Nanny Bodyguard

by Lisa Childs

  “I will pretend I didn’t hear that,” the FBI agent said. “And because dead men can’t ID bodies, I need someone else to do it.”

  Nikki turned toward Lars. “Do you have a picture of her? I’ll do it,” she offered.

  He shook his head as realization dawned on him. The timing of the body showing up now seemed a little suspicious. “It could be a trap.”

  Nick’s curse carried loudly through the phone. “He’s right.”

  She nodded in agreement. “I wouldn’t put it past Webber. That’s why you can’t go, Lars,” she said. “But it doesn’t stop me.”

  “He’ll figure out that you know about Emilia,” he pointed out. “Then we’ll never get the chance to take Blue.”

  “Again—not hearing…” The lawman began to hum.

  He really wanted to meet Nick now. But he and Nikki were right. Lars couldn’t go down to the morgue, not yet. If it was Emilia…

  He would have to wait to claim her body until after he’d rescued her son.

  “Dane can go,” he said. “I sent him a photo of Emilia. He already has it on his phone.”

  “I’ll call him,” Nikki offered. She hung up on her brother and dialed Dane.

  He didn’t want to talk to his friend. He didn’t want to talk at all. It had been exhausting sitting here all morning while everyone else went out, searching for his sister. He’d suspected even then that all their searching would be for naught.

  He’d gotten exhausted waiting for news and waiting for the time when they could go back to the estate and rescue his nephew.

  Nikki’s return had brought him back to life, the desire for her giving him energy. But now that was gone…

  And he dropped back onto the chair he’d been sitting on at the conference table. Her conversation with Dane was just a low hum in the background as that exhaustion overwhelmed him.

  Slender arms locked around his shoulders, and soft curls brushed his cheek as Nikki hugged him from behind where he sat at the table. She must have concluded her conversation with Dane.

  Pressing her lips to his ear, she murmured, “I’m sorry…”

  He was, too, because he knew now that there was no way he could risk losing her. Not after he’d already lost Emilia. He would be even more overprotective than her brothers were.

  *

  Dane had been to a morgue before. So it shouldn’t bother him now. He’d identified friends at makeshift morgues on the battlefield. He’d even identified his adoptive parents after they’d died in a horrible car accident. He had been tense then, nervous of what he might find.

  Of what he might see…

  Which made sense because he still sometimes saw it—when he closed his eyes. He didn’t want that image—of a dead body—to be the one he remembered of Emilia Ecklund.

  Standing in the dimly lit hallway outside the door marked morgue, he hesitated and looked down at his phone. She stared up at him from the picture Lars had sent him, her light blue eyes sparkling with the smile that curved her lips. Her hair, such a pale blond, streamed behind her as if she were running toward him.

  Every time he looked at that photo he imagined that she was. That she was running toward him with her arms outstretched like that scene in every damn romantic movie he’d ever watched with whatever woman he’d been dating at the time. He couldn’t remember their faces—like he could Emilia’s. He blinked and glanced down and his phone had gone dark, just like that romantic notion.

  He snorted disparagingly at himself. Him and romance? That was ridiculous. He didn’t want that, didn’t want the family entanglements his friends had.

  It was better to be like him—to be a loner. Then he would never have to go down to the morgue to identify someone he loved.

  Drawing in a deep breath, he pushed open the door and stepped into the morgue. “Special Agent Payne sent me.”

  The guy just stared at him.

  Then he remembered what the lawman had told him—that he’d just changed his name to that of his family. “Rus,” Dane said. “Agent Rus.”

  The older man nodded. “That’s right. He’s Agent Payne now.” He studied Dane for a moment. “You don’t look familiar. Are you one of his officers or agents?”

  “Does it matter?” Dane asked. “He sent me to identify a body.”

  “But how can you do that?” the guy asked. “Are you her next of kin?”

  Dane snorted. “I have no next of kin.”

  “Then how do you know her?”

