Bodyguard's Baby Surprise (13 page)

Cooper's marriage had started as one of convenience. Because the real groom had disappeared, Cooper had stepped into his place. He hadn't given up that role—he was still Tanya's husband—because he was the one she'd really wanted to marry.

Did Annalise want to marry Nick? Sure, she carried his baby, but that didn't mean she loved him. The way she'd defended him to her own brother showed that she did.

But sometimes love wasn't enough.

His own parents had proved that to Cooper. Even as much as they had loved each other, his father had still betrayed his mother. He'd broken their vows.

So would it matter if Nick and Annalise married?

Cooper doubted either of them would get the chance, not with someone determined to take them out.

Gage wasn't the only one who posed a threat to Nick. Someone had shot at him. If the bullet had gone six inches or so lower and to the left, it could have killed him.

Nobody could get into the hospital with a weapon. So they were waiting outside. Since it was night yet, the glass doors of the lobby just reflected back the interior. Cooper couldn't see them.

But he knew they were out there—just as he'd known when insurgents were lying in wait for the convoy. He hadn't been wrong in Afghanistan, and he wasn't wrong now.

The minute Nick and Annalise—with Penny and Gage—stepped outside, gunfire erupted. The glass in the lobby doors shattered and sprayed inward, across the terrazzo floor and Cooper's face. He'd known they were out there, but he still hadn't been prepared.

Neither had Nick.

Chapter 13

N
ick's head buzzed with the rapid retort of gunfire. Cooper had warned him, had shared his suspicion that someone might stage another attack outside the hospital. He hadn't needed the warning. His instincts had told him the same thing.

They could have tried to sneak out another way. Before they'd left the waiting room, they had studied the alternative exits. But walking into the parking garage or the back alley would have been more dangerous. They could have been trapped. The lobby entrance was along a four-lane street with plenty of room for escape.

The only trick was not to get hit. Ducking low and using his body as a shield to protect Annalise, as Gage used his as a shield to protect Penny, they ushered the women into the open door of the Payne Protection vehicle parked directly outside the lobby doors.

The vehicle—this one with bulletproof glass and metal—withstood the onslaught of bullets.

“Hurry up,” Garek ordered from the driver's seat. But he didn't wait for Gage to pull the door closed behind them before he careened away from the curb and into the street. Gage struggled but managed to slam the door closed.

Outside the darkened glass, Nick watched the flashes of gunfire. How many shooters had lain in wait for them?

There had to be more than the one man who'd escaped him in the parking garage and the second man who'd escaped him in his ransacked house.

With all that gunfire, there were definitely more than two shooters. More than two people after him and Annalise. The threat kept increasing. Why?

Who the hell wanted him dead that badly?

Even though the doors were closed, and the distance between them and the shooters grew as Garek sped away from the hospital, Nick kept his arms wrapped protectively around Annalise. His head was even still bowed over hers, her face in his chest.

She trembled against him.

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

He felt her move but couldn't tell if she nodded or shook her head. He eased back slightly. She peered up at him, her green eyes wide with fear and her face pale. But she nodded and assured him, “I'm okay.”

He leaned across Annalise to ask Penny. “Are you okay?”

She smiled and, reaching across Annalise, patted his hand and said, “Of course I am.”

They hadn't wanted to put her in danger. But she already was, as much as she looked like her daughter. If she'd gone out another door alone, a gunman might have mistaken her for Nikki and shot her.

Gage seemed okay. He was trying to twist his long body to ease over the console and into the passenger seat. But Garek turned the vehicle, and Gage struck his head on the roof and cursed.

He might have a concussion, but he wasn't shot. So he was safer in the SUV than he would have been in the lobby with the others.

Annalise turned around and peered toward the hospital disappearing in the distance. “Is everyone else okay?” she asked.

“Yes,” Garek replied from the front seat as he tapped his radio earpiece. “Nobody got hit.” He made a sharp turn, and Gage, settling into the passenger seat, hit his head on the bulletproof side window.

He cursed again.

“Drive it like you stole it,” Garek remarked.

Instead of getting mad, Gage chuckled and said, “You'll need to teach me how.”

Unlike some of the kids in their neighborhood, Nick and Gage had avoided joining gangs. But Nick hadn't resisted because he hadn't wanted to steal cars. He had resisted because the gangs around them had mostly sold drugs. And he hadn't been about to support his mother's addiction.

