Royal Wedding Threat

by Rachelle Mccalla

  “Ava! Ava!”

  She heard her name, shouted from some distance, and turned to see a man in a baseball cap running toward her.

  Jason’s men were on him in an instant, but even more quickly, Jason tucked Ava against him, holding her tight to the protective shell of his body armor. She clung to him for a long moment as she listened to the sounds of the guards and tried to figure out what was happening. She wished she was close enough to see the man or hear his voice clearly. Was she in danger? Was Jason in danger, shielding her from the man who’d run at them?

  Terror clenched the air from her lungs. What if something happened to Jason? What if he was hurt protecting her? She buried her face against his shoulder and listened to the reassuring beat of his heart thumping solidly beneath her cheek.

  Jason had done so much for her already. He made her feel safe. He made her feel happy. He made her feel...things she hadn’t been willing to feel for so long. She couldn’t lose him now, not when she’d only just begun to realize how much he meant to her.

  Not when she had yet to tell him what he meant to her.

  Jason conferred with his men via his earpiece, instructing them to escort the suspect up to headquarters. He straightened slowly, keeping one arm tight around Ava’s shoulders, supporting her as she stood.

  Perhaps she should let go and put some space between them, but Ava didn’t want to let go of Jason. She needed his strength to remain upright. She felt far too shaky to stand alone as she absorbed the shock of what had happened.

  They’d caught him. She was nearly certain, from the brief glimpse she’d seen, that the man who’d run down the pier after her was Dan Johnson, her former fiancé. And everything from his Mariners cap to his stature appeared to be identical to what she’d viewed on the security-camera footage of the man who’d inquired after her at the pedestrian gate five days before.

  She’d feared Dan might be the culprit. His identity wasn’t nearly as shocking as his timing. After refusing to pray for so many months, a wordless, half-suppressed prayer had welled up inside her heart just before she’d heard Dan calling her name.

  It made her wonder if God was trying to tell her something. But if that was the case, why had God waited until now, when she’d pleaded for answers so many months before?

  * * *

  While his men detained the suspect, Jason conferred with Ava in his office. “You have appointments—”

  “Not for another half hour. If you question him now, I can hear what he has to say.”

  “It may well take more than half an hour.”

  “Then I’ll clear my schedule—”

  “You’ve already done that so much—”

  “It doesn’t matter, not in comparison to finding out what’s been going on.”

  “We always tape suspect interviews. You can watch it later.”

  “How am I supposed to focus on final dress fittings when I know you’re interviewing Dan at the same moment? We’re wasting time. Let me listen now. If it takes longer than half an hour, I’ll go to the dress fitting and come back to watch the tape when I’m done.”

  Jason listened to Ava’s proposal reluctantly. He didn’t want her anywhere near that dangerous man, but he supposed that was his heart trying to tell his head what to do. And if he listened to his heart, he’d have Ava back in his arms in an instant. No, better to think with his head, not his emotions. Her idea was a good one. “Fine. Let’s get started.”

  Escorting Ava to the small room behind the one-way glass, Jason assured her she wouldn’t be seen from the other side as long as the lights remained off on her side of the glass. “It will look like a mirror from the other side. There’s a curtain in front of the door, so if anyone enters, the light from the hallway won’t shine in.” Jason pulled the curtain closed as he explained it. “Are you sure—”

  “Yes. Get on with it. I’ll be fine.”

  Jason left quickly, entering the adjoining room and instructing his men to bring in the suspect for questioning.

  Though he couldn’t see her through the mirrored glass, from the last glimpse he’d gotten of her before leaving her alone, he didn’t think Ava looked nearly as okay as she claimed to be. She looked as if she needed to be in his arms, and he wanted her there, but none of that could happen just yet. Besides, he needed to keep a lid on his newfound feelings. His men had already raised their eyebrows after the way Jason had held her on the pier and laughed with her along their walk.

