Bodyguard's Baby Surprise (16 page)

Chapter 18

N
ikki looked like death. She'd already had the bruise on her left cheek. Now she had another on the right side of her face along with a short line of stitches near her temple.

Nick's heart contracted with regret that she'd been hurt—because of him. “I'm sorry,” he murmured as she stepped inside the condo.

Her brown eyes twinkled. “Sorry? You're the first one to make sure I'm included in a Payne Protection meeting.”

Nick was sympathetic. He knew what it was like to be on the outside looking in on a family. He had felt like that with the Huxtons. He'd understood he wasn't one of them, but at least Gage and Annalise had tried to include him. Nikki had known she was a Payne, but her brothers had never included her like they should have.

Until now...

Everyone else fell silent as she walked into the condo. They were probably staring at the bruises. Nikki tensed as if she thought they were going to throw her out.

Nick said, “Now that Nikki is here, she's going to run the meeting.”

Predictably, Logan bristled. “She's not up to speed on this assignment.”

“She's more up to speed than you think,” Nick said. “She's been working this assignment all along. She found Annalise's stolen car for me when the whole River City Police Department couldn't find it.”

“You had no right to put her on this assignment,” Logan said.

It wasn't the first time Nick had heard that. He'd put Garek Kozminski on assignment for the FBI and had nearly gotten him and Candace killed. He'd made mistakes. So he wasn't going to argue with his half brother, especially now that Logan was his boss.

Logan's face flushed with anger as he continued, “You've put her in danger over and over again.”

And Nick didn't feel good about it. But he felt compelled to point out, in Nikki's defense more than his own, “And she survived it. She is tougher than you all have given her credit for being.”

Nikki didn't just smile. She beamed.

And Nick's heart swelled with pride in her. He finally understood Gage's connection with Annalise. He glanced over to his friend sitting next to Annalise. Right now, Gage looked better than Nikki did. Whatever physical injuries he had sustained while he'd been missing were healing. Nick hoped his other injuries were healing, too.

“Suck-up,” Parker called him.

Unabashed, Nick grinned. Maybe he should have sucked up to his sister a while ago. “She's smart, too.”

“We never disputed that,” Logan said. “That's why she's best behind a desk.”

Nikki snorted derisively.

“She figured out what no one else has,” Nick said. “This isn't about revenge.”

“What is it about?” Annalise asked the question. She'd been worried that it was about her, that she had made someone jealous or obsessed. She could have. Her smiles were powerful enough to make a stranger on the street fall in love with her. But Nick doubted it had anything to do with her.

Everybody looked at Nick, but he turned toward his sister.

Nikki shrugged.

“I thought you figured it out,” Logan said, frustration joining his earlier irritation.

“We don't know
what
it's about,” she said. Her suspicion from the day before was gone.

The tightness in Nick's chest eased. Nikki didn't think the worst of him anymore. She didn't think he was corrupt, like all the cops and public officials he had busted in River City. Maybe she was even beginning to trust him.

Logan's brow furrowed with confusion, and he began, “I thought—”

“It's about
something
,” Nikki said. “But we don't know what.”

Nick could see the others were still confused, so he explained, “People think either Annalise or I have something they want.”

A ragged sigh of relief slipped from Annalise's lips. “Of course.”

“The break-ins,” Gage said. “I thought it looked like someone was searching for something.”

Nikki nodded. “That's what I thought when I checked out the scene of the last break-in.”

The scene where she'd nearly shot him. But he kept that to himself. He didn't need the others to think she'd overreacted. Her quick reflexes were what would keep her alive when she was a true bodyguard.

“And that's probably the reason for the car thefts, too,” Nikki continued. “They think Annalise or Nick has something.”

“What?” Logan asked.

“I have no idea,” Nick said. But he glanced at Annalise, who had fallen curiously silent after her sigh.

“I had some idea,” Nikki sheepishly admitted.

Logan groaned.

“What?” Annalise and Gage asked the question together.

Explaining for his sister again, Nick said, “She thought I was dirty. That I stole drug money or something that should have been entered into evidence.”

Gage uttered that rusty-sounding laugh of his. “You, dirty? That's hilarious!”

