the newlyweds to enjoy their two-week honeymoon with no interruptions.
The usual suspects were there. JT, Danny, Matt and Suzy, along with little Charlie. G and Fran had also flown out, and it had taken telling Ellen’s story several times before they’d finally come to terms with everything she’d been through.
They’d been shocked to see her lovely hair shorn off, and initially Ellen had considered wearing a wig for the wedding, but eventually she’d decided against it.
Her hair had grown out by over half an inch, and was very blonde now, probably more so having been in the sun for a few days. There was just enough so that it obscured her scar, and with the one-shoulder wedding dress hiding the other scar from the bullet in her shoulder, she actually felt quite glamorous, and …well, normal.
She’d invited her Father, Bethan and little Katie to the wedding, but her father had declined. There was something else going on there, but frankly, Ellen didn’t have the energy to care.
JT had come forward and asked whether he could give her away, and Ellen had been thrilled. Carl and Sally were going to be holding onto Charlie during the ceremony, freeing up Suzy to act as bridesmaid and Matt to step in as Best Man.
Danny was acting usher, although he said he had no clue how to ’ush’!
Ellen suspected that he had used his few days in paradise to bag as many waitresses as possible. Danny certainly hadn’t denied it.
As JT extended his hand to her, she couldn’t help but admire the cut of his Armani suit. She knew it was Armani, only because that was what Luke had told her they’d all picked out.
Due to it being a beach wedding, they’d decided against wearing their Dress Blues.
Even though Luke and the guys would have looked gorgeous, it wasn’t really the most practical outfit to wear when the temperature was up in the high eighties.
When she looked down at his feet she giggled! He was wearing flip-flops!
JT grinned. “When in Rome….”
Sally and Suzy took their places, and Ellen and JT followed them out and across the garden, arriving on the sand in no more than twenty steps. Ellen had opted to go barefoot, and the sand was lovely and warm under her feet.
Her friends and family all sat in a semi-circle under a flower covered pergola, and there, waiting in the middle, was the most gorgeous man on the planet.
As they walked slowly to the pergola, to the strains of a violin playing the Wedding March, Luke turned to face her.
His smile was breath-taking, and she could feel the love and emotion rolling off his body.
When he reached out and took her hand, to help her up the step, she never wanted to let him go.
She’d found her place in this world at last.
With the gazes of her friends locked on her, and Luke’s parents looking on, she straightened her spine as she acknowledged something for the first time…
They were all looking at her! They saw her!
She was no longer invisible!
She turned to Luke, grinned and leaned in to place a soft kiss on his lips.
“Let’s do this!” She whispered.
Luke grinned back at her and then they both turned towards the Minister.
“Dearly Beloved…”
The End
(For now)
Carry on reading to get a sneak preview of Chapter One of “Anonymous”, Book Two in the Alpha Company Women Series.
Anonymous
Chapter 1 – Danny
It had been such an awesome day!
Danny leaned back into the sun-lounger and stared out at the crystal blue sea in front of him, a glass of neat scotch balanced on his wash-board abs.
Luke, one of his oldest friends and brothers in arms, had married his beautiful fiancée Ellen, not twelve hours ago, on this very spot.
Danny glanced up at the pergola, still decorated with sweet smelling flowers. He had absolutely no idea what the flowers were, but the scent was pleasant and had added to the atmosphere.
Barbados in February was stunning!
The weather had been perfect, the bridegroom and groomsmen had been handsome in their Armani suits, and the bride and bridesmaids had been beautiful in their floaty chiffon gowns.
They had been surrounded by immediate family and friends, and the love pouring out of everyone had been beautiful.
And overwhelming, Danny thought, taking a sip of his Scotch.
Nobody wished Ellen and Luke happiness more than he did.
Luke had seen his share of tough times, not least when his twin brother had been murdered trying to save Ellen from notorious London criminal, George Drayton.
Ellen’s dad had been working for Drayton, and because her dad knew where all the bodies were buried, so to speak, Drayton had been searching for them both to eliminate them ever since. Anything to stop them from going to the police with what they knew.
Ellen had also had a tough time, when she’d had to go into hiding for three and a half years, frightened of her own shadow, and looking over her shoulder constantly, waiting to see if George would learn of her whereabouts and send someone to kill her.
Miraculously, Luke had managed to track her down.
