and he was bound to make other slipups. Sooner or later, she’d catch on.
If she hadn’t already.
Shaw looked him straight in the eye. “But she won’t find out until this is over, understand? I won’t have you jeopardize the lives of those men—or her—because your conscience is bothering you.”
“It isn’t my conscience that’s giving me a problem, sir. It’s the notion that we could have gone about this in a different way. We shouldn’t have involved her in this.”
“She’s involved whether you want her to be or not,” Shaw declared. “Besides, Anna wanted this marriage.”
He could have argued that. He could have reminded the colonel that Anna Caldwell actually wanted to marry Captain Rafe McQuade. When Anna learned that he wasn’t that man, she wouldn’t be pleased. Worse, there was nothing he could do to stop it. Things had already been set into motion.
Hell, legally he was married to her.
“Just stick with the plan,” Shaw continued. He motioned for a team member, Special Agent Luke Buchanan, to join them when he entered the church. “We’re too deep into this to back out now. Other than putting her under lock and key, this is the best way to keep her safe.”
Rafe was afraid that’s what the colonel would say. It didn’t make it easier to swallow. “But what about the reception? We’re expected there.” In fact, it was more than expected. It was a vital part of the plan to generate some publicity.
Shaw blew out a long, frustrated breath. “We’ll postpone it. I don’t want you out in the open, not after what just happened. I’ll come up with an excuse why neither of you can be there.”
Rafe followed that through to its logical conclusion. If Anna and he didn’t go to the reception, there would be no public appearance. No picture of the happy bride and groom in tomorrow’s newspaper. No illusion to build a safety net for Anna and the others. And no diversion for him to make a much-needed exit.
Rafe repeated the four-letter word the colonel had just used.
Shaw checked his watch. “The limo will take you and Anna to the VIP quarters at the base. I’ll be here for the next few hours if you need to get in touch with me.”
VIP quarters. That wasn’t the way things were supposed to work tonight. Shaw didn’t give him a chance to remind him of that, but instead stepped away and headed toward Anna. Rafe watched as his boss took his bride’s hand and urged her to her feet. Shaw leaned closer and whispered something that had her offering him a thin smile.
“It’s apparently show time,” Special Agent Buchanan mumbled when he walked closer to Rafe. “Again.”
Yep. Show time was the right term for it. For the last three days, that was pretty much what all of them had done. It turned Rafe’s stomach.
“By the way,” Buchanan went on, “have I mentioned that I’ll tear you limb from limb if you don’t do everything in your power to stop Anna from getting hurt?”
“At least a hundred freaking times.” But Rafe didn’t hold the man’s Neanderthal threat against him. Buchanan knew Anna and the other Alpha Team members. They weren’t friends exactly, but this had to be taking a toll on him.
Too bad, though, that Rafe didn’t see a way around this. He had to continue this charade, which would likely end with an innocent woman having her heart broken. It was the epitome of a rock and a hard place. And Anna was in the middle of it simply because she’d had the rotten luck to fall in love with the wrong guy.
He glanced over Buchanan’s shoulder and saw the colonel and her making their way toward them. For a brief second, their gazes connected, but she quickly looked away. So, despite Shaw’s confidence in his pseudo-fatherly relationship with Anna, he hadn’t been able to smooth things over, after all.
“I was just telling Anna about that mud-for-brains idiot who thought it was a good idea to try to steal our equipment,” Shaw announced. “Rafe winged the guy, but he’ll be all right.” The colonel passed the bouquet to her, and she gripped on to it as if it were a lifeline. “She’s still a little shaken up. Heck, we all are. Right, Rafe?”
He mumbled a mandatory agreement and even tossed in one of his grins.
“How about it—are you sure you’re okay?” Buchanan asked her.
Rafe didn’t think it was his imagination that she gave Buchanan a suspicious glance, as well. With reason. Anna was probably trying to decide if she could trust any of them.
She finally nodded in response to Buchanan’s question. “So, I guess you anticipated something like this might happen, or you wouldn’t have had men outside the church?”
Rafe didn’t even try to answer that. Thankfully, Colonel Shaw took the lead. “We didn’t want to take any chances. Good thing, too, huh?”
“Yes. A good thing.” But she didn’t sound at all sure of the colonel’s explanation.
Colonel Shaw put his arm around her shoulder. “Since you’re probably not in a party mood, I thought it might be a good idea if we postpone the reception for a few days. Maybe you and Rafe could just go to the VIP quarters and leave for your honeymoon first thing in the morning? Don’t worry. I’ll let the guests know what’s going on.”
She eased out of his grip. “Was that man connected to the rebels who held Rafe hostage?”
“From all accounts, no, but we’ll check him out. Don’t worry. By tomorrow, we’ll know everything about him, including his brand of toothpaste.” Colonel Shaw looked at Buchanan and motioned toward the door. “Why don’t you and I make sure the limo’s ready?”
Rafe mentally cursed. This was a ploy to get him alone with Anna. It was Shaw’s way of telling him to finish the damage control he started.
“So we’re staying at the base?” Anna asked. Probably because the other two men walked away without answering her, she turned to him. “Is that where we’re spending our honeymoon?”
Forcing himself to move, he hooked his arm around her neck. “Nope. That’s a surprise, darling. We’ll just stay the night there in case the local cops need to talk to me about the shooting.”
At least that was probably how the plan would work. They would have to wait in quarters until he got further orders from Shaw.
“Look, I’m really sorry about what happened,” he told her. “For the shooting and that stupid thing I said earlier. I’ll do that groveling now if you like.”
He said it lightheartedly, but there was nothing humorous about the look that Anna gave him. However, it didn’t last long. By degrees, her expression softened. Or something. A frustrated sigh left her mouth, and she stepped into his arms as if she belonged there.
“I’m scared,” she confessed. “And I’m tired of feeling this way. I just want things to be normal again.”
Rafe automatically tightened his grip around her. “I know.”
“It was just such a shock when you called me Kate. I mean, you’ve never done anything like that before. I always think of you
