thinks they want revenge on my father and that they intend to use me to do it,” she said.
Her stomach clenched with dread at the thought. She never wanted to cause her father any pain. He’d already been through too much when he’d lost her mother so many years ago.
“We don’t know that for certain,” he said.
Maybe they didn’t intend to hurt her. Maybe they intended to hurt her father when they figured his guard would be down—when he’d be distracted with his daughter’s happiness. But he already knew his daughter wasn’t happy. He’d been so worried about her.
Now she was worried about him. Where was her father? Was he okay?
“You need to find my dad,” she urged him.
Gage shook his head. “I’m not leaving you.”
She would have been touched had she thought he actually cared. But he was only doing his job. She tried to remind herself of that when he turned her around and attacked the buttons of her gown again. She tried to remind herself that he wasn’t undressing her for the reason he’d undressed her so many times before.
He didn’t want her naked. He didn’t want her at all.
* * *
“Why would you say I’m in danger?” Penny Payne asked as she closed her office door behind Woodrow.
“You saw the gunmen.” He’d been watching her when she’d noticed them. That was why he’d pulled her aside before she could confront them. He wouldn’t have put it past her. She was that protective of her chapel and her brides.
But this particular bride was his responsibility. He would keep Megan safe. The only other person he would trust to protect her was Gage Huxton. While his quitting the Bureau and reenlisting had hurt Megan, Gage would never consciously cause her harm.
When Woodrow had seen Gage slip into the bride’s dressing room a little while ago, he had breathed a sigh of relief. Then he had guided Penny down the stairwell to the basement and the safety of her office. While Gage protected Megan, he would protect Penny—from herself.
“You don’t know them?” she asked. “You didn’t plant the waiter among my catering staff?”
“Why would I?”
“For additional security.”
“I didn’t think I’d need security for my daughter’s wedding.” And maybe that had been naive of him. There’d been an announcement in the paper, which had probably been like an advertisement for anyone harboring a grudge against him. Want revenge against Woodrow Lynch? Hurt his daughter on her special day.
“We need it now,” Penny said. “There’s only Nikki.”
“And Gage.”
Her thin shoulders slumped, and the corners of her mouth dipped down in a frown. “He left, remember?”
“He’s back.”
Despite the situation, she smiled that all-knowing smile that both infuriated and fascinated him. “I knew he wouldn’t be able to let her marry another man.”
Woodrow sighed. Now he understood what a hopeless romantic was. There was no hope of changing Penny’s mind about who she thought belonged with whom. “I think it’s more likely that he spotted the weapons, too.”
Penny was undeterred and smiled even brighter. “And he came back to protect her.”
“It’s not personal,” he insisted. “Gage was a soldier and an agent and now a bodyguard. It’s not in his nature to walk away from danger.”
For once Penny didn’t argue with him. Her mouth curved down again. “And that nature nearly got him killed. You need to call for more backup,” she said.
He held up his blank cell phone. Trying to get a signal had drained its battery. “I couldn’t get any reception. Now it’s dead.”
Penny stared at its black screen. “Why not?”
“You tell me,” he said. “I assume you have a cell signal blocker so no calls will interrupt weddings in your chapel.”
Color streaked across each of her delicate cheekbones. “I have one,” she acknowledged. “But I didn’t turn it on today.”
“You wanted Megan’s wedding to be interrupted.” He narrowed his eyes and studied her flushed face. “Is that armed waiter yours?”
“Of course not,” she said. “I didn’t want to disrupt Megan’s wedding. I would have turned on the signal jammer if she decided to go through with the ceremony.”
“But you were hoping that she would decide not to.”
“I don’t want her to make a mistake she’ll regret the rest of her life.”
“Have you?” he wondered.
“Have I what?”
“Made any mistakes you still regret?” He didn’t expect her to answer him since she never talked about herself.
But instead of changing the subject as she always had whenever he’d asked her something personal, she stared up at him, her usually warm brown eyes cool and guarded. And she replied, “Not yet.”
Was he a mistake she was considering making? He wanted to ask, but he couldn’t risk making a mistake of his own. Not now...
Not with his daughter and other innocent bystanders—and Penny—in danger. He had to act and quickly before more guests arrived at the church. There had only been a few early arrivals, besides those armed people. Unfortunately, they’d been aunts and uncles and cousins of his late wife, unarmed civilians who wouldn’t be able to help him protect the others.
If only some of his agents or Penny’s sons had arrived already...
“Where do you keep your signal jammer?” he asked.
“Nobody’s been in my office,” she said.
“Where do you keep it?” he persisted. God, the woman was stubborn. It was good that he’d decided not to ask her out—despite all the times he’d thought about it since meeting her. He’d picked up his phone a million times to call her. But something had held him back.
Fear. He was not good husband material. His late wife had told him that often enough. He had been consumed with his career, had spent so much time away. Of course that had ended when she’d gotten sick. His job was still just as important to him, though.
Like Penny’s job was to her...
She pulled a charm from the bracelet on her wrist—a tiny key—and slid it into a lock on a drawer built into the wall perpendicular to her desk. Instead of the drawer opening, the wall slid forward revealing a space behind it large enough for a glass case full of guns and the signal jammer. The industrial-style box jammer was closed and inactive.
“What
