by Lisa Childs
“Why would you leave?” Gage asked. “You’ve got family here.”
Nick snorted. “I don’t think they consider me family.” But he had begun to think of them that way. “Especially Nikki.” She was the one who’d told Gage where to find Nick a few weeks ago. She was the one who could track down anyone. He glanced around at the destruction. Did she resent him enough to do this to his place?
“Nikki,” Gage said with a wistful sigh.
Nick shoved him again.
“Don’t worry,” Gage said. “She’s your sister, so she’s off-limits. That would be like you going for Annalise.”
Actually, that would be worse, because Annalise was really Gage’s sister. Other than them both being named for their father, Nick had no connection to Nikki Payne. Gage apparently hadn’t talked to his sister yet. He didn’t know about Nick and Annalise. If he had, he might have pulled that trigger when he’d had the chance.
“You need to call her,” Nick said. Sure, she might tell Gage how he’d treated her. But he didn’t care about himself. He cared about her and how worried she’d been about her brother.
Gage sighed again—raggedly. “I can’t. She can’t hear me like this.” His voice was raspier than it had once been, but Nick suspected that wasn’t what his friend worried his sister would hear. He worried that she would hear his pain—whatever hell he’d endured all those months he’d been missing. “But I sent her an email. I let her know that I’m back—that I’m okay.”
He was alive. Nick wasn’t sure how okay he was. He wasn’t sure if Annalise was okay, either—since he hadn’t talked to her for the past six months. He hadn’t known what to say. “Sorry” hadn’t seemed adequate—although he had told her that, too. He’d made a mess of their friendship. And when Gage learned what he’d done, he would have made a mess of that friendship, too.
So maybe it was fitting that someone kept trashing his place—since Nick kept trashing his life.
* * *
Payne Protection Agency, Annalise read the sign and confirmed she’d found the correct address. The bodyguard business occupied both floors of the brick building in the industrial area of River City, Michigan. The email had come from here.
[email protected]
It had to be real. Her brother was alive. And it made sense that he would have come here. Not to the bodyguard business per se, but here to River City—to Nick. Even after whatever he’d been through in the past six months, he was still intent on following Nick around.
She had once been, too. But not anymore.
Nicholas Rus was the last person she wanted to see. Maybe she shouldn’t have come here. But River City was nearly as big as Chicago. She was unlikely to run into him. She opened the door and stepped into the brick foyer of the building. Another door led to the lobby, but when she reached for the handle, it escaped her grasp as the door pulled open. A man stepped out, nearly colliding with her. Strong hands caught her shoulders and steadied her.
“Sorry,” a deep voice murmured with concern.
She glanced up—into Nick’s handsome face. The jaw, the cheekbones, the nose were chiseled, the eyes so bright a blue they were almost startling. But he was staring down at her as if she was a stranger—as if he had never seen her before.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Nick?” But it couldn’t be. Even Nick couldn’t be cold enough to pretend that he didn’t recognize her. And she didn’t feel the way she usually felt when she saw Nick. Maybe her heart had finally given up on him.
The man’s brow furrowed. And he shook his head. “No. You know Special Agent Rus?”
She’d thought she knew him better than anyone else. But she’d been a fool. For so many reasons...
“He’s not why I’m here,” she said.
“Do you need a bodyguard?” the man asked. “I’m Logan Payne—CEO of Payne Protection.”
“He never tires of saying that,” another deep voice murmured as a second man stepped into the building from outside. Their faces were identical, but this man’s blue eyes sparkled with amusement. “He used to be the sole owner, but our younger brother and I each bought our own franchise. If you want a bodyguard, come see me.” He held out his hand. “I’m Parker Payne.”
“Which one of you does Gage Huxton work for?” she asked.
“He should work for me.” And then there were three. This man had come in behind the other brother. “I’m Cooper Payne, and my team has all the ex-Marines.”
“Unless they’re family,” Logan said. “Then they work for me.”
“Gage isn’t your family,” she said. He was hers. So why hadn’t he come to see her since he’d been back? Why hadn’t he at least called? Why had he only sent that short, impersonal email?
“He’s Nick’s family,” Logan said. “So that makes him our family.”
“Nick’s not family,” she said.
“Finally someone speaks the truth around here,” a female voice remarked. The woman was small, but she shouldered the larger men aside and stepped closer to Annalise. She didn’t look like them. Her hair was reddish-brown instead of black, her eyes brown instead of blue. But she was as much a Payne as they were. As Nick must be...
This was the family his mother’s letter had told him about—the siblings he’d never known he had.
“Who are you?” the woman asked as she thrust out her hand.
“Annalise Huxton.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “Gage’s wife?”
“Gage isn’t married,” Annalise said. While her brother hadn’t been particularly forthcoming in his email, she doubted he’d met anyone and married her while he’d been missing. Before he’d reenlisted, he had been pretty serious about a woman, but she’d broken his heart, which had probably precipitated his reenlistment. “I’m his sister.”
