by Lisa Childs
He had to keep his sanity, too, though, and standing this close, spending this much time with her, was sorely testing it.
“I’m sure you heard all the rumors going around the office,” she began.
And the man glanced at Landon.
What were the rumors about him? That he was her bodyguard? Or that he was more than that? He wished he was more than that, but it was as if that one encounter had never happened, as if he’d just dreamed that he’d made love with her. It must have been a dream because surely nothing could have been as powerful as he’d imagined that was.
“Someone within our office is working for Luther Mills,” she clarified.
The young man gasped. “You really believe that?”
“I don’t want to,” she said. “I hope that the rumor is wrong. But the DA wants me to look into it.”
The young man tensed. “So you’re looking into me?”
She nodded.
“You know about the under-the-influence charge?”
She nodded again.
His face flushed with embarrassment. “It wasn’t alcohol or drugs—at least, not street drugs.” He shuddered. “I would never.” His voice shook like his body.
And Jocelyn tilted her head. “Why not?”
Eddie glanced at him again. “I had a brother who got hooked on them.”
Had...
Jocelyn must have picked up on the past tense because she murmured, “I’m sorry.”
He jerked his head in a nod. “That’s why I would never work for Luther. I blame him and...”
“Who?” Jocelyn asked when he trailed off.
He glanced at Landon again, and he looked even more nervous than he’d been when he walked in. “Uh, I don’t want to say.”
“In front of me?” Landon asked. He’d never seen the kid before.
Jocelyn glanced up at him now. “Would you mind stepping outside for a moment?”
“Yes,” Landon replied. “I’m not leaving you alone—”
“You’ll be right outside the door,” she said.
But it wasn’t close enough—if Eddie Garza had a weapon. Hell, he was big enough that he wouldn’t need a weapon. He could kill her with his bare hands.
“Please,” she implored him.
Now he knew how Rosie had gotten Clint to take her to the jail. She’d asked. And Clint hadn’t been able to say no even when he should have. Like Clint, Landon couldn’t say no, so he walked toward the door.
But he stopped next to Garza’s chair and warned him, “Don’t try anything.”
The guy nodded. Landon wasn’t satisfied, but he stepped into the hall and pulled the door closed.
“When’s my turn?” Dale Grohms asked with a grin, pointing toward Jocelyn’s office.
“Your turn?”
“For the hot lights,” he said with a chuckle. “For the interrogation.”
“You sound almost eager,” he said.
The guy shrugged. “I’ve got nothing to hide.” And because that appeared to be the case, he wasn’t on the list. But Landon was worried that something had been missed. He looked through the window in Jocelyn’s door and shook his head. “Too bad Eddie can’t say the same.”
“What do you mean?” Landon asked.
Dale sighed. “I’m not sure why the boss hired that kid. He was in trouble—big trouble.”
“The under-the-influence charge?” Landon asked. It couldn’t have been too severe because he’d only been given community service.
Dale shook his head. “Guess it was on his juvie record. Must have been sealed.”
Landon swallowed a curse. They hadn’t thought to look for sealed records. “Sounds like we need to dig a little deeper,” he agreed. But he was looking at Dale—not Garza.
Grohms just laughed as he walked away.
Jocelyn’s door opened, and Garza stepped out. He didn’t look at Landon as he passed him. And Jocelyn didn’t look at him when he stepped back into her office.
“What?” he asked. “What did he say?”
She shook her head. “He explained that it was Adderall. Not his prescription, though. He was taking it, so he could stay up all night studying. He graduated high school and college early. Taking it at all, but especially driving under the influence of it, was dangerous and stupid, and he knows it.”
So did he really have a juvie record?
Landon didn’t know what to believe. But he suspected Jocelyn was holding something back. What?
She stood up and reached for her briefcase. “I would like to see Amber now.”
He wasn’t sure if that was because she wanted to make sure her boss was all right or if she wanted to talk to her about whatever she’d learned. Clearly she didn’t want to talk to him about it.
Jocelyn couldn’t tell Landon what Garza had told her. She didn’t want to know if he’d already known and kept it from her. She didn’t want to know if he’d betrayed her. But she had to tell someone.
But once she stepped into her boss’s hospital room, she knew Amber was not the person she needed to talk to about that. Her boss looked exhausted. She was so pale with machines hooked to her.
“Are you okay?” she asked, concern gripping her.
“Yes,” Amber replied, but her voice was faint with exhaustion.
Since hearing Amber had gone into labor, Jocelyn had been worried. Her boss had had so many difficulties with this pregnancy.
And now...
Jocelyn shuddered. Why would anyone put themselves through this? Through childbirth? She was glad that she’d decided long ago children and marriage were not for her. She didn’t want any emotional complications—like Landon.
He stood so close to her that she could feel the heat of his body. He always stood so close to her that her heart pounded and her skin tingled. Sure, it was his job to protect. But she wondered if he was just trying to drive her out of her mind.
He was succeeding.
