by Lisa Childs
Webber chuckled. “You’re good. Even now I have no idea what to believe…”
“Believe me,” she urged him.
But then the lawyer cursed and yelled, “We’re being followed!”
“Yeah, your guys are following us,” Garek replied resentfully.
“No!”
And then Lars heard it—a shot ringing out. It didn’t come through the speaker. It came from beside them. He turned just in time to see the gun pointing out of the driver’s window of the vehicle next to them.
“Duck!” he yelled at Cooper as the glass shattered.
Bullets pinged off the metal.
“We need to take them now!” The order came through the speaker.
It was Logan giving the order. “We’re going in…”
They were already in. Lars drew his gun and returned fire. “We need to catch up to Nikki.”
First they had to pass the truck trying to take them out, though. Lars fired again and again until the driver slumped over the steering wheel and the truck swerved off the road.
“Faster,” he urged Cooper. “Try to catch them.”
But they were too late. He heard the noises crackling through the speaker before the vehicle even came into view. He heard the squeal of tires. The screams.
Nikki’s.
The lawyer’s.
Cooper pressed harder on the accelerator, pushing his vehicle forward. They rounded a corner.
And then Lars saw it—the Payne Protection black SUV with Nikki and his nephew inside. Like the truck, the vehicle swerved back and forth across the road. While the tires squealed, the brakes made no noise, left no black marks on the pavement. Instead of slowing, it sped up, as it continued its manic back and forth.
Then the tires dropped off the shoulder of the road, and the SUV tipped onto its side. But it didn’t stop there. The high rate of speed at which it had been traveling gave it momentum, and it kept rolling—over and over—with Nikki and his nephew inside.
Had he just lost them both?
Chapter 24
Anger coursed through Nikki, numbing her pain. Why the hell hadn’t her brothers stayed back? Why hadn’t they waited for her signal? If they had, they might not have forced hers and Garek’s hands. He’d purposely rolled the SUV, knocking the gun from the hand of his now unconscious passenger.
Unfortunately Garek was unconscious, too, his blond head in the airbag that had sprung from the steering wheel he was pinned beneath. He didn’t move.
But he had to be okay. He and Candace had a baby on the way. She refused to believe that he was hurt. He was too good a driver. He’d purposely orchestrated the crash, so he would know how to survive it. He’d meant to take out the passenger’s side of the vehicle. It was a maneuver he’d taught her.
Nikki turned toward the crying baby. The crash had startled Blue awake. He screamed, but his little voice was loud and strong. His carrier had protected him from injury.
Nikki wasn’t so sure about herself. She’d struck the back of her head and her arm against the door. She reached out for the carrier to release Blue. But before she could find the clasp, the door creaked open behind her.
Maybe it was one of her brothers. But none of them would have shoved the gun into her side. She glanced around the interior. Webber had already scrambled out on his side. And now he dragged her from the back with his hand in her hair while the other held her gun on her.
He wasn’t that big. But he was strong with the kind of strength born of desperation. He knew it was all over now. Gunfire rang out from the street above where Garek had rolled the SUV.
She hadn’t been a soldier like Cooper or Lars. But she imagined war would have been a little like what she was experiencing now. She couldn’t pull her gun; he’d taken that when he’d searched her.
She had no way to protect herself. If she tried to struggle or fight with Myron, he might just pull the trigger. So she moved with him as he pulled her toward the cover of the woods on the other side of the battered SUV. Her heels sank into the soft ground, though, and she nearly stumbled.
Tears sprang to her eyes as he tugged harder on her hair. “You said I could trust you,” he said. “You said you were honorable.”
“I am,” she said. “The honorable thing is to bring that baby back to his real mother.”
He laughed. “She’s dead.”
Nikki had wanted this—so badly—to see his face when he learned the truth. If it was the last thing she saw, it might be worth it. Despite his hand in her hair, she twisted around so she could see his face as she told him.
“Emilia is alive,” she said. “We found her in the warehouse.”
His small eyes widened now, going wild with that desperation as his fleshy face paled. “No…”
“She’s already given her statement to the authorities.” And now sirens cut through the gunfire. Maybe they were only responding because someone had reported the crash and the shooting. Or maybe Emilia had given the prosecutor enough evidence for Amber Talsma-Kozminski to issue the warrant for Webber’s arrest.
Myron shook his head, and now his perfectly coifed hair moved, sliding slightly off his head. “No, no, that’s not possible. She’s dead, just like her brother.”
A man scrambled down the bank from the street. He wasn’t an officer; the police wouldn’t have arrived already. And it wasn’t one of her brothers. This man limped slightly from the bullet that had grazed his thigh the other night. The setting sun glinted off his pale blond hair.
He looked like an avenging angel. And he had every reason to want vengeance against the man who’d tried to kill his sister—after treating her so inhumanely for weeks.
“He’s not dead, either,” Nikki said as she gestured at Lars. He looked so damn handsome and strong.
His eyes—those beautiful pale eyes—met hers briefly before he focused on the lawyer. He held a gun, the barrel directed at Webber. Through gritted teeth, he advised the lawyer to, “Let her go.”