  Nick had warned him that this could be a trap—the body turning up to lure Lars down to the morgue. They’d thought that someone could be waiting outside the police department. Now Dane realized that one of them could be inside…

  Was that how Webber had known Lars was looking for his sister?

  He studied the guy and moved a little closer. The coroner was an older man of smaller stature, much smaller than Dane’s. The guy’s throat moved as he visibly struggled to swallow.

  “Do you even have a body to show me?” Dane asked.

  “Of—of course,” the doctor nervously stammered.

  Dane sighed. “Whatever he’s paying you…”

  “Wh-who?” His face flushed, and he glanced away from Dane, unable to meet his gaze.

  Dane just shook his head. He wasn’t a detective. He wasn’t going to interrogate the guy. But he would make sure that Nicholas Payne did. He doubted anybody could keep secrets from that man. During their short meeting, he’d felt like the FBI agent had been able to see right to his soul, which had ached with loss.

  For his friend. If Emilia was dead, it was Lars’s loss, not Dane’s. He’d never even met her.

  And he might not have the chance. “Show me the body,” he said, hoping the entire thing had been just a trap to lure Lars down to the morgue.

  Metal whined as the coroner pulled open one of the steel drawers that lined a wall of the tiled room. Even before the doctor pulled back the sheet, Dane saw the pale blond hair streaming out from beneath it. And his guts tightened with dread.

  She was dead…

  Chapter 18

  Knowing how she would have felt—how she had felt—every time she had been forced to wait to learn the fate of one of her siblings, Nikki had given Lars something to keep him busy. She’d brought him from the conference room to the video room. But even though he was busy, watching all the surveillance footage from the estate, his mind was no doubt still on his sister—still worrying that it would be Emilia’s body Dane identified down at the morgue.

  Nikki was worried. She didn’t want Lars to lose his sister or for Blue to lose his mother. And selfishly she’d wanted to meet the young woman, too. She had wanted to get to know the woman who’d driven her brother to such lengths to protect her.

  To save her…

  That he had lied to his friends. That he’d used Nikki.

  Because she didn’t think he was that kind of man. She believed Cooper, that Lars was loyal. But then Penny had thought her husband was, too. And he’d betrayed her in the worst possible way.

  No. No man could be trusted. Nikki had to remember that. And she had to focus on the footage playing out on the wall of monitors.

  Logan had a better setup than Cooper had. Of course he’d been in business a lot longer, too. Eventually, after more jobs, Cooper would be able to afford more equipment. Hopefully, all his jobs wouldn’t go as horribly as his first one.

  “Him,” Lars said, pointing to the monitor in front of her. Then he pointed at the one in front of him where he had paused the video. A young man filled both frames, his head down, his shoulders hunched. He was tall and skinny and young, barely out of his teens. “He’s the courier.”

  He certainly was not a guard. “Courier?”

  “For the breast milk.” Lars pointed toward the cooler the kid carried.

  How had she not noticed that? Maybe she’d been more distracted than he was. But then sitting this close to him, with his shoulder brushing hers as he moved, was distracting. Even though she
was worried about him and Emilia and Blue, she couldn’t help the attraction that came over her again. She’d never known such madness as this never-ending desire for Lars Ecklund.

  She leaned closer to the monitors. The kid carried that cooler in every frame. “Yes!” Nikki exclaimed. “That has to be him!”

  But Lars didn’t share her excitement. He looked at his phone instead, obviously impatient for Dane to call. Because it wouldn’t matter if Emilia was dead.

  The courier would only be able to lead them back to where she’d been held, not to where she was. But maybe they would be able to find the evidence they needed to bring down Myron Webber.

  Not just for child abduction but for murder.

  His breath shuddered out a ragged sigh, and his broad shoulders sagged as if he carried the weight of the world on them.

  “This is great,” Nikki told him, trying to cheer him up. “You found a lead to her.”

  He just looked at her, his pale eyes full of misery and guilt. “Too late…”

  “We don’t know that.” Yet. But it was a possibility. “None of this is your fault,” she assured him.

