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“A spotter?”
“Maybe,” Brogan agreed. “Or they were hacked into cameras too. I’m not the only guy who knows how to hack things in the city. If they were going to spot, they’d have to be over in this area, which is cut off by most cameras. Let me see if…”
He lapsed into silence, and Aidan watched his fingers fly over the keyboard at a dizzying speed. Brogan’s affinity for technology had always awed and impressed him. Except for the times he used it to cheat at video games. Then it just pissed him off.
“Here,” Brogan finally said, bringing up a new video and enlarging it on the big screen with a couple keystrokes.
This angle caught two women walking together, one with a dog on a leash and the other pushing a stroller. Just before the intersection, they had to shift to single file to go around a man in a baseball cap who refused to move so they could pass.
He looked like he had a phone in his hand, but the footage was grainy, so it was hard to really tell. As the minivan approached the intersection, the man’s head kept darting from the van to whatever he was holding in his hand. Until finally the van passed by in the bottom of the frame and then spun into the middle of the intersection.
The man pivoted toward the crash as if he was communicating with the Jeep, and once the Jeep disappeared from the top of the frame, he turned and walked quickly from the scene before cutting onto a side street and vanishing completely.
“How did they know where they were going to be? If you plant a spotter, you know exactly where someone will be and when.”
“I’m sure at least a dozen people would have known Viv was coming to the house and then going to look at venues. It wouldn’t be hard to map out a couple of routes.”
“Awfully lucky,” Brogan replied.
“Or they were being followed,” Aidan murmured.
“I don’t like either fucking option. The question is, who was the ultimate target? Evie? One of the Falcone women? Or Viv specifically?”
Aidan frowned at Declan. “Why would anyone want to target Viv specifically?”
“Maybe they think if they take her out, they take the alliance out.”
“Wouldn’t they?”
Aidan forced himself not to think about how conflicted that made him feel. He might not want to marry the woman, but that didn’t mean he wanted her to actually die to get him out of it. He wasn’t that heartless.
“No,” Declan replied matter-of-factly. “There are plenty of single women in the Mafia. Brogan, print out a picture of the spotter. Maybe one of the Falcones will recognize him.”
As Declan walked out, Brogan tapped a few keys, and the printer in the corner behind Aidan whirred to life. When his brother turned and saw him standing there, his eyes narrowed.
“You can go.”
Aidan sensed Brogan following him to the door, and when he turned to say something, the door closed in his face with a loud crack. Aidan dropped his head back with a sigh and stared at the ceiling before heading back to his room to punish himself with more of Finn’s looping handwritten notes before the party.
ChapterNine
Viv smoothed the fabric of her dress and clenched her hand into a fist to keep her fingers from shaking. For reasons she could not explain, her anxiety had been building to a fever pitch over this party all week.
So she’d kept herself busy with wedding planning. She had a dress that was currently being altered. They’d chosen the flowers, selected the bridesmaids and their dresses, and secured a beautiful location that was as close to a dream as she’d ever hoped for. Turns out you really could manage quite a lot if you could write enough zeros on a check. The Callahan name on said checks didn’t hurt.
It opened doors for her she didn’t even know existed, let alone were closed. When Evie had mentioned to the florist that Viv wanted a flower that was rare this time of year, one of the few things she’d ever seen clearly about her wedding day, the woman all but pledged to fly to South America to prune it herself. Similar promises happened at the venue when Viv mentioned her groom by name.
But those things only kept her busy during the day. At night Viv was left with entirely too much time to think. Lying awake in the dark, staring at the ceiling and thinking about all the terrible ways this party could be a disaster of epic proportions.
The whole thing felt more manageable when it existed behind closed doors. She’d expected a hastily thrown together ceremony in front of close family and friends before being deposited wherever Aidan intended to keep her until his purpose had been fulfilled. Not an event that landed her on the front page of the society pages next to a man who seemed less than willing to play his part at all, let alone convincingly.
“You look beautiful.”
Turning from the full-length mirror, Viv smiled at Sofia standing in the doorway. She ran a hand over the hair she'd swept into a loose chignon. She’d wanted to wear it up to keep herself from thinking about Aidan’s fingers in it all night.
“Is it too much?” Viv wondered, glancing back to survey the long white gown.
“No.” Sofia shook her head. “You look positively bridal.”
