Bridegroom Bodyguard (10 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Parker held tightly to the shovel. And he exhaled a ragged breath of relief that the blade hadn’t struck his head. She had swung it forcefully and wildly. And now she threw things that she pulled off shelves. But it was dark and most of them missed him.

“Sharon,” he said. But she kept throwing things. So he dropped the shovel and grabbed her, pulling her flailing body into his arms. She swung her fists and feet, fighting him. “Sharon! It’s me. It’s Parker. It’s your husband.”

Her struggle stilled. And then she was crying and clutching at him. “You’re alive!”

“Yes,” he said. “And so are you...”

And he was clutching her back, pulling her closer so that he could feel her heart beat and her lungs breathe.

“You’re alive....” He shouldn’t have sent her running off alone. The minute he’d done it he had regretted it. And when he’d nearly shot his brother, he had realized that instead of sending Sharon to safety, he had sent her off alone to deal with whatever dangers awaited her in the dark. He hadn’t realized that
she
might be the danger—with the deadly shovel she’d wielded.

Once he had identified the footsteps as belonging to his family, he had left them to run after his bride. He had been worried that he would find her cowering in fear. Once again, he had underestimated her. She was far stronger than he had given her credit for.

She pulled back and stared up at him, her eyes glistening in the darkness. “Who was running up when I left?”

“My family. They heard the crash and came running from the chapel,” he explained. He should have known they would have heard it and the gunfire, too.

She kept staring up at him. “What about the gunshots I heard?”

He flinched, remembering how close he had come to hitting Cooper. “It was nothing.” He wouldn’t have fired at all but he had seen Cooper’s gun before he had seen who was holding it. If he hadn’t worried that a shot fired from it might hit Sharon as she ran away, he wouldn’t have risked shooting so soon.

Sirens wailed as emergency units approached the scene. Parker wanted to keep his arms around Sharon, wanted to continue holding her. But she had been hurt; at the very least, she needed stitches for the cut on her head. Maybe a CT scan to make sure she didn’t have a concussion. He had to bring her back to the ambulance.

“We have to go,” he said.

She pulled back and nodded. “Of course...”

He led the way out of the shed, making sure he stayed between her and whatever might have been waiting for them in the dark. But she stumbled and fell against him. So he turned and lifted her up into his arms. And he carried her back to where all the lights flashed and sirens wailed.

What had taken them so long to come? Had no one reported the accident or the gunfire? Officers were there now, in full force, stringing yellow tape around the crime scene. He should have been carrying his bride over a threshold to a honeymoon suite; instead, he carried her across the crime-scene tape and headed toward the ambulance.

Paramedics were working on the men on the ground, but he didn’t care about their injuries as he interrupted them. “My wife needs to be checked out,” he said. “She was on the passenger’s side of the car that took the initial impact of the crash.”

The paramedic glanced up from the guy on the ground. The young man shook his head. “I can’t stop working on this patient yet.”

“He’s beyond help,” Parker pointed out. “She could have a head injury. She was unconscious for a while.”

“Until the shooting started,” she said. “But I’m fine now....”

“I still want you to check her out,” Parker told the paramedic. “She has cuts and bruises, too.” But hopefully no broken bones or concussion.

“You better do what he wants,” Logan suggested. “He and his wife were the victims in this crash. The men you’re treating tried to kill them.”

Parker had thought he had killed the men. But if the paramedics were able to resuscitate them, he wished they would. He would like these guns-for-hire brought back to life to answer all the questions he had about who had ordered the hit on them.

But Sharon was more important.

The paramedic looked from him to Logan and back. “You’re Paynes, right?”

His twin nodded. “I’m Logan Payne, and he’s Parker. You should be aware that someone put out a professional hit on him and his wife, Sharon Wells.”

The paramedic’s eyes widened. “Sharon Wells?” As another paramedic continued to treat the man on the ground, he stood up and led Parker to the ambulance. He pointed to a stretcher in the back. “I’ll check her out now.”

