Eve’s Wedding Knight

Chapter 1

It was true that Mirabella Waskowitz Starr’s sister Eve had always been a maverick, and never much of one to stand on ceremony. So naturally it had come as a big surprise to everyone when she decided to get married, for the first time at the ripe age of forty-three, in a traditional church wedding with white satin and all the trimmings.

It was equally natural that Eve herself could see nothing contradictory in this.

“It’s tradition,” she told Mirabella in a superior tone. Mirabella had just finished buttoning the last of the long row of tiny satin-covered buttons that ran down the back of her sister’s bridal gown from nape to coccyx, and was now gazing with exasperation at her reflection in the mirror. “I’ve never had anything against tradition. Traditions are what hold us together, as a family or as a society.” Offsetting the oratorical tone, her lips turned up at the corners in a maddeningly demure smile as she set the pearl pillbox with veil attached at a more jaunty angle atop her short, straw-colored hair. “And I get to pick which traditions I choose to honor.”

Mirabella replied with a snort, which caused Eve’s eyes to widen as they met hers in the mirror. “Hey-why not? Some traditions are just plain silly. And some are downright insulting. That garter thing? There’s just no way in hell I’m doing that. Like I’m going to let Sonny peel it off me in front of everybody while the band plays bumps and grinds, and then hurl it into a pack of rabid male animals like some damn trophy? Tell me you don’t think that’s a bunch of sexist-”

She turned from the mirror with a swish of her white satin skirts to ask, breathless as a teenager dressing for a dance, “How do I look?” But the sparkle in her eyes and the color in her cheeks said plainly enough that there wasn’t anything Mirabella could tell her she didn’t already know.

“Gorgeous,” Mirabella dutifully supplied anyway. Not grudgingly. Not really.

Of course she thought her sister was beautiful-breathtakingly so. How could she not? Both her sisters-Evie, the oldest, and their baby sister, Summer, who’d just gotten married herself this past summer in a private civil ceremony, were drop-dead gorgeous in the classic tall, tan and blond California tradition. And at five feet one on a good day, Mirabella had had forty-plus years to get used to being the little round 0 between their two willowy letter l’s. On a good day. Which this, in her sixth month of pregnancy, definitely wasn’t. In fact, in the loose-fitting floor-length royal blue gown Eve had chosen for her to wear as co-matron of honor, her greatest fear was that someone would mistake her for a mailbox.

It wasn’t the dress or the pregnancy or her lack of stature that was making Mirabella grumpy and out of sorts on what should have been a joyous occasion. Those things had stopped having the ability to influence her happiness and well-being the day she’d fallen in love with Jimmy Joe Starr, the most wonderful man who’d ever been born, and who, miracle of miracles, loved and adored her exactly as she was. She wished she felt certain her sister was going to be as lucky in her choice of mates. Not that she had anything against her soon-to-be brother-in-law. Nothing she could put a finger on anyway. Just a feeling.

Mirabella would admit to herself-and to no one else-that maybe she wasn’t being entirely fair. For one thing, the man couldn’t help but suffer by comparison to Riley Grogan, the wealthy and prominent-not to mention gorgeous-Charleston attorney Summer had stunned everyone by marrying barely two months ago, in August.

Mirabella hadn’t quite forgiven Summer for going to Riley for help during that difficult and scary time, and for being afraid to reveal, even to the closest members of her family, what had been going on in her life. Finding out only afterward just what dire financial straits Summer’s no-good compulsive gambler ex-husband, Hal Robey, had left her in when he’d deserted her and their two children had been bad enough. But then to discover how she and the kids had been harassed and threatened-even had their mobile home burned-by mob thugs trying to track down Hal and some stolen financial records, and how Riley had taken them all in, including that menagerie of theirs…

The best thing about it was, a person had only to look at Riley to see that he utterly adored Summer. And, amazingly, he seemed fond of her kids, as well-which really did make him a hero in Mirabella’s book.

But this fiancé of Evie’s… Well, that was another story.

