Bodyguard's Baby Surprise

by Lisa Childs

He reached for the driver’s door handle. But before he could push it open, Annalise clutched his arm. “Nick!”

  “It’s okay,” he told her. But it wasn’t. He stepped out, walked back to the other vehicle and pounded on the driver’s window.

  It rolled down, and the blond-haired bodyguard leaned out. “How the hell did you make me?”

  “You’re not that good,” he said.

  Milek Kozminski chuckled. “I’m the best.”

  “I made you,” he reminded him.

  And color flushed Milek’s face. “You wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for the other car.”

  “Someone else was following me?” Panic clutched his heart, and he tightened his grasp on his gun and glanced around the alley. But there were only rusted dumpsters and their two vehicles.

  Nobody else.

  “You lost that tail easily,” Milek said.

  At least there was that. “That’s good.”

  “You shouldn’t have been trying to lose me,” Milek admonished him.

  “I didn’t know for certain it was you.” Not at first, anyway.

  Milek sighed. “You know how this works.”

  “This?”

  “Payne Protection,” Milek said. “We have each other’s backs. No man—or woman—is left alone in danger.” Milek would know that. His family had protected him even when he hadn’t wanted their protection.

  Now Nick could understand Milek’s irritation with his fellow bodyguards. “It’s my job to protect Annalise.”

  “And it’s my job to protect you,” Milek said.

  “I don’t need any protection,” Nick said.

  Milek pointed toward his wounded shoulder. “You’ve already been shot. Of course you need protection.”

  “I’ve been taking care of myself for thirty-one years,” he reminded Milek.

  Milek pointed toward the SUV Nick had left idling. “Now you have someone else to worry about.”

  He couldn’t deny that he was worried. “I’ll protect her, too.”

  “How?” Milek asked. “By going off alone without letting anyone know you were leaving?”

  Nick wasn’t used to having to answer to anyone. For the past year, he’d been the boss. His bureau chief in Chicago had given him full autonomy. Chief Lynch trusted him; the Paynes should, too.

  “Where were you going?” Milek asked.

  “Chicago.”

  Milek shook his head. “No. It’s too dangerous.”

  Nick had tried to tell Annalise that. But she’d been determined to go to her closing, to check in on the property management business she ran. And it was Annalise.

  He’d always struggled to tell her no. But he had, until that night six months ago.

  That night had changed so much.

  “Logan won’t approve it,” Milek said. “And you agreed you’re working for him.”

  Nick sighed and holstered his weapon. “Fine. I’ll bring her back to my place.”

  But that was dangerous, too. Not because of someone finding them there. It was dangerous for Nick to be alone with her. He wanted her too much....

  * * *

  Something was going on with Nick—something that Milek recognized. The internal struggle.

  It was more painful than a physical one. He wanted to help. But Nick had to conquer his inner demons on his own. Milek could help him fight only the outer ones. So he followed him again—back to his place.

  He had trusted that Nick would go back to his rental house in River City. The FBI special agent had realized it was too dangerous to go to Chicago. So why had he been going? Had he been seeking out his contacts there—the agents he’d worked with out of the Chicago Bureau?

  Milek had met most of them, had worked protection duty at a couple of their weddings. They were good guys. But they weren’t Payne Protection bodyguards. No one would guard Nick more faithfully than family.

  And to Milek, Nick was family. They didn’t share blood like Nick did with the Paynes. But Milek owed Nick his life and, more important, the lives of his family. Nick had protected the woman Milek loved and their son. He would do the same for Nick now.

  He pulled to the curb behind the black SUV as he had in the alley. But Nick didn’t jump right out like he had back there. Instead, he idled at the curb for a while. Long enough that Milek exited his vehicle and hurried up to Nick’s side.

  The window was already down, Nick’s weapon already drawn. Milek drew his as he glanced toward the house. Then he saw what Nick had; the front door stood open. They hadn’t left that long ago—less than an hour. It was possible that whoever had broken in was still inside. If they had broken in to get to Nick and Annalise, it was probable they were still inside—waiting for their return.

  “I’ll check it out,” he said.

  Nick shook his head. “I will.”

  “We can’t leave her out here alone,” Milek said as he glanced around. Other vehicles were parked along the street. Someone could have been ducked down low in one of them, waiting for the opportunity to get Annalise.

  “No, we can’t,” Nick readily agreed. “That’s why you’re staying with her.”

  “But I’m assigned to protect you,” Milek reminded him.

  Nick snorted. “Like you never disregarded Logan’s orders before.”

  He had. But it had nearly cost him his life.

  “It’s too dangerous for you to go in alone,” Milek said. He reached for the transmitter on his collar. Thanks to Nikki’s computer savvy, they had the same high-tech gadgets the FBI had. “Let me call in backup.”

  Nick opened the door. “I already waited too long,” he said. “If we wait any longer, they’ll be gone.”

  Annalise leaned across the console, her hand extended toward Nick. “Don’t go,” she implored him. “It’s too dangerous.”

