The Bride's Secrets

Eve had risked her life to ensure he got out first.

Why would she put his life before hers? Was it possible she did have feelings for him?

He scrubbed a hand over his face. He was borrowing trouble. When this was over, she would be gone.

Just like before.

There were no words to accurately explain how he’d felt that day in the chapel when she hadn’t shown. His whole world had felt as if it were ending. Then he’d diverted all that pain into anger and the need to find the truth.

Had he found it?

He still didn’t even know her name. Just Eve. And yet he knew more about her after the past seventy-two hours than he had in two months…before.

Available in April 2010 from Mills & Boon® Intrigue

Secret Delivery

by Delores Fossen & Her 24-Hour Protector by Loreth Anne White

Backstreet Hero by Justine Davis & Becoming a Cavanaugh by Marie Ferrarella

The Rancher Bodyguard by Carla Cassidy & Kincaid’s Dangerous Game by Kathleen Creighton

The Bride’s Secrets by Debra Webb

Cry of the Wolf by Karen Whiddon

Sentinels: Lion Heart by Doranna Durgin

Debra Webb was born in Scottsboro, Alabama, to parents who taught her that anything is possible if you want it badly enough. She began writing at the age of nine. Eventually, she met and married the man of her dreams and tried some other occupations, including selling vacuum cleaners, working in a factory, a daycare centre, a hospital and a department store. When her husband joined the military, they moved to Berlin and Debra became a secretary in the commanding general’s office. By 1985 they were back in the States and finally moved to Tennessee, to a small town where everyone knows everyone else. With the support of her husband and two beautiful daughters, Debra took up writing again, looking to mysteries and movies for inspiration. In 1998, her dream of writing came true. You can write to Debra with your comments at PO Box 64, Huntland, Tennessee 37345, USA, or visit her website at www.debrawebb.com to find out exciting news about her next book.

Chapter One

Chicago, 9:30 a.m.

The Colby Agency’s conference room overflowed with staff members. All were present for this morning’s meeting, except the newest investigator on staff. Well, the newest member until their recent hire of Merrilee Walters. J.T. Baxley had taken a bullet last night while serving on Victoria’s personal security detail.

Victoria Colby-Camp sat at the head of the long Mahogany table, listening as Ian Michaels reviewed the tightened security measures. Last night’s attack had confirmed the worst.

The risk to her granddaughter’s safety was no longer mere theory or rumor. It was real.

Too real.

Increasing fear pumped through Victoria’s veins with every frantic beat of her heart. Nothing she or her people had done so far had given them the answers for which they searched.

Every lead turned into a dead end.

Yet, someone out there continued to attempt to get to her granddaughter.

Her loyal staff began filing out of the room. Victoria blinked, dragged her focus back to the present. She hadn’t realized Ian had concluded his briefing.

Ian settled in a chair to her right; Simon Ruhl did the same on her left.

These two men were Victoria’s most trusted associates, professional and personal. Yet, like her, they could only react to the threat. Whoever was behind this had burrowed so deeply beneath multiple ambiguous layers of disinformation that it would take time—precious time—to ferret them out.

This was the first occasion in the Colby Agency’s prestigious history that Victoria had no choice but to admit they were mystified.

“Last night—” Simon kicked off the overview of the few known facts “—an attempt was made to abduct Jamie.”

The sound of a bullet shattering the windshield, killing the driver, echoed through Victoria’s mind. Three were dead, including two unidentified males involved in the abduction attempt. Two others had fled the scene. Though J.T. Baxley had taken a bullet; he’d been treated and released at the E.R. Still, the risk to his life—to her granddaughter’s—had shaken Victoria to the core.

“Have we learned anything new?” Otherwise she saw no need to go over those horrendous details yet again. Another image, this one of her pulling the trigger, ending the life of the man with the gun aimed at her face, erupted in her mind.

She’d had no choice… And still, the realization deeply disturbed her.

Rather than answering her question, Ian and Simon exchanged a long look. Now she understood.

“You believe it’s an inside job.” It pained Victoria to say the words.

“Yes,” Ian confirmed.

“That’s the only way anyone could have known your schedule for last evening,” Simon clarified. “None of us want to believe that’s possible.”

“At this point—” Ian picked up where Simon left off “—we have to face that undeniable possibility.”

Victoria took a breath, her chest tightening with the emotions charging through her. “Do you have a suspect?”

Her closest confidants shared another look.

She wasn’t going to like their conclusion. Victoria wasn’t happy with the concept in general, but obviously the answer was going to be even less palatable.

The Bride’s Secrets

“J.T. Baxley,” Ian stated.

J.T.? “I was at his christening.” Victoria had just graduated from university at the time. One of her dearest friends had opted for marriage over college, and J.T. had been her first and only child.

