by Lisa Childs
As night fell, that eerie feeling increased. To keep Blue resting peacefully, she had to turn down the lights, but then the shadows encroached. No light even shone beneath the door. Had the lights been switched off in the hall?
Someone was supposed to be outside the door, guarding the nursery from outside the room. The day before it had been Lars, but Cooper had brought him back to the office. And as far as she knew, he hadn’t returned.
Had he fired him? Just over the kiss?
Or did he believe, like she did, that something else was going on with Lars?
He had been visibly upset—at least to her—when he’d learned the baby’s mother was dead. Because he’d been involved with her? He must have gotten her pregnant before he’d deployed. Maybe he hadn’t known about the baby. Maybe that was why he’d looked so shocked when he’d seen the infant.
Or had she only imagined his reactions? She wasn’t as intuitive as her mom and Nick. She couldn’t trust her instincts. She needed facts.
But she hadn’t been able to find anything online. Sure, there had been complaints about the lawyer. She’d found those—a lot of those. At least her instincts about him had been right. But none of those complaints had involved Blue. If his mother was alive, she wasn’t trying to get him back. Maybe she’d given him up willingly.
A twinge of pain struck Nikki’s heart.
Poor little guy…
He deserved to be loved. And protected…
The floor creaked in the hall. Then the doorknob rattled and began to turn.
“Who’s there?” she called out as she reached for her holster. But she hesitated before drawing her weapon. She would prefer to not have to fire a gun around the baby. During her last gun battle, an innocent man had gotten caught in the crossfire.
Woodrow Lynch had nearly died. Nikki shuddered at the thought. Her mother would have been devastated, and she’d already lost too much.
If something happened to Blue, Nikki would be the one devastated. She couldn’t risk it. Couldn’t risk something happening to the baby. At the very least the noise of the gun firing might shatter his sensitive eardrums. She couldn’t risk his safety. She would rather risk her own.
As the door opened, she could see nothing. The faint light she’d had on in the nursery was suddenly extinguished. She saw only an enormous shadow barreling straight toward her.
“Who are you?” she demanded to know again.
And again, there was no reply.
So she drew in a deep breath and recalled everything Candace had taught her. Keeping low, she charged at the shadow. She might wind up getting every bone in her body broken, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight.
One hell of a fight…
*
All the breath escaped Lars’s lungs as he flopped—hard—onto his back on the floor. What the hell had hit him?
Before he could regain his feet, a foot struck him right in his most sensitive area. And a groan of pain followed the breath from his lips. Then he cursed.
“Lars!” Nikki exclaimed. She must have recognized his voice because it was still black.
Then the lights flipped on again. He hadn’t thought he would need much time to overpower Nikki and grab the baby. Or he would have told Dane to wait longer before he threw the circuit breaker back on. He hadn’t told him long enough. He had underestimated the time he would need to get his nephew, and more important, he’d underestimated Nikki.
She stood over him, her curls glowing in that light. Her breasts heaved as she breathed heavily. She was so damn beautiful.
But her brow furrowed as she glared down at him. “What the hell are you doing?”
Unable to speak yet with the pain in his groin crippling him, he could only shake his head.
Then someone else echoed her question as the door burst open. “What the hell’s going on in here?” Cooper demanded.
Lars fought to regain his breath and his voice. He needed to come up with something—some explanation. Or he would be fired right now. Or worse…
He would have killed to protect Emilia if he’d been given the chance. He fully expected Coop to do the same for his sister.
But Nikki answered before he could come up with an excuse. “I was just showing Lars some of the maneuvers Candace taught me.”
“Candace is here now,” Cooper said. “She’s going to relieve you.”
Lars wondered if that might not be indefinitely.
Nikki must have thought the same thing because she waved a hand down at Lars lying prone on the floor yet. He would move when all his muscles stopped aching.
“Haven’t I proved that I can handle this job?” she asked.
“Yes,” her brother assured her. “She’s relieving you because you already worked one shift.” He glanced down at Lars. “What are you doing here?”
“My perimeter shift just ended,” Lars reminded him.
“Exactly. What are you doing in the house?”
“Checking to see if I was done yet,” Nikki answered for him.
Cooper tensed now. “What—the two of you have plans?”
“Yes,” Nikki answered again.
Maybe she was trying to get him killed. Telling Cooper the truth might have had fewer consequences than telling him they were going on a date.
Trying to play along with the excuse she’d given him, Lars said, “I’m going to show her some more maneuvers.”
Like his sister had moments before, Cooper glared down at him.
And heat rushed to Lars’s face. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Since he recommended me for this position, he wanted to make sure I can handle it,” Nikki said, jumping in with another explanation.
Cooper gestured at Lars lying on the floor. “Looks like you proved that.”
Lars couldn’t believe how quickly she’d taken him down. He’d thought he would take her by surprise, get her gun away from her, zip-tie her hands and take the child. But she’d taken him by surprise barreling at him like she had, taking him down at his knees.
“What’s going on?” a female voice asked.
