Single Mom's Bodyguard

by Lisa Childs

  As he pulled away from her house, he glanced into the rearview mirror. He was a good bodyguard, so good that he wouldn’t miss a tail. But it would be harder to stop one on the city streets, so instead of turning toward the city, he turned the other way. To draw out whoever was following him, he needed less-traveled roads. It didn’t take him long before he noticed the white van. A big conversion model.

  Where had Lars found that?

  He slowed as it drew closer. And a grin tugged at his lips. He was going to make it clear to Lars that he’d been busted. But then that van slammed into the rear bumper of the SUV. It wasn’t Lars following him.

  His heart pounding fast with fear, Manny pressed hard on the accelerator. The SUV was a little one, with a small engine. It didn’t jump forward with the speed of one of the Payne Protection Agency’s SUVs. The little yellow vehicle gained some speed but not enough. He couldn’t make it go fast enough to escape the van. It kept ramming into them, metal crunching and plastic snapping.

  The last thing Manny heard before the little yellow SUV left the road and began to roll was both the baby and Emilia screaming in terror.

  * * *

  Emilia’s vision blurred. She blinked, but it wouldn’t clear. She lifted her hand to push back the hair tangled across her face, hoping that would help her see. But her fingers touched something wet and sticky. And she realized she was bleeding.

  She didn’t care about herself, though. She fought against the seat belt holding her up on her side, so that she could turn toward the back. Blue was secured in his car seat, his eyes wide with shock.

  “Are you okay, baby?” she asked, her blood chilled that he was so quiet.

  Just moments before he’d been screaming—with her—as the van had pushed them off the side of the road. Her little SUV had rolled until trees stopped it. It lay on the driver’s side.

  “Jordan?” she called out to her brother’s friend.

  Like Blue, the dark-haired man was still, wedged against the driver’s door that was jammed against the ground. His eyes were closed. Was Jordan Mannes unconscious or dead?

  “Manny!” she called out, using the nickname his friends had given him. “Manny!”

  He didn’t stir, but Blue began to cry again, probably at the fear in her voice. She was afraid. For Manny...

  And for them. Who had driven them off the road?

  And where was he?

  She didn’t have long to wonder because she heard someone banging against the undercarriage of the SUV.

  It was someone coming to help? But then glass shattered, raining down inside the SUV. She doubted a rescuer would be so careless with their safety.

  Blue screamed now. And when Emilia turned back to him, she saw gloved hands reaching through the broken window, reaching for the baby.

  She struggled against the belt binding her to the seat, as she tried to turn fully around and fight off those hands reaching for her son. But she was trapped.

  And helpless.

  As helpless as she’d been the last time Blue had been taken away from her. She’d gotten him back then; she didn’t think she would get that lucky again.

  Chapter 19

  “Emilia!” Dane called out her name as he stepped into the house.

  It was empty. He’d felt it even before he called for her. If she’d been here, he would have gotten that tingly, hot feeling he got whenever she was close to him.

  Her vehicle wasn’t parked at the curb like it had been when he’d left. And Payne Protection’s black SUV was gone, too. Only his truck was parked out front where he’d left it.

  He pressed the button on his cell again. He didn’t call her. He called Manny. But as it had the last couple of times, it went to voice mail.

  He cursed and scrolled down the call log. Then he called her number. It, too, went to voice mail. Even though he knew she wasn’t there, he searched the house, seeing if she’d left a note on the kitchen counter or in her bedroom.

  But he didn’t walk through the house alone. Nicholas Payne hounded his every step. The guy had insisted on personally giving Dane a ride back.

  “Where is she?” Nick asked.

  And Dane realized why the acting chief had insisted on bringing him back to his vehicle and her house. He’d wanted to talk to Emilia again.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted.

  “She’s not picking up her phone?”

  “No.”

  “Guess we were both wrong about her,” Nick murmured as he pulled out his cell.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I didn’t think she’d run,” Nick said. He cursed now. “I should have realized she must have been getting desperate enough to do that.”

  Dane shook his head. “No. She wouldn’t run.”

  “You think she would stay?” Nick asked. “And risk losing her son again?”

  And Dane’s blood chilled. No. She wouldn’t risk losing Blue.

  “But my friends were here—Cole and Manny—they were watching her.”

  His cell rang, and when he saw it was Cole, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Where the hell are you?” he asked as he accepted the call.

  “I’m sorry,” Cole said. “I shouldn’t have taken off and left Manny alone with her. But...”

  “What?” Dane asked. “What’s going on?”

  “I—I got a call from home,” he said. “I had to make sure everything was okay.”

  “You flew out west?” Dane asked. With bigger issues on his mind, he couldn’t remember exactly where Cole was from but it wasn’t Michigan.

  “No, no, I had to make some more calls—check out some things online.”

  And he hadn’t wanted to do it where Manny could overhear. He hadn’t trusted their loudmouth friend.

  Now he knew why Cole had left.

  “So where are they?” he asked. “Did he tell you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m back at the house, but they’re gone.”

