Beauty And The Bodyguard. Lisa Childs

wedding announcement was in the paper,” the pseudobridesmaid reminded her. “It provides a great opportunity for anyone looking for vengeance.”

      “But…”

      “Don’t worry,” the woman assured her. “I’ll protect you.”

      She was armed, but it sounded like the other people might have more weapons.

      “How are you going to do that?” Megan questioned her.

      The woman’s dark eyes narrowed, as if she thought Megan was questioning her abilities.

      “If none of those gunmen are my dad’s friends, then you’re outnumbered.” Even if Gage hadn’t left…

      “I have a plan,” the woman replied. “You need to take off that dress.”

      Megan couldn’t agree more.

      “No one can know that you’re the bride.”

      She wasn’t the bride, because she had no intention of getting married. “You’ll need to help me,” Megan said. “I can’t undo all the buttons.”

      The woman lifted the skirt of her own dress and slid her gun into a holster strapped to her thigh. “Turn around.” But she only fumbled for a few moments before cursing. “Damn it, I should have paid more attention when I’ve helped Mom out with weddings.”

      That was why she’d looked familiar. She was the spitting image of her mother. “You’re Penny Payne’s daughter.” Mrs. Payne had said that her sons were bodyguards. She hadn’t mentioned that her daughter was as well.

      “Nikki,” the young woman replied.

      “I’m Megan,” she said.

      “I know,” Nikki replied.

      She sounded like her mother—like a woman who knew everything except how to get Megan out of the heavy, constrictive wedding gown. She continued to fumble with the tiny buttons, but she only managed to undo a couple of them.

      “Cut it off me,” Megan urged her. She grabbed a pair of scissors that had been left on the vanity table.

      “That won’t work.”

      “Of course it will.” She didn’t even care if she got cut in the process. She just wanted it off. Now. And it had nothing to do with fear of any suspiciously armed men. It had to do with fear of making a horrible mistake.

      Again.

      “I won’t be able to put it on if it’s ruined,” Nikki replied.

      “Why would you want to wear it?” She turned to face the woman.

      Nikki shuddered. “Not because I want to get married. I want to act as a decoy.”

      “For me?” Megan asked. “You won’t pass for me.” The other woman was beautiful.

      Nikki wrinkled her forehead. “Why not?” she asked. “We have the same coloring and build.”

      Megan shook her head. Her hair was darker, her body heavier. There was no way she looked like the beautiful bodyguard.

      “You’re a little curvier,” Nikki admitted. “But with how heavy this dress is, no one will notice.”

      Megan suspected plenty of people would notice. But she didn’t care as long as she wasn’t the one walking down the aisle. “No one will notice if you snip a few of those buttons off,” she said.

      “You really want out of this dress,” Nikki observed.

      “When you came in, I was just getting ready to cancel the wedding,” Megan said. “I can’t go through with it.”

      “Gage?”

      Nikki Payne might have been like her mother. Penny had pried out of Megan how much she’d loved another man—and how she’d lost that man when he’d gone missing in action and been presumed dead. But she’d lost Gage long before he’d been deployed again.

      “Where is he?” Megan wondered.

      He’d vowed to make sure no one would stop the wedding from taking place. If he’d noticed the men Nikki had noticed, he might have taken them on—alone. He might have put himself in danger—again.

      Nikki sighed. “I don’t know. But I could use his help. I left my phone in my mom’s office when she enlisted me as your maid of honor.”

      “Ellen canceled.” She wasn’t surprised. Her sister hadn’t wanted her to marry Richard.

      She had no other bridesmaids. She hadn’t wanted a big wedding; it was her father who’d convinced her to get married at Mrs. Payne’s little white wedding chapel.

      Nikki continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “So I couldn’t call for backup before I hurried in here to make sure you were safe. Do you have a phone?”

      Megan shook her head. “Your mom took it from me when I got here,” she said. “She wanted to take all my calls to make sure nobody would bother me.”

      But then she’d enlisted Gage Huxton—who bothered her more than anyone else ever could—as her bodyguard.

      Why?

      What had the older woman hoped would happen? A happy reunion?

      Gage hadn’t been happy to see her at all. He was still mad at her. Earlier, that had upset her. But it gave her some comfort now. With as mad as he was, maybe he wouldn’t risk his life to protect her. Maybe he wouldn’t put himself in any danger.

      Nikki cursed. “I need to call for backup.”

      “Then forget about the dress and let’s get out of here,” Megan suggested.

      Nikki shook her head. “You can’t leave this room—not in that wedding gown.”

      “You can leave,” Megan said. “Go—call for help.”

      Nikki shook her head again. “I can’t leave you in here alone,” she said, “and unprotected.”

      Her pride stinging, Megan lifted her chin and said, “I’m not helpless. I can take care of myself.” She was Woodrow Lynch’s daughter. When she and Ellen had barely been able to walk, their father had taught his daughters self-defense maneuvers as well as other ways to protect themselves.

      “Do you have a gun?” Nikki asked.

      “No,” she admitted. She would have had to carry it in her purse, and she spent too much time at her sister’s—with her young nieces—to risk that. They went in her purse all the time looking for gum. But she gripped the scissors. “I have these. I’ll be fine. You go call for help.”

      “A good bodyguard never leaves her subject unprotected,” Nikki said.

      A good bodyguard would have made certain the door was locked, too. But they both tensed as the knob rattled and began to turn.

      Nikki fumbled with her holster, but she didn’t have time to draw her gun before the door opened. She cursed and stepped between Megan and whatever danger might be coming through the door.

      But Megan doubted the petite bodyguard would be able to protect her from a real threat. Was there a real threat?

      Blood had been shed in her wedding chapel before. A groom had been assaulted and abducted. Another man had died.

      Brides had been threatened.

      Penny’s notorious instincts were telling her that there was another threat. Just as she’d told Gage, Megan Lynch was in danger. When she’d told him that, Penny had thought the only real threat had been of Megan making a mistake—of marrying a man she didn’t love.

      Penny’s chapel was