Nanny Bodyguard Read online

  It was who they were. Even though Lars had never had much of one—but for Emilia—he knew their unit was family. And not the kind that bickered and fought like Cole Bentler’s but the kind that would do anything for each other. “That’s why I can’t tell them.”

  “Because they’ll help you?”

  He nodded. Then he turned the key in the ignition to start up the truck. They should have used his vehicle the other night, but Dane had worried that the security guards might have already noticed him casing the estate and following the lawyer.

  “You’re losing it, Lars,” Dane said, shaking his head. They’d been friends so long that he knew when not to argue with Lars. So he said nothing more.

  But because they’d been friends so long, Lars owed him an explanation. “I have no proof,” he said. “I’m not even sure my sister is still in River City.”

  He had told her that if she got in trouble and needed help while he was deployed, that she should come to River City—to Cooper. She hadn’t met with Cooper, though. In her last letter, she’d told him that she’d come here but she was going to meet with a lawyer instead of his friend.

  That lawyer wouldn’t even take Lars’s calls. Anger tightened his stomach muscles into knots. He had to have something to do with Emilia’s disappearance. He had to know where she was.

  Because he was a lawyer, he knew his rights. Even if Lars called the police, they wouldn’t have enough cause to be granted a search warrant. So Lars wouldn’t be able to legally get inside that estate. That was why he and Dane had resorted to illegal methods.

  Methods that could have gotten them in prison or a casket. Cooper had too much going for him right now with his new family and his new business. Lars wouldn’t let his friend risk his life on his hunch.

  The same went for Manny and Cole, too. If he told them, they wouldn’t give him a choice—just like Dane hadn’t. He shouldn’t have told Dane, but his friend had caught him in a weak moment, when the fear for Emilia had been overwhelming him.

  Not being able to find her…

  Not knowing where she was…

  He hated it—hated feeling helpless—just like he’d felt when they’d lost their mom to her disease. He hadn’t been able to help her, either, hadn’t been able to save her.

  He had to save Emilia.

  “You don’t need proof for your friends,” Dane said.

  He hadn’t needed proof to offer to help. He had trusted Lars’s instincts that something was wrong. During their deployments, they’d had to trust each other, or they wouldn’t have survived.

  “No,” Lars agreed. “But I need proof to keep my friends out of trouble. We can’t go storming in on a hunch.”

  Dane grinned. “Again?”

  “We barely got out of there alive,” Lars reminded him.

  The gates had scraped along the sides of the pickup as Dane had backed out, but he had made it onto the street. And they had escaped the gunfire with only the truck getting hit, not them.

  This time.

  He had no idea what might happen next time. The lawyer had already taken measures to increase security at the estate. Myron Webber was determined to make sure nobody got in.

  Or out?

  “We need a better plan before we try again,” Lars said.

  And taking the bodyguard job was the biggest part of that plan. Since he’d been following the lawyer, he knew how the guy intended to increase security. He’d overheard a conversation the guy had had with a pretty blonde woman Lars had recognized from the picture Cooper had carried in his wallet since boot camp. And now he knew: Myron Webber intended to hire the Payne Protection Agency.

  Lars felt a flash of guilt for taking advantage of his friend. That was why Cooper couldn’t know. This way he had plausible deniability for whatever Lars had to do in order to find his sister.

  And Lars would do whatever was necessary for Emilia. He had promised their dying mother that he would always keep his sister safe, that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He had to find Emilia; he had to keep that promise.

  He didn’t care if he wound up in prison or a casket.

  Chapter 2

  The blow struck Nikki’s chin with enough force to snap her neck back. She grunted as her teeth snapped together.

  “Sorry,” Candace Baker-Kozminski murmured as she lowered her gloves. “You need to protect yourself better.”

  That wasn’t the first time Nikki had been told that and not just from Candace.

  “I know,” she replied, and she tasted the metallic flavor of blood in her mouth. She lifted her gloves in front of her face and struck out.

