The Nanny (A Billionaire Romance)

by Naomi Niles

  "Okay, so we'll just do something with Halle here in the house to pass the time." I could hardly believe how strong she was being, although it shouldn't have surprised me.

  Rachelle was an incredibly brave woman. It was one of the things I found most attractive about her. From that first day when she came into my office, to everything I had learned about how she'd been caring for her sick mother, to the way she was so open to trying new things in bed. Rachelle Clare was one of the strongest women I had ever met, and yet she wasn't hardened by it.

  She remained soft, sweet, and gentle. If I could have picked a woman to be Halle's mother, it would have been her and not Missy.

  "Okay, what to do you want to do?” I asked.

  "That's easy.” Rachelle grinned. "Go get Halle and meet me in the pool. I've got to get my swimsuit.”

  It was the perfect idea. I found Halle in the living room, dabbing at a window with a Windex-soaked paper towel as Emma taught her how to eliminate streaks.

  "Daddy!” She ran into my arms with a huge smile on her sweet young face.

  "Want to have some fun?” I lifted up into the air, making her squeal with delight.

  "Yes!" We got dressed in our swimsuits and went down to the indoor pool next to my gym. Rachelle was already there standing on the high board, looking incredible in a black string bikini.

  Halle squeezed my neck and gasped as Rachelle did a perfect swan dive. Beautiful and graceful, she landed in the water with barely a splash.

  "Wow!” Halle clapped her hands. "Teach me! Teach me!"

  Rachelle swam under the surface of the water, popping up right next to where Halle and I were standing at the edge of the pool.

  "Aren't you going to join me?” she asked with a smile.

  "Sure." I grinned. I set Halle down and did a cannonball into the pool.

  "My turn now,” Halle said, "Catch me, Daddy, catch me."

  I held out my arms and Halle jumped into the pool, right into my arms. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the water. Rachelle taught Halle how to do the backstroke, and I taught her how to do a cannonball. Then, as Halle splashed around on the shallow end by the steps, Rachelle and I played in the deep end, kissing under the water before swimming back up to the surface.

  "Your telephone is ringing, Daddy," Halle called out as I broke through the surface. As her words sunk in, my heart suddenly began to pound. I'd been having so much fun, I'd actually forgotten I was waiting for this moment.

  Hoisting myself out of the water with my biceps, I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked swiftly across the tile. I found my phone sitting on a lounge chair and answered it breathlessly. "Tate Holland here."

  "It's a match,” Tom said excitedly into the phone, and it took me a moment to understand what he meant.

  "A match?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

  "Yes,” he said happily. I could actually hear him smiling through the phone.

  "The forensics came back with a perfect match for Stuart Haynes. His DNA was found on Rose’s body, proving he had sexual activity with her just before her death. His fingerprints and hairs match some of those found inside the secret room behind your bookcase, so there's no way he can deny being in there.

  “Best of all, when the police went to his home to arrest him, they did a search of the apartment and found the black shoes stuffed in a garbage bag in the dumpster behind his apartment. Blood splatters were found all over the soles of the shoes, along with carpet fibers that are certain to match the ones in your room.

  “We've got the bastard. As soon as he's found, there'll be no way a jury won't find him guilty. Miller is dropping his investigation on you, and you're cleared of all suspicions."

  "That's great news.” I was grinning so wide my cheeks hurt, but something he had said stuck out in my mind. My expression faded into a frown as I asked him, "What do you mean when he's found?”

  There was a long pause on the line before Tom finally said, "When Miller went to Stuart's apartment to arrest him, he wasn't there."

  "There's probably a dozen places he could be right now. I'm sure he'll find him within the hour," I said.

  “That's the thing.” Tom sounded very grim on the other end of the line. "That's why it took me so long to call you back. Miller got the forensic tests back just a few minutes after I talked to you this morning. He's been searching for Stuart ever since. He's got every cop in his precinct on the search, but Stuart’s nowhere to be found. He packed a suitcase, cleaned out his bank account, and is apparently on the run."

  "Shit," I cursed quietly under my breath, turning my back on Halle and Rachelle, who were watching me from the pool.

