Bodyguard's Baby Surprise
Maybe coming here—even to see Gage—had been a mistake. He would want to know who the father was. And she couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t tell anyone.
“Gage isn’t here,” Logan said. “He left for an assignment this morning.”
Even as disappointment flashed through her, she breathed a little sigh of relief. She wanted to see her brother—wanted to see for herself that he was all right. But she didn’t want to have to answer his questions any more than he probably wanted to answer hers.
“When will he be back?” she asked. Eventually he would have to know that he was going to be an uncle in a few months. But that wasn’t the reason she needed to see her brother. She wasn’t even here to make sure he was all right. He was back. He was working. He was probably fine.
Annalise was the one who needed help.
Logan shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Days. Maybe weeks. As long as the person he’s protecting is in danger.”
For her, it had been months. She’d been in danger since that night Nick had showed up in Chicago. That couldn’t be a coincidence. He must have gotten her in trouble somehow—in more ways than one. Because someone had spent the past six months stalking her.
* * *
Logan Payne had been running Payne Protection long enough to recognize when someone was in trouble. Annalise Huxton was in trouble. The fear was in her pale face, her wide green eyes. She was scared.
He silently cursed himself for sending her brother away. He could pull Gage off the assignment, though. He could bring him back and send someone else.
A small hand squeezed his forearm. “Let me take Gage’s place,” Nikki said. She must have recognized what he’d seen. She was intuitive. But she was too little, too young, too fragile to do their job.
“You don’t work for me anymore,” he reminded her. “You went to work for Cooper.”
She thought she could manipulate Cooper more easily than him or Parker. But he doubted Cooper would hand her any assignments more dangerous than the desk jobs Logan had given her.
His sister glared at him, and he was used to it. She hadn’t been happy with him for a while. So he wasn’t surprised that when he split up the protection agency, she’d chosen to leave the franchise he was keeping.
“Annalise needs to see her brother,” Nikki said. “He was missing for months.” She glanced at Cooper then—and there was no glare on her pretty face.
Maybe that was why she’d asked to work for him—because she’d missed him so much when he’d been deployed.
“It’s fine,” Annalise said. But the crack in her voice made it sound as if she was anything but fine. “I’ll see him when he comes back.”
“Will you stay in River City and wait for him?” Nikki asked.
“I—I could check into a hotel,” Annalise said. “I haven’t yet.”
Logan wondered why. Had she worried about her reception from Gage? Or had something—or someone else—made her afraid of staying?
“I don’t know how long he’ll be gone,” Logan reminded her.
“Maybe I could stay at Gage’s place,” Annalise murmured.
“He’s been staying with Agent Rus,” Nikki said.
Would his sister ever accept that Nick was their brother? Logan hadn’t been happy, either, to learn their father had betrayed their mother. But he hadn’t blamed Nick.
Annalise’s face paled even more, and she quickly said, “I can’t stay there.”
From what Logan had been told, Gage had grown up next door to Nick in Chicago—making them as close as brothers. Obviously Annalise hadn’t felt any more like a sister to Nick than Nikki did.
“You can stay with me,” Nikki offered. She must have recognized what Logan had—Annalise was scared. Or maybe she just liked that Annalise wasn’t a fan of Nick’s, either.
But the blonde shook her head. “I couldn’t impose.”
“No imposition at all,” Nikki assured her. “Did a cab drop you here?” She glanced around as if looking for bags.
Annalise shook her head again. “I drove my car. It’s not that far a drive from Chicago.”
“So you’re parked out front?” Nikki asked. “I am, too. You can follow me back to my place and we’ll get you settled in.”
“And I’ll see about sending a replacement for Gage so he can come back early,” Logan offered. If Annalise was as scared as he suspected she was, she needed family. She needed her brother.
Nikki held open the door for her, and Annalise walked out with his sister. They were gone for only a moment when he heard the scream and the squeal of tires.
As usual, his instincts had been right—Annalise was in danger. And that danger had followed her to River City. He drew his weapon, just as his brothers had, and the three of them rushed out to the street. But they hadn’t reacted quickly enough—because gunshots rang out.
They were too late.
