What a Bride Wants (14 page)

“
Does Marietta usually go all out for Valentine’s Day?” Sawyer murmured, as a passing waiter offered them champagne, wine, sparkling water, or juice. Ella took the champagne, Sawyer took the juice.

“
It’s the launch. The one hundredth anniversary Great Wedding Giveaway. Here, read the poster.” There was one pasted to the wall below a side chandelier. “The dress – very important.”

“
What type of dress would you choose?”

Maybe it was idle conversation but Ella gave it the consideration it deserved.
“Something strapless and romantic. And, look, they even give you a selection of bridal nightwear.”

“
You really think a bride’s going to need nightwear?”

“
Your Neanderthal is showing.”

“
Guess I could work around the nightwear,” he murmured. “Why the sudden interest in weddings?”

“
Hey, I’m just reading the poster. The suit, flowers, hair and makeup, wedding cars, the wedding and reception venues, drinks and food, entertainment, the cake. What more does a happy couple need?”

“
Lust?”

“
You’re so right. And love.” Mustn’t forget the essentials. “I still can’t believe how many people are here and how glamorous everyone looks. I expect you’ve been to events like this before.”

“
A few.”

“
I’m trying very hard not to be too daunted by your other life and the people who populate it. And I’m not talking about your brother.” Ella spotted another poster, this one situated behind the bar. A beer ad. And a JB beer brand. “Just how embroiled in the family business do you aim to get?”

Sawyer looked conflicted.

“You’re going to be in it up to your armpits, aren’t you?” She’d wanted a man who had other things going on in his life – business interests that didn’t involve ranching. Could be she’d gotten a little more than she’d bargained for. “You’re going to need that ground floor office space in your Washington house. That’s if you get back to the states at all.”

“
I said I’d be back.” He leaned in close and his lips brushed her hair. “Have I ever given you cause not to trust me?”

“
You mean apart from the masquerading as a rudderless drifter bartender?”

“
I
was
a rudderless drifter bartender. And then I found something I wanted to keep and things changed.” He looked down at her, his green eyes intent. “I’m not returning home because I want back in to the family business – I aim to help fix it and then get gone.”

“
But you could do more with it if you had a mind to. If you wanted to. Business is so global these days. You could probably work from anywhere. You could commute.”

“
From Marietta to Australia?”

“
I hear people do it all the time.”

He looked suitably amused.
“You’ve heard no such thing.”

“
You could start a trend.” Ella sighed and decided that subtlety was getting her nowhere. “All I’m saying is that if you get back to Australia and find that you need to spend a little longer there than you originally intended, you’d have my support. I know what home means and I know that sometimes people need to be there. I could visit you. I’m all about the travel.”

Sawyer snorted.
“You lie.”

“
For you I’d try.”

“
Ella.” His voice had softened. “Australia isn’t home for me – even if I call it that sometimes. Washington isn’t home for me either – even though I have a house there. I’m going back to sort out family stuff because of what I want to be able to come back and offer you
here
.”

“
And, um.” She wasn’t waiting breathlessly for a wedding proposal. She
wasn’t
. This sudden overwhelming desire to get married was simply the result of the wedding vibe all around them. “What might that be?”

He leaned closer, lips to her ear.
“A life without fear. With me.”

“
Well, well. Isn’t this cozy?”

The voice had enough oily venom in it to send a shudder straight through her. Sawyer
went rigid and his gaze shot to hers in silent warning, but his movements were smooth as he straightened and turned toward the newcomer’s voice.

“
Richard,” Sawyer said evenly.

“
Hello, brother.”

“
I really didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to come here.” There were similarities in their big bodies and in their facial features, decided Ella, although Sawyer was bigger and more vibrant in every way. “You’re wanted at home.”

Richard
’s face contorted into an ugly sneer and he no longer resembled Sawyer at all. Not even a little bit. “You need to leave the folks at home to me.”

“
I don’t think so.”

‘
You know, I wondered, when I heard you were coming back – after all these years – I wondered why? What would make my little brother return?”

“
It appears I’ve been asked to clean up your mess.”

“
You think you’re going to get a seat on the board and return the big hero – you’re not,” his brother warned. “You think that bitch is going to put me behind bars. She’ll be lucky if she can testify. As for our beloved
parents
—” Richard almost spat the word. “They’re mine. They’ve always been mine.”

Sawyer had taken a step forward, getting all up into his brother
’s space, or maybe just trying to put Ella behind him, out of sight and away from his brother’s notice.