Parker hesitated before releasing her. He liked the warmth and softness of her body in his arms, liked the reassuring beat of her heart against his and liked the whisper of her breath against his throat....

“Mr. Payne?” The paramedic questioned his reluctance. “I’ll make sure she stays safe.”

That was all he wanted—for her to be safe. That was one of the reasons, along with keeping Ethan out of the foster-care system, why he had married her. So he forced himself to lay her down onto the stretcher and walk away. But he didn’t go far. He didn’t trust the paramedic; he couldn’t trust him or anyone else. So he kept his gaze on him as he rejoined his twin.

“Who’s with Ethan and Mom?” he asked. He had to make certain that his son and the boy’s grandmother were safe, too. They were probably the only members of his family who hadn’t come running up to the scene of the accident. Except that it hadn’t been an accident....

Someone had tried to kill him and Sharon. He blinked and could see behind his closed lids how the SUV had slammed into her side of the car. He’d thought he had lost her then.

“Candace is on protection duty,” Logan replied. “She took them off to a safe house.”

Nikki stepped over the crime-scene tape and joined them. “I let Mom know that you and Sharon are safe.”

“I doubt we’re safe,” Parker said as he glanced back at the wreckage. The SUV driver had risked—and given up—his own life to try to take theirs. And the others had stepped right into the line of Parker’s fire in order to try to shoot him and his new bride. These people were too desperate to kill him and Sharon to ever give up—especially since the person who wanted them dead kept raising the reward.

That amount of money might be enough to tempt anyone....

Parker pointed his sister toward the ambulance. “Stay close to Sharon. Make sure nobody harms her.”

She nodded and hurried off, obviously happy to act as a bodyguard since Logan usually kept her tied to a desk at the office. He probably would have literally tied her to it if she hadn’t fought him.

Even now, the oldest Payne caught their other brother’s attention and pointed Cooper toward the ambulance, too. Parker was grateful for the extra protection on his bride.

“You should be in that ambulance, too,” Logan remarked.

Parker nodded. He should have been protecting Sharon himself. “I wanted to talk to you where she couldn’t overhear.” She had already been through too much.

“I meant that you should have paramedics check you out, too,” Logan clarified. “You were in that car.” He glanced back at it and shuddered. “And you got shot at. Are you sure you weren’t hit?” He patted Parker’s torn jacket, checking for bullet holes.

Parker shrugged off his concern. “I’m fine.”

“You’re a hell of a shot,” Garek Kozminski commented as he joined them. He had come running up with the others but must have made himself scarce when the police arrived.

Maybe Parker had been too good a shot since the paramedics had abandoned their efforts to resuscitate the men. But if he hadn’t killed them, he and Sharon would not have survived. But if at least one of the men had been only wounded, he might have been able to learn who had put out the hit.

“Looks like a wall of Wanted posters at the post office,” Garek remarked as he gazed around at the bodies lying on the pavement.

“You recognize some of these guys?” Logan asked.

“What, you think all criminals know each other?” Garek asked.

“No,” Logan said. “There are too many criminals. But how do you know these guys are wanted?”

Garek shrugged. “I recognize a couple of them.”

“From their Wanted posters?” Logan persisted.

Garek shrugged again noncommittally. “I’m not sure that they’re wanted anymore. But if they’re out already, they must have gotten some light sentences for what they’d done.”

Some people thought he and his brother had received light sentences for the crimes they had committed. Parker glanced around for Garek’s brother, Milek. They were usually together, but Parker hadn’t noticed the more laid-back Kozminski. Maybe he had been worrying about trusting the wrong Kozminski. He glanced back at the ambulance, where the paramedic shone a light in Sharon’s eyes. Nikki and Cooper stood close to the ambulance doors, watching her.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief.

“Well, you know Judge Foster didn’t give them the sentences if they were light,” Logan mused.

And Parker considered what he’d said. Criminals often held grudges against judges, so he could understand if one of them had killed Brenda. But why go after her nanny and her ex-bodyguard?

