by Lisa Childs
He knew it. He felt the bond deep in his madly pounding heart. This was his nephew.
“His mother died in childbirth,” the lawyer said.
And Lars’s heart stopped beating for a moment. The room, which was already dark thanks to the sunglasses he wore inside, darkened more. His head lightened, and his knees trembled. But he locked his legs; he fought to hold it together—to reveal none of the turmoil he was feeling. He couldn’t think about what he’d just learned. He couldn’t deal yet with the feelings threatening to overwhelm him.
Instead he focused on the lawyer, who had continued, “He is my sole responsibility now. He is why I need Payne Protection to secure the estate and make sure nobody can get to him.”
“Why would someone try to get to him?” Cooper asked.
The lawyer uttered a sigh that sounded long-suffering. “I am a wealthy man.”
He was a son of a bitch. And Lars had to curl his fingers into fists so that he wouldn’t swing at him.
“You think someone was trying to kidnap him the other night?” Cooper asked.
No. Lars had had no idea the child even existed. Emilia had said nothing before he’d left for his last deployment. Of course she might not have known then. She would have only been a few weeks along. But Lars hadn’t even realized she’d been seeing anyone then. Or ever…
The lawyer shrugged his thin shoulders. “I don’t know, but I can’t take any chances. I have to keep him safe.”
No. Lars had to keep him safe. He had already failed the baby’s mother. When his and Emilia’s mother had passed away from her debilitating MS six years ago, Lars had promised to keep Emilia safe.
He’d broken that promise. The baby’s mother had died in childbirth. Pain gripped him, more intense than any he’d physically experienced—even worse than when his mother had died.
She’d been suffering for so long.
But Emilia. She’d been so alive. So vibrant. And now she was gone. He couldn’t believe it. No, he just didn’t want to believe it.
Maybe his pain and tension had shown because soft fingers skimmed over his fist. He glanced down at Nikki’s face. She’d stepped close to him, offering support. He’d tried to hide his reaction to what the lawyer had revealed. He’d tried to hide his pain. But it overwhelmed him.
Emilia was dead.
*
Emilia Ecklund was dead. She had to be since she’d been living in hell the past few weeks. Hell was supposed to be hot, though, and bright with flames. The room where she was being held was cold and dark. Even through the thin mattress on which she lay, Emilia could feel the coldness of the concrete floor beneath her. It seeped through to her bones—to her blood. She was thoroughly chilled. Maybe she would be better off in the real hell than this one.
But the physical discomfort was nothing in comparison to her emotional pain. She had lost so much more than her freedom. She’d lost her heart when they’d taken away her baby.
Where was the infant? She didn’t even know if she’d had a boy or a girl. She’d never had the chance to hold him or her. But she didn’t care what she’d had, just that the baby was all right.
She had begun to accept that she would probably never know, though. They wouldn’t keep her alive much longer. She knew that. If only she had listened to Lars…
If only she had sought out his friend like he had told her…
She’d intended to when she’d come to River City. She had intended to find Cooper Payne and ask him for help. But then embarrassment had overwhelmed her, and she’d foolishly chickened out. She hadn’t wanted Lars to know how badly she’d screwed up—going out with the college guy who had obviously only wanted one thing. After she’d finally had sex with him, he’d dumped her. So she hadn’t told him she was pregnant. But she would have sooner told him than Lars. After all the sacrifices he’d made for her, she hadn’t wanted to disappoint her brother.
So in a weak moment she had considered giving up her child. But she never would have gone through with it. Ever. That weak moment had cost her everything. She’d lost her child, her life and her brother.
Lars had to be dead. Or he would have found her by now. She’d written him a letter, just before her meeting with the lawyer, telling him that she’d contacted the man. She hadn’t had the guts to tell him why. She had been so scared, and maybe that was why she’d wanted him to know—just in case something happened to her.
Like it had…
She probably should have told his friend instead, the one who’d already retired from active duty. But she hadn’t ever considered that Lars might not return from a deployment. He was so big. So strong. So invincible.
Everything Emilia wanted to be. But she was more like their mother, weak and vulnerable. Her disease had only been partially responsible for that. Her bad choices had been equally if not more responsible. Falling for their father had been the worst choice she’d made. The minute she’d gotten sick, he’d abandoned her.
But he hadn’t just abandoned her—he’d abandoned his children, too. So when he’d been little more than a boy, Lars had had to take on the responsibilities of a man. That was why he’d joined the Marines out of high school—to support them. He had risked his life to care for them. But even he hadn’t been able to save their mother. She’d died six years ago.
Emilia had been sixteen then and Lars, at twenty-two, had petitioned the court to be her legal guardian. He’d promised then that he would always take care of her, that he would protect her from danger.
“Where are you?” she murmured, her voice a hoarse whisper. From all the screaming she’d done, she must have damaged her vocal cords. But it hadn’t mattered. Nobody had heard her cries of pain, her yells for help.
But maybe that was her problem. She’d always relied on Lars to save her. She should have learned to take care of herself. Then she wouldn’t be in her predicament. She would have been able to protect herself and her child.
