by Lisa Childs
Shawna didn’t know who he was asking until she saw his gaze focused on her in the rearview mirror. “I think it’s a strong possibility,” she replied,
“The sheriff said he’d have the lab rush the toxicology results,” Cooper said. “We should know soon if it was poison.”
“We need to find what’s being poisoned,” Shawna said. So that it didn’t happen again.
“It can’t be the food, or everyone would have gotten sick,” Cooper said. “It would have to be something that only Xavier consumes.”
She knew what that was. Unfortunately so did everyone else living in that house. Any one of them could have poisoned him. “I’ve been trying to get him to stop drinking and smoking.”
“So you think it’s in the cigars and alcohol?” Cooper asked.
She nodded as guilt overwhelmed her again. If she’d been doing her job, Xavier wouldn’t have had the chance to sneak his scotch and cigars. Or at least not as much as he must have in order to have gotten so sick.
If she hadn’t suctioned the vomit from him… If it had gotten into his lungs…
He would have aspirated and suffocated. She shuddered at the thought of losing Xavier. Sure, he was old, and he would eventually die. But he was vital now, so much more alive than many other people she knew, than most of his family.
Cole slid his arm around her shoulder, silently offering the comfort he must have realized she needed. Maybe he needed comforting, too. Xavier was his grandfather. Even as frustrated as Cole got with him, she knew he loved the old man more than any other member of his family. At least his real family.
He loved his friends like family.
“We need to get the cigars and alcohol tested,” Cooper said.
“He hides them,” she said.
Cooper snorted. “Yeah, right. He had a glass and a cigar in his den last night.”
“But that’s not where he keeps them,” Shawna said. “He knows I’d find them and throw them out. He only smoked and drank in his den because I was preoccupied.”
Cole squeezed her shoulders. “It’s not your fault.”
He might not blame her. But Shawna blamed herself. “I saw some butts outside the back door of the garage,” she said. “He has them stashed all over.”
“Nikki’s good at tracking things down,” Cooper said. “I’ll have her get everything together.”
“What about Maisy?” Shawna asked. She didn’t want her little girl anywhere near poison.
“Dane is watching her now,” Cooper said.
“Dane?” The big, quiet guy?
Cole touched her hand. He’d probably meant to reassure her, but her pulse leaped at the brief contact. “Dane’s good with kids,” he said. “His girlfriend has a baby.”
“My sister,” Lars said. “His girlfriend is my sister.” He sounded a little bitter about it. “And the baby is my nephew.” Then he sighed and begrudgingly added, “And he’s great with both of them.”
She smiled as she began to understand the relationship between these men. Like Cooper had said, they were his family. She could see it in their brotherly comradery.
Cole squeezed her shoulders gain. “Maisy will be safe with Dane.”
“And we’ll be back to the estate soon,” Cooper added as if he understood a parent’s need to be with her child. He must be a father himself.
But Shawna’s fear went far beyond separation anxiety. “Do you think she’s in danger, too?” she asked Cole. “Do you think anyone knows…?”
“That she’s a Bentler?” he asked. He pulled his arm out from around her as his muscular body tensed. “I think everyone knew but me.”
So Maisy was in danger. If whoever was trying to poison Xavier was after the inheritance, he wouldn’t want competition for the money. She turned toward Cole and tried to make him understand why she’d kept her silence. “It was better for her when no one knew for certain…”
“That she’s a Bentler,” he finished for her again. Then he sighed and agreed. “Yeah, it was better for her.”
And for him? Did he wish he didn’t know?
Then she remembered how he’d looked at the little girl as Maisy had clung to him after the gunshots had scared her. And Shawna knew, from experience when he used to look at her that way, that had been a look of love on his face. He had fallen for their daughter.
What about Shawna? Would he ever look at her that way again? Would he be able to fall for her again? Or would he never be able to forgive her for keeping the truth from him—even though it might have been keeping Maisy safe all these years?
