The Men In Uniform Collection. Barbara McMahon
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then the bathroom door opened to men with guns. But they were uniformed police officers. Cooper hadn’t come for her. She had heard no shots—only the rumble of male voices. Had he been hurt worse than he’d claimed? Had he really been bleeding from just a scratch?
The heat flushed her face; she was embarrassed that strangers had found her hiding in her bathtub. At least she was fully clothed, though.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” a young officer asked as he helped her step over the porcelain rim.
Her legs trembled slightly, in reaction from all she’d endured that day and in exhaustion. “I’m fine,” she said. “Is Mr. Payne all right?”
“Which Mr. Payne?” he asked.
When she stepped out of the bathroom, she found the brothers talking to another officer.
“This is the third report we’ve had to file for you guys tonight,” the older policeman said with a grunt of disgust. “What on earth is going on?”
“We wish we knew,” Logan replied.
“You’ve got a missing groom and someone trying to kill the bride,” the police officer replied as if the head of Payne Protection had asked him the question. “And my wife thinks my daughter’s wedding was a disaster...”
Tanya wasn’t going to have a wedding. She opened her mouth to call it off, but then she remembered Stephen and that blood in the groom’s quarters. His blood...
What if he was being held for ransom? And she couldn’t meet that ransom?
Those thoughts kept running through her head—even as she answered that officer’s questions:
No, she hadn’t seen anything. She hadn’t gotten close enough to the window to look out before the glass shattered. No, she had no idea who might have been behind this attempt or the other one on her life.
She lifted her gaze and caught Cooper staring at her, as if he doubted her. His eyes were narrowed, speculative. Did he have some idea who’d taken Stephen? Who had just tried to kill her?
She waited for him to share his suspicions with the police. But he said nothing to add to the report before they left. He didn’t even say anything when his brother told her to pack a bag because he was taking her someplace safe.
“But what if someone tries to contact me about Stephen?” she asked.
“Then you’d better be alive to take the call,” Logan said. “The purse you left at the church is in my car. Is your cell in there?”
Her face flushed with embarrassment again. “Yes, and the cell is the only phone I have.” So she didn’t have to worry about a call coming into a landline. She had no reason to stay in her apartment, especially as damaged as it was from the gunfire—the window shattered and drywall dust sprinkling down from the holes in the ceiling, covering the furniture and the hardwood floor.
“Then grab your charger,” Logan advised, “and whatever else you need.”
“I already have a bag packed.” She grabbed a suitcase out of her closet. She’d already had it packed for her honeymoon, which was nothing more exotic than a hotel suite—with separate bedrooms—at an inn on the Lake Michigan shore just outside the city. She had left more lingerie in her drawers than she’d packed, and she was the only one she’d figured would see it. That wasn’t going to change just because her groom had.
“I’ll take that,” Logan offered, reaching for her suitcase.
Cooper finally spoke, asking, “Where are you taking her?”
“Safe house,” his brother replied.
He arched a dark brow. “Are you going to tell me where?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Logan said. “You’re not staying there. Parker’s taking you to another safe house.”
He groaned in protest. “Why can’t I just go home?”
“Because Mom gave me orders to make sure both the bride and the groom stay alive to make it to the church tomorrow.”
“I don’t need Parker to keep me alive,” Cooper said, his male pride obviously wounded.
Tanya remembered how hard he had struggled to be his own man growing up—instead of the shadow of his older brothers. She suspected it was why he’d joined the Marines instead of going into the police academy.
Logan snorted. “I know that. I need Parker to keep you away from Tanya.”
Her pulse quickened with excitement. Did his brother think that Cooper was attracted to her? Maybe she hadn’t been the only one who’d wanted that kiss—that kiss that never happened...
“Mom gave me all kinds of orders based on wedding superstitions,” Logan said, “that the bride and groom need to spend the night before the wedding apart or they’ll have bad luck.”
Tanya laughed now and then flinched at the brittle sound of her own laughter. She probably was on the verge of hysteria brought on by the events of this horrible, horrible day, and by exhaustion. “Bad luck? Mrs. Payne is worried we’ll have bad luck?” Another hysterical laugh slipped out. “Like we haven’t already? My groom has been...abducted! I’ve nearly been run down and I’ve been shot at,” she reminded them as if the shattered glass and the holes in her ceiling weren’t reminder enough. “What else could go wrong?”
Logan pointed out the obvious. “You or Cooper could get killed.”
Her stalker obviously wanted to stop her wedding. So Tanya had no doubt that there would be more attempts on her life and—if the stalker had figured out that Cooper was her new groom—on his, too, before the night was over.
She suspected the night would seem endless, unless it ended—forever.
* * *
“YOU WERE NOT supposed to come here,” Parker protested as Cooper unlocked the door and stepped inside the condo unit. “This is not the safe house.”
Cooper flipped on a switch before stepping inside. “I don’t need a safe house.”
“Those shots could have been meant for you,” Parker pointed out.
He shook his head. “After the car tried running over Tanya? No, the shots were meant for her.” Had they been fired high just to scare her? Or had they actually been meant to kill her? His guts clenched with dread and fear. “Are you sure she’s safe with Logan?”
Parker laughed. “Have you been gone so long that you’ve forgotten who Logan is? Logan Payne always keeps his word. If he promised he would keep her safe, he will keep her safe. It’s you I’m worried about...”
“Me?” Cooper asked, confused by his brother’s concern. “I told you the shots weren’t meant for me.”
“If someone’s figured out you’re standing in for the groom, they could have been. Look what happened to Stephen.”
“We don’t know what happened to Stephen,” Cooper reminded him. “That’s why we’re here.” At Stephen’s condo.
“I’ve already been here,” Parker said.
The unit was in a high-security high-rise complex. The condo’s living room was enormous and its kitchen gourmet with dark cabinets, granite countertops and industrial appliances. Even if she didn’t inherit her grandfather’s money, Stephen could offer Tanya a much better life than Cooper could. If he could be found...
“But when you were here, you were looking for Stephen.”
“And anything that might lead us to him,” Parker added. “We didn’t find anything.”
Cooper picked up a laptop from the coffee table. “Did you look at this?”
Parker shook his head. “It’s password protected.”