  Candace easily dodged her blow. Of course all she needed to do was lift her head. She was so much taller than Nikki. Most people were, except for her mother. They were both petite, curly-haired brunettes.

  Why couldn’t Nikki have inherited the male DNA in her family? Her brothers were tall and muscular like their dad had been. Not that Nikki remembered him all that well—he’d been dead so long. But she would never forget what he’d done, how he’d hurt her mother.

  Candace struck her again—a glancing blow off her shoulder that propelled Nikki back a few steps—in the middle of the dimly lit gym. They were the only ones in the place, thanks to Nikki charming a key from the owner.

  “What the hell’s wrong?” Candace asked. “You are not protecting yourself at all.”

  Nikki was. She was protecting herself from the heartache her mother had suffered. “I’m a little distracted.”

  “A little.” Candace snorted.

  “Maybe more than a little,” Nikki admitted, and as she said it, an image of a light-eyed, blond-haired giant popped into her mind.

  Candace lowered her gloves, and her navy blue eyes warmed with concern. “Is it about the shooting at the church?” she asked. “Is it bothering you?”

  “That I killed that bitch?” Nikki shook her head and lied, “Not at all.”

  If she hadn’t shot the gunwoman who’d crashed a wedding at the chapel Nikki’s mother owned, Andrea Nielsen would have killed her and probably more innocent people. Before Nikki had taken her out, Andrea had shot a good man, the man who would soon be Nikki’s stepfather.

  “Well, something’s bothering you,” Candace persisted. “What is it?”

  Nikki sighed. Her friend and fellow bodyguard wasn’t going to give up until she’d made Nikki talk. So she talked. “Cooper hired some more bodyguards.”

  “That’s great,” Candace said. Then she narrowed her eyes as she studied Nikki’s face. “Isn’t it?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “You didn’t really think you would be his only employee, did you?” Candace asked with a teasing smile.

  “No. But I thought he’d let me be a real bodyguard.” Of her three brothers who now ran branches of Payne Protection, she’d thought Cooper would be the most likely to actually let her do protection duty.

  “What makes you think that he won’t?” Candace asked.

  Nikki snorted now. “He’s going to send me out in the field over the four former Marines he hired? Not damned likely.” She swung now, and this time she struck Candace’s arm. The glove bounced off the woman’s hard biceps.

  No matter how many weights Nikki lifted, she doubted she would ever develop the muscles her idol, Payne Protection’s previously only female bodyguard, had.

  “Why don’t you ask Logan if you can open your own branch?” Nikki asked.

  Candace had been with Payne Protection when Logan had first started the agency. She’d left the River City Police Department to work with him. If Candace had her own franchise, she would hire Nikki. And since she’d been working with Nikki, she knew she could handle field work.

  Candace’s lips curved into a slight smile, and she shook her head. “I don’t want my own business.”

  But she wanted something—that was clear from her wistful smile. Candace had once had a crush on her boss, but now she was blissfully happy with her former nemesis a
nd current husband, Garek Kozminski. What else could she want?

  Nikki groaned as she realized what it probably was. “Not you, too.”

  “What?” Candace asked.

  “All the damn babies in this family got to you and now you want one?”

  Candace’s face flushed bright red.

  And Nikki pulled her gloved hands back to her sides. “You’re not already…” She hated to think that she’d been sparring with a pregnant woman.

  Candace shook her head. “Not yet.”

  “But you want to try?” Nikki asked. “What about Garek?”

  Candace smiled. “He wasn’t sure he was ready to be a father yet. But he loves his nephew so much that he can’t wait now to have a child of our own.”

  Nikki shuddered. While she loved her nephews and nieces, she didn’t want a baby. She couldn’t imagine having one of her own. Since Candace was her friend, though, she summoned a smile and said, “Well, congratulations.”

  Candace laughed. “You think I’m crazy.”

  “Only if you expect me to babysit.”