Then, just when they’d persuaded Ellen’s father, to testify against him, Drayton’s thugs, including Gary Drayton, George’s son, had caught up with them, and a gunfight had followed. Ellen’s dad had been shot and injured, and Ellen had taken a bullet to the head which had left her fighting for her life in the Intensive Care Unit.
Know
ing that Drayton’s goons were dead was little consolation.
While Luke had been keeping a bedside vigil beside Ellen in the Intensive Care Unit, Danny, JT and Matt, his former Alpha Company team mates, and now business partners, had sided with the police in another shoot-out with George, which had left the big-man himself, as well as some of his other flunkies, dead on the concrete floor of the hospital carpark.
Yeah, that had been one helluva busy Christmas!
Danny thanked God every day that Ellen had come out of her coma with no lasting effects, as he knew there was no way Luke would have survived without her.
Luke had never been in love before. Hell, he’d never been with the same woman more than twice, ever!
So when Ellen had stumbled into his life, a tiny little thing by comparison, all spitting and hissing and full of righteous indignation, it was pretty much game over. Luke was completely and utterly smitten!
Danny adored Ellen, as one would a little sister.
She took wonderful care of Luke, let the big guy think he was in charge, pandered to his ego, and completely got her way over everything!
It was comical, and made more so because Luke had no idea that he wasn’t calling the shots!
She was a clever girl that one!
Danny grinned, and took a sip of his Scotch.
They’d all called it a night about an hour ago, the newlyweds making their way to the honeymoon suite, some of the other couples heading for bed, and a few of the guys making their way to the bar.
Danny had just about had enough with being sociable, so had said his goodnights, heading out of the hotel.
He’d walked for about a quarter mile towards an area populated with more hotels, bars and nightclubs, before he’d stopped and looked around.
What the hell was he doing?
He’d had more than enough to drink tonight, being merrily buzzed, but a long way from drunk.
He had no desire to go clubbing or looking for sex, so what was he even doing here?
He’d turned and made his way back, ducking onto the beach rather than head for the hotel.
When he’d reached the pergola, the staff had obviously been out to set things up ready for the morning, as there were now rows of sun-loungers set out, all facing the sea, waiting for the sun-worshippers to come down and fill them in the morning.
He’d detoured to the beach bar to pick up a drink, before settling himself on one of the beds.
If the guys could see him now, they’d probably piss themselves laughing!
Danny was supposed to be the pussy-magnet of the team. The guy who could get laid twice or three times a night, with three different women!
He never went anywhere without coming home with some girl’s number, be it tapped into his mobile phone or on a napkin in his pocket.
Wouldn’t the guys find it hilarious that he hadn’t actually got laid in almost six months!
If you’d asked him six months ago if a man could go without sex for six months, he’d have said Hell, no! A guy’s dick would fall off after a month!
Wouldn’t it?
But then in one traumatic day, he’d had an epiphany. And he hadn’t touched a woman since.
No, he hadn’t found God! He hadn’t found Jesus or been born again!
Instead, he’d seen the work of Satan himself, and it had changed him irrevocably.
Danny had been working with a few guys from the States, on a joint mission between their team and Tucker’s, one of their business contacts in Philadelphia.
Tuckers team had been handling the security for a famous country singer, Carolina Jordan, who was just completing the US leg of her world tour. She was about to move over to Europe, where Alpha Company would be taking over handling her security, so Danny had been assigned the task of effecting a “warm handover”, as JT had called it, at her hotel in London.
However, before the British leg of the tour could get started, word had come through that the singer’s twenty-two-year-old daughter, who was studying in England, had been kidnapped on her way home from university classes.
Needless to say, the European leg of the tour had been postponed indefinitely due to a severe ‘throat infection’, and Tucker’s team along with half of the AC team had been pulled in to assist the police in tracking the girl down.
Initially, the expectation had been that she would be ransomed to get money out of her mega-rich mother. Sadly, it had turned out that she hadn’t been targeted because of her mother at all.
Instead, and far worse, it became steadily clearer that she might have been selected purely because she fit a certain profile. Blonde with green eyes!
A number of women fitting that description had gone missing over the last two years. Only one had been found, and she’d been repeatedly raped before her body was discovered, dumped in a shallow grave in some woodland.