  He figured they suspected something. They were trained to read body language. He wouldn’t be able to keep his secret for long, though it chafed him to think of admitting there was anything between him and the wedding planner before he’d had a chance to speak to Ava about his feelings. Besides that, he’d specifically instructed his men on several past occasions not to romance the women they were guarding.

  How would they like it if he did the very thing he’d ordered them not to do?

  Dan Johnson entered between two guards, glancing at Jason only briefly before looking around the room.

  “I need to talk to Ava Wright,” Dan told Jason bluntly, refusing to be seated when the guards gestured for him to sit.

  “Have a seat. You’re going to talk to me first. If I decide Ms. Wright needs to hear what you have to say, I’ll pass the message along to her.”

  The man sat but leaned toward Jason. “It’s a matter of life and death. I know that sounds melodramatic, but that’s just the way it is.”

  Jason had enough experience interrogating suspects not to let the man control the conversation or distract him from his work. Ava had less than half an hour to listen—he wouldn’t waste her time. “State your full name.”

  But Dan didn’t cooperate. “Someone blew up Ava’s car the other day, didn’t they? And something must have spooked you guys, because you moved her out of her apartment. I watched your men do it. You know she’s in danger, don’t you?”

  Normally Jason would have interrupted the man and insisted Dan answer the questions posed to him, but something about the man’s words—his persistence, his knowledge of the situation—was enough to prompt Jason to listen. The guards had moved Ava’s things from her apartment while Jason and Ava had been at Dorsi, being chased by the gunman.

  Was Dan trying to create an alibi? Or had he really been watching the movers at work? But if he hadn’t been on the island, who had been? The gunman had been wearing a cap identical to the one Dan wore now.

  Even as Jason wondered about it, Dan continued, “I believe someone’s trying to hurt Ava—”

  “From what I understand,” Jason interrupted, unable to let the man play altruistic after what he’d done to Ava, “you hurt her.”

  Dan pinched his eyes shut and made a frustrated noise in his throat. When he popped his eyes open again, he spoke quickly. “Yes, I did, but now that I know what I know, I see it wasn’t really my fault at all.”

  “You cheated on her with her best friend and business partner.” Jason had learned through previous interrogation attempts that it was sometimes useful to surprise a suspect with the facts he knew. It might startle the suspect into revealing something he otherwise wouldn’t, and it helped if he needed to pretend to know more than he really did.

  “Tiffany seduced me,” Dan countered without blinking. “And then, once it was clear Ava had left and wasn’t coming back, Tiffany dropped me suddenly and for no reason. It didn’t make sense. It was as though she’d only used me to hurt Ava.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “Yes, why?” Dan narrowed his eyes. “I puzzled it over for a long time before I heard Happily Ever After was struggling to stay in business. I couldn’t understand. They’d been so successful when Ava led the company. I decided I wanted answers. I paid Tiffany a visit.”

  Jason listened intently, wondering if the man’s words were
true or just a carefully concocted cover story meant to conceal Dan’s guilt. Unsure, he let the man continue his story and hoped he’d learn something definitive soon. It couldn’t be easy for Ava, sitting alone on the other side of the mirror, to hear Dan’s words—especially the sudden revelation that the business she’d poured her heart into was floundering without her.

  “Tiffany gave me all sorts of reasons and excuses, but the thing I found most disturbing was that she tried to blame all her failures on Ava. She resents Ava—deeply. It sounded like she’s been jealous of Ava’s success for a long time and only pretended to be her friend while she leeched off her and tried to bring her down. Tiffany admitted the company was going under, but claimed it was Ava’s fault, that she’d only given her the company after she’d realized it would fail, that Ava had left Tiffany in charge on purpose to make it look like the failure was Tiffany’s fault. But from everything I know of the company, it didn’t begin to fail until these last several months since Tiffany’s been in charge.”

