Royal Wedding Threat (12 page)

So Jason added in Pepe’s voice, “We should keep going.”

“I can’t if you keep making me laugh like that,” Ava said, swatting at his arm.

Jason screeched quietly, “Assault! Assault!”

Ava recovered from her laughter enough to ask, “How do you do that without moving your mouth?”

They paused on the cobbled street again. Jason knew they weren’t going to reach the
marina very quickly at this rate, but he figured the point of the plan was for Ava to be visible. The longer it took them to reach their destination, the more visible they’d be.

Jason demonstrated in Pepe’s voice, “You’ve got to open your mouth just a small amount, but hold your lips still, like this.”

“Like this?” Ava tried, but she burst out laughing again and ruined whatever might
have come of her attempt.

“More like this. Use your teeth instead of your lips.”

“Ny theeth?” Ava mangled the words. “Like thith?”

However much he might have wanted to assist her, Jason couldn’t help chuckling at the sight of the usually stern-faced wedding planner attempting to speak without moving her lips. Besides that, he was glad for the excuse to laugh. He hadn’t realized
before how lovely her lips were, how perfectly they framed her teeth or how she glowed when she laughed. The formidable wedding planner was transformed when she smiled, and he felt his attitude toward her changing just as quickly as the expression on her face.

Getting in on the act, Ava added, “Thith could come in handy at wedding rehearthalth.”

At the thought of Ava attempting the act
in front of a nervous wedding party, Jason couldn’t help laughing even harder. It was that or give in to the temptation to explore how her lips felt against his.

That was beyond consideration.

So why couldn’t he stop thinking about it?

Ava blushed, giggling.

As he wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes, watching Ava giggle self-consciously, Jason couldn’t help wondering
if he’d finally found the real Ava, underneath all her armor and sternness. He sincerely hoped so, because he was falling in love with this woman, whoever she was. He could only pray this Ava would supplant the stern-faced wedding planner, because he didn’t want to lose this woman.

TWELVE

G
ratitude surged through Ava’s heart as she laughed at the uncharacteristically playful captain. She couldn’t recall when she’d last laughed—really laughed—with her head thrown back, clutching her sides as though she might burst. She certainly hadn’t expected to laugh today, but Jason had somehow accomplished the impossible.

She’d so needed the break from the constant
fear and stress. “You’re far more fun to laugh with than to argue with,” she confessed as they started walking toward the marina again.

“Oh? I thought you rather enjoyed arguing with me.” The captain’s tone was still playful, not accusatory.

Ava answered honestly, “Actually, I rather have enjoyed arguing with you. Is that an awful thing for me to say? You fight fair. You follow my reasoning,
and you stick to your principles. I hope I haven’t been too much of a pain.”

“I’m glad you feel that way about our arguments,” Jason said, surprising her. “You’ll probably want to argue with me again about the wedding plans. If we don’t catch anyone today, I’m going to ask you to reconsider your plan for Prince Alexander and Lillian to travel from the cathedral back to the palace in an open
carriage.”

His words chased away her laughter.

Though she shared Jason’s concerns for the royal couple’s safety, Ava always promised her brides the wedding of their dreams. She couldn’t go back on their promise now, certainly not because of a problem that only existed because of her. “Lillian specifically requested a horse-drawn carriage. She loves horses. She’d have arrived on a horse
if I hadn’t convinced her it wouldn’t work with the dress she’d chosen. The carriage was our compromise.”

“I appreciate that,” Jason acknowledged, “but safety is more important than having the wedding of one’s dreams. If you’d like, I can meet with the couple and explain—”

“Please don’t—not without me. It’s all my fault. All week long I’ve been inconveniencing everyone to meet at the
palace. We’ve got to capture whoever’s after me.”

Jason cast a meaningful glance toward the marina. They were almost there, and they hadn’t seen or heard the slightest hint of trouble. “I’m afraid we’re not doing very well at that.”

Having thought over her plan for some time before she’d even approached Jason to suggest it, Ava had already considered one possible scenario that now seemed
even more likely. Unwilling to speak the words very loudly, she leaned close to Jason and whispered, “What if he’s out there watching us right now, but he’s made a plan to strike during the wedding on Saturday, so he’s not acting now? He’s purposely waiting.”

The captain made a discontented rumbling noise in his throat. Ava wished he’d deny her suggestion, in Pepe’s voice if necessary, but
instead he said, “That’s a distinct possibility, but I hope it’s not the case.”

“I hope not, either.” Her lighthearted laughter now completely doused by fear, Ava shivered.

They finished their walk in silence, reaching the marina and continuing on down the dock toward the spot where the royal-guard speedboat was moored. They stopped beside the boat.

Ava looked up at Jason. “Now
what?”

