** spoiler alert ** Spenser is hired to escort Heidi Bradshaw, on her personal island of Tashtego, at her daughter's wedding. He brings Susan with him. Heidi is infamous for making rich marriages. She is currently separated. She has quite a security force already on the island. And a hurricane shifts to hit the island, just as Spenser is aware that a helicopter is landing, and the minister is about to pronounce the couple man and wife. And as the bride and groom are turning to exit the hall, Rugar (the Gray Man) enters with 6 armed guards. Rugar almost killed Spencer in a previous book, ad there is a certain respect between the two. Rugar kills the minister, and as the groom steps up to protect his bride, Rugar kills him also. He takes the bride, sees Spenser, and takes him out also, threatening Susan... the helicopter can't lift off so Rugar takes the bride, and sends one of his men to take care of Spencer - and of course, Spenser takes care of the guard, shooting him and pushing him over the cliff... then he goes to the hall, turns off the lights (figuring the bad guys will think it is the storm), and reaches Susan, taking her out through a side door. The next morning, the helicopter, Rugar, and the bride are gone... the 4 guards on patrol are dead without drawing their weapons... and the police are coming - so Susan and Spenser join the rest...

And there isn't an immediate ransom demand... and Spenser doesn't let things lie... and he wants to find the girl... and this behavior is not atypical of the Gray Man... so he starts poking around.... investigation Spenser style... he talks with the ex-and current- husbands, he talks with the security company head, he talks with the alumni association of the college Heidi went to , uncovering her given name, he tries and talks with Heide and when she won't answer questions in frustration he fights (and wins) her current body guard, he talks with the school mistress, doctor at the school, and current doctor of Adelaid (Heidi's daughter) and finds out that she was probably sexually assaulted as a child/teen, tried to commit suicide, and her mother hired the Dr. Feelgood prescription doctor to care for her, he finds out that Heidi, the GrayMan and husband #3 when she was still married to husband #2 were all in the middle east together 20 years earlier (and Adelaid's conception), he learns that Heidi needed sex as often and with as many men as possible... he learns that Adelaid and her groom Maurice were awkward college students together, and that Maurice was of a very, very rich family & gay, he learns that he agreed to a prenup that made Adelaid his heir immediate to their marriage... and that Heidi approached his parents to help pay for the ransom... and her stepfather calls Spencer for help, but when they get to his hotel, he is already shot through the window...

Rugar politely asks him to leave it alone, and threatens his life (and Susan asks Hawk to take Spenser's back)... he sends some goons to kill him but Hawk and Spenser take care of them... finally a ransom note shows up, and Heidi goes to Spenser - but angrily leaves when he confronts her with money problems, & gay son-in-laws, & daughter's sexually abused & ignored by mothers... Susan helps with her insights.

and the story ends with Rugar calling with a truce, and brings Adelaid to the office. he tells the story, =confirming much of what they had already deduced - but the reason he allowed himself to called into this crazy, drama-inducing scene was because Heidi told him he was her daughter's father... after the kidnapping, he cared for Adelaide (medical and psych care) and found he cared about not dying - having a reason to live, and he had killed Bradshaw after learning he was the one raping his stepdaughter for years & her mother telling her to put up with it as they needed the money...and Adelaide obviously was enamoured of her father, and looked healthier than at her wedding... and he asks Spencer to leave them be - and they would disappear forevermore... and Spencer & Hawk allow it... hmmmmm