Chapter 2
Nick’s heart hammered against his ribs as fear and panic overwhelmed him. He flashed his shield and hurried past hospital security—into the ER waiting room. Logan and Cooper rushed up to him.
“Where is she?” he asked. “And how badly is she hurt?” She had to be hurt or they wouldn’t have brought her here. His panic intensified and pressed on his lungs, stealing his breath.
Logan shook his head. Was it so bad that he couldn’t answer him?
“We don’t know yet,” Logan said. “A doctor is checking her out.”
“What happened?” he asked. What was she even doing in River City? Gage hadn’t called her, and it sounded as if his email to her had been brief. Had she come to visit Nick?
Six months had passed since that night. Six months with no contact, which had been unusual for her. Before, she had always called or texted or emailed him to see how he was doing. But not this time.
Not after what he’d done...
No. She hadn’t come to visit him.
Logan shrugged. “We didn’t see it. She and Nikki had stepped outside...” He pushed his hand through his black hair. “But I knew she was in danger.”
“How?” Nick asked.
“She looked scared,” Logan said.
What the hell did Annalise have to fear? Then Nick remembered that house—his mother’s house—and how badly it had been ransacked, like his place kept getting ransacked. He shook his head. It couldn’t be related. His mother’s house had sat vacant for months. That was why someone had broken into it.
“Thanks for calling me,” Nick said.
“I was going to call Gage,” Logan admitted. “But Cooper told me to call you instead.”
Nick spared Cooper a glance of gratitude. Even though Gage hadn’t spoken of it yet, Cooper, as a Marine himself, must have sensed what Gage had been through and understood that he hadn’t been ready to see his sister. And how would he handle her being hurt? Even Nick couldn’t handle it.
“I’m glad I’m the one you called,” Nick said.
“Annalise won’t be,” Nikki said as she walked into the waiting room through a door marked No Admittance. She had come from inside the hospital, maybe inside the ER.
“Where is she?” he anxiously asked. He had to see her—had to make certain she was all right.
“She doesn’t want to see you,” his half sister said. Even though she couldn’t stand him, she probably wasn’t lying.
Because of what had happened—and his silence for the past six months—he could understand if she never wanted to see him again.
But she was Annalise, always so warm and affectionate. Surely she would forgive him...even if he would never be able to forgive himself.
* * *
Annalise’s head pounded as images flashed through her mind. It had all happened so quickly. She had walked outside with Nikki, only to find two men breaking into her car.
Not again...
Frustrated and angry, she had reacted without thinking. She’d run across the street to stop them. The moment she’d crossed the road, she had realized her mistake. She had gotten too close. One of them had reached out, wrapped a huge hand around her arm and jerked her toward the open back door of her car.
She’d screamed then. And shots had rung out—fired from close range and also from across the street. She had struggled harder, fighting for herself and her baby. She had to get away. If she left with them...
The car started away from the curb, but she was half in and half out, her feet touching the road. She reached up and clawed at the face of the man holding her. He howled and released her, and she tumbled to the asphalt.
She pressed trembling hands over the mound of her belly. What had she done? She had been so stupid to run toward the car—so careless. What if her baby had been harmed?
Her belly shifted beneath her palms as her baby moved. At her last regular OB appointment, she’d had an ultrasound, but the doctor hadn’t been able to determine the sex. Annalise didn’t care what she was having—just that the baby was healthy. He or she had to be okay.
Annalise had been scared when she’d found out she was pregnant—scared that she wouldn’t be able to handle raising a child alone. But she had never been as scared as she was now—not even when that man had grabbed her. Her heart pounded frantically, making the machine next to her bed beep faster. The curtain partitioning her bed off from the rest of the ER rustled. The doctor must have returned with the ultrasound results.
“Is my baby okay?” she asked.
“Baby?” a deep voice, gruff with emotion, repeated the word.
Her heart rate sped faster as she glanced up into Nick’s handsome face. While he looked like every one of the male Paynes—with his chiseled features, thick black hair and startlingly blue eyes, she had no doubt that this man was Nick—for so many reasons.
