She cut off that thought.
Harold Goddard waited impatiently to hear from the men he was sending into the Reynard compound.
When Wayne finally called, he snatched up the phone. “What?”
There’s a lot of activity at the estate. Delivery trucks are going into the compound. Two catering trucks.”
“And anyone going in and out is getting stopped at the main gate?”
“Yeah.”
Harold thought for a moment. Were they really expecting an attack, or was Reynard just taking precautions because that was his MO? Finally, he said, “I think he’s not really expecting trouble. I mean, who would go up against him?”
“I’ve hacked his e-mail. The wedding ceremony’s at five. Wait till then to crash the gate. You’ll know where the woman is, and you can take her and run.”
“What about collateral damage?”
“Do what you have to,” he said.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The flower delivery was scheduled for 2:00 in the afternoon. Craig’s tension mounted as the departure time approached. He breathed out a sigh when he finally drove away from the loading dock in the back of the flower shop. He made one more stop, at a spot where he’d left the extra equipment he was going to need, packing it into the back of the panel truck behind the flowers.
He said a silent prayer that he wasn’t going to get Stephanie killed, then headed for the main gate of Reynard’s estate and waited with his heart pounding while he sized up the operation from close in. There were three guards at the checkpoint. One of them asked for his credentials and looked them over carefully, like the president of a foreign country was staying here and needed special protection.
“I’d like to inspect that truck,” the man said.
“Sure,” Craig agreed as though he didn’t have a thing in the world to hide. Like for example, that he was here to kidnap the bride. Climbing out, he walked around to the back and opened the door.
There’s nothing in here but flowers. All you see are flowers,Craig said over and over as the guy climbed inside and poked around.
Flowers. Just flowers. And I’m only the delivery guy, doing his job.
The guard jumped out. “You’re good to go,” he said.
“Thanks.” He waited for a beat.
“Yes.”
“Where should I park?”
“Around the side of the house. The ceremony is out by the pool.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
He would have liked to ask more questions about the layout of the estate, but he assumed he was supposed to know. He still wasn’t sure what “around the side” of the house meant, but when he spotted a catering truck pulling up near the triple garage, he breathed out a little sigh. Before parking, he turned around so that he was facing outward, poised for a quick getaway. He figured that would look normal because he was unloading the flowers from the back.
After climbing out, he followed one of the catering guys to the back of the house. Chairs had been set up on either side of an aisle, facing a bank of bushes. Over to the side were six round tables, with snowy white cloths where china and cutlery had already been laid out.
He tried to remember what he knew about wedding ceremonies, which wasn’t much. Probably, they wanted a big bouquet of flowers on either side of the open space in front of the bushes because, presumably, that was where the ceremony was being held.
Someone came hurrying out of the house. He turned, hoping against hope to see Stephanie.
Instead, it was a dark-haired woman that he recognized immediately. She was Stephanie’s assistant, the one he’d met at the dress shop a lifetime ago.
He forced himself to stand in a relaxed posture with his hands at his sides as she gave him a long look. As he faced her, he furiously sent her the message.You do not know me. You never saw me before in your life.
She tipped her head to the side. “Do I know you?”