“We walk back to the palace.”

“Isn’t that admitting defeat?”

“You have appointments this evening, don’t you?”

“I cleared the hour. We’ve only been walking for ten minutes.” Ava felt desperation rising within her. The gunman needed to show himself again. Whoever was after her had to show up. The plea rose inside her, almost like a prayer. In times past she would have
prayed, before she’d learned God didn’t answer and didn’t care. And yet where else did she have to turn?

“Ava! Ava!”

She heard her name, shouted from some distance, and turned to see a man in a baseball cap running toward her.

Jason’s men were on him in an instant, but even more quickly, Jason tucked Ava against him, holding her tight to the protective shell of his body armor. She
clung to him for a long moment as she listened to the sounds of the guards and tried to figure out what was happening. She wished she was close enough to see the man or hear his voice clearly. Was she in danger? Was Jason in danger, shielding her from the man who’d run at them?

Terror clenched the air from her lungs. What if something happened to Jason? What if he was hurt protecting her?
She buried her face against his shoulder and listened to the reassuring beat of his heart thumping solidly beneath her cheek.

Jason had done so much for her already. He made her feel safe. He made her feel happy. He made her feel...things she hadn’t been willing to feel for so long. She couldn’t lose him now, not when she’d only just begun to realize how much he meant to her.

Not when
she had yet to tell him what he meant to her.

Jason conferred with his men via his earpiece, instructing them to escort the suspect up to headquarters. He straightened slowly, keeping one arm tight around Ava’s shoulders, supporting her as she stood.

Perhaps she should let go and put some space between them, but Ava didn’t want to let go of Jason. She needed his strength to remain upright.
She felt far too shaky to stand alone as she absorbed the shock of what had happened.

They’d caught him. She was nearly certain, from the brief glimpse she’d seen, that the man who’d run down the pier after her was Dan Johnson, her former fiancé. And everything from his Mariners cap to his stature appeared to be identical to what she’d viewed on the security-camera footage of the man who’d
inquired after her at the pedestrian gate five days before.

She’d feared Dan might be the culprit. His identity wasn’t nearly as shocking as his timing. After refusing to pray for so many months, a wordless, half-suppressed prayer had welled up inside her heart just before she’d heard Dan calling her name.

It made her wonder if God was trying to tell her something. But if that was the
case, why had God waited until now, when she’d pleaded for answers so many months before?

* * *

While his men detained the suspect, Jason conferred with Ava in his office. “You have appointments—”

“Not for another half hour. If you question him now, I can hear what he has to say.”

“It may well take more than half an hour.”

“Then I’ll clear my schedule—”

“You’ve already
done that so much—”

“It doesn’t matter, not in comparison to finding out what’s been going on.”

“We always tape suspect interviews. You can watch it later.”

“How am I supposed to focus on final dress fittings when I know you’re interviewing Dan at the same moment? We’re wasting time. Let me listen now. If it takes longer than half an hour, I’ll go to the dress fitting and come back
to watch the tape when I’m done.”

Jason listened to Ava’s proposal reluctantly. He didn’t want her anywhere near that dangerous man, but he supposed that was his heart trying to tell his head what to do. And if he listened to his heart, he’d have Ava back in his arms in an instant. No, better to think with his head, not his emotions. Her idea was a good one. “Fine. Let’s get started.”

Escorting Ava to the small room behind the one-way glass, Jason assured her she wouldn’t be seen from the other side as long as the lights remained off on her side of the glass. “It will look like a mirror from the other side. There’s a curtain in front of the door, so if anyone enters, the light from the hallway won’t shine in.” Jason pulled the curtain closed as he explained it. “Are you sure—”

“Yes. Get on with it. I’ll be fine.”

Jason left quickly, entering the adjoining room and instructing his men to bring in the suspect for questioning.

Though he couldn’t see her through the mirrored glass, from the last glimpse he’d gotten of her before leaving her alone, he didn’t think Ava looked nearly as okay as she claimed to be. She looked as if she needed to be in his arms,
and he wanted her there, but none of that could happen just yet. Besides, he needed to keep a lid on his newfound feelings. His men had already raised their eyebrows after the way Jason had held her on the pier and laughed with her along their walk.

He figured they suspected something. They were trained to read body language. He wouldn’t be able to keep his secret for long, though it chafed
him to think of admitting there was anything between him and the wedding planner before he’d had a chance to speak to Ava about his feelings. Besides that, he’d specifically instructed his men on several past occasions not to romance the women they were guarding.

How would they like it if he did the very thing he’d ordered them not to do?

Dan Johnson entered between two guards, glancing
at Jason only briefly before looking around the room.

“I need to talk to Ava Wright,” Dan told Jason bluntly, refusing to be seated when the guards gestured for him to sit.