Luckily, Carolina Jordan had at least had the sense to have her daughter micro-chipped as a teenager, so they were all hopeful they would be able to track her down through that.
For the first few days, they had received no signal, so the thought was that she was either somewhere that was blocking it, or that the tracker had been disabled somehow.
When they’d eventually managed to get a signal, they had tracked her to the basement of a partly demolished warehouse, and at Carolina Jordan’s insistence, they were able to work with the police to put a team together to go in and rescue her.
Danny had been the first man into the basement, and had reached her before anybody else.
He’d honestly thought her already dead.
As he’d climbed through the fallen masonry that blocked the entrance, more rubble had fallen behind him, separating him from his team. The guys following had needed to dig their way in and make the route safe before anyone else could follow him in.
To this day, Danny thanked God for that small mercy!
He’d found her hanging by her tied hands, her feet barely able to touch the floor.
She was naked, and filthy, and even through the grime, he could see that she’d been beaten black and blue.
Her head hung down, her hair obscuring part of her face.
Her neck, ankles and wrists were all scarred and bruised from where they had obviously been tied or shackled.
Blood poured from cuts to her hands, elbows, and knees, where she had either been dragged or had crawled over rough ground, probably concrete.
There were knife slashes across her ribs and thighs, not deep thankfully, obviously designed to cause pain rather than death.
Danny struggled to find a square inch that wasn’t covered with filth, bruises or cuts.
Her abdomen, breasts and legs seemed covered with something else too.
Cum! Danny realised, bile rising in his throat.
As he’d walked around to examine her for further injuries, he noted the blood stains on her inner thighs!
Danny wanted to kill someone! He could only see red in his mind. Rage and white hot fury boiled within him!
As he kicked at the base of a pillar, he heard a noise from the girl.
Oh, Fuck! She was still alive!
As he watched her flinch at the sound he’d made, his heart thumped in his chest.
He had to get her down, had to cover her up before anyone else saw her like this.
Danny gently touched the girl by the shoulders, not letting go when she flinched. She was freezing!
“Hey there, Sweet-pea.” He crooned.” Everything is gonna be Ok, Hannah. I’m Danny, and I’m working with the police and your mother, and I’m here to take you home.”
As he unfastened the ties around her wrists, she sagged into his arms. He didn’t know if she’d understood what he’d said or not, but either way, she didn’t have the strength to fight or resist him.
He lowered her to the ground, and while keeping her close, he shrugged his Kevlar vest off. He pulled his fleece off before refastening the vest.
He wrapped her up in the fleece, pulling her arms
into the sleeves.
She was so tiny compared to his six feet four-inch frame, that his jacket covered her torso completely and came down to her mid thighs.
She’d flinched as he moved her around, but his first priority was to cover her and warm her up.
When she was completely wrapped up, he picked her up and sat back on the ground, his back to the pillar.
He pulled out his phone and with the one bar showing, phoned JT to confirm that he’d got her, and that she was still, if barely, alive.
All he could do now was wait for the rest of the rescue team to dig their way in, and allow the paramedics to take over her care.
As he leant back, she groaned softly. God, what she must have gone through!
He wondered whether she would have the ability to rebound from this?
Would she wake up in a hospital bed somewhere and wish he hadn’t rescued her?
God, he hoped not!
He gently tilted her head back to make sure she could breathe properly.
Even beaten raw, he could see that she was quite beautiful, just like her mother. Sadly, that was probably why they’d taken her.
As he assessed her injuries, she surprised him by opening her eyelids.
He stared down into the deepest green eyes he’d ever seen.
“Danny?” She whispered, her bruised and swollen lips barely able to move.
“That’s it, Hannah.” He smiled reassuringly at her. “I’m here to take you home to your mother. She’s been frantic with worry over you!”
She looked confused.
“Danny?” She whispered again so quietly he could barely hear her now.
“Yeah, Sweet-pea. It’s Danny. You’re going to be Ok.” He said, even if he wasn’t that sure what he was saying would hold true.
She tried to turn her head.
“They’ll come back!” She whispered, obviously terrified.
“Hey, no, Hannah!” Danny smiled at her, offering her some reassurance. “I’m here now. I’ll protect you.”
She stared into his eyes.
“Are you my Guardian Angel?” She whispered, but before he could answer, her eyes fell shut.
Danny felt tears behind his eyes.