by Lisa Childs
“You really think that’s him?” he asked her. “The guy from the hospital?”
She glanced toward the back of the police car and furrowed her brow. “Of course it’s him. It has to be.”
But it didn’t have to be. Just because the guy had tried to grab her in the park didn’t mean he was also the one who’d followed her to the UP and to River City.
“Does it?” he asked. “He doesn’t seem as big as the guy I fought with outside the cabin during the fire.”
She glanced from him to the police car again. “How can you tell? It was so dark and smoky then.”
“I just don’t think he’s the guy,” he admitted.
And her smile slipped away. “You are determined to think that it’s someone I know—like Ed or Anthony. What—do you want me to be as bad a judge of character as your dad and brother are?”
He flinched.
And she gasped. “I’m sorry.”
“You admitted yourself you haven’t always chosen the best friends,” he reminded her. “I think it has to be someone you know or he wouldn’t have worn a mask.”
“This guy wore a mask,” she said. “And I don’t know him. I’ve never met him before. I’ve never seen him except in that picture he sent me.”
Manny reminded her, “He sent that a long time ago and never tried to grab you before now.”
“That you know of,” she said. “What’s wrong—why don’t you want me to be safe?”
“It’s because I want you to be safe that we need to make sure we’ve really got the guy,” he persisted. The real stalker would love it if they let down their guard. Then he would have no problem grabbing her and keeping her.
Clearly exasperated with him, she sighed. “Okay, check him out.”
“Good.” The tight pressure in Manny’s chest eased, but just slightly. “We’ll stay with you until we know for sure that we got the right guy.”
“Manny, I hope—”
“Miss Plummer,” someone yelled out. And cameras flashed. “Teddie!” The paparazzi had found her. Bernard Setters and a few other reporters swarmed the ambulance. Manny stepped between her and the cameras, trying to protect her.
But he had a feeling no matter what anyone else believed, she needed protecting from more than the press yet. The stalker—the real stalker—was still out there, waiting to strike.
Would Manny be able to save her again—like he had this time? Or was his luck running out?
* * *
Cooper settled into one of the back seats of Cole’s plane for the flight to River City. Dane sat in the front next to Cole, just about gripping whatever he could in the cockpit even though the plane hadn’t been cleared to take off yet. Dane didn’t like to fly. But he was as eager to get home as Cooper was.
They had their guy. They no longer needed to stay in New York.
But Manny had refused to leave yet.
He probably had an ulterior motive for staying. Teddie...
But Nikki and Lars had stayed behind, as well. Nikki had promised Manny she would sift back through the past couple of weeks of the stalker’s life and make certain he was their guy. Cooper suspected she and Lars just wanted a chance to enjoy the city.
He didn’t blame them. Hell, he didn’t blame Manny, either, if he was just looking for an excuse to stick close to Teddie Plummer. But Cooper had this slight nagging sensation himself. Knowing who the best person was to talk to about that, he pulled out his cell and pushed his mother’s contact.
“Hey, sweetheart,” she greeted him. She sounded a bit breathless as if she’d rushed to the phone. Of course, his mother was always rushing around—planning other people’s weddings. She had help now. Lars’s sister worked for her. Mom also had a husband now, too.
Maybe that was why she sounded out of breath.
“Is this a bad time?” he asked.
“Of course not,” she said. “I just got in the door from the chapel, and Woodrow isn’t home yet from the police department.” Her husband, a former FBI chief special agent, was the new chief of the River City PD.
He relaxed a little—as much as he could relax with the tight knot of apprehension in his stomach. “Okay. Glad I’m not interrupting anything.”
Penny Payne-Lynch laughed. “If that’s the case then you better talk fast, sweetheart. My husband will be home soon.”
She sounded so happy, happier than he ever remembered his mother sounding. Usually her happiness would have warmed his heart and eased his tension.
But not now.
“That’s fine,” he said. “I shouldn’t have bothered you anyway.”
“Nonsense,” she said. “What’s up?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I thought we wrapped up our current assignment, but I’m feeling a little uneasy.”
Dane and Cole glanced back at him. And now they looked like he felt.
“Uneasy?” his mother asked.
He sighed and admitted, “I got one of your weird feelings.”
“That something bad’s going to happen?”
He couldn’t ignore the knots tightening his stomach muscles. “Yes.”
“But you said you wrapped up the assignment.”
“I think we did,” he said. “I think we got the guy. But Manny doesn’t.”
Dane snorted. “He wants an excuse to stick close to Teddie Plummer.”
That was what Nikki thought, too. But Cooper’s gut was telling him something else, that maybe Manny could be right.
“Listen to your instincts,” his mother advised. “You’ve got good ones.”
Yes, he did—because he had hers. “Thanks, Mom.”
“So, are we leaving or not?” Cole asked when Cooper clicked off his cell. “I’m cleared for takeoff.”
Cooper hesitated. He really wanted to get home to his beautiful bride, to his kids. He could see Dane wanted to get back to Emilia and Blue, as well.
