The Bodyguard's Baby

Laura struggled in his grasp, yanking his attention back to the here and now. Nick frowned when he considered the woman he was all but dragging down the sidewalk. There was something different about her, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. She seemed softer somehow. He scowled at the path his thoughts wanted to take. He knew just how soft and delicate Laura Proctor was in all the places that made a man want a woman—except one. It took a woman with a cold, hard heart to walk away from a man who lay bleeding to death.

“You can’t do this,” Laura muttered heatedly. She scanned the sidewalks and streets. Looking for someone to call out to for help, Nick surmised.

“Who the hell do you think you are? You’re not a cop,” she added vehemently. “And I have rights!”

Anger kicked aside his foolish awareness of her as a woman and resurrected more bitter memories. Nick paused, then jerked her closer, his brutal hold eliciting a muffled yelp of pain, or maybe fear, at the moment he didn’t really care which. “When somebody put a bullet into my chest and you left me to die, you lost your rights as far as I’m concerned.”

Seconds ticked by as Laura tried her best to stare him down, her sky blue gaze watery behind thick lashes. She could cry a river of tears and he would still feel no sympathy for her. Nick mercilessly ignored the vulnerability peeking past that drop-dead stare, and turned the intimidation up a couple of notches. Laura’s defiant expression wilted.

His point made, Nick escorted her the last few steps to the car. After unlocking the driver’s side door, he pulled it open and ushered Laura inside. Her long blond hair trailed over his hand, momentarily distracting him and making his groin tighten. He squeezed his hand into a fist and forced away the unwanted desire. He had come here to take her back, not take up where they had left off. Laura Proctor would never make a fool of him again. And this time, he would be the one walking away.

As he had anticipated, once in the car she bolted for the passenger side. With a smug smile, Nick slid behind the wheel and started the engine, almost drowning out her surprised gasp when she couldn’t open the door.

“You bastard,” she snarled, her eyes unnaturally dark with anger. Her breasts rose and fell with her every frustrated breath. “This is kidnapping!”

Nick’s smile widened into a grin of pure satisfaction. “Consider it a citizen’s arrest,” he offered. Before he could back out of the parking slot Laura flew at him, a clawing, kicking tangle of arms and legs.

Nick shoved the gearshift back into park. After several seconds of heated battle he subdued her, but not without a slash across his throat from her nails. He shook her, none too gently. “Look,” he ground out. “I’m trying not to hurt you.”

“Sure,” she hissed. “You don’t want to hurt me, you just want to get me killed.”

For one fleeting instant Nick allowed himself to feel her fear. There had supposedly been a couple of attempts on her life two years ago. Could she still be in danger? Even now, after all she had put him through, Nick’s gut clenched at the thought. Hell, he couldn’t say for sure that there had ever been any real danger in the first place. According to the reports he had been privy to, Laura had possessed a wild streak, not to mention an overactive imagination. Her older brother, Mississippi’s esteemed Governor, was always getting her out of one scrape or another. Who was to say that the whole thing was anything more than her vivid imagination? And the guy she had been romantically linked to back then was over the edge in Nick’s opinion. He doubted her poor taste in associates had changed since.

Nick swallowed hard at the thought of Laura with another man.

Did he care?

No, he told himself. The lie, unspoken, soured in his throat.

“You don’t have to worry, Laura. I’m taking you back home, to your brother. I’m—”

“My brother?” She quickly retreated to the passenger side of the car, as far away from Nick as possible. “I can’t go back home! Don’t you understand? It’s not safe.”

Nick leveled a ruthless gaze on her panicked one. Her lower lip quivered beneath his visual assault, he suppressed the emotion that instantly clutched at his chest. How could she look so innocent? So truly frightened for her life? And, damn him, how could he still care? “You don’t have an option. In fact, if you’ll remember correctly, the last time you were supposedly in danger I’m the one who almost bought the farm.”

Something in her eyes changed, softened with what looked like regret. But it was too late for that now. Way too late.

Their gazes still locked, Nick shifted to reverse. “Buckle up, baby, we’re out of here,” he ground out, then glanced over his shoulder before backing into the street.

