Nanny Bodyguard

by Lisa Childs

  “And thank you for rallying everyone together to help,” he said. He wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t be too late, but he at least knew that they would find his sister.

  “I didn’t do it for you,” she said, her voice cold. “I’m doing it for Emilia. And for Blue.” Then she tugged free of his grasp and walked away.

  And he knew that even if everything came out as they’d planned, that if they rescued all of his family, he would still have lost.

  Nikki…

  *

  Cooper had returned from Logan’s office to find his occupied. A man had made himself alarmingly comfortable in the chair behind his desk—one he was certain Myron Webber had already searched. Good thing they’d held the meeting at Logan’s.

  Keeping his voice even, he calmly asked, “Did we have a meeting?”

  “No,” Myron said. “But we should have.”

  “I was going to call you with an update,” Cooper said. That had been part of Nikki’s plan.

  The lawyer stood up and slapped a check down on the desktop. “It’s not necessary. I no longer require the services of the Payne Protection Agency.”

  Cooper hadn’t wanted this job in the first place—not once he’d met the lawyer and realized how untrustworthy he was. But he’d had no idea of what he was capable.

  Nikki had DNA evidence. But still they couldn’t call the police. They’d had no court order to get that DNA. It would only get Nikki in trouble for taking it illegally. So they might as well take the child illegally, too. They had to get him away from this monster.

  “You can call off the guards you currently have on the estate,” the lawyer continued.

  Obviously they had refused to listen to him. Like he’d said in the conference room, all of Payne Protection was family—by blood or loyalty.

  Cooper didn’t even look at the check. “You may want to keep that,” he said. “I have some information you’re going to want to hear.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Because he thought his guys had killed Lars?

  Or because he’d already killed Emilia?

  Cooper suppressed a shudder of revulsion. He didn’t even like having the guy in his office. He definitely needed to hire more staff—to get a receptionist in here—someone big and burly who would keep out the unsavory characters like him.

  But right now Cooper wanted to keep him from leaving. He didn’t possess the finesse of his brothers, though. Logan and Parker would have been able to sweet-talk the guy into staying.

  “It’s all a moot point,” Webber continued. “I found a family for the boy. I won’t need any protection at the estate anymore.” He headed toward the door but turned back. “I may even sell it and move.”

  “Where?” Cooper asked.

  “Anywhere.” The lawyer shrugged. “There’s really nothing keeping me in River City anymore.”

  An arrest warrant would, but first they needed the evidence in order for the prosecutor to issue one. Fortunately she was family, too—Milek Kozminski’s wife. So she might overlook how they had obtained some of that evidence.

  Unfortunately Myron was a lawyer, too, and while he didn’t abide by the law, he was undoubtedly well-versed in his legal rights. And he would know that the Payne Protection Agency had violated them.

  “What’s this?” a female voice asked.

  He and Webber both turned toward the doorway where Nikki stood. She must have left the meeting right after Cooper had.

  “You’re leaving town?” Nikki asked the question, and somehow she managed to sound disappointed. But then she would be if the plan she had just spelled out failed.

  She cared about Lars’s nephew. Sadly she cared about Lars, too.

  With a big smile, Myron turned toward Nikki. “Would that bother you?” he asked. “If I left town?”

  “Of course,” she said. “I’m sure you want to celebrate with us before you do that, though.”

  “Celebrate?”

  She glanced at Cooper, who shook his head. “My brother didn’t tell you?”

  Because Myron hadn’t given him a chance.

  “We figured out who was after the baby,” she said.

  His face paled slightly. “You—you did?”

  “Lars Ecklund,” she replied. “He was a former Marine.”

  “What—what would he have wanted with a baby?”

  She shrugged. “He’s a mercenary. Someone must have hired him to take the child. We haven’t figured that out yet. Until we do, we’ll need to stick close to the little guy.”

  “But—but I found him a family…”

  Nikki’s face paled now, and her body tensed. “Have they taken him already?”

  “No,” he admitted. “They’re coming in from another country.”

  “And of course the court will have to approve the adoption,” Cooper said. “That’s what my wife—the social worker—has taught me. But you already know that.”

  Webber’s face flushed now. “Of course.”

  “So until they can take him,” Nikki said, “you will want us to keep him safe, until we can determine who Ecklund was working for…”

  “So he’s been arrested?”

  “He’s been killed,” Nikki said. “A couple of other men died, as well. But they haven’t been identified yet.”

  “Oh—oh, they haven’t?”

  She shook her head. “And with the backlog the coroner has…” She shrugged. “We may not know that for a while. I suspect they may have been working with Ecklund.”

  “Uh, there are a couple of guards who didn’t show up today,” Myron admitted.

  Cooper nodded and reminded him, “I wanted to bring in my own staff because I figured the earlier attempt was an inside job.”

  “What about this Ecklund?” Webber asked. “Did you know him?”

  Cooper sighed. “I knew he was a mess, so I’m not surprised. A lot of former Marines become mercenaries. That’s why we worked our plan to flush him out.”

