About the Author

Ever since LISA CHILDS read her first romance novel (a Mills & Boon of course) at age eleven, all she ever wanted to be was a romance writer. Now an award winning, best-selling author of nearly fifty novels for Mills & Boon, Lisa is living the dream. Lisa loves to hear from readers who can contact her on Facebook, through her website www.lisachilds.com or snail mail address PO Box 139, Marne, MI 49435.

Beauty and the Bodyguard

Lisa Childs

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-04032-7

BEAUTY AND THE BODYGUARD

© 2016 Lisa Childs

Published in Great Britain 2020

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Table of Contents

Cover

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

About the Publisher

For Kimberly Duffy – with great appreciation

for all your years of friendship. Without your

support and your wonderful sense of humour,

I don’t know how I would have survived all

the ups and downs in my career and in my life.

Thank you!

Prologue

How the hell had he survived? It wasn’t possible. It just wasn’t possible…

But the proof was in the photo. Sure, he looked different. Then again, who wouldn’t, after what he’d been through? He’d been tortured to death. At least Derek had thought he’d killed the man…

Cockroaches were like that, though; they could survive the most extreme extermination attempts. The only thing they couldn’t survive was getting crushed.

The picture crumpled in a big fist. He better be enjoying his last moments of life—because he wasn’t going to stay alive. And this time when he died, he would damn well stay dead.

Derek Nielsen hurled the wadded-up photo against the bars of his cell. An alarm rang out. He hadn’t set it off—directly. But indirectly he had. The alarm was sounding because of him, according to his carefully orchestrated plan.

This was it—his escape.

With a buzz and a clank, the cell door slid open. He slipped through it like other prisoners stepped through theirs. They were confused, though, standing in the hall outside their cells. Derek hurried past them. He knew where he needed to be: the laundry room. He had only minutes to get to the vent leading out from one of the commercial dryers. After his efforts, it was big enough now for him to crawl through and escape.

Derek would be out soon to the vehicle that waited outside for him. The one that would slip through the gates and bring him to freedom.

Derek wouldn’t be returning to prison, although he fully intended to commit another crime. He was going to kill the man responsible for sending him to jail.

Chapter 1

Gage Huxton had survived six months in hell for this? Since becoming a bodyguard on his return from Afghanistan, his assignments had been a mixed bag. His first job with the Payne Protection Agency had been to protect an elderly lady with Alzheimer’s, who had only been in danger from her disease and not her imagined threats.

But then he had also been assigned to follow the man who was now his brother-in-law. That job had nearly gotten Gage killed. But he had survived being shot at and nearly run down.

He wasn’t sure he would survive this: wedding duty. He slid a finger between the bow tie and his skin, trying to loosen the stranglehold it had on him. An image flashed through his mind, of a noose tightening around his neck, squeezing off his oxygen until oblivion claimed him. But, unfortunately, oblivion had never lasted. He grimaced as he remembered other horrors.

“Are you okay?” a soft voice asked him.

He blinked away those horrific images and focused on Penny Payne. She sprang up from her chair and walked around her desk in the office in the basement of her white wedding chapel. It was in River City, Michigan—where his friend Nick had moved and where Gage now lived.

Not wanting to worry her, he jerked his chin up and down in a quick nod.

Her brown eyes warm with affection and concern, she stared up at him. “You look very handsome in the tuxedo.”

He probably should have shaved the scruff from his jaw so he’d fit in more with the wedding guests when they arrived. But he hadn’t had the time or the inclination. “I must be crazy,” he said.

“Why’s that?” she asked, and now there was a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

“To let you talk me into playing a bouncer for your wedding business.” Penny was his boss’s mother, so he probably hadn’t had much choice. But it hadn’t been any easier for him to tell her no than it probably would have been for her son.

She reached up, and he reacted as he did whenever someone moved to touch him. He flinched. Sympathy dimmed the usual brightness of her smile. “Gage…”

Instead of pulling back as so many other people did, she gently laid her palm against his cheek. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

He shook his head and dislodged her hand. “I don’t want pity,” he said. “I just want to do my job.”

“That’s not what—”

He forced a smile. “It’s okay.” Nobody had known how to react to him since he’d been back. So maybe it was good that not many people knew he’d survived.

“Where do you need me?” he asked. “Do I need to make sure the bride and groom’s mothers don’t get into a catfight?”

Penny’s smile dimmed more, and she replied, “The bride’s mother passed away years ago.”

“That’s too bad.” He didn’t see his mother often since she and his dad had moved to Alaska, but he could call her anytime. He rarely called, though; he didn’t want to worry her. “So no catfights between the mothers. What about the bridesmaids?”

Penny’s lips curved into a bigger smile. “Why do you sound almost hopeful?”

He chuckled. “Just looking for the upside in this assignment.”

“Cake,” she told him, and she patted his cheek again as if he was a little boy she was promising a treat if he behaved. Her kids were grown now, but she had raised three boys and a tomboy pretty much on her own. So she knew how to handle kids.

He wasn’t a kid, though. He hadn’t been one for a long time—not since he’d joined the Marines at eighteen a decade ago. Then there had been that stint with the FBI. But he didn’t like to think about those days, because then he inevitably thought about her.

The hell he’d endured the past six months was nothing compared to what she had put him through. No. He would rather think about the horrors of his six months in captivity than about Megan Lynch.

He exhaled a ragged breath and shook off all the memories. He had to leave the past in the past—all of it, but most of all Megan.

“So,” he said as he focused again on the present. “You want me to guard the cake?”

Dessert was probably all anyone considered him capable of protecting yet. Why else had he been assigned wedding chapel duty?

Penny shook her head. “Of course not. You have the most important job here.”

He narrowed his eyes and studied her, wondering if she was patronizing him. “And what’s that?”

“Guarding the bride, of course.”

“Guarding her?” He couldn’t imagine what danger she might be in, but then he had no idea who she was. “Or do you mean making sure she doesn’t run?”

He wouldn’t blame her if she did. He would never risk his heart on love again. But then he no longer had a heart to lose. Megan had destroyed it.

Penny sighed. “I almost wish she would…”

“The groom’s a tool?”

She shook her head. “He seems nice.”

So maybe the bride was a bridezilla. “Why does she need protecting?”

“Her father is a very important man,” Penny said, and as she said it, her face flushed.

“Who’s her father?” he asked. And more importantly, why had the fifty-something-year-old widow reacted with a blush at the very thought of him?

“He’s a man who’s made some enemies over the course of his career.”

Gage should have picked up one of the programs from the basket outside the chapel. He’d passed it on his way downstairs to Penny’s office. Then he would know the names of everyone in the wedding party. But he’d wanted to get his assignment before any of the guests arrived.

Now he had it: bridal protection.

“So he thinks some of these adversaries might go after his daughter during her wedding?” The guy had made some seriously ruthless enemies if that was the case.

Penny nodded. “He’s the kind of man who wouldn’t care what someone did to him.” Her face flushed a deeper shade of red.

Who was this guy to her? Apparently, someone she knew well. How well? Just how closely did Penny work with widowed fathers of the brides?

She continued, “But if someone hurt his daughter…”

Gage understood. His best friend, Nicholas Rus, had thought that someone was going after Gage’s sister for vengeance against him—because Nick loved Annalise and she had always loved him. But that hadn’t been about revenge, at least not against Nick or Annalise.

“If this guy has so many enemies,” Gage said, “why am I the only one from the Payne Protection Agency here?” Especially when he knew his boss didn’t trust that he was at a hundred percent yet. But Logan Payne wasn’t the only one who thought that; Gage didn’t entirely trust himself.

He was getting better, but it was still a struggle to sleep, to suppress the flashbacks, to forget the pain…

Penny tilted her head and stared up at him. “You’re the bodyguard the bride needs.”

