Private Eye Protector

by Shirlee McCoy

  “A man is dead. I can’t celebrate that.” That was as much of the truth as she could give, and it would have to be enough.

  “Neither can I, but it’s difficult to mourn a man who wanted you dead.”

  “If he wanted me dead, then why did he kill himself?”

  “Because he couldn’t find you and the police were closing in. He probably knew he’d go to jail.”

  “Suicide is such a desperate, drastic act. Wouldn’t jail be better than death?”

  “I think Leon was a desperate man, and I think that he’d probably lost so much that his life didn’t feel like real living.”

  “I just wish…”

  “What?”

  “That he’d stayed in Arizona and left me alone. That none of this had happened.”

  “None of it?” He brushed a lock of hair from her cheek, his fingers lingering near her ear, then skimming down her jaw. She felt every touch, every smooth caress to the depth of her soul, and she didn’t want the beauty of it to end.

  “Chance—”

  “When this is over, after we’ve spoken to Kai, and we’re both back doing what we were doing before the accident, we’re going to have to talk about us. Where we’re headed, what we both want.”

  “All I want is what I had before this happened.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Three unbroken rules for heart-healthy living.” She said it as if she meant it, but she wasn’t sure she did.

  “You know the funny thing about the heart, Rayne? It can’t be healthy unless it’s exercised. Lie in bed all day to keep it from pounding too fast or working too hard and it becomes weak and useless. To you and to everyone around you.” His fingers trailed from her jaw, down her neck, skimmed over her collarbone, and she shivered.

  “I don’t want to be useless. I just want to be…safe.”

  He nodded, stepping back, giving her some room to think and breathe. Only she couldn’t do either. All she could do was look in his eyes and wonder why she was such a coward, why she couldn’t just reach out and take what she yearned for without fear that what she’d grab was exactly what she didn’t want.

  Disappointment.

  Heartbreak.

  Loneliness.

  “I need to check on Emma,” she said and did the only thing that made any sense.

  She ran.

  THIRTEEN

  Trouble.

  That’s what Chance was in.

  Big trouble.

  Not only had he not kept his distance from Rayne, but he’d done exactly what he hadn’t wanted to. He’d fallen for her. So deep and hard and fast that he’d barely known what was happening until it was done, and he was there, staring into her eyes, knowing he’d be happy to spend the rest of his life doing exactly that.

  Too bad Rayne wasn’t as excited about the idea as he was.

  Too bad he respected her too much, liked her too much to push for something she said she didn’t want.

  He frowned, shoving his laptop into its case, glancing around the spotless living room. In a few hours, Sydney would have her house back. At least, she’d be happy about the way things had turned out.

  “Looks like you’re planning to move out.” Sydney walked into the room, her dark red hair pulled back with a headband, her eyes deeply shadowed. She’d been a gracious enough hostess, but Chance knew she wouldn’t be any sorrier to see them go than he and Rayne would be to leave.

  “Darren Leon was found dead late last night. Once the police confirm his identity, we’ll be able to go back to our lives.”

  “You sure about that?” She grabbed a coat from the closet near the door, shoved her feet into boots.

  “There was evidence linking Leon with the bomb that was thrown at my mother’s place. There’s no reason to believe there’s any other threat against Rayne.” But he couldn’t help thinking that things had played out too easily.

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Do you have reason to think I’m not?”

  “There are lots of things that aren’t what they seem, Richardson. It’s good to keep that in mind when we’re trying to protect people we care about. You have the key. If you leave, lock up. If you need to come back, feel free. Tell Rayne I said goodbye.” She walked outside before he could respond and left him staring at a closed door.

  She was right.

  Lots of things weren’t what they seemed.

  Lots of people weren’t what they seemed.

  Jessica hadn’t been.

  If he were honest, he hadn’t been, either. Army chaplain, strong Christian, man of faith, but inside he’d been angry and bitter. Angry at himself and Jessica after their separation. Bitter at God for allowing him to marry Jessica in the first place. It had taken him a long time to figure out who he really was, to drop the facade and be real enough to share his struggles with people who cared.