  "There's one more thing you should know," Tom continued. "Miller warned me that Stuart had an empty knife case in his house, so he must have taken the knife with him.”

  "He told me once he collected hunting knives. He said nothing felt better than gutting prey," I said through tightened throat muscles.

  "You need to be very careful until he is caught,” Tom said unnecessarily. "Miller says we are dealing with a dangerous sociopath. Who knows what he could do now that he knows he's been discovered. He might try to get revenge on you or finish the job he couldn't complete when he attacked Rachelle. I'll let you know the moment he's found. Until then, be on high alert.”

  "Thanks," I said and hung up the phone. I didn't need to tell him that I already was.

  Chapter Forty-Seven: Rachelle

  Even though Tate was turned away from me, I knew instinctively that something was wrong. The muscles of his back and neck were strained, and there was a tension in his voice that had never heard before.

  "Come on, Halle, it's time to get out of the water." I took her by the hand forcefully.

  "But I don't want to." Halle strained against me. She was surprisingly strong for someone so young.

  I turned her hand so she could see her fingers and said, "Look, you're all wrinkly, that means it's time to come out. Let's get you dried off."

  Halle let me lead her out of the pool and onto the tile, where I found a fluffy towel and wrapped her tiny body in it. "Stay right here and dry off. I'll be right back," I instructed her and hurried over to Tate. When I put my hand on his shoulder, he startled visibly. "Tell me what's wrong," I whispered.

  "Stuart escaped the police," he said. My blood ran cold as he explained to me everything that Tom Tandy had told him on the phone.

  "Do you think he'll come here?" I asked, unable to hide the tremble in my voice.

  Taking my hand for support, he stated firmly, "I don't know, but if he does, we'll be ready for him." He walked up to Halle and scooped her up in his strong arms, speaking gently. "Come on, sweetheart, we have to go."

  "Go to the guest room and get Missy. I'll find Scott and Emma, and we'll all meet in the dining room. They need to be warned about Stuart," Tate said.

  I gave him a parting kiss and hurried through the house, hugging my swim towel around my body.

  "Leave me the hell alone!" Missy shouted through her bedroom door when I knocked on it. "I'm not picking a damn rehab center, and I'm not fucking leaving, either."

  "It's me, Rachelle. I'm alone. I need to talk to you about something important," I said, hoping she would open the door if she knew Tate wasn't with me.

  "Fuck off. I'm not falling for your bullshit trick. The moment I open this door, I'll be dragged off to some rehab center. Well, forget it. I'm not going to rehab, and I'm not getting kicked out or cut off, either."

  "This isn't about that," I insisted. "We're all in danger. Stuart killed Rose, and he tried to kill me. He knows we're onto him and ran from the police. He might come back and try to hurt us. We're having a meeting in the dining room to make a plan for keeping everyone safe."

  "Nice try, but I wasn't born yesterday, you fucking bitch." Missy banged on the door, startling me so I jumped.

  "Fine. I just thought you might care enough about Halle to come to the meeting," I said quietly and left. It was a h
opeless fight. If she refused to come out, there was nothing I could do about it. And, knowing that she was refusing treatment for her drug addiction made me less inclined to keep trying.

  I arrived in the living room just in time to see Scott walk through with Tate, who was carrying Halle.

  "Where's Missy?" he asked, and I had to tell him the bad news.

  "She refused to come. She thinks it's a trick to get her into rehab."

  "We don't have time for this." Tate rolled his eyes. "I can't find Emma, either. Maybe we should switch. I'll go talk to Missy, and you can find Emma."

  He handed Halle to me, and she wrapped her arms around my neck.

  "What about Stuart?" Scott asked, and Tate and I exchanged a meaningful look.

  "He won't be coming to the meeting. If you see him, call the police immediately," Tate said.

  "What's going on?" Scott insisted on knowing.

  "I'll explain in a minute. First, we need to find the others."

  Halle stretched her arm back over my shoulder, pointing behind me, and said excitedly, "I see Emma. Hide and seek is over. Hi, Emma."