“Just showing the boys what you taught me,” Nikki said with a chuckle.
The tall brunette must have been the infamous female bodyguard, Candace Baker-Kozminski. She laughed, too. “I see that. Nice job.”
Before the discussion could go any further, the baby began to cry. The tussle hadn’t awakened him but all the conversation must have. Nikki moved automatically toward the crib and his nephew, lifting him into her arms.
Candace cooed at the baby as she joined her friend.
A hand extended toward Lars. He wasn’t sure if it was going to hit him or help him. But he took it, and Cooper tugged him to his feet.
“I’m the boss,” Coop said, but then winced and murmured, “Now I sound like my brother Logan.”
“You do,” Nikki agreed even though she’d been in midconversation with Candace, telling her all about Blue the way a parent would fill in a babysitter.
Lars lost his breath for a moment. That was what he’d called Emilia when she was a baby—Baby Blue because like him, she had the Ecklund pale blue eyes.
Cooper’s hand tightened like a vise on his, squeezing painfully until Lars flinched and focused on him again. “I know, I know,” he assured his boss. “You’re the one in charge.”
“Then what the hell were you doing testing my employee?”
Lars suspected he wouldn’t have minded had Nikki been any employee but his sister. “Helping out a coworker?” he asked the question.
This was Nikki’s story, not his. He hadn’t planned on failing in his mission. So he hadn’t come up with any excuses to use if he was caught.
Damn her. He should have been furious with her.
She was obviously furious with him. Her face was flushed and her usually warm eyes were dark and hard. So why hadn’t she given him up to her brother? Why was she making the excuses he was too befuddled to make?
How the hell had she—who was
all petite and delicate—easily overpowered him? She’d messed up his plan. Instead of taking his nephew, he could only watch as Candace took the infant from Nikki and snuggled him against her chest. Lars should have been the one cradling him close as he got him the hell off the estate.
Damn Nikki…
Before Cooper could interrogate him any further, she grabbed his arm and tugged him toward the door. “Shift’s over,” she told her brother. “You don’t want us getting overly tired, so that we’re not alert for our next shift.”
That was why Lars had decided to stage the abduction at the end of her shift. He’d thought she would have been tired. But not Nikki.
It was almost as if she’d expected him, as if she knew what he was up to. Had one of the other guys given him up and warned her about him? Or did she have that thing she claimed only her mother and one brother had?
Had she just known?
*
Teeth chattering, Emilia wrapped her arms around her body, but there was no warmth to hold in. She was chilled to the bone. But maybe it wasn’t the cold making her shake. Maybe it was the fear. It was paralyzing her.
She knew she had to rally and fight if she had any hope of surviving. The next time that door opened, she had to be ready to run. She rolled off the damp mattress until her knees scraped over concrete. Then she put her palms on the ground and pushed up. Her legs shook, refusing to hold her weight.
Weeks had passed since she’d had her baby. Why hadn’t she regained her strength? Was it because she’d lost so much blood? Her teeth chattered more, and her trembling increased. She was freezing, but as her arms and legs folded beneath her, her forehead touched the back of her hand and she realized she was burning up. She was sick. She needed help. She tried to scream for it, but only a whimper escaped her lips.
She must have blacked out for a moment because she never heard the door open but someone touched her, dragging her back onto the mattress.
“Wake up!” The words were shouted at her, and a hand grasped her chin, shaking it from side to side until she dragged up her eyelids and focused on the face in front of her.
Dark, soulless eyes stared back at her.
She shivered.
The devil asked, “Who the hell are you?”
“You know who I am.”
“Nobody,” he said. “I thought you were nobody.”
What little she could remember of her meeting with this lawyer had been questions regarding her family, her friends. She’d told him she had nobody because Lars had been gone. And she hadn’t wanted him to know how she’d let him down, that she’d gotten pregnant.
“I am,” she whispered.
“Then why would somebody be looking for you?”
Her pulse, that had been so thready and weak, quickened. “How do you know?”
“I think he tried calling me,” the lawyer admitted. “At least someone did, saying that they had questions about you, but I wouldn’t take the call.”
Of course he wouldn’t want to talk to Lars.
“Apparently that didn’t stop him. I have a friend at the morgue.”
She shuddered over the reason why he might because he provided bodies to it. He was definitely going to kill her.
“A big guy came by asking about a woman, who would have recently given birth, fitting your description.”
A big guy. Could it be…?
“The guy had the same coloring he described—yours. Who the hell is he?”
“My brother,” she murmured.
His fingers pinched her chin, squeezing hard. “You told me you had no family.”
Tears sprang to her eyes, both of pain and relief. “He’s a Marine. I didn’t know that he had survived his last deployment.”
Especially when he hadn’t found her yet.
But he was looking.
“That’s too bad,” the lawyer remarked, and his fingers slid away from her face.
Her eyes widened in shock. How could he say that was a bad thing? “Why?”
“Because he survived war only to die at home.”
“You didn’t—you aren’t—going to kill him?”