First, that quickening of her pulse—that tingling of her skin. She reacted to Nick as she had no one else. Second, he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. His eyes were bluer than his brothers’, his features sharper, his jaw squarer. Finally, the other men had all seen her and knew she was pregnant. It was clear that Nick had had no idea. Those bluer blue eyes were wide with shock as he stared down at her belly.
“You’re pregnant?”
She splayed her hands across her belly, but she couldn’t hide it from him. So she nodded.
“Is it mine?”
A gasp slipped through her lips—that he would ask, that he wouldn’t just know. She didn’t sleep around. She wouldn’t have slept with him six months ago if she had been involved with anyone else at the time.
Or would she have?
She had wanted Nick for so long—even before she’d known what desire was. When he had finally returned that desire, she hadn’t been able to resist and probably wouldn’t have even if she’d been in a relationship at the time. But thanks to Nick—and always wanting him—she’d had few relationships. No ordinary man or high school boyfriend or college crush had been able to measure up to the hero she had made Nicholas Rus out to be in her girlish fantasies.
Nick was no hero, though. He was just a man—a man who’d always made it clear he didn’t like anyone getting too close to him. And until that night six months ago, he had never let Annalise too close.
Before she could answer him, the curtain rustled again, and another man joined them. His light green scrubs hung on his tall, thin frame. The young ER doctor glanced at her and then at Nick as if trying to gauge the relationship.
“Is she all right?” Nick asked. And his gaze skimmed over more than her belly now. He looked at her face, and his breath audibly caught at the scrape on her cheek. He reached out, but his fingers fell just short of touching her.
“Is the baby all right?” she asked. The baby was all she cared about. She didn’t care about her car. It wasn’t the first one she’d had stolen.
She’d been so stupid to risk her pregnancy over a damn car...
The doctor glanced at Nick again—as if wondering if he could speak freely in front of him. Damn HIPAA laws. She didn’t care about her privacy right now.
“Please,” she implored him. “Tell me!”
The baby shifted again. He or she had to be okay, or he wouldn’t move like he was. Right?
“Your baby is fine, Ms. Huxton,” the doctor assured her. “It appears that when you fell out of the vehicle, you fell on your side.”
Nick flinched as if he’d taken a blow.
“Your shoulder took the brunt of the force,” he continued, “and it appears you’ve struck your head, as well. You have a slight concussion.”
That explained why her head kept throbbing so painfully. She lifted her fingers to her temple. “But the baby... Is he or she...” They hadn’t been able to determine the sex on this ultrasound screen, either. The tiny legs had been crossed again. “ ...all right?” She needed that reassurance, needed to know that her recklessness hadn’t put her pregnancy at risk.
The doctor reached out, and his fingers did touch her, squeezing her hand. “The baby is fine. Strong heartbeat. Active. All properly developed for twenty-four weeks.”
She uttered a sigh of relief. “Then I can leave?”
The doctor pulled his hand away. “I’m not concerned about the baby,” he said. “But I do have concerns about your concussion.”
“There’s no reason for concern.” She shook her head but winced as pain reverberated inside her skull. Maybe she did have a concussion. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Nick said. “You’ve been hurt.”
He would know. He had done it. But he wasn’t referring to his breaking her heart. He probably wasn’t even aware that he had.
“The address you provided for your intake paperwork says that you live in Chicago,” the doctor said. “You definitely cannot drive that distance, or really at all, for at least twenty-four hours.”
A giggle bubbled up inside her, but not wanting to sound or become hysterical, she suppressed it. “I have no car to drive,” she said. “It was stolen.”
“Is that what happened?” Nick asked. “You were carjacked?” He uttered a slight sigh, almost as if he was relieved.
Surprised by his reaction, she stared at him.
“Logan made it sound like something else,” he explained. “Like it wasn’t random.”
She doubted it was random. After everything else that had happened, it would have been too much of a coincidence. But she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to share with Nick. He had already proved to her that she shouldn’t have trusted him—with her heart, and maybe not with anything else.
“You shouldn’t drive,” the doctor repeated as if they hadn’t spoken. “And you should not be alone tonight.”
“She won’t be alone,” Nick said. “She’s going home with me.”