Nick hadn't found it amusing at all.

And realizing that he had been offended, Gage laughed again. Then he turned toward Nikki, whose face had grown red with embarrassment. “You really don't know squeaky-clean Nick. He's the only one Chief Lynch considered sending up to handle the corruption in River City because the chief knows for certain he's beyond corruption.”

And that tightness in Nick's chest eased even more. Despite his crossing the line with Annalise, Nick hadn't completely lost Gage's respect.

But the tightness only eased. It didn't disappear entirely. It wouldn't until they figured out what someone wanted so desperately from him that they kept going after Annalise. Maybe they had figured out that if they wanted to work an exchange, the only things Nick cared enough about to barter were Annalise and their unborn baby.

* * *

Garek waited until the team had returned to Payne Protection Agency before he spoke. He shut the door behind them and settled into the chair across from his boss's desk. Most of the team—including his beautiful bride—had stayed outside the condo for added security for Nick.

Even if Cooper would have assigned her fieldwork, Nikki was in no condition to work at the moment. So she settled carefully into the chair next to him. She looked like hell, but she was also happier than he'd ever seen her before.

The irony was that the guy who'd made her unhappy—by merely existing—had made her happy again. Or maybe that wasn't ironic but appropriate. Nick had given her the respect her other brothers hadn't.

She'd earned that respect, though. He believed her theory was right. Maybe she'd been right about everything.

He began, “Just playing devil's advocate here.”

Logan snorted. “You enjoy that role too much.”

“But what if we've been wrong about Nick?” he wondered aloud. “What if he
is
dirty?”

Logan shook his head. “Not possible.”

Garek didn't think so, either. But he trusted that Nikki was right. It made sense that someone had been breaking into Nick's and Annalise's places and vehicles because they were looking for something. But Nick had to have something they actually wanted badly enough to kill to get.

So how could he not know that he had it? And it had to belong to someone desperate, someone dangerous.

“I agree,” Nikki said, which shocked Garek for a couple of reasons. First, she was actually concurring with something Logan had said. Second, she trusted Nick. Of course, he had saved her life more than once.

But perhaps the fact that Nick had rushed to everyone's rescue multiple times had blinded them to his true nature. Maybe he wasn't as squeaky-clean as the Huxtons believed. Actually, Gage had been the only one to speak up on his behalf. Annalise had remained curiously silent.

Did she know something the others didn't? She was obviously closer to Nick than anyone else. Garek suspected that nobody understood him better than she did.

* * *

“You've been quiet,” Nick said after the others had left. She was sitting on the couch, and he knelt in front of her and studied her face. “Are you feeling all right?”

Annalise felt sick. But it had nothing to do with her pregnancy and everything to do with what she had done. It was all her fault. It had to be. “No...”

His handsome face tensed with concern. “I'll take you to the hospital.”

She shook her head. “No, I don't need to go to the hospital.” Even if she was having medical issues, she wouldn't risk it, not after what had happened the last time they had gone.

“Is it the contractions again?” he asked. He put his hands over her stomach as if he could feel them, too. Or as if he could make them stop.

He was so protective. But that was just his nature. She couldn't read more into it than that. She couldn't convince herself that he actually cared about her.

“No,” she replied. “It's not the baby.”

He leaned closer, his blue gaze intense as he studied her face. “But I can tell you're not feeling well.”

Tears stung her eyes—tears of regret. “That's because of what I've done,” she admitted.

He tensed and eased away from her. “Annalise...”

“It's my fault.” It had to be.

“What did you do?”

She'd realized it when Nikki had been talking. She'd realized then what a huge mistake she'd made. “You're going to be furious with me.”

Chapter 19

D
read settled heavily on Nick, pulling his shoulders down. He flinched at the pain. His gunshot wound had barely begun to heal. But his physical pain was milder than what he was feeling emotionally.

He got back to his feet and paced the length of the living room before turning back to her to ask, “What did you do?”

What could Annalise have done that had put them in danger? Gage had called him squeaky-clean, but Annalise was more honest than he was. Or so Nick had always believed.

