by Lisa Childs
Chapter 15
Annalise was safe in the condo, Nick assured himself. It was okay that he’d left her. Her brother was there. Gage would willingly give up his life for hers.
So would Nick.
But Annalise didn’t want his life. She wanted something else from him. Something he had never been able to give her or anyone else.
Gage wasn’t the only one protecting Annalise. Candace and Garek had stayed, as well. Nick wasn’t sure who was following him; he just knew that someone was.
Since he hadn’t picked up the tail, he guessed it was Milek. It would have been a point of pride with the younger Kozminski brother to go undetected this time. Nick probably could have made him—had he cared. But since Annalise wasn’t with him, he didn’t care. Her safety was his only concern.
Not his own.
He didn’t want to endanger this woman, either, so he had been careful when he’d left the condo. He’d taken a circuitous route to the White Wedding Chapel. The only person who might have been able to follow—given the way he’d been driving—was Milek. Milek would protect Mrs. Payne, too, if Nick had brought danger to her like he had Annalise.
Before he could even reach for the door, though, someone burst through and slammed into his chest, nearly knocking him down the stairs he’d climbed. He gripped her shoulders to steady her.
And Megan Lynch glanced up at him through tear-filled eyes. “Nick? Nicholas Rus?”
He nodded.
Her face flushed bright red. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
She was obviously upset and in a hurry.
He held her shoulders a little longer and asked, “Are you okay?”
She jerked her head in a sharp nod, and a few wisps of brown hair escaped the bun at the nape of her neck. By her father’s own admission, he had doted on her and her sister after their mother died. But few other men had ever paid Megan Lynch attention. She was almost painfully shy, and maybe because her mother had died so young, she’d never learned how to wear makeup or flattering clothes. So she wasn’t just shy. She was awkward, too.
For some reason, Gage had found that endearing. Everyone else, including Megan, had thought he was just doing the boss’s daughter in order to get ahead in the Bureau. But Nick knew Gage better than that.
Unfortunately, Megan had not.
“I’m fine,” she said. And because she’d been raised to be polite, she added, “And how are you?”
He touched his swollen jaw. “Could be better.”
She sighed. “Me, too.”
He squeezed her shoulders. “Is there anything I can do?”
She shrugged, and his hands fell away. “It’ll be over soon.”
She acted as if she was talking about a root canal or winter. Not her wedding.
He opened his mouth. He needed to tell her about Gage, if she didn’t already know. But first he said, “I’ll be talking to your dad soon.” He would make sure that Chief Lynch knew Gage was alive and let him decide what to do with that information. The Marines had determined to keep his escape secret. Nick wasn’t certain if that was to protect Gage from unwanted media attention or if there was a concern about the insurgents who’d held him somehow getting to him again.
She nodded. “Of course. He talks about you often, Nicholas. You’re one of his favorites.” The tears shimmered in her eyes.
Lynch had had another favorite: Gage. Until he’d left.
“Congratulations,” he offered belatedly. “Penny will make sure you have a beautiful wedding.”
She nodded, and the tears brimmed over and trailed down her face. Her voice quavering with emotion, she murmured, “I’m sure she will.” Then she broke free of him and ran down the steps to her car parked at the curb in front of his SUV.
He continued up the steps and pushed open the door. He passed quickly through the foyer and descended the interior stairwell to Penny’s office in the basement. Despite it having only one small window, the space was sunny and bright. And it wasn’t because of the yellow paint or lighting. It was because of the woman who radiated sunshine and warmth.
“Good afternoon, Nicholas,” she greeted him with a smile as she glanced up from her desk.
“Penny...”
“Did you run into Megan Lynch?” she asked.
He nodded. “Literally. She ran into me. I don’t think she could see me through her tears.”
Penny sighed. “She’s the unhappiest bride for whom I’ve ever planned a wedding.”
“Did you tell her Gage is alive?” Maybe that was why she’d been crying. But wouldn’t those have been happy tears? Unless Gage was right, and she didn’t care if he was alive. Or maybe she didn’t want him alive.
Penny shook her head. “No. I didn’t.” She studied his face for a moment. “You didn’t, either.”
“No,” he said. “Gage is already angry enough with me. I didn’t want to make it worse.”
“Marry his sister,” she said. “That’ll make it better.”
Nick shook his head. “Gage has changed his mind about that. He knows what I know—being around me puts Annalise in more danger.”
“That’s a load of bull and you know it,” Penny accused him.
He drew back in surprise. Penny had never said a sharp word to him before—even though she’d had every reason to be upset when he had turned up in River City looking exactly like her sons, like her dead husband. He must not have heard her correctly. “Excuse me?”
“I’m talking to you like I would talk to Logan or Parker or Cooper,” she said. “I call them on their nonsense, too. I never thought I would have to do that with you.”
“Because I’m not your son?”
“Because you’re usually smarter than they are,” she said. “And you are my son.”
