by Lisa Childs
“Webber knew that a child needs the security of two well-established parents,” the man haughtily explained. “Not a desperate single mother.”
Dane had had the two well-established parents. But he’d had less security than he would have with a single mother who’d loved him. Unfortunately nobody had ever loved Dane.
“We deserve him. She doesn’t.”
Dane shook his head. “She was scared and alone when she called Webber. But she had no intention of going through with it then and especially not now. She’s never going to give up her son.”
“You better hope you’re wrong,” the man said. “Because if she won’t exchange her son for you, I will have no use for you.” He kicked the gang member who’d fallen dead in front of him. He’d killed that kid and Gonz. The man was good with a gun and a knife. “And you’ll wind up just like these guys.”
With a bullet in his brain.
Dane had seen Emilia with Blue too many times. He knew there was no way she would risk losing her son again. Especially not for him.
The man was crazy to think she cared enough about Dane to barter for him. Dane had to find a way to get untied before the man realized how wrong he was, or he was certain to wind up dead.
Chapter 26
With Cooper’s Payne Protection Agency now a crime scene, they’d moved to Parker Payne’s new offices. Emilia had met all the Paynes at Penny’s wedding and most of them before that when they visited their mother at the chapel, but she still couldn’t tell any of the brothers apart in appearance. They were all blue-eyed, with black hair.
Parker must have been who cautioned them, “No shooting in my new offices. If gunmen come in here, you will have to disarm them with your hands or—” he gestured at the blond-haired Garek Kozminski “—your smart mouth.”
Garek flipped him off. “Hey, I had nothing to do with Cooper’s office getting shot up.”
“That was my fault,” Emilia said.
Parker walked over and comfortingly squeezed her shoulder. “No, it wasn’t. It was the scumbag who we will all work together to get out of your life.”
“Don’t talk about her brother like that,” Manny said as he walked into the office carrying Blue.
She rushed over to take the baby from his arms, and the bodyguard breathed a sigh of relief. Blue snuggled against her and emitted a soft sigh, as if he’d missed her. And it had only been hours. What would happen if they were separated again for weeks or years...?
She shuddered at the thought.
“If you want to lay him down, there’s a nursery off that hall,” Parker said. “My wife is my office manager, so she brings the kids along to work.”
All the Paynes had wonderful, strong marriages. Penny had told her how happy she was that her boys had found their soul mates. And at long last, so had Nikki.
“How is Lars?” she asked.
Nikki glanced up from the computer screen she’d been studying at the conference room table. “He’s bellowing to be released already,” Nikki said. “I’m not sure he even let them stitch him up.”
Emilia breathed a sigh of relief now. She’d been right about Lars, that he would be fine. Now she just had to hear from Dane. Had to know he was alive...
Finally, after nearly an hour of waiting, the cloned cell phone rang. The guy could have been watching them. Maybe he’d known when she had Blue, so she could make the trade.
But she tightened her hold on her baby. She would never let him go. There had to be some other way she could help Dane. If only to give him more time.
When Nikki nodded, Emilia pressed the button to accept the call on speaker. Everyone else in the crowded conference room fell eerily silent.
“Yes?”
“Emilia?” It was Dane’s deep voice rumbling in her ear.
“You’re alive!”
“Yeah, yeah, but now I know how you felt—” He grunted as if someone had kicked him. And she realized he’d given out a clue.
“Emilia.” It wasn’t Dane’s voice calling out her name this time.
She shivered. “I want to talk to Dane.”
“You just have,” the man replied. “You know he’s alive. And if you want him to stay that way, you will make the exchange. Daniel for Mr. Sutton.”
“Daniel?”
“I refuse to call the boy the ridiculous nickname you gave him,” he explained.
She wanted to shout, Blue, his name is Blue. But Dane’s grunt of pain echoed inside her head. She didn’t want him hurt again. “Where—where do you want to exchange Dane for—” she forced herself to say it even though she nearly choked “—Daniel?”
Nikki stared up at her, her dark eyes wide with shock and disappointment. Did she think Emilia would actually risk her son’s life? Never.
But she didn’t want to end Dane’s. And she was afraid that if she refused, the man would kill him with her listening. And that would kill her, too.
“See...”
Another grunt echoed throughout the phone.
“I told you she would do it,” the man said, and he was obviously speaking to Dane. “She doesn’t deserve Daniel.”
Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked them back. She could feel everyone in the office staring at her, wondering if she’d lost her mind. She hadn’t lost her mind.
She had lost her heart.
“Where?” she asked, her voice sharp with impatience now.
The man named a busy downtown park within the hour. “And don’t try anything stupid,” he said. “Don’t let your brother try anything stupid, either. Or your boyfriend won’t make it.”
“I want to talk to him again,” she said.
There was another grunt, then Dane said, “Don’t do it, Emilia! Don’t do this for me. I don’t love you. I was only using you—like Brad.”
