Wedding Duress (Events By Design Cozy Mystery Series Book 2)

by Ally Gray

  The pastor—the one who’d christened Diana as a tiny infant and was now marrying her to the specimen who was arguably the man of every woman’s dreams—asked the gathered friends and family if they knew of any reason why…

  “STOP!” Heaven shouted in the general direction of the pastor. People around her screamed at the sight of her, blood and rust-colored dirt splattering her work shirt, and something that looked like motor oil smudging her cheek. She dragged a logging chain behind her, one that was still locked around both her ankles despite the slack she’d managed to work in their line by untwisting one of the wraps. Stacy choked back her own shout that had been about to escape, and only managed through years of Abigail’s careful tutelage to close her mouth.

  “Stop the wedding!” another female voice shouted, bringing up the rear. She too was in chains, but hers were issued by the state of Georgia and were still being held at the end by an officer in a smart-looking uniform. Detective Sims brought up the rear, grinning at Stacy’s shocked expression when he passed her.

  The bride and groom turned in shock, but the expressions on their faces were a one-hundred-eighty-degree separation. The groom was pleasantly surprised by the sight of both women, leading Stacy to wonder how many broken hearts he’d stomped over in order to reach that altar. The bride looked ready to commit homicide with her bouquet, her knuckles white where she clutched it in an iron grip.

  “What’s going on here?” Mrs. Barber demanded, already looking over the tops of the crowd’s heads for the security detail, waving them over with a wiggle of her fingers, jerking her head at the two unwelcome women. As the muscular men began to inch forward, Stacy snapped out of her haze and jumped into action.

  She shook her head at the security officers and raced up the aisle, intent on catching up to the two girls. But instead of looking relieved that the event planner was finally intervening, Mrs. Barber narrowed her eyes at Stacy, looking around quickly to see if she could find a murder weapon of her own. Stacy couldn’t help but notice the look that passed from Diana to her mother, silently demanding that she do something.

  “I’m terribly sorry for the interruption, ladies and gentlemen,” Stacy began in her most refined voice, “but it seems we have some uninvited guests.” Instead of removing them, though, she waved the officer away and guided both young ladies to the front of the procession, gently shoving some bridesmaids aside to make room for the fugitive and the… the… what exactly had Heaven been doing? “Now, I’m sure if we all just take a moment to pause and reflect and give these ladies an opportunity to explain why they’ve come here, we can move forward quickly.”

  She gestured for them to begin. Heaven and Brianna exchanged a look, then Brianna jerked her head in the direction of the happy couple, indicating that Heaven could go first. Instead, the girl froze, suddenly aware that she was way out of her league with this crowd. Stacy jumped in again.

  “I think what this young lady would like to say is that she feels Ben needs to… do what, exactly?” she asked, guiding Heaven along and then waiting for her to answer. Heaven only stammered softly, until Stacy added, “Perhaps you came here today to explain to Ben how you think he’s making a serious mistake, and you’d like to tell him how you really feel about him?” That seemed to snap Heaven out of her panic, as both she and Ben grimaced at Stacy’s suggestion.

  “What? Ew, no! That’s gross! I don’t have feelings for Ben! He’s my brother!” Heaven yelled, looking at Stacy as though she’d just suggested an incestuous wedding should be on the agenda. In a way, Stacy had, much to her embarrassment.

  “I’m confused, what was all that you told me about how he’s making a big mistake, and you had to tell him how you really feel?”

  “Yeah, he IS making a mistake! But that doesn’t mean I’m in love with my brother! Ew!”

  “Okay then, well next time you can do your own talking!” Stacy said through gritted teeth. Brianna stepped in before any more confusing love triangles could be uncovered.

  “Ben, I’m the one who still has feelings for you,” she said softly, stepping forward as much as the chains connecting her ankles would let her. Her arms were still pinned behind her back according to protocol for transporting a prisoner, but instead of making her look dangerous, it made her all the more vulnerable.