“Penny—”
“I don’t care that another woman gave birth to you,” she said. “You’re my son now.”
“I saw the family portrait Milek is painting for you,” he admitted.
“Then you know how I feel,” she said.
“You may feel that way, but the rest of the family...”
“Feel the same way.”
Logan had made it clear that he did. And Nick had never picked up on any animosity from Parker or Cooper. But...
“Not Nikki,” he said.
“She’s coming around,” Penny said.
He shook his head. “No, she’s not.”
Sure, she had called him about finding Annalise’s stolen car. And he’d emailed her the list of his enemies. But he hadn’t actually seen her since that horrible day in the parking garage. She hadn’t attended any of the Payne Protection Agency meetings. Of course, Logan never included her in anything he perceived as dangerous, and she had been in more danger that day than any other in her life. But because of that, Nick had expected her to insist on being involved. While she’d found the car, she hadn’t called him again. She hadn’t even emailed him back that she’d received his list. She probably didn’t want to help because she didn’t care that he was in danger.
Unfortunately, Annalise was in danger, too. So Nick needed his sister’s help. He would have to call her, see if she’d checked out the list or added her own name to it.
“The portrait is missing someone,” Penny said.
Nick tensed. “Did my father have another—”
Her glance as sharp as her tone had been earlier, Penny stopped him from saying the rest. Bastard. That was what he was—just like Gage had called him. And if he didn’t marry Annalise, his child would be a bastard, too.
Of course she was right. It was the twenty-first century now. And there were probably more single-parent households than two-parent households. But he wanted his son to have his name, to know who he was.
Until his mother had died, Nick had never known who he was.
“The portrait is missing Annalise,” Penny said.
He had thought the same thing when he’d seen it, that he looked so alone. Like Nikki on the other side of the portrait. But as much as he would have liked to, he couldn’t bring Annalise into the family. He had already put her in enough danger.
“I can’t marry her,” Nick said.
“Now that’s ridiculous,” Penny said. “She was in danger in Chicago. She is in more danger alone than she is with you. No one will protect her like you will—because you love her.”
Since the first moment Nick had met her, he had felt a connection with Penny Payne. He had more of a kinship with her than with the family with whom he actually shared DNA. So he admitted to her what he never had to anyone else. “I don’t know what love is.”
She flinched as if he’d slapped her. “Oh, Nick.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want your pity.” But he had it; he could feel it even before he noticed the tears shimmering in her eyes.
“You don’t have my pity,” she insisted. “You have my love.”
“Why?” Because he looked like the man she had loved and lost, the man who had betrayed her love?
“For the same reason that Annalise Huxton loves you. Because you’re you.”
Maybe they loved him. But he couldn’t return that love. He didn’t know how. So he only reiterated, “I can’t marry Annalise because I can’t give her what she deserves. I can’t love her.”
* * *
Annalise glanced across the SUV console at the man who looked the most like Nick of all the Paynes. Nick was gone, though. He’d been gone for a while. He was running again.
She knew why Nick was gone. She wasn’t as certain about why her brother was gone. He’d been here when Nick had left, but he hadn’t stayed long. So it was Cooper Payne who had to drive her to the Payne Protection Agency. She had put her career on hold as much as she could. But there were things she needed to handle. For one, she needed to use the office equipment at Payne Protection.
She asked the former Marine, “Why isn’t Gage protecting me?”
Cooper glanced across the console at her and replied, “He doesn’t trust himself yet.”
A twinge of concern squeezed her heart. “He was on assignment when I arrived in River City,” she said. “Is he worse now than he was?”
He looked bad, like he’d aged years instead of months since she’d seen him last. And he was so thin and haggard-looking.
Cooper shook his head. “No. He’s actually doing quite a bit better.”
“Then why wouldn’t he trust himself?”
Cooper offered her a quick smile. “Because your safety is too important to him. He wants to make sure you have the best protection.” But as he said it, his brow furrowed, and his focus turned to the rearview mirror.
“I hate that I need protection,” she said.
Nick blamed himself, but she wasn’t entirely convinced the men coming after her had anything to do with him. How could they think that she mattered that much to him when she didn’t believe it herself?
“You do,” Cooper said.
And she realized why his focus had turned to the rearview. “Someone’s following us.”
Dread knotted her stomach. She was so sick of the attacks, of the vehicle chases and the gunshots. She wanted her life back, her boring, unendangered life. But all of that had changed after the night she’d spent with Nick. Nothing had been boring since then.
Cooper cursed, then apologized.
“I grew up with Gage,” she reminded him. She was used to swearing. She actually felt like swearing herself now. If not for her baby, she might have. But she didn’t know how much her son could hear in her womb.
Or feel. She had to make sure he stayed safe. She slid her palms over her belly, but she couldn’t protect him—if whoever was following them caught them.
Unless...