  We all turned around to see Emma cowering in the corner behind the door leading from the living room into the dining room. Her skin was deathly white, and her frail body was trembling. I'd never seen the cranky old bitch looking so frightened, and my heart went out to her.

  "Emma, what's wrong?" I asked.

  "He's got a knife!" she cried out in terror. Suddenly, the door swung open with violent force and Stuart burst through, brandishing a huge hunting knife. He slashed Emma in the arm and pushed her into Scott, who caught her easily. Her artery had been slashed, and he quickly laid her down and put pressure on the wound. If he stopped, she'd bleed to death in seconds.

  Stuart kept charging forward, slashing wildly with the knife, moving towards me and Halle. Tate jumped between us, bravely protecting me and his daughter. The knife came down, slicing into his shoulder, and he staggered back, clutching the wound.

  "Daddy!" Halle screamed out and hugged my neck so tightly I could hardly breathe as I backed away from Stuart. When I hit the wall, I realized there was no place for me to run.

  "Stuart, you don't have to do this." Tate widened his stance and lowered his center of gravity, ready to fight him.

  "Yes, I do. I have to avenge Rose and what you did to her."

  "I didn't kill Rose," Tate insisted. "You did, and everyone knows it. Surrender now before you make things harder on yourself."

  "I didn't kill her. I loved her!" Stuart cried out manically. "You were the one who used her, who turned her into a slut, who made her think money was more important than love. I tried to get her to come back to me, but you had ruined her. I tried to convince her I could give her everything you could. I even took her up to your room, pretending to be you. I showed her the sex swing, convinced her to try it for old time's sake.

  “It would have worked. I would have won her back, but she hit her head. There was blood, and she wouldn't wake up. She was dead – and it was all your fault. It would never have happened if you hadn't stolen her from me. If I hadn't needed to win her back. Now, you'll all die to avenge her."

  Stuart charged forward, tackling Tate to the ground. I screamed aloud, turning Halle away from the violence in an effort to protect her. The two muscular men wrestled on the ground, but since Tate was wounded, Stuart was able to gain the upper hand. I saw Stuart had slashed him several times in the chest during the fight. Now, he had Tate pinned on the ground. He was bleeding so profusely now, he was fading from consciousness.

  I put Halle down and whispered to her, "Run, sweetheart, as fast as you can and don't look back. I'm going to do what I can to help your Daddy."

  "That's right. Run, kid, and make the kill more fun,” Stuart sneered. Then he looked down at Tate and said, "First, I'll kill you. Then I'll kill the nanny, and finally, the kid. Then Rose will finally be avenged."

  Stuart raised the knife high, ready to plunge the blade downward in a killing blow. I ran forward and leaped on his back, desperately trying to pull him off of Tate, but he was too big and much too strong.

  "Get away. Save yourself and Halle," Tate whispered weakly.

  I had hoped Halle was long gone, but my heart broke when I heard her voice behind me.

  "Mommy!" Halle cried out, and I turned to see Missy burst through the door. She picked up a dining room chair and smashed it powerfully on Stuart's raised arm. He screamed out in pain, dropping the knife as the chair splintered around him, and pulled his broken arm protectively to his chest.

  "You shouldn't have threatened my kid," Missy said triumphantly. Stuart ran out of the nearest window, jumping through the glass, and then sprinting across the lawn.

  "Mommy!" Missy hugged her tight when Halle ran into her arms. I ran to Tate, ripped off my blouse, and used the cloth to apply pressure to his wounds.

  "Someone has to call 9-1-1," I cried out hysterically. "Tate, don't die. Please don't die."

  In the distance, I heard sirens approaching the house and cried tears of relief. "I already called them," Missy explained.

  She opened the door to let the paramedics in. They stabilized Tate and started to load him into the ambulance. As they drove away, I wrapped my arms around Missy and hugged her tight.

  "Thank you. You're a true hero today. You saved us all, especially Tate. He would have died without you. He still might."

  "Well, if he lives, maybe you can put in a good word for me." Missy smiled. "Let him know I don't need rehab anymore. I just need to be with my little girl. As long as I have Halle in my life, I can do anything."

