apartment, especially as damaged as it was from the gunfire—the window shattered and drywall dust sprinkling down from the holes in the ceiling, covering the furniture and the hardwood floor.
“Then grab your charger,” Logan advised, “and whatever else you need.”
“I already have a bag packed.” She grabbed a suitcase out of her closet. She’d already had it packed for her honeymoon, which was nothing more exotic than a hotel suite—with separate bedrooms—at an inn on the Lake Michigan shore just outside the city. She had left more lingerie in her drawers than she’d packed, and she was the only one she’d figured would see it. That wasn’t going to change just because her groom had.
“I’ll take that,” Logan offered, reaching for her suitcase.
Cooper finally spoke, asking, “Where are you taking her?”
“Safe house,” his brother replied.
He arched a dark brow. “Are you going to tell me where?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Logan said. “You’re not staying there. Parker’s taking you to another safe house.”
He groaned in protest. “Why can’t I just go home?”
“Because Mom gave me orders to make sure both the bride and the groom stay alive to make it to the church tomorrow.”
“I don’t need Parker to keep me alive,” Cooper said, his male pride obviously wounded.
Tanya remembered how hard he had struggled to be his own man growing up—instead of the shadow of his older brothers. She suspected it was why he’d joined the Marines instead of going into the police academy.
Logan snorted. “I know that. I need Parker to keep you away from Tanya.”
Her pulse quickened with excitement. Did his brother think that Cooper was attracted to her? Maybe she hadn’t been the only one who’d wanted that kiss—that kiss that never happened...
“Mom gave me all kinds of orders based on wedding superstitions,” Logan said, “that the bride and groom need to spend the night before the wedding apart or they’ll have bad luck.”
Tanya laughed now and then flinched at the brittle sound of her own laughter. She probably was on the verge of hysteria brought on by the events of this horrible, horrible day, and by exhaustion. “Bad luck? Mrs. Payne is worried we’ll have bad luck?” Another hysterical laugh slipped out. “Like we haven’t already? My groom has been...abducted! I’ve nearly been run down and I’ve been shot at,” she reminded them as if the shattered glass and the holes in her ceiling weren’t reminder enough. “What else could go wrong?”
Logan pointed out the obvious. “You or Cooper could get killed.”
Her stalker obviously wanted to stop her wedding. So Tanya had no doubt that there would be more attempts on her life and—if the stalker had figured out that Cooper was her new groom—on his, too, before the night was over.
She suspected the night would seem endless, unless it ended—forever.
* * *
“YOU WERE NOT supposed to come here,” Parker protested as Cooper unlocked the door and stepped inside the condo unit. “This is not the safe house.”
Cooper flipped on a switch before stepping inside. “I don’t need a safe house.”
“Those shots could have been meant for you,” Parker pointed out.
He shook his head. “After the car tried running over Tanya? No, the shots were meant for her.” Had they been fired high just to scare her? Or had they actually been meant to kill her? His guts clenched with dread and fear. “Are you sure she’s safe with Logan?”
Parker laughed. “Have you been gone so long that you’ve forgotten who Logan is? Logan Payne always keeps his word. If he promised he would keep her safe, he will keep her safe. It’s you I’m worried about...”
“Me?” Cooper asked, confused by his brother’s concern. “I told you the shots weren’t meant for me.”
“If someone’s figured out you’re standing in for the groom, they could have been. Look what happened to Stephen.”
“We don’t know what happened to Stephen,” Cooper reminded him. “That’s why we’re here.” At Stephen’s condo.
“I’ve already been here,” Parker said.
The unit was in a high-security high-rise complex. The condo’s living room was enormous and its kitchen gourmet with dark cabinets, granite countertops and industrial appliances. Even if she didn’t inherit her grandfather’s money, Stephen could offer Tanya a much better life than Cooper could. If he could be found...
“But when you were here, you were looking for Stephen.”
“And anything that might lead us to him,” Parker added. “We didn’t find anything.”
Cooper picked up a laptop from the coffee table. “Did you look at this?”
Parker shook his head. “It’s password protected.” He took the computer. “Nikki might be able to crack it, though. But what’s she going to find? His kidnapper wouldn’t send an email to Stephen. He’d send it to Tanya.”
“We don’t know that this is a kidnapping.” He was beginning to think it less likely with every minute that passed without a ransom call being made.
“We don’t know what the hell this is...”
And looking around Stephen’s place didn’t reveal any more clues. There was no blood here. No signs of a scuffle at all.
There was a suitcase open on Stephen’s bed. But he hadn’t packed it as Tanya had hers—for their honeymoon. Had he changed his mind? Had he gotten cold feet?
There were no pictures of his fiancée in Stephen’s bedroom. The only photo of her anywhere was in the second bedroom that he must have used as an office. It wasn’t even the engagement photo of the two of them. It was a photo of the three of them—Stephen, Tanya and him—at their high school graduation, clad in their caps and gowns. He and Stephen had worn maroon and Tanya was in white, standing in the middle of the men, like a candle in the dark.
Had she come between them literally? Maybe it was simple jealousy that had brought on Cooper’s doubts...
“Nice picture,” Parker said. “I noticed it earlier.”
“It’s old.” And staring at it made Cooper feel old. “Where are the recent photos of them? Of Tanya?”
“Maybe on his phone?” Parker mused. “I take them with mine and never bother printing them off.”
Cooper nodded. He did the same when he cared enough about something to take photos, like of his squad. Or some of the Afghani children. Or the countryside that had actually been quite beautiful...
“Nobody found his phone,” Cooper recalled.
“It
