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“I told my brother to keep Dr. Carlson in the car until we get the bridegroom and the father of the bride back into their suite. Daryl and Sheriff Skinner are running that show.”
Vi looked from one to the other. “Dr. Carlson—you’re talking about Rexie’s first husband?”
“Yes,” Adair said. “Cam arranged for Duncan to extract him from Montana. Can you distract Bunny for a bit while I talk to Rexie?”
Vi’s eyes gleamed. “I know just what to do. I’m sure she’ll want to help me lead the guests into the ballroom.” She hurried away.
Cam linked his fingers with hers as they watched Winston Maitland and two security men wheel Scalzo off to the groom’s suite. Vi was true to her word. She had Bunny’s ear. A moment later the two women were headed toward the castle and the guests were following them down the path.
A photographer was posing the bride and her two attendants beneath one of the arbors.
“You got a plan once you get Barry and Rexie together?” Cam asked.
“I don’t have a clue,” she admitted, and tried very hard to ignore the nerves jittering in her stomach. “Any advice?”
“Do what you’re good at. Jump in feetfirst and go with the flow.”
That had never been what she thought she was good at, but she didn’t have a choice. “I’m going to send the maid of honor and the flower girl to the castle. Then I’ll take Rexie to the stone arch to talk with her. When I give you the signal, you call Duncan and have him deliver Barry. Then can you go and help Aunt Vi keep Bunny and the guests occupied?”
“Will do.” He couldn’t have come up with a better plan himself, Cam thought as she walked away.
Once she had Rexie alone, she took her hands and drew her toward the stone arch. “There’s someone here who wants to talk to you,” she said. “But first, I have a story to tell you.”
Adair waited until she and Rexie were seated on the ledge that ran along the inside of the stone arch before she told it. “There’s bad news and good news,” she began.
“You’re scaring me,” Rexie said.
Adair took both of her hands and related the Lawrence Banes/Gianni Scalzo story, including the fact that he would be arrested any moment and taken to jail. Rexie didn’t interrupt, but Adair could read every emotion on her face—disbelief, shock, horror.
“I married a crook.”
“No,” Adair said. “I told you there was good news. You’re not married at all. The man who presided over the ceremony wasn’t a minister. He had no authority to marry you. You’re still a single woman.”
A sheen of tears appeared in Rexie’s eyes, but there was relief, too. “Really?”
Adair squeezed her hands. “Really. And I think I might have even better news. There’s someone here who wants to talk to you.”
“Who?”
Nerves knotted in Adair’s stomach. This part could go either way. But she turned and signaled Cam. Seconds later, a man stepped out of one of the parked cars in the driveway and ran toward the stone arch.
Adair stepped a distance away to give the couple privacy. But the look in Rexie’s eyes when she’d seen Barry Carlson had told her everything. Hope and love. Those two things were what the legend of the stone arch were built upon. It had been what had worked for Eleanor and Angus One. And when Barry took Rexie into his arms and kissed her, Adair knew exactly what she was going to do next.
In the rose arbor, Cam lingered long enough to see Barry Carlson kiss Rexie Maitland beneath the stones. They would find their happy ever after now.
The question was: would he?
17
CAM WATCHED ADAIR for a moment longer, debating whether or not to join her. He’d told Duncan to hang around and keep an eye on things. And she’d asked him to keep the parents occupied. But first he had to check on how Daryl’s sting operation was going down. Not that he doubted for a minute that it would run smoothly.
Turning, he wound his way down the garden path following the last of the guests. The terrace doors to the groom’s suite were open. Pausing, he used one of the trees in the garden for cover and looked into the room. Gianni Scalzo sat at a table in front of a laptop. It was running like clockwork, he thought. A couple of strokes on the keyboard and Winston Maitland was offering his new “son-in-law” a cigar. The moment that Daryl and Sheriff Skinner stepped into the room, Cam moved closer so that he had a clear view of Scalzo’s face. And the man was good. Even as Skinner read him his rights, Scalzo registered only innocence and confusion. He turned to Maitland. “They’re making a mistake. You have to vouch for me. I just made you and your clients very rich. I just married your daughter. I’m family.”