Laura Proctor was going back to face her brother and the law. Nick had every intention of uncovering the real story about what happened their last day together at her brother’s cabin as well. Protecting Laura and seeing her safely returned to the new Governor after the election two years ago had been Nick’s assignment. But things had gone wrong fast, and Laura was hiding at least part of the answers.

Including the part where she recognized the man who almost killed Nick. The one she had obviously disappeared with that same day. Ironic, Nick thought wryly, that he had found her and would be delivering her to her brother right after an election—just two years later than planned.

LAURA HAD TO DO something. Nick, the arrogant bastard, was going to get her killed. She glared at his perfect profile and winced inwardly. God, the man was breathtaking. It hurt to look at him and know what she knew. He had haunted her dreams every night for the past two years. He’d ruined her for anyone else. A dozen snippets of memory flashed before her eyes. The way it felt to be held by Nick. The way he made love to her. Her heart squeezed with remembered pain. He had been fully prepared to give his life to protect hers. Yet she could never trust him with her secret, and she sure couldn’t go back to Jackson with him.

The small sense of relief Laura had felt when she had realized the man holding the gun on her was Nick instead of some hired killer died a sure and swift death when he announced why he had tracked her down.

He still wanted to finish the job he had been assigned two years ago, to return her safely to her brother. And that was exactly the reason Laura had not been able to go to Nick for help. He was too honorable a man to ignore his responsibility to James Ed. No way would Nick have done things Laura’s way. He took his job way too seriously.

She had always known that Nick could have found her eventually if he had really wanted to—but he hadn’t. He had apparently stopped trying. Unlike James Ed’s men, whom she gave the slip without much difficulty, Nick wouldn’t be so easy. He was too damned good, the best. If anyone could have caught Laura during the past two years, he could have. Why now, she wondered, after all this time? But the answer to that question didn’t really matter at the moment. Right now Laura desperately needed to think of something fast. Something that would give her an opportunity to escape. She glared at the space where the unlock button used to be, and then at the useless door handle he had somehow disabled. Nick Foster was just a little too smart for his own good.

And hers.

Well, Laura decided, she hadn’t eluded her brother this long without being pretty smart herself. She would find a way. Going back to James Ed was suicide. And she could never allow anyone—especially Nick—to discover her secret. She had to protect Robby at all costs. Even if after getting Robby settled some place safe it meant going back to her brother, Laura would do it to lead any threat away from her child.

She would never let anyone harm her son.

Never.

But how would Doc know what had happened to her? Would Mrs. Leeton be able to take care of Robby if Laura never returned? Unsettled by the thought, Laura snapped from her disturbing contemplation, and realized that they were already headed out of town.

To Jackson.

Desperation crowded her throat.

She needed to go back to Mrs. Leeton’s house first.

To her son. She couldn’t leave without making some sort of arrangements.

There was no other option at the moment.

“We have to go back,” she said quickly.

“Forget it.” Nick’s focus remained steady on the road. A muscle flexed in his square jaw, the only visible indication of his own tension.

Laura frantically groped for some reasonable explanation he would find acceptable for turning around. Nothing came. A new kind of fear mushroomed inside her. She had to think of something.

Now!

“My baby!” she blurted when the Please Come Again sign loomed closer. “I have to get my baby.”

Nick threw a suspicious glance in her direction. “What baby?” he asked, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

“My…I have…a son,” she admitted, defeat sucking the heart from her chest. How would she ever protect her baby?

Nick’s expression shifted from suspicious to incredulous. “I’m not falling for any of your tricks, Laura.”

Trembling with the crazy mixture of emotions flooding her body, Laura swiped at the tears she had only just noticed were slipping down her cheeks. Dammit, why did she have to cry? She was supposed to be tough—had to be tough. “Please take me back, Nick. I have to get my son,” she pleaded, any hope of appearing even remotely tough dashed.

Something, some emotion, flitted across his handsome face so fast Laura couldn’t quite read it. She fought to ignore what looked entirely too much like hurt that remained. She knew just how much Nick had suffered because of her. He had almost died. She winced inwardly at the memory. But she couldn’t permit herself to feel any sympathy for him. He certainly harbored none for her. She had to stay focused on keeping her son safe. Robby was all that really mattered. And she could never allow Nick to suspect the truth about her child.

