by Lisa Childs
He had endured Derek torturing him and hadn’t given them up. He wouldn’t let anyone get between him and his fortune. Not Megan and not Gage.
Chapter 24
“They already knew about Richard?” Megan asked as Gage clicked off the cell phone.
Fortunately, he’d taken the call in the living room while she’d been getting dressed in the bedroom. Since Payne Protection often used the condo as a safe house, the closet was stocked with clothes in an assortment of sizes.
He’d found a pair of jeans and a black sweater that fit. He turned to where she stood in the bedroom doorway. She wore a red sweater dress with tall suede boots. She looked so damn sexy.
He forced himself to focus on her question and nodded. “Yeah, they already knew about Richard and the diamonds.” He glanced at where the wedding dress spilled out of a box sitting on the leather couch. But they’d shared with him something he hadn’t known, something that made him feel physically ill.
Woodrow was hurt. Badly.
He wasn’t certain how to tell Megan that her father might not make it. He wasn’t certain if he should even tell her at all. Because if he told her, she would want to go to the hospital.
And it wouldn’t be safe for them to leave until Richard was caught.
“How did they know?” Megan asked.
“Nikki overheard an argument between Richard and Derek Nielsen in the church,” he said.
“Derek Nielsen?”
“D,” he explained. “Remember, Nick told us his name outside the church.” He was surprised that he’d remembered, though. He’d been so shaken from going through that damn tunnel. “Derek just recently broke out of prison. He was serving a fifteen-year sentence for armed robbery.”
“Let me guess,” she said. “Of a jewelry store?”
He nodded.
“I don’t understand how Richard was involved.”
“Nikki figured he was the one who bypassed the security system so that no alarm went off. There were actually several robberies where someone hacked the security systems and the stores were robbed.”
“Richard?”
He nodded. “The Kozminskis—they’re bodyguards with Payne Protection, too—recognized D at the church. They knew he was responsible for several more jewelry store robberies than the one for which he was serving time.”
“How do they know?” she asked.
“Have you heard the saying it takes a thief...”
She nodded. “But you said they’re bodyguards.”
“They are.”
“And thieves, too?”
“Not anymore,” he said. “But they keep a foot in that world. It’s a good thing, though. It gives us information we wouldn’t be able to get without them.”
“Did they know anything about Richard?” she asked.
He nodded. “Not by name. But they knew Nielsen recruited some college kid several years ago and had him hacking the stores’ security systems. But then there was a glitch with Derek’s last robbery. Some security footage of him showed up, and he was arrested.”
Megan gasped. “Richard betrayed him.”
“There’s another saying,” Gage began.
“There’s no honor among thieves,” Megan finished for him.
“Except the Kozminskis,” he quickly added. He would trust those guys with his life, and he might have to if they were the backup bodyguards Logan was sending to the safe house.
“What is it?” Megan asked.
“What’s what?” he asked, stalling for time.
He wasn’t sure how to tell her what he needed to. She loved her father so much; she would be devastated if he didn’t survive his gunshot wound.
She narrowed her eyes and studied his face. “What are you not telling me?”
“Megan...”
“I know there’s something you’re not telling me,” she insisted.
He still needed to stall for time, at least until his backup arrived at the condo to see if Richard was lurking outside. Gage had whisked her away from the church quickly, and he hadn’t noticed anyone following them. But he had underestimated Richard once. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
So to stall, he asked the question that had been bothering him. “If you can read me that well,” he said, “how could you not know that I was telling you the truth about how I felt about you?”
She sucked in a breath. “You want to talk about that now?”
He nodded.
“I told you that I was wrong,” she said. “I shouldn’t have doubted you. I shouldn’t have listened to Tucker or Richard.”
He flinched.
“What?” Annoyance pulled her full lips into a frown. “What is it?”
“Tucker...”
“What about Tucker?”
“He died.” Gage couldn’t believe it. But his name had been on the list of casualties Nick had run down for him. “He arrived early, so he made it inside the church. Then Nikki said he tried to draw his weapon when Derek had ordered all the guests to be searched.” He must have gotten scared, or he’d been trying to play the hero he’d always wanted to be.
Stupid kid...
Megan’s lashes fluttered over the tears brimming in her eyes. Then she stalked over to the dress and pounded her fist against the side of the box. “He didn’t deserve to die, especially not over these damn things.”
Seeing how upset she was about Tucker, Gage dreaded telling her about her father. But he needed to let her know. She would never forgive him if Woodrow didn’t make it and she didn’t get to see him again.
One last time...
* * *
No one had ever scared her like Gage could. When he’d started flirting with her, she’d been afraid because she’d never had a man like him—so handsome and sexy—interested in her before. She hadn’t trusted his attraction to her was real. He’d scared her even more when he’d reenlisted and disappeared during his deployment. That had nearly scared her to death.
But this—the fear she felt now because he kept avoiding her gaze—scared her nearly as much. He had information that he knew would upset her so much that he was reluctant to share it with her.