Gage’s stomach lurched as realization suddenly dawned on him. And even without reading the program, he knew who the bride was. Penny had given him enough clues. He should have figured it out earlier. Hell, he should have figured it out when Penny asked him to help out at the chapel. He’d known she was planning a wedding for someone he’d known. Or at least, he’d thought he’d known her.

He guessed the wedding wasn’t all Penny Payne had been planning. Nick had warned him that she was a meddler. Her kids might not mind that she meddled in their lives, but he damn well minded.

He shook his head. “No…”

“Gage,” she beseeched him.

But he just shook his head again, refusing the assignment. He didn’t care if Mrs. Payne went to his boss and got him fired. He couldn’t protect this bride—not when he was the one against whom she most needed protecting.

“He’s gone,” Penny said.

Woodrow Lynch released a ragged breath and closed her office door behind him. “That’s probably for the best.”

“How can you say that?” Penny asked, her usually soft voice sharp with indignation. “She’s miserable.”

“She’s miserable because of him.” Anger coursed through him as he thought of the pain Gage Huxton had put his daughter through. Some of it had been inadvertent, like getting captured.

But the rest…

Quitting the Bureau.

Reenlisting.

Those had been Gage’s choices.

“Yes.” Penny stalked around her desk to stand in front of him. She was so petite despite the heels she wore with a silky bronze-colored dress. Her eyes were nearly that same color bronze. Her hair, chin length and curly, was a deeper shade of brown with red and bronze highlights. She was beautiful. She was also infuriating as hell. The woman always thought she was right.

And even more infuriating was the fact that she usually was.

“So, it’s for the best that she move on,” Woodrow said.

It had to be for the best, because the wedding was due to start in less than an hour. And he would rather walk his daughter down the aisle to a man who would not make her miserable.

Penny shook her head and tumbled several locks of hair into her eyes. The curls tangled in her long lashes. Instinctively, he reached out to extract them, but her hand collided with his. Her skin was as silky as her hair. Her fingers trembled beneath his, and she pulled away from his touch and stepped back until his hand fell away from her face.

He’d known her long enough—had attended enough weddings in her chapel—that he’d seen how warm and affectionate she was. With everyone else…

With him she was guarded and skittish. Usually. Right now she was also annoyed.

“Megan can’t move on,” Penny said, “unless she has closure.”

“Are you speaking from experience?” He hadn’t meant to ask the question. It had just slipped out, probably because he’d wondered for a while why she had never remarried after her husband died sixteen years before.

Her big eyes narrowed. “We are not talking about me.”

She never did. He’d noticed that, too. She only talked about other people: her kids, his agents and now his daughter.

“Our concern should be only about Megan,” Penny continued. “I’ve never worked with a more miserable bride.”

Now he narrowed his eyes with indignation and pride. “Are you saying that she’s difficult?”

“Of course not,” Penny said. She reached out, almost as if she couldn’t help herself, and touched his arm. She probably only meant to reassure him about his daughter. But then she added, “She’s sad. So sad…”

He shouldn’t have been able to feel Penny’s touch, not through his tuxedo jacket and shirt, but his skin tingled as if he’d felt the heat and silkiness of her skin against his. What the hell was wrong with him?

Maybe he’d been single too long. Like her, he’d lost his spouse. She had died, more than twenty years ago, when their girls were little. But he didn’t need closure—or anything else—but his daughters’ happiness. Ellen was older and settled with a good husband and three beautiful little girls.

But Megan…

He’d always worried the most about Megan and never more than when she got involved with Gage Huxton. She’d fallen so hard for him that it was inevitable she would get hurt.

“She’s marrying a good man,” Woodrow insisted. He wasn’t too proud to admit that he’d used Bureau resources to check out the kid. He was a computer nerd—as introverted and shy as she was. “They’re perfect for each other.”

They’d met in college, in a computer class. They’d been friends for years before they’d started dating. They hadn’t been going out very long before Gage had swept her off her feet.

Damn Gage…

Penny shook her head.

“They are perfect for each other,” he insisted.

“It doesn’t matter how compatible you are,” she said, “if you’re not in love.”

“Love is what made her miserable,” Woodrow said. He could relate to that. Love had made him miserable as well. “Compatibility is more important in a marriage—wanting and expecting the same things. That’s what will sustain a relationship.” And not send one outside the marriage looking for something else.

“Are you speaking from experience now?” she asked.

He wished. He shook his head. “We’re not talking about me.”

“No,” she agreed. “Megan, and her happiness, is our only priority. You need to tell her that Gage is alive.”

“Why?” he asked.

Nothing good would come of her knowing the truth; it wouldn’t change anything. She and Gage had broken up nearly a year ago—before he’d quit the Bureau, before he’d reenlisted, before he’d gone missing in action.

Penny’s grasp on his arm tightened. Her hand was small but strong. He felt her grip and the heat of her touch. “She deserves to know before she marries another man that the man she really loves is alive.”

He hadn’t seen Gage yet. But Woodrow’s former agent and Gage’s best friend, Nicholas Rus, had warned him. Gage had come back alive, but he hadn’t come back the same.

Woodrow shook his head. “No, the man she loves is gone.” And maybe it was better that she never learned the truth.

Megan Lynch stared into the oval mirror, studying the woman reflected back at her. Wasn’t she supposed to look beautiful? Weren’t all brides?

The gown, while not her style, was certainly eye-catching. With twinkling rhinestones sewn onto the heavy brocade, it sparkled. The lacy veil was beautiful and softened the sharp angles of Megan’s face and hid some of the severity of the dark hair she’d pulled into a tight knot to tame. But she didn’t look beautiful. She shouldn’t have expected that she would; she had never looked beautiful before. Why should her wedding day be any different?

No matter how much makeup the beautician had applied, the dark circles were still visible beneath her dark eyes. Tears brimmed in them, but she blinked them away. She wouldn’t feel sorry for herself anymore. She had done enough of that the past several months. She’d nearly drowned in self-pity and guilt.

The knob rattled as someone turned it and began to open the door to the bride’s dressing room. She hurriedly tugged the veil over her face to hide the hint of tears she couldn’t quite clear from her eyes. They kept rushing back—every time she thought of him.

She had to stop thinking about him. He was gone. But even if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have ever come back to her, not after what she’d done. She had to stop thinking about the past and focus on the future, not that she deserved one.

Because he didn’t have one…

Marrying Richard was the right thing to do. He’d always been there for her. Even after she’d broken up with him, Richard had remained her friend. And when her heart had been broken, he’d tried to piece it back together. Eventually, he had even accepted that there was no patching a heart as shattered as hers. He’d insisted that their friendship was a stronger and safer foundation for a marriage than love.

Safe had sounded good to her. And there was no one safer than Richard. He was quiet and shy and nervous and cautious. He wouldn’t put himself or her in any danger for any reason. He would always be there for her—like he’d always been.

Not like Gage…

The door opened fully, but she didn’t turn toward it. She suspected it was her matron of honor, who was supposed to have arrived with the beautician an hour earlier. Her sister, Ellen, was always late. She also had three little girls she’d needed to get ready besides herself, though.

Megan’s heart swelled with love for her nieces. They and the kids she worked with every day made her yearn to have children of her own. She wanted to be a mom like her sister—loving and fun.

She didn’t remember her own mom. Dad had been both a father and mother to her.

Since whoever had entered was quiet—it couldn’t be her sister and nieces. It had to be her dad.

“So what do you think?” Megan asked as she focused on the mirror again. The lace distorted her vision, so she nearly saw it: the beauty of being a bride.

