by Lisa Childs
If he was moving in at all...
Nikki had chuckled. “Does Dane have an ugly recliner or poker table he wants to move in?”
Emilia had only been in his place once. Even after Lars had left, she’d been too distracted from Dane’s kiss to take in much of her surroundings. It had seemed kind of empty to her, though. Like he’d already moved out.
So why wasn’t he here?
She’d only shrugged in reply to Nikki’s question. Then she’d hurried out to her car and driven quickly over to his place. His truck was parked at the curb outside the old warehouse building.
Earlier that day, when Lars had beaten her to Dane’s place, she hadn’t noticed the outside of the building. She shuddered now as she looked at the stark metal structure. She had spent weeks in a place like this. Of course the warehouse where Dane lived had been remodeled.
The one she’d been held captive in had still been abandoned—but for her and her captors. The floor had been bare and hard, the building filled with broken-down crates. There had been no furnace to dispel the dampness and the chill that had penetrated deep into her flesh and bones. And no air conditioning to cool her off once the fever had set in.
She’d nearly died in that place.
As she remembered that, her skin chilled again, goose bumps rising despite the light sweater she wore with jeans. That was all over. She’d been rescued. She wasn’t going back to that place, that hellhole.
And yet she didn’t feel reassured. She was scared that she might be in nearly as much danger if she walked into this warehouse. The door stood open, but no light spilled from inside.
It was dark.
But the truck was there. Where was Dane?
Her hand shook slightly when she reached for the handle of the driver’s side door. But she forced herself to push it open. As she stepped out of her small SUV, her legs trembled beneath her.
It was eerily quiet. And dark.
She’d probably waited too long before calling Nikki. But she’d kept thinking Dane would show up. Or call...
But he hadn’t.
Why not?
His truck was still packed. The street lamp illuminated the boxes in the bed of it. So if he’d changed his mind about moving in, wouldn’t he have unpacked it? And if he was here, wouldn’t there be at least one light on inside his place?
Her heart began to beat faster as her fear increased. Her fear was for Dane now—not herself. What had happened to him?
“Dane?” she called out, but her voice barely rose above a whisper. She headed toward that open door. As she walked across the sidewalk, something crunched beneath the soles of her ankle boots.
She glanced down and noticed bits of glass and metal strewn across the concrete. A box was crumpled against the side of the building. Had Dane simply dropped it? How had the contents been broken beyond recognition?
She couldn’t even tell what those bits of glass and metal had once been. Cameras?
Was Dane an amateur photographer?
Somehow she doubted that.
She hunched down to study the remnants more closely. And she noticed what else was on the sidewalk, spattered across the concrete: blood.
A gasp slipped through her lips. Someone had been hurt. “Dane?” she called out again.
She peered around the entrance to the warehouse. Despite being remodeled into living space, it was still a little unkempt. The landscaping hadn’t been trimmed for a while. Overgrown shrubs crowded the sidewalk and entrance. Emilia looked through the branches to see if Dane was lying on the ground beneath them.
She didn’t see a body.
But something glinted in the faint light from the street lamp. She recognized the shape of a gun. No. Dane hadn’t simply dropped that box. An attack had taken place here, an armed attack.
And someone had been hurt enough to bleed all over the concrete.
Where was Dane?
A noise caught Emilia’s attention, the familiar creak of hardwood. Someone was inside the dark apartment. She reached for that gun and turned with it just as a shadow fell across her and the sidewalk.
Lars had taught her how to shoot, but she hadn’t liked it. The heaviness of the gun. The recoil when she’d pulled the trigger. The concern that her bullet might go astray and hit someone innocent.
She didn’t care about that now. After what she’d been through, she knew she could pull that trigger. So she cocked the gun.
She could kill.
* * *
Dane stared down the barrel of the gun—his gun—to the face of the person who’d trained the weapon on him. The pale blue eyes were intent, more intent than he’d ever seen them. Emilia Ecklund was stronger than anyone knew.
“Don’t shoot,” he told her. “It’s me.”
Her breath escaped in a gasp, and she sprang up. Her arms flung around his neck, she launched herself at him.
As her soft body pressed against him, his breath escaped in a gasp, too—of pain. He grunted.
And she pulled back. “You’re hurt!” Her palms ran all over him. “Are you bleeding? Were you shot?”
He shook his head, and his vision blurred as the darkness threatened to claim him again. He’d lost consciousness earlier. And he wasn’t sure how long he’d been out. But he’d awakened to darkness. It had taken all of his strength to stagger inside the apartment and splash some water on his face.
He felt like he needed to do that again as he swayed slightly. Emilia slipped beneath his arm and steadied him. Or maybe she unsteadied him, as her warmth penetrated his thin T-shirt and heated his skin. His body began to throb but not where he’d been injured.
“We need to call an ambulance,” she said.
“No,” he said. “I haven’t been shot.” He’d been shot at, but the bullet hadn’t hit him because he had ducked and hurled himself at his attackers.