  Candace laughed harder. “I know better than to ever ask you to watch my kid.”

  Nikki laughed, too. Maybe she should have been offended, but she was just relieved. Just like she wanted nothing to do with macho men, she wanted nothing to do with babies, either. “Good. Now that we have that cleared up, we can get back to sparring.”

  Now that she knew she wasn’t fighting a pregnant woman.

  Candace shook her head. “No, it’s not fair. You’re so distracted I’m going to knock you out cold.”

  Nikki grimaced but didn’t argue.

  “You need to go—talk to Cooper,” Candace urged her.

  Nikki sighed but again she didn’t argue. Then a ringing phone jangled in the quiet of the dimly lit gym. She glanced at her cell sitting on the edge of the boxing ring, under the ropes. The screen lit up with Cooper’s name.

  “Speak of the devil,” she murmured, although Cooper had always been the favorite of her brothers. Until Nick had showed up…

  She hadn’t been thrilled with his existence at first. But he didn’t treat her like the delicate princess her other brothers did. Yeah, it was time to talk to Cooper, time to see if he really intended to give her field work or tie her to the desk like Logan had.

  Candace wasn’t willing to open her own franchise. But maybe Nick would…

  *

  A rush of adrenaline coursed through Cooper. This was it: the first assignment for his franchise of Payne Protection. He was relieved that he finally had his first real job, but he was scared, too. It was all up to him now—up to him and his team to solve the client’s problem and protect his interests. But Cooper couldn’t help but feel that Myron Webber wasn’t being completely honest with him.

  He stared across his desk at the dark-haired lawyer and asked again, “You really don’t have any idea who might have broken into your estate?”

  Myron shrugged. “I’m a wealthy man, Mr. Payne.”

  “Cooper,” he corrected him. The guy was a colleague of Tanya’s but Cooper had never met him before.

  Myron nodded but he didn’t repeat it, like he didn’t particularly care what Cooper’s first name was. “I assume they were after money,” Myron said. “Valuables…”

  Cooper glanced down at the notes he’d taken. The lawyer already had a pretty good security system—a high-tech alarm system backed up with armed guards. “They could have picked an easier house to try to get inside if that was the case,” he said. “Are you sure you don’t have anything of particular interest to someone?”

  Myron tilted his head at such an angle that Cooper was surprised his toupee didn’t slide off. It had to be a wig; it was too thick and dark and perfect to be real. Then the guy narrowed his already small, dark eyes. “I don’t think I understand what you’re getting at.”

  Obviously—since he hadn’t been forthcoming yet. “I’m just thinking that if it’s a certain valuable someone’s after that you might be better able to protect it if you were to put it in a safety deposit box in a bank vault.”

  Myron Webber chuckled. “That would not be possible at all…”

  “So you do have some idea what the intruders were after?” And why hadn’t he freely admitted it?

  The lawyer shrugged his thin shoulders again. “Until the intruders are caught, I have no way of knowing for certain.”

  Cooper knew better than to argue with an attorney. His best friend was a lawyer, but Steven rarely argued with anyone. He suspected that wasn’t the case with Myron Webber. “Do the police have any leads?” he asked the man.

  The guy stared blankly at him.

  “You have called the police.” He made it a statement even though it was clear the guy had not done it. Why not?

  Myron sighed. “I am a lawyer,” he said, “bound to protect my clients’ confidentiality.”

  “I don’t think a police investigation would compromise your ability to do that.” But Cooper couldn’t be certain. He had never been in law enforcement the way his brothers had been. He could ask one of them, but he really wanted to handle this assignment without their help.

  “My clients might not see it that way,” Myron said. “That’s why I’m hiring you. Not only do I need to make my estate secure from future intrusions, but I also need to find out who’s trying to get inside and why.”

  Of course Cooper’s first job wouldn’t be a simple one.

  “I’ll have my computer expert review the surveillance footage you brought me,” he said. He had already called Nikki to come to the office to work her magic. “I’ll also need to come out to your estate to assess what you’ll need to increase protection.”