But then a shadow stepped behind her. It was tall and dark in a black tuxedo. The mirror showed only his long legs and his chest. He was too thin to be her father. Too tall to be Richard. She had no idea who he was until he stepped closer yet. Then she saw his head—the short golden hair, the bright green eyes, the darker blond stubble on his jaw…

Just how badly had the veil distorted her vision? Who was she mistaking for a dead man?

Her hands trembling, she fumbled with her veil, pulling it back so she could focus on the apparition. She whirled around to face him.

It couldn’t be…

Gage was dead. He had died months ago, his body lost in some foreign country. But that hadn’t stopped her from seeing him everywhere, every time she’d closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

She shouldn’t be seeing him here—not on her wedding day to another man.

“No…” she murmured. Her knees trembled and weakened, threatening to fold beneath her. “No…”

Chapter 2

“So what do I think?” Gage repeated her question. He thought he’d been punched in the gut. The minute he’d opened the door and seen her—sparkling like a vision in white—all his breath had left his lungs. His chest burned, his ribs ached. He felt like he was getting the life pounded out of him all over again.

Her usually honey-toned skin was pale except for the dark circles beneath her enormous eyes. With her sharp cheekbones, small pointed chin and wide dark eyes, she appeared fragile—vulnerable. He knew she was tougher than she looked, though. She’d been tough on him when she’d broken up with him. Then she swayed on her feet, as if she were about to faint.

Instinctively, he reached out to catch her, closing his hands around her waist. She was thinner than she’d been when he’d seen her last. Maybe she was one of those brides who’d been starving herself to fit into her gown, to look good for her wedding photos and her groom. Maybe that was why she trembled in his grasp.

From starvation…

He preferred the sexy curves she’d had over her new svelte figure. She’d been perfect as she was.

Her breath escaped in a gasp. “You’re real…” she murmured. “You’re alive…”

As he realized what she’d thought, he chuckled. “You’re not seeing a ghost.”

“I thought—everyone thought—that you died in Afghanistan.”

“I was presumed dead,” he said, “but I was just missing.” Missing everyone back home, but most especially her. She had obviously not been missing him at all, though. She’d been dating, getting engaged.

Anger coursed through him, making him shake like she was. His hands tightened around her tiny waist. “So what do I think,” he mused again. “I think you make a beautiful bride, Megan Lynch.”

He had once planned on asking her to be his; he’d even bought the ring. But he had never gotten the chance to give it to her before she’d broken up with him, before she’d broken him.

She flinched as if he’d insulted her. But she’d never been able to accept a compliment as anything but a lie. She’d actually accused him of lying to her, of using her.

His blood heated. This was why he couldn’t protect her—because he wanted to hurt her—like she had hurt him, like her marrying another man was hurting him all over again. “So let me be the first to kiss the bride…”

He gripped her small waist and dragged her up so her feet dangled above the floor. She gasped in shock, her breath whispering across his lips as he lowered his mouth to hers. Her lips were as soft as he remembered, her taste as sweet. He had missed this so much. He’d missed her. He deepened the kiss. Pressing his lips tightly against hers, he slid his tongue into her mouth.

A moan rumbled in her throat. And her hands clasped the back of his head, her fingers sliding over his short hair. She stilled as she touched one of the scars. Those wounds hadn’t hurt, though, at least not in comparison to what she’d done to him.

Remembering the pain she’d caused him, he dragged his mouth from hers. Then he lowered her until her feet touched the floor again. When he released her, she swayed and her palm pressed against his chest. His heart leaped beneath her touch, and she must have felt it because she jerked her hand away.

“Gage,” she murmured, and she stared up at him as if she still couldn’t believe he wasn’t an apparition. Then her gaze scanned him, over the tuxedo he was wearing, the damn bow tie choking off his breath.

“Why are you here?” She looked both fearful and hopeful, and he realized what she thought.

A chuckle of bitterness slipped through his lips. “Don’t worry,” he assured her, “I’m not here to stop the wedding.”

“Then why are you here?” she asked.

“I work for a security firm now,” he said. “The Payne Protection Agency. Penny hired me to make sure nothing stops this wedding from happening.” Actually, he suspected just the opposite—that she had imagined some romantic reunion between him and Megan. Since she was a wedding planner, she probably believed in romance and happy endings and all that stuff Gage had given up on nearly a year ago.

There would be no happy ending for him.

Like she had so many times before, Penny tugged the dress over Nikki’s head and zipped her into it. “Thank you, honey, for helping me out.”

Nikki grimaced. Like she had a choice…

Like anyone could say no to Penny Payne. Even Gage Huxton hadn’t been able to, and he could have come up with more excuses than Nikki had.

Her small hands gripping Nikki’s shoulders, Penny spun her around to face her. “You look beautiful.”

After having three boys, Penny must have been very happy to finally have a girl so she could dress her up like a doll. But having three brothers, Nikki hadn’t wanted anything to do with dresses or dolls. She’d wanted to play the sports her brothers had played. She’d wanted to wrestle and fight. She couldn’t do that in the dresses Mom had constantly tried to zip her into then—or now.

“Mom…”

Penny’s palm cupped her cheek. “I know you don’t want to be, but you are beautiful.”

Her face flushed, but she couldn’t deny that she was beautiful—not without insulting her mother. She looked exactly like Penny.

“I want to be taken seriously,” she said. And that was hard when she looked like the doll her mother treated her like she was. She was petite and delicate looking with big heavily lashed eyes. And now her mother had zipped her into a blue satin dress so she looked like a curly auburn–haired Barbie doll.

“I want you to be happy,” Penny said.

“I am,” Nikki insisted.

But her mother just gave her a pitying smile. Penny didn’t think it was possible for Nikki to be happy unless she was all in love like her brothers were. Her brothers had been lucky to find their perfect mates. Nikki didn’t think there was anyone out there who would be perfect for her.

She’d once thought another man had been perfect—her father. Of course she only had a child’s memories of him, since he’d died when she was nine, so she’d idealized him. When she’d learned that he had cheated on her mother, Nikki had been more upset than Penny had been. Her mother had been able to forgive him. Nikki couldn’t.

Nor could she trust any other man.

“Well,” Nikki amended her statement, “I’m not happy to be here.”

“I appreciate your helping out,” Penny said.

“What happened?” Nikki asked. “Why did a bridesmaid get tossed out of the wedding party? Did she sleep with the groom?” And the stupid bride had forgiven him but disowned her friend?

Penny shook her head. “The matron of honor. She’s sick. Either food poisoning or…”

“Or? Regular poisoning?”

Penny laughed. “You’re hopeless. You’d rather think of the worst than the obvious.”

To Nikki, the worst was the most obvious. “What is the obvious?”

“She’s pregnant.”

Nikki groaned. Fortunately, she wasn’t as fertile as the women she knew, like her sisters-in-law and apparently the sick matron of honor. Of course she’d have to actually be involved with someone to have the possibility of becoming pregnant. And she wasn’t going to risk that again. She’d had boyfriends, even a fun fling or two. But despite what her mother thought, she didn’t need a husband or a family.

“And no one else could fill in for the sick matron of honor?” Nikki asked.

Penny shrugged. “I didn’t bother to find out.”

That wasn’t like the wedding planner who always went the extra mile to make sure the bride’s special day was extra special.

But then Penny always enlisted Nikki before any of her other kids to help out at the chapel. She’d probably expected her only daughter to go into the wedding planning business with her instead of into the bodyguard business with her brothers. Even before she’d learned of her father’s betrayal, Nikki had never had any interest in weddings.

“Is there any particular reason you want me to step in as maid of honor?”

“It’s because of the bride,” Penny said. “She’s Woodrow Lynch’s daughter.”

Woodrow? The first name basis caught Nikki by surprise. “Do you mean Chief Special Agent Lynch? Nick’s old boss?” Her half brother had been an FBI agent before he’d recently quit to join the Payne Protection Agency.

