Honeymoon To Die For (48 page)

She ignored his amusement. “Why the theatrics?”

“So that you never make the mistake of thinking I miss anything, because I have eyes on everything.”

The General needed to be taught a lesson. “And here I thought you weren’t subject to something like emotion, but I clearly pissed you off.”

No volley came back from him. Chatton smiled.

When The General finally spoke, his words came out chillingly soft. “Being a spook does not make you invincible. Keep that in mind.”

“No, it just makes me deadly.”  She hung up.

Arrogance can be fatal, General.
He’d just confirmed that the Banker worked for him. Wayan and The General thought they could toy with Chatton.   

Nanci Tyler had a cousin and friends in the espionage business. Maybe they needed a tip on which direction to look for Nanci’s killer.

CHAPTER 58

Bianca switched the radio off, tired of music after all afternoon on the road.

Facing
the music was getting closer by the minute. She still hadn’t come up with anything to tell her parents.

An annulment would have been simpler, but a sheet of paper wasn’t the issue. She couldn’t face her parents and lie to them. If she said the marriage had been annulled, that was the equivalent of saying she hadn’t consummated the marriage.

There had been plenty of consummation. It wouldn’t matter to a lot of people, but honesty with her mama and daddy was something she valued.   

She turned off the paved road onto the packed dirt road that led uphill to her parents’ house. Now she stared straight into the blue-black clouds threatening rain.

“Rain, Sara Lynn? I always think it means you’re happy when it rains, but you wouldn’t be happy to see me this miserable.”  Bianca grabbed a tissue and wiped her eyes. Mama and Daddy would still know she’d been crying.

They’d taught her to follow her heart. Following her heart this time hadn’t been wrong.

She would explain to her parents that she’d married for the good of her country and apologize for being divorced, but that she wouldn’t take it back even if she could. She’d never be sorry she married a hero for the sake of justice.

Mama and Daddy would still love her and they’d tell her she’d find the right man to give her heart to one day, but there was little danger of that unless the impetuous organ got a kick-start.

She drove slowly up the bumpy incline through an archway of tall trees with half their branches bare. Gold-and-rust colored leaves floated down, swirling in the rising wind, a precursor to the storm that was brewing.

She rounded the next curve and the simple frame house she’d grown up in came into view. That house might not be much to look at, but it was perched on a cliff with a breathtaking backdrop of the Shenandoah Mountain range, the easternmost band of the Appalachians. Her sturdy vehicle growled as she drove onto the hard-packed, dirt front yard.

Oh, no.

A handful of worn vehicles cluttered the grounds.

Their neighbors had turned out like this was a celebration. She needed time before she faced people who weren’t family. She fought a wave of nausea and took a swig of water from the bottle in the console.

The clouds dropped lower, surrounding the ridge.

She didn’t care. The rain would help hide her tears.

What had Daddy told her as a teen?
You gonna play, you gotta pay
.

Time to pay.

She stepped from the car and checked her clothes for crumbs. She’d eaten a package of crackers on the way here. Maroon pullover and jeans both clean. No reason not to go in the house.

Fat raindrops hit her on the head, face and arms. “No reason to dump a bucket right now, Sara Lynn,” Bianca muttered softly.

Two of her daddy’s buddies sat on the corner of the porch in rocking chairs. They smiled when she started toward the house. One yelled toward the screen door, “Bianca’s home.”  

Great. As soon as she finished explaining to her parents, she could tell their friends about the farce known as her life.

Little water bombs smacked her harder, and splatted into the dirt around her.

A dozen steps from the porch she halted.

Her mama and daddy stepped through the open door, grinning like a star had arrived. Little did they know their daughter was a fallen star. Soon to be a drenched one.

She tried out a smile to see how much it hurt. Not bad.

Kind of like grinning with a mouth full of thorns.

Before anyone said a word, a tall figure stepped out of the house and around her parents.

Bianca’s smile faltered, and her throat tightened when her gaze locked on a pair of sparkling silver eyes.