“What is it?” she asked again, as she had so many times before. “Just tell me!”
“Megan...” The reluctance was there in his deep and raspy voice. He really didn’t want to tell her.
So she started guessing, knowing that when she hit on it he would betray himself. “Did Richard get away?”
He nodded. “Yeah, nobody even saw him at the church. He must have escaped during the shoot-out.”
She grimaced as she remembered all the shots she’d heard emanating from the speaker in that small closet in which Gage had locked her. “Tucker died and Derek,” she said. “Was anyone else killed or hurt?”
The look on his face chilled her blood. “There were more casualties!”
He nodded. “The woman—Andrea.”
She gasped. She’d been afraid of the woman. But she hadn’t wished her dead. She hadn’t wished any of them dead. “That’s too bad.”
“Nikki had to kill her.”
“That’s even worse.” She couldn’t imagine how Nikki felt. “Is she okay?”
He expelled a breath but nodded. “She’s fine.”
Panic clutched her heart. Someone else obviously was not fine. He wasn’t willing to come right out and tell her. So she had to keep asking questions. “And Mrs. Payne? Penny?”
He nodded again.
Realization dawned on her, making her sick. “My dad!” she exclaimed. “He got hurt.”
Gage nodded yet again.
Tears stung her eyes. Everybody had kept telling her that he was so tough, that he could handle anything. That was the only reason she’d left with Gage before knowing if everyone had survived the shoot-out inside the chapel.
“I shouldn’t have left the church,” she said, berating herself. She’d thought her staying there—when all everyone had actually wanted was that damn dress—might pu
t other people in danger. But she shouldn’t have left until she’d known everyone else was out of trouble.
“How badly is he hurt?” she demanded to know.
Gage flinched as if it hurt him just to think about it. He had always thought so highly of her father. All Woodrow Lynch’s agents respected and loved him. He wasn’t just a boss to them. He was a friend—a mentor—a father—to them as well.
“How badly is he hurt?” she asked again.
Was he just hurt or was he dead?
“He was shot,” he said. “Andrea shot him before Nikki killed her.”
And now she wished Nikki had killed the woman earlier. Or that Megan had. Maybe she should have plunged those scissors into the woman’s cold heart instead of her shoulder.
Megan trembled with both anger and fear. How dare she...how dare she hurt Megan’s father...
“He’s been through surgery. They removed the bullet. It was close to his heart, did some damage to one of his lungs,” Gage said. And now he spoke almost too freely.
She felt sick thinking of the physical damage that had been done to her father. He’d always been so strong, so invincible.
“And he lost a lot of blood,” Gage continued.
“Is—is he going to make it?” she asked.
He fell silent again, and his green eyes looked down. He was unwilling to meet her gaze.
“Gage!” she yelled. “Tell me!”
“They don’t know,” he admitted, his voice ragged with his own emotions. She saw it then. He hadn’t just respected her father. He’d loved him, too. He had loved working with him.
If not for her, she doubted Gage would have quit the Bureau. He would have kept working with her father. She had put this all in motion.
If she hadn’t broken up with him...
If she hadn’t agreed to marry a man she hadn’t loved...
It was all her fault. She’d already lost Gage through her stupidity. She couldn’t lose her father, too.
* * *
Images played behind Woodrow’s closed lids. The flash of the gunfire as the bullet fired. He waited for the pain he’d felt, but he was numb.
Was he dead?
Had he died?
What about Penny? She’d been right behind him. Had she been shot too?
Megan was safe. Gage would make certain of that. He’d promised to get her to a secure place. He would protect her with his life.
Woodrow would have done the same for Penny—if he’d had the chance. He struggled to move, but something lay against his side, something warm and soft that lulled him into a feeling of security himself. But he wasn’t safe. He’d been shot once. Even though he’d tried to stay awake, consciousness had slipped away from him.
He had no idea if he’d been shot again. Or if anyone else had...
“Penny...” he murmured her name as he fought to regain consciousness.
“Shh...” a soft voice soothingly replied. “I’m right here. I’m right here.”
And when he finally dragged his lids up, he saw that she was. She was the warmth and softness he’d felt as she lay next to him in the narrow hospital bed. He’d never been as comfortable as he’d been with her lying beside him.
He was sure it had nothing to do with the drugs that were pumping into his veins through the IV in his arm. It was all her: Penny Payne.
Her face was flushed as if she was embarrassed he’d caught her in his bed. Her curls were rumpled like her bronze dress, and her makeup slightly smeared beneath her eyes, making dark circles look even darker. But she had never looked more beautiful to him.
“You’re all right?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes. Are you?”
“I’m alive?” It was a question; he wasn’t sure. His body still felt curiously numb but for his heart that swelled with love.
For her...
He wanted this, wanted to go to sleep every night with Penny in his arms, wanted to wake every morning with her lying beside him.
Her lips curved into a smile, one full of relief. And she blinked back tears. “Yes, you’re alive.”
“You sound surprised,” he mused.
