Secret Intentions. Paula Graves

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Chapter Three

      The bride and groom emerged from the back of the church to a cheering crowd of well-wishers tossing birdseed. Jesse couldn’t resist the urge to raise his binoculars for a closer look, focusing on the pink cheeks and bright eyes of the bride.

      Rita was stunning. At thirty-two, she looked nearly a decade younger, her fair skin unlined. Her cornflower-blue eyes glowed with a joy he could see even through the impersonal lenses of the binoculars.

      She was happy. It radiated from her like sunshine, warming him from a distance. There had been a time when he’d have resented her finding someone else who could make her happy, but those days were long gone. Maturity and experience had softened the edges of his jealous nature and time had taught him that real love was unselfish.

      He would always love Rita and want the best for her, but that didn’t mean he had to be the one to give it to her. If he’d been able to do that—and if she’d been able to make him happy as well—they would still be together.

      Suit-clad men surrounded the bride and groom, guiding them down the sidewalk toward a limousine parked nearby. The reception would take place at The Lodge on Gossamer Lake, a sprawling resort on a scenic overlook with a stunning view of the lake. Jesse already had agents positioned there to augment General Marsh’s security contingent.

      He watched the limousine move with a stately lack of urgency, the bride and groom waving at their well-wishers as they passed near the front of the church on their way out.

      Jesse’s phone rang. Isabel. “You got the limo?”

      “I’m on it,” she said. “You’re going to keep an eye on Evie and her parents?”

      He spotted Evie waving at the passing limousine. Her face was still a little puffy and red, but her makeup job had hidden the worst of it, and her small, compact body looked amazing in the dark red gown she’d worn as her sister’s maid of honor.

      Sometime in the past ten years, Rita’s gangly little sister had grown into a woman. She wasn’t tall and willowy like Rita, but what she lacked in height, she made up in lush curves in all the right places.

      She’d been working out at the Cooper Security gym; Jesse had spotted her there a few times when he’d been working out himself. She’d taken the fitness ethic of Cooper Security seriously, even though her work was confined to the accounting department, and he’d seen the results of her efforts a few weeks ago when she’d been caught in a late-night ambush at the office.

      She’d held her own, despite being injured and drugged by an SSU operative who’d been part of a siege on the building. Jesse had been impressed.

      So why hadn’t he told her so?

      Evie followed her parents to a black SUV driven by one of the security guards Jesse had seen earlier outside the bride’s room. But she didn’t get inside, shaking her head as her father clearly tried to coax her to join them. Finally, he stopped arguing and joined her mother in the SUV.

      Frowning, Jesse watched the SUV drive away, his chest tightening with alarm. What the hell was she thinking? He sent a quick text to his brother Rick, who was parked nearby.

      General and wife in black SUV. Follow.

      He adjusted the binoculars and saw Evie was holding her cell phone in her hand. She punched a button and lifted the phone to her ear. A second later, Jesse’s phone rang.

      He didn’t bother with a greeting. “Have you lost your mind?”

      “Stop worrying.”

      “Where’s your bodyguard?”

      “On his way.” She pointed to a lanky man approaching from her left. “I just thought it would be better if we didn’t all go in the same vehicle to the reception. I keep thinking about what happened to the Harlowes.”

      She had a point. General Emmett Harlowe, his wife and his daughter had all been kidnapped together from the north Georgia vacation cabin they owned. Spreading the Marsh family into different vehicles would make it hard for the SSU to get to them all.

      “Be careful, okay?”

      “You going to join us at the lodge?” she asked, falling into step with the guard as they walked toward a navy SUV parked nearby.

      “That’s СКАЧАТЬ