Bo wasn’t as sanguine as he was. Getting married was a big deal, so big that sometimes she thought she might have a panic attack at the idea of the huge step she was taking. Then she’d look at Morgan, so big and lethal and intelligent, and hell no, she wasn’t letting him get away, panic or no panic. He was hers. She’d do this.
By the time she’d been released from the hospital, her house was no longer a crime scene, probably because Jesse and Morgan between them had been ruthless in moving things along. It hadn’t been a normal crime scene anyway, not under the circumstances. The FBI had gotten involved and kept everything very quiet. The official word was that Mr. Kingsley had died in an auto accident. If Congresswoman Kingsley wanted to dispute that and bring the true circumstances out in the open, that was up to her. She hadn’t. His funeral service had been remarkably quiet.
So far Axel’s computer forensic team hadn’t unearthed anything that would incriminate the congresswoman; perhaps she knew he wouldn’t, perhaps there was a degree of separation that kept her in the clear. At any rate, she had been going about her life, handling her husband’s death and funeral, accepting condolences. She had resigned from the HASC, so at least she was no longer in any position to know and pass along crucial military details. That was one small victory-too small, but Axel hadn’t given up.
Sometimes the good guys won. Sometimes they didn’t.
Bo put that terrifying day behind her. In an odd way, she was less upset about it than she had been the day Kyle Gooding had tried to kill Tricks. The most dire threat had been to herself; she’d had hopes that Morgan would be able to handle himself, that Tricks would be okay. She could handle that. She’d had a couple of dreams about it, but the dreams hadn’t risen to nightmare status, and that had been in the first couple of days when she hadn’t slept well because of her neck.
Still… if it hadn’t been for that day, she’d have liked to get married at her home, in her yard. Though everything had been cleared by the time Morgan brought her home from the hospital, even the bloodstains washed from the grass and concrete, the patio pressure-washed to remove the splatted brain tissue-something she refused to let herself think about, though she immediately began planning to have that section of grass replaced with new sod, have new gravel brought in for the driveway, the patio posts restained-she didn’t want her wedding memories to mix with those memories. It was best to keep the two separate. So they were getting married in the town park, in a little gazebo that had already seen several weddings.
“Brace yourself,” Morgan said the day before the wedding as they were on their way home from the surgeon’s office. His mother and stepfather had arrived the day before, and his mother-Theresa-had insisted they stay in the small motel so they didn’t get in the way, thereby earning Bo’s eternal gratitude and friendship. They were going to attend when Morgan and Bo had a quick walk-through of the ceremony that night. Other than eating out with them and having getting-to-know-you conversations, for now she and Morgan were going about their regular routine-almost. Though she’d gone back to work a week after being wounded because paperwork waited for no man-or woman-she didn’t intend to work the day before her wedding, and everyone seemed to be totally on board with that.
“Why?”
“Axel’s coming to the wedding.”
“What?” Her head snapped around so fast the healing tissues and tendons in her neck howled a protest, and she slapped her hand over the bandage. “Ow! Damn it! What do you mean, he’s coming to the wedding?”
“He’s coming to the wedding, that’s what I mean.” He gave her a concerned glance. “Don’t jerk your head around like that.”
“No joke. Why’s Axel coming? Who invited him?”
“No one invited him. This is kind of an open deal, remember? Whoever wants to show up will? My team happens to be between missions right now so they’re all coming, and he decided to come along with them.”
“Crap. I’d rather have my parents than him.” She scowled out the windshield. “Just keep him away from me, all right? Have your guys sit on him or something.”
“He’ll be on his best behavior. With Axel, though, that isn’t anything to brag about.”
“I know. We’ll make sure he’s seated beside Loretta, and we’ll give her a heads-up. If he starts anything, she’ll cold-cock him. Problem solved,” she said with satisfaction.
Morgan laughed. “I’m impressed. That’s top-notch strategy. Now I’m actually hoping he gets out of line.”
“Yeah, me too.” She fantasized for a few minutes about how satisfying it would be to see Loretta lay Axel out with one punch. If she did, Bo would definitely start lobbying the town council to give Loretta a raise.
The big day itself went smoothly, mainly because they weren’t making a lot of fuss about the details. A couple of churches and the community center volunteered folding chairs for the wedding guests to sit on and arranged them all in neat rows. They didn’t have fancy covers over them, or bows tied to the backs, but no one cared.
Long tables were set up along one side for the wedding cake and punch, as well as the cases of Naked Pig fetched by a couple of Morgan’s guys, whom he’d had make an emergency run to Alabama to the Back Forty Beer Company. Some inroad into the supply had been made before it arrived in West Virginia, but he’d ordered extra with that in mind. There were also sparkling water, tea, and soft drinks for those not inclined to try out the Naked Pig.
Daina and Kenny Michaels and a few others, including Emily, Brandwyn, and Kalie, had strung white lights in the gazebo and on the surrounding bushes and small trees. Even though the wedding was during the day, the white lights looked great.
The rest of Morgan’s guys, and Axel, showed up well before the ceremony. Bo and Morgan were already in town-she was getting ready in the bathroom at the police station, so he had custody of Tricks until it was time for him to change into his suit. It was a new suit because, in his opinion, none of his old ones did justice to the occasion. Bo had bought a new dress, therefore he bought a new suit. Worked for him.
His guys didn’t pay much attention to Tricks at first, other than commenting that she was a pretty dog, which was like saying Einstein was fairly smart. They were all standing around outside shooting the bull while Morgan threw the tennis ball for her. After a while, of course, she deigned to allow someone else to have the honor and deposited her ball at Kodak’s feet.
Morgan kept his mouth shut, let Kodak give it a muscular throw, then filled him in on what he’d done wrong when Tricks retrieved the ball, and on her return gave Kodak a disdainful look before giving the honor to one of the other guys. Morgan instructed him on how she liked the throw, and on cue she caught it on the first bounce and posed for him until he told her it was a great catch.
From then on, the guys were hooked. Tricks had all the attention she could possibly want-maybe, because she had a large capacity for handling attention. She was petted, she was played with, she amazed them with her understanding of people language, she demonstrated that she knew exactly what the numbers on the clock meant when it was time for her lunch. Even Axel was impressed. “Maybe we could use her,” he muttered.
“Stay your ass away from her,” Morgan said. He was only glad Bo wasn’t around to hear that comment or she’d have cold-cocked Axel herself, then sent the Mean-As-Shit Hobsons to burn down his house.
For her part, Tricks disliked Axel on sight, which only proved her excellent character judgment. She turned her head away from him every time he tried to pet her. Probably the best pet for Axel was a snake.