Simon nodded his understanding. “We fully understand that you’ve known J.T. and his family for years. But he was one of the few who had access to last night’s schedule.”

That was true. J.T. had been a part of her security detail last night. And he’d paid the price.

Victoria shook her head. “This simply isn’t possible.” She had sought out J.T. when his mother had relayed that he had left the insurance industry. Victoria had hoped for years that she would be able to lure him to the Colby Agency. Only a few months ago that opportunity had arisen. He’d signed on as a member of her Reconnaissance group.

“J.T. ignored the all-hands call this morning.”

Simon’s announcement sent a new kind of fear throttling through Victoria. “Has anyone checked on him?” The man had been shot for God’s sake. Though the shot appeared to have been clean, in and out of the biceps with no apparent serious damage, there was always the chance something had been missed. With any sort of penetrating wound, internal bleeding was always a concern. She’d thought nothing of his absence, considering what he’d gone through last night.

“I went to his home myself,” Ian assured her. “He wasn’t there, but the door was unlocked. There was no indication he’d slept in his bed. Nothing appeared to be missing. His cell phone was on the kitchen counter, and his car was in the garage.”

“Then we should be concerned for his safety,” Victoria argued, “not suspicious of his participation in this deception.” The suggestion was preposterous. J.T. was as trustworthy and reliable as the passing of time.

“J.T. may not have been a willing participant,” Simon qualified. “We’ve learned some unsettling details regarding his former fiancée.”

A frown worried Victoria’s brow. J.T. had been devastated when his bride-to-be hadn’t shown. He’d literally been left at the altar. That had been a mere two weeks ago. Rather than having him take on another agency assignment Victoria had allowed him to focus on trying to find out what had happened to the woman, who seemed to have simply vanished. The agony of watching his desperation play out tortured her even now as she considered his plight.

“Explain,” Victoria prompted her closest confidants.

“We don’t have in-depth details as of yet,” Ian offered. “But we have uncovered a number of aliases she has operated under during the past six or seven years. From all appearances, Eve Mattson is a serious scam artist. She may have been playing J.T. as a part of setting the stage for Jamie’s abduction.”

Victoria looked from Ian to Simon. “Find J.T. Whoever this Eve Mattson is or was, we owe it to J.T. to give him the benefit of the doubt. If he’s in trouble, we’ll back him up.”

Victoria would not let J.T. down. If he had somehow been drawn into this plan against Victoria’s granddaughter, it would have been unknowingly and certainly unwilling.

“Also, find out who Eve Mattson is,” Victoria went on. “I promised J.T. I wouldn’t interfere with his search for his missing bride-to-be, but this news changes everything. If Eve Mattson is involved in the plan to harm my granddaughter, I want her found and the truth extracted.” Fury detonated inside Victoria. “Whoever is behind this is going to rue the day they picked the Colby Agency as a target.”

If it was the last thing Victoria did, all involved would pay the fiddler a hefty price for this dance.

Chapter Two

J.T. groaned. He heard the sound…wanted to open his eyes, to wake up, but his throbbing brain just wouldn’t make the necessary transition.

Wake up!

He needed to wake up. Something was very wrong.

His eyelids cracked open, but bright light slammed them shut once more.

Wake up, damn it!

With tremendous effort his eyelids split open again.

Where was he?

His booted feet rested on a stone or concrete floor. Nylon twine tethered his ankles to what looked like chair legs.

Raise your head.

Slowly, his head moved. Pain shattered his skull.

He groaned.

Damn.

What the hell had happened to him?

His eyes opened a little wider. Stark gray walls. He tried to reach up and touch his head. The throbbing above his right ear roared. His fingers fisted in reaction to the pain. He twisted his wrists, couldn’t move his hands.

He blinked, focused his gaze on his hands…his arms.

His wrists were secured to the chair’s arms with that same orange nylon twine.

Okay. Think! He was manacled to a chair. In an empty room. He forced his head to move ever so slightly, ever so slowly from side to side. Yep. No furnishings.

Where was the light coming from?

He moved his head back, peered through squinted eyes at the ceiling. A single bare bulb glared at him from a high ceiling.

Basement?

Garage?

How had he gotten here?

J.T. closed his eyes and summoned the last details he recalled.

He’d been working Victoria’s security detail. There had been a shootout with four unidentified gunmen. One had escaped, two were killed. Three counting Victoria’s driver.

J.T. had been shot.

Instinctively he tried to lift his right hand to inspect his left arm. Couldn’t. Clean shot through the left biceps.

As if the memory had prompted the pain, an ache speared through his biceps.

After J.T. was treated at the E.R., Ian had driven him home. He’d waved as Ian drove away, walked onto his porch, and unlocked the door. J.T. remembered going inside and then…

Pain detonated in his skull once more.

Someone had attacked him.

Fury bolted through him. He jerked at his bindings. Gritted his teeth against the pain.