  By that point, it had been too late. Jessica was gone.

  “Chance?” Rayne called out, the fear in her voice making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

  He ran up the stairs, his heart beating double time, adrenaline coursing through him as he rushed into Rayne’s room.

  She stood over the crib, her face pale, the fading bruises dark against the pallor.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Emma is burning up.”

  “She’s sick?” He lay his hand against the baby’s cheek. Hot. Way too hot. “Has she run a fever before?”

  “No. She’s always been healthy.” Rayne lifted Emma, and Chance frowned as the baby whimpered but didn’t open her eyes.

  “We need to get her to the doctor.”

  “I should have known it wasn’t the new environment that was making her fussy, and I should have brought her to the doctor and had her checked out before this,” Rayne said, smoothing Emma’s deep red hair, her hand shaking.

  “You couldn’t know she was getting sick, and the doctors couldn’t have predicted that she’d be running a fever in a few days.”

  “Maybe not, but if anything happens to her, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  “Babies get sick all the time. She’ll be okay.” But even as he said it, he wondered if it were true. He took the baby from Rayne’s arms, felt her pulse. Steady but fast. That was normal for a baby.

  Wasn’t it?

  “Her lips look blue. Is she breathing?” Rayne’s panic was contagious, and he felt his own building, forced it down as he bent his head, heard a slight wheezing as Emma exhaled.

  “She sounds wheezy. You have her bag packed?”

  “I don’t know.” Rayne tried to dart around him, but he grabbed her arm. “Panicking isn’t going to do anyone any good. Take a deep breath, calm down. Let’s get what we need and get out of here.”

  She blinked, nodded.

  “You’re right. I’m not going to be much of a mother if I run around like a chicken with my head cut off every time there’s an emergency.” Her voice shook, but her hands were steady as she grabbed Emma’s coat and handed it to him, stuffed some clothes and a blanket into the diaper bag and grabbed her purse.

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  “She won’t need anything else?”

  “Your mom will bring anything she needs. Let’s just get her to the hospital.”

  Chance’s phone rang as Rayne strapped Emma into the car seat, climbed into the seat beside her.

  He answered quickly. “Go ahead.”

  “Something wrong?” Kai asked.

  “Emma is sick. We’re taking her to the emergency room.”

  “How bad is she?”

  “We won’t know until we get there.” He took off as soon as Rayne buckled her seat belt, pulling onto the highway with as much speed as the conditions would allow.

  “What hospital are you going to?”

  “Spokane Valley.”

  “I’ll meet you there in half an hour.”

  “That’s not necessary, Kai.”

  “Actually, it is. We’ve had some new dev
elopments in the case that I think you should know about.”

  “You’ve identified the deceased?”

  “His fingerprints match the ones on record for Darren Leon. We have our man for sure.”

  “I’m not sure whether I should think that’s good or bad.”

  “Actually, it’s created some new problems.”

  “What kind of problems?” He glanced in the rearview mirror, met Rayne’s eyes and knew that what Kai had to say wouldn’t matter to her.

  Not Leon’s identification.

  Not closure of the case.

  Not whatever problems or answers Kai might offer.

  All she cared about, all she wanted to know was that Emma would be okay.

  All he cared about, all he wanted to know was the same.

  He pressed down on the accelerator, then forced himself to ease up. Getting in an accident on the way to the hospital wasn’t going to do Emma any good.

  “You still there, Richardson?” Kai asked, and Chance forced his attention back to the conversation.

  “Sorry. What did you say?”

  “Phoenix P.D. searched Leon’s apartment after we identified the body. They found $30,000 in cash hidden in his freezer.”

  “That’s a lot of money to have sitting around an empty apartment.”

  “Sure is. Makes a person wonder why he didn’t bring it to the bank.”