Her mother’s face flushed slightly, and she nodded.

How did that make this bride special? And she obviously was to Penny. Nikki had never seen her mother so worried about a wedding, not even the one she’d planned as a ruse to flush out a sadistic serial killer.

“Do you think she’s in danger?” Nikki asked. Had her mother enlisted her not as a dress-up doll to play wedding party but as a bodyguard?

Penny’s teeth nipped her bottom lip, and she nodded. “I have a feeling…”

Nikki’s blood tingled with excitement and nerves. Her mother’s feelings were legendary, because they were rarely wrong. If Penny Payne thought the bride was in danger, then Ms. Lynch was definitely in danger.

Megan was scared. Even though she lived a relatively boring life as a school librarian, she knew fear well. She had been very frightened when she’d broken up with Gage. She’d had a horrible feeling then that she was making a mistake. And when he’d reenlisted and been immediately deployed…

She’d been scared out of her mind that something would happen to him. Even worse, he’d gone missing and had been presumed dead…

She had nearly lost her mind. She wasn’t that scared now, because she knew what she had to do. She was going to thwart Gage’s assignment. There was no way she was going through with this wedding.

Minutes ticked away on the clock hanging on the yellow wall of the bride’s dressing room. She was still alone inside—although she didn’t feel alone anymore. While Gage had been gone for long moments, his presence was palpable in the room, which was another reason she needed to leave it. She needed to find the groom’s dressing room and tell him that she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t marry him.

She shouldn’t have accepted Richard’s proposal in the first place. While he was okay that she wasn’t in love with him, she wasn’t. As he had convinced her, it was safer to marry someone you didn’t love. There was no chance of getting your heart broken. But then there was no chance of passion, either. She’d had that passion with Gage.

While she’d had boyfriends before—Richard and a couple of high school boys before him—she’d never felt the passion she had with Gage. Only with Gage…

The first moment she’d met him—during a Super Bowl party at her father’s house—she’d been overwhelmed by attraction.

He was tall, with broad shoulders and heavily developed muscles. He had looked like a gym rat—then. But not now…

While he’d looked good—damn good—in the black tuxedo, he’d also looked thinner than Megan had ever seen him. What had he endured throughout those long months he’d been missing?

She wanted to know. Most of all she wanted him every bit as much as she’d wanted him that day they’d first met. When she’d closed the refrigerator door to find him leaning against the side of it, she’d thought he was big then, towering over her.

But he wasn’t just big physically.

It was his personality that was so big. His voice carried to the point where she’d been able to hear him above the other men gathered in the family room around her father’s enormous TV. She and Ellen had bought him that TV for Mother’s Day because he’d been both mother and father to them. She’d been invited to sit around that TV, too, but she’d been too shy to join the group of rowdy guys to whom her father had introduced her when she’d come home from a short and boring date with Richard.

Gage Huxton was the rowdiest with his booming voice and his even louder laugh. Or maybe he was the one she heard because he was the one she’d thought the most handsome with his golden-blond hair and smoky green eyes.

She’d never seen a more beautiful man. And, thanks to her father being bureau chief, she’d met some good-looking guys over the years. But they had never noticed her; they’d never sought her out like Gage had in the kitchen.

“Do you need something?” she’d asked him. “More beer?” Her father had a bar in the family room, but the fridge was small. With that many guys, they had probably already emptied it.

He’d shaken his head. “No.”

“Food?” she’d asked.

Her father was an excellent cook. He’d had to be, or they would have starved. But maybe he hadn’t made enough for the number of guys who’d showed up at their house.

Gage had shaken his head again. And there’d been something in his eyes, a wicked glint that had had her pulse racing.

“Then what do you need?” she’d asked.

He’d stepped closer then, so close that he’d towered over her, until he’d leaned down. His mouth tantalizing close to hers, he’d murmured, “You…”

She’d laughed at him then because she’d thought he was just trying to be funny. Because men like him, men that beautiful, were never interested in girls like her. Chubby girls with unmanageable hair.

“I’m not kidding,” he’d told her.

She’d laughed harder then, though it had sounded high-pitched and a little hysterical. “I have a boyfriend.”

“Dump him.”

“Why would I do that?” she’d asked.

“Because of this…” And then he’d kissed her. For the very first time in her life she’d experienced real passion. Her flesh had heated. Her heart had pounded so hard and so fast. Other parts of her had reacted, too—like her nipples tightening. Like the pulse that beat in her core, throbbing as pressure built inside her.

She’d never felt anything like it before. She’d felt it every time he’d kissed her or even looked at her. She’d felt it just moments ago when he’d kissed her.

She had never had that passion with Richard, and she never would. No. She couldn’t marry him. This wedding was not going to happen.

She had to tell him. Now. Before the wedding began…

She lifted her arms and tried to reach the buttons behind her back. They were too small, though. Penny Payne had buttoned her up before the beautician had arrived. And even she had had to use some kind of tool, which she’d taken with her. Megan couldn’t get out of her dress alone. Of course Ellen still wasn’t there.

Her sister was beyond late now. Maybe she didn’t intend to show up at all. She hadn’t agreed with Megan marrying Richard. A loving and biased older sister, Ellen was convinced that Megan could do better. She wasn’t a Richard fan. She had been a Gage fan.

But they had thought Gage was dead…

She cursed and gave up the struggle with her dress. It wasn’t as if seeing her in it would give her and Richard bad luck in their marriage. They weren’t getting married. She’d hoped to slip out of the room and across the church unnoticed. If she wasn’t wearing the huge dress Richard had designed and made for her, she wouldn’t have been noticed at all. People rarely looked at her. And no man had ever looked at her like Gage had.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she reached for the knob and pulled open the door. And fear washed over her all over again.

She wasn’t afraid of telling Richard she wasn’t going to marry him. She was afraid of the gun pointed at her—afraid that it might go off and bore a hole right through that wedding dress and through her.

Of course she’d already had a hole inside her—where she’d lost her heart to Gage.

Now she was about to lose her life…

Chapter 3

Once Gage had realized who the bride was, he hadn’t thought about the rest of what Penny Payne had said. He hadn’t believed then that the bride could be in any danger aside from making a mistake.

She’d made her biggest mistake nearly a year ago. Or maybe it had been before that, when she’d let him kiss her that first time.

Maybe that had been the mistake she’d made.

Gage had nearly made one himself. He’d started to leave the church. Again.

He’d started leaving once after he’d refused Penny’s assignment. But he hadn’t been able to walk past the bride’s dressing room without looking inside to see Megan. That had been a mistake, seeing her in that sparkling white gown.

Now he couldn’t get the image out of his mind. He’d thought stepping outside would help him clear his head. But he’d been seeking not just fresh air but also an escape. Six months of captivity had made that his first instinct. He’d had no intention of going back inside, either. He’d endured enough torture. Watching Megan marry another man would have been him torturing himself.

He couldn’t do it.

But he couldn’t leave, either.

Not when he noticed the guns.

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 want to protect you,” the young woman replied.

“What are you?” Megan asked. “A bridesmaid or a bodyguard?”

“Bodyguard,” she replied quickly and emphatically.

“I already have one of those.” According to Gage, it was the only reason he was at the church. “And I don’t need that one.”

The young woman shook her head and tumbled those auburn curls around her delicately featured face. “Yes, you do.”

She did. But she wouldn’t admit it. She didn’t need Gage for protection, though. “I’m not in any danger.”

“There are guys coming into the chapel concealing weapons.”

Megan snorted. “My father is an FBI bureau chief. All of his agents were invited to the wedding. They don’t go anywhere without their guns.”

They had all come armed to that Super Bowl party nearly two years ago.