If this had something to do with Victoria or her granddaughter, his captor should just go ahead and kill him. No way was he giving away any information, much less participating in whatever the scheme might be.

Sweat streamed down his face as he struggled to free himself.

He twisted, squirmed, pulled.

Eventually the fatigue and pain forced him to surrender the battle.

He wasn’t going anywhere.

The slide of metal against metal brought his head up.

Setting his jaw hard against the pain, he used his body weight and his waning strength to shake and jerk the chair to the right. The door was at his back. He needed to turn around so that he could see the enemy coming. A little farther. Move, he commanded.

Harder and harder he jerked and twisted. The chair scooted and swayed precariously.

As the door opened, he managed a final jerk, hauling himself and the chair to face that direction.

A form appeared in the doorway. He blinked. Told himself to look again.

It couldn’t be.

“I see you’re still alive.”

Impossible.

Fury exploded in his veins. “Eve.” The name left a bitter taste on his tongue.

She closed the door behind her and leaned against it. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

“I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing,” he growled even as the agony screamed in his skull. A shudder rocked through him. “But if you want to survive this, you’d better cut me loose.”

She cocked her head. “Hmm…I don’t think so.”

“Who put you up to this?” The demand echoed in the deserted room.

“No one.” She pushed away from the door and started toward him, one slow, measured step at a time. “This was entirely my idea.”

Every single muscle in his body tensed as she neared. She walked all the way around him. His nostrils flared wide in an effort to draw in her scent. He cursed his body for its betrayal.

Yes, he was glad to see that she was alive and apparently well.

But, by God, he wanted some answers and he wanted them now!

“Whatever they’re paying you,” he informed her, “Victoria Colby-Camp will see that you understand it wasn’t nearly enough.”

Eve laughed softly, the sound aching through him. How had he fallen so madly in love with a woman he hadn’t even known?

“I’m not afraid of your employer, J.T.” She leaned close, close enough that he could feel her breath on his ear. “I’m not afraid of anyone. Never have been.” She straightened away from him. “So don’t waste your breath threatening me. It won’t work, and it’s a waste of energy you’ll need later.”

Her slow circling continued until she stood before him, face-to-face.

“Who are you?” The harshly uttered words were fraught with emotion he couldn’t restrain. Damn her. She’d fooled him…betrayed him on every level. The idea made him sick to his stomach.

She put her hands on her hips and seemed to mull over his question a long moment. Then her startlingly blue gaze settled on his once more. “Even I’m not sure about the answer to that one anymore.” She stepped closer. “But I know who you are.” She leaned forward. “And I also know that you’re a marked man, Mr. Baxley. Either you do as I tell you or you die. Seems like an easy choice to me.”

He stared into those dazzling eyes, his gut clenching with opposing emotions. “How can you be a part of this? Jamie Colby is just a child.” That he could have been fooled so completely worsened the misery in his gut.

The woman he had known as Eve Mattson, braced her hands on his arms and put her face in his. “What you think of me is irrelevant. My mission is all that matters.”

“Are they doing this for the money?” His fingers curled into fists even as his skin beneath where her palms rested tingled with desire from her touch. He silently cursed himself. Hated that he could still want her so desperately.

She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she studied his face, searched his eyes. A fleeting flicker of some emotion he couldn’t quite label, regret perhaps, passed across her face—the face he’d cherished with all his heart. The same one that had haunted his dreams every night since she had disappeared.

“I can tell you one thing for certain,” she said, her voice achingly soft and familiar. “It’s definitely about money.”

He held her eyes. Wished he could understand how the woman with whom he’d made love…had planned to spend the rest of his life…could be so cold. Where was the heart he’d been sure he’d touched?

She jerked away from him as if his thoughts had reached out, speared her in that chest that apparently harbored only emptiness.

Then she turned and started for the door.

“Don’t do this,” he urged, the plea all too real on far too many levels.

She stopped and turned back to him. “If it makes you feel any better, this has nothing to do with the Colby agency or the kid.”

What the hell? On cue, his injured arm burned where the bullet had passed through his flesh. “I don’t believe you. If this isn’t about the Colby Agency, then what’s it about?”

“You, J.T.” She reached for the door, looking back over her shoulder at him. “It’s about you.”

Chapter Three

10:30 p.m.

Eve scanned the shoreline, then the street.

No sign of trouble yet.

She lowered the binoculars. It wouldn’t last. And she needed more time. Getting J.T. out of his house and into her car hadn’t been easy. He’d been out cold. But not as cold as the scumbag who’d been waiting for him to come home. She’d taken care of that situation without breaking a sweat. Dumping his body in the water once they’d gotten here had been an easy cleanup. The real work had been moving J.T. to this location before he regained consciousness. She’d been forced to take an extra step to ensure he didn’t rouse too soon.

