GROOM UNDER FIRE

by Lisa Childs

  Truthfully, she couldn’t. She missed him already. She’d gotten so used to him sticking close to her. But that was because he was her bodyguard—not because he was her loving husband.

  “I’m talking about Stephen,” she clarified. “Where is he?”

  “Why do you think I would know?”

  Tanya opened her mouth to reply, but Nikki interrupted, “You’ve obviously been in contact with him.”

  “Not since he disappeared,” Rochelle said. “I sent him those emails before that.”

  “That last one was the night he disappeared,” Nikki pointed out.

  “You were the one who found the emails!” Rochelle realized. “And instead of coming to me with them, you went to her? I thought you were my friend.”

  Nikki sighed. “Of course I am. I told my brothers.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m working a case,” Nikki unapologetically explained. “Someone’s been trying to kill your sister.”

  “And you all think it’s me?” Rochelle looked ready to burst into tears. But instead she burst out of the room and nearly ran down Cooper in the process.

  “You missed all the fun,” Nikki accused him.

  “What happened?”

  “What usually happens when I try to talk to my sister,” Tanya replied. “She winds up hating me more.” But did she hate her enough to try to kill her?

  “You’re so lucky you have a fabulous sister like me,” Nikki said as she slid her arm around her brother’s waist.

  Cooper leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I am very lucky.”

  Tanya envied their relationship. Even though Cooper had been gone for years, he had remained close to his family. Maybe she and Rochelle needed more distance. As offended as Rochelle was, Tanya doubted she would be seeing her again anytime soon.

  Tanya found it hard to believe Rochelle had anything to do with the attempts on her life. “I gave Rochelle a reason to hate me this time,” she admitted, “when I accused her of trying to kill me.”

  “You accused her?”

  “Not in so many words,” Nikki said. “But she picked up on the suspicion—your suspicion.”

  He nodded. “I am suspicious of her.”

  “I’m not,” Tanya said. “Not anymore anyways. She was too hurt.” She had hurt her sister for no reason.

  “Sometimes the best defense is a strong offense,” Cooper said.

  Nikki elbowed him. “You’re always so suspicious.”

  “You need to be, too, if you’re going to watch Tanya for me while I check something out.”

  Pride stinging, Tanya replied, “I am about to turn thirty years old. I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “No,” Cooper agreed. “You need a bodyguard.”

  Tanya wished she could claim that she could defend herself, but if he gave her another gun, she would probably shoot off her own foot.

  “You’re letting me work as a bodyguard?” Nikki asked, her eyes wide with surprise and hope.

  Cooper glanced away from his sister. “I would, kid. I would. But Logan insists that Candace—”

  “That jerk,” Nikki cursed her oldest brother. “Is he in the hall?”

  Cooper nodded slowly—almost reluctantly.

  Nikki pushed past him to run out of the room.

  “Lot of people running out of here today,” he remarked with a wry grin.

  “Yes,” Tanya agreed with a pointed stare.

  “Hey, I need to check this out,” he said.

  “The doctor’s releasing me. I just have to wait for his final orders,” she reminded him. “Then I can go with you.”

  “Absolutely not,” he said.

  “I’m sure your brothers can handle it.” And some sick feeling in the pit of her stomach had her wishing that he would let them because she was afraid that something was going to happen to him. “You don’t have to go.”

  “Parker and Logan will be there, too,” he assured her, “but I still need to go.”

  “Where?” she asked as her own suspicions overwhelmed her. “What are you so determined to check out?”

  “Parker got a lead from one of his informants.”

  “To Stephen’s whereabouts?”

  He nodded.

  “Are you sure it’s a real lead?”

  “Not yet.”

  “But what if it’s not?” she asked as that sick feeling grew in intensity. “What if it’s a trap?”

  “That’s why you can’t go along. I want you safe.”

  “I want you safe, too,” she said. She just wanted him…

  He must have seen the longing in her face because he stepped closer to the bed. “I told you before—this is what I do, what I’ve been doing, what I’m always going to do.”