  Dan shook his head and swallowed before he continued, “I decided to investigate. My excuse for visiting Tiffany was that she still had my golf clubs. We went to her garage to get them. She has a two-car garage. There were two vehicles inside—the one she used to have and the one she bought shortly before Ava left for Lydia. Her old car looked as though it had been in a fender bender. The front was smashed in a bit and a small chunk was missing. I asked her what happened and she told me she’d hit a mailbox. Then I asked why she hadn’t gotten it fixed.”

  Jason raised an eyebrow when Dan hesitated.

  “She said she didn’t want anyone asking questions.”

  “Questions?” Jason repeated. If Dan was making up his story, he’d rehearsed it well ahead of time, well enough to make his body language fit the true discomfort of a man who’d discovered more than he’d ever wanted to know.

  “The thing is—” Dan leaned close “—the piece that was missing was a silver chunk, an odd shape, sort of like a triangle with a bulge at the base. But when Ava’s mother was killed in a hit-and-run accident, they found a silver triangle like that missing piece in the street in front of her house. They couldn’t say for sure if it had come from the car that hit her, but they circulated a picture of it next to a dollar bill for size. I saw it dozens of times.” Dan sat back and eyed him with finality. “It matched.”

  “Did you call the police?”

  “I did, the very next day. In retrospect I should have called sooner, but I didn’t make the connection until that evening, and then it took me all night to get over my denial and place the call. By the time the police arrived, the car was gone and so was Tiffany.”

  “Tiffany was gone?”

  Dan nodded solemnly.

  “When was this?”

  “Sunday of last week—nine days ago now. I puzzled over everything for another day and couldn’t shake a few things Tiffany had said about Ava, bitter things, threatening things. And I realized that if Tiffany killed Ava’s mom—which I fear she may have—then the threatening things she said about Ava weren’t just old bitterness. They were real.”

  Jason didn’t like what he was hearing. He especially didn’t like thinking about Ava hearing it all from behind the glass, but he had to find answers. Dan’s story seemed convincing, but it could still well just be a story. “I trust you called the police again.”

  “Yes, of course. They sent someone to talk to Tiffany, but she still wasn’t home. What else could they do? From their perspective, I’d given them two dead-end tips. The car wasn’t there. Tiffany wasn’t there. I realized if Tiffany was out to hurt Ava, she might have traveled to Lydia. I talked to her secretary, Myra, who was trying to hold the company together. At first she told me she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone where Tiffany had gone. When I guessed Lydia, she confirmed it.”

  “Tiffany is in Lydia?” Jason clarified, starting to believe the man’s story might be true and fearing the implications if it was.

  “Myra booked the tickets herself.”

  “Tickets? More than one?”

  “Myra wouldn’t tell me the name of the man who was traveling with Tiffany. I only know it’s a man because Myra referred to him as ‘he.’ I called Ava’s father. He refused to give me her contact information or even listen to what I had to say. I can’t really blame him, not after I cheated on his daughter.”

  Dan’s introspective pause and honest words convinced Jason the man might actually be telling the truth. He couldn’t prove anything just yet, but he was willing to pursue any tips the man might give him.

  At the same time, Jason wasn’t about to turn the man loose based on a story. The gunman on the island had been wearing a Seattle Mariners baseball cap identical to the one Dan wore at that very moment. Ava had suggested the gunman might have chosen the cap to throw them off the trail, but Jason wasn’t about to deny that Dan matched everything they knew about the gunman, save for his story—which could be an elaborately concocted alibi.

  “I’ve sent him several emails explaining what I think is going on. I’ve left messages on his phone. He won’t answer my calls. Look...” Dan met his eyes, and Jason thought he saw real regret there. “I wish I could take back what I did. Ava was the sweetest, most wonderful woman I ever could have hoped for, but I blew it. I can’t go back in time and change what I did, but I wish I could. When I realized Tiffany had come here after Ava, and I couldn’t convince anyone to stop her, I knew that I had to come, or I’d spend the rest of my life regretting that I didn’t save her when I had the chance.”

