Zoe headed through town to Broadway Street for the Beaux Arts mansion. Not only was it going to comfortably fit the two-hundred plus guests invited to the wedding, but it was going to kick off Aiden and Piper’s married life in style and luxury. She’d dragged Piper to nearly twenty potential venues to get just the right one. Because they deserved nothing but the best. Absolute perfection.
When Zoe tried to pull onto Broadway, she couldn’t get anywhere near the place. The street was blocked off by police cars with their lights flashing.
She whipped into a free spot along the street and got out of her van. The day was heating up already so she grabbed Freddy and approached the police line with him in her arms.
Thinking of how Addison would tackle the situation, she tried to empty her mind of any negative thoughts. As though pure positive thinking could prevent any hiccups that day. But her heart was already picking up speed.
Like any crime scene, it had gathered quite a crowd. Zoe joined the rest of the curious onlookers in front of the yellow tape fluttering in the morning breeze, and leaned over it to see down the street. Her fingers were crossed as she thought Please don’t be the venue. Please don’t be the venue.
But, of course, it was.
First, she saw the two fire trucks parked outside. It’s okay, she told herself. Maybe it’s just a false alarm. Then she saw the hoses stretched up the grand stairs, snaking around the thick columns and through the double doors. Maybe it was contained to just one area, she reasoned. A small kitchen fire, I’m sure.
No one was yelling or rushing into the imposing building, so it was clear the danger was over. Well, everyone just needed to wrap it up and leave so she could fix whatever damage they might have done to her perfect decor. And God help them if anyone has so much as sat on one of my pristine white silk-covered chairs.
Then her eyes ran up the stone edifice, and that’s when she saw black marks of soot marring the facade above the upper windows and along the ornate cornices. Windows were blown out, blackened curtains drooping out of them, dripping with water.
Cosmetic damage. That’s all. Nothing a well-placed topiary can’t fix. Zoe swallowed hard, but her throat had gone dry from her sudden panicked breathing.
“Excuse me, ma’am.”
Zoe tore her eyes away from the scene and found a police officer coming toward her. “You need to stay behind the tape please.”
Zoe glanced down to find that she wasn’t just leaning anymore. She’d taken a full ten steps into the middle of the street, dragging the police line with her. Well, technically I’m still behind it, she thought.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, backing up a few inches. “What happened here?”
“We’re not releasing any information to the public yet,” he said on autopilot.
“But I’m not just the public,” she said, like clearly he didn’t understand who she was. Didn’t he know she was planning the most important wedding of the year? She should really get a badge for this sort of situation. “I’m with the wedding party.”
The police officer looked at her in confusion. Zoe didn’t have time for this. Hadn’t he been following Holly Hart’s announcements all over the internet as the morning went by? Zoe certainly was, but mostly so she could stay a step ahead of her.
“There’s a wedding taking place in that building today,” she explained patiently. But she felt the panic return when an incredulous look crossed his face.
The officer snorted, but more in an apologetic way. “No one will be getting married in that building today or anytime soon.”
She wanted to grip him by the uniform and shake him. What the hell was she supposed to do now? The venue doubled as the ceremony and reception location, not to mention there were romantic photo ops galore. And what about her newly replaced décor? She had practically nothing left now.
Zoe had worked so hard over the last year to give Piper and Aiden the perfect wedding. She’d taken on so much of it herself, so much of the stress, the details, right down to the hand-folded origami flowers carefully placed in each invitation.
God, Piper and Aiden were going to be so crushed. And all those people coming from all over the state. Piper’s mother and brother had already come all the way from Washington. In Aiden’s case, people were flying from all over the world. And for it to be canceled all because of a tiny little fire?
Freddy seemed to sense her anxiety rising. He frantically licked her neck like he was helping. Zoe stared at the damage, at the chaotic collection of emergency vehicles. “But … But what am I supposed to do? The wedding is today.”
The police officer shrugged. “I guess you’ll have to switch to a different venue.”
“But that’s impossible.” She laughed. “This is the best wedding venue in the city. Do you know what kind of strings I had to pull to book this place? It has to be this venue.”