“Pay attention,” Garek advised his passenger. “I'll show you how to make sure nobody's tailing us.”

Garek's lesson took a while because he wanted to make extra certain that none of the gunmen had followed them from the hospital. He wanted to protect not just Penny, whom they all adored, but Nick and Annalise, as well.

Before he moved to River City, Nick would never have believed he would become friends with an ex-convict like Garek Kozminski. A man who'd served time for manslaughter and was rumored to be as renowned a thief as his infamous father. But Nick wasn't just friends with the man; he was family, too.

And when he married Annalise, she and Gage would also become family. Over Annalise's blond head, he met Penny's gaze and nodded.

He didn't need to say it aloud for her to understand his intentions. She would plan his wedding. And knowing Penny, she would have Milek add Annalise and Gage to that family portrait, as well.

The only thing Nick had to worry about was keeping Annalise and himself alive for their wedding day.

* * *

Annalise couldn't stop shaking, and it wasn't just because the spring night was unseasonably cold. Heat blasted from the vents in the condo, but her skin and her blood wouldn't warm. She had gotten so cold when those shots had been fired at the hospital, shattering the lobby doors and windows. It was a miracle no one had been hit.

She shivered.

“You need to get back in bed,” Nick said as he led her toward the master bedroom. His arms had been around her from the moment they'd started across the hospital lobby. But for once, his closeness hadn't warmed her.

“It's almost dawn,” she murmured as she noticed light beginning to filter through the skylights in the living room. They passed through it quickly, though, into the darkness of the bedroom where there were no skylights. Not even a lamp had been left burning.

She shivered again as she imagined men hiding in the darkness, like they had hidden outside the hospital. She turned back toward the light of the living room.

But Nick propelled her gently toward the bed and pushed her down onto the edge of the mattress. “You need your rest,” he said. “You're exhausted and probably in shock.”

As if she were a child, he undressed her, taking off her shoes and pulling down her pants. He left her in her shirt and panties, gently pushed her onto her back and covered her with blankets. The sheets were cold against her back, and she couldn't stop shivering.

Concern furrowed Nick's brow. “Maybe you should go back to the hospital.”

“No!” she sharply protested. She wished she had never gone, that she hadn't overreacted to what nearly every other pregnant woman experienced. “I'm fine.”

Calling her out on the lie, he said, “You're not fine.” But instead of insisting she go back to the hospital, he kicked off his shoes, took off his holster and weapon and crawled under the blankets with her. He wrapped his arms around her as he had in the hospital lobby. Tucking her head beneath his chin, he held her closely.

She felt his heart beating against hers. It was pounding quickly. He hadn't been unaffected by the gunfire, either. Only one person really had seemed unaffected.

“I'm not Penny Payne,” she said resentfully.

“What?”

“She was so calm,” Annalise remarked. “Like getting shot at was no big deal.”

Nick chuckled at her petulance. “She's had more experience with that than you have.”

“She's been shot at before?”

He nodded, his chin bumping against her head. “She has, just like every other member of her family. They've been through a lot together. That's why she's so strong.”

Annalise's brief flash of resentment gave way to admiration and envy. Like the rest of her family, Nick obviously thought very highly of the woman. “I wish I could be like her.”

“You
are
like her,” Nick said.

Annalise laughed. “Now you're just patronizing me.”

He eased her away from him and tipped up her chin. Light filtered in from the living room and fell across his handsome face, highlighting his every chiseled feature and the seriousness in his blue eyes. “I thought that the first time I met her.”

“What?”

“That she was like you.”

Annalise smiled. If only...

She wished she had that kind of strength, that kind of composure under pressure. “Why did you think that?”

“Because she is so friendly and warm,” he said. His mouth curved into a slight grimace. “And so affectionate. She radiates—” his grimace grew as he struggled to express himself “—like you radiate.”

“I radiate?” she asked. “What do I radiate?”

“Love.”

So he was aware that she loved him. Maybe that was why he had agreed to Gage's crazy idea. Because he felt sorry for her.

“You're so sweet and loving to everyone you meet,” Nick continued.

So maybe he didn't take how she acted around him personally. Maybe he didn't know how she really felt about him.

“That's why it has to be my fault,” he said. “That's why whoever has been terrorizing you with the break-ins and thefts must be doing it because of me.”