  “Yes, yes, it is,” he insisted. “I promised I would keep her safe—always—and I failed her.”

  His pain wrenched Nikki’s heart. “Lars…”

  “When my mom died, I promised her that I would make sure nothing happened to Emilia.”

  “Your mom died?” She couldn’t imagine a world without Penny in it. Her mother was everything to her, though—both her mother and her father. “When was that?”

  “Six years ago,” he said. “She had been sick a long time with MS.”

  “What about your dad?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know where he is. He took off when Mom got sick.” Since she’d been sick a long time, Lars must have been quite young when his father had taken off, leaving a kid responsible for a sick woman and a young girl.

  No wonder Lars looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had carried it—alone—for a long time.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, and her heart ached more for all he’d already endured.

  If Emilia was the body in the morgue…

  She wasn’t sure Lars would be able to handle the pain and the guilt. Where was Dane? Why hadn’t he called yet?

  Finally his phone lit up with an incoming call. “It’s Dane,” he said. But he hesitated before pressing the button to accept the call.

  She didn’t blame him. In fact, she was glad that he did because she needed a second to prepare for the news, too. She drew in a deep breath, bracing herself. Then she reached for his hand. It was so big—like the rest of him—and so strong.

  She had no doubt he could handle most any physical pain. But emotional pain was different. It didn’t matter how big or strong a person was; it could cripple him. And if it crippled him, he might not accept comfort. He might not let anyone console him.

  He squeezed her fingers before he pressed the button and learned his sister’s fate.

  Had hers been the body in the morgue?

  He didn’t put the call on speaker, like she had Nick’s. She could only hear his side of the conversation.

  “Are you sure?” His jaw was clenched, his handsome face so grim.

  But how could he believe anything until he saw for himself? She wouldn’t blame him if he insisted on going down to the morgue himself to confirm whatever Dane had told him.

  So she wasn’t surprised when he clicked off the call, turned to her and said, “I need to leave.”

  She tightened her grasp on his hand. But she was seeking comfort as much as she was offering it. No…

  Emilia couldn’t be dead. Blue needed his mother.

  *

  Rage surged through Lars. He let it bubble over, let it show in his grasp as he tightened his hands around the man’s throat. If he squeezed a little harder, the man wouldn’t be able to talk at all—ever again.

  Nikki grabbed his arm, pulling him back. But he’d already planned on loosening his grasp. He didn’t want to kill the kid. He just wanted to scare the hell out of him.

  Of course they had already done that when he’d come home to find them waiting for him inside his studio apartment. Fortunately the video cameras had captured a clear image of his license plate, and Nikki had hacked into the DMV database to find his address. She’d also picked the lock of the apartment door.

  The woman had incredible skills and knowledge. So it was no wonder that he’d been unable to resist her. It was no wonder he’d ignored the bro code and crossed the line with her. It was no wonder he’d turned to her to help him deal with his worry and fears over Emilia and Blue.

  He’d never known a stronger or more beautiful woman.

  She squeezed his arm now, bringing him back to the moment—to their mission. She was both his distraction and his direction.

  He blinked and focused again on the young man, whom he’d shoved up against the apartment door. His hair was greasy and stringy, hanging around a face dotted with acne. He was young. Nikki had learned from his DMV records that Gregory Boone was twenty-one and a community college student. An internet search had revealed his poor choices for what to post on social media and his Craigslist ad offering his delivery services for cash.

  “If you don’t start talking now, you’re going to lose your chance to ever speak again.” Lars threatened the kid. For emphasis he tightened his grasp for just a few seconds before releasing him.

  The kid gasped for breath and clutched his neck. “I—I don’t know what you want.”

  “Information,” Nikki said.

  Lars shoved the kid against the door again. “The truth. We want the truth! Did you kill her?”

  Gregory gasped again, this time with shock. “I—I would never kill anyone.”