“Hey, there,” a deep voice said as another man walked into the room. He carried something in a blanket. “Look who I found.”
With his long dark blond hair and green eyes, the man looked like the one who’d been in the parking garage that day. But he wasn’t. He chuckled when he saw Landon, though, and asked, “Any more falls?” So he must have heard about it from his brother. He settled onto the bed next to his wife.
She reached for the blanket with a trembling hand. “She’s sleeping.”
Milek Kozminski leaned down and kissed his wife’s pale cheek. “You should be sleeping, too.” He cast a pointed glance at Jocelyn.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I shouldn’t have visited.”
“No,” he said. “She wouldn’t have slept until she saw our little princess again anyways.”
Amber smiled. “You know me so well.”
Milek settled his head against hers. “Yes, I do.”
And Jocelyn felt a twinge in her heart, one of longing for that kind of love. But of course, she didn’t really want that.
Amber stared down at the bundle in the blanket, and the expression on her face caused another twinge in Jocelyn’s heart. She’d never seen such a look.
“I want to hold her,” Amber said. “But I’m so weak.”
Milek shook his head. “No. No, you’re not.” But he helped as she held her baby, wrapping his arms around them both.
“We—we should go,” Jocelyn stammered, feeling like a fool for having intruded on such a private moment. She backed toward the door and stumbled against Landon.
“Don’t you want to hold her?” Amber asked.
This was another reason Jocelyn was glad that her old friendships had faded away. Everybody she’d grown up with was married with children now. That was probably why her parents kept putting so much pressure on her to do the same. They didn’t understa
nd and neither had her old friends. When she occasionally ran into them, they tried to hand off their babies or kids to her—like she was dying to hold a child.
She would really rather not. But this was her boss. And she didn’t want to seem uninterested in what clearly mattered so much to her mentor. So she stepped forward.
“Sit down,” Milek told her, pointing toward the chair next to the bed.
Jocelyn sat.
Milek laughed. “You don’t have to look so terrified. She won’t bite. She doesn’t have any teeth yet.”
“I—I don’t want to drop her, though,” she said, then forced a smile and added, “Congratulations on your daughter.”
“Yeah, you can order the pink balloons for the office,” Amber said. “But wait a few months. I don’t intend to rush right back.”
That was good—because she appeared to need a while to recuperate.
“Hold your arms like I have mine,” Milek directed her.
When she imitated him, he settled the infant against her. The baby shifted, and Jocelyn tensed and closed her eyes. The child would probably start screaming now. But she emitted a tiny sigh and settled against Jocelyn.
And another twinge struck her heart. She was just happy for her boss, though, happy that Amber had figured out a way to have it all—the husband, the career, the kids.
Jocelyn didn’t want to try to juggle as many things as her boss did.
“What are you naming her?” Landon asked the question. Once again, he was too close to Jocelyn, but he seemed more focused on the baby than he was on her. “Another Penny?”
“Another Penny?” Jocelyn repeated.
“Everybody likes to name their girl babies after Penny Payne,” Milek explained.
“The chief’s wife?” Jocelyn asked.
“You haven’t met her,” Landon said with certainty. “You would understand if you’d met her.”
Jocelyn shrugged, and the baby shifted again, opened one eye and peered up at her. She braced herself, waiting for the scream. But the infant only stared at her. “She can’t see yet, right?” she asked.
She didn’t know much about babies. And she didn’t really care to learn.
“She’s not blind,” Milek said. “But she can’t see very far away yet. She can see you, though.”
“Then why isn’t she crying?” Jocelyn asked.
And the men laughed at her.
Amber smiled, though. “She recognizes her namesake.”
“What?” She couldn’t have heard correctly.
“Jocelyn Gerber, meet Jocelyn Talsma-Kozminski.”
She stared at her boss. “I—I don’t understand...” They weren’t friends. She only worked for her, but since they both worked hard, they had spent a lot of time together. Amber knew things about her, about her past, that few other people besides her parents and Landon knew.
“She’s tough and determined,” Amber said. “So she reminded me of you.”
Jocelyn stared down at the baby now, but she couldn’t see for the tears suddenly blurring her vision. “I—I don’t know what to say...”
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so overwhelmed. Then she glanced at Landon, and she remembered—with him, in his arms.
And she felt another twinge in her heart. But it was fear. After learning what she had from Garza, she was afraid that she’d made a mistake—that she shouldn’t have begun to trust Landon Myers.
And she definitely shouldn’t have started falling for him. But she was afraid that she had.
She was too close to learning the truth. He had to get rid of her. Now.
The hospital parking garage was set up like the one between the courthouse and the district attorney’s office building. If he tried running them over, they could escape over one of those half walls. And since they’d parked only one level up, they wouldn’t be hurt any worse than they’d been from their previous fall.
So he wasn’t going to try to run them down. He was going to shoot them. He pulled his gun from the pocket of his trench coat. It was the same one he’d used to shoot up her house—the same one he’d taken from evidence a while ago. He’d saved Luther from an indictment then.