  “You do?” Ben asked, a look of hope on his face, coupled with the constant mask of confusion he wore from taking a few too many hits to the head. She nodded, but Diana quickly got between them, blocking the mesmerizing view of the woman Ben loved wearing an orange jumpsuit and prison-issue flip flops.

  “That is enough out of both of you!” Mrs. Barber screamed. “Where is the security here? I cannot believe my daughter’s wedding has been crashed by criminals and trailer trash!” Just then, Mrs. Curry, the mother of the groom, stood up across the aisle from Mrs. Barber in what looked like a show of solidarity, but instead, she stormed across the aisle not caring as she ground her heels into Diana’s twenty-foot train, and lunged for the mother of the bride, grabbing her around her neck with both hands and shaking her violently.

  The hired security watched the two women squabble and claw at each other without moving, finally turning to look at Stacy for direction. She watched for a moment in horror, then resigned herself to the outcome. “If Mrs. Curry starts to lose, you can step in,” she whispered blithely into her headset microphone. The security guards received the message with wide eyes, but did as they were told.

  Diana did her best to pull her would-be mother-in-law off of her mother, but only succeeded in getting in the way and taking an elbow to the eye, knocking her wig off in the process. She clutched her face with both hands, trying and failing to hide her appearance behind her massive bouquet. The beauty queen finally threw down her flowers and raced for the privacy of one of the upstairs rooms, followed by a bevy of bridesmaids.

  Stacy smirked mirthfully at the sight of hundreds of guests recording the entire scene on their smartphones, knowing this would be uploaded to YouTube before she could do anything to stop it. She leaned against the stone wall and watched her career evaporate as two southern mama cats battled it out at the front of the church.

  “I have put up with all of your mouth I intend to take!” Mrs. Curry screamed between slaps at Mrs. Barber’s face, holding her victim by her recently frosted hair. “You will not talk about that girl that way! I knew you had something to do with this mess!”

  Mrs. Barber called out indignantly for help, but no one moved, not even her own father, who sat frozen in place as he watched in amused surprise. It was finally Brianna who took Christian pity on her mother and asked Mrs. Curry to stop, tapping the woman on the shoulder and helping her pat her carefully coifed hair back into place. Mrs. Curry smiled at Brianna and pulled her into a hug.

  “You cannot know how sorry I am. I had no idea your own mother could be capable of such a thing.” Brianna could only nod tearfully. They moved to leave the church through a side door, Mrs. Curry holding the younger girl close to her side in an embrace as they walked. The uniformed officer looked around confused before getting up and following them.

  As they passed Heaven, Mrs. Curry stopped and frowned, then softened her gaze and reached out to the girl. She dissolved in the woman’s arms, clinging to her as she cried. The three of them exited, leaving Ben to look sheepishly at the shocked crowd of guests.

  “Well, as you can imagine, there probably won’t be a wedding today. But the food’s paid for, so go eat up!” he called out with a sly smile. His teammates, filling the first ten pews in the massive church due to the fact that each row could only accommodate four or five of them, cheered loudly and led the charge to the outdoor reception. Ben followed after his mother, his sister, and the woman who was apparently his one true love.

  Chapter 12

  The bartender expertly slid a tray with another round of shot glasses on it down the gleaming mahogany bar, the amber Jack Daniels sloshing only slightly in the tiny filled-to-the-brim glasses. Jeremi
ah did the honors, passing the glasses around and quickly gathering up the empties and returning them to the tray. No sense in letting anyone try to count how many there were, even though at that point he doubted their ability to do basic math.

  “We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Tori said, clinking glasses with Mandy. The assistant still sat stiff-backed in her seat, uninitiated as she was to the tradition of celebrating every dismal failure by partying together.

  “Here, here,” Stacy said, “although I have to admit, as tough weddings go, this one might actually be my favorite.”

  “How do you think so?” their chef droned in his nasally French accent, made all the more incomprehensible by the alcohol.