  “I don’t know,” Cole said. “I haven’t talked to them. I tried calling Manny’s cell before yours, but he didn’t pick up.”

  So he wasn’t picking up for anyone, not just Dane. He wasn’t sure if he should be relieved or more concerned.

  Nick had stepped into the other room. But Dane could hear his call anyway. He’d put out an APB on Emilia Ecklund.

  He should have been upset. But he was relieved that at least she would be found. But would it be soon enough?

  When the acting chief rejoined him in the kitchen, Dane said, “You didn’t need to do that. I’m sure she just talked Manny into bringing her to the wedding chapel.” Before hanging up on Cole, he’d asked him to check it out.

  He didn’t think she was there, though, because he had an uneasy feeling. It wasn’t just the doubts Nick Payne had put in his head. He didn’t believe Emilia was running—at least not from a murder charge.

  He was worried that she was running from a murderer, though.

  * * *

  “No!” Emilia yelled as the gloved hands grabbed at the infant car seat.

  It was buckled tightly into the seat, though, and wouldn’t be easily extracted. But then the SUV rocked on its side, and the arms extended farther through that window, reaching for the straps holding down the seat.

  “No! Leave my son alone!” she yelled again in protest.

  Whoever was reaching for Blue ignored her completely. If he was a Good Samaritan who’d stopped to help, he would have said something to her, would have assured her that he was just trying to rescue them.

  But that wasn’t the case. He’d driven them off the road instead. And unfortunately the road in this wooded area wasn’t well-traveled. She couldn’t count on anyone stopping to help. This man was intent on taking the baby. So i
ntent she wasn’t sure how she could stop him.

  She stabbed at the seat belt clasp, trying to free it. But it must have gotten jammed in the crash. She couldn’t get the button to give way. With a trembling hand, she pushed the shoulder strap over her head. At least she could move a little more, but she still couldn’t get into the back seat. She couldn’t shove those hands away from Blue.

  So she turned back to Manny. None of the screaming had awakened him. She was worried that he wasn’t just unconscious. Had someone else died because of whoever was after her? But the person wasn’t after her. Just like Dane had suspected, the killer was after Blue.

  She wasn’t going to lose her son again, though. And definitely not to a killer.

  “Manny!” she yelled. But not even an eyelash flickered. Dread tightened her stomach. She couldn’t help him and he couldn’t help her.

  Then she noticed the glint of metal beneath his arm from the gun poking out of his holster. Fortunately for her Manny must have been left-handed for the gun was on his right and within her reach. She grabbed for it, flipped off the safety and turned the barrel toward the back seat. She had to be careful, though. If she fired and hit the metal of the SUV, the bullet could ricochet back inside the vehicle.

  It could hit her son.

  He was screaming, too, his tiny fists clenched while his face turned a deep crimson. He had his uncle’s temper. His uncle’s fight.

  But Emilia felt Lars’s strength, which she’d always envied, surging through her now. She wasn’t just scared. She was angry.

  So she concentrated on that window opening, training the barrel there—toward those arms. And she pulled the trigger. She couldn’t see who she was firing at, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to stop him from taking her son.

  * * *

  Nick had just stepped onto the porch of Emilia Ecklund’s rented bungalow when he heard the gunfire. It came from a distance. But he’d heard so many shootings that the sound was unmistakable to him.

  It must have been to Dane Sutton, too, because he slammed the door behind him and ran down the porch steps toward his vehicle.

  “Where are you going?” Nick asked as he ran after the big bodyguard.

  “You heard that,” Dane said. “Someone’s shooting.” His hand shook as he grabbed the handle and pulled open the driver’s door.

  Instead of insisting on driving, Nick hurried around to the passenger’s side and climbed into the truck, too. “We don’t know that has anything to do with Emilia.”

  “I hope like hell it doesn’t,” Dane agreed.

  But he didn’t believe his wish would be realized. Maybe he had that same thing Nick and Penny Payne-Lynch had, that feeling when something bad was about to happen. Even though he wasn’t her child, Nick had her strange sixth sense about danger.

  “It could be gang-related,” Nick said.

  “This isn’t my neighborhood,” Dane said.

  If it was, Lars wouldn’t have let his sister live there alone. Nick knew his future brother-in-law well enough to know that. He also knew him well enough to know that he had good friends he could trust.

  Nick trusted Dane. Maybe he should have trusted him about Emilia. Maybe she really wasn’t the danger. Maybe she was in danger.

  At the end of the street, Dane hesitated. “I don’t know which way to turn...”

  “We came into the neighborhood that way,” Nick said, pointing toward the right. And they had passed nothing suspicious-looking.

  So Dane cranked the wheel toward the left, pulling out in front of a car that braked with a screech of tires burning against the asphalt.

  Nick cursed. “Don’t get us killed.”

  “It was on my side,” Dane remarked, as if he didn’t care what happened to him.

  Nick had once not cared that much about his own safety, either. But now he knew he had people who loved him, who needed him as much as he needed them.

  “That’s on my side, too.” Dane pointed toward a van parked on the side of the road. The front of it was smashed. So it wasn’t the only vehicle involved in the crash. As Dane pulled up behind the van, Nick noticed the tire tracks trampling the weeds on the shoulder. Another vehicle had veered off the road.

