Chapter Twenty #2
“That’s our last kiss when we’re not husband and wife,” she whispered when they finally broke apart.
He leaned his forehead against hers. “I promise, the kisses just get better from here. But now I better get going or not only will that not be our last kiss—I might really decide I want one more last something else before we get married.”
She gave him a scandalized grin. “What would Marilyn say?”
He smiled too and cupped her cheeks. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’ll be the one in white.”
“I can’t wait. Lock the door behind me.” He kissed her on the forehead and walked out the door.
Bree locked it, then turned and walked over to the couch and pulled the blanket off her dress. It really was beautiful. Not her maybe, but beautiful. It would make Tanner proud of how she looked when he saw her in it. And that was close enough to perfect for her.
She walked into the small bedroom to get the plastic garment bag.
A knock on the door had her turning away. Maybe it was Marilyn having decided to come back. Good. She could help Bree get the dress into the garment bag. Or maybe it was Tanner wanting more kisses—that was even better.
But when she opened the door it was neither. Jared Ellis stood on her doorstep.
After a moment of shock, she tried to slam the door in his face, but he was too quick. His backhand caught her across the cheek, and she stumbled backward. He quickly took the opportunity to enter her apartment, closing the door behind him.
“You’re going to help me get my wife back.”
Bree spun around, running for her phone. Tanner couldn’t be but half a block away. One message and he’d be back here in under a minute.
But then Jared pulled out a gun.
“If you grab that phone, I’m going to have to shoot you. That’s going to be inconvenient for me and painful for you.”
She was tempted to go for the phone anyway. Given what she knew about Jared, being shot may be more of a mercy than some of the other things he was capable of.
He grabbed her and threw her onto the couch—onto her beautiful wedding dress—before she could make a decision.
“How did you fool the monitoring system?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the gun still trained at her.
Bree wasn’t conceited, but she found it nearly impossible to think that this guy had found a way around the system that she had missed.
“It’s all about weaknesses,” Jared said. “Pressure points in the system. I’m very good at finding pressure points.”
“The system didn’t have any pressure points. I searched it myself.”
He gave a shrug and cocky half grin. “The computer system wasn’t the weakness. It only needed to be circumvented.”
He pulled up the leg of his khaki pants to show the monitor was gone.
“So that alarm I got was correct. You had taken it off. You must have bribed Sowers. He lied about you still being in Denver.”
Jared shrugged. “Bribe is not really the correct word. Like I said, I’m very good at finding pressure points. Sowers’s is his wife and newborn daughter. Once I applied a little pressure to that point, he was willing to do whatever I wanted, including say he was still with me if anybody called.”
His eyes were so cold. So dead. This man was a sociopath.
He pointed the gun a little closer at her. “I’m going to need you to call my Marilyn.”
There was no way in hell.
“She won’t answer. Thanks to your little stunt, when we got the alarm that there was something wrong with your ankle monitor, she went into hiding with the kids.”
His eyes narrowed. “But surely she’ll come if her dear friend needs her the night before the wedding. Maybe tell her you got cold feet, you need her to help you figure out what you should do.”
“You don’t think she’s going to be a little suspicious of that?
An hour ago I couldn’t wait to get married, then all of a sudden I’m calling saying I’m about to skip town?
Oh, and it just happens to be when there was indication that you were messing with your ankle monitor.
Hmm, I wonder if she’ll be suspicious about that at all.
I wonder if maybe she’ll go to the police.
I wonder if maybe you’ve underestimated Marilyn for way too many years and she’s never going to put herself in a position where you have control over her again. ”
Bree spit the words out and finally got some real emotion in his eyes. Anger.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she lied with a steady voice.
But she was. He had a gun. And she might know some self-defense moves, but most of them weren’t going to do much good against someone determined to shoot her.
Jared shook his head. “Marilyn used to be a lot more like you when I first met her. Feisty. Wanted to fight back. But eventually I taught her to heel. She’s very well trained now. Which is why I am, in fact, going to need you to call her and get her to come over.”
Bree stood. No matter what he threatened, Bree wasn’t going to allow Marilyn to put herself back in this man’s clutches. “Even if she would come, which I don’t think she’s stupid enough to do, I won’t do it. I won’t call her. You’ll have to shoot me.”
For a second she thought he was actually going to do it, but a knock on the door stopped him.
“Bree, it’s me. I couldn’t leave you on the night before your wedding.”
Bree’s eyes met Jared’s cold ones.
It was Marilyn.