“Have a seat. You’re going to talk to me first. If I decide Ms. Wright needs to hear what you have to say, I’ll pass the message along to her.”

The man sat but leaned toward Jason. “It’s a matter of life and
death. I know that sounds melodramatic, but that’s just the way it is.”

Jason had enough experience interrogating suspects not to let the man control the conversation or distract him from his work. Ava had less than half an hour to listen—he wouldn’t waste her time. “State your full name.”

But Dan didn’t cooperate. “Someone blew up Ava’s car the other day, didn’t they? And something
must have spooked you guys, because you moved her out of her apartment. I watched your men do it. You know she’s in danger, don’t you?”

Normally Jason would have interrupted the man and insisted Dan answer the questions posed to him, but something about the man’s words—his persistence, his knowledge of the situation—was enough to prompt Jason to listen. The guards had moved Ava’s things from
her apartment while Jason and Ava had been at Dorsi, being chased by the gunman.

Was Dan trying to create an alibi? Or had he really been watching the movers at work? But if he hadn’t been on the island, who had been? The gunman had been wearing a cap identical to the one Dan wore now.

Even as Jason wondered about it, Dan continued, “I believe someone’s trying to hurt Ava—”

“From
what I understand,” Jason interrupted, unable to let the man play altruistic after what he’d done to Ava, “you hurt her.”

Dan pinched his eyes shut and made a frustrated noise in his throat. When he popped his eyes open again, he spoke quickly. “Yes, I did, but now that I know what I know, I see it wasn’t really my fault at all.”

“You cheated on her with her best friend and business
partner.” Jason had learned through previous interrogation attempts that it was sometimes useful to surprise a suspect with the facts he knew. It might startle the suspect into revealing something he otherwise wouldn’t, and it helped if he needed to pretend to know more than he really did.

“Tiffany seduced me,” Dan countered without blinking. “And then, once it was clear Ava had left and
wasn’t coming back, Tiffany dropped me suddenly and for no reason. It didn’t make sense. It was as though she’d only used me to hurt Ava.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Yes, why?” Dan narrowed his eyes. “I puzzled it over for a long time before I heard Happily Ever After was struggling to stay in business. I couldn’t understand. They’d been so successful when Ava led the company. I decided
I wanted answers. I paid Tiffany a visit.”

Jason listened intently, wondering if the man’s words were true or just a carefully concocted cover story meant to conceal Dan’s guilt. Unsure, he let the man continue his story and hoped he’d learn something definitive soon. It couldn’t be easy for Ava, sitting alone on the other side of the mirror, to hear Dan’s words—especially the sudden revelation
that the business she’d poured her heart into was floundering without her.

“Tiffany gave me all sorts of reasons and excuses, but the thing I found most disturbing was that she tried to blame all her failures on Ava. She resents Ava—deeply. It sounded like she’s been jealous of Ava’s success for a long time and only pretended to be her friend while she leeched off her and tried to bring her
down. Tiffany admitted the company was going under, but claimed it was Ava’s fault, that she’d only given her the company after she’d realized it would fail, that Ava had left Tiffany in charge on purpose to make it look like the failure was Tiffany’s fault. But from everything I know of the company, it didn’t begin to fail until these last several months since Tiffany’s been in charge.”

Dan shook his head and swallowed before he continued, “I decided to investigate. My excuse for visiting Tiffany was that she still had my golf clubs. We went to her garage to get them. She has a two-car garage. There were two vehicles inside—the one she used to have and the one she bought shortly before Ava left for Lydia. Her old car looked as though it had been in a fender bender. The front was
smashed in a bit and a small chunk was missing. I asked her what happened and she told me she’d hit a mailbox. Then I asked why she hadn’t gotten it fixed.”

Jason raised an eyebrow when Dan hesitated.

“She said she didn’t want anyone asking questions.”

“Questions?” Jason repeated. If Dan was making up his story, he’d rehearsed it well ahead of time, well enough to make his body
language fit the true discomfort of a man who’d discovered more than he’d ever wanted to know.

“The thing is—” Dan leaned close “—the piece that was missing was a silver chunk, an odd shape, sort of like a triangle with a bulge at the base. But when Ava’s mother was killed in a hit-and-run accident, they found a silver triangle like that missing piece in the street in front of her house.
They couldn’t say for sure if it had come from the car that hit her, but they circulated a picture of it next to a dollar bill for size. I saw it dozens of times.” Dan sat back and eyed him with finality. “It matched.”

“Did you call the police?”

“I did, the very next day. In retrospect I should have called sooner, but I didn’t make the connection until that evening, and then it took
me all night to get over my denial and place the call. By the time the police arrived, the car was gone and so was Tiffany.”