Now the baby was lost to her. And even though she wasn’t dead yet, she knew that she would be soon.
Chapter 4
Dane had seen guys blown apart, but he didn’t know if any of them had ever been in as much pain as his friend Lars. The guy was doubled over on the leather couch, his big arms wrapped around his torso as if he was trying to hold himself together.
The glass of whiskey Dane had handed him was abandoned on the hardwood floor next to him, untouched. He’d thought the alcohol might numb his pain or at least dull it. But it was almost as if Lars wanted to feel it, like he thought he deserved to feel it.
Dane was in pain, too. His guts knotted with frustration over his helplessness. There was nothing he could do to help. He had no idea what Lars was going through. He’d lost friends over the years, but he’d never lost family, at least not family he’d ever known.
Like Lars’s sister, Dane’s young mother had abandoned him, too. She hadn’t died; she’d just left him in a high school bathroom, which had made him a ward of the state. He’d been adopted, but the older couple who’d thought they had wanted a child hadn’t really had the time or energy to give him. They’d never acted like his friends’ parents.
Dane had always envied the guys with family, the ones who’d received all the letters and packages from home. But now—seeing Lars’s pain, feeling some of it himself—he wasn’t jealous anymore.
“What can I do?” he asked. It wasn’t like he could tie on a tourniquet or apply pressure to this wound. But he wanted—he needed—to help.
Lars released a deep, ragged breath. Then he straightened up. While his face was flushed, his eyes were clear with determination. “You can help me get my nephew.”
Dane nodded. “Of course.”
But Lars shook his head. “It’s breaking and entering. It’s kidnapping. You sure you want to be part of this?”
Dane didn’t hesitate. He didn’t have a choice. While he didn’t have any blood relatives, he had family. His unit was family. “Of course,” he said again.
“If we
get caught…”
They would go to jail. “But you can prove that you’re his biological uncle, his next of kin.”
“I can’t get a judge to order DNA testing on my suspicion,” Lars said. “I need to get him first.”
“How do we do that?” Dane asked. “What’s the plan?” He had no doubt that Lars had one. He looked so determined, so resolute.
But now he flinched as if he felt a moment’s regret.
“What?” Dane asked. “What’s the problem? Don’t you have a plan?”
“I have one,” Lars admitted. “But it involves Nikki Payne.”
Dane flinched now. He knew as well as Lars did how important family was to Cooper. “Are you sure?”
“I lost my sister,” Lars said. “I don’t want Cooper to lose his. But it’s the only way.”
Putting Nikki Payne in danger…
*
Nikki was seriously in danger—of losing her temper completely. Her brothers could be so damn frustrating. But nobody frustrated her more than Logan. He was the oldest of the Payne siblings by the five minutes he had beaten his twin, Parker, from their mother’s womb. He never let any of them forget he was the oldest and the CEO of Payne Protection.
“You let Parker and Cooper start their own franchises,” she said. “Why not me?”
He leaned back in the chair behind his massive desk and sighed. “We’ve been through this before, Nikki. You don’t have enough experience.”
“I’ve been working for Payne Protection since you started it.” She’d still been in college and had juggled classes and homework, so she’d have time to help Logan with the technical stuff. “I have as much experience as you do.”
He chuckled.
“And more than Cooper.”
“You know I’m not talking about experience with Payne Protection. I’m talking life experience.” He and Parker had come from law enforcement. Cooper from the Marines.
She knew what he meant. “Like any of you would have let me become a cop or a Marine…”
“It would have killed Mom,” Logan said.
And that was why she hadn’t, even though it was what she’d wanted most: to be like her brothers. But their mother had already been through too much, more even than Nikki had known. “Mom’s tough,” she said. She’d had to be to survive what she had.
Nikki was tough, too. “I can do this,” she said. “I can start my own franchise.”
He shook his head. “Not until you get more actual experience.”
Frustration overwhelmed her, so Nikki had to bite her lip to hold in the string of curses that sprang to her mind. When she had regained control of her temper, she said, “I’d have that experience if you would have ever let me out from behind the desk.”
“I wish you were still there,” Logan said. “I wish you hadn’t left me.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Cooper has no more intention of letting me actually work than you ever did.” She felt betrayed all over again, like she had when she’d found out her father had cheated on their mom. She’d felt betrayed then that he hadn’t been the hero she’d always thought he was.
Logan grinned. “You couldn’t talk him into it like you thought you’d be able to.”
A curse slipped out, but instead of being offended, her brother’s grin only widened.
“He doesn’t need me in the field,” she said. All she’d done at Webber’s estate had been to suggest a new security system—with upgraded equipment and more cameras. “He hired a bunch of guys from his unit.”
Logan nodded. “He told me. Good guys. I’ve met them before.”
“You have?”
“Sure,” Logan replied. “Cooper went through basic training with them. They were at the ceremony when we all went out to San Diego.”
“Why didn’t I meet them then?” Nikki asked. She had gone to that ceremony, too. And she definitely would have remembered Lars Ecklund if they’d ever met before.