“No, no, it’s not over,” Webber said. But there was finality in his voice. He knew it was over. And he moved the gun barrel to Nikki’s head.
If he fired, this bullet wouldn’t just graze her temple like the one in the warehouse. It would go right through her skull.
She stared at Lars, hoping to catch his attention again—hoping to let him know…
What? That she loved him? She was more afraid to admit that than she was of the bullet going through her brain. The bullet might hurt less.
“It’s not over!” Webber shouted as he cocked the trigger.
Nikki squeezed her eyes shut just as the gun fired.
*
Lars couldn’t quite steady his hands, not yet. He couldn’t believe what he had done. The risk he’d taken…
Emilia held out her arms for the baby he passed to her. Her pale blue eyes filled with tears as she stared down at her son. “He’s so beautiful,” she murmured. “So beautiful…”
Just like she was. She had never looked as lovely as she did smiling down at her son.
“Do you think he knows me?” she asked hopefully.
“He finally stopped crying,” he said. Ever since the crash, he’d been crying nonstop. The doctor had assured them that there was nothing wrong with him, though. The carrier had protected him.
If only Nikki had been strapped into one, as well.
Lars had thought he’d fired too late. That Webber had gotten off a shot because the minute he’d pulled his trigger, Nikki had dropped. She’d insisted that she’d meant to so that Webber wouldn’t hit her.
But then she hadn’t been able to stand up again. She was hurt. And he had no idea how badly yet.
She was still with the doctor, but she’d insisted that he waste no time in reuniting mother and son. She should have been the one to do the honors, though.
She was the one who’d taken all the risks to rescue the baby. If Webber had pulled that trigger any faster…
She would have died. He shuddered as he consider
ed the horror of that—of a world without Nikki Payne in it.
“Lars?” Emilia called to him.
“Nikki said he would know you,” Lars said, “because of the breast milk.” She’d told him that before the ambulance had taken her away. She’d made him promise to remind Emilia of that—that she already shared a bond with the infant.
The baby snuggled against his mother; he did know her.
The tears spilled over Emilia’s eyes, running down her beautiful face. “Oh, Blue, my baby Blue…” She tensed and glanced up at Lars. “Where is Nikki?”
Lars couldn’t speak for a moment as emotion overwhelmed him.
She gasped. “Oh, no—she’s not—she’s okay, isn’t she? She has to be okay.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know…”
She must have hit her head during the crash like Garek had. He’d regained consciousness, though, and had walked himself to the ambulance.
Lars had had to carry Nikki. He hadn’t wanted to let her go. Even now his arms ached to hold her…
But she needed an MRI. Something was wrong with her—something that had weakened his usually indomitable Nikki Payne. It had to be something serious.
“Go to her,” Emilia urged him. “Make sure she’s okay.”
But Lars was too late. By the time he got back to the ER, Nikki was gone.
*
Penny’s heart ached with the loss of her daughter, of the fearless tomboy she had known.
“Who are you?” she asked the woman who sat in the passenger seat, her bare shoulders slumped. She wore a cocktail dress and heels. “And what have you done with my Nikki?”
“Funny,” Nikki muttered. And her voice sounded funny, almost as if she was on the verge of tears.
Nikki never cried. No matter how badly she got hurt. She had always fought tears—every bit as fiercely as she’d fought her brothers.
She was tough.
“Why did you want me to bring you home?” Penny asked.
“Because I’m fine.”
That wasn’t what she’d been asking, though. Why her mother? Why not Lars Ecklund? Or Nick?
Nikki usually never called her. She hated it when Penny mothered her. Yet she’d sought her out—twice now having her mother drive her home from the hospital.
“You have two broken ribs and a concussion,” Penny reminded her. But she knew the physical pain wasn’t bothering Nikki at all.
Nikki shrugged. “The doctor released me.”
Because Nikki had given him no choice. She’d been going to leave no matter what. She’d been in a hell of a hurry to get out of the hospital.
“Why did you want to leave so quickly?” Penny asked.
“You know I hate being fussed over.”
A chuckle slipped through her lips. She knew that too well. “If that were true, why did you want me to bring you home?” she asked again.
Nikki’s breath escaped in a shaky sigh. “Because I needed my mother.”
And Penny’s heart contracted with love. “Oh, sweetheart… What’s the matter?”
“I’m scared.”
That was the first time Nikki Payne had ever uttered those words.
“You’ve been in too many gun fights for me to count,” Penny said. “And you’re afraid now?”
Nikki could only nod.
“Of what?”
Nikki said nothing.
But when Penny turned to her, she knew. She had recently been that afraid herself, when she’d nearly lost the man she hadn’t even realized yet that she’d fallen for. “You’re afraid of love.”
“No, no,” Nikki murmured, but it was a weak protest. “That’s not it at all. I just didn’t want to intrude.”
“Intrude on what?” Penny asked.
“Lars with his sister,” she said. “And the baby. They’re a family. They should all be together.”
“I doubt they would have thought you were intruding,” Penny said. “Especially since they’re all together again because of you.”