She'd been just a kid when he'd lived next door to her. And he hadn't stayed in touch with her throughout the years like she had tried to stay in touch with him. He had no idea what kind of men she'd dated. She might have fallen for a bad boy who'd gotten her into trouble.

“I know what you told me to do.”

He'd told her a lot of things over the years. To stop following him around.

To stop hugging him.

He hadn't really meant those things.

“What did I tell you?” he asked for clarification.

“You asked me to get rid of your mom's house.”

“You said you rented it.” He wished she'd burned it down instead. Or sold it.

She nodded. “The tenant paid the whole year's rent in cash.”

A chill raced down his spine. “Someone paid for the year up front? Is that normal?”

She shrugged. “I've had it happen before, when someone has sold a house and wants to rent.”

“Had this guy sold a house?”

“Maybe,” she said. “But I didn't handle the sale. I probably wouldn't have rented to him if he hadn't been able to pay the cash up front.”

The short hairs lifted on Nick's nape. “Why not?”

“He had no credit history. No job history.”

“But he had a year's rent money?”

“In cash.”

Criminals had cash. Who the hell had she rented to? “Annalise...”

“I'm sorry,” she said.

“There's more?” he asked.

She nodded. “You told me to get rid of all of her possessions, too.”

“And you didn't.”

She had never believed he'd meant the other things he'd told her—or she would have stayed away. She would have stopped hugging him. But she hadn't. So she must not have thought he'd meant what he'd told her about his mother's estate, either.

“Did you rent the place furnished?” he asked. That would have made sense and explained why she hadn't gotten rid of anything.

She shook her head. “The tenant wanted me to,” she said. “He even offered to pay me extra. But I didn't want to leave her possessions there.”

“She had nothing of value,” he said. “You could have left everything. Or given it all away.”

“I kept her belongings,” Annalise admitted.

“But I told you to get rid of everything.”

“I thought you might change your mind,” she said. “I didn't want you to have any regrets.”

“I regret that you didn't get rid of her crap,” he said. Especially if having it had put her in danger. “Did you bring it home with you?”

She shook her head. “I have a few storage units. I either put stuff in them when I'm staging houses or store the stuff I use for staging in them.”

“I don't think my...” He hated calling her Mom. In the short time he'd known her, Penny Payne had already been more of a mother to him than the woman who'd given birth to him had ever been. “... I don't think Carla had anything you could use to stage a house.”

“No,” Annalise admitted. “But I thought you might want something of hers, something to remember her by. And I didn't want to have given it all away.”

He had something to remember her by: the letter she'd left telling him who his father really was. She had given him the family he'd never thought he would have. She had given him a real mother. And she had allayed the fear he'd always had that his father was some drug dealer.

What else had she given him? Had she left him something that had put his—and worse, Annalise's—lives in danger? She had given him one family. But if he lost Annalise and their unborn baby, he'd lost the family he could have made for himself.

* * *

“What do you think you're doing?”

Annalise dropped her sweater into her open suitcase, turned around and found Nick leaning against the doorjamb. “I'm packing.”

“Why?”

After she'd admitted to ignoring his command to get rid of all of his mother's things, she'd thought he would be happy to get rid of her.

“Because we're going back to Chicago,” she said.

“Why would we do that?” he asked.

How could he not know? He was the lawman. She was just a real estate agent. “Because we need to go through the storage units and find what they're looking for.”

“Did you see a wad of money?”

She shook her head.

“Of course not,” Nick said. “Because anytime Carla got her hands on money, she used it to buy drugs.”

She ached for Nick, for the sad little boy who'd grown up too quickly next door to her family.

“So it must be something else,” she agreed.

He shook his head. “What? If it was anything of value, she would have pawned it for money for drugs. There's nothing.”

“Then why did someone break into her house and mine and yours?” she asked. “Just hours ago you said somebody thinks you have something they want.”

“Thinks,”
Nick said. “We don't actually have it.”

He was probably right. But that only increased her frustration. “How do we convince whoever is after us that we don't have it?”

She wanted her life back. She'd worked hard to build her career. And as a single mom-to-be, she needed it more than ever.

“We find him.”

“How do we do that?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not you. You've already been in too much danger because of this.”

