break a bro rule. Or fall for anyone...
He was a bigger commitment-phobe than Manny and that was saying something. No. Something else about the blonde beauty had to be bothering Dane.
“If someone’s trying to get inside the church, it’s about the groom or bride, right?” Manny asked.
He had heard the story about the wedding party that had been taken hostage in the chapel, and that this groom had nearly died that day. Of course all of the hostage takers had died. None of them had survived to storm the church again.
That reason alone would keep anyone else from crashing this wedding. They wouldn’t survive if they tried to break in now, not with so many Paynes and other bodyguards present.
Dane must have come to that same conclusion because he shook his head and murmured, “No, if someone’s trying to get into the church, I think it has something to do with someone else....”
With Emilia Ecklund?
But why?
She’d already been abducted and held hostage for weeks. And the man responsible for that was dead. Who could be after her now?
Dane Sutton was staring at her through the glass, like she had begun to stare at herself in the mirror the past few days. With concern.
With fear.
She couldn’t look into his dark eyes anymore, but it was hard to look away from him, hard not to look at him. He was so big. So handsome...
His features were chiseled. His dark hair almost shorter than the standard military brush cut. He wasn’t on active duty anymore, but he still looked like a Marine. Still no-nonsense. To the point. That was why she hadn’t been able to look at him anymore and see the doubts she already felt.
Was she losing her mind? Obviously it had only been the other bodyguard checking the window earlier. Nobody was after her baby.
She forced herself to release him and hand him back to one of the irritated babysitters. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I saw the man.”
The girl nodded and took Blue from her.
Emilia had to get back to the wedding. But she couldn’t leave the nursery with the commotion she’d caused. Fortunately Penny—who thought of everything—had had the room soundproofed. Emilia must have left the door ajar when she’d rushed inside, or Dane wouldn’t have heard her scream.
While his assurance to check things out had momentarily made her feel better, now she wished he hadn’t heard her. He was certain to tell Lars how paranoid she was. And her brother already stared at her as if she was so fragile that she would shatter at any minute.
But she was stronger than that. She was capable. She didn’t want Lars or Penny to think otherwise. So to quiet the startled nursery, she began to sing. She sang a popular kids’ song from a musical she’d done in school.
The teenage girls looked more astonished now than they had when she’d screamed. The kids must have been equally surprised, for they’d all fallen silent with awe now.
Emilia smiled and headed toward the door. But then she saw that Dane had returned and was leaning against the jamb. He’d heard at least some of the song.
Heat rushed to her face, and she hurried past him. “I need to check on things now,” she murmured. “Make sure the ceremony is going well.”
Hopefully she hadn’t missed it. She wanted to see Penny get her happily-ever-after. The woman had planned so many for other brides that she deserved the happiest ever-after for herself.
Dane kept pace beside her in the hall. He was so big, so tall and broad and heavily muscled, and the hallway was narrow enough, that his arm brushed against hers. Once their hips even bumped. She felt an arc of awareness sizzle between them, which was ridiculous. As ridiculous as she had been to scream moments ago.
“Don’t you want to know what I found out?” he asked.
She sighed. “It was your friend,” she said. “The other one I saw standing outside with you. He must have been who I saw. He must have been checking the window.” She hadn’t been able to hear every word they’d spoken but enough, with their hand gestures, to get the gist. “I overreacted.”
“After what you’ve been through, that’s understandable,” he said.
She didn’t want his pity, didn’t want him looking at her the way Lars did. She wasn’t fragile or weak. She wasn’t crazy, either. “Penny had said she had a strange feeling.”
Dane cocked his head. “What?”
“You haven’t heard about Penny Payne’s premonitions?” she asked with shock.
He shook his head.
“She always knows when something bad is about to happen.”
“If she has that feeling today, maybe she shouldn’t be getting married.”
“This feeling wasn’t about her,” she said. The look on her boss’s beautiful face had been about Emilia. Emilia knew that.
Her own instinct was already warning her, so it was especially unnerving.
“No wonder you’re a little edgy,” Dane said.
A little was an understatement. She felt as if she might never sleep again, not without hearing that crying.
“It’s an important day,” she said. “I need to make sure everything goes well.” And she’d nearly blown that by screaming down the church.
Dane must have been the only one outside the nursery who’d heard her, otherwise her brother would have been there. Dane looked away from her now, and she saw that his hand was near his tuxedo jacket, as if he were about to reach for his weapon.
“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
“You were right,” he said. “Manny did check the window. But it was when he first got here.”
She tensed now. “And when was that?”
“Over an hour ago.”
“So there was someone there when I thought I saw someone?”
He stared at her as if wondering if he could believe her, if he could believe that she had really seen anything at all. She had as many doubts as he had. But she stopped and turned back toward the nursery.
He caught her arm. “You had things to check on,” he reminded her. “The ceremony...”
She shook her head. “Nothing is more important than my son.” She would never let him down again. She couldn’t risk losing him. “I need to watch over him.” Or get him the hell away from the church.
But were they any safer at home?
Were