“I know your dad’s agents,” the woman replied. “These people aren’t them.”

Megan’s blood chilled. “Then who are they?”

The woman shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe people with a beef with your dad.”

Megan bristled. “Why would anyone have a beef with my dad?” He was an honorable man—a fair man.

The only person she could think who’d had a problem with him had been Gage when he’d quit the Bureau. But that hadn’t really been because of her father; that had been because of her.

“He’s put away a lot of criminals,” the woman replied. “Any of them could want revenge.”

“Of course…” Megan murmured, embarrassed that she’d been so naive. Of course there were criminals who wouldn’t appreciate how good her father was at his job. “But why here? Why now?”

“Your wedding announcement was in the paper,” the pseudobridesmaid reminded her. “It provides a great opportunity for anyone looking for vengeance.”

“But…”

“Don’t worry,” the woman assured her. “I’ll protect you.”

She was armed, but it sounded like the other people might have more weapons.

“How are you going to do that?” Megan questioned her.

The woman’s dark eyes narrowed, as if she thought Megan was questioning her abilities.

“If none of those gunmen are my dad’s friends, then you’re outnumbered.” Even if Gage hadn’t left…

“I have a plan,” the woman replied. “You need to take off that dress.”

Megan couldn’t agree more.

“No one can know that you’re the bride.”

She wasn’t the bride, because she had no intention of getting married. “You’ll need to help me,” Megan said. “I can’t undo all the buttons.”

The woman lifted the skirt of her own dress and slid her gun into a holster strapped to her thigh. “Turn around.” But she only fumbled for a few moments before cursing. “Damn it, I should have paid more attention when I’ve helped Mom out with weddings.”

That was why she’d looked familiar. She was the spitting image of her mother. “You’re Penny Payne’s daughter.” Mrs. Payne had said that her sons were bodyguards. She hadn’t mentioned that her daughter was as well.

“Nikki,” the young woman replied.

“I’m Megan,” she said.

“I know,” Nikki replied.

She sounded like her mother—like a woman who knew everything except how to get Megan out of the heavy, constrictive wedding gown. She continued to fumble with the tiny buttons, but she only managed to undo a couple of them.

“Cut it off me,” Megan urged her. She grabbed a pair of scissors that had been left on the vanity table.

“That won’t work.”

“Of course it will.” She didn’t even care if she got cut in the process. She just wanted it off. Now. And it had nothing to do with fear of any suspiciously armed men. It had to do with fear of making a horrible mistake.

Again.

“I won’t be able to put it on if it’s ruined,” Nikki replied.

“Why would you want to wear it?” She turned to face the woman.

Nikki shuddered. “Not because I want to get married. I want to act as a decoy.”

“For me?” Megan asked. “You won’t pass for me.” The other woman was beautiful.

Nikki wrinkled her forehead. “Why not?” she asked. “We have the same coloring and build.”

Megan shook her head. Her hair was darker, her body heavier. There was no way she looked like the beautiful bodyguard.

“You’re a little curvier,” Nikki admitted. “But with how heavy this dress is, no one will notice.”

Megan suspected plenty of people would notice. But she didn’t care as long as she wasn’t the one walking down the aisle. “No one will notice if you snip a few of those buttons off,” she said.

“You really want out of this dress,” Nikki observed.

“When you came in, I was just getting ready to cancel the wedding,” Megan said. “I can’t go through with it.”

“Gage?”

Nikki Payne might have been like her mother. Penny had pried out of Megan how much she’d loved another man—and how she’d lost that man when he’d gone missing in action and been presumed dead. But she’d lost Gage long before he’d been deployed again.

“Where is he?” Megan wondered.

He’d vowed to make sure no one would stop the wedding from taking place. If he’d noticed the men Nikki had noticed, he might have taken them on—alone. He might have put himself in danger—again.

Nikki sighed. “I don’t know. But I could use his help. I left my phone in my mom’s office when she enlisted me as your maid of honor.”

“Ellen canceled.” She wasn’t surprised. Her sister hadn’t wanted her to marry Richard.

She had no other bridesmaids. She hadn’t wanted a big wedding; it was her father who’d convinced her to get married at Mrs. Payne’s little white wedding chapel.

Nikki continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “So I couldn’t call for backup before I hurried in here to make sure you were safe. Do you have a phone?”

Megan shook her head. “Your mom took it from me when I got here,” she said. “She wanted to take all my calls to make sure nobody would bother me.”

But then she’d enlisted Gage Huxton—who bothered her more than anyone else ever could—as her bodyguard.

Why?

What had the older woman hoped would happen? A happy reunion?

Gage hadn’t been happy to see her at all. He was still mad at her. Earlier, that had upset her. But it gave her some comfort now. With as mad as he was, maybe he wouldn’t risk his life to protect her. Maybe he wouldn’t put himself in any danger.

Nikki cursed. “I need to call for backup.”

“Then forget about the dress and let’s get out of here,” Megan suggested.

Nikki shook her head. “You can’t leave this room—not in that wedding gown.”

“You can leave,” Megan said. “Go—call for help.”

Nikki shook her head again. “I can’t leave you in here alone,” she said, “and unprotected.”

Her pride stinging, Megan lifted her chin and said, “I’m not helpless. I can take care of myself.” She was Woodrow Lynch’s daughter. When she and Ellen had barely been able to walk, their father had taught his daughters self-defense maneuvers as well as other ways to protect themselves.

“Do you have a gun?” Nikki asked.

“No,” she admitted. She would have had to carry it in her purse, and she spent too much time at her sister’s—with her young nieces—to risk that. They went in her purse all the time looking for gum. But she gripped the scissors. “I have these. I’ll be fine. You go call for help.”

“A good bodyguard never leaves her subject unprotected,” Nikki said.

A good bodyguard would have made certain the door was locked, too. But they both tensed as the knob rattled and began to turn.

Nikki fumbled with her holster, but she didn’t have time to draw her gun before the door opened. She cursed and stepped between Megan and whatever danger might be coming through the door.

But Megan doubted the petite bodyguard would be able to protect her from a real threat. Was there a real threat?

Blood had been shed in her wedding chapel before. A groom had been assaulted and abducted. Another man had died.

Brides had been threatened.

Penny’s notorious instincts were telling her that there was another threat. Just as she’d told Gage, Megan Lynch was in danger. When she’d told him that, Penny had thought the only real threat had been of Megan making a mistake—of marrying a man she didn’t love.

Penny’s chapel was so successful because she ran it well. She knew every waiter on the catering staff, so she immediately recognized the one who didn’t belong. She also recognized the guests who hadn’t been invited. It was obvious none of the other early-arriving guests knew them. If they had ever worked for Woodrow, someone else would have recognized them. And they were armed—just like the unfamiliar waiter.

So who were they? And why had they brought guns into the chapel?

She couldn’t tell if any of the other guests who’d arrived early were armed. Most of them were older, though. Probably great-aunts or -uncles of the bride or groom. If any were Woodrow’s agents, they probably hadn’t thought they needed to bring their weapons. Penny wished they would have.

Because the only person she knew for certain was armed was Nikki. She’d seen the holster when she’d helped her into the bridesmaid dress.

And Gage…

But where was Gage? Had he left like he’d threatened he would? He’d claimed he wanted no contact with Megan again. But if he was that angry and bitter yet, his emotions were still involved. Megan still affected him, hopefully too much for him to have just walked away.

Woodrow hoped he had. But he was an overprotective father. Too overprotective for him to not have noticed the people sneaking weapons into the wedding.

So where was Woodrow?

She scanned the foyer of the church, looking for him and for Gage. But before she could find either, a strong hand gripped her arm and a deep voice murmured in her ear, “You’re in danger.”