And she heard the anger again. He was mad that she hadn't done as he'd asked, that she hadn't gotten rid of everything. Hell, he was right. If she'd known what was going to happen to her life, she would have burned down his mother's house herself. But she'd done what she'd thought would be best for him, like she always had.

She'd thought
she
would be best for him. That was why she'd been so persistent in loving him. She'd thought she could make him happy. But all she had done was create more problems for him.

He would be better off without her. She tossed another sweater in the suitcase. Candace had been sweet to buy her more things. But now she had too much.

“Why are you still packing?” he asked.

“I have a job, too,” she said. “I have a life that I can't stay away from any longer.”

“You still want to go back to Chicago?”

She nodded. She needed to go back, needed to get away from him before she fell any deeper in love with him. Before she began to imagine that they could actually have a life together. It was clear that Nick didn't want that. She wasn't even certain that he wanted to have a baby together. Or if she really would be raising their child alone.

“Give us more time,” he implored her.

“Us?” Her heart swelled with hope.

“The Payne Protection Agency,” he said. “Give us more time to figure out what you and I might have that someone wants. We'll check out the renter in Carla's house. We'll find out if he's involved in all of this.”

“Of course.”

He was talking about his family. They were the
us
. Not her and him. They had never been an
us
. And maybe it was time that she accepted that they never would be.

“Annalise?” he called her name as if he'd said it more than once.

She raised her gaze from the suitcase to his handsome face. “Will you give us time?” he asked.

She'd already given Nick her whole life. She couldn't give him any more time.

* * *

Penny had a wedding to plan. But it wasn't the one she wanted to plan. She wanted to plan Nick's to Annalise. As if thinking about him had summoned him, he appeared in the doorway to her office.

She caught a glimpse of what he must have been like as a boy, longing for love. She'd worried that he hadn't had any in his life. But after meeting Annalise Huxton, she knew he had. The girl next door had loved him her whole life.

Before she could even greet him, he said, “She's leaving.” And his voice was full of frustration and pain.

Penny pressed a hand to her heart as it leaped with fear—for the young woman and her unborn baby. “But she's in danger.”

“She's not leaving right now,” he said. “I talked her out of that. But she'll leave soon.”

“Not if you stop her.”

“I can't,” he said. “She has a great career in Chicago. She has to go back.”

Penny shook her head. “Give her a reason to stay.”

“What reason can I give her?”

“You know what reason, Nick,” she said. The most important reason. “Give her your love.”

His handsome face—so like her sons' faces—twisted into a grimace. “I don't know how.”

Her heart ached for him, for the love he'd never known. “Nick...”

He shook his head, brushing off her sympathy. “I don't know how to love someone,” he said. “You can't give what you've never received.”

“Hasn't that changed?” she asked. “Haven't we changed that for you?”

He sighed. “I think it's too late.”

“It's never too late to love someone,” she insisted.

He looked at her, his blue eyes steely, his gaze intense.

“What?” she asked uneasily. Nick could see through her like no one else ever had. Even his father had never understood her like this son of his.

“You talk about love,” he said, “but I don't think you're an expert, either. I don't think you know how to love any more than I do.”

“I know how to love,” she insisted. “I love my kids. I love you.”

“What about a man?”

“Nicholas died so many years ago.”

“Exactly,” he said. “He died years ago. You should have moved on. You should have had another relationship.”

She shivered at the thought. “I didn't need another one. I had my great love.”

“I don't think so,” he said.

“Because he cheated on me?”

“Exactly. He didn't deserve you, Penny. He betrayed your love and your trust, and I think you never had another relationship because you're afraid you'd get hurt again. You're afraid to trust again.” He stepped closer, and for once he took her hand instead of the other way around. He squeezed it gently. “I think you're afraid to love.”

She couldn't argue with him. She couldn't even stop him as he walked out of her office. But she followed him and watched as he pulled away from the chapel. She wasn't the only one. Another vehicle pulled away from the curb and trailed after his.

Was it someone from Payne Protection? She shivered and knew that it wasn't. Someone else followed Nick. He wasn't in danger of losing just his heart. He was in danger of losing his life, too.