Ryder ambled down the steps like he’d lived in the country his whole life. She knew better.

He never slowed even as rain splattered him until he stopped in front of her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her throat raw.

He lifted a hand to her face. “In this family, we don’t divorce.”

CHAPTER 59

Water ran off his face and soaked his clothes. Ryder barely noticed. He’d caught his first deep breath since being dragged away from Bianca when she was wounded. The only image that played over and over in his mind was that last image of her bleeding and going into shock.

She was in shock again, but not from being near death. With her finally so close, he trembled with the need to touch her.

“Why are you here?” she asked in a hoarse voice that sounded as if she’d been crying.

That gouged another hole in his heart. “I needed to explain some things.”

She started shaking her head. “Don’t feel guilty about what happened. Me getting hurt wasn’t your fault.”

He couldn’t take another minute of waiting. He lifted his hands to hold her face and fought a groan of happiness at touching her again. “It was my fault that you ended up in the line of fire.”

She wrapped her fingers around his wrists and tried to shake her head, but he stopped her by saying, “I’m sorry—”

“I know you didn’t do any of that stuff I accused you of.”

The crazy woman couldn’t keep quiet long enough for him to get to the part where they could kiss and make up. He put his finger on her lips again. This had to be said.

“I’m sorry for so much, Bianca, but most of all for letting you think our lovemaking was anything less than miraculous.”

Her lips parted in a soft O he wanted to kiss, but not until he earned back that right. “When it looked like I was going to be accused of treason, I didn’t want to leave you caring for me. I wanted you happy and to have a life even if it was with someone else, but I ended up lying to both of us.”

Her fingers tightened around his wrists. “If that was a lie, then what’s the truth?”

“That I love you so much I can’t give you up.”

She started crying. He pulled her into his arms and all at once he was at peace. Having this woman next to him was all he needed. All he’d ever want. “Don’t cry, Sweetheart. I never meant to hurt you and I’ll never be able to make it right.”

Pushing against his chest, she lifted her head. “You just did when you told me you loved me. You wouldn’t let me tell you in the cabin.”

His voice was raw. “So tell me now. Please, God, tell me you still love me.”

“I do love you.”  She pushed up and he met her halfway, kissing her with all the love that had been bottled up inside him, just waiting for a woman this amazing. His arms tightened, holding her closer, afraid of losing his only reason for breathing.

Never happen. He would fight the world to keep her.

When someone on the porch catcalled, she started laughing and pushed against him to look up in his face. “We look like drowned rats.”

He took her in with one slow look and said, “You’re beautiful soaking wet.”  

Her lip trembled and her face looked like it was going to crumble.

He was confused. “What’d I say wrong?”

“Nothing. Sara Lynn used to tell me that if a man really loved me he wouldn’t care if my hair got wet.”

“She was right.”  He stepped back and took her left hand, lifting it to kiss her ring finger.

She regretted her hasty decision this morning. “I gave the ring to Murdock to send back to you through Sabrina.”

“That’s not a problem, but there is something you have to do for me.”

“What?”

“You’ll see.”  He kissed her again and turned them to face the porch full of grinning friends and family. His chest tightened with happiness. His family.

The storm had slowed to a gentle rain.

On the way to the house, Bianca said something under her breath that sounded like, “I’m glad you approve, Sara Lynn.”

CHAPTER 60

Six hours later, Bianca stared up at a lock of tawny hair that fell across Ryder’s forehead. She brushed it away from his eyes and the simple touch made her heart beat double time. “You don’t have to do this. I don’t need this.”

“I do. I need for you to know we’re married because I love you.” Taking her hand, he kissed her palm and sent heat streaking up her arm. “My life would have been unlivable without you.
And
your family.”

Ryder had taken a helicopter to reach her parents’ home before Bianca arrived. He’d put his silver tongue to the test when he’d sat down to explain about the wedding and what he could share about the mission with her parents. He’d even told them how he was worried Bianca wouldn’t forgive him for letting her think their time together had been a casual affair.