  “Well, this one actually ended in a wedding,” she said, brightening for the newly-married happy couple and raising her glass to them. Ben and Brianna returned the toast, clinking their shot glasses against their neighbors’, spilling more than they drank. “But as much as I do love to see true love win out and families reconcile…” she raised her glass again to her right where Heaven sat, grinning, “…my favorite part of the day had to be the look on Mrs. Barber’s face when Mrs. Curry came at her and latched onto her like a spider monkey. Play that one video again, the one where the camera angle shows Mrs. Barber’s tattoo.”

  Her friends and co-workers all hunched over their smartphones, punching in the search terms to find it online. “It’s already got over five hundred thousand views,” Tori said with a laugh.

  “Now Ben… Brianna… we never got to have the talk,” Stacy said, trying to keep her eyes from crossing as she attempted to sound professional. “I like to meet with all my young couples and give them advice that they will cherish for the rest of their lives. This advice is meant to help you steer the course of your journey together through rough waters and calm, through good times and bad.” Behind her, Jeremiah made blabby talking motions with his hands, choking back a laugh when Stacy turned and caught him.

  “Usually, we talk about these things at the final meeting before the rehearsal dinner, but since you two got hitched at the courthouse today—where the officers were kind enough to remove your handcuffs for your ceremony—you never got to hear my bountiful words of wisdom. So here it is.” Stacy threw back another shot and said, “Stay as far away from your families as possible!”

  She turned her empty shot glass over and slammed it on the tabletop with a loud thud, punctuating her dictum to the young couple.

  “You don’t have to worry about that, Miss East,” Brianna said. “There’s pretty much no Thanksgiving dinner plans once your mom kills a man then has you arrested for it.”

  “Well, my mom likes you,” Ben said, slurring only a little bit as he grinned like a fool at his wife. He hadn’t let go of her all evening, and now pulled her even closer to plant a sloppy kiss on her mouth, right there at the table. The cheers almost drowned out his next words, but once he reached across the table and took his half-sister’s hand, everyone fell silent. “And I don’t even know how to thank you for butting in and fixing all this.”

  Heaven, slightly more used to throwing back hard liquor than probably anyone else at the table, returned his smile. “It was all worth it, buddy. But nothing will ever beat the look on this lady’s face when she found out I was your sister! I can’t believe you thought I was his girlfriend!”

  “In my fedense,” Stacy began, her stumble over her words causing the others to laugh hilariously and earning them a scathing look from the bartender, “you were trying to stop a wedding, you were wearing Ben’s shirt, and you have an engagement ring! What was I supposed to think?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, how about I just happen to be marrying some other guy who isn’t my brother? It’s been known to happen, you know, even to girls like me.” She grinned and nudged Stacy with her shoulder to let her know she was kidding, knocking her off balance enough to nearly send her sprawling out of her chair.

  “Okay, okay, you’re right. But here’s the story I really want to hear. I get it that you two are brother and sister—”

  “Half,” Heaven corrected. “I’m the product of Ben’s dad’s years of affairs with various secretaries, so obviously his mom wouldn’t exactly think the world of me. But I gotta say, she showed real class today. I don’t need anyone to stand up for me, certainly not to a pole-up-her-ass rich snob like your mom, Ben, sorry… but it was nice of her to do that after all this time.”

  Everyone raised their fresh shot glasses in honor of Mrs. Curry, who was at that very moment lying in the dark in her hotel room with a cloth over her eyes. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not by the events of the day; Ben hadn’t married that conniving social climber Diana, but they were still stuck with the Barbers through his marriage to Brianna, a fact she’d only realized after receiving a text message after it was a done deal.

  “—anyway, what’s the story with you two?” Stacy asked, waiting expectantly for Ben and Brianna to explain. They looked at each other and shrugged.

  “There’s nothing to tell, really,” Brianna began. “We met in school, we went out for a few months, and then suddenly my mother forbid me to date him. I couldn’t understand it, I thought of all people she’d be the most thrilled about it, but she said he was too old for me, and that she didn’t like his reputation. She put her foot down, and I’ve always just done whatever she said.

