by Lisa Childs
No. He could not want her. He barely knew her. And she was Cooper’s sister.
“I want to find out why you’re so pissed off,” he said.
“Some big lunkhead nearly plowed me over,” she said as she settled onto the chair behind her desk.
“That big lunkhead apologized,” he said. Trying to knock the computer out of her hand had been a stupid move, but then he did stupid things when he was desperate. And he was desperate to find Emilia.
His sister wasn’t like Nikki. She was sweet and innocent. Maybe he shouldn’t have sheltered her as much as he had. But life had been so tough for her. First their mom had gotten sick—with MS—then their dad had taken off. Lars had had to enlist right out of high school in order to support them. Thankfully, his aunt had helped take care of Mom and Emilia. And when Mom had died, Emilia had gone off to an all-girls boarding school and then college.
She was completely unaware of the dangers in the world. And that was his fault.
Nikki opened the laptop and pressed a couple of keys.
His heart rate accelerated. What would she see on that surveillance footage? Had he and Dane taken out all of the cameras? Or had they missed some?
“If my apology wasn’t enough, I can help you with whatever you’re working on,” he offered.
She snorted derisively.
“What?” he asked, strangely offended. “You don’t think I can help you?”
She shrugged. “You don’t look like a computer nerd, but maybe I’m wrong.”
“You don’t look like a computer nerd, either,” he told her. She looked like a doll with her delicate features, perfect curls and slender build.
“I’m not a computer nerd,” she said.
“But your brother—”
“Refuses to see that I can do more than computer work,” she muttered. “I am not a secretary.”
He grimaced as regret and embarrassment washed over him again. “I’m really sorry about that. I am a lunkhead.”
Her lips twitched as if she was tempted to smile. But she shook her head instead. “And I am a bodyguard. I’m trained and capable of doing the job. I thought Cooper would give me the chance to prove that but then he…”
“He what?” Lars asked when she trailed off.
“He hired all of you.”
“I didn’t know I was taking your job,” Lars said.
“Would it have stopped you from accepting the offer?”
He shook his head. “I need this job.” More than she knew. He needed to get inside that estate and look for Emilia. Coop was leaving soon to tour the place. Lars wanted to ask to go with him, but he couldn’t be sure that one of the guards couldn’t identify him. And what about the surveillance footage…was he on any of that?
She sighed. “So do I…”
“Can I help you?” he asked again, and he edged around the desk to glance at the computer screen. Static played across the screen. “Can you get that any clearer?”
She tapped on the keys, rewinding to the moment the camera lenses shattered. Her breath hissed out between her teeth. “Someone shot it…”
“Can you see who?” he wondered, his heart beating fast. He had shot out two of the cameras while Dane had dealt with the third. That was all he’d noticed while doing recon. But what if there were more?
She tapped buttons, flipping through more footage—more static. Then she rewound farther. “All I see is a big shadow—no discernible image.”
She brought up another screen. It must have been her laptop that she’d loaded the footage into because she moved through files, using a special program to enhance the black-and-white video from Webber’s surveillance cameras.
“You’re really good,” he remarked. Too damn good…
She was bound to find something, bound to identify him.
She grimaced. “Yeah, I’m good,” she said. “I’m a good bodyguard, too.”
He wasn’t as convinced of that as her computer skills. She was so small, so delicate. He couldn’t imagine her fighting off a man like him, intent on getting inside that estate. He didn’t want to imagine how easily she could be hurt.
She narrowed her eyes and peered at that big shadow. She’d lightened the image. But he’d worn a ski mask with the hood of his jacket pulled tightly around it. There was no way to recognize him. Was there? She glanced up at him, as if she’d seen some resemblance.
“The shooter was big,” she murmured. “Nearly as big as you…”
He snorted derisively. “Doesn’t look that big to me,” he said. “And he’s not nearly as handsome as I am.”
She glanced back at the screen and then at him. And his heart kicked against his ribs. Did she recognize him?
Instead of stepping away, like he probably should have, Lars stepped closer. And he leaned down until his face nearly touched hers. “See? I am much better-looking.”
“You’re an idiot,” she said, and her lips curved into a smile.
“Lunkhead, idiot,” he said. “All your compliments are going straight to my head.”
She snorted now.
Her compliments weren’t getting to him but her closeness was. She was so damn beautiful and when she smiled…
It was like a light had been turned on inside her and glowed out of her skin and her luminous eyes. He told himself that he did it to distract her from the footage. Or maybe he was trying to distract himself. He leaned a little bit closer and brushed his mouth across hers. Her lips were silky, like her hair was when he cupped her cheek in his palm.
She gasped in shock. And unable to resist the temptation that was the sweetness of her mouth, he deepened the kiss. His heart beat fast and hard—and it had everything to do with Nikki now.
Then his head snapped back, his cheek stinging from a blow he’d never seen coming.
Chapter 3
Nikki’s pulse raced as fear coursed through her. Her hand stung from the slap she suspected Lars hadn’t even felt. He was so big. But his size wasn’t what had scared her. It was her own reaction to his kiss. The fact that she had enjoyed it frightened her most.