Chapter 4

Feeling like he’d been sucker punched, Gage gasped for breath. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d already seen Megan in that damn dress. But it was still a shock—more of a shock than Nikki Payne pulling a gun on him. Everyone knew that Nikki was trigger-happy.

He was damn lucky she hadn’t shot him.

“Just your usual amount of jumpy?” he asked. “Or did you notice the armed arrivals, too?”

Her hand shaking slightly, Nikki holstered her weapon beneath the skirt of her bridesmaid dress. He’d had no idea that she and Megan were even friends. But then he’d been gone a long time.

“I’m glad you noticed them, too,” she remarked. “So you called for help?”

He shook his head. “Did you?”

“When she asked me to step in for a sick bridesmaid, I left my phone in Mom’s office,” she replied. “Where’s yours?”

He held up the useless cell. “No signal. Your mom must have a jammer so her ceremonies don’t get interrupted because someone forgot to shut off their phone.”

Nikki sighed. “What doesn’t she think of?”

“Armed gunmen,” Gage replied.

“No, she has a plan for those, too.”

Gage drew in a deep breath. “That’s good,” he said. “We need a plan.”

“We need backup,” Nikki said as she opened the door a crack and peered out into the foyer. “How many did you spot?”

“I made three,” he said. “But there could be more.” If they were seeking revenge against Woodrow, there would be more. They would know that they’d need an army to take down Chief Special Agent Lynch. “I told Megan’s sister to call Nick.”

Maybe she’d been frozen with fear. Maybe she’d just been confused by the exchange between Gage and Nikki. But Megan finally spoke, her voice raspy as she asked, “Ellen is here?”

“Not anymore,” he assured her. “I told her and her husband and the girls to leave.”

“The girls…” Her soft voice cracked with fear, and she trembled.

He found himself reaching for her, his hands lightly grasping her shoulders so she didn’t fall. “They’re gone,” he said. “They’re safe.”

She peered up at him, skepticism in her dark eyes. “Ellen listened?”

He hoped like hell she had. He’d warned her that if she didn’t follow his instructions, she would put her sister and dad in more danger.

Ellen wouldn’t have wanted that. Gage didn’t want Megan in any danger. Hell, he just wanted her. His palms heated and tingled from the contact with her shoulders. Only thin lace sleeves separated her skin from his. He stepped back and dropped his hands back to his sides.

“She wouldn’t put the girls in danger,” he reminded her. She had definitely left with her husband and kids. But he didn’t know if she’d listened to him, if she’d called only Nick.

If she had called 911 like she’d mentioned, she risked getting them all killed. When the gunmen heard sirens wailing, they might just open fire. Hopefully, she would do as he had directed: call Nick and tell him to do nothing until Gage contacted him.

Nikki’s face had paled, too. “I hope Nick doesn’t call Logan. If they all rush in…”

Gage shook his head. “I told her to have him sit tight until I—or someone else from inside the church—make contact with him. So we need your mom to shut off that damn cell jammer.”

Nikki nodded. “Yes. You need to find her.”

Gage’s heart constricted as fear squeezed it. “No. You need to.” He wasn’t leaving Megan, not when he was certain that she was in danger now.

“I have to stay here,” Nikki said. “I have to get her out of that dress.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because nobody can know she’s the bride,” Nikki said, as if he was an idiot. And maybe he was, because getting her out of the dress was pretty obviously the easiest way to protect her. They had to disguise her.

“I would be out of it,” Megan said, “if you would have used the scissors.”

Nikki shook her head. “Then I won’t be able to put it on and switch places with you.”

Gage already knew Nikki was smart. She’d helped Nick figure out why someone was really after him and Annalise. He was impressed as hell that she’d already come up with a plan to protect Megan. His only instinct had been to get to Megan and get her out.

But just like police couldn’t come in with sirens wailing, he couldn’t sneak Megan out in that damn sparkling gown without drawing attention, either. And if, as he suspected, the armed people were here for her, they wouldn’t let him just walk out with her without one hell of a fight.

“You get word to Nick,” he said. “I’ll get Megan out of the gown.”

Nikki nodded in agreement before opening the door and slipping out into the foyer. She disappeared before Gage fully realized what he’d agreed to do: he was going to undress Megan.

“Wait,” Megan called out, her voice a faint croak in her suddenly dry throat. But Nikki Payne was already gone, leaving her alone with Gage.

She would rather have taken her chances with the armed gunmen. After all, there were only three of them. That wasn’t nearly as dangerous as one Gage Huxton.

“She’ll be okay,” Gage assured her.

She flinched from a pang of guilt. Of course she should have been concerned about Nikki’s safety. “She seems pretty tough,” she said. Despite her petite size.

“She has three older brothers,” Gage said. “Four, actually, with Nick.”

“I know,” Megan said. “Mrs. Payne—” The wedding planner was insistent that Megan use her first name. “Penny has told me all about her sons. And she counts Nick among them.”

Even though she hadn’t given birth to him. While Megan knew someone else who’d loved a child that wasn’t really his, she still considered Penny Payne to be very special. Megan had realized that the first time they’d met. Penny was intuitive and empathetic. She’d understood Megan’s pain—her grief over thinking Gage was dead—because Penny had lost her husband. But Gage wasn’t Megan’s husband, and she doubted that he would ever be.

“Penny’s great.” Gage’s mouth curved into a faint grin. “And her sons, they’re good guys. They’ll come with Nick for backup. It’s going to be okay.”

Megan released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Of course everything was going to be okay. She wasn’t even convinced that they were really in danger. Nikki and Gage could have been overreacting.

But she somehow doubted that.

“You’ll still be able to get married today,” Gage continued.

Maybe she would be able to, but she had no intention of exchanging vows. She couldn’t promise to love any man but Gage. He didn’t want her love, though. He apparently didn’t even want to touch her.

But then his hands were on her shoulders again. He didn’t hold her, though. He only turned her so that her back was to him. Then his fingers skimmed down the line of buttons on her back. “Nikki didn’t undo many of these,” he mused.

Just enough that she could feel the brush of his fingertips across an inch of her spine. She suppressed a shiver of reaction. She had always reacted to his touch.

“They’re tiny,” she said. Every fitting with the seamstress had taken so long, just getting her in and out of the dress.

“They’re also slippery as hell,” he said with a grunt.

They were clear, either crystal or glass, like the sparkling rhinestones on the bodice of the gown.

“And it’s like the holes are too small for them,” he mused. “I can’t get them through.”

Her hand shaking, she held up the scissors again. “I think you just need to cut it off.”

He stepped around her, his brow furrowing as he stared down at her. “Why would you want to destroy your wedding gown?”

Because it wasn’t really her gown…

She never would have chosen anything so ostentatious for herself. She’d wanted simple and elegant, like the gown her mother had worn. Her father had even taken it out of storage for her. Megan hadn’t wanted lace. And certainly no rhinestones. In the elaborate, sparkly gown, she felt more like a beauty contestant than a bride.

“I just want it off,” she murmured as panic began to overwhelm her. She didn’t care about the possibility of armed gunmen in the church. She just didn’t want to get married. Now or ever…

It wasn’t as if she needed a husband to have children. She could be a single parent. Like her father had been. Like Penny Payne.

“Don’t worry,” Gage assured her. “Nikki and I won’t let anything happen to you. She has a good plan, switching places with you.”

She wasn’t as convinced as they were. “Putting her in danger in my place—that’s not a good idea.”

“Nikki’s tough,” he reminded her.

“We don’t need to go to all that trouble,” she said. “We can just cancel the wedding.”

He shook his head. “I told you that I’d make sure the wedding happened.”

She shivered now, but it wasn’t in reaction to his touch; it was because of the coldness in his eyes and his voice. He hadn’t changed his mind. He wanted her to marry another man, probably any man but him.

