The Bodyguard’s Baby

by Debra Webb

  “How do you know that?” Laura asked sharply, annoyed that he derived pleasure from Doc’s loss.

  “I was there at the clinic. One of the patients leaving that morning told me,” he retorted. “If he hadn’t left so quickly I would have taken care of him then and there.” He shook his head with feigned regret. “But then he showed up this morning. Bad timing, too. I was taking your file.” He frowned, his hands stilled on the rope. “Pissed me off that I couldn’t get it the day he disappeared, but there were too many witnesses who saw me in his yard. I couldn’t risk doing anything suspicious. So I left.” That sick smile lifted his lips again. “People aren’t likely to forget how I look.”

  Laura shivered. That was the truth if she had ever heard it. “You killed Doc just because he helped me?”

  “I killed Doc because he knew too much.”

  Same difference, Laura thought with growing disgust.

  “What about Mrs. Leeton, did you kill her, too, or was she working with you?” Laura clenched her teeth at the thought that the woman had betrayed her. Had helped someone steal her son. Laura’s lips quivered with as much anger as fear.

  “Not yet,” he said casually. “The old bag disappeared. But I’ll find her.”

  “Where’s my son?” Laura held her breath. She feared the answer, but she had to know. Please, God, she prayed, don’t let him have hurt my baby.

  “You’re not going to be needing him,” he suggested as he tightened the strange knot in the rope. “Unless you want him buried with you.”

  Laura jumped to her feet, fury shot through her. “If you’ve hurt my son,” she threatened.

  “Don’t worry, princess, he’s worth too much alive.” The albino recoiled the rope. “But you,” he allowed that evil gaze to travel over her, “you’re worth a whole lot more dead. And I’m tired of playing with you now. It’s time to get down to business.”

  NICK ROUSED slowly to a piercing pain that knifed right through his skull. He touched his forehead and blood darkened his fingertips.

  “What the hell happened?” he muttered.

  He sat up, groaning with the pain pounding inside his head. He pushed to his feet and the room spun around him. Nick closed his eyes and fought the vertigo threatening his vertical position. He took a step and something crushed under his boot. Wiping the blood from his face, Nick stared down at the broken lamp and overturned table. The events that had taken place slammed into him with such force that he staggered.

  “Laura.” Nick scanned the room, then rushed into the hall. The front door stood open. The cold November wind had blown leaves into the hall. They skittered this way and that across the shiny hardwood like lost souls.

  Nick hurried out onto the porch, his step still unsteady. The rental car was in the driveway where he had left it. He looked from left to right. Which way would the son of a bitch have taken her?

  A shriek cut through the dark fabric of the night. Nick whirled in the direction of the sound. The barn. The barest glow of light filtered past the half-open doors. Nick ran like hell. He clenched his jaw against the resulting pain twisting in his knee and then shooting up his right thigh. He ignored the fierce throb still hammering inside his head. He had to get to her. Nick pushed harder despite the grinding pain and the vertigo still pulling at him. He stumbled, barely catching himself before he hit the ground. Nick swore and propelled himself toward the barn. He skidded to a stop near one wide door. Commanding his respiration to slow, he inched toward the crack where the door hinged to the doorway. He leaned forward and peered through the narrow opening.

  Nick jerked back at what he saw. Laura was standing on a small stepladder. A length of rope had been strung over a rafter, its noose snug around her neck. Nick swallowed the terror that climbed into his throat. He carefully stepped back up to the narrow slit and forced himself to look again. The albino stood near her, talking to her, the barrel of his weapon jabbed into her stomach. Absolute fear held Laura’s every feature captive. She clutched frantically at the rope as if it were too tight already.

  A crimson rage engulfed Nick. The son of a bitch was a dead man. Nick remembered to breathe, breathe deeply and slowly. He needed to focus. He couldn’t risk Laura getting hurt. But the albino was dead.

  Nick moved soundlessly toward the open doorway. He needed to get as close as possible without being detected. Taking one last deep breath, Nick stepped into the reaching fingers of light and began the slow, careful journey toward his target. He moved to the far right, toward the shadows near the stalls. If he could circle around and come up directly behind the bastard, Nick would hopefully prevent any sudden or unexpected moves when he took him down.