“Why?” he asked. “Either they get married somewhere else or not at all. If they choose the latter, then I guess I’d be questioning their priorities.”
Her mouth fell open as his words sank in. She blinked, mentally shaking herself and took a step back. “Oh, my God. You’re right.”
She laughed as she realized that she sounded exactly like Juliet. She’d been so focused on making everything perfect that she was getting all wrapped up in the details rather than looking at the bigger picture.
The most important thing about this day was Piper getting married to the man of her dreams. Not where they did it, or how, or what dress she was wearing. It was about them. It was about love.
“Thank you.” Zoe told the officer. She hugged Freddy to her chest. “Come on, Freddy. We’ve got a wedding to save.” And with less than four hours before go-time.
She spun to head back to the van, nearly running over someone. She started to apologize before she saw the camera in her face.
“Zoe Plum,” Holly said. “You’re the wedding planner in charge of this year’s most anticipated wedding. The Summers-Caldwell wedding. Now that the venue for today’s momentous celebration has gone and blown up—”
“It blew up?” Zoe froze mid-swat at Hey You. “Are you sure?”
Holly rolled her eyes, like Who do you think you’re talking to. “I have my sources.”
Zoe stared back at the destruction with new eyes. The glass, the chunks of stone, the bits and pieces of opulent furniture all scattered across the road with little numbers marking them. Of course. It looked just like the scene after her office blew up.
But that didn’t mean … Could it?
Destruction seemed to follow Zoe wherever she went lately. Chelsea’s threat was still echoing inside her head since the night before.
Just wait, Zoe! You’ll get yours! And I’m not talking karma!
But Chelsea was supposed to be in jail. Or had she been released?
Was it possible the answer lay in the puzzle pieces they didn’t have yet? Like the other attempts on her life, could this explosion have been meant for Zoe too? Had she somehow put the people closest to her in harm’s way?
“So tell us,” Holly said. “What will the lovebirds do now?”
Zoe shoved the mic out of her face. “No comment.” Holding Freddy to her chest, she marched back to her van, but Holly gripped her by the arm.
“Don’t tell us that the happy occasion is canceled.” She smiled delightfully into the camera lens like she was from an entertainment show, not Channel Five News.
Some of the people lingering around the crime scene started to gather around, attracted by the camera and Holly.
“Okay, I won’t,” Zoe told Holly. “Because it’s none of your business.”
Holly covered the microphone and lowered her voice so she wasn’t overheard by her adoring fans. “Come on. You’ve gotta give me something here. I’ve been building this thing up for weeks. It’s going to be an embarrassment if I don’t pull through on some kind of drama.”
“Well, maybe you should have been minding your own business all along,” Zoe said.
“The things happening in this city are my business. It’s my job to keep the good people of San Francisco informed.” She raised her voice so the surrounding crowd could hear.
A few cheered at the false passion in her voice. Clearly they’d been following her minute-by-minutes notifications too.
“I’m a vessel,” Holly said humbly. “A medium. San Franciscans want to know the latest gossip on their favorite couple. I’m just giving them what they want.”
“Gossip?” Zoe narrowed her eyes. “And here I thought you were a hard-hitting reporter. I guess you’ll always be a lowbrow gossip columnist. Maybe you should go back to that tabloid, The Gate?”
Holly’s face hardened and she shook the mic in Zoe’s face threateningly. “Tell me what I want to know, or I’ll start a smear campaign against you that will keep you from any event this side of Nevada!”
“Bring it on,” Zoe said. “But you’re still not getting anywhere near this one.”
Holly’s eyes lit up. “So it’s not canceled then.”
“There will be a wedding, if it’s the last thing I plan. But you’re not going to have a clue where it is.” With a triumphant grin, Zoe wrenched out of the reporter’s grasp and walked away.
“Mark my words, Plum!” Holly yelled after her. “It will be the last thing you plan!”
If there really was someone out there wanting Zoe out of the picture, the last thing she needed was Holly Hart discovering the new location of the wedding. If she did, it would be posted all over the internet within seconds. And if anything was certain, it was that whoever was behind the attacks would be following Holly’s announcements. For both her sake and everyone else’s, Holly Hart needed to be kept in the dark.
