by Lisa Childs
Her bodyguard shook his head in refusal. “It’s not safe.”
She pointed toward his holster. He already had his hand on his weapon, and they hadn’t moved a foot away from the house yet. “Can’t you shoot that far?”
His mouth slid into a smirk. “I can shoot that far.”
He was the one who’d taken the most to the sniper training. Shawna remembered that from Cole’s letters. Before he’d broken up with her, he had written to her often. She felt like she knew his friends from everything he’d told her about them. She’d thought one day, when they were all back from their deployments and she and Cole were married, that they would become her friends, too.
She doubted that would ever happen now. If they hadn’t already hated her, they were certain to after they learned that Maisy was Cole’s daughter.
“Then I’m not in any danger,” she pointed out. “If someone jumps out at me, you will shoot them.”
He sighed. But he didn’t stop her as she began to walk away. She stopped herself and turned back. “Unless it’s Cole,” she said. “Don’t shoot Cole.”
He fought it. She could see the struggle in the muscles of his face. Then he gave up the battle and let the smirk curve up his lips again. “My job is to protect you,” he said. “And I take my job very seriously.”
He was teasing about shooting Cole. They both knew he wouldn’t hurt her. She’d be almost happy if he would try, though. She wished she’d gotten some reaction from him other than that cold silence when he’d just walked out of the bedroom.
Where had he gone? Had he left the estate? Had he left the state entirely? Had he returned to River City, Michigan?
She hoped he had. For his sake and for hers.
But not for Maisy. Her little girl had already lost her stepfather. She needed her father now. If something happened to Shawna, he might be all that she had.
*
Manny wanted to hate her. Out of loyalty to Cole, he wanted to hate her. But it was clear that Shawna was a good mother. She loved her daughter more than anything. He’d seen that when she’d convinced the little girl to open her bedroom door for her. Maisy wouldn’t have opened it for him. She’d thought he was the monster.
And he felt a little like one now. He’d been kind of mean to Shawna. Ah, hell, he’d been unfairly mean to Shawna. He knew why Cole had broken their engagement all those years ago, but she didn’t know. Now she’d lost her husband, and she had a maniac trying to kill her. But she was strong. And smart.
And a good mother. She wouldn’t have done anything that would cause her daughter pain. She certainly wouldn’t have killed the man her child believed was her father. He never should have suspected that she had.
He’d made a mistake. And he needed to apologize. He wanted to apologize. But when he opened his mouth to do that, he realized he’d made another mistake.
Pain radiated throughout his skull, which threatened to shatter from the force of the blow that knocked him to the ground.
Before he sank into oblivion, he reflected that if not for Teddie, he might have wished he’d died. Because Cole was certain to kill him if something happened to Shawna—to the mother of his child and the woman he’d never stopped loving.
Chapter 12
A cold sweat broke out on Cole’s skin, chilling him to the bone. Where the hell was she? And where the hell was Manny?
He stared at the open door to his bedroom. The jamb wasn’t broken. It wasn’t as if someone had forced their way into the room. Or out of it. No windows were even open. Maybe she’d gone to stay in that little pink room with her daughter. With their daughter…
When would he get used to thinking of her that way? And of himself as a father? When they were able to tell Maisy—when it was safe—would she accept him as her father? Or would she always consider Emery Little to be her true dad?
Cole’s stomach muscles twisted. He hated that he was jealous of a dead man. Emery had stepped up when he hadn’t. Cole wasn’t certain he would have if he’d known the truth. He’d had even more dangerous missions after the one that had compelled him to break his engagement to Shawna. What kind of father would he have been to the little girl when he had never been around?
He needed to be around now to make sure she was safe. He headed toward that pink bedroom. But when he tried to turn the knob, it held fast, not just locked but held tightly. When it opened, he saw why. Lars Ecklund had had his enormous hand wrapped around the knob from the other side. He and Nikki, together, guarded the little girl. No wonder she slept so peacefully, with a slight smile on her lips.
Staring at her caused that vice to tighten around his heart again. Even before he’d learned she was his, he’d begun to fall for her, just because she looked so much like her mother. But she had a part of him, too. She had his eyes.
Lars stepped out into the hall with Cole and pulled the door closed. Cole stared at that closed door, as if he could see through it. As if he could see his little girl still…
His. She was his.
“Are you okay?” Lars asked, his deep voice even deeper with concern.
“No,” Cole answered honestly. He was not okay. For so many reasons.
Lars glanced back at that closed door. “She’s yours.” It wasn’t a question. He already knew.
Apparently, everyone but him had at least suspected Maisy was a Bentler. What was the point in hiding it when Emery’s killer probably already knew the truth?
Did the killer also know about the changes to the will? Cole couldn’t believe that his grandfather had changed the damn thing. Had he learned nothing from what Cole had gone through after his father had changed his? What the hell had his grandfather been thinking? Was the old man losing it? No. He was as sharp and manipulative as ever. Damn him.
“Yes, she’s mine,” Cole said. And he wasn’t going to hide it or deny it. He was just going to make damn sure she was safe. And with both Lars and Nikki protecting her, she was safe.
