Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
The music changed to Pachelbel’s Canon in D, and all heads turned as the bridal party began to walk down the aisle.
Carys’s niece, Diana Hawthorne, looked adorable in her pink dress. The four-year-old skipped down the aisle, joyously tossing rose petals.
Her mom, MaeBe, bit back a laugh as she walked down the aisle with Carys’s brother Kyle. All of Carys’s brothers were in the wedding party along with their wives, his sister, Daisy, and her fiancé, Nate, and her Taggart cousins. Tash walked down the aisle with her brother Travis, Kenzie with Carys’s younger brother Lucas. Kala walked beside her brother Seth.
And then the world narrowed to one sight.
Carys stood with her father, the sun shining down on her like a fucking spotlight. Like it couldn’t help but caress her with warmth, giving her a glow.
He let go of everything in that moment. Aidan allowed all of his worry to wash away because no matter what happened, she was the important part.
His love. His life. Everything revolved around the gorgeous woman who started walking down the aisle.
Her eyes caught with his, and a smile crossed her face. A real smile. A “we’re in this together and it’s going to be okay” smile.
It was going to be okay.
He glanced over and noticed Carys’s uncle had stepped away from his chair and walked to the back of the space, standing near the railing overlooking the grounds below. Ian Taggart’s body was stiff, as though he was on edge.
Something was happening. If he trusted anyone’s instincts, it was Ian’s.
A buzzing sound could be heard over the stringed quartet who’d started up with the wedding march.
“Is that a drone?” TJ stepped up onto the platform where the pastor stood. “Fuck.”
“TJ,” the pastor admonished.
Sean had stopped in the middle of the aisle, looking over to Ian. “I’m sorry. It’s probably press. They’ll go away. Someone shoot it down.”
“Taggarts,” the pastor sighed under his breath.
“I’ve got it,” Kala announced, pulling a SIG out of the center of her bouquet.
There were suddenly a whole lot of guns.
Carys’s father was a celebrity chef. Sean Taggart was known in culinary circles—and food-related television—as the Soldier Chef. It wasn’t terrifically surprising celebrity media would want pictures of his daughter’s wedding, although they’d been careful about keeping the logistics quiet.
“Maybe we should think about this,” Aidan said.
“I’ve got the shot,” Kala announced.
Of course she did.
Carys sighed. “Have we thought about pictures of the twins getting released to the public? I thought we were trying to pretend there was only one of them.”
“Shit.” Uncle Ian looked back, his cell in hand.
“I need a laptop.” Adam Miles moved out of the aisle. “I can probably hack into it and figure out how to stop those pictures.”
“You’re getting soft in your old age,” a feminine voice said. Chelsea Weston sat beside her husband, and she had her phone in hand, working on the problem. Chelsea was one of the world’s best hackers. “I’ve already got it on my phone. Give me a second and I’ll figure out who sent it. Sorry, guys.”
“Diana, don’t climb the trellis, sweetie,” MaeBe was saying.
Carys strode to him. “I’m sorry. I should have known better. We should have been inside. I don’t understand why they would want pictures. I’m not a celebrity.”
“They don’t,” Chelsea said. “It’s weird. It’s not taking pictures. It’s… Ian, it’s sending back markers. Directions.”
Aidan’s father was on his feet. “Bloody hell. Everyone out. Move to the stairs as quickly as you can.”
Kyle Hawthorne scooped his daughter off the trellis, while MaeBe picked up their son. Tessa Hawthorne had been sitting next to Grace, and David began hustling them toward the stairs.
Then he heard a deeper thud than any drone could make.
He didn’t have to be in the military to know the sound. Helicopter.
He barely had time to push Carys to the ground before the world exploded.
Chapter Two
Tristan stared at Carys. She looked so fucking gorgeous. The dress clung to her every curve. It was as timeless as Carys’s beauty.
Aidan didn’t look half bad either, but TJ standing in Tristan’s place bugged him way more than he thought it would.
This was all for the best. It was what had to happen.
He stood in the tiny security room. This whole venue at one point in time had been a mission. They’d added on, and the gorgeous dining hall and ultra-modern kitchen were new, but this part used to be the chapel.
He might have been far too invested in the planning of a wedding he wasn’t a part of.
The bell tower was the security office and part-time storage closet since he was stuck in here with what had to be five hundred Styrofoam cups stamped with Happy Quinceañera. It offered him a couple of monitors hooked up to the CCTV cams across the venue, but even more importantly he could see the ceremony space with his own eyes. From his vantage, he could see Carys starting to walk down the aisle with her father.