  After today, I believed her, but I knew rehab was still what was best for her. Hugging her like a sister, I said, "We'll discuss that when he comes back home."

  Chapter Forty-Eight: Tate

  I felt like I was sitting on the bottom of a deep lake. It was dark, cold, and murky, and I couldn't breathe. I could see a bright light shining down from high above me, and I started to swim towards it.

  As I swam closer to the surface, I was able to distinguish two faces looking down at me from above the water. It was Rachelle and Halle. They both extended their hands towards me, reaching down into the water to try to grab me as I stretched upward, desperate to reach them.

  My lungs felt like they were about to explode. I was almost there when, suddenly, I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my chest and started bleeding. Dark red blood gushed from my wounds as I sank back down into the depths of the lake, Rachelle and Halle growing further away from me. Then, through the shimmering water, I saw Rachelle pick Halle up, turn around, and walk away from me, leaving me to drown.

  "Rachelle. Come back. Come back," I cried out.

  "I'm here," Rachelle's sweet voice penetrated the fog, and I felt someone shaking me. "Wake up. It's only a nightmare."

  I opened my eyes to see Rachelle standing by my side, looking down on me. I was in a hospital bed. Suddenly, it all came back to me. The fight with Stuart. Missy saving me. The ambulance ride.

  "What happened?" I tried to ask, but my throat was too dry to speak. Rachelle held a glass of water to my lips, and I sipped the cool liquid cautiously.

  "You had surgery. Let me tell the doctor you're awake. He'll explain it far better than me. I'm just grateful you're okay."

  "And Halle? Where is she?" I grabbed Rachelle's hand before she could walk away, desperate to know if my daughter had been injured by that monster.

  "She's fine. She's with Missy. I put them up in a hotel, and Detective Miller assigned twenty-four-hour police protection to guard over them. Emma is recovering from surgery in this same hospital, too, but she declined a police guard as long as Scott agreed to stay with her.”

  "And Stuart?" I croaked.

  "He escaped out the window. He just jumped right through it after Missy knocked the knife out of his hand. The police are looking for him."

  "I can't believe Missy did that for me. I guess I owe her my life," I said, squeezing Rachelle's hand
.

  "That's what she said." Rachelle flushed. "She said you saved her life by taking care of her all these years, so she owed you. She says this makes you even."

  "I guess so," I said, feeling exhausted from just this brief conversation. I let go of my hold on Rachelle's hand and started to drift off to sleep. When I opened my eyes again, she was standing over me with a man in blue scrubs and a white lab coat by her side.

  "This is Dr. Spears," she introduced him to me. "He performed your surgery."

  "What happened to me, Doctor?"

  I listened as best I could as he explained my injuries and what he had done to repair them. "You're very fortunate that the wounds were relatively minor. I want to keep you here for a few days to monitor the healing and make sure there aren't any complications or infections. If not, then you can go home by the end of the week."

  "Thanks, Doctor." I shook his hand, but it made my chest hurt. I winced from the sharp pain, and he ordered his nurse to give me some morphine.

  "No thanks. I can bear it." I exhaled.

  "Are you sure? It would be understandable after the surgery you've undergone to need some pain management medication."

  "I'd rather manage it with breathing and meditation. Besides, I've got a recovering addict living in my house, and I don't want to have anything around that could tempt her."

  "Missy's staying? She was sure you were going to make her leave," Rachelle said.

  "After what she did, she can stay as long as she likes," I replied.

  Rachelle kissed me lovingly on the forehead and brushed my hair back out of my eyes. She visited for a few more minutes, chatting about casual things Halle had done and said. Then the nurse announced visiting hours were coming to an end.

  "I'd better go check on Halle and Missy, anyway, to make sure they’re doing okay at the hotel. I offered to keep Halle with me at my mother's house, but they both insisted they wanted to be together. I guess they're really bonding."

  "You're not staying at the mansion?" I sat up in bed, sending new stabs of pain shooting from my bandaged stitches. I didn't realize she'd moved out on me, and the pain of losing her hurt worse than the knife wounds.