She shook her head. “No, I never had any doubt you’d survive.”
“Liar.”
Her lips curved into a bigger smile. He couldn’t resist; he leaned forward and kissed those lips. Her breath escaped in a ragged sigh against his mouth.
“I was so scared,” she admitted. “I hoped but I didn’t know.”
“Like you always know everything,” he teased.
She shook her head. “Not everything...”
Panic clutched his heart. “Is Nikki okay?”
“Yes,” she said. “You were right about her. She’s far tougher than I ever realized. She shot and killed the woman who shot you.”
“Did she get hurt?” He remembered all those flashes of gunfire.
“Not a scratch on her.”
“She’s not just tough then,” he remarked with surprise. “She’s damn lucky.”
Penny’s lips curved into a smile again. “She thinks it’s the dress.”
“The dress she was wearing?”
“My old wedding dress.”
“Then it is lucky.”
“I’m not so sure,” Penny admitted. “I didn’t have the storybook marriage I thought I’d have.”
“Neither did I,” he admitted.
“I know.”
And she would. She must have realized that Megan wasn’t his. It didn’t matter, though. He didn’t love her any less. He didn’t blame her for what her mother had done. Hell, he didn’t even blame her mother. He’d never been there for Evelyn, not like she’d wanted or needed him to be. His job had always mattered more to him than she had.
Now Penny...
If she wanted him to quit, he would do it in a heartbeat. He knew now that nothing mattered more than love. But maybe he’d only realized that because he was truly in love for the first time in his life.
Before he shared his feelings with her, he had to know. “Did everyone else make it out all right?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
He released a ragged breath of relief. “So it’s over...”
Her eyes—those beautiful warm brown eyes—squeezed shut, as if she didn’t want him to see the truth in them.
“You said everyone made it out all right.”
“Yes, but it’s not over,” she said.
Then he remembered what Derek had told him and Gage. The danger is not who you think...
He groaned.
She sat up and looked at the machines hooked to him, monitoring his condition. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” But he wouldn’t be able to tell her what he wanted to tell her until he knew this was over. “Physically, I’m fine. But if something happens to one of my daughters...”
She squeezed his IV-less arm. “I know.”
No parent knew better than she did, not with the danger her kids routinely faced.
“Nick and my other boys,” she said, claiming her husband’s illegitimate son in the way he had claimed Megan—wholeheartedly, “they’re working on finding Richard.”
“Richard?”
“Yes, he worked with Derek and double-crossed him. That was how D wound up behind bars and Richard wound up with the fortune in diamonds Derek had stolen.”
He sucked in a breath.
And she touched his chest.
He couldn’t feel her fingers though through the heavy bandages wrapped around his torso. Now he knew where he’d been shot. He expelled that breath in a shaky sigh of relief that he’d survived.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” she asked.
He nodded. “I’m just shocked. I checked Richard out. And he has no record.”
“He’d never been caught,” she said.
Woodrow shook his head. “I don’t understand...”
“What?” she asked. “You couldn’t have known. No one suspected what he was capable of.”
“But
why wouldn’t Derek have turned him in?” he wondered. “If he’d given up his partner, he might have gotten a reduced sentence.”
“From what Nikki overheard, Derek thought he was dead. Apparently, he tortured Richard to find out where he’d stashed the diamonds. He’d thought he’d gone too far and Richard had died.”
“But he survived.” Woodrow regretted that after all the fear the man had caused Megan and might still cause her. Realization dawned as he remembered what he had discovered about the man who could have been his son-in-law, probably would have been had Derek not broken out of prison and hijacked the wedding.
“I know he had a lot of plastic surgery five or so years ago,” Woodrow said. His hacker had hacked the hacker’s medical records. “It was due to burns, though. I figured they were just from the fire Megan had mentioned Richard had been in.”
Instead he had been tortured. Derek Nielsen must have been determined to get those diamonds. But Richard had been even more determined to keep them. He’d been willing to give up his life over them.
“Nikki figures Andrea helped him,” Penny said, “that she was playing both of them.”
But she was dead and so was Derek Nielsen. And hopefully Richard was long gone.
“I’m sure he left the church and headed straight to the airport,” Woodrow said.
Penny shook her head. “I doubt it. He won’t leave without the diamonds.”
“So he’ll retrieve those from wherever he stashed them, and he’ll leave.”
Her face, which had been flushed with color when he had awakened, grew pale now.
“What?” he asked. The numbness was beginning to wear off because he felt a pang of fear now—in his heart.
“The diamonds were on Megan’s wedding gown.”
He knew what that meant. Richard wouldn’t leave without the diamonds and probably not without Megan, either.
“Gage will protect her,” Penny assured him.
Woodrow trusted Gage. But Richard Boersman was more dangerous than any of them had realized. And even more desperate.
He had been willing to give up his life once for those diamonds. He would definitely be willing to do it again. And Woodrow suspected that for those damn diamonds, Richard would have no qualms about taking a life or two.
Chapter 25