Zoe stomped back to her van, feeling the muscles in her back start to knot up where Chelsea had bruised her the night before. She craved the touch of her Fuzzy Friend in her purse, but her hands were currently full of a much larger and fuzzier friend.
“Can you believe her?” she asked Freddy.
In answer, he leaned up and gave her another lick on the neck.
Zoe laughed and tried to pull away from the incessant tongue bath. “You’re a special dog, Freddy. Always good talking to you.”
While she was being sarcastic, it was true. It may not have been like talking to Levi, but there was something so comforting about having a friend always there, always happy to see her, to listen, to hug. And as she held him close, she found that by the time she got back into her van, her anger at the reporter had evaporated and her muscle knots had melted away.
The moment she crawled behind the wheel, she tossed her purse aside and stared out the windshield at the emergency vehicles. What was she supposed to do now? How would she break the news to the happy couple?
She glanced over at her passenger who fidgeted in the seat. Even when she turned on the radio, it didn’t settle him much. With everything that had been going on in the last few days, she hadn’t been able to give him much exercise.
She gave him a scratch behind the ear. “I’m sorry, buddy. Not much time to play today either, I’m afraid. You need somewhere to run around, don’t you?”
He whined, like he understood her. And after two weeks, it felt like they really were starting to understand each other. Maybe seeing eye to eye wouldn’t be so impossible, after all.
“I know, you need to play, don’t you?”
She thought about all those guests and how they’d been encouraged to bring their dogs. Not only did she have to find a new venue for the wedding in—she checked the time again—three hours and fifty-two minutes, but it also had to be pet friendly. That’s if there should be a wedding at all. And if there was, maybe it was safest for everyone involved if Zoe was nowhere near it.
She glanced out the windshield again. It was forecasted to be a beautiful day. They could make it an outside wedding. Maybe at the Presidio where Piper and Aiden had their first pseudo-date, but then they would need somewhere with the facilities to serve dinner and for the wedding party to get ready ahead of time. Since it was last minute on a Saturday, getting ahold of the venue director would be difficult.
As Freddy whined again from the passenger seat, it suddenly hit Zoe. There was a place that ticked off everything on that list and was still meaningful to the bride and groom.
Digging her cell phone out of her purse, Zoe called Piper. It rang three times before she picked up.
“Hello?”
“Good morning, blushing bride,” Zoe said.
“Hello, maid of honor!”
Zoe heard the excitement in her best friend’s voice and cringed as she said the next words. “Listen, Piper. There’s no time to sugarcoat things. I’ve got some bad news for you. The venue is a no-go.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end. “What?”
“It blew up.”
“Blew up?” Another long pause, followed by a noise like Piper was blowing out a long breath, sifting through all the questions to the most pertinent one. “Can we find somewhere else?”
Zoe smiled. “I thought you might say that. It’s doable, but Piper … I’m worried about everyone’s safety. This explosion, after everything that’s happened—”
“Zoe, Chelsea is in jail right now,” she said, knowing exactly where Zoe was going.
“We don’t know that for sure, and this explosion can’t be a coincidence. I was supposed to be in that building early this morning. I was running late. What if that bomb was meant for me?” Zoe laid her forehead against her steering wheel, as the thought hit her belatedly. Her head spun. “What if they try again and people get hurt? People we love?”
“Then they’ll have to deal with me,” Piper said.
“I’m serious. Maybe I shouldn’t be at your wedding. Not if it means putting everyone in danger.”
“I will not have a wedding where my best friend isn’t there,” she said, her voice firm on the other line. “We’ll hire security. We’ll keep the new venue quiet. Do what you need to do, but I’m going to marry this man today no matter what. And you’re going to be by my side.”
Zoe took this all in and finally relented. “Okay. That’s all I needed to know.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Do your bride thing. Remain on standby. Relax, envision your perfect day, have some chai tea, and leave the rest to me. I’ll let you know the plan as soon as I’ve got it all set up.” Zoe pulled her tablet out, already opening Piper and Aiden’s file. “But I’ve got to go. I have an entire wedding to move in three hours and … forty-six minutes.”
She just hoped that once she did, this blow-out event wouldn’t be a blow-up event.