Their daughter wasn’t safe anymore. Too many people knew who she really was, that she was really Cole’s daughter. A Bentler. A possible heir to billions…
“We need to hurry back,” Shawna said. She needed to make certain that her daughter was all right. She never should have left her, but she’d been so worried about Xavier, about making sure that he was all right.
What about Maisy?
*
Guilt rose in Nikki over leaving Maisy, but at least she was with Dane. He would protect her. The minute Nikki left the room, she suspected he’d started playing with the little girl.
It wasn’t like Nikki would be gone long. All she had to do was make sure she collected any of Xavier Bentler’s items that might have been poisoned. She’d already been searching the house when Cooper called from the car and narrowed her search to…
Liquor and cigars.
That was what Shawna thought, according to Cooper. She’d added that the old man had to be hiding the cigars somewhere. Shawna suspected a stash in the garage since she’d found evidence of smoking outside the service door.
Nikki smiled as she thought of petite Shawna inspiring enough fear in Xavier Bentler that the billionaire had to hide his cigars from her. Shawna was so little and delicate-looking, whereas Xavier, despite his age, was still big and strong-looking. But as Nikki knew, size didn’t mean anything. She suspected Shawna was strong—emotionally and mentally. She had proved that when she’d escaped the garage full of carbon monoxide.
Nikki headed from the den, through the kitchen and mudroom, to the garage.
The overhead door Shawna had smashed had already been replaced with another. A chill chased down Nikki’s spine as she realized she was alone in the garage where Shawna and the chauffeur had nearly died.
But none of the cars were running today. And the lights were on, so the power had not been cut. She would be able to escape when she wanted to. She was in no danger.
Unless the killer figured out what she was looking for and wanted to cover his tracks. Then he would be after the same thing she was. She needed to find Xavier’s secret stash before he could.
Shelves and pristine white cupboards lined the back wall of the long garage. She began to search among the shelves and in the cabinets. A coffee can caught her attention. It seemed out of place among the oil and gasoline containers. Why would there be a coffee can in the garage?
She reached for it and popped up the plastic top. “Gotcha…” she murmured. She’d found the cigars.
But then she heard hinges creak as a door opened. And she knew she was no longer alone.
Chapter 18
“She’s gone!” Lars shouted even though Cole stood only a few feet from him. “I’ve searched everywhere for her, but I can’t find her.”
Cole wasn’t as worried as his friend was. Nikki was tough and resourceful. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Shawna she was probably the best bodyguard the Payne Protection Agency had. She had to be okay.
Because she had to be okay, he felt compelled to tease his friend. “The wedding’s coming up,” he said. “Maybe she came to her senses and skipped out.”
Lars didn’t laugh like Cole had meant him to. Maybe he considered that a possibility, given the way Nikki used to feel about weddings and marriage. But when she’d fallen for his friend, all that had changed for her. There was no chance of her being a runaway bride.
“I’m k
idding,” Cole said. “She would never back out of marrying you.” He sighed. “Guess she’s not as smart as I thought she was.”
“But she is,” Lars said. “She is smart. She has to be okay.”
Cole followed his friend as Lars walked from the den through the house. They’d searched once already and had found no sign of her. But then Cole remembered what Shawna had relayed to Nikki when Cooper had called her to secure the evidence.
“The garage,” Cole said. “She was going to search the garage.”
Lars cursed. “That damn garage…” He rushed through the house. The service door wasn’t locked like it had been the day before. It turned easily beneath Lars’s huge hand. He pushed it open and stepped inside the garage.
His hand on his holster, Cole followed him. The air was clear but for a faint trace of the fumes that had filled it the day before. That faint trace wasn’t enough to have knocked out Nikki, though.
“Nikki!” Lars’s deep voice cracked as he called out for his fiancée.