“He’s too slick,” she’d said to Jimmy Joe, the husband she adored. “I don’t trust him.”

Naturally, Jimmy Joe, who seldom had a bad word to say about anybody, had hedged. “Aw, hell, honey, that’s probably just the Las Vegas glitter that’s rubbed off on him, is all. He’s probably no different from anybody else, once you get to know him. Maybe we all just need to give him a chance.”

As if she wouldn’t! Just because she was opinionated didn’t mean she was unreasonable.

And Jimmy Joe did have a point about Las Vegas, which was where Eve had met the man she was about to marry, while filming a documentary on the Strip’s new megacasinos, one of which Sonny Cisneros happened to own. Mirabella wouldn’t have thought it possible for anyone to sweep Eve Waskowitz off her feet, but apparently Sonny had managed it, and in short order. In fact, if Eve had gone along with the quickie Vegas ceremony Sonny had wanted, she’d have been married months ago. But before that could happen, Evie had come to Savannah with her production crew to film the arrival of Hurricane Angela and had fallen in love with that city’s beautiful squares and historic old churches. Then and there she’d decided, in typical Evie fashion, that nothing else would do; she had to get married in one of them, with all the traditional bells and whistles. According to Evie, Sonny hadn’t been at all happy about having to wait for an opening in the church’s wedding calendar.

But then, Eve had always had a knack for getting things her way, and with such charm that few even noticed or would have minded if they had. It was just…Evie’s way.

Mirabella sighed inwardly and reached up to free her sister’s shoulder-length veil where it had snagged on the gown’s pearl-and-lace-encrusted bodice. “I mean it,” she said gruffly. “You look mah-velous.” And couldn’t resist adding with a sniff, “You ought to-I imagine the cost of this dress would make a sizable dent in the GNP of some Third World countries.”

Deep inside where it didn’t show, Eve winced. That was just so typically Mirabella. Why did it never seem to occur to people, even those closest to her, that when they said things like that to her it might actually hurt?

Though why should it occur to them, when she went to great lengths to make sure they didn’t know?

Now, for example, all she said as she pirouetted back to the mirror for one final check, was, “If it makes you feel any better, all this lace-and-pearl handiwork was probably done in some Third World country sweatshop, so I’m contributing to their economy in my own little way.” She glanced at the place on her left wrist that was customarily occupied by an ugly but practical sports-style watch. “What time is it? Do you know?”

“Quarter after,” Mirabella said without having to check. “Still got forty-five minutes, so you might as well relax.”

“Relax? I can’t even sit down in this dress.” She drew in a breath for which the dress’s tight waist left little room, then abruptly exhaled and asked with a frown, “Where’s Summer?”

“Downstairs in the choir room with the kids. Helen was threatening mutiny over her shoes-something about wearing Marvin the Martian sneakers with her flower girl outfit, I believe.”

“God love her,” Eve murmured in absentminded sympathy. “And Mom and Dad?”

“Probably still at the hotel. Dad’s had some sort of bug, and Mom was going to make him take a nap so he’d be up for the reception. They’ll be here, but at the last minute, if I know them. Troy and Charly are bringing them. Charly’s resting, too.”

“Ah.” Yes… Charly she’d met at Bella’s wedding. The maid of honor. She was the friend from Alabama, married now to Jimmy Joe’s older brother, Troy. Also pregnant, about a month ahead of Bella, which would make her… seven months, or thereabouts.

It was getting hard to keep track of all the babies. The thought made her suddenly feel warm and shivery inside.

Sonny had promised her they’d start a family-soon. After they’d had some time together, just the two of them, getting to know one another, he’d said. She knew he was right. All the books said so. But at her age it was hard to be patient. When had she gotten to be forty-three? Had she left it until too late? She couldn’t be too old…not yet. Not yet.