  Maybe it was good that their marriage wasn’t real then because she wasn’t certain she could handle worrying about him every day when he left for work. But her job wasn’t exactly safe either. As Nikki had pointed out, the person after her could have been someone who’d felt she’d wronged them as their caseworker.

  “I know,” she said. “But I’m worried…”

  He leaned down and maybe he’d intended to kiss her forehead, but she lifted her face so that his mouth met hers. And she kissed him with all the need burning inside her.

  He pulled back, panting for breath, his pupils dilated with passion. “Tanya…”

  That sick feeling persisted, warning her that something horrible could happen to him. Like maybe this time the shooter wouldn’t miss.

  “Please don’t go…”

  He kissed her again, just a quick brushing of his lips across hers. She tried to cling, but he pulled back and assured her, “I’ll be fine.”

  She watched him walk away, worrying that this might be the last time. That she might lose him again. Forever…

  *

  COOPER USUALLY LISTENED to his gut, but he didn’t let the warning twisting his stomach into knots stop him from moving toward the warehouse. It was probably just Tanya’s nerves that he’d picked up on. Or it was his nerves over leaving her alone.

  Sure, she wasn’t exactly alone. She had Nikki protecting her and Candace protecting both of them. Nikki was green. But Candace had already saved Logan earlier that day; she was an experienced, expert bodyguard.

  Tanya was safe. He wasn’t so sure about him and his brothers. All the lights were burned out in the parking lot of the warehouse. The building had been abandoned a long time. The metal siding was more rust than whatever color it might have been at one time. And boards covered the windows.

  If Stephen had been brought here, Cooper hoped he hadn’t been hurt. The place sure as hell didn’t look very sanitary or safe.

  “You see anything?” the whisper emanated from his cell phone.

  Parker was covering the front of the building while Cooper sneaked around a side to the loading docks in the back. With only the flashlight attached to the barrel of his gun to guide him, Cooper found steps leading up to the docks. Like the building, the metal stairs were rusted and protested his weight with creaks and screeches as he climbed them.

  “Nothing yet,” he whispered back. He shone his light below the docks and noticed that a ramp had been pushed up to the garage door on the end. He headed across the concrete, which seemed to crumble beneath his feet, to that last door.

  “Nothing over here,” Logan reported from the other side of the building. “Not even a door…” The phone rustled and the other man cursed. He’d gotten to the side of the building that had been overgrown with weeds and thorny shrubs.

  Cooper had passed a few doors, rusted ones with equally rusted locks holding them down. Except for the last one. A smashed lock lay on the ground below, next to the rusted ramp, and the door was so rusted that although it had gone up, it hadn’t gone all the way back down.

  “I found a way in,” he reported.

  “Wait for us,” Logan advised.

  But Cooper had already shone his light beneath the door. It glinted off somethi
ng shiny and black. He crouched down to crawl beneath the door. The rusted metal caught at the back of his jacket, holding him up until he tugged free with a rip of leather.

  “What was that?” Parker asked. He’d heard the tear of fabric.

  “Nothing.” But he’d found more than nothing. He had found a familiar black vehicle. The back tires were both flat. It was the black vehicle—the one that had nearly run down Tanya. “But the car…”

  “The car?” Logan asked. “I’m on my way around the side. Stay put.”

  But Cooper focused on the trunk. What if…

  What if Stephen had really been abducted?

  He glanced around the warehouse, the beam of his flashlight bouncing off old crates, before turning his attention back to the trunk. He grabbed a small tool kit from his pocket and slid a pick into the lock. A couple twists and pulls and the lock clicked. The lid popped up.

  He drew in a deep breath before lifting the lid the rest of the way. The trunk was empty. No body. But when he flashed his light inside, the beam illuminated a dark stain. He reached inside the trunk and touched the carpet. The stain was sticky yet…

  He lifted his hand and shone the beam onto his skin. The smear was dark red: blood.