“I’m Nikki Payne,” the woman said.
“Nice to meet you,” Annalise said as she took Nikki’s hand, which was small but callused. And her grip was surprisingly strong. Maybe having all older brothers had made her tough, whereas Gage had always tried to coddle and protect Annalise. Even Nick had, when he hadn’t been ignoring her. But Nick wasn’t her brother.
She’d always known that, but until six months ago, she’d thought Nick had considered her a pesky little sister. He hadn’t ignored or coddled or protected her that night. Instead, he’d broken her heart.
But he’d done more than that...
Much more. She flinched as a little foot struck her ribs, and she pressed her hand over her stomach. That was probably why Nikki had assumed she was Gage’s wife. Because she was pregnant.
Maybe coming here—even to see Gage—had been a mistake. He would want to know who the father was. And she couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t tell anyone.
“Gage isn’t here,” Logan said. “He left for an assignment this morning.”
Even as disappointment flashed through her, she breathed a little sigh of relief. She wanted to see her brother—wanted to see for herself that he was all right. But she didn’t want to have to answer his questions any more than he probably wanted to answer hers.
“When will he be back?” she asked. Eventually he would have to know that he was going to be an uncle in a few months. But that wasn’t the reason she needed to see her brother. She wasn’t even here to make sure he was all right. He was back. He was working. He was probably fine.
Annalise was the one who needed help.
Logan shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Days. Maybe weeks. As long as the person he’s protecting is in danger.”
For her, it had been months. She’d been in danger since that night Nick had showed up in Chicago. That couldn’t be a coincidence. He must have gotten her in trouble somehow—in more ways than one. Because someone had spent the past six months stalking her.
* * *
Logan Payne had been running Payne Protection long enough to recognize when someone was in trouble. Annalise Huxton was in trouble. The fear was in her pale face, her wide green eyes. She was scared.
He silently cursed himself for sending her brother away. He could pull Gage off the assignment, though. He could bring him back and send someone else.
A small hand squeezed his forearm. “Let me take Gage’s place,” Nikki said. She must have recognized what he’d seen. She was intuitive. But she was too little, too young, too fragile to do their job.
“You don’t work for me anymore,” he reminded her. “You went to work for Cooper.”
She thought she could manipulate Cooper more easily than him or Parker. But he doubted Cooper would hand her any assignments more dangerous than the desk jobs Logan had given her.
His sister glared at him, and he was used to it. She hadn’t been happy with him for a while. So he wasn’t surprised that when he split up the protection agency, she’d chosen to leave the franchise he was keeping.
“Annalise needs to see her brother,” Nikki said. “He was missing for months.” She glanced at Cooper then—and there was no glare on her pretty face.
Maybe that was why she’d asked to work for him—because she’d missed him so much when he’d been deployed.
“It’s fine,” Annalise said. But the crack in her voice made it sound as if she was anything but fine. “I’ll see him when he comes back.”
“Will you stay in River City and wait for him?” Nikki asked.
“I—I could check into a hotel,” Annalise said. “I haven’t yet.”
Logan wondered why. Had she worried about her reception from Gage? Or had something—or someone else—made her afraid of staying?
“I don’t know how long he’ll be gone,” Logan reminded her.
“Maybe I could stay at Gage’s place,” Annalise murmured.
“He’s been staying with Agent Rus,” Nikki said.
Would his sister ever accept that Nick was their brother? Logan hadn’t been happy, either, to learn their father had betrayed their mother. But he hadn’t blamed Nick.
Annalise’s face paled even more, and she quickly said, “I can’t stay there.”
From what Logan had been told, Gage had grown up next door to Nick in Chicago—making them as close as brothers. Obviously Annalise hadn’t felt any more like a sister to Nick than Nikki did.
“You can stay with me,” Nikki offered. She must have recognized what Logan had—Annalise was scared. Or maybe she just liked that Annalise wasn’t a fan of Nick’s, either.
But the blonde shook her head. “I couldn’t impose.”
“No imposition at all,” Nikki assured her. “Did a cab drop you here?” She glanced around as if looking for bags.
Annalise shook her head again. “I drove my car. It’s not that far a drive from Chicago.”
“So you’re parked out front?” Nikki asked. “I am, too. You can follow me back to my place and we’ll get you settled in.”
“And I’ll see about sending a replacement for Gage so he can come back early,” Logan offered. If Annalise was as scared as he suspected she was, she needed family. She needed her brother.
Nikki held open the door for her, and Annalise walked out with his sister. They were gone for only a moment when he heard the scream and the squeal of tires.
As usual, his instincts had been right—Annalise was in danger. And that danger had followed her to River City. He drew his weapon, just as his brothers had, and the three of them rushed out to the street. But they hadn’t reacted quickly enough—because gunshots rang out.