As always, when her thoughts wandered into those particular paths, her insides had gone warm and mushy, with pulses pumping in all her feminine places. Hormones, she thought, churned up, ready and eager to make a baby, just lacking one vital ingredient-a little guy with a tail and one missing chromosome…

Not surprisingly, perhaps, she felt a sudden desire to see the man whose chromosomes she’d chosen to merge with hers. Of course, whether that would quiet her raging hormones or only stir them to greater excitement, she didn’t know. Or care. When Evie wanted something, she generally wasted little time wondering about consequences. And right now what she wanted was Sonny-her man…

A small, secretive smile played about her lips as she waltzed in her delicate satin pumps and rustling skirts to the dressing room’s one small sofa and retrieved from the untidy pile of clothing, plastic garment bags and makeup and hair supplies the soft-sided portable drink cooler she’d brought with her from her River Street hotel. She was unzipping it when Mirabella came to peek around her arm.

“What’s that? What-” Her sister interrupted herself with a small gasp, part scandalized, part envious. “Oh my God-is that what I think it is?”

Eve nodded. For a few moments there was silence as the sisters gazed at the champagne bottle she cradled reverently in her hands. Not just any champagne bottle. This one bore a legendary label and was worth approximately its weight in gold. Eve hefted it and made a smacking noise with her lips. “Bought it at a charity auction. I was saving it for my wedding night, but…” Her lips curved. “I don’t feel like waiting that long.”

One thing about Bella, she always had been quick on the uptake. It took her about half a second to figure out it wasn’t just the champagne her renegade sister didn’t plan on waiting until the wedding night for. She choked and clapped a hand over her mouth and finally came out with “Evie, you can’t.”

Eve, rooting purposefully around in the pile on the sofa, glanced over her shoulder long enough to inquire, “Why not?”

“Why? Why? Because… you, you-”

But Eve had found what she was looking for and turned with a smile of triumph. “Ah-here we are. Now I’m all set.” A small silver object hit the floor with a thunk and spun and wobbled to the toe of Mirabella’s shoe. “Oops! Would you get that for me? I don’t think I can bend over in this dress.”

Her sister bent to retrieve the cork puller and handed it over. Her cheeks were flushed, but whether with exertion, embarrassment or anger Eve couldn’t begin to guess. With Bella it was sometimes hard to tell the difference. “Are you out of your mind?” Mirabella said in a hoarse, scandalized whisper. “Tradition aside-do you know how long it took me to button you into that dress? And now you want to go and take it off again?” Her voice ended in a squeak of pure outrage.

“Who said anything about taking it off?” Eve said blithely, waving the glasses. Then something occurred to her and she thrust them at her sister. “Here, hold these for me, will you?”

“What are you-you’re not going to open that here?”

Already wielding the cork puller with practiced ease, Eve looked at her in surprise. “Better here, don’t you think, than wait until it’s gotten all shook up?” She murmured a soft “Ah…” as the cork gave with an expensive-sounding pop. She held the bottle up to her nose, closed her eyes and inhaled a fragrance that instantly filled her mind with visions of Parisian cafés and the hot, dusty vineyards of Provence.

“There now-I’m all set.” She turned, brandishing the champagne bottle by its foil-wrapped neck in one hand, the two wineglasses by their stems in the other. “Now, all I need’s mah man. Where is he, dahling, do you know?”

That attempt at whimsy was lost on Mirabella, who had an unpredictable sense of humor at the best of times. She flushed furiously and bit out, “The men are supposed to be dressing in the parlor-and by the way, who are those guys, anyway? They look more like bodyguards than groomsmen. Anyway, that’s across the garden. Follow the walkway that goes alongside the rectory-door’s at the far end. And I swear, if you mess up that dress-”

Eve interrupted her sister’s scolding with laughter; never had she felt so deliciously wicked. “Will you stop worrying about my dress? How do you suppose they got along in olden times, with all those corsets, laces and petticoats? Didn’t you ever see the movie, Tom Jones?” She waltzed toward the door.

“Eve, you are impossible!”

“So I’ve been told!”