  Milek heartily agreed. But he knew it was pointless to argue with Nicholas Rus. He’d never known a more determined or stubborn or fearless man.

  Until Nick turned back to him.

  There was fear in his eyes. But it wasn’t for himself. Flinching as he lifted his right hand, he clasped Milek’s shoulder. Despite the wound to his own shoulder, his grasp was tight—like that of his left hand on his gun. “Protect her,” he ordered Milek.

  It was an order he couldn’t disobey. He nodded. Then he watched as Nick hurried off toward the house and that open door. It was all he could do not to follow him, simply to watch as he disappeared inside.

  He lifted his hand and flipped the transmitter on his collar. “Nick’s house has been broken into,” he reported.

  “Are he and the subject inside?” a voice asked. It wasn’t Nikki. It was whoever Logan had hired to replace her as the computer guru for his division of Payne Protection.

  “Annalise is with him. Nick went inside alone.”

  “What the hell is Nick doing?” Logan’s voice emanated from the radio now.

  “He’s evaluating the threat,” Milek said. But that was his job—the job Nick had refused to let him do.

  “He’s going to get himself killed,” Logan said.

  Milek hoped like hell that the boss wasn’t right.

  * * *

  Annalise didn’t know the man who now sat in Nick’s place in the driver’s seat. But she reached across the console and grasped his arm. “Please,” she said. “Go in and help him!”

  He shook his head. “I can’t.”

  Because he thought he had to protect her. She was the subject, according to the first voice that had come through the radio on his collar. She was the client even though she had yet to pay anyone. In her business, the client was always right.

  “You have to help him,” she said as she stared through the windshield at the house.

  Nick had lef
t the door open, like he’d found it. Or maybe because it was broken. It swung strangely from the hinges as a breeze kicked up.

  Despite that it was spring, that breeze blew through the open window and chilled her. She shivered.

  Milek moved his hand toward the power button to roll it up. But she clutched his arm harder. “No,” she said. “Leave it open.”

  Not that they could hear anything. The house sat back far enough from the street that they could hear no sounds emanating from it. The blinds were drawn, too, so they could see no movement inside.

  “Logan’s right.” At least, she assumed it had been Logan whose voice had come second through the radio. “Nick’s going to get himself killed.”

  He had already been shot. He was in no condition to take on—alone—whoever had broken into his house. There could have been one man or two or more.

  She shivered again.

  “He’s armed,” the blond bodyguard said. “And he’s a damn good shot.”

  And just as he made that pronouncement, a shot rang out. But they didn’t know whether Nick had fired it. Instead it could have been fired at him.

  She screamed and reached for the passenger door. But the man held her back.

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  That hadn’t stopped Nick from going inside alone. And it wouldn’t stop her. Tugging free of the man’s grasp, she pushed open the door and ran for the house.

  Ran for Nick...

  Chapter 9

  So much for the reinforced locks he’d bought. The door had been nearly ripped from the hinges. As he’d pushed past it, Nick had glanced around, but with all the blinds drawn inside, the house was dark.

  So much for the bars on the windows and the stockade fence, too. They hadn’t kept out his intruder. Who kept breaking in? And was he still there?

  Grasping the Glock tightly, Nick moved through the house. Closets and cupboards stood open like the front door. Furniture had been tossed.

  Too much destruction had been done for the intruder to be gone already. It would have taken too long to do all this and get away in the short time Nick and Annalise had been gone. The perpetrator had to be inside yet. And Nick heard the telltale thump of something moving.

  Maybe it was only the back door. Maybe it had been broken from the hinges like the front. But as he moved toward it, he located the noise—in the bedroom at the back. Gage had been staying in it, except for last night.

  Last night Annalise had slept there while Nick had sat up tensely on the couch, his body aching for hers. She was outside now, safe with Milek. He had to believe that. Or he would be tempted to go back to check on her.

  There could have been more men outside, waiting for him to leave her unprotected. But he hadn’t left her unprotected. Milek might disobey Logan, but he wouldn’t disobey Nick. He wouldn’t endanger Annalise or the baby’s safety.

  So Nick reached for the door of that back bedroom. It wasn’t closed tightly, so he only had to push it open slightly to see a dark clothed figure moving around in the shadows. Annalise’s few things, the clothes Candace had gone inside the department store and purchased for her, had been thrown around the room. They lay across the hardwood floor and the unmade bed. It looked as if she hadn’t slept any more than he had. But then, she was probably too afraid to rest.

  And she had every reason to be.

  He swung his gun barrel toward the figure and shouted, “Put your hands up! You’re under arrest!”

  He’d told Logan he was quitting the Bureau, but he hadn’t given notice yet. So he still had his badge—his authority. His weapon...

  And as the man catapulted toward him, he fired it. If a bullet struck the intruder, it didn’t stop the huge guy. He kept coming at Nick and knocked him back against the hallway wall. His breath left his lungs at the force of the assault. And as his head struck the wall, black spots obscured his vision. He peered into the man’s face, trying to get a good look so he could identify him.