  “That was your plan?”

  Cooper nodded. “Of course…”

  “It would have been better if he’d been taken alive,” Nikki said. “We might never find out who he was working for.”

  The lawyer couldn’t contain a slight smile.

  And Nikki couldn’t contain a slight shiver of revulsion.

  Cooper wanted to step between her and the sleazy attorney. He wanted to protect her because his instincts were still screaming at him that something bad was going to happen to his sister.

  But he didn’t even need instincts to know that she was in danger. All he had to see was the way Myron Webber looked at her—the same way Lars Ecklund had.

  Whether she would allow it or not, Nikki needed protection. Or that something bad was definitely going to happen to her. Cooper just wasn’t sure which man would hurt her worse.

  Chapter 17

  “You’re a dead man, Lars Ecklund,” Nikki said as she slid the police report onto the table in front of him.

  He jumped as if the sound of her voice had startled him. Hadn’t he seen her walk into the room?

  His head had been down. Maybe he’d fallen asleep in the silence. Everyone else had left Logan’s conference room but Lars. He hadn’t been allowed. They hadn’t wanted to take the chance that someone might see him. The sun hadn’t risen yet when he’d arrived, but it was midmorning now.

  He glanced down at the report. “Three casualties,” he read. He shuddered as he read his own name. “I bet you liked seeing that.”

  She hadn’t been very nice to him earlier. But she’d been angry—still was—over his protecting her. “I saved you last night,” she reminded him.

  He sighed. “I know. I should have thanked you for that, too, this morning.”

  “That’s not why I like seeing your name on this report,” she said. “Even though I think he bought it, Myron Webber is going to check out what I told him.” He was too thorough—and too suspicious—not to pull a copy of the report. So it was a good thing that last nigh
t she had convinced Nick to file a fake one.

  Lars tensed. “You’ve seen him?”

  “Yes, just a little while ago in Cooper’s office,” she said. “He was trying to fire us.”

  He sprang up from his chair then, cursing. And with a slight limp, he headed toward the door.

  She easily caught up with him and stepped between him and the door she’d closed when she’d joined him. “I talked him out of it,” she assured him. “We have time.”

  She wasn’t so sure about Emilia, though—not after she’d seen that sinister little smile on the lawyer’s face when he’d thought Lars was dead and that no one would ever find out about Emilia.

  He wouldn’t have been as convinced of that if she was still alive. A pang of regret struck Nikki’s heart. Maybe she shouldn’t have worked so hard to convince Lars that his sister might not be dead.

  “I know,” he said, and his fingers skimmed across her cheek. “Emilia might not have any time…”

  Tears stung her eyes. She had wanted to believe there was a chance. For Blue. And for Lars. She’d wanted him to believe there was a chance. She couldn’t imagine losing one of her siblings, even though she had come close so many times.

  A couple of those times she had nearly taken out Nick herself.

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

  “I’m sorry, too,” he said.

  Of course he would be but she suspected he wasn’t talking about Emilia.

  “I’m not even sure which thing I’ve done that made you most angry,” he said.

  A smile tugged at her lips. “There have been so many…”

  He didn’t argue with her, only nodded in agreement. “Which is it, Nikki?” he asked. “Why are you so mad at me?”

  She slammed her hand against his shoulder, ignoring the twinge as pain shot down her arm from her wounded shoulder. It was only a scratch, though.

  It might have been worse if Lars hadn’t shot that second man. And she hadn’t thanked him yet. She hadn’t even checked on him last night. But she hadn’t left the hospital until she’d been assured that he was all right.

  “Are you this mad about last night?” he asked.

  “Of course…” But even she was beginning to realize she might have been unreasonable.

  “Do you regret…what we did?” he asked.

  “We?” she repeated. If she hadn’t done what she had, he would probably really be dead. Then she realized what he was referring to, and she laughed. “I don’t regret that…”

  She’d never felt so much pleasure—had never had as phenomenal an experience.

  “So you got it out of your system now?” he asked. And he stepped closer to her, trapping her between his body and the door at her back. He pressed against her, and she could feel his erection pushing against his fly and her ribs. He was so damn big.

  She moved back, but the door stopped her. “I could drop you,” she reminded him.

  “You could,” he readily agreed. “But do you really want to hurt me?”

  She shook her head. That was why she hoped she was wrong about Emilia. She hoped she was still alive.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, either,” he said. “I’m sorry if I did.”

  She blinked again, but that threat of tears wasn’t for herself. She must have been thinking about Emilia yet. “You didn’t hurt me,” she assured him. “You made me mad.”

  “I pissed you off,” he said. “How?”

  “Because you tried to protect me.”

  “I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

  “I won’t,” she said. “I can take care of myself. I thought you believed that.”

  He nodded. “I know you can take care of yourself,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t want to take care of you, too.”

  Something about the way he said it, as he touched her again, skimming his fingers along her jaw, had her thinking he wasn’t talking about just protecting her from a barrage of bullets.

