by Lisa Childs
He was more concerned about now. Would this plan work, and would he survive if it did?
*
Shawna had wondered if Cole would ever forgive her. Now she had her answer. After they’d made love—twice—she’d let herself hope for a future with him. But he had denied that future six years ago.
And now he’d denied it again.
He would never forgive her for keeping Maisy from him. She couldn’t blame him. Had the situation been reversed, she might not have been able to forgive him either.
If only she had listened to Emery. He’d thought she should tell Cole the truth. He’d even tried to reunite them when he’d called Cole that time. But Cole had refused to talk to him. And he apparently refused to accept her apology now.
She’d run from the dining room so quickly that she’d shaken off her bodyguard. Someone else had followed, though. A hand grasped her arm and whirled her around in the kitchen.
She expected—she hoped—it was Cole to assure her he was lying. Instead it was his mother. While Shawna proudly blinked back tears, Tiffani let hers roll down her beautiful face.
“I’m sorry,” she told Shawna as if any of this was her fault.
“Why?” Shawna asked. “I’m the one who caused this.” If only she’d told him the truth six years ago.
“I thought I raised him to be a better man than his father,” Tiffani said. “But I think he might be worse.”
Shawna shook her head, refusing to believe that.
Tiffani patted her cheek. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “This is so hard for you. I didn’t really love his father.” She’d made no secret of that. Everyone knew that she’d only married Coleman for his money. But he’d made her pay for her greed; she had suffered. That was why she’d started drinking so much, to drown her sorrows.
Tiffani continued, “But I can see that you really loved Cole.”
She had. She did. She really loved him and that love would never be returned.
“I—I need to get away for a little while,” Shawna said. She was reeling from the pain Cole’s cold words had inflicted. “I need to breathe…”
Tiffani let go of her arm. “Of course, go,” she urged. They had become friends, years ago, while they both worked with the high school cheerleaders. Despite the mistakes she had made, Tiffani had become a mentor to many of them. A case of do what I say, not what I did.
Shawna glanced behind her and could see Manny’s shadow falling across the floor from where he stood just outside the kitchen doorway. In order to breathe, she needed to get away from him—away from Cole’s friends and from all the damn Payne Protection bodyguards.
After what Cole had said, she would no longer need protection. The killer, whoever he was, would not believe she posed any threat to his inheritance. She hadn’t even known his grandfather had changed his will.
She needed to talk to Xavier. But she wasn’t going to be able to do that with bodyguards looming around them both.
She leaned closer to Tiffani and whispered, “I need your help.”
*
“Son of a bitch,” Manny murmured. He stood in the middle of the library that was empty of everyone but Emery Little’s urn of ashes. He’d searched everywhere—to no avail.
“What’d you call me?” a deep voice asked. There was a trace of amusement in it. Manny knew that wouldn’t last when he turned to face his friend.
Cole tensed as he glanced around the empty library. “Where is she?”
Manny shook his head. “I don’t know.” He’d checked everywhere for her.
“What happened?” Cole asked.
“You saw her run out of the dining room,” Manny reminded him. He regretted saying that when his friend flinched with regret.
Cole hadn’t wanted to hurt her. But how could he think his plan would do anything else? He must have known that what he said would devastate her.
“You were supposed to stick with her,” Cole said.
And now Manny flinched. “I tried. But your mother got in my way. By the time I got around her, Shawna was completely out of my sight.”
Cole cursed.
“I don’t know where she went,” Manny admitted miserably. “I looked everywhere for her.” Twice. Where the hell could she be?
But that wasn’t even the question burning the hottest in Manny’s mind. Why the hell had Cooper signed off on such a plan? Of course, the Payne Protection Agency wasn’t beyond enacting a risky plan to flush out the threat to whoever they were protecting. But this plan wouldn’t flush out the killer. It just gave him a motive to stop trying to kill Shawna.
But if they never learned who the killer was, Cole and Shawna could never be together.
So had Cole come up with this plan to protect Shawna or to protect himself from the risk of falling for her again?
Chapter 22
Cole buried his fury and forced a smile. But it was for Maisy’s sake, not his mother’s. Tiffani Bentler-Inman sat on a bench in the garden with his daughter on her lap.
His mother had helped Shawna shake off her protection duty. And he wanted to find out why.
He’d just assumed Emery’s killer was a man. But he shouldn’t have done that, not when he knew so many strong, capable women.
“What are you up to, Mother?” he asked. His jaw ached from how hard he clenched it to hang on to his smile.
Maisy peered up at him fearfully, as if she heard the anger he was fighting so hard to hide. He didn’t want to scare his daughter, even though fear had his heart pounding fast and hard.
Why hadn’t he considered his mother a suspect before? She was the one his father had hurt the most when he’d changed his will to exclude her. She was the one in most need of money and maybe even revenge—if she blamed Cole for that will change like the rest of his family.
“I’m playing with my granddaughter,” she told him. Her smile appeared to be as forced as his.
