They were discreet with them. A man dressed like a waiter carried one in his duffel bag. Another man, dressed like a guest, carried one beneath the trench coat he wore over his suit. There was a woman, too, with a purse that was big and—from the bulge inside it—heavy.
Heavily armed...
After Gage had realized who the bride was, he’d thought Penny’s claim about her being in danger had just been a ploy, a manipulation, to enlist him as the bridal bodyguard. But Penny hadn’t been lying about Chief Woodrow Lynch. He had a lot of enemies, maybe even more than Gage.
And if those enemies wanted to hurt him, they would go after his daughter. Megan was the one with whom Woodrow had always had the most special bond, and he was so protective of her. So if his enemies really wanted to get to him, they’d go after Megan.
She wasn’t his only family at the church, though. A minivan pulled up front and parked between the catering van from which the armed waiter had stepped out, and the long black car from which the armed wedding guests had exited. The side door slid open, and three little blond girls tumbled out. They were dressed in miniature versions of Megan’s lacy white dress. The sunlight sparkled off the rhinestones, but they didn’t seem to shine quite as brightly as Megan’s.
Megan sparkled. But it wasn’t just the dress. It was her eyes—those fathomless dark eyes—and her heart-shaped face.
God, she was beautiful.
She couldn’t see it herself, though. She had no idea what she actually looked like. Whenever she looked in the mirror, she still saw the chubby girl from her adolescent years with the bad complexion and glasses. Gage had only seen that girl in old photos. There was nothing of her left in Megan the woman.
One of the little girls looked like Megan must have when she was chubby—with rosy, round cheeks. The little girl was cute. She was also heading toward the church, her sisters running after her. Gage didn’t want them any closer to the danger. He rushed down the stairs to head them off.
“Wait, girls,” he said. “Wait for your parents.”
“My aunt Meggie’s getting married,” one of the girls told him.
No, she wasn’t. Now Gage had a reason to stop the wedding. He just hoped he had time. No way could he let Megan’s nieces get inside the church. “You have to wait out here,” he told them.
The chubby one shook her head. “We’re late. Mommy made us late.”
The man who stepped from the driver’s side hurried after his daughters. “Don’t let them inside,” Gage warned him. “Get them down here.”
While he’d dated Megan, he’d met her brother-in-law. With a headstrong wife like Ellen, Peter was used to doing as he was told. He corralled his kids while his wife came around the front of the van. Her eyes widened when she saw Gage, and a little scream slipped out between her lips.
He hurried toward her. “Ellen, shh...”
He didn’t want her drawing the attention of the armed arrivals. He also didn’t want her falling on her face, since she looked like death. Ellen was usually so vivacious, with rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes. Now she was paler than her light blond hair, and her eyes were dull. She swayed, and he caught her.
“You look as bad as I do,” she murmured.
“You should’ve seen me a few weeks ago,” he replied. He’d finally started to gain back some weight and muscle. And he’d managed to get some sleep.
“We should’ve seen you the minute you got back,” she said. “You’re not dead.”
“No.”
“Does Megan know?”
He nodded.
“So I didn’t have to drag myself out of bed to attend a wedding that’s not going to happen...” She leaned heavily on the front of the van.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked.
“I thought it was the idea of my baby sister marrying that dweeb Richard that was nauseating me,” she replied. “Now I think it’s another pregnancy.” She shot a glare at her husband.
Gage had no time for congratulations or diplomacy. “You need to leave,” he said.
She sighed and admitted, “I would have liked to stay home. I fully intended to bail on my matron of honor duties. But Megan’s my only sister.”
Ellen had always treated her more like her oldest child than her sibling, though.
“She’s not getting married,” Gage assured her. “You can go back home. And take your family.”
She shook her head. “They want cake. Even if there’s no wedding, there is already food here.” She gestured toward that catering van.
Gage wasn’t so sure that they had brought anything other than weapons. He needed to find out. He also needed to call for backup bodyguards and police. But when he pulled his phone from the pocket, he found no signal. It would’ve been like Mrs. Payne to have some cell signal jammer so no ceremony would be interrupted in her church.
“And if there is no wedding,” Ellen continued, “there will be explanations to make.” She narrowed her blue eyes and stared up at him. “What’s the reason the wedding is canceled, Gage?”
He had no time for explanations, either. He just leaned closer and whispered, “Something’s going on, and you don’t want your family in the line of fire.”
Her eyes widened now, and her face paled even more. “My family is already in the line of fire,” she said. “My dad and baby sister are already in the church.”
Gage’s stomach lurched. He had to get them out—alive—before the gunmen made their move.
If they hadn’t already...
He had no time to drive far enough away that he could get a call out for backup. And he certainly had no time to wait for them to arrive. He had to get back into the church and make sure Megan wasn’t in danger.
* * *
Megan’s heart slammed against her ribs, and she backed up into the dressing room, trying to put distance between herself and the barrel of that gun. She raised her hands. “What do you want?”
The woman holding the gun was dressed in a navy blue bridesmaid’s dress. But she wasn’t one of Megan’s bridesmaids. She had never seen the woman before, although with her curly auburn hair and brown eyes, she looked familiar.
The gunwoman stepped inside the room and shut the door. As she did, she pointed her weapon toward that closed door.
Megan didn’t breathe a sigh of relief that it was no longer directed at her. Her breath was stuck yet in her lungs, burning.
“What do you want?” she asked the woman again. And why was she dressed like a bridesmaid? Megan didn’t have any besides her sister. She’d wanted to keep the wedding small, probably because she really hadn’t wanted one at all.
“I