She gasped. “No.” But before she could finish her protest—that there was no way in hell she would go home with him—the doctor and Nick both turned to her.
“I’m sure you’d rather not stay in the hospital,” Nick surmised—correctly. And of course, he knew the only way the doctor would release her was if he believed she would not be alone.
Damn him. He’d always had an uncanny ability to know what other people wanted or needed—except her. He had never known how much she’d wanted him—needed him—until that one night.
But that night had been an aberration. He hadn’t realized how much she’d needed him after that—more than she ever had. Or maybe he’d known and hadn’t cared.
What was different now?
The baby? He must have realized the child Annalise was carrying was his.
* * *
“She doesn’t want to go home with you,” Nikki said.
Special Agent Rus flinched as if she’d struck him. She had watched the man take a blow and even a bullet without ever betraying an ounce of fear. But this caused him pain. Annalise Huxton caused him pain.
“She doesn’t,” he agreed with a glance to the door of the bathroom where Annalise was changing from the hospital gown back into her clothes. They were torn and stained from her tussle with the men and the asphalt. And thanks to Nikki letting them get away with her vehicle, those clothes were all she had in River City.
Nikki flinched now. Maybe her brothers were right. Maybe she wasn’t cut out to be a bodyguard. She hadn’t reacted fast enough.
“I told her she could stay with me,” she said. But now she wondered if that was a good idea—if she could keep the pregnant woman safe.
“I appreciate the offer,” he said.
She opened her mouth to point out that she hadn’t made the offer to him when he continued, “And I appreciate you saving her from the carjackers.”
Her face heated now as it flushed with embarrassment. “I didn’t,” she said.
“But Logan said you exchanged gunfire with them.”
“I did,” she said. She had gotten off a couple of shots and might even have hit one of them. “But Annalise got free on her own. She’s tougher than she looks.” Just like Nikki had always tried to convince her brothers she was tougher than she looked. “Maybe that’s why she ran toward them when she saw them stealing her car.”
“She ran toward the carjackers?” he asked, his face paling with fear as he probably imagined all the horrible things that could have happened—that Nikki had almost let happen.
She nodded. “Just before she did, she mumbled something about not again. Her car has been stolen before. Once would be random. But twice?”
When Nikki had joined her brothers in the waiting room, Logan had said he’d sensed she was in danger. Logan was rarely ever wrong—except about Nikki. Or at least she’d like to think so?
“That’s why she’s going home with me,” Nick said, his square jaw clenched with grim determination.
“You didn’t know, did you?” she asked.
He arched a dark brow.
“That she’s carrying your kid.”
His face flushed now, and he shook his head.
“Maybe it’s good that you were named after our father,” she said. “Apparently you’re the most like him.” Of course, she had been named for him, too—something she resented nearly as much as she resented Nicholas Rus’s existence.
Rus flinched again, and a twinge of regret struck Nikki. Giving him a hard time had become more of a habit to her than anything else. It wasn’t like she hated him—like everyone else thought.
Sure, she wasn’t happy with how he had come into their lives and turned them upside down—especially Mom’s. But apparently Mom had always known that her husband had cheated on her. Was any man worthy of a woman’s trust?
Annalise stepped out of the bathroom, and she looked up at Rus with mistrust. Then she gazed at Nikki, imploring. Nikki wanted to offer her hospitality again. But after the incident in the street, she wasn’t certain she could keep the woman and her unborn baby safe.
“I want a full report about what happened and descriptions of the men,” Agent Rus told her.
She would have bristled at his bossiness. But she understood why he was. He’d been running the police department since coming to River City to clean up the corruption. Apparently he thought she worked for him. But his demand wasn’t unreasonable. She intended to do more than fill out a report. She intended to track down the men herself. They wouldn’t get away from her again.
“I also want you to come down to the station and look through mug shots,” he said, “if you think you would recognize the men if you saw them again.”
She nodded in agreement. “Sure. I would.”
“I could look at the mug shots, too,” Annalise offered.
Nick shook his head. “You have a concussion. You need to rest. Once the doctor brings your release papers, I’m taking you home.”