  “It might be difficult to explain a $30,000 cash deposit.”

  “Exactly. There’s one more thing. The evidence team found another $10,000 taped under the seat in the Mitsubishi.”

  Despite his distraction, despite his concern for Emma, Chance didn’t miss the implications. “Someone was paying him large sums of money for something.”

  “Yeah. I’d like to know what. Too bad the guy went to the grave with his secrets. I’ve got to go. I have a meeting in five. I’ll see you at the hospital.” Kai hung up and Chance frowned, unease sweeping through him.

  “More bad news, right?” Rayne asked, and he nodded.

  “Leon came into a large amount of cash at some point. The police found $30,000 dollars hidden in his freezer. Ten thousand in the Mitsubishi.”

  “That’s a lot of money.”

  “Yeah, and people don’t usually get paid large sums of money for doing nothing.”

  “You think he was paid to come after me, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know, but we need to find out. We can’t know you’re safe until we know why Leon had that money. Are you sure you don’t have any enemies in Arizona? No one who might have wanted to see you harmed?”

  “Not harmed. Not dead. The only person who had anything against me was Leon.” She gave the same answer she’d given when he’d asked before, and he knew she believed it.

  He didn’t.

  Someone besides Darren Leon had a vendetta against Rayne. Someone who could afford to pay other people to do his dirty work.

  “Who’s the wealthiest person you know, Rayne?”

  “I don’t know anyone with enough money to throw around $40,000 to have me killed.”

  Emma cried halfheartedly, her wheezing breaths knocking about ten years off Chance’s life.

  “How’s she doing?”

  “I don’t know. Her lips still look blue. She won’t look at me. If she dies…”

  “She’s not going to die.”

  Please, God, don’t let her die.

  “What if she does, Chance? What if she dies because I brought her up here? Maybe Michael was right. Maybe she would have been better off with a family who could give her the kind of life she needs.”

  “What she needs—all she needs—is you.”

  “Maybe she needs you, too.” The words were barely a whisper, but Chance heard, met her eyes in the rearview mirror again.

  “She has me, Rayne. You both do.” He pulled into the hospital parking lot, lifted Emma out of the car as Rayne grabbed the diaper bag.

  Lethargic, pink-cheeked, her lips tinged with blue, Emma lay her head against Chance’s chest, reached up and patted his cheek.

  His throat clogged with an emotion he’d never felt before, a fierce need to protect that made him finally, finally understand just how much faith it had taken Abraham to lay Isaac out as a sacrificial lamb.

  “I’ll take her,” Rayne said as they walked into the emergency room, and he handed her over, wishing he had the right to do more than hover beside Rayne as she signed in at the reception desk.

  “She’s really sick. How long…”

  “It’s about an hour’s wait, sweetie. Go ahead and have a seat, and we’ll call you up as soon as we can.” The nurse cut off Rayne’s question, offering a pleasant smile and a wave in the direction of the waiting area.

  Not good enough.

  “Ma’am, her lips are blue, she’s gasping for breath and she needs to see a doctor now. Not an hour from now,” Chance said.

  “I’m sorry—”

  “Not as sorry as you’ll be if something happens to her because you made us wait.” Threats weren’t normally his style, but he’d do whatever it took to get Emma into the doctor quickly.

  The nurse frowned, walked out from behind her desk and studied Emma’s face, put a hand on her back.

  “You’re right. I apologize, Mom, for not taking the time to listen to your concerns. Come back with me. Dad, if you stay here and fill out the forms, I’ll get you once they’re settled.” She handed Chance a clipboard of forms.

  “I’m not…”

  “The insurance cards are in my wallet,” Rayne said, shoving her purse into Chance’s hands. “Can you call my parents and let them know what’s going on? Ask them to call Jonas and Skylar and to get the prayer chain going, okay? Their number is on my phone.” Her voice broke and she turned away, but not before Chance saw her tears, felt a surge of helplessness.