Even during all those dangerous missions they had carried out while Marines, Cole had never seen Lars as afraid as he was now. He’d come close, when his sister had been missing. But this was an entirely new level of fear. Cole reached out and squeezed the big guy’s arm. “We’ll find her.”
But he worried, like Lars had to be worrying, that they might be too late. His friend had been through so much that he’d earned the happiness he’d found with Nikki Payne. He deserved it.
Cole hoped like hell that the chance hadn’t been stolen from him by a member of Cole’s family. It was Cole’s fault that they were even here—because Grandfather had hired Payne Protection, and Cole had insisted they come along with him.
But if Xavier hadn’t hired them, both he and Shawna would be dead.
Maybe even Maisy.
*
“Where’s Nikki?” Maisy asked the question burning inside everyone else’s mind right now. While she and Dane were downstairs in the front parlor, she hadn’t been near the den with the others when they weren’t able to find the female bodyguard. How did she know Nikki was missing?
Shawna met Dane’s worried gaze. Despite his obvious concern, he grinned at her daughter. “Hey, why are you missing Nikki?” he teased, feigning offense. “I thought you and I were having fun.”
The big man sat on the floor beside the little girl, a pile of dolls and clothes between them on the antique Oriental rug. He must have brought all of Maisy’s toys down to the parlor. “I’ve been playing Barbies with you.”
Maisy smiled at him. “I know. And it’s fun.” Her smile slipped and she uttered a sigh that sounded almost pitying. “But you make them sound all girly. Nikki makes the Barbies tough bodyguards.”
“Of course she does,” Dane murmured.
Nikki was a tough bodyguard. She would be all right. Shawna was more concerned about her daughter. Would she be safe? She was so small, so young…and they were all in so much danger.
Maybe Cole was right. Maybe they needed to leave the estate. With Xavier in the hospital, she didn’t need to act as his nurse anymore. He had around-the-clock staff at the hospital to monitor his recovery from whatever this episode proved to be. And he would have bodyguards posted outside the room to protect him from any more harm. Her patient would be a lot safer in the hospital than in his home with his greedy family. And she would be a lot safer anywhere but his home.
Where did Cole intend to bring her and their daughter? To River City? To his home?
She should have asked him before she’d refused to even consider it. She needed to talk to him about it, about their entire situation. That conversation would have to wait until Nikki was found.
Then she heard it—the faint wail of a siren. Fear coursed through her that Nikki had been found. And wasn’t okay.
A curse slipped through Dane’s lips, but he muffled it enough that Maisy might have missed it. Shawna hadn’t missed the oath or the look of fear on his face, though. The sirens grew louder, and red-and-white lights flashed behind the blinds at the front window.
The little girl jumped up and pulled open the blinds to peer out at the driveway. “It’s an ambulance!”
Oh, God, Nikki had been hurt. Why hadn’t Cole come for her? Maybe Shawna could have treated her until the paramedics arrived. But nobody even stood on the driveway to meet the ambulance. Hadn’t someone called for it?
A paramedic opened up the back doors and wheeled out a stretcher. There was already a body on it, one that squirmed around and tried to sit up and bark out orders. Probably for cigars.
Even while her heart warmed with love for the old man, she felt a stab of fear—for him and for her and Maisy and Cole. It wasn’t safe for him to come back here, not if someone had really tried to poison him.
“It’s Grampa X,” Maisy said with delight. “He’s home.”
“He’s stubborn,” Shawna murmured.
Dane met her gaze and nodded. “But at least the ambulance isn’t for…”
Nikki. But that didn’t mean she didn’t need it. Where the hell was Nikki? Everyone was searching for her, which was why Shawna was with Maisy. Dane was protecting them both while Cole, Lars and Cooper looked for Nikki. But now she needed to help settle Xavier into his room.
“I need to go out there and make sure he’s okay,” Shawna said. She could not imagine why the doctor would have released him. Then again, knowing Xavier Bentler as long as she did, she could well imagine why. Xavier, in his indomitable way, had insisted, and the doctor had been unable to resist.