Somehow he had rallied enough to fight them off. And remain conscious until they’d run away, jumping into some kind of vehicle and speeding off, tires squealing.
“But you’re hurt,” she said. Now she skimmed her fingers over his chest, over his ribs.
It didn’t hurt this time when she touched him—so gently. But he grunted again as his body tensed.
“At least let me drive you to the hospital,” she said. “You need to have X-rays.” Her fingers touched his face now, sliding along his temple. “And a CT scan, too.”
“Nothing’s broken,” he said. He’d had enough broken bones in his lifetime that he would have known if he had another. “I don’t need medical treatment.” But he needed to splash some more water on his face, so that he could focus. So that he could think...
What the hell had just happened? Why had those guys come after him?
He steered Emilia toward the apartment. And this time when he stepped inside, he locked the door. He didn’t want anyone sneaking up on him again, especially with her here.
“What happened?” she asked the question he’d been asking himself.
He shrugged. “As I was bringing out the last box, I got jumped.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know.” He hadn’t gotten a good look at any of them.
“We need to call the police,” she said. And with her hand not holding the gun, she reached inside her big purse.
But he caught her wrist before she could pull out her phone. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he said.
“You were attacked!”
“And if we call the police everyone will find out about it,” he said. “Nikki Payne’s brother—half brother...” He wasn’t sure what the hell former FBI agent Nicholas Payne, formerly Rus, was to the Paynes. Now that he’d taken their last name, he probably was one.
“Nick’s back in charge of River City PD while the new chief’s on his hon
eymoon,” Dane explained. “If we call the police, he’ll find out and might tell the others.”
“But there could be evidence here,” she said, “that will lead to whoever did this to you.”
That was another reason he was hesitant. He wasn’t sure just how far her brother would go to scare him away from her. Manny had warned him. Should he have heeded that warning?
Outside the door, glass and metal crunched as someone approached. Taking no chances this time, especially not with her safety, Dane reached for the gun Emilia held, and he pointed the barrel at the door.
If anyone forced their way through it, Dane would put a bullet in him. And he wouldn’t miss.
* * *
Lars jumped aside just as the bullet whizzed past his head. “Son of a bitch!” he exclaimed.
A scream rang out, echoing his curse. Emilia clutched Dane’s arm, but she wasn’t strong enough to pull it and the gun barrel down.
Fortunately Dane must have recognized him at the last moment. Or maybe he’d meant to hit him but had gotten sloppy.
“Why the hell are you shooting at me?” Of course he had struck the man earlier, so he probably had it coming.
Dane pointed toward the door Lars had just kicked open, the jamb splintered. “Why the hell did you break down my door?”
Lars gestured outside. “I saw the mess and the blood.” And Emilia’s little yellow SUV parked at the curb.
He hadn’t been surprised she was here. Nikki had told him she was. That was why he’d come. But then he’d seen the signs of a struggle...
He stepped closer and reached for his sister. “Are you okay?” he asked, that fear for her safety gripping him again. His heart was beating frantically still, even faster after that gunshot.
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “Dane was the one who was attacked. Not me.”
He turned to his friend now and noticed the blood that had dried on his temple. “You were jumped?”
“Like you don’t know,” Dane replied, his voice gruff with suspicion and resentment. “When Manny told me you were talking about killing me, I thought you were just kidding about it.”
Now shock gripped Lars. “You think I did this?”
“You threatened to do it,” Dane said. “And I know you don’t make empty threats.”
No. He didn’t. But he’d only been kidding. Sort of...
Emilia reached out for Lars now and shoved him back. “How could you! He’s your friend.”
“That’s debatable,” Lars said.
She had been right earlier when she’d called him a hypocrite, though. He couldn’t argue that it was wrong to date a friend’s sister, not when he was going to marry one.
But Nikki wasn’t like Emilia. He couldn’t point that out again, though. That had made her mad earlier, and she was even angrier now.
“You really think I did this?” he asked.
She gestured at the broken jamb. “When it comes to me, we both know you get insanely overprotective.”
“Obviously I have reason to be.”
She flinched as if he’d struck her. She probably thought he was referring to her weeks in captivity. And she’d beaten herself up enough about that.
“I’m talking about Dane,” he clarified. “He’s only going to hurt you. Or get you hurt.”
Dane flinched now as if Lars had struck him again. And maybe he had, with the truth.
He appealed to his friend. “You have to see that you’re not good for her. This has to prove that to you.”
“Is that why you did it?” Dane asked, his suspicion persisting.
And maybe he had reason to be suspicious of Lars. If Dane put Emilia in danger, he would kill him. But before he could say any more, he heard the whine of sirens in the distance.
“You called the police?” he asked.
Dane shook his head. “Someone must have heard the shots.”
“Shots?” Dane had fired only one at him. There must have been more shots fired earlier. “Just what the hell happened here? What’s going on with you?”
