Chapter Twenty
“It really is a beautiful dress, Bree. Tomorrow is going to be amazing.”
Bree took a sip of her wine. She, Cassandra and Marilyn were sitting in her apartment, in three chairs across from the couch where her wedding dress was laid out carefully.
The rehearsal dinner had gone without a scratch.
Yes, half the town had been there, but Bree had just been able to relax and enjoy it.
After everything she and Tanner had been through, she didn’t want her own wedding to stress her out.
Like Cassandra had told her, if you did it right, you only got married once.
Looking over at Tanner tonight as he walked around the Sunrise Diner, where they’d decided to hold their rehearsal dinner, talking and joking with all their family and friends, Bree knew she was doing it right.
Tomorrow morning, she would become Mrs. Tanner Dempsey. Bree Dempsey.
When she’d first heard that unexpected knock on her door in her nearly empty apartment in Kansas City, she’d never dreamed it would lead her here. To this place. To this moment.
But how thankful she was that it had.
Everything; the danger, the pain, the fear... It was all worth it because it had made them the Bree and Tanner they were now.
All those variables.
“What’s that little smile?” Cassandra asked, taking another sip of wine.
It was after 10:00 p.m., the wedding was in the morning and her two best friends were here for a few more minutes. Tonight was her last night in this apartment. Bree doubted she would sleep very much, but that was okay.
“I’m ready,” she said. “In every way that someone can be ready to marry someone else, I’m ready. It’s time for Tanner and I to start our forever.”
Cassandra let out a string of curses that would make a sailor blush, then burst into tears. “That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. And I love it even more that my brother feels the exact same way.”
Marilyn smiled too. “It’s going to be an amazing day.” She turned back to the dress. “And that dress is just so...”
“Ornate?”
Marilyn chuckled. “It is ornate. It’s beautiful, Bree. Of course, I got married in a denim skirt, so I’m probably a little bit partial to big, beautiful wedding dresses.”
It still wasn’t the dress Bree would’ve picked out if she’d gone with her heart. But there was no doubt the dress was beautiful, and it would be beautiful tomorrow when she wore it down the aisle.
She was about to say so when a distinct beeping noise began shrieking from her computer. It took her a moment to realize exactly what it was.
Jared Ellis’s ankle monitor had just gone off.
She scrambled over to her laptop and began typing in information. Not ten seconds later everybody’s phones began beeping—they were all receiving the alarm she’d set up as an app on their phones.
Bree’s phone rang and she lifted it to her ear as she continued typing.
“Are you looking up the details on Jared?”
She loved that Tanner knew her well enough to cut straight to the chase, even the night before their wedding, not wasting time with greetings.
“Yes. It looks like he’s still at his apartment. So if it went off, it was because he was trying to remove it from his body.”
“I’m calling the Denver marshals. Noah is on his way to your place already. I’ll make the call and be right behind him.”
Bree disconnected the call and looked over at Marilyn. Every bit of color in the other woman’s face had leached out.
Cassandra rushed over to her, grabbing her hands.
Bree brought the laptop over so Marilyn could see it. “Look, the monitor is still on, and still in his apartment. I won’t say there’s no cause to be alarmed, but let’s get all the information before we panic.”
Marilyn nodded. “I need to get to the kids. They’re asleep at New Journeys.”
Cassandra nodded. “I’m going to call Barb right now and have her put the building on lockdown, okay? There’s absolutely no way Jared could get in that building. Hell, the kids will be safer than we are.”
Marilyn nodded and Cassandra got on the phone.
When the alarm on her laptop screeched again, Bree opened the program to see what new data had come in.
Jared’s monitor was now offline altogether.
Before Bree could even give anyone the bad news, Noah walked through the door. He went straight over to Marilyn and pulled her against his chest.
“We’ve already got Ronnie standing guard over at New Journeys,” he said. “The kids are safe.”
“Jared’s tracker just went offline,” Bree told him.
“What does that mean, exactly?” Noah asked.
Bree looked at him and then at Marilyn. “Technically, it means we no longer know exactly where Jared is.”
When Tanner walked in a few moments later, some of Bree’s tension eased. He looked calm, not panicked the way she felt. He was on the phone with someone. Cassandra, always in wedding-planner mode, threw a blanket over Bree’s wedding dress on the couch.
“I’ll call Sowers myself if that’s okay with you, Marshal, just to double check. I’ve got his number.” Tanner nodded as he listened to whatever the marshal was saying. “Will do. Thanks for calling us first.”