“Isn’t it one of you?” she asked hopefully. “Another Payne Protection bodyguard?”
Like when Milek Kozminski had been following Nick.
But she could tell from the grim look on Cooper’s face that it wasn’t. He had no idea who was following them.
So if it wasn’t a friend, wasn’t it a foe?
* * *
One of the men who’d attacked her was dead. Nikki had seen him that day, lying on a gurney in the ER hallway. And she had been so relieved it wasn’t Nick.
She had to make sure that it didn’t wind up being Nick yet. The list he’d emailed was too long even for her to work and eliminate suspects before someone eliminated Nick. But besides that, she couldn’t help but think that they were all missing something.
Nick assumed someone was after him and Annalise out of a quest for vengeance. While Nikki owed her half brother for saving her life in the parking garage, she still wasn’t entirely ready to let go of her resentment of him. She would actually find it pretty sweet if she could prove Nick—who was usually right—wrong.
So she’d gotten out from behind the desk where Logan had always tried to put her. And she was doing fieldwork. Even though all of River City PD had been searching for it, she was the one who’d found Annalise’s stolen car.
She might find something no one else had at Nick’s place. Boards had been nailed across the front door to keep out intruders. And her.
The bars on the windows offered her no entrance, either. Using her skills as a former gymnast, she leapt onto the stockade fence and pulled herself up and over it so she could get into the backyard. That door hadn’t been boarded up, and there were no bars on the windows in the rear of the house.
With a surge of excitement, she reached for the lock pick tools the Kozminskis had given her. She could finally test her newly learned tricks. But when she reached for the door handle, it turned easily.
It hadn’t been locked.
With a sigh, she slipped the tools back into her pocket. She would be able to use them eventually now that she was working for Cooper. He wouldn’t treat her as Logan always had. He would respect that she could take care of herself.
Like Nick did.
How was it that the brother who’d known her the least amount of time knew her the best?
Because he was Nick.
He had that same uncanny ability her mother had, which was so weird and gave Nikki another reason to resent him. She didn’t care that he knew her so well. She cared that he had the gift of her mother’s that she’d always wanted.
She always felt as if she were in the dark, like now. With all the blinds drawn, the house was pitch-black, as if it was night already. She stumbled over things that had been strewn across the floor.
She expelled a ragged breath. The place must have been trashed. She doubted Nick, who was always so controlled, was this much of a slob. Now, Parker...
She would believe that of Logan’s twin. Not Nick.
The place had been destroyed, but it had also been searched. Every closet and cupboard had been inspected, the contents of every drawer tossed out.
This wasn’t about vengeance.
Triumph surged through her. Nick was wrong.
A sharp noise drew her attention to the front door. A board cracked. Wood splintered. Someone was breaking in.
Her hand trembling, she reached for her weapon. She could fire it. She had proved that in the hospital parking garage. It might have been her bullet that had killed the man.
She shuddered as she remembered him lying on that gurney. She had never killed anyone before. She’d felt no triumph in having done it. She’d felt only horror.
But if it came down to it again—her life or someone else’s—she would pull the trigger. She moved her finger toward it as she pointed the gun barrel at the front
door.
Chapter 16
The boards were flimsy. Nick broke them easily with his foot as he kicked in the door. It bounced back against the interior wall as light from outside streamed in. Like the beam of a flashlight, it illuminated a dark-clothed shadow standing in the hall. That light bounced off the metal of a gun.
He silently cursed himself for losing Milek. As he’d suspected earlier, Kozminski had been his bodyguard. He’d been testing himself when he’d lost him, and he seriously hadn’t thought he would need protection.
He’d been wrong.
Just as the shot rang out, Nick ducked. Wood splintered the jamb near his head. He rushed forward, toward the shadow. He could have fired back, but he couldn’t get answers from a dead man. He tackled his intruder instead, knocking him to the ground as he grabbed for the gun. He snapped it easily from the person’s grasp.
Breath whooshed out of the suspect, followed by a very unladylike curse.
“Nikki?” He quickly rolled off his intruder.
She choked and gasped for the air he’d knocked out of her.
“Are you okay?” he asked anxiously as he helped her sit up. He hadn’t expected to find her inside his house, shooting at him.
She leaned against the wall of the hallway where he’d been knocked down a few days before. She drew in a deep, unsteady breath. “And everybody wonders why I don’t like you.”
He chuckled as he held her gun aloft. “I’d better not hand this back to you yet. You almost hit me once.”
“I didn’t know it was you,” she said.
“Or you would have hit me?”
She laughed now. “I wasn’t aiming to kill,” she said. “Or I would have hit you.”
He didn’t doubt that. She was a good shot. Logan had no idea the caliber of bodyguard he could have had if he’d given Nikki a chance.
“That was just a warning shot,” she said.
“Warning shot?” he repeated.
“You were breaking down the door.”
“I live here.”
She laughed again. “So it’s okay for you to break down your own door?”