He would have saved him this time—if everyone hadn’t been so damn careful about this case. His boss and Jocelyn and the evidence tech.
They’d made it impossible for him to get to the evidence. And Landon Myers was trying to make it impossible for him to get to Jocelyn now. He was always around, and now he had that backup team.
Or he thought he did.
They drank coffee. So he’d made sure to spike the pot at the office. While they’d followed Landon and Jocelyn to the hospital, they had since fallen asleep—their heads against the side windows of their Payne Protection Agency SUV. He snickered. But he wasn’t sure how long he had before they awakened.
Landon and Jocelyn had to hurry.
What were they doing? What was Jocelyn telling their boss? Had she already begun to suspect him?
Nobody could, or he wouldn’t be given the case once she died. And she would die this time along with her damn bodyguard.
Through the open window of his rental vehicle, he heard the click of her heels against the concrete. It could have been another woman wearing stilettos, but he doubted it. There was something distinctive about Jocelyn’s walk—a sharpness that reflected her cold personality.
He stared through the new tinted windshield. Luther had referred him to a company that had replaced the glass—one that wouldn’t talk to the Payne Protection bodyguards who’d asked if anyone had had to redo a shot-out windshield. They hadn’t tracked him down yet.
And they wouldn’t.
For soon they would be dead. He waited until they got closer—until Landon noticed his fellow bodyguards slumped in their vehicle. Then he raised his weapon and started firing at him and Jocelyn.
They dropped to the ground, but this time he was certain he hadn’t missed. He saw the blood spattered across the concrete. He also saw the doors of the SUV open as the other bodyguards woke up.
And he tore out of the lot before they could catch him.
They would be too groggy to follow him. And too concerned about the wounded. Or the dead...
Chapter 16
Woodrow had already been on the way to the hospital when he got the call that there had been a shooting in the visitors’ parking garage. His hand shook as he punched in the contact for his wife. He’d been on his way to meet her there, but a situation in the police lab had prevented him from leaving when he should have.
What if she’d been in the garage at the time? What if she was one of the wounded?
And there were wounded...
He’d seen the blood as he’d passed through the crime scene on his way to the hospital. With his cell pressed to his ear, he headed toward the ER. His stomach flipped when her voice answered, but he realized it was only her voice mail. She hadn’t picked up. But his phone buzzed and he glanced down at the text flashing on the screen.
Where are you, darling? I am already cuddling this gorgeous new grandbaby.
He grinned with relief. The child technically wasn’t their grandbaby, but that didn’t matter to Penny. She’d long ago emotionally adopted the Kozminski children even though everyone had believed their father had killed her husband. Even if he had, Penny wouldn’t have cared. She was so forgiving and loving.
She would forgive him for being late because she would understand why. If she’d known about the shooting, she would have been heading where he was, to the ER, to check on the wounded, especially if she knew what he did, that one of those wounded was a Payne Protection bodyguard.
She treated every bodyguard like they were her children. Of course, quite a few of them were. Panic struck Woodrow’s heart, making it pound even faster than it had already been. It couldn’t be one of his
stepsons or stepdaughter, could it? Parker had had a narrow escape from death earlier in the week. And he’d brought in his brothers’ teams for backup because of how damn dangerous Luther Mills had become, even more dangerous than they’d thought.
If he’d known how risky this assignment was, Woodrow might not have hired Parker for the job. But then, he hadn’t had many options—not with being unable to trust his own damn officers. And now even the lab.
He hurried as he neared the front desk for the ER. He flashed his shield at the security guard who rushed up to meet him. “I’m the chief of police,” he said.
It had been odd to say that in the beginning—after so many years of being special agent in charge of a field office of the FBI. But now it felt right.
This was where he belonged. In River City with his wife and his ever-expanding family. And now one of those family members might have been injured, so he had no problem about cutting to the front of the line waiting in the ER. “The people who were wounded in the parking garage,” he said. “Where are they?”
“Over here,” the security guard said as he pushed open a door marked Employees Only. He led the way down a wide corridor. “A detective’s already gone back to take the woman’s statement.”
So a woman had been attacked but survived. The man could have been referring to Jocelyn Gerber or to Nikki Payne-Ecklund. Nikki might have been working as backup for Landon. If anything had happened to Penny’s daughter...
He shuddered and refused to consider it. For one, Nikki was damn tough and had already survived so many close calls that she had to be invincible. When the security guard pulled aside the curtain, he was relieved to see Jocelyn Gerber, with Nikki standing next to her.
They were both all right except for the blood oozing from cuts on Jocelyn’s knees. She also had a scrape on her cheek.
“Are you all right?” he asked because she looked so very pale and fragile sitting on the gurney. He’d had his issues with Jocelyn Gerber, but now he felt a deep pull of sympathy and concern for her. While she could be brash and bossy, she was also a damn hard worker and a strong woman. Woodrow had so much respect and appreciation for strong women.