Daryl stepped forward with the handcuffs. “You just tried to fleece him for every penny he’s got. And this time we’ve caught you in the act.”
He clamped one of the cuffs to Scalzo’s wrists and the other to the arm of the wheelchair. Then he met the man’s eyes. “I told you back in Italy we’d meet again.”
“You.” Scalzo yanked at the cuffs.
“Yeah.” Daryl smiled at him. “Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it?”
“You’ll never prove a thing,” Scalzo said, his voice rising.
“We’ve got enough to put you away for a very long time,” Daryl said. “But even if we didn’t, your ex-partner’s going to turn on you just the way you turned on him.”
Cam had the very great pleasure of seeing Gianni Scalzo turn pale.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You will,” Daryl said.
Cam waited until the sheriff and one of his men wheeled Scalzo out before he strode into the room to join Daryl. “You okay?” he asked.
Daryl grinned at him. “It was almost worth the wait to see the look on his face when he realized he’s not going to wiggle out of this one.”
Cam turned his attention to Maitland then. The man’s face was nearly as white as Scalzo’s had been. He’d want to be with his wife and daughter. But Adair needed more time. He moved toward him. “Mr. Maitland, why don’t you come with Daryl and me?”
* * *
A HALF HOUR later, Cam sat with the Maitlands, Vi and Daryl in a small anteroom that offered privacy as well as a view of the ballroom where guests were sipping champagne and enjoying the view of the lake.
Daryl had filled them both in on Lawrence Banes’s real identity and the fact that he’d been discreetly escorted off the grounds by Sheriff Skinner and his men. Then Cam had told them about Barry Carlson’s arrival and the bare-bones sketch he’d received from his brother Duncan. Bunny’s complexion had paled considerably while he and Daryl were talking.
As Cam wound it up, Maitland turned to his wife. “You actually conspired with Barry’s mother to engineer our daughter’s divorce? Why?”
“Because I love her.” Bunny pulled a handkerchief out of her purse and dabbed at her eyes. “She was so unhappy. And he was trying to convince her to go back to Montana with him. I couldn’t let that happen. And then Lawrence came into our circle. He was just perfect. And that’s all I ever wanted for Rexie—a perfect wedding day, a perfect marriage.”
Maitland shook his head, but he reached for his wife’s hand. “The only thing Lawrence Banes was perfect at was running a con.”
Eyes sheened with tears, Bunny lifted her head and met her husband’s gaze, “You liked him. You were the one who thought up the business merger.”
“Maybe not,” Daryl said, addressing Maitland. “I’m betting it was one of your clients who introduced you to Banes, and you only brought it up after you heard the buzz about how profitable his investments were.”
Maitland frowned as he thought for a moment. “As I recall, it did happen that way.”
Cam looked at Bunny. “Was it your idea to get Barry’s mother involved?”
It was Bunny’s turn to frown. “Lawrence may have suggested it. He was so empathetic to Rexie’s unhappiness and my desire to change that. He mentioned that Barry’s mother might feel the same way. So I called her and we decided that they’d be happier if they stayed in their own worlds. She just wanted what was best for her son.”
“And Banes—did he also suggest that you could help things along if you kept them from talking or communicating with one another?”
“Yes,” Bunny admitted. “And it worked.”
“Dammit, Bunny. Banes nearly ruined us,” Maitland said. “And think what it’s going to do to Rexie’s happiness when we have to tell her the truth about him.”
“He’s damn good at what he used to do,” Daryl said. “I’ve been chasing him for over fifteen years.”
Bunny glanced through the glass doors at the guests who were now casting curious glances at them. “He certainly ruined my daughter’s wedding day.”
