Assumed Identity(61)
“Did he find the man who attacked me?”
“Not yet. But he did stress that you were important to his case. He wanted to make sure you had sufficient protection.”
“I have you. Right?”
Damn straight. He tucked the Beretta into the back of his belt, wanting quicker access to it than what the ankle holster allowed. “Can you take care of Emma now?”
“Of course.”
“Good.” He dropped a hard, far-too-brief kiss on her mouth and headed for front door. “Then I’m going to walk the grounds and check the car, make sure everything’s as secure as it needs to be while you get dressed.”
She and Emma followed him right to the door. “You’re doing it again. What did Detective Montgomery say? Why are you arming yourself like this?”
“You can’t change a man overnight, Robin.” As soon as the harsh tone left his mouth, Jake regretted it. He pulled his hand from the doorknob and touched her damp hair, apologizing. “You can’t...fix me. I got a feeling something bad is coming. You have to let me do what I know how to do.”
* * *
“OVER HERE, LEON.” Robin waved the man carrying the second part of the Vanderhams’ altar arrangement up to the front of the church. The younger man tilted his head to peek through the stand of red and white roses to find the step, and Robin hurried down to help him. She grabbed one end of the arrangement’s brass base and helped him steer around the pulpit. “This goes inside the ring I’ve already set up. Careful.”
He heaved it onto the center of the altar. “Don’t let those cascading ones get caught underneath.”
“Got it.” It took several more minutes to make sure all the flowers were set properly. Robin pulled out a couple of broken red stems. “We’ll need to replace these. Run out to the van and bring in the box of spares.”
“Um...” Leon nervously ran his fingers inside the collar of his uniform. “There’s nothing else in the van. I must have forgotten that box.”
“You forgot? I specifically wrote that down on the manifest. How many things have to disappear before—?” A muted rumble of thunder rattled the stained-glass windows and Robin shivered. Lordy, she was jumpy today. And she was already running behind schedule setting up for the ceremony.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. Do you want me to drive back to the shop and get some?”
Robin eased a calming breath through her nose. “No, I’m sorry. There isn’t time for that.” She glanced over at Emma in her carrier on the first pew, sleeping peacefully through the hubbub. Oh, to be stress-free like that right now. She turned to Leon and apologized again for snapping at him. “We’ll make do.”
True, setting up for the Vanderhams’ renewal ceremony required a lot of work in a short time frame, but that wasn’t why she was so short-tempered this afternoon. She glanced to the back of the church where Jake stood outside in the lobby by the front doors, keeping an eye on both the interior and exterior of the building. Beyond the church’s open front door, the overcast sky threatened rain, driving some early arrivals inside the lobby, where they mingled, waiting until her staff cleared the sanctuary. More people for Jake to watch and worry about, she supposed. Maybe that explained the grim impatience lining his features.
His ice-blue gaze met hers. He held up his wrist and pointed to his watch. Right. He was antsy about something she was certain he hadn’t shared with her. That hyperalertness made her edgy, too. Maybe she should give Detective Montgomery a call to find out just what he had discussed with Jake to send him into commando mode.
She turned back to Leon and smiled. “I’ll pull stems out of the back and fill in where they’ll show in the wedding pictures.” What was one missing box of long-stemmed red roses, anyway? In her mind, the decorations already looked like the floral blanket awarded to a Kentucky Derby winner, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have enough flowers to work with. “I’ll take care of this. Go ahead and start cleaning things up. The wedding starts in an hour.”
Leon quickly gathered up all the discarded tissue paper that had been wrapped around the arrangements. She couldn’t blame him for being eager to leave. “Anything else?”
“Maybe check with Mark to see if he needs help?” She nodded toward the offices turned dressing rooms on the far side of the lobby. “He should be delivering the bouquets by now.”
“Yes, ma’am. Do you want me to go ahead and close up the van and move it?” He was looking toward the front doors, too, where a couple had just stepped in with an umbrella. “It’s starting to rain.”