There was the crack of plastic. Then the sound of a blow, of something hitting flesh and bone. But Dane uttered no grunt of pain. Was he beyond feeling? Was he dead?
The phone rattled with the man’s heavy breathing. “Don’t listen to the hero,” he said. “He is just trying to protect the boy.”
Of course Dane would be the hero. That didn’t mean he was lying. She didn’t think he loved her. She didn’t expect him to when she had been nothing but trouble for him.
“I know,” she said. “You better know that you will not get the baby if Dane Sutton is dead.”
“I will see you and Daniel in the park,” the man replied. And he clicked off the cell without confirming if Dane was even still alive.
She glanced at Nikki. “Did I keep him on the phone long enough?”
Nikki shook her head. “Not enough to narrow the search.”
“But Dane gave us a clue,” Emilia reminded them, “when he said he knows how I felt. He must be being held in an abandoned warehouse.”
Nikki nodded now. “Yeah, I got that. And the signal pinged off towers in that old industrial area of the town.”
“That’s good,” she said, her heart lifting with relief. “We can find him.”
“There are a lot of warehouses down there,” Nikki said. “The only reason we found you was because we followed someone there. We can’t follow someone to Dane.”
“You can follow them,” she said. “The kidnappers.”
“Are you serious about exchanging the baby for Dane?” one of the Paynes asked.
“Hell, no!” a deep voice growled in response as Lars staggered into the room on a too-short pair of crutches. “You’re not doing it!”
Nikki jumped up and rushed to her fiancé. “You idiot! How dare you check yourself out!”
“Had to,” he said. “Or my sister is going to do something idiotic!”
“Must run in the family,” Emilia murmured as she cradled her son close. His
tiny body had tensed, probably because he’d felt his uncle’s anger and her fear. “I would never exchange Blue. But they don’t know that.”
“What are you thinking?” Parker Payne asked the question.
“I want to make the switch,” she said.
“What?” Lars exclaimed. “You just said—”
She held up her hand to stem her brother’s argument. “I intend to go to the meeting,” she said. “But I won’t bring Blue. I’ll bring a doll instead.”
“And they’ll kill you when they find out you’ve duped them,” Lars said. “It’s not going to happen.”
“No, it’s not,” she agreed. “I will be perfectly safe because I will have so many Payne Protection bodyguards discreetly protecting me.”
“And what about Dane?” Lars asked.
“He’s alive,” she said. “You gave him up for dead. But he’s alive.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Nikki nodded. “We all heard his voice. He was alive.”
Lars tensed. “Was?”
“He stopped talking.”
Emilia shook her head. She refused to accept that she’d heard Dane get murdered. It wasn’t possible. He had to be alive. “I told them I’d have to talk to him again. They can’t exchange him if they don’t bring him.”
Lars tilted his head and looked at her sadly. “They’re not going to bring Dane to that park,” he said. “And you can’t go, either.”
Nikki stepped in front of her fiancé, standing between him and Emilia. “She’s right, you know. We can all protect her.”
“But Dane won’t be there.”
“Probably not,” Nikki agreed. “Once we figure out who has Dane, we can trace his steps back to him.”
“It’s one of the parents,” Emilia said. “It’s one of the couples—or at least the father—who bought Blue from Myron Webber.”
Nikki hurried back around the conference table to her laptop. “Of course!”
“Cross-reference the name Daniel,” Emilia suggested. “It’s either his first name or the first name of someone the man lost—like a father or a brother or father-in-law.”
Emilia’s skin heated as she felt everyone staring at her in shock. “What?”
“You’re so smart,” Cooper said. “I think I hired the wrong Ecklund. You want to quit the wedding planning business and work for me?”
She shuddered at the thought. “No. I love working with your mom.”
“We’re not all bad,” Parker said.
They were all wonderful.
“We’ll see how today goes,” she offered.
“I don’t like this,” Lars said. “I don’t want you putting yourself in danger.”
“Why not?” she asked. “Every one of you has put his or herself in danger for me. I owe you all the same.” And no one more than Dane.
Lars hobbled closer and settled his big hand over Blue’s small head. “He’s why,” he said. “He needs you.”
“He’s not going to lose me,” she said.
Nikki looked up from her computer. “We kept her safe before, Lars. We’ll keep her safe again.”
Emilia’s heart lurched with fear. They were actually going to let her do this. She was a wedding planner. Not a bodyguard. Was she prepared to meet a killer?
To save Dane, she would take the risk. She just hoped she was able to save him. And that she survived, too.
Like Lars had said, her son needed her.
* * *
Dane jumped and shivered, shaking off the ice water that had been doused over his head.
“There you are,” the man said. “You were out for a while.”
“You son of a bitch!” Dane cursed him.
The man chuckled.
“She was lying to you,” Dane insisted. “Emilia would never give up her son.” Certainly not for him. But she might risk her damn life to try to help him, probably out of some sense of obligation.
“Then she will give up her life,” the man remarked, as if Emilia’s life didn’t matter at all.