Tanner ended the call. “Adam Sowers, one of the marshals I met personally two days ago, is already on scene. Everything is okay. Sowers was nearby when Jared’s alarm went off and he got the call.
He immediately went to Jared’s town house, arriving within two or three minutes of the alarm. Jared was still there.”
“The monitor is offline now,” Bree said.
“Yes, Sowers confirmed this. Evidently Jared developed some sort of rash under the monitor. He was trying to loosen it to keep it from chafing and knocked it offline.”
“You met this guy Sowers, and he’s on the up-and-up?” Noah said.
Bree was already sitting down at her computer. She wanted to know everything there was to know about this Adam Sowers. There wasn’t time to go through legal channels, so she just wasn’t going to mention what she was doing to her husband-to-be.
“Yeah,” Tanner said. “He’s young. Enthusiastic about the job and about making a difference. I’m going to call him myself right now.”
Bree didn’t pay attention to Tanner’s call. Tanner was much better at telling if someone was lying than she would be. She was good at digging up facts.
By the time Tanner was off the phone with Sowers a few minutes later, Bree was feeling much better about him too.
Sowers seemed to be exactly what Tanner had said.
He’d been out of the police academy and part of the marshals’ office for two and a half years.
He was married with a six-month-old daughter.
No indication of any sort of questionable finances, infidelity or bad habits.
“Sowers is a good cop. I believe him,” Tanner said from across the room.
“I concur,” Bree said, closing her laptop.
Tanner narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t even tell me what you were doing. Do not make me arrest you the night before we’re getting married.”
“Moi?” She gave him her most innocent shrug, and he just rolled his eyes. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t arrest her, but not 100 percent.
But at least it broke the tension in the room.
“It’s really safe?” Marilyn asked.
“Jared will either go into holding until the ankle monitor can be fixed or someone will keep him under surveillance.” Tanner gave Marilyn a kind smile. “We’ll be notified if anything changes.”
She still looked pretty worried, and after what she’d been through, Bree couldn’t blame her.
Bree came over and rubbed Marilyn’s shoulder. “This actually reassures me that the monitor is working the way it’s intended. I don’t doubt that Jared was probably trying to test it out and see if the cops came running to his door if he tried to remove it. Now he knows it works and they will.”
Tanner slipped an arm around Bree’s waist. “And we might be able to use this with Judge Osborne to get Jared moved back into jail until the trial. The judge isn’t going to put up with this nonsense.”
“I know I was supposed to hang over here with you tonight,” Marilyn said. “But I just need to go check on the kids.”
Bree pulled Marilyn in for a hug. “I’m fine. Go be with your kids. I totally understand. I’ll just see you bright and early in the morning.”
A midmorning wedding had seemed like such a romantic idea at the time Bree had let Cassandra and Cheryl talk her into it. And Bree had to admit that watching the sun make its way past her beloved Rockies was definitely her favorite time of day.
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. Get some sleep.” Marilyn pointed at Tanner. “And you get out of here. You’re not allowed to stay with her, because we all know what’s going to happen if you do.”
Tanner smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
Cassandra grabbed her jacket. “I’m going to head home to my family too. Wrap that dress back up as soon as we leave and hang it on your bedroom door. No point in inviting disaster. I cannot even think of red wine coming anywhere near it.”
“Fine. I’ll keep it safe, I promise.” Marilyn hugged her again and Noah escorted her out the door, Cassandra right behind them.
Tanner walked to the door himself, then turned back.
“I don’t suppose I could talk you into letting me see that dress,” he said with a smile.
“Nope. Cassandra and Marilyn would both kill me. They think it’s the most beautiful thing since sliced bread.”
Tanner laughed but then the smile fell from his face. “But you don’t?”
This was going to be the problem with being married to such a good cop. She wasn’t going to be able to hide stuff from him. “You know me, not big on dressing up in girlie stuff.”
“How about you wear that dress for me tomorrow morning at our wedding and I’ll make it worth your while tomorrow night.”
He held open his arms, ignoring his stiff shoulder, and she walked into them. “It’s a deal.” One she definitely didn’t mind making. “And the dress is beautiful. It’s gorgeous, even.”
“You are what will make it gorgeous. It wouldn’t matter what you wear.”
He kissed her. Soft, sweet, light. The same sort of kiss he’d started with her all those months ago.