“But if those people brought guns in here to stop the wedding…”

His brow furrowed more. “We don’t know why they brought guns in here.”

“Nikki 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 the hell?” he murmured, in awe of the hiding place and the equipment and guns she’d stowed inside it.

“This church has a lot of history,” she said.

He suspected not all of it had been good. She’d been married there. He wasn’t sure if that had been a good or bad union.

“There are other hiding places,” she said. “And a secret passageway that leads to the little courtyard out back.”

“That’s good,” he said. “You can leave that way.” But were there other armed gunmen outside? Would they see her if she escaped that way?

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving.”

“We need backup,” he reminded her. “And since you’re not the one jamming the signals, someone else is.” Someone who’d planned to cut off communication to the church.

She turned back toward her desk and opened a bottom drawer. “I have a landline, too,” she told him.

He was surprised. Smartphones were more useful, especially for businesses.

She had an old-school kind, the console with the cord attaching the receiver to it. No wonder she put it in a drawer, so it didn’t take up too much of the surface of her whitewashed oak desk. When she put the receiver to her ear, her brow furrowed. “There’s no dial tone.”

That didn’t surprise him. If the gunmen had gone to the trouble of jamming the cell signals, they would have made certain to cut the landline, too. And they probably had reinforcements stationed outside. He couldn’t send her out alone to the courtyard.

He needed reinforcements of his own.

Penny’s eyes widened—looking even bigger and darker—as her face paled. And the woman who usually had all the answers asked, “What are we going to do?”

Something shifted in Woodrow’s chest, squeezing his heart. He reached for her—intending to offer her only comfort from the fear gripping her. But her lips parted on a soft gasp, and he had the sudden urge to taste them.

To taste her…

Before he could lower his head to hers, the doorknob rattled. Someone had found them. Would he have time to draw his weapon and protect them?

Chapter 5

Frustration knotted Gage’s stomach muscles. The damn little buttons were driving him crazy. His fingers were too big to grasp them, let alone push them through the little loops wrapped tightly around them. The edge of the glass or crystal was sharp, scraping his fingertips. He glanced at the scissors she’d set on the vanity table.

“I should cut it off,” he said.

“You should,” she eagerly agreed.

But he liked Nikki’s plan to change places with the bride. Hell, maybe he just liked it because Megan would no longer be the bride. He shouldn’t care that she was going to marry another man. While he’d once considered asking her to marry him, he never would again. She’d said she hadn’t loved the man he’d been. She certainly wouldn’t love the one he had become. “We can’t.”

He’d been at it for long moments and had only undone one button. They were spaced so closely together that even with the couple that Nikki had undone, only a little more than an inch of Megan’s skin was visible through the slight opening.

Megan was never comfortable showing much skin. She always dressed in layers. Skirts with tights beneath and tall boots. Blouses buttoned to her throat with sweaters over them. She dressed like the librarian she was. For some reason Gage had found that super sexy. Just like he’d always taken his time unwrapping presents, to draw out the anticipation and excitement, he’d taken his time getting Megan out of her clothes.

He’d toyed with the zippers on her boots before lowering them and pulling them off her curvy calves. He’d taken his time with the buttons on her cardigan sweaters and on her blouses beneath them. Even with the layers, she’d never had as many buttons as this, though.

And at least then his efforts had been rewarded. He’d been able to stroke and taste all that honey-colored skin he’d exposed. He’d been able to elicit soft moans and cries from her as she’d pressed her hot, naked body against his.

Remembering the sensations—the heat, the tension, the pleasure—had a groan slipping from his throat.

“Use the scissors,” she told him.

But his frustration wasn’t with the buttons. It was with the fact that even if he managed to undo all those buttons, he wouldn’t be able to kiss and touch the skin he exposed. She wasn’t his anymore.

She’d never really been his, because she’d never trusted him. She’d never trusted what they’d had. Or she wouldn’t have accused of him using her.

“I can’t…” he said.

She tilted her head and peered over her shoulder at him. “Can’t cut it off?”

He couldn’t keep thinking about what they’d had, what they’d done to each other. How he hadn’t ever been able to get enough of her.

Heat rushed through him, making his blood warm, his skin tingle. He’d bared less than an inch of her silky skin, but he wanted her as obsessively as he’d always wanted her.

Maybe it was her shyness that had appealed to him the first time they’d met. When her father had introduced them, she hadn’t met his gaze, and she’d ignored his outstretched hand, hers shoved deep into the pockets of her skirt. Used to women seeking his attention, flirting with him, he’d been intrigued by the novelty of Megan Lynch. She’d challenged him.

And Gage had never been able to walk away from a challenge…until the end. Until he’d realized there was no way he would ever win her trust or her heart.

He just shook his head.

And her face paled. “You’re giving up again?”

“Again?” he asked. “When did I give up before?”

Unless she was talking about them. But she’d given him no choice then.

Now color flushed her face. “You quit the Bureau.”

After they’d broken up, he hadn’t been able to work for her father. Not only would it have been awkward but it would have killed his pride. He’d learned what everyone thought of him—that he was doing the boss’s daughter in order to get ahead. Megan had believed those vicious rumors. So maybe that was another reason he’d quit, to prove her wrong.

“I had my reasons,” he reminded her.

She jerked her chin up and down in a nervous nod. “I thought it was my fault. The reason you quit, the reason you reenlisted, the reason you…” Her voice cracked, cutting off whatever she’d been about to add.

“The reason I what?”

“Got killed,” she said. “I thought you were dead.”

And she’d blamed herself. He shouldn’t have been surprised, though. He’d blamed her, too. Getting mad at her had eased some of his pain.

“I didn’t die there,” he said. He wasn’t so certain that he wouldn’t here, though. He glanced to the door, wondering if those armed people were out there yet, waiting to force their way inside.

“Do you think it’s that dangerous?” she asked.

He didn’t have Penny Payne and Nick Rus’s notorious instincts or he wouldn’t have fallen for Megan in the first place. Nor would he have spent six months in captivity in Afghanistan. But maybe those six months had helped him develop some kind of sixth sense as well.

Because he knew Megan Lynch’s wedding day wasn’t going to end well—for anyone.

She expelled a shaky breath. “You do…”

“Nikki has a good plan to switch places,” he said. But Nikki had been gone a long time. Had one of those gunmen taken her out?

He pulled his cell from his pocket and glanced at his blank screen. She hadn’t gotten the jammer turned off yet. They still had no backup. No way of knowing if Ellen had even been able to reach Nick.

Gage flashed back to those six months that he’d spent wondering if anyone was going to come to his rescue, if they knew where he was or even that he was alive.

They hadn’t. There had been no help coming. So he’d had to rely on himself. Then. And now.

“We need to get you out of here,” he said. Maybe it was time to cut off the wedding dress. He reached for the scissors.

But she caught his hand, her fingers sliding over his. “No.”

“It was your idea,” he reminded her.

Her face flushed. “I know. But now I don’t think it’s a good idea…”

He thought he understood, even though it knotted his stomach, this time with dread. It was still her wedding gown. She must have been having second thoughts about destroying it.

“You want to wear it again,” he said. “For Richard.”

“Richard.” His name slipped through her lips on a gasp. “Richard—what if he’s in danger?”

Gage didn’t give a damn. But then guilt flashed through him. Richard Boersman had never done anything to him. It had been the other way around. Gage was the one who’d stolen Megan from Richard. But he hadn’t been able to keep her.

“You really think anyone has a beef with Richard?” he asked with disbelief. “I’m sure he’s perfectly safe.” There was no doubt why she’d agreed to marry him. Richard was safe and boring and dull, and she didn’t have to worry about him breaking her heart like she’d constantly worried Gage would.