What about her mother?
She wasn’t in the room with Maisy. He wished she’d been in there with Cooper’s top two bodyguards. When they worked together, Nikki and Lars were invincible.
Before he could ask if they’d seen her, Lars reached out and squeezed his arm. “I’m sorry, man,” he said. “Sorry that you just found out.”
That wasn’t just Shawna’s fault, though. While he was furious with her, he was also angry with his grandfather. And he was a little angry with himself, as well.
When he’d heard that she’d had a baby, he should have come home. He should have insisted on a paternity test. But maybe he hadn’t really wanted to know then. He’d had years left on his enlistment and had been part of the elite unit given all those special missions…
“Where are Manny and Shawna?” he asked.
Lars shrugged. “I heard them come out of the room and head down the back stairs to the kitchen.”
“Kitchen?”
“Maybe she got hungry,” Lars said. “It’s been a long day.”
And Cole couldn’t remember ever seeing her eat. He nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” But he still had that cold sweat on his skin, to the extent that goose bumps were rising beneath his clothes. He turned away from Lars and rushed toward the back stairs. His feet barely touched each step as he descended to the kitchen.
It was empty and dark but for a dim light over the sink. All the food was put away, not even a crumb left out on the marble countertops. No one had been down recently.
“Where the hell are they?” he murmured.
Then, like in Shawna’s bedroom, he noticed the curtains fluttering near the patio doors in the breakfast nook. Someone had gone out on the patio. Why? It was so late. Or early? It had to be closer to dawn than to dusk now.
His hand on his holster, he stepped onto the patio. And the minute he stepped out, he noticed the body lying on the bricks. He nearly fell over it—over Manny.
He dropped to his knees beside his friend and felt for a pulse. His fingers smeared
through blood trailing from Manny’s head, over his throat, to pool beneath him. Despite the amount of blood, his pulse was strong and steady. The guy was tough, or he probably wouldn’t have survived his childhood much less the Marine Corps and the bodyguard assignments they’d had.
“Manny,” he whispered. “Hang in there.” He squeezed his shoulder. And as he did, he noticed that the bodyguard’s holster was empty.
Cole leaned forward to check both Manny’s hands. One was beneath him, as if it had broken his fall. His right hand curled into a fist beside him; the one that would have held his weapon. If he’d still had it.
But it was gone. Like Shawna…
A rock, smeared with blood, lay near the fallen bodyguard.
His friend murmured and shifted against the patio bricks as he tried to come around, but he’d been hit hard. Too hard to regain consciousness soon. Manny wouldn’t be able to help him find Shawna.
Where the hell was she? Manny wouldn’t have let her get far from him. She should have been close. She would have been close, had something not happened to her. Where had the killer taken her?
Cole’s heart slammed against his ribs, and his fear intensified. He never should have left her alone in that room, even with Manny outside the door. He should have personally made certain she stayed safe.
Because now, even if he found her, he might be too late to save her this time. The killer might have already ended her life.
*
Shawna had noticed the shadows shift across the patio as someone had approached from behind the garage. But before she could warn Manny, the shadow had swung something at him. And Manny’s big body had dropped heavily to the patio.
The blow had to have been hard to make him fall like that. Would he be able to survive it?
He needed help, Shawna knew. But she couldn’t get him any if she was dead. So she ran.
With the attacker between her and the house, she’d had to run away through the gardens. She could have headed toward the garage, but she’d already nearly died inside there. And she wasn’t certain if the power had been turned back on. She wasn’t going alone into the dark.
But it was dark beyond the house, and she stumbled and fell. An oath slipped through her lips as she hit the ground hard. The woodchips on the garden path bit into her hands and knees. She held in a cry because she could hear him.
Someone else was walking the grounds, their steps heavy but quick. He would be upon her soon. If she didn’t get moving, he would probably fall right over her.
She pushed herself up, the jagged pieces of wood digging into her palms. Her heart pounding, her lungs burning for breath, she ran.
The gardens were expansive, encompassing several acres of property around the house. Maybe she could circle back around to the house. But she didn’t know where the attacker was now, and if she turned back, she risked running right into him. She could hear footsteps, twigs snapping, but the sounds echoed throughout the gardens. She had no idea from where they were coming.
She was being careful to keep her steps light, and fortunately her slippers made no sound against the ground. So her footsteps weren’t echoing like those of the person following her.
Had Manny’s attacker gotten the bodyguard’s weapon away from him? Before she’d turned and run, she’d noticed the shadow lean over Manny’s body. He could have been checking for a pulse. Or he could have been grabbing the gun.
Did she have to worry about getting shot at? But no one would call a bullet in the back a suicide. Of course, the killer could get close enough to shoot her in the head.
But nobody would believe she’d killed herself. Even Manny had put aside those suspicions about her. While he obviously didn’t think she was a good person, he no longer seemed to think she was a killer. He’d trusted her enough to bring her outside despite his better judgment. And she might have gotten him killed for trusting her.
Not only had she kept Cole’s daughter from him, now she might have caused him to lose a friend. Maybe his best friend. In his letters, he’d written the most about Manny.