Her exit line was spoiled somewhat by the closed door and the fact that both her hands were full, but she shifted the champagne bottle to the crook of her arm and managed to get herself through the door without spilling or dropping anything. In the dim, empty hallway with the high stone walls of the church soaring around her, she paused to get her bearings.

Best if she bypassed the sanctuary, narthex and front entrance,. she supposed. She could hear organ music coming from the sanctuary-the organist was practicing, it sounded like-and from somewhere nearby the sounds of muffled voices, the scuff of footsteps. She turned right, doing her best to tiptoe in her high-heeled shoes and voluminous skirts, laughter and mischief tickling her nose like an incipient sneeze. Even as a child, Eve had taken impish delight in being naughty.

Outside in the garden she paused again. Like most Southern gardens, this one was deeply shaded by huge live oaks and magnolia trees. In the springtime it would be a breathtaking riot of azaleas, rhododendrons and flowering dogwood, but now, in early autumn, it was an Eden of cool, quiet greens. On the other side, through the dark lace of foliage, she could see late-afternoon sun shimmering on the stone walls and leaded windows of the rectory. The air was warm, and alive with the songs of birds. In that pause, in that one brief moment, she thought how happy, how lucky she was and how right she’d been to have chosen this time and this place for her wedding.

It wasn’t unusual for Eve to take such moments to reflect on her good fortune. She was a happy person by nature, and besides that, she’d witnessed enough of the world’s misfortunes to know how richly she herself had been blessed. First with a safe, if somewhat boring and conventional childhood, followed by a relatively angst-free adolescence, thanks to parents who’d managed somehow to nurture without smothering, during which she’d been allowed-even encouraged-to dream big dreams. And thanks to a career she’d blundered into through roughly equal parts charm, talent, perseverance and luck, she’d had most of those dreams fulfilled. She’d wanted to travel the world, have marvelous adventures… explore oceans and mountaintops, fly an airplane, ride a camel! And she’d done all those things, plus so many more, she couldn’t have listed them all if she tried. And now the icing on the cake: just when her biological clock had begun chiming its wake-up call, she’d met the perfect man.

Oh, yes… they were going to make beautiful babies, she and Sonny. How could they not? Not only was her fiancé tall, strong and healthy; handsome as all get-out and rich as Croesus-not that that mattered to Eve, since she’d done quite well in the financial department herself-but he was witty and loaded with charisma. Plus, he treated Eve the way she expected to be treated, which was very well indeed. And he wasn’t too bad in the sack, either.

A warm little shiver of anticipation rippled through her as she hiked up the skirts of her bridal gown with one hand and hurried through the garden.

Really-how could she be so lucky? So far, life had been good to her-so good that when restless little doubts and vague uncertainties did creep into her thoughts, she instantly felt guilty and ungrateful, and banished them with almost superstitious assurances to whichever Fates might be listening that she didn’t mean it! How could she, who had so much to be thankful for? How dared she still feel that there must be something… more? That something of vital importance was missing from her life-if only she could figure out what it was!

But… there were no such clouds upon her spirits now as she ran lightly down the shaded paths of the lovely old garden that separated the church from the rectory, a bride on her way to a wholly improper and deliciously naughty prenuptial tryst with her groom. She felt sexy and mischievous, and as full of effervescence as the champagne bottle she carried in her hand. Through the live oaks and banks of azaleas she flitted, the skirts of her gown lifting and floating like the wings of a giant butterfly, the promise of laughter on every breath.

The flash of movement on the video monitor caught Special FBI Agent Jake Redfield’s attention.

“What’s this?” he muttered aloud to himself as he leaned forward to adjust the zoom. A moment later he sat back with a flat “Ah!” of recognition, and although the blushing bride was not the party he was supposed to be watching, for a few moments he allowed himself to track her progress through the church gardens just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Though it wasn’t anything like enjoyment he felt when he thought about the likes of Sonny Cisneros with a woman like that. What was it, he wondered, that made a slimeball like Cisneros so damned attractive to women? Was it the money? The power? Except that this woman-Eve Waskowitz-didn’t strike him as the type to be susceptible to any of those things. Or maybe he just didn’t want to think so.