  Stephen’s? Had Cooper been wrong to doubt him? Was he alive? Or had his body been dumped?

  He shuddered with regret.

  With a rumble that shook the entire warehouse, an engine started. It wasn’t the car’s, but the car began to move. Cooper slammed down the trunk lid and squinted as bright lights from a forklift blinded him. It was pushing against the front bumper and lifting the car up—driving it into him. He stumbled back as he lifted his gun and fired at the forklift.

  But then there was nothing beneath his feet as the edge of the concrete dock crumbled and gave way. He dropped to the ground below and hit the asphalt with such force that all the breath left his body.

  But the forklift kept coming, pushing the car ahead of it. He stared up at the undercarriage of the big black sedan as it fell—on top of him.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Fear clutched Tanya’s heart so fiercely that she was physically in pain. She gasped from the force of it.

  “Are you all right?” Nikki asked.

  She shook her head. “Not until we know if they’re okay.”

  Candace paced across the kitchen of the safe house where she and Nikki had brought Tanya. This particular safe house was Candace’s own apartment. And it wasn’t in the safest area of town, but then she doubted anyone would dare mess with the female bodyguard.

  She must have worn a wig to pass herself off as Tanya because her hair was short and brown. And she was taller and more muscular.

  Nobody would mess with Candace. Tanya felt safe with her; it was Cooper she was worried about. “Have you heard anything?” she asked the woman.

  Candace shook her head as she lowered the cell phone. “Logan’s not picking up.” Her facial muscles were tense with concern. “He always picks up…”

  Nikki’s head jerked in a sharp nod. “He always does…”

  “Even when he’s being shot at,” Tanya remembered Cooper’s call to his oldest brother.

  “I should have gone with him,” Candace said.

  Nikki patted the bodyguard’s shoulder. “I’m sure he’s fine. I’m sure they’re all fine.”

  Candace gripped the cell phone tightly, as if she were somehow reaching out to Logan through it.

  Tanya didn’t even know Cooper’s cell-phone number, and he was her husband.

  Was?

  Had she already lost him as that gut-wrenching premonition had warned her?

  “Logan shouldn’t have gone out right now,” Candace said. “He shouldn’t have risked it…”

  Tanya was confused. “Cooper’s the one the shooter is after. He just mistook Logan for Cooper.” Which was a mistake that Stephen wouldn’t have made; he knew the Payne family as well as she did.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Candace admitted.

  Of course. Logan might have made enemies of his own—while he was a detective with River City Police Department or even through Payne Protection.

  “What are you saying?” Nikki asked, her usually smooth brow furrowed with concern.

  “He didn’t tell you?” Candace asked with a flash of surprise.

  “Tell me what?” Nikki asked. “Has he been getting threats?”

  “Just the usual ones.”

  Nikki sighed.

  And Tanya grasped that apparently she wasn’t the only one with a stalker. “What ones?”

  “From the daughter of the man who shot his father,” Candace explained. “She’s furious that Logan keeps showing up to every parole hearing.”

  Tanya nodded in understanding. “Cooper told me that Logan is determined to keep Mr. Payne’s killer in prison.”

  “He succeeded,” Candace shared. “The man died a couple of days ago.”

  Nikki cursed.

  “He didn’t tell you,” Candace answered her own question. Her lips curved into a slight smile as if she was pleased that her boss had confided in her.

  Tanya wondered if he’d told Cooper, because if he had, her husband hadn’t shared that news with her. Of course, he’d been a little preoccupied trying to keep her alive—and making love with her.

  Nikki grabbed her own cell phone and punched the screen. “Damn it! Answer!”

  “I just tried Logan,” Candace reminded her.

  “I’m trying Parker.”

  “He’s not picking up either?”

  Nikki punched her screen again and then cursed again. “Neither is Cooper.”

  Tanya’s knees weakened as fear overwhelmed her.