  “Go ahead,” the albino sneered. “Don’t be a wimp. Scream all you want. Nobody’s going to hear you. Lover boy is out cold.” He moved closer to Laura. “Sound effects always add to the pleasure.”

  “Just tell me where my son is,” Laura demanded hoarsely.

  “Now this isn’t going to be so bad.” The albino gestured toward her precarious position with the barrel of his high-powered rifle. “It’ll take about four minutes, depending on how long you can hold your breath, for you to pass out, and then it’ll all be over. And everyone will live happily ever after. They’ll all say, poor Laura, we did everything we could for her but she still committed suicide in the end.”

  “Swear to me that my son is safe,” Laura spat vehemently.

  Nick blocked the emotion that crowded his thinking at the sound of her desperation. She wasn’t afraid to die, she was only afraid for her child. His throat constricted. The child no one had believed in, including him at first. Nick’s lips compressed into a thin line, he barely restrained the roar of rage filling him now.

  “Don’t you worry about that baby boy of yours,” the albino taunted. “He’s going to make someone very happy. Happy enough to pay me all the money I’ll ever need,” he added in a sickeningly cocky voice.

  Laura stiffened, the old, rickety stepladder rocked precariously beneath her.

  “Don’t move, princess,” he warned. “I wouldn’t want you to actually kill yourself.” He stepped closer to her. “I want the pleasure of giving you that final little push myself. Then I’m going in the house and finish off your friend.”

  “You promised if I did what you said that you would leave Nick alone,” she challenged.

  The albino made a sound of approval in his throat. “I love it when you talk back.”

  Laura turned her face away from him. Nick stopped dead in his tracks when her terrified gaze flickered back to him. He shook his head but it was too late. Recognition and relief flared in her expression. Seeing the change, the albino whirled toward Nick. Nick took a bead right between his pink eyes.

  “Drop it,” Nick ordered.

  The albino smiled. “Well, what do you know. That head of yours must be harder than I thought.”

  “Cut her down,” Nick growled savagely. “Or you die where you stand.”

  The bastard stroked his cheek with his free hand, his weapon trained on Laura’s face now. Nick tightened his grip on his Beretta in anticipation of the right opportunity to take this son of a bitch down.

  “See here, wise guy,” he smirked, “this is my little party and you weren’t invited. Don’t you know that two’s company and three’s a crowd?”

  “Cut her down,” Nick repeated coldly, the thought of killing the man making him feel decidedly calm. “And I’ll let you live.”

  “What’s to keep me from shooting her first?”

  Nick heard the uncertainty in the albino’s voice then. “Just one thing,” Nick paused for effect, “the closed-casket funeral required since I’m about to take the top of your head off.” Nick snugged his finger on the trigger.

  “Wouldn’t want that, now would we?” the albino relented.

  His gaze locked with Nick’s, the albino slowly began to lower his weapon. Nick took a step forward. And then everything lapsed into slow motion. The albino kicked his right foot outward. Th
e stepladder clattered to the floor. A startled scream shattered the still air. Nick’s horrified gaze riveted to Laura. Her arms stretched over her head, she struggled to grasp the rope and keep her weight from pulling her downward. Her legs dangled in thin air. Her face contorted with fear and desperation.

  The albino kept his weapon trained on Laura as he backed toward the door. Uncertainty flashed again in those strange eyes. “Are you going to waste precious seconds trying to decide if you can put a bullet in me before she asphyxiates? How long do you think she can hold her breath?” he added with a twisted smile.

  Instantly, Nick found himself beneath Laura, supporting her weight to keep life-giving air flowing in and out of her lungs. His heart slammed mercilessly against his rib cage.

  “Can you get the noose off?” he asked hoarsely. Nick felt himself tremble with delayed reaction. The vision of Laura dangling from the end of that damned rope swept through his brain.

  Gasping for breath between sobs, Laura didn’t answer for a while. “I think so,” she rasped, then coughed.

  Nick’s gaze shot to the barn doors. The albino was gone.