Watching her like this-though he was well aware that no one looking at him would ever guess it-made him feel like smiling. Reed slender she was, buoyant as a ballerina but without the dancer’s studied grace. There was something artless about her, something wild and carefree, almost spritelike, that made it hard to believe she could be as old as he knew her to be. According to his information, about to turn forty-three. On All Saint’s Day, which seemed fitting, in some obscure way.

But what in the hell was the lovely Miss Waskowitz, soon to be Mrs. Cisneros, doing flitting about in the church gardens little more than half an hour before she was scheduled to become the wife of one of the most powerful crime bosses west of the Mississippi? And as much as he’d have liked to indulge his curiosity in regards to that question, Jake doubted it had any relevance to the reason he was spending taxpayers’ money sitting in front of a Savannah church in a surveillance van.

He was there for one reason, and that was to keep a watchful eye on Sonny Cisneros. If it was the last thing he ever did, he was going to bring the man and his organization down. Bring them down hard. Bring them down for good. It was more than just a job to him. His superiors knew it, too, and had threatened more than once to take him off the case. An agent who let a case get too personal was no help to the Bureau and a danger to himself-he knew that. The Bureau’s patience and his time were both running out-he knew that, too.

He’d had high hopes for Hal Robey. The man had had something on the Cisneros syndicate; there was no doubt about that in Jake’s mind at all. Something big enough to send Sonny’s thugs after Robey in a very determined way, even to the point of threatening the man’s ex-wife and two little kids. When Robey had died before he could hand over his information, Jake had figured he’d reached a dead end. But then, almost immediately thereafter to find out that Cisneros planned to marry Hal Robey’s ex-wife’s sister-no, no, coincidences like that didn’t just happen. Not in the real world. Not in Jake’s world. If Cisneros was still hanging around that family, there had to be a reason for it. There was something there. All Special Agent Redfield had to do was find out what it was.

At the intersection with the walkway that ran along the side of the rectory building, Eve paused once more. Several of the leaded casement windows were open, and she could hear the murmur of voices issuing forth on the warm autumn breezes. Her heart beat faster as she turned left, tiptoing now, making for the door at the far end.

The voices were directly overhead-men’s voices. And was that…? Yes, it was her fiancé’s voice. Sonny had such a loud, brassy voice, like a seventies Vegas playboy; she’d know it anywhere. But dammit all, he wasn’t alone.

Her lips formed a little pout of disappointment. Why hadn’t she foreseen the fact that the two “groomsmen” would be with him? Sergei and Picky-and Mirabella was quite right, they were Sonny’s bodyguards, and why not? Sonny was a wealthy man, and he’d made his money in a dangerous business-nothing illegal, though; Eve was certain of that. Although, to be honest, that little element of danger was part of why she’d been attracted to the casino owner in the first place. Anyway, it stood to reason that such a man would have enemies. That he would protect himself seemed to Eve to be only a matter of good sense.

But what was she going to do about this? She’d have to handle things so as not to embarrass Sonny in front of his men. He tended to be overly sensitive about that sort of macho nonsense, unfortunately. Okay, so nobody was perfect. Anyway, she couldn’t just go slithering in, champagne at the ready and sex in her smile. This was going to take some thought…

As she stood there beneath the window, pondering her course of action, the murmur of conversation drifting out over her head began to separate into words and sentences. She paid no heed to the words at first, her mind being full of other things. Until all at once two of them-just two-exploded in her consciousness with the reverberating impact of a Chinese gong.

“…Hal Robey. ”

Hal Robey? Eve’s sister Summer’s ex-husband, now her late husband, the compulsive gambler Hal Robey? But how did Sonny Cisneros, multimillionaire hotel casino owner, know a weasel like Hal? And to speak of him with such venom in his voice?