  Lars believed him. He was too timid. But he had to force him to lose that shyness now. “The woman you’ve been collecting the breast milk from—she’s dead. Did you do it?”

  The kid just stared blankly at him. He had no idea what Lars was talking about—had no idea that he was lying. Emilia wasn’t dead.

  At least she hadn’t been the woman in the morgue. He trusted Dane. His friend had been certain; the body wasn’t hers. Except for the hair that had been dyed, she’d looked nothing like Emilia.

  The coroner was currently being interrogated, as well. He’d been tipping off Webber. But what was their real connection? Had he helped Webber deliver some of the babies he’d offered up for adoption?

  Lars doubted Blue had been born in a hospital. Or Emilia wouldn’t be missing. Where the hell was she?

  Gregory was even more confused than Lars had realized because he murmured, “What woman?”

  “You’ve been picking up breast milk almost daily and delivering it to Myron Webber’s estate,” Nikki told him.

  “Breast milk?” He sounded appalled.

  “You don’t even know what was in the cooler, do you?” Nikki asked.

  Lars shook his head with disgust. “You idiot, you could have been transporting body parts!”

  “To a place like that?” the kid scoffed. “The lawyer lives in a mansion.”

  “Where did you pick up the cooler?” Lars asked. “What was that place like?” Where had his sister been held?

  Gregory shuddered. “I’m really happy I don’t have to go back there again.”

  And Lars felt sick. His sister had been kept somewhere the guy had found repulsive. Poor Emilia. But even worse, if the guy didn’t need to return, she must already be gone.

  The brief relief he’d felt when Dane had assured him his sister wasn’t in the morgue left him. Pain squeezed his heart. Lars had been too late to rescue her. But he could get justice for her.

  “You’re damn well going back there,” Lars said, “because you need to show us where it is.”

  The kid shook his head. “No. No, I can’t.”

  “You had no problem going back and forth all these weeks when you were getting p
aid,” Lars reminded him.

  “But when Webber told me he didn’t need me anymore, he made it clear that I was supposed to forget ever working for him. That I was supposed to say nothing if anyone asked me about it.” He trembled in Lars’s grasp. “He will kill me if I do.”

  “And I’ll kill you if you don’t.”

  Nikki gasped, and Lars turned to find her brown eyes widened with surprise as if she didn’t know whether to believe him or not.

  Lars wasn’t sure he was just bluffing, either. If there was a chance Emilia was still alive, he would do whatever necessary to find her and save her.

  Even kill…

  *

  Nick had seen Lars Ecklund, but they had had yet to meet—until now—in his office.

  “I’ll hold him.” He agreed to keep the courier in protective custody until the warehouse could be searched. Of course he hadn’t been given much choice.

  Nikki had asked, and she’d been fearful that if Nick didn’t hold him in a jail cell, Lars might put the guy six feet under. Of course the kid had also admitted that Webber had threatened his life, so holding Gregory Boone wasn’t against the rules.

  Now holding the coroner…

  Nick had had to bend the rules a bit for that. But the prosecutor had given him twenty-four hours. They had twenty-four hours to find evidence for her to make a case against Myron Webber.

  Nikki grabbed her vibrating cell and stepped out of the office to take the call. Maybe she’d learned something more. Or maybe she’d just wanted a break from the tension between him and Lars Ecklund.

  Instead of sitting in his desk chair, Nick stood. But even standing, he couldn’t meet the blond guy’s gaze. He was big. So damn big…

  No wonder her other brothers hadn’t killed him yet for putting Nikki in danger. They wouldn’t have been able to hurt him.

  “Are you going to threaten me, too?” Lars asked.

  Nick arched a brow. “Too? Logan?”

  “All of them,” Lars replied. “Even Cooper…” And he flinched.

  Nick knew what it was like when a friend felt like he’d been betrayed just because he fell for his sister. Of course it had taken Nick a while—almost too long—to realize that he’d actually fallen for Annalise.