  But Laura was alive. Nick closed his eyes and held her lower body more tightly in his arms.

  At the moment, nothing else mattered.

  Chapter Eleven

  “My baby’s alive,” Laura whispered. “He told me my baby was alive. I…” She shuddered. “You’re still bleeding. I have to get you to a hospital.”

  “Shhh,” Nick soothed. “I’m fine. The bullet didn’t do as much damage as that damned table.”

  Laura caressed his cheek with trembling fingers, her worried gaze examining him closely. “But there’s so much blood.”

  “I’m fine.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then pulled her close against his chest. “Just let me hold you a minute.” Nick sat on the cold dirt floor and held Laura in his arms. She trembled and he held her closer. He almost lost her tonight. He should have anticipated that the bastard would make a move after killing Doc. He was growing impatient.

  Laura had been through so much already. Her missing child. Her son. Ray’s words echoed inside Nick’s head, “A baby, maybe a year or so old.”

  Laura’s child.

  Ray had seen her with the child. Ian would no doubt confirm tomorrow that the clinic Nick and Laura had visited had, indeed, registered the birth of a Robert Forester with the registrar’s office in Montgomery. That would be more hard evidence. Laura had a child, and by noon tomorrow Nick would be able to prove it.

  James Ed had lied. Nick couldn’t believe he had been that wrong about the man. He had seemed genuinely overjoyed to have Laura back home. To know that she was alive and unharmed.

  And Sandra. She might not even know her mother was alive. Her adoptive parents may have told her that the woman died years ago. What would Sandra stand to gain from Laura’s death? Nothing, as far as Nick could see. It wasn’t as if she and James Ed had needed the money that desperately. Of course, once it was available, they had apparently taken advantage of it. But Sandra wasn’t in control of the money, James Ed was. All evidence pointed to James Ed.

  Just like Laura said.

  Nick frowned. Still, something about that scenario didn’t quite fit. Didn’t sit right with him. He blew out a disgusted breath. Nick closed his eyes and cursed himself for not believing her in the first place. He should have followed his instincts instead of allowing the past and his pride to get in the way. His eyes burned with regret. It shouldn’t have taken him so long to come around.

  He was a fool twice over.

  Nick placed a soft kiss against Laura’s hair. “Let me get you inside,” he murmured. “We’ll talk then.”

  “Okay,” she said weakly. She stared into his eyes, her own bright with tears. “But first I want to get that wound cleaned up.”

  Nick nodded and they stood together. His grasp on her arms tightened to steady her when she swayed. She glanced around the dimly lit barn, her eyes wide with fear. Her body tensed as he slid his right arm around her waist.

  “It’s all right, honey, he’s gone. I don’t think he’ll be back,” Nick assured her. He couldn’t bear the fear in her eyes. If the bastard did come back he was a dead man.

  Taking his time so as not to rush her, Nick ushered Laura in the direction of the house. Her skin felt as cold as ice. He had to get her inside and warmed up. He shuddered inwardly again at the thought of how close he had come to losing her tonight. Shock was a definite threat at the moment. A warm bath and hot coffee or cocoa would do the trick. He would call Ian and then Nick and Laura would talk. He wasn’t sure she could tolerate any more surprises, good or bad right now. When she was up to it, he would tell Laura that she didn’t have to worry anymore.

  One way or another Nick would find her child. If he had to beat the truth out of James Ed with his bare hands.

  Half an hour later Laura had cleaned and bandaged the wound on his forehead where the bullet had grazed him. Nick had a hell of a lump where the table had gotten in his way, but there was nothing to be done about that. Nick had settled Laura in the wide garden tub and then he’d put in a call to Ian while warming some milk for cocoa. Tracking down the identity of the albino probably wouldn’t be difficult, Nick considered as he carried the steaming cocoa to the bathroom.

  He paused inside the bathroom door just to look at Laura. Mounds of frothy bubbles enveloped her, hiding that exquisite feminine body. She had bundled all that silky blond hair atop her head in the sexiest heap Nick had ever seen. He loved every sweet, perfect thing about her. A fierce stab of desire sliced through him, making his groin tighten. How he wanted to touch her. But not tonight, he reminded the hungry beast inside him. Laura needed to rest tonight.