Laura didn’t even want to imagine what Nick would do if he found out he had a son.

A child she had kept from him for almost two years.

NICK PARKED the rented sedan on the street in front of the small white frame house Laura identified as belonging to a Mrs. Leeton. Emotions churned in his gut. What was it to him if Laura Proctor had gotten herself pregnant since he had last seen her? Or, hell, maybe even shortly before he had met her.

Nothing.

Less than nothing, he reiterated for good measure.

She had simply been an assignment back then, and Nick’s sole motivation for taking her back to her brother now was to clear up his record. Laura Proctor represented a black mark on his otherwise perfect record, and he was about to wipe it clean. If he had kept his head on straight back then he wouldn’t have screwed up the assignment in the first place. And he sure as hell wouldn’t have allowed himself to believe the woman almost virginal. What a joke.

On him.

Nick reached for the door handle, but Laura grabbed his arm. He stared for a long moment at the small, pale hand clutching at him before he met her fearful gaze. “What?” he growled.

“Please don’t do this, Nick,” she begged. “Please just walk away. Pretend you never saw me.” She moistened her full, lush lips and blinked back the tears shining in her eyes. “Please, just let us go.”

“Save your breath, Laura.” A muscle jumped in his jaw, keeping time with the pounding in his skull. Don’t even think about feeling sorry for her, man, he reminded himself. You let your guard down once and it almost cost you your life. “Nothing you can say will change my mind,” he added, the recall of Laura’s betrayal making his tone harsh.

Her desperate grip tightened on the sleeve of his jacket. “You don’t understand. He’ll kill me, and maybe even my son.” She squeezed her eyes shut, her breath hitched as it slipped past her pink lips. “Oh, God, what am I going to do?”

Nick tamped down the surge of protectiveness that surfaced where Laura was concerned. His chest tightened with an emotion he refused to label. He focused his attention on the street and dredged up the memory of waking up alone and barely alive in the hospital. “Who will kill you, Laura? The guy you watched put a bullet in me before you ran away?” He turned back to her then, the look of pain in her eyes giving him perverse pleasure. “Just how far were you willing to go to cause your brother trouble? Was it all just some kind of game to you?”

Her eyes closed again, fresh tears trickled down those soft cheeks. She was good. She looked the picture of innocence and sweetness. He almost laughed at that. Obviously the hotshot she had been involved with two years ago, or someone since had left her with an unexpected gift. Maybe it had been the guy who had put the bullet in Nick. Laura Proctor would have a hell of a time promoting that innocent act with an illegitimate baby on her hip. Well, that wasn’t his problem, even if the thought did make some prehistoric territorial male gene rage inside him.

“Are we going in, or do we head straight for Jackson?” he demanded impatiently, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel for effect.

Laura brushed her cheek with the back of her hand. “I want to get my son first,” she murmured, defeat sagging her slim shoulders.

“Well, let’s do it then,” he shot back, trying his level best not to think about Laura having sex with another man, much less having the man’s child. Damn, he shouldn’t care.

But, somehow, he still did.

Nick called himself every kind of fool as he emerged from the car, years of training overriding his distraction as he surveyed their surroundings. Vine was a short, dead-end street dotted with half a dozen small frame houses. A dog barked at one of the houses on the far end of the quiet street. Two driveways had vehicles parked in them, indicating someone could be home. Either Mrs. Leeton didn’t own a car or she wasn’t home, he noted after another scan of the house before them. Nick reached beneath his jacket and adjusted the weapon at the small of his back. There was no way of knowing what to expect next out of Laura or the people with whom she associated.

Laura scrambled out of the car and into the vee created by his body and the open car door. It took Nick a full five seconds to check his body’s reaction at her nearness. Laura’s gaze collided with his, the startled expression in her eyes giving away her own physical reaction. Nick breathed a crude, four-letter word. Laura shrank from him as if he had slapped her. He didn’t want to feel any of this, he only wanted to do what had to be done. But his male equipment obviously had other ideas.

