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Warrick looked at Sven wondering why he was still alive. Sven pointed to the bullet proof vest on the chair next to him. “Saved my ass and theirs today. Don’t leave home without it, right?”
“Unlike the person who shot all of you. His ass is mine. I plan to have words with him.”
Duke entered the waiting room just then, walking over to Warrick first. “Jesus, you must have flown here.”
“I was motivated.” Warrick kissed Isabelle on the cheek, tugged Colton on the arm, and the whole gang retreated to a private corner of the waiting room away from other patrons and visitors.
Sven moved slowly, but eventually joined them.
“What do you know about the shooter?” Warrick asked Duke.
Duke inhaled and then exhaled. “I just talked him. Guy’s singing like a canary.”
“Why?”
“Apparently the guy’s never been caught before. He would have gotten away had Colton not shot him up, so Kendall had time to get there. He knocked out a security guard, stole his clothing and gun, and made his way to his perch.
“He would have gotten out pretty easily, too. Like I said, he had it well planned.”
“Why did he want us both dead?”
“In his jacket pocket we found a message saying basically he wanted both of you dead to make sure the right one was killed.”
“Fuck,” Sven said. He was very unhappy.
“Was it Vince that did it?”
“He was involved. The phone call Vince made traced back to a family member of the lead guy Ari put in jail during the job she was on with Vince a while back.
“The drug lord leader of that group was some piece of work, too. Let me tell you. Preying on young women, drugging them, selling them. A real prince. Someone only a mother could love, right? But Ari’s undercover work was instrumental in getting him a life sentence without possibility of parole.
“Turns out that Vince had a boss after all. Took him the last two weeks to get a message to this person, letting them know there were two of you.”
Isabelle shuddered. “The family member hired someone to kill us both, to be on the safe side. Who was it?”
Duke shook his head. “So the leader guy who went to prison got stabbed to death after only a month inside. His mother, the only one who could love him, was apparently inconsolable until she found Vince and formed her retribution plan.”
“How do you know all this?”
“The shooter had minor wounds after Colton shot him twice. He’s unhappy he got caught, and is spilling his guts about everything to absolutely to anyone who’ll listen. The guy won’t shut up. He wants a plea deal with no jail time.”
They all laughed uproariously.
“Is it bad of me to be happy the shooter got shot and arrested,” Warrick said, unable to keep the glee from his tone.
Sven huffed. “No. Not at all.”
Kendall arrived and joined their OWT soiree in the corner. Warrick turned to him and said, “Later but not right now, we need to have a chat about my membership.”
“Why? What did you do?” Isabelle asked abruptly. “Warrick. I told you I’d sign the pre-nup. Don’t give it all up. Please. They won’t bother me.”
“Well, they’re already bothering me. I told them I’d found a bride.” He laughed mirthlessly. “They already knew your name and told me in no uncertain terms that you were unacceptable. You don’t even have a paltry seven figures in your portfolio. So I was faxed a list of seven names to consider, or else.”
“Ominous,” Duke said.
“So, I’m right in the middle of the or else phase of this idiotic ordeal.”
Isabelle sighed. “I’m so sorry, Warrick. What if I marry Colton in the public eye?”
Warrick shook his head. “Then they will truly hound me every hour of every day until I relent and marry someone of their choosing. They don’t want me to wait until I’m an ancient sixty years old. They’ve already started the haranguing. I’m sick of it after only half a day.”
“What now?” Colton asked.
“I seriously considered that they might be involved in the shooting for a half second before realizing they had other more powerful weapons in their arsenal.”
“Like what?” Duke asked.
“Since they won’t approve of Isabelle as marriage material, they are pressing me to marry someone else. But I won’t. I’m marrying Isabelle, and they can suck it. However they’ve already dispatched a pack of lawyers due here tomorrow to enforce the letter of the law regarding the papers I signed at age eighteen.”
Kendall shrugged. “And that means, what?”