  Nick didn’t think it was the guy from the parking garage. But it could have been. A big hand locked around his, fighting for the gun. He fired it again.

  And finally the man loosened his grasp. Nick slid down the wall at his back. But he kept his weapon in his hand—waiting for the guy to come at him again. Instead the intruder turned and ran for the back door. Nick needed to get up—needed to chase him. To stop him.

  To find out what the hell he wanted.

  But he couldn’t catch his breath, couldn’t completely clear his vision yet. Then another shadow rushed toward him. He should have known the guy probably wasn’t alone. There had been two in the parking garage. The one who’d died had probably been replaced with the man who’d just attacked him. This would be the second guy.

  So Nick raised his gun. Just as his finger was about to squeeze the trigger, his vision cleared. He noticed the slight figure but for her belly. And the blond hair flowing behind her as she ran toward him.

  “Annalise!” He shook in reaction—not from the fight but from the fact that he had pointed his weapon at the woman who carried his baby.

  A shadow loomed behind her. He raised his gun higher and met Milek’s gaze. “I’m sorry,” his friend said. “She got away from me.”

  She hadn’t been in danger outside. She’d been in danger with him. He could have shot her and their baby.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “We heard a shot!”

  “No,” he said as he finally regained his feet. “I’m not okay.” He was mad as hell. “What were you thinking to come running in here?”

  The color drained from her face, leaving her pale but for the bright sheen of her green eyes. Her voice quavering, she murmured, “Nick...”

  “Obviously you don’t care about your life, or you wouldn’t have tried to stop them from stealing your car yesterday, and you wouldn’t have run toward the sound of a gunshot,” he said. “At least care about the life of our baby!”

  She flinched, and tears shimmered in her eyes. “I—I’m sorry.”

  He was the sorry one. He shouldn’t have lashed out at her. He’d been scared. Scared that he’d nearly hurt her. And then he had.

  Emotionally.

  She was probably in more danger from him than from whoever had broken into his place. He was the one who kept hurting her. And he hated himself for it—probably as much as she was beginning to hate him.

  * * *

  She loved Nick. That was why she’d run toward the sound of the gunshot—because she had been scared that he was hurt. Or worse...

  But he was right. She should have thought about their child—about the danger she was putting their baby in when she reacted without thinking. She would be more careful from now on. She wouldn’t take any chances with her safety.

  Or with her heart.

  “You’ll be safe here,” Milek Kozminski assured her as he showed her into the master bedroom of the warehouse that had been converted into living space. It was all exposed brick and corrugated metal. “My brother and I installed the best security system we could find when I bought the place five years ago. We were barely able to crack it ourselves, so no one else will be able to.”

  “Is that part of your job?” she asked. “To make sure security systems are secure?”

  His mouth curved into a slight grin. “It is now.”

  Apparently it hadn’t always been his job. Was this his home or a property he rented out?

  She glanced around. It was furnished yet somehow looked deserted, too, as if nobody had lived there for a while. “Are you going to stay here, too?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “My wife and I moved out last month—when we got possession of the house we bought.”

  “Oh.”

  “We needed a yard for our son.” He glanced down at her belly.

  S
he didn’t have to worry about a yard for a while. If Nick was right and she kept putting herself in danger, she wouldn’t ever have to worry about a yard. She blinked back the sting of tears. She wouldn’t cry. She hadn’t back at Nick’s place. And she wouldn’t here. She was tougher than that.

  But then Milek opened the bedroom door, and she heard Nick’s deep voice, heard him telling Logan Payne, “You should give this assignment to someone else.”

  “You don’t want to protect Annalise?” Logan asked him.

  “I can’t.”

  Milek whirled around as if his body could shield her from what she’d just heard. “You should lie down for a while,” he said. “Rest.”

  She nodded although she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. But she wanted him to leave her alone. She needed to be alone.

  Actually, she needed her life back. She needed to be back at her job in Chicago—buying and selling houses, managing property. She knew what she was doing there. She didn’t know what she was doing when people were trying to abduct her or shoot her.

  She didn’t know how to react—how to protect herself. It didn’t even seem like it was really happening, like it was real at all. Why was she in danger?

  Nick, she could understand. This was his life, the one she had been upset that he’d chosen when he joined the Marines and then the Bureau.

  Milek had been gone only a few minutes when the doorknob rattled again. She quickly lay down on the king-size bed to pretend, at least, that she was resting. But she turned away from the door so he wouldn’t see her face—her open eyes.

  The mattress dipped as someone settled next to her. Surprised, she rolled over and discovered it was Nick who’d joined her. He was lying beside her as if they routinely shared a bed. They’d had only one night.

  Her hand rubbed over her belly. One night had been enough, though.

  “I thought you were leaving,” she said.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “I heard you telling Logan to give this assignment to someone else,” she said. To him, she would always be the pest he wanted to get rid of it. “You don’t want to protect me.”

  He reached out, and his fingertips skimmed across her cheek, brushing back a lock of hair. “I can’t.”