Dane shook his head. “You can’t go out there. You’re supposed to stay in here at least until the others return.”
Manny jumped down from the back of the ambulance and walked beside the stretcher. He wasn’t alone. Another man stood on the other side of the stretcher—with his bushy beard and unkempt appearance, Shawna wasn’t certain if he was a bodyguard or…
“Who’s that?” she asked Dane, who stood at the window, too.
“He’s one of Parker’s team,” Dane replied. “They’re all former vice cops. They’re good—if a little rough around the edges.”
“You’ll stay with Maisy?” she asked. She didn’t want her daughter being protected by someone a little rough around the edges.
But then maybe all of Cooper’s team were, as well. They had the short, military-style haircuts, but they had an edge to them, too. Cole even had it—the edge that hadn’t been there before. They’d seen and done things that had changed them.
How much had Cole changed? Was he really the man she’d loved?
Or had she misplaced her heart by giving it to him once again?
*
Nikki’s lungs burned from exertion, and her heart pounded like mad. She’d never been as spent as she was now—except maybe after some of her marathon lovemaking sessions with Lars.
Despite her frustration, a smile stole over her lips. Then she let out a little gasp as an enormous shadow stepped into her path, blocking her from the sunlight. But his hair was such a pale blond that he was nearly as bright as the sun—except for his face, that was dark with a glower.
“Do you think this is funny?” Lars demanded.
“What?” she asked. “What are you talking about?” She didn’t find her current situation funny at all. She was pissed—damn pissed that the killer had gotten the jump on her.
“You scared me half to death!” he said. He scooped her up in his arms and pulled her close to his massive chest. His heart beat frantically against hers. “We couldn’t find you. And I was so damn worried something had happened to you.” He put up his hand to cup the back of her head in his palm, and she cried out as he hit the bump.
He started cursing all over again. Then he yelled out, “I found her, but she’s hurt.”
Within seconds, her brother and Cole appeared at Lars’s side, their faces tense with concern. “I am totally fine,” she assured them all. “I’m just angry.”
“You have a huge bump,” Lars said
. He gently ran his fingers over the goose egg on the back of her head. Her hair was sticky with the blood that had oozed from the wound, and his fingers tangled in it.
She winced and sucked in a breath at the pain. “I had the cigars,” she told them. “I found them in a coffee can in one of the cabinets in the garage. I put down my gun to open the can, and someone got the jump on me.” Once she’d heard the door creak open, she’d grabbed for her weapon. She hadn’t drawn it fast enough.
“Did you see who it was?” Cole asked.
She cursed herself for not being more aware and shook her head. “No. I got hit from behind.”
“Did you lose consciousness?” Lars asked.
She closed her eyes and struggled to remember. “I don’t think so. I saw stars for a little bit, and by the time I could focus again, I saw someone heading out the back door.” It had just been a hazy shadow really; she hadn’t been able to focus right away. “So I chased after him.”
Lars groaned and sarcastically remarked, “Of course you did.”
“Of course I did,” she agreed. “That’s my job.” She looked beyond Lars for the moment to direct her frustration at Cole and Cooper. “And your jobs are to protect Shawna and Maisy. I’m fine. Please, get back to your posts.”
Cooper and Cole studied her face for a moment before they nodded and headed back toward the house.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She would have felt terrible had something happened to Shawna or Maisy because they’d been preoccupied looking for her. She wriggled in Lars’s arms, trying to regain her feet, so that she could continue her search for the stolen cigars.
But Lars tightened his grasp on her. She looked up into his face and saw that he had been really worried. Regret struck her heart. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“You weren’t answering your cell, and we couldn’t find you.” He shuddered.
She patted her pocket and realized it was missing. “I must have lost it somewhere.” Probably when she’d fallen in the gardens. It had taken a little while for her to focus and regain her balance. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”