Now he was wide awake.

And they were close.

Whoever the hell they were.

A breath hissed from her lips as she tucked the binoculars into her shoulder bag. She’d been in this business a long time. Every job she accepted came with certain risks. It wasn’t rocket science. Just work. Get in, get the goods, whatever the goods happened to be, and get out.

She was very good at her job. Damned good. Whatever persona was required, she could pull it off. She researched the required occupation to the point that she appeared every bit the experienced expert. Not once in nearly a decade had her skills been questioned.

For her, creating a new identity and pulling it off was—in a word—simple.

But not this time.

But then, she’d never played the part of fiancée. Lover, yes. Mistress, of course. But never this intimate character.

Her fingers clenched.

Just a job. That was all this had been. She had to keep that fact in mind. The only reason she was still hanging around the Windy City was because no one—no one—double-crossed her.

Until she neutralized this situation, she wasn’t going anywhere.

He wasn’t going to make it easy.

Anticipation zipped along her nerve endings. The need to draw his scent into her lungs…to touch his skin was a palpable force inside her. No one had ever gotten that far beneath her carefully constructed exterior. She steeled herself to block the reaction. Again she reminded herself that he was part of the job, nothing more. And the job wasn’t finished yet.

Not until she got the bastard who’d double-crossed her.

And ensured that J.T. didn’t pay the price.

If this guy thought J.T. was his biggest problem, he had no idea what he’d done. Crossing her had been a serious mistake.

Now she was his biggest problem.

He would soon understand just how big that problem was going to be.

As if the thought had summoned his minions, movement below snagged her attention. She watched from the fourth-floor window as four—no, five—men moved toward the warehouse.

“It’s showtime.” She turned away from the window and headed for the stairs. If she’d been smart, she would have moved already.

Things didn’t always go as planned. That was why her motto remained firm. Always have a backup plan. And an exit strategy for every occasion.

Timing was where she’d fallen down tonight.

She jogged down the three flights of stairs to her destination and burst through the door.

“We have to move. Now.”

Fists clenched, J.T. glared at her. “Whatever you’re involved in, I’m not a part of it.” He moved his head from side to side. “The we that included you and I ended the day you didn’t show up for our wedding.”

Not exactly original, but the statement had been one he’d likely wanted to say to her for two weeks now. He’d gotten that out of the way. Good for him.

She hated to do it this way, but…what the hell. Her right hand rammed into her bag, and her fingers closed around the butt of her Glock. “Save it, J.T.” She drew the weapon. “We don’t have time.”

Dropping into a crouch, she retrieved the knife from her bag with her free hand and cut the bindings from around his ankles with one quick swipe to each. She stood and looked him dead in the eyes. “Give me any trouble and we’ll both be dead in—” she hummed a note “—about three minutes.”

“You carry a weapon?”

The question hit its mark. Maybe not the question, but the way he’d asked it. He’d believed in her. Swallowed her profile hook, line and sinker. She flinched.

She never flinched. But somehow it bothered her that he was disappointed. In her.

“Trust me,” she warned. “We don’t have time for this.”

He stared her dead in the eyes.

“Give me one good reason I should trust you for a second.”

That he no longer trusted her…hurt. And it shouldn’t have.

“Because you want to stay alive.”

A door bursting open echoed in the distance.

The enemy was in the building.

There was no more time to talk.

The decision had to be made now.

“Cut me loose.”

His tone left no room for doubt. He didn’t trust her. Not one iota. But he wasn’t stupid. He would accept her word…for the moment.

Two swipes of the blade and he was free.

She sheathed the knife in her bag and headed for the rear exit, keeping one eye on his every move.

He stood, steadied himself and followed the path she’d taken.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so difficult after all.

In the corridor she stayed close to the wall. J.T. did the same. The consuming quiet was disturbing. The enemy was inside. But where?

Part of her wanted to drop back and take at least one of the enemy out of action, but not completely out. She needed information. The scumbag at J.T.’s house had forced her hand. She’d had no choice but to take him out. Couldn’t question a dead man.

“This way,” she whispered to the man sticking close behind her.

He didn’t question her decision, just followed as she took a side corridor that would lead to the outside. She’d spotted five men; taking on five singlehandedly wasn’t something she wanted to do under the circumstances. J.T. was wounded, not seriously but wounded all the same. Not to mention he wasn’t exactly an ally. And she couldn’t risk arming him.

At the exit she hesitated, listened.

J.T. gestured to his right and whispered, “Maybe thirty yards behind us.”

Had he heard something she hadn’t? Then she heard it, too. The whisper of rubber soles on concrete floors. The slightest vibration in the air.

He was good… But then she’d known that.

She pushed through the exit, uncaring of the metal-on-metal sound the lock mechanism made. No time to care. Keep moving.