  “Everything,” Myron said as he stood up. “I need a security team and an alarm system that I can trust.”

  Cooper stood, too, and extended his hand across his desk. “You can trust Payne Protection.”

  The guy hesitated a moment before he slid his slightly sweaty palm into Cooper’s hand. “I’m counting on that.”

  Cooper wished he had a client he could trust. He couldn’t shake the suspicion that Myron Webber was keeping something more than his clients’ confidentiality.

  *

  Lars Ecklund’s heart beat fast and hard, and it wasn’t just because Nikki Payne was so damn beautiful. It was because she was going to be the one to bust him and Dane for the breakin at Webber’s estate. Lars had been eavesdropping outside Coop’s office since he’d arrived—even before Webber had shown up for his appointment. Lars knew about the surveillance footage, but he hadn’t been able to get to it before Cooper had handed the tapes off to his little sister.

  She was little, so very petite that when he stepped into her path as she exited her brother’s office, her head barely reached his chest as her body slammed into his. Her breath escaped in a gasp he felt through the thin material of his black T-shirt. Despite how hard she’d hit him, she didn’t stumble back or fall, and she certainly hadn’t loosened her grasp on the small laptop she held.

  Lars had his hand on it, too, but he couldn’t tug it from her without her noticing. He couldn’t knock it free from her grip, either, to smash it onto the floor like he’d intended. He needed to break the damn laptop, needed to buy him and Dane some time to find out what might be on the footage.

  They’d been careful. But had they been careful enough?

  She stepped back and glared up at him, her face flushed with anger and her brown eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I didn’t see you,” he said, his voice gruff with the lie.

  She flinched.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Did I hurt you?”

  She shook her head.

  He didn’t think he had physically injured her. But maybe claiming he hadn’t seen her had struck a nerve with her somehow. He couldn’t imagine a woman like Nikki Payne ever going unseen. In addition to her beauty, she had a vitality that radiated from her like an energy field t
hat Lars could feel.

  His sister, Emilia, never went unnoticed, either. She was so beautiful, with a bright smile and sunny disposition. How had she just disappeared? Where the hell was she? Was she the valuable the lawyer had laughed over trying to fit in a safety deposit box?

  “Are you okay?” Nikki asked him as she continued to study his face.

  He expelled a ragged breath and fought the temptation to tell her about Emilia. He didn’t even know why he was tempted to share with her of all people; he hardly knew her. She would no doubt tell her brother anyway. Hell, she might even tell Myron Webber. Lars didn’t know her, so he couldn’t trust her. He shouldn’t trust any woman.

  So many of his buddies had gotten that damn Dear John letter while they’d been deployed. He’d even got one himself, not that he’d been all that serious about the woman. Knowing that he would enlist in the Marines, he’d been careful never to get too serious with anyone. Never to trust any woman.

  Even Emilia hadn’t done what he’d told her; she hadn’t gone to Cooper for help. Instead she’d trusted the wrong person. What had Webber done to her?

  Nikki stepped closer to him and peered intently up into his face, and now her brown eyes were warm with concern. “What’s wrong?”

  Everything. But he couldn’t tell her, so he forced a cocky grin. “Just disappointed…that you’re Cooper’s sister.”

  “Join the club,” she murmured. But she wasn’t flirting back with him. Instead she blinked hard and shoved around him, stomping across the brick and glass reception area to another office.

  He followed her and not just in the hope that he could get his hands on that laptop. He wanted to know what had upset her. So before she could slam the door shut behind herself, he caught it and stepped inside with her. Then he closed the door, shutting them both inside the small space. There was only room for a desk, her chair behind it and two small chairs in front of it. The outside walls were brick, the interior ones darkly paneled like the door behind his back.

  “What the hell do you want?” she asked.

  To find his sister alive and well. To get the damn surveillance footage away from her. And Nikki…