“I know you’ll never believe me, but it didn’t happen the way you think,” Laura said softly, defeatedly. She looked so vulnerable in that worn denim jacket that was at least two sizes too big, the overlong sleeves rolled up so that her small hands just barely peeked out. But the faded denim encasing her tiny waist and slender hips was breath-stealingly snug, as was the dirt-streaked T-shirt that snuggled against her breasts.

Nick swallowed hard and lifted his gaze to the face he had never wanted to see again, yet prayed with all his heart he would find just around the next corner. For months after her disappearance his heart rate had accelerated at the sight of any woman on the street with hair the color of spun gold and whose walk or build reminded him of Laura. Each time, hoping he had found her, his disappointment had proven devastating. And now she stood right before him, alive and every bit as beautiful as the day he had first laid eyes on her. Could he have found her long ago had he truly wanted to? Or was believing the possibility that she was dead or, at the very least, lost to him forever simply easier?

Victoria had ordered him to stop looking for Laura. Her own brother had believed her dead. But Nick had never fully believed it. Yet he had stopped looking all the same. If she was alive and she didn’t want to contact him, he wasn’t going after her. Then Ray had called and the need for revenge had blotted out all else.

A wisp of hair fluttered against her soft, creamy cheek and Nick resisted the urge to touch her there. To wrap those golden strands around his fingers and then allow his thumb to slide over her full, lush lips.

“Please don’t make me go back, Nick,” she said, shattering the trance he had slipped into.

Briefly he wondered if she still felt it too, then chastised himself for even allowing the thought to materialize. Laura Proctor had no warm, fuzzy feelings for him. Actions speak louder than words, Nick reminded the part of him that stupidly clung to hope, and her actions had been crystal clear two years ago. She had left him to die.

“If you want to pick up your kid, I would suggest that you do it before I lose patience,” he snapped, using his anger to fight the other crazy, mixed-up emotions roiling inside him.

“Yes,” she murmured. “I want to pick up my son.” She looked away, then reached up to sweep the tendrils of hair from her face.

The ugly slash on the inside of her wrist caught Nick’s eye. He captured that hand in his and forced her to allow him to inspect it. He clenched his jaw at the memory that she had allegedly tried to commit suicide only a few weeks before they had met. But the woman he had known for such a short time in that quiet cabin by the river would never have done anything like that. She had been too full of life and anticipation of what came next. She wouldn’t have walked away leaving him to die, either—but Laura had.

And that was the bottom line: she couldn’t be trusted.

His hold on her hand bordering brutal, Nick led Laura up the walk and across the porch of the silent house. The whole damned street looked and felt deserted. He glanced down at the woman at his side. If this turned out to be a ploy of some sort, she would definitely regret it. He nodded at her questioning look, and she rapped against the door.

Laura held her breath as she waited for Mrs. Leeton, a retired nurse, to answer the door. The woman was old and riddled with arthritis, so Laura waited as patiently as she could for the key to turn in the lock. Until three years ago, Mrs. Leeton had worked with Doc for what seemed like forever. When Laura showed up a week ago needing Doc’s help, he had asked Mrs. Leeton to take Laura and Robby in. The elderly woman had readily agreed. Laura hadn’t really liked the idea of leaving Robby alone with Mrs. Leeton this morning, but what else could she do? Mrs. Leeton had insisted that Doc needed Laura right away.

When the door’s lock finally turned, anxiety tightened Laura’s chest and that breath she had been holding seeped out of its own accord. Would Nick recognize his own child? Would he demand that she turn his son over to him? Nick wasn’t the same man she had known two years ago. He was harder now, colder.

Would he take Robby to get back at her? Or would he simply take him out of fear for his son’s well-being? Just another reason she could never have turned to Nick for help no matter how bad things got. James Ed had convinced Nick and everyone else that she was mentally unstable. Nick would never in a million years have allowed a woman considered mentally unstable to raise his son. He would have taken Robby, Laura knew it with all her heart.

Oh, God, was she doing the wrong thing by even coming back here? Why didn’t she just let Nick take her back to Jackson without mentioning Robby? Doc would have taken care of her baby until Laura could figure out a way to escape…if she figured out a way.

