“This is bad luck,” she insists. “I mean, if this is your fiancé.”
I’d bristle, but Rick snorts a laugh. “Don’t mind me,” he says. “I’m just the best man. No bad luck here.”
I swat him. “Stop.” And then I eye Mary. “This is Rick, Mary. Forgive his bad jokes. Just please give me a moment to kill him in private. I won’t leave the body in the store.”
She bristles, no laughter for her, and then turns on her heel and disappears out into the store again. I face off with Rick. “What friend?” I demand.
“Max.”
“As in Max who was working with for Tag as a mercenary?”
“That would be him,” he confirms.
“Tag did bad things. He had you and Max do bad things. I don’t trust him.”
“In my defense, I thought I was working for your father, an honorable general in the United States Army, and so did Max.”
That old history with my father is a rough bump in the road. I love my father, but his role in how, and why, Rick ended up a mercenary is not easy to forgive. For now, I focus on Rick. “Tag tried to kill us. How do you know Max isn’t dirty?”
“He was like me. In with Tag for the right reasons and trapped when it turned dirty.”
“What does he want you to do?” I ask.
“He needs me to deliver something to a friend. He’d do it, but he’s still in hiding.”
“Why? Tag is dead. Why can’t he come out of hiding like you are?”
“Apparently, he had other enemies.”
“And he wants you to make an enemy of that enemy?” I challenge and I don’t give him time to reply. “I don’t like this, Rick. It’s less than a week before our wedding.”
“All the more reason for me to put the past behind us.”
“No,” I say. “Can’t he just send someone else to do whatever you’re going to do?”
“He doesn’t trust anyone else.” He cups my face. “He saved my life. Three times, Candace. I owe him one last favor.”
“We sheltered his wife from Tag. Walker protected her.”
“That counted as two. I owe him one more, baby. I wouldn’t be here to marry you if not for him. I’ll be gone two days at the most. It’s a quick shot South and back.”
“South, where?”
“Pick-up in Tennessee and delivery to Colorado.”
“What is it that you’re delivering?”
He kisses me. “Money and data. He needs some cash.”
I can tell I will not win this battle and I say, “Damn it, Rick. Please don’t die.”
His hand flattens on my back. “I have you to live for, Candace. I will be in that church to marry you.”
“Promise.”
“On my life, baby. On my life.” He brushes his lips over mine. “I’ll be home soon.” And then he releases me and he’s walking away.
I have this clawing feeling that he’s never coming back. I can’t take it. I can’t let this happen.
I have to do something.
Lifting my skirts, I hurry into the private dressing area and dig my phone from my purse. I consider my options and decide Savage’s closest friend, Adam, is the right choice. I hit his autodial.
“Candace,” he says. “What’s up?”
“Rick is going to run some errand for an old friend.”
He’s quiet a beat before he says, “Who?”
“Max. It’s Max and he worked for Tag. You know that’s trouble. I’m worried, Adam.”
“When?”
“He just left the bridal shop. He said he’s going to Tennessee and Colorado. Adam, I’m worried,” I repeat.
“I’ll handle it,” he promises, and then he just hangs up.
I want to scream. Can he not say more? Can he not tell me more?
I squeeze my eyes shut and now I pray. “Dear Lord. Please don’t take him from me again. I can’t survive losing Rick Savage yet again.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Savage
I swing by the apartment I now share with Candace, toss some items in a bag, and I’m off to the airport via a hired car. It’s not long before I’m at the Walker terminal and I’m cursing to find Adam and Asher already at the boarding door, both with bags on their shoulders.
“You fucker,” I growl, aiming my attention at Adam. “She called you, didn’t she?”
“Of course, she called me,” Adam replies. “She loves you. And I called Asher.”
I eye Asher, a complicated dude who was a former lead singer in a rock band, turned badass with a computer and a firearm. “Three’s a crowd,” I say. “Go home and cuddle with your wife and let her run her fingers through all that long-ass blond hair.”
He pats his bag, tats running from his hand to his shoulder beneath his sleeve. “You need my laptop, man, with me operating it.”
“You’re married,” I say. “I’m not going to be the reason you don’t go home to your woman.”
“If this isn’t dangerous, as you told Candace,” Adam challenges, “then why would he end up dead?”