Ryder said he’d never been so scared as when her daddy stuck a finger in his face and said, “If you ever hurt my baby again, I’ll come after you with a filet knife.”

To which, Ryder had replied, “If I’m stupid enough to screw up the best thing that’s ever happened to me, I’ll slit my own throat.”

Bianca didn’t have the heart to tell Ryder that Daddy’s threat had been literal. He would filet an errant son-in-law.

Daddy and Mama had welcomed Ryder into the family
if
he could convince Bianca to take him back.

Cocking an eyebrow at Bianca, Ryder asked, “What’s so funny?”

She didn’t want Ryder sleeping with one eye open, worried about her daddy skinning him alive. Instead she said, “The idea of you fishing with me and Daddy.”

“I’m not a city boy, Sweetheart.”

There went her heart again, dancing around in her chest at the way he said
sweetheart
. “Oh, I know you’re in your element traipsing through the woods or any other terrain when you’re hunting the enemy, but me and Daddy been fishing since I was little. He always wants to wager on who catches the most. You
might
distract
me
with all that sexy Alpha thing you do, but Daddy’ll put you on your butt when it comes to catching fish.”

She’d expected him to show his competitive side and brag how he was up for the challenge. But his eyes turned smoky and his voice got deep. “I can handle losing to your dad as long as I have you to nurse my wounded ego.”

He kissed her before she could laugh at that. He touched her constantly. Always careful of her injury, but she’d given little thought to it since hearing three words from him. Love was the best pain medicine.

She regretted giving Ryder’s ring to Murdock.

Ryder kissed her lips once more then touched his lips to her forehead and said, “I don’t know how much longer I can wait.”

“Patience, love.”

“I’m all out.”  Ryder smoothed his hand over her hair that was now dry and falling over her shoulder. He growled something to himself and reached for her again, careful not to muss the lacy peach dress Mama had bought her this week for the celebration they’d planned.

The kiss turned Bianca’s legs to jelly. She grabbed his arm, enjoying the muscle beneath his suit.

When he pulled away, they were both breathless.

She warned him, “You shouldn’t be here. It’s bad luck to see the bride.”

“My luck has been nothing short of miraculous since the first time I met my bride.”

Would he always be a silver-tongued devil? “We’re really doing this again?”

He nodded, grinning. “This is the one that counts.”

“We
are
still legally married.”

“That was paperwork. This is about vows from the heart and with family.”  He cupped her face. “I vow to try to be the man who deserves you. I vow to love you until the end of time. I vow—”

She put her fingers on his lips. “Save it for the ceremony.”

“You’re going to hear it again and again.”

“I won’t need the words. I know you love me.”

He sighed with total contentment. “You scare the hell out of me some days. Your determination to save me almost got you killed. I couldn’t survive if anything happened to you. I’m proud of the FBI agent you are, but after seeing you shot—”  His Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow.

Unable to finish his sentence, he looked away until she turned his head back to her.

She had to take him out of his misery. “I forgot to tell you. I’m being transferred to Murdock’s team, but only as an analyst.”

He couldn’t have looked more thrilled. “Is that what you want?”

“Yes. I want to have a life with you, not play 007. Besides, you’ll be undercover with Slye Temp and that’s enough time away for both of us. If I was doing the same thing, we’d never see each other.”

“As long as you’re happy with Murdock’s offer.”

“I’m getting my dream job and my dream man. How can I not be?”

The door to the small bride’s room on the side of their country church opened and her mama scowled. “What are you doing in here with the bride, Ryder?”

Bianca muttered, “Now you’re in trouble.”

“I was calming her down,” Ryder told Mama who rolled her eyes.

Mama turned around and nodded at someone then backed out of the way and Bianca’s daddy entered.  

Ryder stopped rubbing his thumb over her fingers when Daddy narrowed his gaze at him standing so close to Bianca. “Papers don’t mean nothin’ to me, son. Actions do. You ain’t her husband
yet
. Not ‘til this is done. Best you get out front and be ready so you don’t miss the main event.”