The door creaked open a bit and old Mrs. Leeton peered through the narrow gap. Laura frowned at the look of distrust and caution in the woman’s eyes. Did she not recognize Laura? That was impossible. Laura and Robby had been living here for a week. The idea was ludicrous. Hysteria was obviously affecting Laura’s judgment.

“Mrs. Leeton, I’ve had a change in plans. I have to leave right away,” Laura told her as calmly as she could. “Please let Doc know for me. I just—” she glanced at the brooding man at her side “—need to get Robby and we’ll be on our way.”

“Who are you and what do you want?”

Alarm rushed through Laura’s veins at the unexpected question. “Mrs. Leeton, it’s me, Laura. I’ve come back to get Robby. Please let me in.” Nick shifted beside her, but Laura didn’t take her eyes off the old woman. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

“I don’t know who you are or what you want, but if you don’t leave I’m going to call the police,” Mrs. Leeton said crossly.

Outright panic slammed into Laura then. “I need to get my son.” Ignoring her protests, Laura pushed past the woman and into her living room. Nick apparently followed. Laura was vaguely aware of his soothing tone as he tried to placate the shrieking old woman.

“Robby!” Laura rushed from room to room, her heart pounding harder and harder. Oh God, oh God, oh God. He’s not here. The cold, hard reality raced through her veins. Laura shook her head as if to deny the words that formed in her head. No, that can’t be! She had left him here less than an hour ago. It can’t be!

Laura turned around in the middle of the living room, slowly surveying the floor and furniture for any evidence of her son.

Nothing.

Not one single toy or diaper. Not the first item that would indicate that her son had ever even been there.

He was gone.

She could feel the emptiness.

Frantic, Laura pressed her fist to her lips, then looked from Nick, who was staring at her with a peculiar expression, to the old woman who glared at her accusingly. Laura clasped her hands in front of her as she drew in a long, shaky breath. “Mrs. Leeton, please, where is my baby?”

The old woman’s gaze narrowed, something distinctly evil flashed in her eyes. “Like I said before, I don’t know you, and there is no baby here. There has never been a baby here.”

Chapter Two

“There’s no need to call the police, Mrs. Leeton,” Nick assured the agitated old woman. He shot a pointed look at Laura. “We’ve obviously made a mistake.”

Laura jerked out of his grasp. “I’m not leaving without my son!” She grabbed the old woman’s shoulders, forcing Mrs. Leeton to look directly at her. “Mrs. Leeton, why are you doing this? Where’s Robby? Who took him?”

“Get out! Get out!” the old woman screeched. “Or I’ll call the police!”

“We’re leaving right now.” Nick carefully, but firmly, pulled Laura away from the protesting old woman. “Now,” he repeated when she resisted.

“I can’t go without my baby.” The haunted look on Laura’s face tore at Nick’s already scarred heart. “She’s lying. She knows where he is!” Laura insisted. Her eyes, huge and round with panic, overflowed with the emotion ripping at her own heart. How could he not believe her?

But he had trusted her once before….

Nick forced his gaze from Laura to the old woman. “I apologize for the confusion, Mrs. Leeton.” He tightened his grip on Laura when she fought his hold. “We won’t bother you again.” This time Nick snaked his left arm around Laura’s waist and pulled her against him. His gaze connected with hers and he warned her with his eyes that she had better listen up. “We’re leaving—now,” he ground out for emphasis. Laura sagged against him, emotion shaking her petite frame.

“If that crazy girl sets foot back on my property I’m calling the police!” Mrs. Leeton shouted behind them.

Nick didn’t respond to her threat. He had no intention of returning to the woman’s house. If Laura had a son, he wasn’t here, that much was clear.

Laura clung helplessly to Nick as he strode back to the rental car, her violent sobs rattling him like nothing else in the past two years had. He automatically tuned out the intensifying pain radiating from his knee upward. He didn’t have time for that now. He glanced down at the woman at his side. Whether she had a child and where that child might be was not his concern. He ignored the instant protest that tightened his chest. Taking her back to James Ed was all he came to do, Nick reminded himself. Laura had a brother, an influential brother, who could help her with whatever personal problems—real or imagined—she might have.