His brother was still recovering from his injuries. He’d had a kidney removed, but it wasn’t the organ that gave him the most trouble. Most people could function normally with one kidney. He’d also been shot in the leg, and he was only at about 90 percent three months later. He refused pain meds because he claimed they made his head fuzzy. But of course he’d gone back to work. Kane was stubborn.
It ran in the family, Sean supposed. But Sean had never worried about his big brother before—Kane was tough. This time, he wasn’t bouncing back as fast. If he wasn’t at full strength, he was vulnerable.
“They’ve all been busy today,” Nate said. “Zach has been running backgrounds and photo IDs nonstop.” Nate stood. “I think I’m good to go here. Lucy is definitely going to be surprised.”
“I hope in a good way.”
“Oh yeah.”
“She’s not big on surprises.”
“This is a good one.”
Sean smiled, appreciating the reassurance. “Thanks for your help, buddy.”
“Anytime.”
Sean walked Nate to the door then reset the security system. He went down the hall to check the guest room and make sure it had everything Siobhan would need. At first Sean had been happy that Lucy called him earlier to say she’d be home late; it gave him and Nate time to finish some last-minute wedding details. But now it was late, and he wanted to see her. Lucy had sounded exhausted.
He’d already surprised her by asking her brother Patrick to be his best man. For Sean, there had been no other choice. He could have asked his brother Kane, except Kane would show up for the wedding and disappear right after. And Duke—Sean loved his other brother, but he and Duke were just now getting along. They’d had a falling-out last year and Sean was having a harder time forgiving Duke for things he’d said than he’d realized. It had gotten better, but Sean wanted his wedding to be fun and as stress-free as possible. Patrick would be part of the festivities, he’d help with anything, and he’d already planned on coming down a week early to help pull everything together and mediate between the large Rogan family and the larger Kincaid clan. And of course, there was the bachelor party. Besides, Sean already considered Patrick his brother.
Lucy had a more difficult time picking her maid of honor. She was closer to her sister-in-law Kate than she was to her two sisters, but family meant everything to the Kincaids. It ended up that she asked her sister Carina, and Kate and Lucy’s closest friend Suzanne Madeaux from the New York FBI office were her bridesmaids. For Sean it was much easier—his brothers Duke and Kane. If Kane bailed after the ceremony, no worries. And if Liam—his other brother—got his nose out of joint, he could just deal with it. Besides, Sean didn’t think he and Eden would even show up. Fine by him; the drama that would follow his brother and sister was more than Sean wanted to deal with, especially on his wedding day.
October 29 had to be perfect.
Once he’d freshened up the guest room, Sean sat back down at his computer and went through his checklist. Everything that had to be done was done. The invitations had gone out a bit later than they should have, but they’d had less than five months to put the wedding together. When Lucy started to feel overwhelmed and talked about postponing it, Sean took everything for himself to do.
All you need to worry about is finding your dress. You could wear a burlap sack, for all I care. You’ll still be the most beautiful woman in the church.
He knew for a fact that Lucy had found a dress—she’d flown home to San Diego for a weekend, and Carina and their mother had taken her shopping. All Carina had done was text Sean a thumbs-up sign and he knew it was all good.
Not that he was worried. He wouldn’t be looking at the dress.
His doorbell rang and he opened the security panel on his computer to see who was paying him a visit.
He stared.
Her blond hair had darkened with age, and instead of hanging long and straight down her back it was cut into a sassy shoulder-length bob, but Madison McAllister had not changed in the thirteen years since Sean had last seen her.
*
Campus security stood inside his dorm room. Sean was required to pack up his belongings and be escorted from campus before five p.m. that day. It was Sunday and he’d spent the last three days in jail. He was angry and humiliated and he considered emptying his bank account and disappearing. He would never forgive Duke for cutting a deal with the feds. They should be giving him a fucking medal for exposing the pedophile, not putting him on probation and expelling him from Stanford.
“I called in a favor. You’re going to MIT.” Duke stood in the corner of the dorm room, arms crossed, because Sean told him not to touch his stuff.
The damn feds had already seized his computer equipment.
“Fuck you.”
“You’ll thank me later.”
“You had no right.”
“I’m your guardian. For two more weeks, at any rate. You have no idea what you’ve done here. You haven’t even apologized!”
“There’s nothing to apologize for!”
“You had other options. You could have come to me.”
“Right. Because we know the system always works.”
“I would have helped you.”
“Then no one would have realized how flawed the FBI security program was.”