“I’m sorry,” he said. And he sounded like he really meant it—that he was very sorry that he’d kissed her.
His apology didn’t appease her. If anything it made her angrier. Hadn’t he felt what she had, that spark between them? She had never felt anything like it before. But maybe she’d only imagined it.
“Why the hell did you do that?” she asked.
He shrugged.
“Well, don’t do it again.”
“Or what?” he challenged her, and he leaned a little closer as if he intended to do it again.
Her pulse leaped, and she nearly licked her lips. But she could taste him already—or still—on the tip of her tongue. He tasted like coffee and dark chocolate and mint and man. But more man than she had ever kissed before.
“Will you tell your brother on me?” he asked.
She shook her head. As her mother could attest, Nikki had never been a tattletale. No matter how hard Penny had tried to get information out of her, Nikki had never ratted her brothers out for their antics. She’d only wanted to be included.
“No,” she said. “I’ll just slap you again.”
He touched his fingers to his cheek—not that she actually believed he’d felt her blow. She could have hit him harder. But then she hadn’t really wanted to hurt him. She’d only wanted him to stop—to stop making her feel what she didn’t want to feel. Attraction. Temptation. Desire.
But she was still feeling all those things, especially when he touched her, wrapping his fingers around hers.
“Next time,” he said, “close your hand.”
Her pulse quickened even more. Next time? He intended to kiss her again? And when he did, he wanted her to punch him?
She wasn’t sure if she would have actually asked him that because she didn’t get the chance before her door opened. Of course her brother wouldn’t have bothered to knock. While it was her office, it was his bus
iness. Cooper had made that clear to her when he’d assigned her the job of analyzing the surveillance footage.
He was the boss.
“There you are, Lars,” Cooper said, his brow furrowed as he stared at his friend standing behind her desk, holding her hand. That hand got dropped—immediately.
Despite his size, Lars moved quickly getting as far away from her as fast as he could. No. Lars would not be kissing her again. He’d violated the bro code once. She doubted he would risk doing it again.
“You ready to go assess the estate?” Lars eagerly asked.
More furrows formed in Cooper’s brow. “How do you…”
Lars shrugged his massive shoulders. “Just figured it would be the next step.”
Cooper’s brow smoothed, and he nodded in approval. “It is.”
“I should go with—” Nikki began.
Just as Lars said, “I’ll go along.”
Cooper chuckled. “You’re both so eager…” He didn’t sound nearly as eager as they were.
“You’re not?” Nikki asked. This was the first job for Cooper’s franchise. Wasn’t he excited? Nikki would have been had the business been hers or even if she thought her brother would let her have a significant role in this assignment.
Cooper shrugged now. “It’s just…”
“What?” Lars asked. “What’s wrong?”
Her brother expelled a ragged breath and shook his head. “Nothing…” He focused on Nikki now. “What did you find on the footage?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m sorry,” Cooper said. “Of course you need more time.”
She shook her head. “I can’t find what’s not there. They shot out all the cameras.”
“They?”
“There are two shadows.”
“Two guys?” Cooper nodded. “That’s how many Webber’s security guards told him there were.”
Nikki glanced back down at the screen. “Guys—big women with shoulders pads.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. They are just shadows.”
“Can’t you enhance the images?” Cooper asked.
Frustration knotted Nikki’s stomach and it wasn’t just because she suspected Lars wouldn’t kiss her again. It was because her brothers constantly second-guessed her.
“I can’t enhance what isn’t there,” she said. “Even before the cameras got shot out, they sucked. The images are poor.”
“You’ve only been at it a few minutes,” Cooper said. “I’m sure you can do better if you give it more time.”
She swallowed a sigh. It would do no good to argue with him. She knew that so she simply nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. But I should check out the security setup at the estate, too.”
Cooper hesitated.
“This system sucks,” she said. “The estate needs a better one. I can tell you what it needs.”
Cooper knew systems, too. But he hadn’t been working in the security business as long as she had. At least not private security. He’d been a Marine—like his friends—and his enlistment hadn’t ended that long ago.
He nodded. “Okay.”
“She can tell you what you need for an alarm,” Lars said. “I can tell you what you’ll need in manpower.”
Man. Of course. She had no doubt that the lunkhead would recommend only male security guards.
Cooper nodded and turned to leave her office, Lars close behind him. Nikki snapped her laptop shut and stood up to follow them out. It would probably be her only chance to get out from behind the desk.
She had been a fool to think that working for Cooper would be any different than working for Logan. He was going to coddle her just as much as their oldest brother had. She knew that now. She also knew that she didn’t need Candace or Nick to open a franchise of Payne Protection. She needed to open her own. It was the only way she would actually be able to work as a bodyguard.
*
Lars was aware of the danger—all the dangers—not just the one of entering Myron Webber’s estate and being recognized as one of the intruders. That was a risk he had to take. It gave him an opportunity to look for Emilia. Kissing Nikki had been a risk he hadn’t had to take—one he shouldn’t have taken because it put him at risk of getting fired.
Cooper was too protective of his little sister to let her get mixed up with a man like Lars, a flirt who had no intention of ever getting serious with a woman. Cooper knew Lars as well as he knew himself. But despite their friendship, he would fire him. Blood was thicker than water.