  Jason asked, “Did you inquire after her at the palace gate last Thursday evening?”

  “Yes. I didn’t have her phone number. She changed her email address. I had no way of getting in touch with her. I’ve tried everything. When I couldn’t find Ava, I tried to track down Tiffany. I knew I couldn’t give up. I saw Ava this evening and just started running toward her, calling her name. And now here I am.”

  A quick glance at the clock told Jason that Ava only had a few minutes left before she needed to leave. After what they’d both just heard, he couldn’t let her go before speaking with her, nor did he want to make her late. Quickly instructing his men to detain Dan for further questioning, he excused himself to slip into the small adjoining room, praying he could offer Ava some comfort.

  Had Tiffany really killed Ava’s mother? It certainly seemed possible—unless Dan Johnson was lying. But Dan would surely only have lied to cover his own guilt, which meant Dan might have been the murderer besides trying to kill Ava. Either way, someone Ava had once trusted and cared about had done the unthinkable...and seemed intent on killing Ava, as well.

  THIRTEEN

  Ava gripped her chair and stared through the glass, too stunned to move a muscle. A thousand thoughts warred inside her head. Was Dan telling the truth? Had Tiffany killed her mother? And what had she ever seen in Dan anyway? He was good-looking enough and usually well dressed, but those were all his good points.

  He couldn’t compare to Jason. Where Dan had been hesitant, unsure and even whiny, Jason was commanding yet caring, a man of action who stood by his principles. And Jason had a much nicer smile than Dan. The thought of Jason made Ava wish she was still tucked under his protective arm, clinging tightly to him as she had done on the pier.

  She watched through the glass as Jason left the interrogation room. As he joined her, she rose from her chair, but instantly she felt light-headed from standing so quickly after sitting frozen through such shocking revelations.

  Jason pulled her into his arms and she held tight to him, leaning on him for support. The comfort of his touch loosened her frozen lungs. She could breathe again and pulled in a lungful of his manly scent, grateful for his presence. Ever since he’d held her on the pier, she’d longed to feel his arms around her again. No one was shooting at her at the moment, so she wasn’t sure wh
y Jason had pulled her into his arms.

  Was it because he knew she needed his strength to stand? Did she look that unstable? Or did he really care about her that much? It didn’t make sense that he would—not after all the nasty arguments between them. And yet Jason held her close and even lightly rubbed her back, his touch soothing and reassuring.

  “What do you think?” he asked after rubbing her back a moment.

  Ava’s thoughts swam, but she picked one memory that stuck out like a red flag now that Dan’s story shone a light on it. “Tiffany missed several important appointments. I always covered for her. My mother found out about it and advised me to make Tiffany face the consequences of her own decisions. Tiffany walked in on our conversation.” Ava swallowed, her throat thick. “That wasn’t long before my mother died. I don’t remember how long exactly, but...it makes sense.”

  “Dan’s story makes sense?”

  “I don’t like it. I wish I could say Dan was the gunman, lock him up and I’ll be safe, everyone at the wedding will be safe.” Her voice rose to an emotional whimper. She wondered if she was rambling.

  “His story makes sense to me, too,” Jason admitted, still rubbing her back. “At the same time, he’s wearing the same hat as the gunman who followed us to Dorsi. They have the same build. It could just be an elaborate story he’s telling us. He could be the gunman.”

  “I can’t believe I was ever in love with him.”

  “He seems like a nice guy. If his story is true, he did the right thing by coming here to warn you.”

  “I do appreciate that—if his story is true.” Ava peeled back a bit from Jason, knowing she needed to leave. “Still, he’s nothing like you.”

  “Nothing like me?” Jason asked quietly.

  Realizing that she’d revealed more of her feelings than she’d intended, Ava blushed and tried to explain. “He’s not decisive and principled and strong like you are.” She met Jason’s eyes and saw him watching her with a hint of a smile.