Page 31 of George’s Big Day

“No.”

Both Chris and I nodded.

“How have you lived so long, man?” the guy asked Dante.

“Hurtful,” he replied, then looked back at us. “This has to be a mistake. It can’t be me.”

“What have you done lately that has annoyed the Jalisco cartel enough to send a guy all the way out here to Maine to murder you?” Now I had to know.

Dante appeared pensive.

“I will tell you what⁠—”

“No,” Chris cut the guy off, leaning over and placing the gag in the man’s mouth.

“Why would you do that?” Dante barked at him.

“Because you should be able to figure out all by yourself why a cartel wants you dead.”

Dante glanced at me, and I shrugged.

“You’re taking his side?”

“I would prefer if you left this guy here and we all forgot about this until after I said I do, but that’s not gonna happen.”

“You want me to fill up my B and B with people trying to kill me?”

“Just for, like, the next six hours, yeah. I would appreciate it.”

Dante squinted at me.

“I’m being honest here.”

“Normally,” Chris said, “I would just shoot this asshole, but Dante won’t learn anything that way.”

Crossing my arms, I glared at Dante.

“I’m thinking,” he grumbled.

Because the guy had talked about his wife, Chris now needed to hear her voice. Walking a few feet away, he called her and put it on speaker.

“Hello, angel,” she greeted him, her voice a sultry, smoky sound, since she was talking to the man she’d loved for longer than I’d been alive.

“Hey,” he rumbled, and I watched his eyes narrow. “You drinking all Dante’s wine?”

“Yes, shhh, don’t tell him that Noah and I are hitting the good stuff in the very back of the wine cellar.”

Chris turned to Dante, grinning, and Dante flipped him off.

“Also, Owen and Jared are coming up to you in the attic with one of Kurt’s friends.”

One of Kurt’s friends? That made no sense.

“How did you know I was in the attic?”

“Oh, my darling, I always know where you are.”

She hung up then as the attic door opened to reveal retired Colonel Jared Colter and his fiancé, Owen Moss. They made a beautiful couple, the silver fox and his auburn-haired, green-eyed mate.