Logan shrugged. But she knew her brothers had always worked hard to protect her. That was why she hadn’t told Cooper about that kiss. If she’d said anything, he would have fired Lars despite their apparently long friendship.
Maybe that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, though. She hadn’t been thrilled when he’d hired those guys. But she was realistic enough to know that it didn’t matter. Even if he hadn’t hired them, he wouldn’t have let her do actual field work. Just like Logan, he’d never had any intention of letting her risk her life to protect someone else.
An image of that baby flashed through her mind. He was so small, so vulnerable. If someone was really after him, he needed protection more than anyone else. Usually Nikki shied away from babies. She didn’t like the squalling or the smell. She wasn’t like Candace; she didn’t want any of her own. Ever. She had no maternal instincts at all.
But she had bodyguard instincts, and they had kicked in in that nursery. For some reason—whether it was for ransom like the lawyer thought or something else—someone was after that kid. Nikki just couldn’t imagine why.
But she intended to find out.
Logan wasn’t going to give her a franchise of her own. Cooper wasn’t going to give her field work. So she had to do what she did best. She would investigate. First she’d go over that surveillance footage again. Maybe she could enhance it more and get a better image of the intruders from the other night. Or she could go back farther and determine if anyone had been casing the place.
She could also look into Myron Webber and find out why someone might go to so much trouble to get to him. The guy wasn’t being completely honest with them. But then Nikki wasn’t surprised. She’d learned that people were rarely ever completely honest.
Like Lars Ecklund…
There was something going on with him, too. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks. Maybe that was because of PTSD. Then in the nursery, something else had come over him—maybe a flashback or something—because he’d looked devastated. So devastated that she hadn’t been able to stop herself from reaching out to him, from offering comfort…
But why had he needed it? What the hell was the deal with Lars Ecklund? Maybe that was another mystery she needed to solve. Maybe she needed to investigate him, too.
*
“So here’s the plan…” Cooper’s words echoed the ones Lars had uttered just a short while ago. But the similarities ended there. Cooper laid out a course of action to prevent a kidnapping.
Lars had laid out one to carry out a kidnapping. Unfortunately Cooper’s plan was going to make his a hell of a lot harder to pull off.
He exchanged a quick glance with Dane, who sat across the conference table from him. His friend knew it, too—that they would now have to adjust their plan if they had any hope of carrying it out.
But Lars couldn’t fail, not again. He had already lost Emilia. He was damn well not going to lose her son, too.
“The cameras aren’t good enough,” said the person who had suggested all the extra ones.
Lars’s attention moved down the table to Nikki now. He should have been mad at her. She was the one who’d pointed out all the places on the estate that needed more surveillance coverage. When it came to protection, she knew what she was doing.
She was observant. She’d proven that when she’d touched his hand in the nursery. Despite his best effort to hide his feelings, she’d known something was wrong.
Just like now…
She kept staring at him. He felt her gaze boring through him, as if she were trying to see inside his head. Or his soul…
“She’s right,” Lars forced himself to chime into the discussion. This part of his plan had to work. “You need a guard inside the nursery.”
“That—that’s what I was going to say,” Nikki sputtered.
Lars forced a grin. But the muscles in his face—as tense as he was everywhere—ached as he curved his lips. “Great minds…”
Her mind wasn’t the only thing great about Nikki Payne. She had a great body, too�
��small but curvy. And her lips…
Instead of curving up, hers lowered, and her eyes narrowed as she stared at him. She was definitely trying to figure him out.
He couldn’t have that. He couldn’t have her figuring out his plan before he had a chance to carry it out.
“Why?” Manny asked the question. “We don’t know that someone is really after that kid.”
They hadn’t been. But they were now since Lars knew his nephew existed.
Manny continued, “Isn’t it more likely they’re after art or money?”
Cooper shook his head. “Webber doesn’t have a whole lot of anything inside that house.”
Lars remembered the vast expanses of white walls and marble floors. It had been cold and sterile and almost eerily empty, as if he was ready should he ever need to make a fast getaway.
He glanced at Dane again. They didn’t have much time.
Cole chuckled. “Even rich people can be cheap,” he said. And he would know. Although nothing about his blue jeans and T-shirt attire suggested it, Cole Bentler came from money. “He’s probably got it all stashed in the bank.”
“And the only way someone can get to it would be kidnapping his kid,” Cooper said.
Lars swallowed his protest. That baby did not belong to Myron Webber. The little boy was an Ecklund, through and through.
“That’s why you need a guard with the baby at all times,” Nikki said.
Cooper nodded. “True.” He glanced around the table at the four huge guys and one woman. “Who wants babysitting duty?”
It had to be obvious to him. But of course he wouldn’t have considered it because he didn’t want his sister in danger. Neither did Lars. And he would do his best to protect her. But he needed her. Or his plan was not going to work.
“It has to be Nikki,” Lars said.
Down the table Nikki tensed. But she said nothing. He couldn’t tell if he’d offended her again or not.
But Cooper laughed. “Just because she’s the only woman?”