But what if Manny was right...?
Before Cooper could answer Cole, his cell rang, and he recognized Teddie Plummer’s number. “Here’s the client now.”
He would have rather heard from Nikki and gotten confirmation that they had the right guy. But he clicked the connect button. “Hello?”
“You’re fired!” Teddie yelled, her voice cracking with emotion.
“Fired?” The case was wrapping up anyway—hopefully. But she had agreed to let them check out the stalker before they considered the assignment ended. At least, that was what Manny had claimed. “I don’t understand.”
“Turn on the news, then,” she said, and now her voice cracked with tears. “I can’t believe he betrayed me like this.”
“Who? What are you talking about?” he asked.
“No.” She sucked in a breath. “I should have expected it. I’ve learned I can’t trust anyone.”
“Who?” he asked again.
“Manny,” she replied. “I’m firing Payne Protection. You should fire him.” Before he could get a more detailed explanation from her, she hung up.
He stared at the cell phone screen for a long moment. Confused. “Why the hell would she want me to fire Manny?” he wondered aloud.
Dane reached between the seats and showed Cooper the screen on his cell. A news report played out with pictures of Teddie Plummer and her bodyguard, who had told the press all about their sordid affair.
“Manny must have run his mouth,” Dane said, shaking his head.
Cole glanced over at Dane’s screen and shook his head. “No. He wouldn’t have done that.”
“Manny likes to talk,” Dane said.
Cooper continued to watch the report. “He knows when not to talk, though.”
Manny had held his silence regarding the secret missions they’d carried out during their years in the Corps. And he had never talked to the press regarding
the other assignments the Payne Protection Agency had had.
“He wouldn’t have done it,” Cole insisted.
“Then how the hell did the media get ahold of that story?” Dane asked. “And the photos?”
Cooper wondered, too, especially about the photos. Manny certainly wouldn’t have taken those. But a woman who modeled swimsuits and lingerie would have no qualms about the skin she’d bared. Of course, the ones the media showed had been blurred.
“Was it all just a stunt?” he asked. “Did she contact the press herself?”
Dane touched the back of his head. “She didn’t sneak up and hit me, though.”
“No,” Cooper agreed. “She must have hired someone to act like he was stalking her.”
Cole cursed. “Damn it. Poor Manny. I think he was actually falling for her.”
He would be devastated to learn she’d used him. Hell, she’d used the entire Payne Protection Agency. But Manny was the one who was going to be hurt the most.
“So, do we take off?” Cole asked.
“Yes,” Cooper said. The only danger Manny was in was of having his heart broken. But that might be the greatest danger of all.
Chapter 23
Her stomach churning with dread, Teddie stared at the television screen. How could he have done this to her?
It could have only been Manny. Only he knew that they’d crossed the line—unless he’d told his friends. But then there were the photos, too.
He must have somehow taken them with his phone. But how? And when? How had she not noticed if he’d set it up to snap photos of them? Of course, she had been distracted—enthralled—with him.
It had to be him. No one else could have taken those photos. It wasn’t like someone could have used a telephoto lens, not through the blinds. They were all from inside the cabin.
And what he’d told the reporter...
About her trailer-trash mom, about her dad never wanting anything to do with her.
Only a few people knew the truth. And until now, until she’d told Manny, it had never made the news. More photos played across the screen, of him carrying her to the ambulance with the cabin burning in the background. Of him rescuing her in the park...
The news called him her hero. But a hero wouldn’t have betrayed her like he had.
How could he have done it? Why?
For money. She knew he must not make much. She’d seen his apartment. But she hadn’t thought he cared about money.
God, she’d been so naive. Everyone cared about money, more than they cared about people.
The door rattled as the knob turned. She’d given him a key to the penthouse. She’d trusted him with that. She’d trusted him with so much.
Her hand shaking, she wiped the tears she hadn’t even realized she’d been crying from her cheeks. And she turned to face that door.
He smiled as he stepped inside, a bag of takeout dangling from his fingers along with her keys. His other hand was sliding his gun back into his holster.
She swallowed hard. But it wasn’t fear she felt. It was fury. “You don’t need the gun,” she told him.
His brow furrowed. “What—did Nikki prove he’s your guy?”
She’d wanted Manny to be her guy, to be the person on whom she could count the most. The one she could trust. But he’d failed her.
She shook her head. “I haven’t heard from Nikki yet.” But she didn’t need to. She doubted there was anyone else after her.
“Then I need this,” Manny said. “You could still be in danger.”
“Not anymore.” She had been hurt worse than she’d ever been hurt. Her heart was broken—shattered—by his betrayal.
He narrowed his dark eyes and studied her expression. “What’s wrong?” he asked. As he stepped closer, he reached up to touch her face.
But she stepped back. “Don’t touch me! Don’t ever touch me again!”
“What’s going on?” he asked. Then he finally saw it, the TV playing behind her. And he gasped. “How the hell—Where did those photos come from?”
