Page 67 of 4 Weddings and a Feud
“No, seriously. I?—”
But he’d already disconnected.
It would be fine. Especially since, with his car missing a catalytic converter, Alex was stuck at the rehab facility with his mother and couldn’t see the wedding teetering on the brink of disaster. Between Evie, Michael, and Mary, they’d turn it around. She squared her shoulders and strode out into the warm evening to ensure that this wedding continued with no more catastrophes.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Alex’s first tip that something was wrong was the giant pickup truck in his reserved space. It was the kind where you needed a step to get into the cab even if you had long legs like his. The bed extended at least three feet beyond the painted white lines.
“What the fuck?” he grumbled, turning the wheel of Rafe’s black Land Rover away from his usual spot. He’d bullied Rafe into leaving it with him after he’d dropped him and his mother at the rehab facility. Now, he was taking advantage of his exhausted mother’s nap to check on the Richardson wedding. His nerves buzzed, and a million wedding disaster scenarios fought each other in his brain. Each one resulted in Ray Richardson publicly berating him and promising he’d use every tool he had to ensure Alex never got his hands on the Paradise.
He carefully pulled the SUV into a space at the end of the row. “Show up late one Saturday and everything goes to hell,” he muttered.
Though since it was probably one of the Richardson wedding guests who’d stolen his spot, he’d overlook it this once. This wedding, if it was successful, put everything he wanted in his grasp. And that was the reason he’d left his mother in the care of the nursing staff to check on the results of Mary’s careful planning. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, not exactly, but that the stakes were too high for anything to go wrong.
He stepped down from the Land Rover. As he turned toward the hotel, a small crowd of people in the middle of the next row of cars caught his eye. A maintenance person wearing coveralls—though they were blue instead of La Villa’s standard-issue black—crouched on the pavement. Standing next to him was a Black man in a tuxedo and…was that Evie McAlister, his former employee? He strode toward them for a better look.
Before he reached them, the man in coveralls leaped up, his hand in a fist. “Got them!” he roared triumphantly.
Alex froze. That voice…that enormous build…it was Mary’s brother Michael. What the fuck was he doing here?
Michael dropped something into Evie’s hand, and she polished it with a cloth, then handed it to the man in the tux. He hugged Evie, then opened his arms to hug Michael but at the last minute, thought better of it and clapped him on the shoulder. Smart man, if he wanted to keep blood off his tux. The well-dressed man strode toward the main entrance to the hotel.
Evie looked up at Michael with an elated smile, but soon it faltered, and she glanced away. She stiffened when her gaze fell on Alex. She punched Michael’s arm and muttered something.
Alex forced a careless swagger into his stride. “Miss McAlister. As I recall, you no longer work at La Villa. May I ask what you’re doing here?”
Someone who wasn’t paying attention might have missed it, but he noticed Michael edging slightly in front of Evie.
“It’s not your business what she’s doing here,” Michael growled. “We’re not inside La Villa.”
“As a business owner, certainly you understand that my property extends to the parking lot, which you were clearly tampering with.” Alex nodded at the crowbar next to the displaced grate at Michael’s feet. “I ask again, what are you doing here, Miss McAlister? Or do I need to call security?”
“I’m all the security?—”
Evie silenced Michael with a hand on his arm. “One of the guests lost an item in the drain here. Mary asked us to help.”
“I see. And where is Mary?”
“She’s…um…I’m sure she’s close by. I’ll call her.”
Alex’s blood turned to resin in his veins, stiffening his body. “No, I’ll call her.” He lifted his phone to his ear.
Evie nudged Michael. “We’ll just…”
“Stay,” Alex barked as Mary’s phone rang. She’d ignored his call earlier. Would she pick up now?
“Hi, Alex. Everything’s going great. How’s your mom?”
Everything didn’t sound great. More like she’d taken someone’s Adderall and washed it down with Red Bull.
“She’s fine. How are you?”
“Great. Just great. Everything’s perfect,” she chirped, her voice too high.
“Then why are your brother and Evie here?”
“Here? Oh! You’re…here.”
