WANTED by Delores Fossen Page B

as much of them as she could see, considering he was still doing lookout. Lyla groaned again when she realized this argument was over. Both the physical one and the one inside her.
    She was going to marry Wyatt McCabe.
    A man she hardly knew.
    She hoped this wasn’t the worst mistake of her life. She’d made some doozies in the past, but this could top them all.
    But it could also save her baby.
    Right now, that seemed the only thing that really mattered. That, and putting an end to the danger. Things couldn’t continue this way, because the stress could cause her to miscarry.
    That thought crushed her heart.
    She’d planned and waited so long for this baby, and here someone might snatch it away from her.
    Lyla spent the rest of the drive nibbling on her bottom lip and trying to work through the panic she was starting to feel again. How could her life have changed so much in just a few hours? And it might continue to change, for the worse, if they couldn’t put a stop to this nameless, faceless person who’d want to manipulate her by using an unborn child.
    Wyatt took the turn to the Rocky Creek facility, but there was a car on the road between them and the building. He reached for his gun, causing her heart to thud against her ribs, but he reholstered when the ginger-haired man and elderly woman stepped from the vehicle.
    “Slide over toward me,” Wyatt instructed her. “That’s Elliot Stowe and his secretary, Adele Bedford.”
    “How did they get out here so fast?” Lyla thought she’d have a least a few more minutes.
    “Stowe’s a justice of the peace in the town just a few miles from here. He brought his secretary because we need a witness.”
    Wyatt had thought of everything, but when their gazes met, Lyla could have sworn she saw some uncertainty there. It vanished, however, when the JP and his secretary got into the backseat of the SUV. Because Lyla still hadn’t moved yet, Wyatt unhooked her seat belt and slid her closer. Until she was tucked into the crook of his arm.
    “Make it fast,” Wyatt told the man.
    Lyla doubted Stowe could do anything slowly. His muscles were tight and wired. Ditto for his expression. His Adam’s apple was bobbing. Clearly he wasn’t comfortable with this, either. However, his secretary just seemed puzzled about the whole ordeal.
    Wyatt handed the man the license, and without even making introductions, Stowe started the vows. “Do you, Lyla Marie Pearson, take this man, Wyatt David McCabe...”
    Lyla heard the words, saw them form on the man’s mouth, but she was still dealing with the shock when it came time for her to say I do. Wyatt gave her a nudge on the arm, and she mumbled the words that she prayed she wouldn’t regret.
    “I do.”
    A few moments later, Wyatt repeated the words. And Stowe pronounced them husband and wife. He scrawled his signature on the license and handed it to his secretary to do the same as the witness.
    “You so owe me for this,” Stowe said to Wyatt.
    Wyatt nodded and mumbled a thanks. “Make those calls I asked you to make.”
    Stowe returned the nod, and just like that, the couple exited the SUV, got back into their car and drove away.
    The ceremony had lasted less than five minutes. Heaven knew how much time it would take her to get the annulment when this was over. And there would be an annulment. No way would she stay married to this stranger.
    “What phone calls did you ask him to make?” Lyla wanted to know.
    “He’ll get the gossip mill going about our marriage. I want everyone to hear about it so the danger will end.”
    Maybe that wouldn’t take long, and while she was hoping, Lyla hoped she could get close enough to that blood spatter to learn something. Because if Wyatt’s plan failed, then her best shot was learning the identity of Webb’s killer. And she was betting it was the same person who’d put her in harm’s way.
    Wyatt reached in his shirt pocket and extracted a simple gold wedding band.
    Lyla was sure her