So loudly and shockingly did those questions and their implications clamor in her mind that she missed the next few words. When her senses once more connected to her brain, she heard, “…dead, Mr. Cisneros.” Sergei, with his Russian accent.

Then Rick, sounding like a character in a bad gangster movie. “Yeah, Mr. C-me and Serge, we both saw him go off that bridge. There’s no way he coulda lived through that. No way. It was Robey’s body they found-hadda be.”

And Sonny again, his voice so low and tense, Eve felt herself stretching taller, up on her tiptoes, straining to hear. “The fact remains-the little bastard stole those computer files from me. If he had ‘em on him when he went in that river, why weren’t they on him when they found his body? Huh? Tell me that. If they had been on him, or in his car, the feds have got ’em and I’m in jail by now. And if he didn’t? What’d he do with ‘em, huh? I’ll tell you what he did with ’em-he stashed ‘em somewhere, that’s what. Those damn files are sittin’ somewhere like a ticking time bomb, just waiting for somebody to stumble over ‘em. So where are they? Think about it… think about it…” After a prolonged and unresponsive silence, there was a disgusted-sounding snort, and then, “Okay, look-here’s what I figure. The little weasel wasn’t stupid. If he hid those files, he’d hide ’em someplace he’d be able to get back to without raising suspicions. Call it a gut feeling-I think he stashed ‘em with his ex and his kids.”

Sergei’s heavy voice interrupted. “No, boss. Rick and me we searched every inch of that trailer before we torched it. They were not in there, I would swear to it.”

Eve heard a faint whimpering sound and realized to her horror it had come from her own throat.

But now, incredibly, impossibly, there was Sonny’s voice again, edgy with annoyance. “No, no, no-not then. Robey had the files with him when he came back to the States. Hey-he must have. He was ready to deal. And where does he go? Straight to his ex. And what does he do? He leaves a package-a present, he says. For his kids.” He hissed a word so replete with disgust, it made Eve’s stomach cringe, then muttered, “You two choirboys…shoulda just done ‘em both and taken the smokin’ package while you had the chance.” Only he didn’t use the word “smokin‘,” but one he’d promised Eve faithfully he’d never use in her presence.

Rick said, “Don’t look at me. I was out cold at the time.”

Sonny’s laugh was derisive. “Yeah-tripped over a cat and took a header down a flight of stairs. I’d been better off if I‘da hired the Three Stooges.”

“Maybe it was only a present for his children,” Sergei muttered, sounding sullen. “If it was the files in that package, why did she not turn it over to the feds?”

“Because she obviously doesn’t have any idea what she’s got.” And Sonny’s voice, though still soft, was pure, cold steel. “It’s a damn computer disk-Robey coulda hidden it in just about anything. They just haven’t found it yet, is all. It’s just sittin’ there in that damn fortress-a smokin’ time bomb, is what it is.” He sounded as if his teeth were grinding together. “Do you know what it’s been like the last four months, waitin’ for that thing to go off? Here-help me with these studs, will you?”

There was a moment’s silence, then Ricky said, “Too bad Robey’s ex had to go and marry that damned lawyer-that house of his is like Fort Knox! If it hadn’t a‘been for that hurricane knockin’ out the power, we’d never have got in there.”

Sonny snorted. “I figure I’ll marry the sister, right? Then I can go in there as a member of the family-make some excuse to visit, you know?-so I can have all the time I need to look for the disk without anybody bein’ the wiser. And what does the broad do? She goes and gets it in her head she has to get married in Savannah, for God’s sake-in a blinkin’ church!”

Someone-Sergei or Rick, she couldn’t tell who-muttered something she couldn’t hear. Then Sonny’s voice came again, not loud, but tense and with a hard edge of fear. “I’ve got a bomb about to blow up in my face. If it does… if it does, I’m a dead man, you hear me? A goddamn dead man. I gotta find it, and I mean find it fast. Before-”

At that moment the two crystal champagne glasses slipped from Eve’s nerveless fingers and dropped onto the stone walkway, where they shattered with a horrible, splintering crash.