Alana glared at her friend.“You’re not helping.”Her gaze shifted to Chase.“And you need to get out of here.”
He crossed his arms over his naked chest, but his stern look lost some of its starch when his lips twitched.“Not without my bride.”
Chapter3
Chase wasn’tsure if the threat was real or not.Until he knew for certain, he refused to leave this woman, who appeared to be his wife, unprotected.“Look, I’m not trying to be mean, but we’re in a foreign country.Even the tourist traps have issues with gang violence.Besides that, drug cartels are out there, and they play for keeps.If this guy is part of a cartel, you could be in serious danger.”
Alana planted her hands on her hips.“And you’re a complete stranger.How do I know you’re not just as dangerous as a cartel thug?”
“The US government granted me a Top Secret clearance.If they can trust me, why can’t you?”
Alana shot him a pointed glare.“If you really are a Navy SEAL—and I have no proof that you are—you could be nothing more than a trained assassin.Top Secret probably just means you can’t kill and tell.”
“Ahhh.You two are too stinkin’ cute,” Gina said.“You’re having your very first fight as a married couple.”
Alana flung her hands in the air.“We’re not married!”
Chase waved the marriage certificate.“I have a piece of paper, and we have wedding rings to prove it.”
“That certificate is not worth the paper it’s written on.”Alana turned back to her room.“Even if it were, just because we’re married doesn’t mean you can boss me around.You can’t make me go with you.”
“Okay.You don’t have to come with me.”He turned and marched down the hallway to his room, grabbed his duffel bag, shoved his hanging clothes and shaving kit inside and marched back to Alana’s room.
The door was closed.Chase knocked.
After a long moment, Gina opened the door.She took one look at him and grinned.“Alana, your husband’s here,” she sang out.Gina leaned close to Chase.“Alana’s not normally so…you know…”
“Bitchy?”he finished for her.
“I was going to sayobstinate, but bitchy works.”Gina glanced over her shoulder.“She’s had a rough couple of days.”
“Yeah?Well, based on that text, it might get rougher.”He pushed past Gina.“Since she refuses to come with me, I’m moving in.”
“Oh, no, you’re not.”Alana crossed the room, lifted the phone and dialed the operator.“Give me security.”She paused and then spoke into the phone.“Hi, this is Alana Neal in room 336.There’s an uninvited man in my room.Please come escort him out.”She frowned.“No need to congratulate me.I’mnotmarried.”She paused, her frown deepening.“What do you mean, half the hotel staff were invited and danced at my wedding on the beach?I’m not married!”She held the phone away from her ear and stared at it as if it had grown horns.“You want to know the name of the man in my room?Isn’t it enough that he wasn’t invited?”She huffed.“Fine.His name is Chase Flannigan… No, he’s not my husband.I’m not married.Oh, for the love of—” Alana slammed the phone down and glared at Chase.
“I take it the staff of the hotel witnessed our wedding.”Chase couldn’t stop the grin spreading across his cheeks.
The look of horror on Alana’s face was priceless.
Chase kept his expression bland.“Why don’t you accept that we got married last night, and let’s retrace our steps to find out what exactly happened.Then, maybe, we can figure out who the hell I pissed off to the point he’ll hurt you to get to me.”He raised his hand.“Before you tell me to go to hell, I promise to do something to annul our marriage as soon as we get past the danger.”
Gina leaned her shoulder against the door to her bedroom and hiked the sheet up higher over her breasts.“You have to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.He’s in this mess as deep as you are.”
“Why are you sticking up for him?You’remyfriend, nothis.”Alana rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath.“And I don’t have to give him the benefit of a doubt.We aren’t married.The texting dude isn’t going to find me, and I couldn’t care less if he finds Navy dude.Maybe it’ll be good if the texting guy finds him, then maybe he can knock some sense into his thick skull.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Gina said, “Text Dude could be part of a gang or a cartel.Like Chase said, they play for keeps.And they don’t play fair.Do you really want to see this fine specimen of male hunkiness peppered with bullets and left to die in some Cabo back alley?”she asked, her gaze hungrily raking over the man’s naked chest.
Chase grimaced.“That’s pretty graphic.But thanks for caring.”He raised his eyebrows and turned on a glowing smile.“Come on, Mrs.Flannigan, you haven’t even given our marriage a chance.”
Alana covered her ears with her hands.“Stop.Just stop.”She took a deep breath.“I came to Cabo to relax and de-stress from the fiasco of being jilted at the freakin’ altar.I’m more stressed now than when I found out my fiancé punched out with the wedding planner.”
“Then help me reconstruct last night, so we can get to the bottom of what happened and, maybe, get a step ahead of whoever is threatening us.”Chase took her left hand.“Then we can work on undoing this wedding that neither of us can remember.And, believe me, if I’d been in my right mind, I wouldn’t have married you.”As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Chase wished he could take them back.
Her chin tilted defiantly, though her eyes widened, filling with tears, and her bottom lip trembled.“Am I so awful that every man who thinks about marrying me wants out before the marriage even has a chance?”
“Now, you’ve gone and done it.”Gina slipped an arm around Alana’s shoulders.“Honey, you’re an amazing woman.One of these days, an amazing man is going to realize it.Until then, you might not have met the right one.”
Alana sniffed.“Might not?I’d say I’m batting a thousand on bad choices.”
