The Men In Uniform Collection. Barbara McMahon

her groom.

      As it had the night before, her heart pounded so loudly that she heard it as well as her blood rushing in her ears. The organ was drowned out. She never heard what Logan said to her as he leaned down and kissed her cheek. Even the first words the minister spoke were lost to her.

      Then Cooper took her hands in both of his and her heart stopped beating entirely for a moment. She felt like that teenage girl she’d once been—the one who’d dreamed every night of Cooper Payne declaring his love for her. But then she reminded herself that all that Cooper had ever declared for her was friendship.

      She would like to believe that he’d only done that because her grandfather had warned him off. But if Cooper really wanted something, like joining the Marines, he hadn’t let anyone scare him off or talk him out of it. Just as he hadn’t let getting shot at—twice—the night before scare him away from marrying her. But he wasn’t marrying her for her.

      He hadn’t really wanted her. Then. Or now.

      He was marrying her for Stephen—for his safe return. If Stephen was safe...

      Was it already too late to save him?

      Tears burned her eyes, blurring her vision even more than the veil that Mrs. Payne had also loaned her. It was a thin, delicate lace through which Tanya had had no problem seeing earlier.

      “Do you take this man to be your husband, Tanya?” the minister prodded her as if he’d asked the question before.

      A couple coughs disrupted the eerie silence of the church. But there weren’t many guests. Even when she was going to marry Stephen, she had insisted on keeping the guest list to a minimum. And now Stephen’s family and friends weren’t present—thanks to the calls Mrs. Payne had made.

      It would have been more than just awkward to marry another man in front of them. They wouldn’t have understood that she was doing this for him—for Stephen.

      Cooper squeezed her hands and nodded as if in encouragement.

      And Tanya found herself opening her mouth and whispering the words, “I do.”

      But was she doing this for Stephen or for herself? Because she was fulfilling that childhood fantasy she’d had of one day marrying Cooper Payne. But in her fantasy, Cooper loved her and wanted to become her husband.

      And as he’d had to with her, the minister had to repeat his question to Cooper, “Do you take this woman to be your wife?”

      She stared up into Cooper’s vivid blue eyes. Like the minister and those few guests, most of which were his family, she waited for his reply. She wouldn’t blame him if he changed his mind—if he refused to marry her.

      She held her breath. And the church grew eerily quiet again.

      Cooper cleared his throat and finally spoke, “I do.”

      For a moment Tanya let herself believe it was real—that Cooper Payne was so in love with her that he wanted to become her husband. That he wanted a happily-ever-after with her—and not just until the annulment.

      Tears of happiness burned her eyes and she furiously blinked as she tried to clear her vision. But the tears kept burning her eyes and the back of her throat.

      She coughed and choked, struggling to breathe. Finally she realized that it wasn’t tears of emotion but smoke that was blurring her vision.

      The church was on fire.

      Tanya knew it couldn’t be an accident, not after everything that had happened last night. It was arson. Someone had purposely set the church on fire. The only question was, had the exits been blocked or would they be able to escape the building before flames engulfed the guests and the groom?

      She would be dead long before the flames claimed her. Tanya’s lungs burned and her airway swelled as she struggled for breath. The asthma that had haunted her childhood flared again, choking her. Usually her asthma only acted up in the spring with seasonal allergies or in the winter if she was unfortunate enough to catch a cold.

      But smoke had always been her biggest trigger. Cigarette smoke and bonfires had brought on embarrassing and life-threatening attacks during her teenage years. Back then, her inhaler had saved her. But she didn’t have it with her now. It was in her purse, which she had left in the bride’s dressing room.

      She would never make it that far before passing out—before dying. Mrs. Payne had definitely been right to be superstitious. Seeing the groom before her wedding had brought Tanya terrible, fatal luck...