They had never been particularly close, not like he and his father. Not like he was with his grandfather. He’d already realized he reminded her too much of his father, and she’d hated Coleman. Could she hate her own son, too?
Enough to try to kill Shawna? To try to kill him? Those shots had struck the house pretty close to where he’d been standing. Whoever had fired them must have intended to hit him.
“What are you up to?” she asked him.
“What do you mean?”
“At first I bought your performance in the dining room, just like Shawna did.” She shook her head. “But now that I’ve had a chance to think about it…” She glanced down at the little girl she held on her lap.
If she hadn’t been holding his daughter, he would have confronted her already, would have demanded she tell him where Shawna was. She must know. According to Manny, she’d helped Shawna shake him from his protection duty. Why? Had Tiffani done something to her? Had she hurt her?
His mother shook her head again. “I’m not buying it.”
“What?” he asked.
“Your act,” she said. “You love her. You always have. You always will. Just like your father loved Natalie.”
His mother had known about Natalie. And he hadn’t. Maybe his parents had been closer than he realized. Or maybe his mother had found out another way. She was smart and resourceful.
Smart and resourceful enough to be a killer?
Maisy’s blue eyes widened as she stared up at him. “Who do you love, Daddy?”
“Your mommy,” Tiffani answered.
The little girl’s brow puckered with confusion. “But then why won’t you marry her?”
His mother arched a blond brow and asked, “Yes, why won’t you?”
“You know why,” he said, and he glared at her.
She sighed. “I think I do know why. Shawna has no idea, though.”
He had wanted it that way—when he’d put his plan in motion. But now he was second-guessing himself. He hadn’t expected Shawna to ditch Manny and run off somewhere by herself. He’d thought he wou
ld find her here in the garden with Maisy and Nikki.
Nikki was there, but she’d let his mother close, had let her cuddle the little girl. Too close, if Tiffani was the threat. Nikki must have begun to have her suspicions, too—she moved her hand to her holster.
Cole shook his head. He didn’t want his mother shot. Despite their difficult relationship, he loved her and didn’t want her hurt. Maybe he could talk her down. “Where is she, Mother?” he asked.
“Who?” she asked innocently—and his mother had never been innocent. She’d been conniving and resourceful and determined. And drunk. She must have started drinking again. That had to be why she’d been so emotional the past couple of days. Was she drunk now?
“Shawna,” he said, and the anger began to seep into his voice. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Maisy must have seen the concern on his face because she began to tremble in her grandmother’s embrace. “Where’s Mommy?” she asked.
Cole shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The little girl turned to Tiffani and asked, “Grandma, where’s Mommy?”
His mother sighed and replied, “She needed a little time to herself.”
“She can’t have a little time to herself right now,” Cole said. Not when she was in danger. The last time she’d gone out for air, Manny had been knocked out and she’d nearly been killed.
Unless his plan had worked. If it had, she might not be in any danger. But his mother had already gotten wise to him. The killer, if it wasn’t her, might have, as well.
Cooper and Manny were right. It was a stupid plan.
“Where is she?” he asked again.
His mother shrugged. “I really have no idea. You know her better than anyone, Cole.”
For the first time, he realized it was true. He had always known Shawna better than anyone else in his life or hers. He’d spent the past six years thinking he must have been wrong about her or she wouldn’t have married another man. But he understood now why she had.
For Maisy. To protect Maisy.
And he intended to do the same. He held out his arms to the little girl. She hesitated for just a moment before she wound her arms around his neck, so he could lift her from his mother’s lap. He clasped her close to his madly pounding heart.
Then he looked down at his mother and noticed the hurt flash through her eyes. She felt rejected again, just as his father had continually rejected her. Why had she stayed? Had she loved Cole, or had she loved the money?
Either way he felt bad for her. Hopefully she had real love now with Jeff. But she didn’t seem happy. In fact, since the funeral, Tiffani had been more upset than he’d ever seen her. His eyes narrowed as he remembered her running from the library—from the urn.
“Mom,” he began.
She jumped up from the garden bench. “I don’t know where she is,” she said.
But that wasn’t the question he’d been about to ask her. She didn’t give him the chance to ask anything else as she took off.
“Grandma’s upset,” Maisy said.
“Yes, she is,” he agreed. “Did she visit very often at your old house?”
The little girl nodded.
Were she and Shawna friends? Or had Tiffani, like everyone else, suspected that Maisy was her granddaughter?
“Did she visit you or Mommy?” he asked. She had worked with Shawna, helping to coach the cheerleaders at the same high school where Emery Little had taught band.
“Daddy.” The little girl’s face flushed. “I mean my old daddy. She visited him a lot.”
Things were beginning to fall into place for Cole. But Maisy was too young to understand, and she shouldn’t have to. He lifted her chin with his finger and stared into her eyes. “He was your daddy, and he always will be.”
Emery Little had protected Shawna and Maisy. And no matter what else had been going on with the man, he hadn’t deserved to die.
“What about you?” she asked. “Don’t you want to be my daddy?”
“I do,” he told her. “Very much.”