Of course he had no idea how amazing she was, how beautiful inside and out. How generous and loving...
Dane had only said what he had on the phone about using her, so that she would get angry with him, so that she wouldn’t sacrifice herself or her son for him. He didn’t want her giving up anything for him.
He wasn’t going to let her. But if he couldn’t stop Emilia, maybe he could stop them from meeting her. “It’s a setup, you know,” he said. “She won’t meet you alone.”
“Her brother was shot,” the man reminded him. “From what Gonz’s friends have said, I doubt he survived.”
What if Lars hadn’t made it? Emilia would be devastated that she’d lost her brother.
Dane could have told him about the others, the Paynes, who adopted everyone they met as family. He hadn’t liked that before, but he was grateful for it now. They would protect Emilia as best they could.
They might not see this refined-looking man and his timid wife as a threat. The woman hadn’t spoken at all. She stood in the hallway, her head bowed as if she didn’t have the energy to lift it.
Was she sick? Abused?
Dane wouldn’t put it past this man to hurt his wife. He was a killer. He’d killed Zeinstra. And he would probably kill Emilia if she actually met him.
Dane couldn’t take the chance that she might. He had to escape.
But the man motioned at some other men who walked into the room. “Make sure he doesn’t try anything,” he said. “I want him alive in case she does want to speak to him again. But once she does, I want him dead. He’s caused me too many problems. Kill him slowly and painfully.”
One of the gang members grinned. “For sure, Mr. Montgomery.”
This was why Dane had always sworn never to be taken alive. He would have been better off dead than having Emilia risk her life for his—when he was going to die anyway.
But he was Dane. He was a Marine. He was a Payne Protection bodyguard. He wasn’t going to give up without one hell of a fight.
If only he could free himself...
* * *
Reginald Montgomery steered his wife toward the meeting place at the edge of the park. They were close to the parking lot, to escape if this was the trap Dane Sutton had warned him it was. But if they were to get away, Cynthia would have to move faster. She walked so slowly, lethargically, but that was the side effect of the antidepressants she’d been on since...
Since they’d lost Daniel. But they hadn’t lost him.
“We just have to wait a little longer, my love,” he assured her.
She blinked and glanced up at him. He couldn’t tell if she’d heard him or not. Or maybe she’d heard and just hadn’t believed. He’d failed her too many times.
But not this time.
He glanced around the park. It was busy with joggers and young families playing with their kids. A couple of sidewalk vendors. It was always busy like this. It had been when he’d brought their other son here. That Daniel was gone. They’d lost him to the genetic defect neither had realized they had, until they’d passed the death sentence onto the only child who’d made it to full term.
Cynthia had lost so many unborn babies. And then Daniel...
Despite how sick he’d been, their little boy had loved the park. The new Daniel would love it, too. And he was perfect. Myron Webber’s doctor friend had run all kinds of tests on the baby. He was healthy and strong.
He wouldn’t die on them. He wouldn’t leave them.
Their life would be a little more difficult now. They would have to go into hiding with him for a while. Because even though she was willingly giving him up, Emilia Ecklund would probably claim to change her mind again. She would act like she wanted him
back.
That was why the first plan had been the best. Drive her crazy, then once she was declared an unfit mother, have his father seek full custody of his son. But Dane Sutton had interfered with that pain. And Bradley had kept pushing for more money. Then he’d even threatened to renege on their agreement. He had deserved Daniel even less than Emilia did.
Cynthia shifted against his left side. On his right, he held his gun beneath the coat he’d tossed over his arm to hide it. He also had a knife in a sheath on his belt. There had been something so satisfying about shoving that blade in Bradley Zeinstra’s greedy, cold heart. Maybe Reginald would shove this knife in Emilia’s.
So that she couldn’t come after them. So that no one would try to find them.
Cynthia moved again, and he murmured, “It won’t be much longer now.”
Then he glanced up and saw her. With her pale hair and eyes, she looked almost like a ghost moving toward them. That was how she would leave them—once she handed over the baby she held in her arms.
Yes, he would plunge that knife in her heart just as he had the baby’s father. Then Daniel’s only parents would be him and Cynthia. They would be all he needed. And he was all they needed.
Chapter 27
Emilia’s legs trembled beneath her as she headed down a path she had never knowingly gone before. She’d unwittingly stumbled into it before, but she had never walked purposefully into danger.
No. She had no intention of quitting the wedding planning business to become a bodyguard. If she survived this assignment, she would leave all future assignments to the professionals. She heard their voices buzzing in the transmitter Nikki had fitted in her ear.
“I don’t have a clear enough visual to see if that’s him,” Nikki warned her.
Emilia knew that it was. She forced herself to keep walking.
“That couple?” Cole Bentler’s voice asked the question doubtfully. “They don’t look like killers.”
“Just because they look rich doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous.” Manny’s voice was unmistakable.
“Money sometimes makes them more dangerous,” another voice cautioned. It took her a moment to place it as Garek Kozminski’s.