  He wanted to take care of her another way. Her pulse quickened, and her breathing grew shallow. She wanted him to take care of her, too. That way…

  His pale eyes darkened as the pupils dilated. And he murmured, “If this wasn’t your brother’s office…”

  “Everyone’s gone,” she assured him. “You and I are the only ones here.”

  “You know what I want…”

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “You.”

  She reached up and tugged his head down so that his lips brushed across hers. Then she invited him to, “Take me…”

  He lifted his head and tilted it as if listening to make sure they were alone. Then he reached behind her and locked the door. He didn’t give her time to undress herself. His hands were everywhere, tugging up her sweater, pushing down her jeans. He touched everything he exposed—her breasts, her hips, her ass…

  He slid his hands over her curves before lifting her against him. He’d freed himself from his jeans and sheathed himself in a condom. Then he slid inside her.

  A moan slipped from her throat and she tossed her head back, knocking it against the door. They both tensed, waiting for someone to call out. But no one had returned yet. They were still all out searching for Emilia.

  It had to be killing him that he couldn’t. That he was stuck here. He was probably only killing time with her. And really she was fine with that. She didn’t want him to actually care about her.

  She just wanted him, almost obsessively. The night before hadn’t even taken the edge off the madness that spiraled inside her with the tension. She wanted him more now than she had last night—because now she knew how amazing it was.

  She clutched at him, her legs wrapped around his waist and her inner muscles squeezing and holding him deep. He groaned as he moved, thrusting up. And his hands gripped her hips, sliding her up and down the length of his erection.

  He moved one hand between them and teased her nipple to a sensitive point. She bit her lip to hold in a cry. It wouldn’t matter how far away her brothers were. If they heard that, they’d come running to help.

  She didn’t need help.

  She just needed Lars.

  She grasped his shoulders and slid her hands down his bulging arms. He was magnificent in every way. That tension built even more until she shattered, coming. He thrust again and again so her orgasm went on and on. Then he tensed. And biting his lip, he came, his big body shuddering as his release crashed over him.

  His legs trembled a bit beneath both their weights. So she eased up and off him. Her knees barely locked as her feet hit the ground. She might have fallen had he not steadied her with a hand on her shoulder.

  But he’d touched the wounded one. And she cried out now—just softly—at the pain.

  And Lars cursed with regret over her getting hurt and over hurting her.

  She’d gotten mad at him for trying to protect her. But the irony was that he’d failed anyway. He hadn’t protected her. She had still been hit. Maybe not as badly as she would have been had he not been there.

  But if he hadn’t been there, no one would have been firing at her. He pulled his hand away from her wounded shoulder and cursed again. “I’m sorry.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she stared up at him. “You think this is your fault?”

  “Those men were after me,” he reminded her. “You just got caught in the crossfire.”

  “No, I didn’t,” she said, “because you shoved me behind you.”

  And that was why she was mad. His own frustration bubbled up now. “I wasn’t going to let you get shot.”

  “I took the guy down,” she reminded him. “I’m a damn good shot.”

  She had proven that last night, just like she’d proven she was an amazing lover.

  “Do you think last night was the first time I’ve been shot at?” she asked then snorted at his expression.

  He must have looked as appalled as he was. “You’ve been shot at before?”

  She nodded. “Several times. And even w
ithout you around, I survived every damn time. You don’t have to take care of me.”

  “I see that…” And if he tried, he would lose her for certain. But these men, these killers Webber had hired to do his dirty work, were especially dangerous. If he didn’t protect her, he would probably lose her, too.

  Of course she had never really been his to lose.

  She released a shaky breath as if they had settled an argument.

  But he hadn’t made any promises. If they were put in the same situation again, he would do the same thing. He would try to protect her from getting hurt. She would hate him for it. But he couldn’t help it. He loved her, and he would give up anything for her—even his life.

  His cell rang. But when he reached for it, her hand closed over his. “You can’t,” she told him. “Dead men don’t answer their phones.”

  He held it out to her. “Then you answer it.”

  When she took it, she glanced down at the number and gasped. Then she pressed the accept button and addressed the caller by name. “Nick?”

  She turned toward him. “Yes, he’s here…” And she handed the phone over to him.

  “Hello?” He’d seen the man the night before, but they hadn’t met. So he didn’t address him by name.

  “Lars Ecklund?”

  “Yes.” The man had called him. Of course he knew who he was.

  “A few days ago you were asking around the morgue about a body,” Nick said. “The coroner just called me. One has shown up that matches the description you gave him.”

  He sucked in a breath and doubled over as if he’d been struck. And Nikki took the phone from his loose grasp.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  She must have put Nick on speaker now because he could hear her brother’s reply. “No. I’m not sure. That’s why I need someone to ID the body.”

  Lars forced himself to straighten up and turned for the door. But Nikki grabbed his arm, holding him back. “You can’t leave,” she protested. “You can’t go down there.”

  “If she’s dead, what the hell does it matter?”

  “Blue,” she said. “We’ll lose our chance to get Blue away from that sleazeball.”

  Sleazeball was the least of what Webber was. He was a thief and a killer.