They were too late.
Chapter 2
Nick’s heart hammered against his ribs as fear and panic overwhelmed him. He flashed his shield and hurried past hospital security—into the ER waiting room. Logan and Cooper rushed up to him.
“Where is she?” he asked. “And how badly is she hurt?” She had to be hurt or they wouldn’t have brought her here. His panic intensified and pressed on his lungs, stealing his breath.
Logan shook his head. Was it so bad that he couldn’t answer him?
“We don’t know yet,” Logan said. “A doctor is checking her out.”
“What happened?” he asked. What was she even doing in River City? Gage hadn’t called her, and it sounded as if his email to her had been brief. Had she come to visit Nick?
Six months had passed since that night. Six months with no contact, which had been unusual for her. Before, she had always called or texted or emailed him to see how he was doing. But not this time.
Not after what he’d done...
No. She hadn’t come to visit him.
Logan shrugged. “We didn’t see it. She and Nikki had stepped outside...” He pushed his hand through his black hair. “But I knew she was in danger.”
“How?” Nick asked.
“She looked scared,” Logan said.
What the hell did Annalise have to fear? Then Nick remembered that house—his mother’s house—and how badly it had been ransacked, like his place kept getting ransacked. He shook his head. It couldn’t be related. His mother’s house had sat vacant for months. That was why someone had broken into it.
“Thanks for calling me,” Nick said.
“I was going to call Gage,” Logan admitted. “But Cooper told me to call you instead.”
Nick spared Cooper a glance of gratitude. Even though Gage hadn’t spoken of it yet, Cooper, as a Marine himself, must have sensed what Gage had been through and understood that he hadn’t been ready to see his sister. And how would he handle her being hurt? Even Nick couldn’t handle it.
“I’m glad I’m the one you called,” Nick said.
“Annalise won’t be,” Nikki said as she walked into the waiting room through a door marked No Admittance. She had come from inside the hospital, maybe inside the ER.
“Where is she?” he anxiously asked. He had to see her—had to make certain she was all right.
“She doesn’t want to see you,” his half sister said. Even though she couldn’t stand him, she probably wasn’t lying.
Because of what had happened—and his silence for the past six months—he could understand if she never wanted to see him again.
But she was Annalise, always so warm and affectionate. Surely she would forgive him...even if he would never be able to forgive himself.
* * *
Annalise’s head pounded as images flashed through her mind. It had all happened so quickly. She had walked outside with Nikki, only to find two men breaking into her car.
Not again...
Frustrated and angry, she had reacted without thinking. She’d run across the street to stop them. The moment she’d crossed the road, she had realized her mistake. She had gotten too close. One of them had reached out, wrapped a huge hand around her arm and jerked her toward the open back door of her car.
She’d screamed then. And shots had rung out—fired from close range and also from across the street. She had struggled harder, fighting for herself and her baby. She had to get away. If she left with them...
The car started away from the curb, but she was half in and half out, her feet touching the road. She reached up and clawed at the face of the man holding her. He howled and released her, and she tumbled to the asphalt.
She pressed trembling hands over the mound of her belly. What had she done? She had been so stupid to run toward the car—so careless. What if her baby had been harmed?
Her belly shifted beneath her palms as her baby moved. At her last regular OB appointment, she’d had an ultrasound, but the doctor hadn’t been able to determine the sex. Annalise didn’t care what she was having—just that the baby was healthy. He or she had to be okay.
“Is my baby okay?” she asked.
“Baby?” a deep voice, gruff with emotion, repeated the word.
Her heart rate sped faster as she glanced up into Nick’s handsome face. While he looked like every one of the male Paynes—with his chiseled features, thick black hair and startlingly blue eyes, she had no doubt that this man was Nick—for so many reasons.
First, that quickening of her pulse—that tingling of her skin. She reacted to Nick as she had no one else. Second, he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. His eyes were bluer than his brothers’, his features sharper, his jaw squarer. Finally, the other men had all seen her and knew she was pregnant. It was clear that Nick had had no idea. Those bluer blue eyes were wide with shock as he stared down at her belly.
“You’re pregnant?”
She splayed her hands across her belly, but she couldn’t hide it from him. So she nodded.
“Is it mine?”
A gasp slipped through her lips—that he would ask, that he wouldn’t just know. She didn’t sleep around. She wouldn’t have slept with him six months ago if she had been involved with anyone else at the time.
Or would she have?
She had wanted Nick for so long—even before she’d known what desire was. When he had finally returned that desire, she hadn’t been able to resist and probably wouldn’t have even if she’d been in a relationship at the time. But thanks to Nick—and always wanting him—she’d had few relationships. No ordinary man or high school boyfriend or college crush had been able to measure up to the hero she had made Nicholas Rus out to be in her girlish fantasies.