Night Huntress 02.5 - Happily Never After (12 page)

At that moment, the doors to the church burst open and multiple SWAT team members fanned inside. Her brother Frazier appeared behind them, shouting, "Justice Department, nobody move!" even as several of their guests at once attempted to disperse.

Isa
only saw that from her peripheral vision, however, because she didn't take her eyes off Robert. A seething anger filled his gaze as he looked from Frazier back to
Isa
.

"Your brother's a
fuckin
' pig."

Isa
smiled. "Yep, he's an undercover officer. Who knew? I just thought all that moving around meant Frazier couldn't hold a job. Thanks for inviting your mob buddies to our wedding, by the way. Do you know how hard it is to get them all under one roof, apparently?"

Robert's fist swung toward her, but
Isa
didn't flinch. With the blood she'd drunk last night as a precaution from Chance, it seemed like Robert was moving in slow motion.
Isa
fired, hitting Robert in the thigh. He fell to his knees as Agnes let out a cry.

"Hold fire!" Frazier yelled, but the members of the SWAT team had already been briefed to know
Isa
was one of the good guys. It was easy to pick her out, after all, being as she was the only one wearing a wedding dress.

"
Fuckin
' bitch… I'll kill you for this," Robert gasped.

"Ma'am, put the gun down now," one of the black-clad SWAT members said to
Isa
as Robert was quickly surrounded.

"You won't see me again,"
Isa
said
,
lowering the gun only after Robert had been handcuffed. "In fact, you'll never see Paul or Ritchie again either."

Which had been something Chance refused to negotiate on.
Isa
already had a hell of a time convincing him that Robert needed to live in order to stand trial for the multiple murders, racketeering, embezzlement, and bribery Frazier had spent three years gathering evidence on.
But Ritchie and Paul?
Small potatoes.

Or, as
Isa
surmised right about now, dinner.
They'd been assigned to watch the church's exterior in order to ensure that nothing unexpected happened. Like, oh, a few dozen SWAT team members barging in. But they'd mysteriously disappeared right before
Isa
entered the chapel. Chance hadn't wanted to leave
Isa's
side during Robert's takedown at the altar, but
Isa
flatly insisted. She'd been pushed around by Robert for too long, so he'd know, in the end, exactly who helped put him in jail.

She wondered if Ritchie and Paul knew, in their last moments, that they were merely Chance's consolation prize. Still, dead was dead, as Chance had once stated. Guess the end result really was more important than the motivation behind it.

Several of the men being handcuffed from the groom's side of the church gave
Isa
very cold glares as they were led away. Mentally she shrugged. Frazier told her that she and her grandmother would need to be sequestered by Witness Protection until after all the trials, but
Isa
had other ideas.
Ones that involved the very gorgeous vampire with a lot of friends in grave places.
Chance would keep her and her grandmother hidden far more effectively than any government relocation program, and a lot more enjoyably, too.
Isa
doubted Witness Protection could provide the same kind of extracurricular perks that Chance did.

He came out from the back of the church, shouldering though the throngs of people and flashing the special ID Frazier had given him. His face looked more flushed than usual, and when he reached
Isa's
side and kissed her, his lips were almost warm.

Oh yeah. Bye
bye
, Paul and Ritchie.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked softly.

Isa
nodded. "Big, fussy weddings were never my style, anyway."

Chance laughed. "I'll have to remember that."

Frazier came up to them then. "
Isa
, you're going to have to come back with us and give a statement. Plus, uh, I'm sure nothing will happen because it was self-defense, but you're going to have to be booked for shooting Robert."

"Right," Chance snorted. "Come here for a moment…"

He put an arm around Frazier in a friendly way, ignoring her brother's stammering about procedure. Then when Chance had him mostly concealed by the tall cross behind the altar,
Isa
saw his eyes go green. A moment later when they walked back out, Frazier had stopped talking.

"We have five minutes before he snaps out of it," Chance said to
Isa
with a wicked grin. "I didn't think I should leave your brother mentally asleep for longer, considering his current circumstances."

"How are we supposed to get past all,"
Isa's
hand swept out to encompass the multitude of SWAT team members, FBI, and police officers, "
this?
"

"Never underestimate the resourcefulness of a vampire, darling," Chance murmured. Then he led her quickly to the nearby confessional box, squeezing them both inside.

The panel slid open at once on the priest's
side,
and a pale blonde head appeared next to the privacy grill.

"What are your sins, my child?" a smoothly accented English voice asked.

Chance laughed. "Too many to list, Bones, and so are yours. If you don't mind, I'd like to add to them."

"Indeed.
Desecration of the confessional, coming up straightaway."

There was a tear of metal, and then the grille separating them was gone. Bones—
this
was the vampire her grandmother spoke about?—gave a hard tap at the wall behind him and it fell away, revealing an exit had been recently cut but then dry-walled back into place.

"The rectory," Bones supplied, crawling through. "Let's not dawdle."

Chance and
Isa
climbed through the space as well. With all the commotion, there should have been sufficient sound coverage to muffle their escape, but soon people would notice that the gun-toting bride was nowhere to be seen.

Once inside the rectory, Bones gestured to the window. "Your car's across the street. I'll stay here and delay anyone who might have a mind to come after you. Best get moving, or Greta may take off without you."

"You let a hundred and twenty-six-year-old woman drive my
Camaro
?" Chance asked in disbelief.

Bones laughed. "You're older than she is
,
who are you to throw stones?"

"How
old are you?"
Isa
gasped. Okay, so she hadn't gotten around to asking some things.

"One hundred and forty-three," Chance supplied, giving her a quick kiss. "But don't worry, darling. I don't feel a day over the century mark."

"Nice meeting you,
luv
," Bones called out as Chance swept
Isa
in his arms. He vaulted through the open rectory window at full speed, making everyone they passed look like no more than a haze of colors.

Across the street, Greta revved the engine of the
Camaro
. Chance dove in the open passenger door and Greta took off without waiting for him to close it, swinging the car into the street with a squeal of tires.

"Where are we going?"
Isa
asked
,
her head firmly clasped to Chance's chest. He had the seat reclined to avoid them being spotted—or so she guessed.

"Anywhere you want," he replied. "We have time."

Isa
looked over at her grandmother, who was wheeling the muscle car around, and she smiled.
Following your heart is always the right decision,
Greta had said, and
Isa
agreed. That's what she was doing, so it didn't really matter where they went. Besides, Chance was right. They had time.
All the time in the world, if she wanted.

"Surprise me,"
Isa
said, and kissed him.