Lisa Childs - Bodyguard's Baby Surprise

But that night had been an aberration. He hadn’t realized how much she’d needed him after that—more than she ever had. Or maybe he’d known and hadn’t cared.

What was different now?

The baby? He must have realized the child Annalise was carrying was his.

* * *

“She doesn’t want to go home with you,” Nikki said.

Special Agent Rus flinched as if she’d struck him. She had watched the man take a blow and even a bullet without ever betraying an ounce of fear. But this caused him pain. Annalise Huxton caused him pain.

“She doesn’t,” he agreed with a glance to the door of the bathroom where Annalise was changing from the hospital gown back into her clothes. They were torn and stained from her tussle with the men and the asphalt. And thanks to Nikki letting them get away with her vehicle, those clothes were all she had in River City.

Nikki flinched now. Maybe her brothers were right. Maybe she wasn’t cut out to be a bodyguard. She hadn’t reacted fast enough.

“I told her she could stay with me,” she said. But now she wondered if that was a good idea—if she could keep the pregnant woman safe.

“I appreciate the offer,” he said.

She opened her mouth to point out that she hadn’t made the offer to him when he continued, “And I appreciate you saving her from the carjackers.”

Her face heated now as it flushed with embarrassment. “I didn’t,” she said.

“But Logan said you exchanged gunfire with them.”

“I did,” she said. She had gotten off a couple of shots and might even have hit one of them. “But Annalise got free on her own. She’s tougher than she looks.” Just like Nikki had always tried to convince her brothers she was tougher than she looked. “Maybe that’s why she ran toward them when she saw them stealing her car.”

“She ran toward the carjackers?” he asked, his face paling with fear as he probably imagined all the horrible things that could have happened—that Nikki had almost let happen.

She nodded. “Just before she did, she mumbled something about not again. Her car has been stolen before. Once would be random. But twice?”

When Nikki had joined her brothers in the waiting room, Logan had said he’d sensed she was in danger. Logan was rarely ever wrong—except about Nikki. Or at least she’d like to think so?

“That’s why she’s going home with me,” Nick said, his square jaw clenched with grim determination.

“You didn’t know, did you?” she asked.

He arched a dark brow.

“That she’s carrying your kid.”

His face flushed now, and he shook his head.

“Maybe it’s good that you were named after our father,” she said. “Apparently you’re the most like him.” Of course, she had been named for him, too—something she resented nearly as much as she resented Nicholas Rus’s existence.

Rus flinched again, and a twinge of regret struck Nikki. Giving him a hard time had become more of a habit to her than anything else. It wasn’t like she hated him—like everyone else thought.

Sure, she wasn’t happy with how he had come into their lives and turned them upside down—especially Mom’s. But apparently Mom had always known that her husband had cheated on her. Was any man worthy of a woman’s trust?

Annalise stepped out of the bathroom, and she looked up at Rus with mistrust. Then she gazed at Nikki, imploring. Nikki wanted to offer her hospitality again. But after the incident in the street, she wasn’t certain she could keep the woman and her unborn baby safe.

“I want a full report about what happened and descriptions of the men,” Agent Rus told her.

She would have bristled at his bossiness. But she understood why he was. He’d been running the police department since coming to River City to clean up the corruption. Apparently he thought she worked for him. But his demand wasn’t unreasonable. She intended to do more than fill out a report. She intended to track down the men herself. They wouldn’t get away from her again.

“I also want you to come down to the station and look through mug shots,” he said, “if you think you would recognize the men if you saw them again.”

She nodded in agreement. “Sure. I would.”

“I could look at the mug shots, too,” Annalise offered.

Nick shook his head. “You have a concussion. You need to rest. Once the doctor brings your release papers, I’m taking you home.”

Annalise glanced at her again—with that imploring gaze. And Nikki’s stomach knotted. She hated to disappoint Annalise, but she didn’t want to endanger her, either. “I’d better get going,” she said as she hurried out.

In case her brothers were still in the waiting room, she bypassed it and took the elevator to the underground parking garage. She didn’t want to see her family again. She’d already spoken to them once—to assure them that Annalise was all right. They’d been so concerned about her that they hadn’t questioned Nikki. And she hadn’t looked at them. She didn’t want to look at them now. She didn’t want to see the I told you so on Logan’s face, didn’t want to see the doubt on Cooper’s. She didn’t want him second-guessing hiring her.

Tears stung her eyes, blurring the elevator doors. But then they slid open, and she stepped into the parking structure. She had been in such a rush to follow the ambulance to the hospital that she couldn’t remember where she’d parked. Which floor had it been?

She walked through the structure, looking for her black coupe. Logan hadn’t given her a black SUV like he had everyone else who worked for him—probably because he hadn’t wanted bad guys blowing her up when they meant to blow up one of her brothers instead.

She uttered a regretful sigh as she remembered the men who’d lost their lives when one of their SUVs had exploded. Someone had been trying to kill Parker and had nearly succeeded. Tears stung her eyes again, and she blinked furiously. When her vision cleared, she realized what she’d found. Not her coupe but them.

Nikki had known she would recognize the men if she saw them again. Unfortunately they glanced up, furtively—from the black SUV they were trying to jimmy open—and saw her.

They clearly recognized her, as well. She reached for her weapon—realizing too late that she’d locked it in the glove box because she’d known she wouldn’t make it past hospital security with it.

So she was unarmed and outnumbered.

Chapter 3

Nick cursed himself for not just leaving his SUV parked illegally outside the emergency room entrance. He should have exercised his authority, so that security wouldn’t have dared to have his vehicle towed away. But he hadn’t been thinking after Logan’s call. He’d been so anxious to get to her—so anxious to see Annalise for himself. He’d pulled into the first available spot in the garage and run up the stairs to the ER. Now he struggled to remember where he’d parked.

He didn’t want to leave Annalise alone long—waiting in a wheelchair in the lobby. She’d looked so pale sitting there, so fragile. Even pregnant, she was still slight because of her small frame, narrow shoulders, thin arms and long, slender legs. Dark circles rimmed her green eyes, as if she hadn’t been sleeping well because she’d been afraid. Logan had noticed her fear. Nick saw it now, the fear and the vulnerability. Nikki had told him Annalise was tougher than she looked—that she’d saved herself. Of course, she was a Huxton. Gage wouldn’t have survived being missing in action for months if he wasn’t tough, too.

At least Annalise wasn’t alone in the lobby. Or just with hospital security, either. Logan and Cooper stood over her chair, offering more protection than Nick had thought she’d get from some nervous hospital security guard. She was safe.