Yeah, no.

Ella tilted her chin and stepped up beside Sawyer, elbow to elbow, presenting a united front. “Funny how times change,” she said. “You must be Cameron’s embezzling rapist brother.”

“
Oh, aren’t you sweet.” Richard’s eyes glittered with a frenzy, that might have been chemical and might have been madness.

“
You need to leave,” Sawyer told him.

“
What, and miss all this? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the little lady here can introduce me around. Love the feathers, by the way. So very showgirl. Do
you
pole dance?”

“
I never did get the hang of it,” she murmured sweetly, putting one hand firmly on Sawyer’s suit-clad forearm to hold him back. “I was always too busy out on the range – learning how to shoot. But if it’s introductions you want, I’m sure I can help you. The sheriff’s just over there, along with two of his deputies. And I know he’s wearing a suit, but it looks a little bulky around the chest and chances are he’s carrying concealed. Law men. They’re just never off duty, are they?”

“
Cameron, where did you find her? She’s divine.”

“
And is that Reese over there next to Jason Grey? You’ll love Reese. Ex-special forces. He’s a bar manager now. Safest bar in Montana. You’d think he’d get sick of taking out scum, but it must just never get old.”

Cameron had stepped back and taken her with him, slanting her a half-amused, half-warning glance.
“Where’d you learn to trash talk, Ella?” he asked, pulling a phone from somewhere inside his jacket.

“
You’ve never shown stud bulls, have you?”

“
The mind boggles.”

“
Who are you calling?”

“
My father’s lawyer. He gave me this number to call. Something about Richard having had to surrender his passport as a condition of bail. Because if he leaves Australia, then it just gets messy, what with warrants and international borders and extradition orders and all that. And of course the breaking of bail conditions.”

“
All that just to deliver a threat?”

“
I never said he was smart.”

Ella looked up to find Richard melting
away into the crowd. “He’s leaving.”

Sawyer handed her the phone.
“Wait here.”

And then he was striding toward the exit, after his brother.

Ella headed for the sheriff and handed him the phone. “It’s some lawyer in Australia,” she told him. “Tell him Richard Sawyer’s here in Marietta making threats against his brother, the woman he allegedly raped and his parents. I don’t really know what happens next.” She flashed the sheriff a bright smile, handed the man standing next to him her pink champagne and went after Sawyer.

Her father
’s pickup stood beneath the hotel portico, possibly awaiting the attention of valet parking, but she couldn’t see her father anywhere.

Sawyer and his brother stood off to one side of the entrance, away from bright entrance lights and prying eyes.
It probably wasn’t wise to join them, given the cold and the wobbliness of high heeled shoes on icy ground, but she could stand witness, given Richard’s liking for violence and aggression. Better to do this with eyes on them than not. And then Sawyer’s brother saw her and smiled, and a chill went through her veins as he began to draw a handgun from behind his back.

“
Sawyer!”

Before she could think, before she could run, Ella
heard the familiar sound of a gun being cocked just behind her, and then her father’s gruff voice telling her to step aside.

But Sawyer had this.
With impressive swiftness and a few well-placed punches, Sawyer had his brother pinned to the wall with the gun at Richard’s throat. Everyone stood frozen for what felt like forever and then finally Sawyer stepped back and let his brother go.

Not until Richard was at least thirty feet away from him did Sawyer lower the gun.

Her father lowered his too. “Why aren’t you wearing your cloak?”

“
Why are you even here?”

“
Ray phoned. Said someone had been sniffing around the bunkhouse after Sawyer. He didn’t like the look of him.”

“
Neither did I.”

“
Are you sure this is the one you want, Ella? You could just walk away. No one would fault you.”

“
You didn’t teach me to walk away.”

They watched in silence as Sawyer
’s brother walked unsteadily back toward the hotel, toward her father’s pickup.

He
r father began to raise his gun again and Ella stayed him with her hand. “If Cameron wants to stop him from leaving, he will.”

“
Did he threaten you?”

“
He liked my feathers.”

They watched some more as Sawyer
’s brother got in the pickup and drove away. Ella’s father sighed.

“
That was way too easy,” Ella said. “Did you leave the keys in it?”

“
Habit.”

The sheriff came through the hotel doors and headed toward them, handing Ella back the phone without comment.
Moments later, Sawyer walked up, shedding his jacket and draping it around Ella’s shoulders. His brother’s gun was no longer on show. Probably a good thing. Sawyer eyed her narrowly. “Didn’t I tell you to stay inside?”