Annalise glanced at her again—with that imploring gaze. And Nikki’s stomach knotted. She hated to disappoint Annalise, but she didn’t want to endanger her, either. “I’d better get going,” she said as she hurried out.
In case her brothers were still in the waiting room, she bypassed it and took the elevator to the underground parking garage. She didn’t want to see her family again. She’d already spoken to them once—to assure them that Annalise was all right. They’d been so concerned about her that they hadn’t questioned Nikki. And she hadn’t looked at them. She didn’t want to look at them now. She didn’t want to see the I told you so on Logan’s face, didn’t want to see the doubt on Cooper’s. She didn’t want him second-guessing hiring her.
Tears stung her eyes, blurring the elevator doors. But then they slid open, and she stepped into the parking structure. She had been in such a rush to follow the ambulance to the hospital that she couldn’t remember where she’d parked. Which floor had it been?
She walked through the structure, looking for her black coupe. Logan hadn’t given her a black SUV like he had everyone else who worked for him—probably because he hadn’t wanted bad guys blowing her up when they meant to blow up one of her brothers instead.
She uttered a regretful sigh as she remembered the men who’d lost their lives when one of their SUVs had exploded. Someone had been trying to kill Parker and had nearly succeeded. Tears stung her eyes again, and she blinked furiously. When her vision cleared, she realized what she’d found. Not her coupe but them.
Nikki had known she would recognize the men if she saw them again. Unfortunately they glanced up, furtively—from the black SUV they were trying to jimmy open—and saw her.
They clearly recognized her, as well. She reached for her weapon—realizing too late that she’d locked it in the glove box because she’d known she wouldn’t make it past hospital security with it.
So she was unarmed and outnumbered.
Chapter 3
Nick cursed himself for not just leaving his SUV parked illegally outside the emergency room entrance. He should have exercised his authority, so that security wouldn’t have dared to have his vehicle towed away. But he hadn’t been thinking after Logan’s call. He’d been so anxious to get to her—so anxious to see Annalise for himself. He’d pulled into the first available spot in the garage and run up the stairs to the ER. Now he struggled to remember where he’d parked.
He didn’t want to leave Annalise alone long—waiting in a wheelchair in the lobby. She’d looked so pale sitting there, so fragile. Even pregnant, she was still slight because of her small frame, narrow shoulders, thin arms and long, slender legs. Dark circles rimmed her green eyes, as if she hadn’t been sleeping well because she’d been afraid. Logan had noticed her fear. Nick saw it now, the fear and the vulnerability. Nikki had told him Annalise was tougher than she looked—that she’d saved herself. Of course, she was a Huxton. Gage wouldn’t have survived being missing in action for months if he wasn’t tough, too.
At least Annalise wasn’t alone in the lobby. Or just with hospital security, either. Logan and Cooper stood over her chair, offering more protection than Nick had thought she’d get from some nervous hospital security guard. She was safe.
He wasn’t as certain about Logan and Cooper. Annalise was furious. She didn’t want to go home with him. And she hadn’t wanted to ride in the wheelchair, let alone having to wait in it until he pulled his vehicle up to the lobby doors. His half brothers probably had a fight on their hands to keep her in the chair and make her wait for him.
She might see this as her opportunity to call a cab to take her home to Chicago. Her home was in Chicago; his wasn’t. He had never felt as if that house or anyplace else he’d lived was home. The only time he’d ever felt as if he was home was when he’d been with Annalise. When he’d given in to his desire to kiss her, he’d worried that it might have been awkward. They’d known each other so long.
But it hadn’t felt awkward. It had felt right and passionate and thrilling. And he hadn’t been able to stop. But he’d felt most at home buried deep inside her body.
Had they made a child that night? Twenty-four weeks ago. The doctor had said that was how far along her pregnancy was. However, Annalise had never confirmed her baby was his.
But he knew...
Annalise carried his child. And she hadn’t called him. She hadn’t told him about the pregnancy. Or that she was in danger.
She probably wouldn’t be waiting for him to come back with his vehicle. She had no intention of staying with him. So he quickened his step, running toward his SUV just as he’d run toward the ER earlier.