  Why would there be gunshots fired at an accident scene? Unless it was a case of road rage. As a lawman Nick had investigated a few of those.

  Nick reached for his weapon, drawing the gun as he reached for the door handle. “You can stay here,” he said. “This probably has nothing to do with Emilia.”

  But Dane was already out of the truck and heading down the steep embankment toward that crash. “I think that’s Emilia’s vehicle.” He shouted and pointed his drawn weapon. “And that’s the guy—the guy from the inn!”

  He fired. But the guy, dressed entirely in black, disappeared into the woods. Dane didn’t follow him. He headed instead toward the SUV. As he drew closer to it, his steps slowed, almost like he dreaded what he might find.

  Nick hesitated himself, torn between checking out the crash site and chasing after that mysterious suspect in black. Had Dane and Emilia been telling the truth?

  Was someone after her?

  Bypassing the crash, he headed toward the woods. Before he got more than a few steps into the trees, another shot rang out from the mangled yellow metal of the SUV. Someone had fired at Dane.

  He shouldn’t have let him approach it alone. Now he might have lost him...

  Chapter 20

  Lars’s legs shook as he ran through the doors and into the hospital lobby. A security guard ran up, his hands shaking as he reached for his weapon. “Sir, sir!”

  “It’s okay,” a deep voice said. A dark-haired Payne stepped between Lars and the guard. Lars was so upset that he wasn’t immediately certain which Payne it was. All Nikki’s damn brothers looked alike.

  “But he’s armed, Chief Payne.”

  Nick. It was Nick. Nikki’s favorite brother. Lars’s least favorite, since the man had brought in his sister on suspicion of murder. He swallowed a groan.

  “He has a permit,” Nick said. “He’s licensed to carry.”

  “But, sir, you know why weapons aren’t allowed in the hospital.”

  Apparently, the place had gotten shot up before. And knowing the Paynes, they had probably been involved somehow.

  Lars reached for his weapon, which had the young security guard reaching for his again. But Lars had his by the barrel, and handed it to the kid.

  “Where’s my sister?” His voice cracked as he added, “And my best friend.” Dane had been shot.

  If he didn’t make it...

  Nick glanced around him. “Where’s Nikki?”

  She’d gotten the call that they were at the hospital. Not Lars. His sister hadn’t called him, and neither had Dane.

  Lars jerked his hand toward the door. “Nikki’s parking the car.” She’d wanted him to wait for her, but he’d jumped out before she’d even slowed the car to drive toward the parking garage.

  “What about Blue?” he asked, and now his voice shook. “Is my nephew all right?”

  Nick grabbed his arm and squeezed it. In consolation?

  “Just tell me!” Lars implored him.

  Then Nikki was there, wrapping her arms around him. “He’s fine,” Nikki said. “I told you that.”

  Had she? She’d been talking in the car. But he wasn’t sure he’d heard everything or anything she’d said after one of her brothers had called from the hospital.

  “Emilia and Dane are at the hospital.”

  “Why?” he’d demanded to know. Then he’d turned on her. “You said he would protect her. You said I didn’t have to worry!”

  “He was shot,” she’d said. “Dane was shot...”

  After that he’d heard nothing else she’d said—wit
h his pulse pounding so frantically it had echoed throughout his skull. His damn thick skull...

  He didn’t deserve her now, as she offered him her love and support and strength. Nikki was the strongest woman he’d ever known. So he leaned on her now as his legs threatened to fold beneath him. “You’re sure?” he asked her.

  “The baby’s fine,” Nick answered for her. “I got him out of the wreckage before the firemen even arrived with the Jaws of Life.”

  “Jaws of Life? What the hell happened? Did they need the Jaws of Life to get Emilia out? And what about Dane—is that how they crashed—because he was shot?”

  “Dane wasn’t driving,” Nick replied. “Manny was driving. The Jaws of Life was needed to get him out.”

  Manny, too? He leaned forward as he gasped for breath.

  Nikki glared at her brother. “Where’s Emilia?” she asked. “Lars needs to see his sister and his nephew.”

  And his friend. Dane might no longer consider him a friend, though.

  And what about Manny? Was he all right?

  “This way,” Nick said. And he led them through the ER waiting room toward a door leading to the back.

  She hadn’t been admitted. So that was good. But why had she been brought here anyway?

  “What are her injuries?” he asked.

  “She has a cut on her head,” Nick replied. “They were going to check her for a concussion.” And they must have taken her to radiology because there was no one lying on the gurney when Nick pulled back the curtain to the area in which he must have left Lars’s sister.

  “Where’s Blue?”

  “He’s here,” a deep voice murmured. And the curtain next to Emilia’s was pulled aside.

  Manny lay on the gurney in that area, one arm awkwardly supporting the sleeping baby. A bandage stained with blood was wrapped around his head.

  Lars asked his friend, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Manny assured him with a sigh of relief when Nikki took the baby from him. “Just had to get a few stitches...”