  “The next thing I know, he’s dating my older sister and Mom’s just thrilled to death about it. It took me a long time to figure it out, but Mom broke us up because Diana was the better match for him in her mind, I guess. She’s always been the golden child, the one who was going to save us from ruin with her pretty face and her talent.”

  “And the sleeping around?” Tori said in an accusing tone before apologizing for letting that slip.

  “Have you met Diana?” Ben said sarcastically, sending the party into another fit of loud and inappropriate laughter. “I liked to have never put two and two together that this whole thing was pretty much a plot between Diana and her mom, but by the time I figured that out, I was so far in with those two it was all a done deal. There was no way out. I kind of hoped that my bad reputation and my cheating would get them off my back, but nope. Not when they smelled the dollar signs of a pro football signing bonus.”

  “But this still doesn’t explain why she set you up?” Jeremiah asked. “If Diana was already marrying Ben, why do all those mean things? And why did she need to have you arrested? And I have to know… did Diana really let her cut off all her hair?”

  “Oh no, Mom did that exactly the way she’d described me doing it to the cops. She literally drugged my sister and chopped it all off. She even saved it in a plastic bag. She killed that poor hairdresser because he must have put two and two together. I heard yelling coming from Diana’s room early that morning. It woke me up, and I couldn’t place the man’s voice until after the cops came.” Stacy overlooked the sudden demotion that Sandrique—god rest his soul—had just received by being called a “hairdresser.” Everyone else at the table shuddered at the craziness of it all. “But the truth is, you’re looking at two different plots my mom had going. She had to get me out of the way because Ben had been a little too glad to see me during the months leading up to the wedding, and I have to admit, I didn’t exactly stay away from him. It was nice to get to see him and talk to him again, even if it was only as his future sister-in-law. This whole scenario today is exactly what my mother was afraid of happening! But the little pranks of hers are a whole different story… Mom is broke.”

  All eyes turned to Brianna as they waited, open-mouthed, for her to finish. The girl nodded.

  “It’s sad, but Daddy didn’t leave us with much. He died only about a year after they divorced, not that his being alive would have helped Mom any. He’d made sure Diana and I had money for college, and anything left over would provide a little bit of money for a nice, modest wedding, but that’s it. Mom didn’t get a penny, of course, and there isn’t much left in o
ur trusts. Mom thought screwing up the wedding and pinning it on you guys would be a nice way to get a big tabloidy wedding, then not have to pay for it after she threatened to sue you for incompetence.”

  “So how did you end up looking like you’d been thrown in the trunk of a car?” Jeremiah asked, turning to Heaven. “I haven’t seen a body that filthy and wearing chains since the last time they hauled a man out of the swamp at my… uh, never mind.”

  “Yup, she caught me,” she said, with a sideways glance at Jeremiah, “I rounded the corner of the church carrying some folding chairs for the reception, and she clocked me in the head with a candle stick. I woke up under the front porch. It took me a while to figure out where I was, and that I still had time to try to stop it if I could just get to Ben.”

  “Zat beetch!” the chef yelled, lifting his head off his folded arms long enough to voice his anger before dropping it back down again.

  “So the stuff she pulled was to swindle us out of some money while locking you up and keeping you away from Ben? Wow, she’s good.”

  “You don’t know the half of it. Try living with her while you’re going through your awkward teenage years, hearing all about how pretty your sister is and how successful she’s going to be. You’ve dealt with her for a few months… I served twenty years.”

  They clinked their final round of shots in a toast to a day that was finally and mercifully over, threw back the warm liquor that was starting to taste better and better as the night wore on, then paid their tab and made their way out to the waiting limo. At least the limo driver would get his work done tonight, as he’d been the perfect designated driver for the group.

  “We’ll have to remember to get two limos from now on,” Stacy told Mandy as they headed carefully towards the curb. “Write that down somewhere. Two limos, one for the happy couple since I fully expect all weddings to go according to their perfectly laid plans from now on, and one for us to all go out celebrating how awesome we are at our jobs.”