Which was why Lars was lying to his friend. Blood was definitely thicker than water. He had to find Emilia.
So why had he given in to temptation to kiss Nikki? Sure, it might have distracted her from that surveillance footage. But that might have been unnecessary if she’d been telling Cooper the truth about being able to learn nothing from it. He wasn’t sure she was telling the truth, though, or if she’d only said that to convince Cooper to let her come along to the estate.
She rode in the backseat of the SUV, behind her brother who drove, while Lars occupied the passenger seat. He couldn’t turn around without drawing Cooper’s attention and more suspicion, but Lars knew she was watching him. His skin heated from the intensity of her stare. Had she recognized him from that footage and was she just keeping it to herself like she had that kiss?
His lips tingled from the contact with her silky ones. He tasted her, too. The sweetness with just a little hint of bite. She wasn’t as delicate as she looked. Her slap had proven that. His skin smarted still where she’d hit him.
“We’re here,” Cooper said, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.
The tension remained, gathered low in Lars’s guts. How the hell had Nikki gotten to him so quickly? Maybe he was so worried about Emilia that his defenses were down or he was desperate for a distraction. If Nikki knew he was the man on that footage, she probably would have already slapped him again and harder than before.
Coop rolled down his window and reached for the security system next to the slightly crumpled gate.
Lars glanced nervously back at Nikki now. If he passed through those gates with her and Coop and anyone recognized him, the two might not just lose their trust in him but their lives, too, if the guards opened fire like they had the other night. But he wouldn’t get through the gates without them.
A voice squeaked from the speaker Cooper had pushed on the security panel. It must have asked for his name because Coop gave it and the gates began to open. As the SUV moved through them, Lars reached beneath his jacket, ready to draw his weapon if necessary. Cooper was armed, as well, and, Lars knew, quick to draw if he sensed a threat.
“Everyone stay alert,” Cooper advised as he stopped the SUV at the front door of the austere brick mansion.
He didn’t need the warning.
Nikki snorted. “Of course we will,” she said. “We’re not idiots. Well, I can only speak for myself.”
Lars forced a laugh despite the tight knot of apprehension cramping his guts. “You’re going to start that now?” he teased.
She had already called him a lunkhead, but she wasn’t wrong. He had been an idiot to risk returning with people who could get hurt in the crossfire.
“Let’s not start anything,” Cooper said, and he cast a hard glance at Lars. He obviously didn’t want his friend anywhere near his little sister.
Lars couldn’t blame him. He wouldn’t want any of his friends near Emilia once he knew where the hell she was and that she was safe.
“We have a job to do,” Cooper continued.
“Of course,” Nikki said as she opened the rear door and stepped out onto the brick driveway. She was eager to start.
Lars should have been, too. This was his opportunity to see if Emilia was here or find evidence that she had been. But he had a sick feeling, low in his stomach, that he wouldn’t like what he found.
First he had to make certain that he wasn’t found out. He’d been heavily disguised the other night, with the ski mask, with the hood.
But he wasn’t worried about someone recognizing him just from the other night. He was worried that someone might recognize him as being related to Emilia. They both had pale blond hair and very light blue eyes.
So before he stepped out of the SUV, he pushed his sunglasses farther up his nose and tugged his cap down over his hair. With the wool jacket, he looked like a longshoreman—at least to Nikki. That was what she’d told him when they’d left the office.
He followed Cooper up to the front door, which he hadn’t been able to break down the other night. It stood open now, and a grim-faced security guard invited them inside. He barely spared Lars a glance, all his attention focused on Nikki. Apparently he wasn’t the only man she distracted with her beauty.
“I’m here to meet with Mr. Webber,” Cooper said.
The guard grimaced with resentment. “You’re Payne Protection. Mr. Webber is upstairs. He asked that I show you the security room and around the grounds before you join him.”
Touring the perimeter of the gated property and scrutinizing the surveillance setup took time—time that had impatience gnawing at Lars like a rat on a corpse. He wouldn’t find Emilia this way. She would be inside the mansion, probably upstairs with the slimy lawyer.
He nearly breathed a sigh of relief when finally the guard led them up the wide stairwell to the second floor. They followed the curve of the balcony that overlooked the marble foyer to where a door stood open at the end of the wide hallway.
A soft cry emanated from inside that room, and Lars’s heart shifted in his chest. Was she here? Was she hurt? He rushed forward, but Cooper stepped in front of him, entering the room first. His breath escaped in a soft gasp.
Lars was tall enough to peer over his friend’s broad shoulder. The cry had come from an infant, one held in the lawyer’s arms.
“You have a child?” Cooper asked with every bit of the surprise Lars was feeling. “I didn’t realize you’re married.”
The lawyer shook his head, and his gaze went to Nikki, who’d stepped around him and Cooper. Interest flared in his dark eyes. “No, I’m not.”
“But the baby…”
Lars stared down at the bald-headed infant, who blinked sleepily before opening startling pale blue eyes. And now he knew what trouble Emilia had been in and why she would have sought out an adoption lawyer. She had been pregnant. This child was hers.
