as it made a creaking noise. He listened for sound from inside, but anything he might have heard was masked by the traffic noise behind him. He was going to have to risk taking a look. Edging closer, he stuck his head inside the truck.
Out of the darkness, a foot slammed against his forehead, knocking him backward into the gas pump. As he struggled to keep his feet, a small, half-naked figure leaped from the truck and tried to dart away.
He caught a slender bare arm and held his assailant in place, despite her fierce struggle. She was small, curvy and deliciously hot, and for a second, all sensible thought leaked out of his head as his body reacted to finding her soft body pressed so intimately to his.
The flailing, red-faced creature was Evie Marsh. Her eyes were swollen nearly shut, but that didn’t keep her from pounding him with her fists and feet as she tried to escape his grasp.
He shook her. “Evie, it’s Jesse.”
She froze, her body flattening against his, sending his head reeling again. “Jesse?” Her voice was a painful rasp.
He stared at her streaming eyes and dragged his mind out of his jeans. “What did they do to you?”
“Pepper spray,” she growled. “Get me out of here now!”
He darted another quick look around the cab of the truck. The door to the food mart was open, the two men from the truck emerging with large cups of coffee. The driver locked eyes with Jesse and went instantly on alert.
“Go!” Jesse half carried Evie across the gas-pump island to his car and shoved her into the passenger seat. Driven by the sound of pounding footsteps racing across the gas station lot toward him, he slid across the hood and half dived behind the steering wheel.
So much for a clean getaway.
He jammed the key into the ignition, bracing himself for gunshots that didn’t come. Leaving the gas station in a hurry, he turned in front of an oncoming car, barely escaping a collision in a flurry of squealing brakes and a few choice gestures from the other driver.
In the rearview mirror, he spotted the truck fifty yards back, barreling toward them. He slammed the accelerator to the floor.
“Are they behind us?” Evie turned in the passenger seat, squinting.
“No way can that truck catch us.” The extra weight of the truck would give Jesse the advantage, but if he didn’t keep other vehicles between him and the truck, a high-powered rifle could quickly even the playing field.
He also had the advantage of knowing the back roads of Chickasaw County better than their pursuers, whipping the Ford Taurus down a pothole-pocked blacktop road. The road cut past Mill Pond, where he’d caught one of the biggest bluegills he’d ever seen, and twisted up the southern face of Gossamer Mountain. Over the hill lay Gossamer Lake and home.
He checked the rearview mirror frequently. No sign of the truck.
“Do you have any water?” Evie tried to stifle a cough.
Jesse reached into the backseat to retrieve the bag of supplies he’d packed for his stakeout. He handed Evie a bottle of water from the bag, and she flushed her face and eyes. “Someone grabbed me at the church. Sprayed me right in the face with pepper spray. I couldn’t even catch my breath long enough to yell for help.”
“How about now? You breathing okay?”
“Mostly.” She coughed again. “I’m better.”
He pulled out his phone and dialed his brother Rick’s cell number.
Rick answered on the first ring. “Where are you?”
Jesse caught his brother up on what had happened. “I’ve got Evie, but I’m not sure I should take her back to the church. Can you call Evie’s cell number? Someone will answer and you can tell them Evie’s safe.”
“I’m not ruining Rita’s wedding!” Evie protested.
Jesse slanted a quick look at her. “That can’t be a consideration, Evie. You know that.”
“Am I your prisoner?” she shot back, her glare lethal even through swollen eyelids.
“You think putting yourself and the rest of your family at greater risk is going to make her happier?” Jesse argued.
“Take me back to the church, Jesse.”
“Take her to the church,” Rick said. “We’ll meet you there.”
Jesse pressed his lips into a thin line, every instinct telling him to stash Evie in the nearest safe house. But was he letting his affection for Rita’s kid sister get in the way of his good sense? He needed Baxter Marsh’s cooperation now more than ever. Spiriting his daughter away without even consulting him was hardly going to win him over.
“Okay,” he said aloud, ignoring the twisting sensation in his gut. “We’ll go back to the church.”
* * *
“Y OU CAN ’ T POSTPONE the wedding.” Evie looked at her sister in dismay. “All that money going to waste? It’s ridiculous.”
Rita’s lips curved in a faint smile. “Trust you to look at it from an accounting perspective.”
“Rita, please. If you postpone it now, we let those creeps win.”
“You can’t walk down the aisle when you can barely see, Evie.” Rita winced as she looked at Evie’s face. “And I know you were looking forward to being my maid of honor.”
“I was looking forward to your getting married to a man who makes you happy,” Evie answered, even though her sister was right. She had been looking forward to being her sister’s maid of honor.
Their relationship over the years hadn’t always been close, especially during the teenage years when Rita had resented her younger sister’s constant tagging along, and Evie had been jealous of Rita’s being first to do everything. But they’d forged a strong bond over the past few years, and being her sister’s chosen attendant had been a big deal to Evie.
“Oh, Evie,” Rita murmured, her eyes filling with tears.
“I want you to marry Andrew and be disgustingly happy for the rest of your life. That’s all that matters.”
Rita’s gaze slanted to her left, where Jesse Cooper stood near the wall of the bride’s room, a silent sentinel. Evie wondered what her sister was thinking about her ex’s presence. She had tried to warn Jesse that coming into the bride’s room with her might not be the best idea, but he’d refused to let her out of his sight. Apparently he’d assigned himself to be her personal bodyguard, and he took the job very seriously.
“I should thank him,” Rita said, reluctance thick in her voice.
“It’s not necessary. He lives for this kind of thing.”
Rita’s lips curled upward again. “I know.”
Evie supposed she did. Jesse Cooper hadn’t changed much in the past ten years, despite his change of careers. The