Pride welled in her heart. She had spent so much time worrying about her daughter that she had never realized just how amazing she was. She reached across the console and squeezed her hand. “I am so proud of you.”
Nikki glanced across at her, and tears glistened in her eyes. She blinked hard, though, fighting them as she always did. “Why?”
“You are so strong and, except for this moment, always so fearless,” Penny said.
Nikki’s lips curved into a slight smile. “I thought that’s what you didn’t like about me.”
Penny squeezed Nikki’s fingers a little too tightly and admitted, “Sometimes…but now I miss that courage.”
Nikki’s shoulders straightened and she lifted her chin. “What do you mean?”
“You’re being a chicken.”
“How?”
“You’re afraid of Lars.”
She snorted. “I can take him.”
“Then do it,” Penny challenged. “Take him, Nikki. Take what you want.”
“I want to be a bodyguard,” she said. “I want my brothers to take me seriously. I don’t want anything else.”
Penny sighed.
“I’m not you, Mom,” Nikki said. “I don’t need the fairy tale. I don’t need the happily-ever-after.”
Penny had never thought she would have one of her own. That was why she’d spent the past several years focusing on giving that fairy tale to other brides. But ever since Nikki had been born, Penny had been anticipating the day that her daughter would find her true love.
“I know,” Penny said. “You don’t need a man. You don’t need love. You’re strong and self-sufficient. But you’ve found it now.”
“I don’t know what it is,” Nikki said. “And I don’t believe anything is ever happily-ever-after.”
“You don’t think your brothers have found love?” Penny asked. “You don’t think I have?”
Nikki’s face flushed. “No, I know you have. Woodrow is amazing. And all my sisters-in-law are, too.”
“So you’re not as smart as your brothers are?” Penny asked. “You think you haven’t chosen as wisely as they have?”
“I haven’t chosen at all,” Nikki said. “Because I didn’t want to fall for anyone—ever—but most especially not some macho, overprotective type like my brothers.”
Oh, her poor baby…
She had it bad.
“I don’t want this,” Nikki persisted. “I don’t want to feel this way.”
“Why not?” Penny asked.
“Because I’m more like you than I thought I was,” Nikki said. “And maybe Lars is like my dad. Maybe he’ll break my heart like Dad broke yours.”
Penny couldn’t argue with her. She could only shrug. “And what if he does?”
Nikki gasped with shock.
Maybe Penny had sounded callous. That wasn’t what she’d intended. “I survived getting my heart broken,” she said. “You would, too.”
Nikki shook her head. “I’m not as convinced of that as you are. And maybe I’m not as brave as you are. Instead of surviving, I would just rather not risk the pain at all.”
Penny knew very well how stubborn her daughter could be. No matter what she said, she knew she wouldn’t be able to change her mind.
Just like she and the boys hadn’t convinced Nikki to not want to be a bodyguard. Penny knew she wouldn’t be able to convince Nikki to risk her heart on love.
But Penny also knew how precious true love was and how difficult to find. If Nikki didn’t take the chance now, she might never find it again.
Chapter 25
Pain pounding inside her head, Nikki closed her eyes and tried to will it away. It wasn’t the concussion. The effects of that had worn off a week ago just shortly after she had rushed out of the hospital that night. Her head pounded now because of the nonstop ringing of the phones.
Payne Protection had made national media again for taking down the adoption lawyer who’d stolen babies from scared single mothers. But
instead of Logan’s face being plastered all over the news, it was Cooper’s. He hated it. He’d tried to pass off the interviews to her but Nikki had refused. Cooper was the boss.
It was enough that he had let her do her job. She didn’t need the recognition. A knock at her office door drew a weary sigh from her. Cooper had finally hired a receptionist, but the young guy kept asking Nikki where everything was and how to run the computer program. It probably would have been less work had she been doing the job herself.
But keeping busy wasn’t a bad thing. It kept her mind off the fact that work was all she had. Of course it was all she’d ever wanted, though.
So she should have been happy. Her brothers finally respected her now and appreciated that she had more abilities than computer hacking.
But something was missing…
Lars had been off the past week. He’d been helping take care of Blue while Emilia had been in the hospital, recovering from her infection and blood loss.
She couldn’t be missing him. He hadn’t been around long enough for her to miss. She missed Blue, though—she missed him so much that she almost thought she heard his cry.
It was probably just the phones. Or maybe the receptionist…
The guy was some big bodybuilder type that Cooper had hired to keep out unwanted guests—like Webber showing up in his office that day. But he was afraid to answer the phone let alone deal with visitors.
“Come in,” she called out, wondering what question he would have for her now.
But the person who’d knocked wasn’t the dark-haired male receptionist. Her visitor was a female with pale blond hair who swung a baby carrier at her side that looked nearly as heavy as her slight build.
“Emilia…” She rushed around her desk to reach for the baby—not just to help the young mother but because she had missed Blue so much. She put the carrier on her desk, so she could gaze down into his amazing eyes. But when she found him sleeping, disappointment flashed through her.
“I hope I’m not bothering you,” Emilia said. “I tried to call ahead, but I only got voice mail. And when I walked in, the receptionist just waved me back. If you’re busy, I can come back another time.”