“You tell me,” she said. “When did you take them?”
He shook his head. “I—I didn’t.”
“You must have—with your phone.”
“What phone? My first one was dead.” He moved around her to the screen and touched one of the photos that had to have been taken before the other bodyguard had arrived in the UP.
She had let him use hers to call Cooper. Manny must have taken one then with her phone and sent it to himself. “How could you?” she asked.
“How could I what?” he repeated.
She gripped the remote and turned up the volume so the reporter’s words echoed off the walls, words he claimed Manny had told him. He had no reason to lie about his source. The only person with a reason to lie was Manny.
He shook his head and cursed, “That son of a bitch.”
“You didn’t think he would tell who gave him the story,” she mused. “How much did he pay you? How much did you get...?” To break her heart?
He turned toward her now, and his eyes were wide with shock and what must have been feigned innocence. How could he keep lying to her? “You think I would do this?” he asked. “You think I would talk to reporters, that I would tell anyone the things you told me?”
If that was his attempt to convince her, he hadn’t. It was weak, so weak that she laughed, albeit bitterly.
“I hadn’t thought so,” she admitted. “Or I wouldn’t have been so open with you. I thought I could trust you. But I don’t know why. You warned me from the beginning that you came from a family of criminals. Not that it’s a crime to break someone’s trust.” But it should have been.
“It’s not a crime to sell a story to the media, either,” she continued. “As for taking the pictures without my knowledge, I can probably take you to court for that. But then, I might have to see you again. And I’d never want that.”
It hurt too much. When she had first seen the news, she’d felt like her heart had been ripped out. Now she knew that Manny held it in his big hands, crushing it. Her chest ached and felt so hollow. She felt so empty.
“I am not a criminal,” he said, his voice full of anger and outrage.
She pointed at the TV again. “It wasn’t exactly like robbing a bank. But it was close.” She was the bank. And she’d never seen him coming.
He shook his head. And he actually had the gall to look disgusted.
“Get the hell out!” she shouted at him. “I already talked to Cooper. I already fired Payne Protection. Now I’m firing you.”
He shook his head again. “You can’t—”
“I already have,” she said. “Get the hell out!”
“Teddie, you could still be in danger. We don’t know—”
She laughed and now it wasn’t just bitter. It was nearing hysteria. “Stop it! Stop trying to scare me into letting you stay.”
She wasn’t afraid anymore. The thing she’d always feared the most—getting her heart broken like her mother’s heart had been broken when Teddie’s father had used and tossed her aside—had happened now. She had been used, her heart broken, but she was tossing him aside before he could toss her.
“I’m not trying to scare you,” he said.
“You’re trying to stay—”
He ran a shaking hand over his face. And then something must have snapped inside him because he shouted back at her, “I don’t want to stay! I don’t want to be in the same room with someone who could think I would sell them out for money.”
She flinched. But she refused to let him get to her. He’d already proved she couldn’t trust him. “Then get out.”
He started toward the door but turned back to ask, “You think I give a damn about money?”
“I don’t know what you give a damn about,” she admitted.
>
“You,” he said. “I cared about you, about keeping you safe.”
She had let herself believe that, had let herself hope that she was more than an assignment to him. Unfortunately, she had been. She’d been a payout.
He dropped the bag of food onto the table next to the door and reached for the knob. His hand fisted over it, but he hesitated for a moment. Then he turned back and said, “Think about this. If I really wanted money, I wouldn’t have sold a story about you. I would have tried to make you fall in love with me.”
He hadn’t had to try. She’d fallen willingly. Stupidly.
“I would have more money by sticking with you than by losing you,” he pointed out. Had that been his plan all along?
“You never had me,” she lied—because what he said hurt nearly as much as his betrayal.
“I know,” he said. “You were just using me.”
Because her pride hurt nearly as much as her aching heart, she lied some more. “Yes, I did just use you for sex. For protection. You never meant anything to me. You were just a bodyguard.”
He flinched as if she’d slapped him. Just like she’d wanted—just like she’d tried—she had hurt him. But she didn’t feel good about it. She didn’t feel vindicated.
He said nothing more, just pulled open the door and walked out. As the door closed behind him, Teddie resisted the urge to call him back, to apologize. She knew she was wrong. But she wasn’t sure what she was wrong about—hurting him or trusting him in the first place.
And now that she’d fired Payne Protection, she had to be careful. She had to protect herself. She wasn’t worried about another stalker. She was worried that she might never be able to trust anyone again, not after Manny.
* * *
As a Marine, as a bodyguard even, Manny had been shot, stabbed and beaten. But no bullet or knife or fist had ever hurt him as badly as Teddie Plummer’s words had. He stumbled out of the building foyer, feeling as if he was in shock. Cameras flashed in his face, blinding him like she’d blinded him with pepper spray that first time they’d met.
“Do you have any follow-up comments to the interview you gave Bernard Setters?” someone asked. “Any details about what supermodel Teddie Plummer enjoys most in the bedroom?”