The Bride Wore A Forty-Four Read Online Free Page B

here."
    Anita turned and hurried from the room.
    Hell, it didn't matter. She had to do what
was right for her. She reached for the white dress. She would at
least put it on. It would give her more time to decide what was the
right thing to do. And if she decided to go through with this
thing, she'd be ready.
    She put the dress on. Even added the little
glittering tiara and the layers of veils. Then she looked into the
mirror. And then she rolled her eyes. "No way. It's just not
happening."
     
    "Marshall, we've got trouble."
    Marshall tilted his head to one side when the
voice came through his earphone, moved a few yards away from the
crowd, and spoke into the mouthpiece. "What is it?"
    "She's starting to remember. I think she's
going to call off the wedding."
    He thought every cell in his body smiled.
God, it felt like it, and he was damned if he could keep the relief
and joy from showing on his face.
    "We've got to do something, Marshall. We
can't make the arrest until the reception. Everything's set up
there, not here. We have to stick with the plan. She calls off the
wedding, it's going to ruin everything."
    Marshall sucked in a calming breath and
nodded. It wasn't as if the license she'd been issued was a real
one, after all. The vows wouldn't be valid. But goddamn, it had
been killing him to watch her moving forward with all this, and
believing it was real.
    Killing him.
    Still, he had to stick with the plan. Peter
would be taken into custody after the ceremony, when the rest of
his cronies arrived. Some could only attend the reception. Marshall
was to gather them up for a group photo, take them off a little way
from the rest of the crowd, then give the signal for the troops to
move in.
    They wanted them all together.
    Things had to move forward. Just as
planned.
    "Wait a minute," the voice on the radio said.
"Wait, I think we're okay. She's coming out."
    Marshall frowned. "She's going through with
it?"
    "Well, she's wearing the gown."
    He looked back toward the house, and then he
saw her. She stepped out the back door and waited there, shifting
her feet Swallowing the rush of disappointment Marshall turned to
face the crowd, signaled the string quartet
    They began to play, and the guests took their
seats and grew quiet. As soon as they did, the quartet changed to
the wedding march.
    Marshall turned back toward the house.
    Kira stood there, looking as if she were
paralyzed. Hell. He was going to have to go back there. Talk her
through it. Help her gather enough courage to walk down the
aisle...to marry another man.
    He took three steps toward her—and then all
hell broke loose.
     
    Kira didn't know what was happening. She'd
run out of time for contemplation and had decided to go out there,
as she was, send someone to fetch Peter for her, and then tell him
as gently as she could that she didn't want to marry him. That she
couldn't marry anyone, not until her memory was fully restored.
    But the second she stepped out of the house,
the band struck up, and the next thing she knew everyone was
looking at her, and the wedding march was playing. Hell! She just
stood there, not sure what to do. If she walked down the aisle to
her beaming groom, would she get caught up in the riptide and end
up married? If she turned and ran back into the house, would
everyone think she'd lost what little remained of her mind?
    She stood there like a doe in headlights. And
then she saw Marshall. He stepped into the aisle and started toward
her. And she couldn't wait for him to get to her. She
couldn't wait. She had to be near him, to touch him—to talk to
him—now.
    She gathered her skirts up and started toward
him, but then gunshots rang out. Automatic weapons, her mind told
her. And she launched herself at Marshall and knocked him flat on
his back, landing on top of him. Her momentum kept them going as
she wrapped around him and rolled to the side, out of the open,
into the cover of the rose of Sharon hedges.
    "Kira?" he asked.
    "Stay