And why hadn’t Dane called the police? Because he’d thought Lars was behind the attack?
He knew him better than that, knew that he might rough him up but he wouldn’t kill him. Hell, if not for Dane, he wouldn’t even be alive. He owed the man his life. His life.
Not his sister.
She had already been through too much. And Lars would do whatever necessary to protect her. He just wasn’t sure what she needed protecting from.
Chapter 10
“You really have no idea who attacked you tonight?”
Tonight? It had been late that afternoon, but Dane didn’t point that out to the young officer questioning him. He didn’t want to explain why a shot had just recently been fired, that he’d nearly killed his friend.
But was Lars his friend? Was he really as innocent as he’d claimed? Or had he only acted that way for his sister’s benefit?
They were both gone now. Lars had insisted on Emilia leaving before the police arrived. She’d driven off—with Lars following her—just before the patrol car had pulled up behind Dane’s truck.
Dane shook his head. “No idea, Officer. As I told you, I was stepping outside with a box of electronics and I got jumped. They put something over my head. So I couldn’t see anything.”
“But you fought them off?” The young officer arched his brows with skepticism. “You couldn’t see them but you overpowered them?”
“I have a gun,” Dane reminded him.
The officer was actually holding that weapon now.
“And a permit to carry it,” he added. He’d also showed that to the cop.
“Did you shoot one of them?”
He hadn’t had time to draw his weapon then. And when he’d hurled himself at his attackers, it must have slipped out of his holster and fallen into the bushes. He didn’t explain that to the cop, either.
“No.”
“There’s blood on the sidewalk,” the officer said. He’d called a crime scene unit out to go over the scene of the attack.
Too bad someone had heard the shot. This was all taking too much time. And Emilia...
She wasn’t alone. Her brother had been right behind her. And Nikki was at her house with Blue. They were safe.
What about him?
He touched his fingertips to his temple. “That’s probably mine.” His head must have hit the sidewalk. That must have been how he’d lost consciousness.
“What do you do, Mr. Sutton?” the officer asked, all suspicion and skepticism.
“I’m a bodyguard for the Payne Protection Agency.”
The officer’s mouth dropped open, and he stared at Dane. “Which brother do you work for?”
“Cooper Payne.”
“The former Marine?”
Dane nodded. “We went through boot camp together and served in the same unit.”
And the skepticism was gone. “Oh, that’s how you fought them off.”
Dane wasn’t sure he’d overpowered them or if he’d just been more desperate than they were. He’d wanted to get to Emilia, wanted to make sure she was safe. That desperation had lent him strength.
Dane shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“They were probably just kids,” the officer said as he held Dane’s weapon out to him. “We’ve had a problem with gangs in this area. That’s undoubtedly why most of the units in these rehabbed warehouses aren’t being rented. It’s not the safest area.”
Dane had been in far more dangerous places than this. He just shrugged again. “Like I said, I have no idea who attacked me.”
“Cooper Payne—wasn’t he part of some specialized unit that carried out secret ops?”
Dane tensed. Few people knew what
his unit had done. Few people were supposed to know. Maybe that was how he’d gotten good at keeping secrets: his life had depended on him doing it. Those were the few secrets Manny had actually been able to keep.
“That’s what his brother Parker said about him,” the officer continued. “That Cooper’s a decorated hero.”
“That’s true.” Dane had medals, too. They were in the bottom of one of those boxes in the back of his truck. He didn’t need medals to remind him of what he’d done.
“Do you think what your unit did over there or maybe the cases you’ve worked for Payne Protection could have anything to do with this attack?”
He hadn’t, but now he wondered. Sure, the missions had been carried out overseas. That didn’t mean nobody could have followed them back to the States. If they’d survived...
They had left few survivors.
Dane shrugged. “I have no idea. You’re probably right about it being gang-related.”
The officer stood up straighter, as if proud that Dane agreed with him. “We’ll step up patrols in this area.”
That wouldn’t matter to Dane. He wasn’t staying in this area. He was moving in with Emilia. But after the officer and crime scene techs left, he hesitated to leave, too. What if that officer and Lars were right?
What if whoever had jumped him had really been after him? Then moving in with Emilia would put her in more danger than she already was.
What if they’d attacked him in order to keep him away from her...
And he had let her leave alone.
Well, she’d left with Lars, and her brother wasn’t likely to let anything happen to her. She was safe with him and Nikki. Safer than she was with him. He would probably do her a bigger favor if he stayed away from her.
* * *
Where was he? Emilia found herself wondering for the second time that night what had happened to Dane.
She had been right to worry earlier. She shuddered as she thought about the blood she’d found on the sidewalk. Had that been his or had it dripped from whoever he had fought off?
Lars? Had he attacked his friend? He was certainly angry enough with Dane.
A pang of guilt struck her heart. She hadn’t wanted to come between them. But Lars couldn’t know the truth. She’d had to work to convince him and Nikki to leave her alone.