  Candace blinked quickly as if fighting tears. She obviously felt more than employee devotion for her boss; she was in love with him. And Nikki was so scared her eyes were wide and dark in her pale face.

  Tanya wanted to offer them comfort. But she needed comfort herself. She needed Cooper, his strong arms wrapped around her—keeping her safe as he had the past few days. She needed her husband.

  “Are you okay?” Nikki asked. “You don’t look so good.”

  “I’m tired,” she said.

  Candace gestured down the hall. “Make use of the guest room I showed you earlier. The bed is comfortable.”

  Tanya wasn’t likely to succumb to sleep—not when she was shaking with nerves. She just needed to be alone, to shed the tears stinging her eyes. She couldn’t cry in front of the other women—not when they were both trying so hard to be strong.

  She went down the hall, located the guest room then closed the door behind her but didn’t turn on the light. She fumbled around in the dark until she found the bed. She dropped onto it and curled into a ball, wrapping her arms around herself—holding herself together since Cooper wasn’t there.

  She shouldn’t have let him go. She was his wife now. Wasn’t he supposed to listen to her? Wasn’t that how marriage worked? But their marriage wasn’t real—even though they’d consummated it. It wasn’t real because Cooper didn’t love her the way she loved him.

  Why hadn’t she buried her pride and told him? Maybe if she had, he wouldn’t have left her.

  But he was Cooper Payne. He didn’t fear anything. He never had or he wouldn’t have joined the Marines after high school graduation. And he was right; he could take care of himself. And his brothers, as he had taken care of her.

  He had to be okay…

  She squeezed her eyes shut, but tears leaked out of the corners and streaked down the sides of her face into the pillow beneath her head. Maybe she had fallen asleep, because she awoke disoriented, unsure of what had startled her.

  Then she heard the noise. A rattling. She glanced to the door. But the knob wasn’t moving. She turned toward the window and found that she was too late. It was already open and a dark figure was sliding over the sill. She opened her mouth to scream, but a big hand closed over her mouth.

  Had the person killed Cooper to get
him out of the way? And now he intended to kill her? She couldn’t count on Cooper to save her. She had to save herself.

  She struggled in his arms, thrashing around so that her elbow jammed into his aching ribs and her knee nearly struck a more sensitive part of his body. Pain overwhelmed him, and he cursed. Then he shushed her. “It’s okay. It’s me.”

  She tensed so abruptly that he worried he’d hurt her. He’d wrapped his arms tightly around her while clamping one hand to her mouth. He didn’t want the others to know he was in the room with her.

  He was supposed to be in the hospital, but he’d checked himself out against doctor’s orders. It wasn’t as if he would be any safer in the hospital. Tanya hadn’t been; he grimaced as he remembered how the killer had tried to smother her.

  Was the kidnapper a killer yet? Was Stephen dead?

  He moved his hand from her mouth, his palm ablaze from the contact with her silky-soft lips.

  “It’s you,” she murmured as if unable to believe he was real. “It’s really you?”

  “I’m glad you didn’t shoot me this time,” Cooper said with a chuckle. But that chuckle shook his ribs, and he groaned.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “What happened tonight? None of you were answering your phones!”

  He suddenly noticed the tears on her face. And concern was in her voice. She’d worried about him.

  “I’m fine,” he said. But even he shuddered as he remembered how close that car had come to falling on top of him. If he hadn’t gathered the strength to roll out of the way, it might have crushed him.

  His brothers had been so worried about him that they’d both let the damn suspect slip away again. Who exactly was after him? And her?

  He kept his arms clenched tightly around her, needing to feel her warmth and softness—her heart beating in unison with his—the same frantic rhythm. Like when they’d made love, they were perfectly in sync.

  “What happened?” she asked. “Why didn’t you answer your phones?”

  “We were a little preoccupied.”

  “Did you find Stephen?”

  He grimaced as if she’d elbowed him again. Of course she was worried about Stephen. “No,” he said. “But we found the car that nearly ran you over.”

  “So it was a real lead—not a setup?”