“Daddy married Mommy, so he could be my daddy,” Maisy said. “But you don’t want to marry Mommy.”
Cole glanced at Nikki. “Was she near the dining room earlier?” Had she overheard how he’d lied?
Nikki shook her head. “No. She picked up on that this morning.”
“Why do you think that?” he asked the little girl.
“Because you’re mad at Mommy.”
He was. He wanted to be. Oh, hell…
But knowing why Shawna had done what she did—for their daughter—he couldn’t be mad at her. He assured Maisy, “No, I’m not.”
“Are you mad at me?” she asked, and her soft voice cracked with emotion.
He shook his head vehemently. “Of course not. I think you’re the most amazing little girl, and I’m so thrilled you’re my daughter. I very much want to be your father.”
Nikki—tough bodyguard who never cried—blinked furiously at the tears welling in her eyes. When she caught him looking, she covered her eyes and said, “Must be a stray eyelash or something.”
Maisy called his attention back to her when she asked, “What about Mommy?”
“We’ll find her,” he promised.
She shook her head. “What about Mommy?” she asked again. “Do you love her? Do you want to be with her?”
He’d just made a big production of lying to his entire family about his feelings for Shawna. But he couldn’t lie to his daughter.
“Can you keep a secret?” he asked.
She gave him a solemn nod, although he suspected she wasn’t even as good at keeping secrets as Manny. It didn’t matter. He would find another way to protect Shawna because his plan had been idiotic. He wasn’t protecting her when he was the one actually hurting her.
“I love your mommy very much,” he said. “I always have and I always will.”
The little girl’s face lit up. “So you are going to marry her!” She tightened her grasp around his neck and hugged him close.
And like Nikki, he was suddenly blinking hard. He wanted to make Maisy happy. But that wasn’t the only reason he wanted to marry Shawna. He wanted to make her happy, too. But he couldn’t do that if he couldn’t find her.
He had to find her. And she had to be safe—for all their sakes.
*
Shawna waited out on the second-floor balcony until they changed guards outside Xavier’s room. Once the two men moved down the hallway to talk, she quickly moved from the balcony into his room. She didn’t want to be seen. She wanted time to think. But first, she needed to vent.
“How could you?” she asked him.
“What?” Xavier blinked hard as if trying to focus on her. Had he been sleeping? Or had he been poisoned again? Maybe she wasn’t the only one who’d slipped into the room while the guards were changing.
She rushed to the bed. “Are you all right?”
He nodded. “Yes, of course I am.” He scooted up against the headboard. “I just need to get out of this bed. It’s making me feel like an invalid.”
“You’re not,” she said. He was one of the strongest men she knew—physically and mentally. “You should be able to get up today.”
He swung his legs over the bed to do just that, but she put her hand on his shoulder. “But you need to stay away from the cigars.”
“I’m cured,” he promised. “I no longer have any desire for them.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “when something causes you pain, you shouldn’t want anything to do with it anymore.”
He groaned. But she knew he wasn’t hurting. “That’s why you’re mad. You found out about the will.”
“How could you?” she asked again.
“You and Cole belong together,” he insisted.
She’d once thought that, too. But not anymore. She shook her head. “If that were true, he wouldn’t have broken our engagement.”
“You haven’t figured out yet why he did that
?” he asked, as if he knew.
“He told me why,” she said. That she was too dependent, too clingy—that she was a damsel in distress always in need of rescuing. “And he hasn’t changed his mind,” she said. “He just announced to your entire family that he won’t ever marry me, no matter what. He doesn’t want your money. And most important—” her voice cracked as pain jabbed her heart “—he doesn’t want me.”
Xavier must not have heard the emotional break in her voice that echoed the one in her heart. He began to laugh. Heartily.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. Maybe he wasn’t as mentally strong as she’d thought he was. Was he getting dementia? Was that why he’d done the things he had? Changing his will? Hiring Cole to be her bodyguard?
“I’m laughing because he’s such a hypocrite,” he said. “He condemns me for the things I’ve done, and he’s every bit as manipulative as I am.”
“Manipulative?” she asked. That was the last thing she’d think of when it came to Cole. “What are you talking about?”
“You two have known each other most of your childhood and nearly all of your adult lives,” he said. “And you can’t figure out why he’s done what he has?”
She had begun to suspect that he might have been trying to protect her. Six years ago. But now? She shook her head even as hope burgeoned inside her.
“So you think he just all of a sudden fell out of love with you?” Xavier asked. “Or what, that he was playing you all along with the declarations of never-ending love he’d professed to you since grade school? With the ring he gave you from an inheritance he only touched for you?” He snorted. “That was some acting, I guess, to cover up the fact that he’s just a creep who was using you.”
She gasped.
“I guess Cole is just a bad man then,” his grandfather said. It was clear he didn’t believe it.
And neither did Shawna.
“No, he isn’t,” Shawna automatically defended him. Despite everything, Cole was a good man. He was a hero. He was brave and protective…
The suspicions she’d begun having clicked into place, and she knew, without a doubt, what he’d done six years ago. And what he was doing just now…