Tears stung her eyes. She blinked furiously, fighting them back. She couldn’t succumb to sobbing. That would give away her location immediately. Not that she’d found the perfect spot to hide.
She kept running. Until she saw it. The gardening shed. It was big and held all the tools and equipment. When she reached the door, she found it locked. She swallowed the curse that burned her throat. Just like the sobs, she needed to hold it in.
The panic she’d been experiencing in Cole’s bedroom, after he left, was nothing in comparison to the panic she felt now. Her heart was beating so furiously that it echoed inside her head, and she could barely draw a breath all for the pressure on her lungs. She was outside, like she’d wanted, and she still couldn’t breathe.
She had been a fool. Such a fool. She’d given her attacker the perfect opportunity to try to kill her again. But she couldn’t let him win. She couldn’t let him take her away from her daughter.
Maisy…
Shawna never should have left her. She should have known then that the risk was too great that she might never return to her. She might never be able to hold her again. Would Cole hold her? Would he comfort their child? Or would he never even claim her as his?
Shawna blinked at the tears burning her eyes. She wasn’t going to give in to them. She wasn’t giving up. She would survive just like she had when she’d been trapped in the garage.
But she heard the woodchips crunch beneath a heavy foot. And she knew the killer was close. Too close for her to outrun. She had to hide.
She slipped around the back of the shed. A wheelbarrow had been propped up against the siding. Shawna was small enough that she could curl up in the bed of the wheelbarrow.
But she didn’t move fast enough. She’d just slipped into the hiding spot when a strong hand gripped her shoulder.
She hadn’t run fast enough. Or far enough to escape.
The killer had found her.
*
“Noooo!” The cry of terror shattered the quiet of the room that was dark but for the almost eerie pink glow of a night-light.
Nikki closed her arms around the little girl. But Maisy thrashed in her embrace and cried, “Mommy! The monster has Mommy!”
“No,” Nikki told her, her heart breaking over the child’s inconsolable fear. “The monster doesn’t have your mom. She’s fine. She’s safe.” Over the little girl’s head, she met Lars’s gaze.
His pale blue eyes held something she rarely saw in them: fear and dread. He shook his head.
What did that mean? Of course he couldn’t know for certain that Shawna was safe. She’d left the bedroom down the hall and had gone downstairs with Manny a while ago. They should have been back by now, though, especially since Cole had gone to search for them. Hopefully they were all just on the main level, in the kitchen or the library.
She mouthed the words, Get her!
But Lars shook his head again. He glanced down at the screen of his cell phone, at a text message lit up on it. Then he looked up at Nikki again and mouthed back, She’s gone!
Nikki’s stomach lurched as she realized that he wasn’t just talking about Shawna being gone from the room down the hall. She was gone gone—as in nobody knowing where she was.
What about Manny? she wanted to ask. Manny wouldn’t have let anyone get her—unless he’d been incapacitated. Damn it. What the hell had happened?
Despite their brief inaudible conversation, it was like Maisy heard them anyway. Or maybe she’d just picked up on the fear and concern that was palpable in the room. She thrashed again in Nikki’s arms, struggling to escape her embrace.
“Mommy!” she cried, hysteria rising in her voice. “I want Mommy!”
The other bodyguards would find her. The Payne Protection Agency was good, so good that they had never failed an assignment before. Well, except for when they’d purposely done it because their client had been the bad guy.
But Xavi
er Bentler wasn’t a bad guy. And neither was Shawna. Even though she’d kept Maisy’s paternity secret, she wasn’t a bad person. Just misguided.
Or proud and stubborn.
Nikki could identify with those traits.
“Your mommy will be here soon,” she assured the little girl, and she hoped like hell she wasn’t lying.
But she saw Lars flinch. He thought she was.
And so did Maisy, who cried harder. Between sobs, she said, “The monster…the monster has Mommy…”
Was it possible?
Could the monster have her?
Chapter 13
Cole ducked, dodging the fists flailing about his head and shoulders. He couldn’t fight back. He could only reach out and clasp Shawna’s delicate wrists. “Shh,” he told her. “It’s me. But…maybe you’ve already realized that.”
She tensed, then sagged against him in relief. “Oh, thank God. Thank God.”
He moved his hand to the back of her head and patted her hair. Twigs and leaves were tangled up in the silken strands. “Are you okay?”
She jerked her head up and down in a quick nod. But then she pulled away from him. “But Manny’s not. He’s hurt.”
“I know, I know,” he assured her. “I called for help for him before I started looking for you.”
“Is he… Is he okay?” she asked.
Cole had no idea. The minute he’d called for help, he’d taken off in the direction of the footsteps he’d heard. He still wasn’t sure if the ones he’d heard had been hers.
Or the killer’s.
The killer could be out there, still, watching them.
He drew Shawna closer and reached for his holster. “We need to get back to the house.” They were quite far from it, so far that he couldn’t even see the light that had illuminated the patio. Nor could he see any lights burning in any of the windows. Not that anyone else was awake right now.
