Page 22 of The Worst Best Man

Aiden slowed his pace in the hopes that she wouldn’t break both ankles.

“We’re not going to be able to catch them.”

“So where are we going?”

“I don’t know, Franchesca. I need to think.”

He hadn’t brought any security with him, doubted that the Randolphs or Stocktons had either. The hotel had its own. Why would they need a personal security detail in paradise? He cursed himself for it now. His friend was missing, and he had no one but the local authorities to turn to.

Frankie stumbled and yelped.

“Your shoes are ridiculous.”

“I wasn’t planning on walking eighteen miles tonight.”

“Clearly,” he said dryly. He stepped in front of her. “Get on.”

“I beg your pardon?” She sounded haughty as a queen who had just been asked to perform the Cupid Shuffle.

“Hop on and save your feet.”

“You’re not lugging me around Barbados on your back, Aide,” Frankie argued.

“Get on my back now, or I throw you over my shoulder and show the entire island your pretty pink thong.”

She hopped nimbly onto his back, her thighs settling on his hips, arms wrapping around his shoulders.

“This isn’t exactly how I saw the night going,” Aiden announced conversationally. He cupped his hands behind his back under her ass. “I thought I’d have you on your back.”

She pinched him through the crisp cotton of his button down. “Hilarious, big guy. Fucking hilarious. Come up with a plan yet?”

“Still thinking,” he said, boosting her up higher.

“I don’t think it was random,” Frankie said thoughtfully. “I don’t think it was like ‘Hey, nice watch, now get in my van.’”

“Which means he was specifically targeted,” Aiden added.

“This is going to crush Pru,” Franchesca said half to herself. “She loves him so damn much. Did you know that when he broke up with her after college, she couldn’t get out of bed for a week? We just laid there and stared at the ceiling. She wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t get dressed. She didn’t even really talk for days. Her dad had the family doctor visiting her every day.”

Aiden felt the stirring of guilt. “I didn’t realize she cared so much for him back then.” He hadn’t. Had thought she’d been indifferent and immature.

“He crushed her when he left, and it took her a long time to get back on her feet. Now, if I were her, I would have spent the rest of my life hating him. But not Pru. She never stopped loving him. And now here we are in paradise for their wedding all these years later, and look what happens.”

“We’ll get him back,” Aiden promised.

“Do you think they’ll hurt him?” Her arms tightened around him.

Aiden heard the fear in her tone and reacted to it. “No,” he said, his voice gruff. “Odds are they took him for money. They lose their bargaining tool if they rough him up or—”

“Or worse,” she finished for him.

“They’re supposed to get married tomorrow. What am I going to tell her? God, why would anyone do this? Money? Ransom? Oh, Jesus. He doesn’t have ties to the mob, does he?”

“Doubtful,” Aiden said wryly.

They heard the groaning of brakes as a city bus eased to a stop beside them. Aiden let Frankie slip off his back to the ground. “Let’s go get some answers.”

Chapter Ten