  He took the forms, pulled out Rayne’s wallet, copied information, filled in what he could, made the call to her parents, made a call to his mother. Prayed, paced, prayed some more.

  Where was the nurse?

  Why hadn’t she come back for him?

  The dark-haired nurse who’d taken her place would only tell Chance that Emma was with the doctor.

  Another ten minutes, and he’d ignore the patients only sign on the door and walk back into triage area, search behind every curtain until he found Rayne and Emma.

  “Chance!” Kane Dougherty jogged across the waiting room, his face tight with concern. “How is she?”

  “Bad enough that the nurse let us bypass an hour wait. She took Emma and Rayne back eighteen minutes ago. I haven’t seen anybody since. I’m ready to bust through that door and find out what’s going on.”

  “Let’s not call security down on our heads yet. Sit and chill for a few more minutes. Then we’ll come up with a plan.” Kane patted his back.

  “How’d you know we were here?”

  “Skylar called. She beat the prayer chain by three minutes. Told me that she understood all about family time, and she didn’t want to steal any of mine, but she was a thousand miles away and could I please get to the hospital before she got arrested for threatening bodily injury to the flight attendant who kept insisting there was no room on the next Spokane-bound flight out of New Mexico?”

  “Think she’d have done it?”

  “I know she’d have done it so I’m here, but I would have come anyway.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’ve also called a friend of mine who owns a personal security company. If Emma is admitted, there’s no way you can be here twenty-four hours a day. Worst-case scenario and she does have to stay, he has men ready to run shifts outside her room. Until we know why Leon had tens of thousands of dollars in cash lying around, I want Rayne under twenty-four-hour protection.”

  “It’s my job to protect them, Kane. I’m not leaving it to anyone else.”

  “Since when is it your job?”

  “Since I realized how much they needed someone on their side.” He stalked to the r
eception desk, willing the woman who’d led Rayne and Emma away to reappear and take the place of the pretty dark-haired young lady who sat there.

  “Can I help you, sir?” she asked for the tenth time in twenty minutes.

  “My friend and her daughter were brought back to triage twenty minutes ago. Someone was supposed to bring me back to them once they were settled.”

  She nodded, glanced at the computer screen, not even bothering to ask the name. After ten queries, there was no doubt she knew it. “She’s down at X-ray. After that, she’ll be admitted. As soon as all that happens—”

  “Someone will get me?”

  “Yes.”

  He turned back to Kane, saw that his boss was on the phone and paced across to the window, staring out into the parking lot. Much as he wanted to play hero, he knew Kane had made a good call. Twenty-four-hour protection would enhance Chance’s ability to keep Rayne safe.

  Maybe they wouldn’t need it.

  Maybe, with Leon dead, the threat was over.

  He wanted to believe that.

  He could believe it…if not for $40,000 and the phone call Rayne had received the night of her accident.

  A call from a man she knew to be dangerous?

  She’d said she never would have gone to meet Leon, and Chance believed her, but she’d gone to meet someone.

  He needed to find out who.

  For Rayne’s sake. For Emma’s.

  For his own.

  Yeah. He was in trouble and sinking into it deeper with every passing minute. The way he saw it, though, if he had to be in trouble, this was the kind to be in.

  And, while he was in it, there was no sense in trying to keep from getting in deeper.

  He walked past Kane, bypassed the nurse and opened the door into the triage area.

  FOURTEEN

  Please, Lord, just let this be quick, Rayne begged as the nurse readied the second needle and aimed it toward Emma’s thigh. The baby wiggled, her gasping cries piercing Rayne’s heart.

  “It’s okay, sweetie. Just another minute and all the poking and prodding will be over.” She hoped. She rubbed Emma’s arm, holding back tears as the nurse moved in.

  “We’ll make it fast.” She jabbed the chubby part of the baby’s thigh and Emma howled, her eyes open and staring into Rayne’s as if she couldn’t believe the woman who provided for all her needs was betraying her.