  Relaxed within the warm depths, her eyes closed, Nick couldn’t read what Laura’s emotional state was now that the day’s events had had time to absorb fully. His throat constricted at the thought of just how much she had endured over the past two years. Running for her life, and with a baby. How had he ever doubted her? If James Ed were behind all this—Nick shook his head slowly, resolutely—he would pay. He forced a deep, calming breath. Going off half-cocked wouldn’t help, but there would definitely be a day of reckoning.

  Nick’s errant gaze moved back to Laura’s face, then traveled down one soft cheek, past her delicate jaw, and over the fragile column of her throat. Anger unfurled inside him when his gaze traced the offensive marks caused by the rope. The abrasions, already shadowed with a purplish tinge, were stark against her creamy skin. The albino had better hope Nick didn’t find him.

  Adopting a calm he didn’t feel, Nick crossed the quiet room and sat down on the edge of the luxurious tub. Laura’s lids slowly fluttered open revealing those soft blue eyes. Nick smiled, then placed her cocoa near the elaborate gold faucet.

  “It’s warm,” he told her. “You should drink it before it cools.”

  Laura moistened those full, pink lips. “I suppose it’s safe to say that you believe me about James Ed now,” she suggested with just a hint of bitterness.

  Nick nodded. He deserved a good swift kick in the ass. “It would be safe to say that, yes. All the evidence seems to point to him.”

  Her expression solemn, those sweet lips trembled. “We have enough evidence to prove my son exists, too?”

  Nick’s gaze remained locked with hers for a long moment as he considered whether to tell her about the call to Ray. No, he decided, she’d had enough for one night. She needed to relax, not get all worked up again. “Yes. We can prove your child is real.” He didn’t want to think about another man touching Laura. She belonged to him….

  Laura blinked away the moisture shining in those huge blue orbs. “You’ll make James Ed tell the truth?”

  Nick smiled then. It didn’t matter who the father was. Nick would find Laura’s child. “Absolutely.”

  “He said that someone is going to pay him a lot of money for my baby.” She swallowed, then pulled her lower lip between her teeth as she
composed herself. “I can’t believe my own brother would sell my baby.”

  “We’ll get him back, Laura.”

  Her arms folded over her breasts, Laura sat bolt upright. “I want you to take me to James Ed. I want you to take me right now, Nick,” she demanded. “I don’t want to waste any more time.”

  For a moment Nick couldn’t speak. Suds slipped over her satiny shoulders and down her slender arms. Laura was a wonderful mother. The kind any child would want, he realized suddenly. The kind of mother he wanted for his own children. She was sweet and beautiful and kind. And all that sass buried beneath her worry for her child pulled at him like nothing else ever had. She was everything he wanted.

  “First thing in the morning,” he countered finally, a restless feeling stirring deep inside him. “We’ll head for Jackson then.”

  She pressed Nick with her solemn gaze. “And you’ll do whatever it takes to get the truth out of my brother?”

  “You can count on it.” He would have the truth out of James Ed…or else.

  “Swear it, Nick,” she insisted. “Swear to me that you’ll do whatever it takes.”

  “I swear,” he replied softly.

  Laura nodded her satisfaction. Several tendrils of that golden silk fell around her face, and clung to that soft neck. “That’s all I can ask of you.” A frown wrinkled her pretty forehead. “Does your head hurt much?”

  “Not much,” he whispered. The need to touch her overwhelmed all else. Slowly, while maintaining that intense eye contact, Nick allowed his fingertips to glide over one smooth cheek. Want gripped him with such ferocity that for a long moment he couldn’t breathe. “You can ask anything you want of me,” he murmured.

  Laura took his hand in hers and pressed a soft kiss to his palm, her gaze never leaving his. “And would you give me anything I ask, Nick?” she whispered. A hot flash of desire kindled in her eyes.

  He nodded, no longer capable of articulation.

  “You’re sure you’re up to it?” she teased, a smile playing about the corners of her full mouth.