She stroked her fingers along his swollen jaw. “It's not your fault.”

“I am responsible.”

“Why?” she asked. “Because you've taken criminals off the street? That's a good thing. You're doing good things, Nick.” She had never doubted that he would. He had always been her hero.

His hand moved lower, over the swell of her belly. “This will be a good thing,” he said. “Our son...”

Tears stung her eyes. “Of course.”

“I should have protected you that night.”

They'd gotten carried away with passion. Protection had been the last thing on both their minds.

“I will protect you from now on,” he promised.

She shook her head.

“I will—”

That wasn't what she was protesting. “You don't need to marry me to protect me.”

He needed to marry her only if he loved her. And she doubted that he did.

But he wanted her. She felt it in the tenseness of his body, in the erection straining against his fly to press against her hip. She wanted him, too. Making love with him would finally warm her up, would stop her shivering. Even now her blood was beginning to heat and pump faster in her veins.

He touched her, his hands moving over her bare thighs to her hips. He slid his fingers beneath her panties and teased her. He stroked his thumb over her most sensitive spot until she squirmed and moaned.

So she teased him back. She stroked her fingers over the ridge of his erection until finally he undid his pants and pushed them down his legs. He pulled off his shirt, too, and hers. Within seconds nothing separated them. They were skin to skin.

He kissed her everywhere but her lips. He kissed her shoulder and her elbow. And the curve of her hip. Then he moved his mouth lower and made love to her with his lips and his tongue.

Her hands in his hair, she clasped him against her as she arched her hips and came. But it wasn't enough. He touched the tightened tips of her nipples, and the pressure wound inside her again. Only he could give her the release she needed, when he buried himself inside her. But he didn't lift her legs. He didn't push inside her.

Instead he flopped onto his back, his chest rising and falling as he breathed heavily, fighting for control. She wanted him out of control. So she leaned over and teased him as he had teased her. She licked her tongue down the pulsing length of him.

He groaned her name and tangled his fingers in her hair. She slid her lips around him and took him deep in her mouth. But it wasn't enough.

He bucked beneath her. But he didn't come like she had. So she eased back. Then she straddled him. Rising up, she guided him inside her. She was still wet and ready for him. He edged slowly inside until he filled her. But she wasn't able to take all of him.

She moved up and down, clutching at him with her inner muscles as he gripped her hips in his hands. He helped her move, helped her find the rhythm that drove them both to madness. He bucked beneath her as she rode him. Then he slid one hand between them and stroked her with a fingertip.

Her body tensed, then shuddered as an orgasm overwhelmed her. She screamed his name and collapsed on his chest. He gripped her hips and shoved up, driving deep, as he shouted his release.

He didn't pull out, just pressed her against him and pulled the blankets over them. And he held her as if he never intended to let her go.

But Annalise knew better now than to get her hopes up. She understood that when she awakened, he would probably be gone again. There was no way he would ever marry her because there was no way he would ever stop running away from her.

She wasn't the one he needed to outrun, though. He needed to outrun whoever was after them. Or getting married would be the least of their concerns.

* * *

The River City Psychiatric Facility for the Criminally Insane was every bit as scary as Candace Baker-Kozminski had imagined it would be. But she had convinced her husband, Garek, that she was the one who needed to pay this visit.

But even as tough as she was, she was unnerved. Patients yelled. They flailed. They beat themselves with their fists until men in white suits restrained them.

But far scarier than any of that behavior was the eerie stare of the woman sitting across from her. Tori Chekov studied her as she might study a cat she was about to torture cruelly. A small smile played around her mouth, and a gleam of insanity twinkled in her dark eyes.

“I have dreamed of seeing you again,” Tori admitted.

Candace had, too: nightmares. Nightmares of this woman killing Garek. But she always awakened in the comfort of his embrace, his strong arms locked around her.

“Really?” she asked, as if she cared.

“I have imagined all the things I would do to you,” Tori said, and her dark eyes hardened with hatred.

Candace forced a laugh. “Nice to see that expensive psychiatrist your dad hired has done you so much good.”

Tori's smile widened. “Oh, you'd be surprised what she's done for me.”

A chill chased over Candace's skin. This woman might be locked up, but she was still dangerous. And maybe she was using her psychiatrist to cause problems on the outside. Problems with Nick?