The irony was that she’d broken his instead.

She squeezed Gage’s hand around the scissors. “Please make sure he’s okay.”

“I’m not leaving you,” he said. If he walked away and left her alone and unprotected, he might never see her again. And he couldn’t risk that.

Couldn’t risk never seeing her beautiful face again, never touching her soft skin…

His free hand moved up to cup her cheek. He skimmed his thumb along her chin and tipped up her face. Then he began to lower his head…just as the doorknob rattled. Someone was trying to get inside.

Déjà vu. Nikki wasn’t like her mother or half brother with all their premonitions and instincts. She hadn’t ever experienced any psychic phenomena until now. Now she had that weird sense of déjà vu. Walking inside the bride’s dressing room gave Nikki the exact same feeling she’d had walking inside her mom’s office just moments ago. And she murmured, “I keep interrupting.”

Gage tensed, and his hand tightened around the weapon he’d drawn from beneath his tuxedo jacket before opening the door for her. “What did you interrupt? Are they making a move?”

She suspected that Woodrow Lynch had been thinking about making one on Penny before Nikki had burst into the basement office. But Penny hadn’t been very happy with the man for drawing a gun on her only daughter. She’d been even unhappier with him when he’d agreed with Nikki’s plan to switch places with his daughter.

If something happened to her, she doubted her mother would ever forgive the FBI chief. So she had to make sure nothing happened to her.

She shook her head. “Not yet.”

“What do they want?” Megan asked.

Nikki exchanged a glance with Gage. They were both pretty sure they wanted the bride. Even Woodrow and Penny had agreed about that.

“It doesn’t matter what they want,” Gage said. “We’re not going to let them get it.” He held up his cell. “It’s completely dead now. Didn’t you find your mom’s jammer?”

“It’s not hers.”

He sucked in a breath.

“Her landline was cut, too.”

Still standing guard at the door, he opened it a crack and peeked out. “Where are all the guests?”

“The wedding isn’t supposed to start until noon,” Megan said. “We have a half hour yet.”

“People usually arrive a half hour early,” replied the daughter of the wedding planner. Nikki had grown up knowing about weddings—and never planning to have one herself.

Even before she’d learned about her dad’s betrayal, she’d never wanted a husband of her own. She’d had enough males in her life with her overprotective brothers. Occasionally, she got lonely, though…

Occasionally, she missed that kind of tension she’d felt in her mother’s office and when she’d walked into the bride’s dressing room. Then again, she wasn’t certain she’d ever felt that kind of tension herself.

“Do you think they have someone posted outside the doors?” Gage asked. “Turning guests away?”

“They’ve planned this out,” Nikki said. “So yeah, probably.”

“Wouldn’t that draw suspicion?” Megan asked.

“They’re probably telling everyone the wedding was canceled,” Nikki said. “And the guests who know about your past—” she jerked her thumb at Gage “—and his return from the dead probably wouldn’t question it.”

“But how would those gunmen know about that—” her face reddened as Megan asked “—about us?”

Unless…

Maybe this siege on the church wasn’t about revenge on the bride’s father. Maybe it was about revenge on the bride’s ex-lover.

Because it was clear that hurting Megan would hurt Gage. Nikki narrowed her eyes and studied Gage’s face. He was even tenser now than when he’d opened the door to her, his handsome features so tight his face looked like a granite mask—hard and sharp—like his green eyes.

He’d obviously considered the same thing she had. And he didn’t like it.

“It doesn’t matter,” Nikki told them both. “What matters is everyone getting out of here alive.”

Gage looked at her then, his glance one of pity for her naïveté. She wasn’t so stupid that she hadn’t considered the other alternatives. She already knew there was a strong possibility that they wouldn’t survive.

Then she would never experience that tension she’d felt in her mom’s office and in this room. But you couldn’t miss what you’d never had.

She held up the one useful item she had retrieved from her mother’s office.

Gage stared at the small tool. “What the hell is that?”

“Crochet hook,” she replied. “This’ll get those buttons undone.”

“That’s what your mom used to do it up,” Megan said. And she released a ragged breath, as if the dress was constricting her lungs. Maybe it was. It looked tight and heavy and uncomfortable as hell.

Nikki couldn’t wait to get it on and put her plan into motion, even though it could quite possibly be the last thing she would ever do.

Megan jerked away as Nikki reached for her. Sure, she wanted out of that dress—so badly that she hadn’t even cared if Gage was the one to cut it off her. But it was different now, different since he’d nearly kissed her again.

Wasn’t that what he’d been about to do before Nikki had started turning the doorknob? He’d been lowering his head, and his eyes had gone dark, the pupils dilating as he’d stared down at her. He’d looked like he’d wanted to kiss her, just like he’d looked that first day in her father’s kitchen.

Now that all the old memories and feelings and longings washed over her, she couldn’t bear it, couldn’t stand to have him watch her get undressed and know that he wouldn’t touch her—wouldn’t kiss her.

Not that she wanted him to.

She didn’t want to put herself through all that pain again, no matter how much she probably deserved it. She’d hurt Gage. And now she was about to hurt another man, if he hadn’t already been harmed.

“You said you’d check on Richard,” she reminded Gage.

“I said that I couldn’t,” he corrected her.

“Because you couldn’t leave me alone,” she said. “But I’m not alone.” Nikki had a gun. And Megan had the scissors. Gage had pressed them back into her hand before he’d drawn his gun and opened the door.

Nikki nodded. “I’ll protect her and get her out of the dress,” she said. “You should check on the groom. We don’t know what the hell could have happened to him.”

Megan’s stomach lurched, and a gasp slipped through her lips.

And Gage’s jaw tightened. He thought she loved Richard. And she did—as a friend. Nothing more. But he was a friend and had been one for a long time. So she was worried about him.

His blond head jerked in a sharp nod. “Sure, I’ll check on him.”

“Gage…” She wanted to call him back, wanted to explain that she didn’t love her groom. She didn’t love anyone but Gage. She never had.

But the door slammed behind him.

Nikki jumped. “So much for not drawing any attention to himself.”

It wouldn’t have mattered if he’d slammed the door or quietly slipped out. Gage Huxton was the kind of man who drew attention with his height and his handsomeness. He wasn’t like Megan, whom people rarely noticed.

Why had he ever been interested in her? It was no wonder she’d doubted his feelings. She couldn’t believe even now that he’d ever really wanted her.

Richard claimed he did, that he wanted to be her husband, wanted to build a life with her. He’d anticipated that this day would be the first of the rest of their life together. And now the man who’d stolen her once from him was about to take her away again…

Only for her own protection.

But she wasn’t sure he would tell Richard that. She wasn’t sure what Gage would say to the other man. She only knew that she was the one who should tell Richard that she couldn’t marry him. “I need to get out of this dress,” she told Nikki.

“I know,” the other woman replied. But even with the tool, the buttons weren’t opening easily.

During the long moments Nikki struggled with the dress, Megan imagined Gage walking toward the groom’s dressing room. Now she didn’t worry about what he would say to Richard. She worried about what could happen to him before he got there. She worried that he would take on those gunmen alone.

“No,” she said, as she jerked away from the other woman. “We’re wasting too much time.”

“We still have a half hour before the wedding is supposed to start,” Nikki said.

But Gage had already been gone too long, long enough for Megan to worry that he would never come back. She’d lived through that nightmare once. She didn’t want to live through it again.

Panic filling her, constricting her lungs even more than the heavy dress, she rushed toward the door and pulled it open. And just like the last time she’d tried to leave, the barrel of a gun stopped her.

Unlike last time, this barrel pushed into her abdomen. And she had no doubt that this woman, who stared at her with cold blue eyes, would pull the trigger and bore that hole right through her.

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