“I can’t have anyone asking questions about you,” he said. “I can’t have anyone getting suspicious of me.”
She had been the minute she’d met him. If only she hadn’t set up that meeting…
If only she had never considered giving up her baby…
It was all her fault, what had happened to her, what had happened to her child. And now Lars. He had survived war. He could survive anything, couldn’t he? She already felt so much guilt over losing her baby. She could not lose her brother, too.
Chapter 12
“I should kill you,” Nikki threatened as she slammed the door shut to the home to which Lars had led her. He must have just rented it because it had been like he hadn’t known where it was.
He had driven such a circuitous route to it. Or maybe he’d just been trying to lose her. But thanks to Garek Kozminski’s tutelage, she’d gotten good at tailing someone—so good that Lars hadn’t been able to shake her.
He rubbed his hand around the back of his neck and arched his back until it cracked. Then he ruefully remarked, “I thought you were going to kill me.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t pull my gun and shoot you.” If she hadn’t been worried about hitting Blue in the crossfire or bursting his little eardrums, she might have killed Lars. She trembled over the realization—or maybe that was just the adrenaline coursing through her yet.
“I’m lucky you didn’t give me up to Cooper,” he said as if her shooting him wouldn’t have necessarily been a bad thing.
And maybe it wouldn’t have been. Of course he didn’t know how good a shot she was.
“Why didn’t you tell Cooper the truth?” he asked. “Why did you cover for me?”
“Because I’m giving you a chance to explain what the hell you’re up to.” That was why she had insisted on following him back to his house.
He must have just rented the little bungalow. It was nearly as stark as Webber’s mansion, the white walls and wood floors bare. There wasn’t even any furniture, only a couple of boxes leaning against one of the living room walls.
He shook his head. “I can’t.”
She pushed past him in the small foyer and walked over to those boxes. He followed her quickly as if to stop her, but she already saw what she’d expected to see: confirmation of her suspicion.
Her heart pounding, she pointed to the box with a picture of a crib on the outside of it. “I knew it! Blue is yours.”
He shook his head again.
The baby was his. Why wouldn’t he admit it? And why the hell had he been flirting with her when he had a woman out there, someone who’d given him a baby? Of course he didn’t know that she could still be alive.
But he must have cared about her—a lot—since he’d looked so devastated when the lawyer had claimed the baby’s mother died in childbirth.
Nikki could have eased some of his pain. But she wouldn’t share her information—unless he shared his. Maybe that was spiteful, but that wasn’t the only emotion making her feel nausea. She was jealous, too—jealous of the woman with whom he’d made such a beautiful baby, jealous of how much he’d cared about her…
“I gave you a chance to be honest with me,” she said. Not that she trusted him to tell her the truth. How could she?
He had obviously been using her, setting her up as the bodyguard because he’d thought he could overpower her. And the kisses, those must have been just to distract her. He was a son of a bitch, and she should have given him up in the nursery. She couldn’t even look at him anymore, so she headed back to the foyer and the door.
“Where are you going?” he called after her.
“To tell Cooper everything.” And hope he forgave her for not being immediately forthcoming. She had wanted to give Lars a chance to explain first, but he clearly had no intention of doing any such thing.
Maybe it just wasn’
t in him to be honest. It was a good thing they’d never gone beyond kisses.
She reached for the knob, but before she could turn it to escape, he grabbed her. He had moved quickly and silently; she hadn’t even heard his footsteps crossing the wood floor.
Her pulse quickened as adrenaline coursed through her again. She moved to fight him off, like she had in the nursery. But now he anticipated her maneuver and trapped her leg between his thighs. Then he wrapped his arms tightly around her struggling body, holding her against the long, hard length of his.
Through their clothes, she could feel his heat. And his power…
He was so damn big. So damn strong.
She couldn’t move. She could only speak, so she said it again, “He’s your son, isn’t he? How the hell can you keep denying him?”
He just stared down at her, unwilling to share. But he must have been stunned, so stunned that his grasp loosened. She tugged easily free of him and reached for the doorknob again. She didn’t hesitate this time; she turned it.
*
Lars had thought it was over back at the estate, that once Nikki had knocked him down and the lights had come on that he’d lost his chance forever to claim his nephew. He’d thought that at the very least Cooper would fire him; at the most he might have had him arrested. But Nikki had given him time—time to come clean with her.
Maybe he could trust her. The door opened. Hell, he had no choice. He had to trust her. And she was right. He couldn’t keep denying his blood—his family. His only family…
“He’s my nephew.”
She gasped and turned back toward him. “Nephew?” she asked, almost hopefully.
He nodded.
“Is that why you wanted to work for Cooper?”
“I didn’t know about Blue,” he said, using her nickname for the baby. “I had no idea Emilia was even pregnant when I deployed. I just knew my sister was missing and the last person she had talked to was Myron Webber.”
“Son of a bitch,” Nikki murmured.
Lars didn’t know if she was referring to the lawyer or to him. Did she think he was lying? That he’d made up the story? Or did she believe him?