“We have a connection in the district attorney’s office,” Garek said. “Milek can talk to his ex-girlfriend. Amber is an assistant D.A.”

Logan shook his head. “No, you should do it,” he said, as if he was protecting Milek from having to talk to his ex. It must have been a hell of a breakup. “You know who they are....”

“True,” Garek said. “I’ll see if Amber can look into their cases and find out how they’ve been paroled already.”

Logan nodded his approval of his brother-in-law’s suggestion. Then he turned his attention back to Parker. “Now let’s get
you
checked out.”

“I’m fine,” he assured him again.

“You nearly shot me,” Cooper said as he joined his brothers. “So you meant to do that?”

“He nearly shot me, too,” Logan said. “It’s not personal. He’s jumpy.”

“He jumped on me,” Garek chimed in. “Knocked me down the stairs and bruised my ribs.” He grunted as if he was still in pain.

Parker felt no pain. Only concern. “Get back to Sharon,” he told Cooper. “If anything happens to her, I’ll mean to shoot you next time.”

“Sharon sent me to get you,” Cooper said. “She wants you to get checked out, too. She’s worried about you.”

“See,” Logan said. “She thinks you need medical attention, too.”

Parker shook his head. “I’m more worried about her. That’s why I wanted to talk to you alone, Logan.” The others didn’t take his hint; they stayed to listen to what he’d wanted to discuss with his twin. “I want you to take her and Ethan away from here.”

“The city?” Logan asked.

Given the amount of the reward, getting out of the city wouldn’t be enough. “The state. Maybe even the country.”

Garek nodded his approval and added, “But be careful which country you choose. It could be more dangerous than staying here.”

Was there any place safe for them? Any place they could go where there wouldn’t be people willing to kill them for money?

He had to catch the person who had put out the hit so that everyone learned that they wouldn’t be able to collect any longer. Brenda was the key; she had done or said something that had put him and Sharon in danger.

But what?

Sharon knew her best, so she would be able to help him figure it out faster than if he tried on his own. But he would rather try on his own than continue to put her at risk like he had tonight. Marrying her hadn’t been the answer. It had only let the would-be assassins know where to find them.

But how had they heard about the wedding? Only family and closely trusted friends had been invited. Who had let the word out?

“We’ll figure out later where you’ll take her and Ethan—” And for their safety, only Logan would know....

“And Mom,” Cooper added. “She’s not about to let her first grandchild out of her sight.”

Parker was glad that his mother had the baby right now. If Ethan had been in that car, too...

He shuddered to think about what might have happened to the baby during the crash and after, with all those gunshots. It was a miracle that he and Sharon hadn’t been hurt worse.

Sharon...

He turned back to the ambulance. But it was driving away, lights flashing.
What’s going on?

Had she been hurt worse than he’d thought?

Or was it worse than that?

That paramedic had acted strangely when Logan had told him who she was. He had obviously recognized her name. Had he heard about the hit? Was he going to try to collect?

Parker sprinted after the ambulance as it sped away. His legs burned as he ran, and thanks to the traffic and other first-response vehicles blocking the street, the ambulance slowed. He managed to catch up. He reached for the handle of the back door and his fingertips brushed over the metal seconds before the ambulance driver hit the gas and sped off again. Maybe the driver hadn’t seen him.

Or maybe he had....

He stopped, gasping for breath. Cooper and Logan caught up with him. “Damn you!” he cursed his younger brother. “You were supposed to stay with her.”

“Nikki’s with her,” Cooper defended himself.

That didn’t make him feel any better.

“We can’t trust anyone right now,” Parker reminded them.

“You can’t trust your own sister?” Cooper asked.

“He can’t trust the paramedic,” Logan said. “That’s why I wanted you to watch her and Nikki.” He cursed, too.

And Cooper added his own string of curses as he got angry with himself.

Garek Kozminski just shook his head as his brother, Milek, drove up next to them. That was where he must have been; he’d gone back to get a vehicle since they had all run from the church. “And people think
our
family is dysfunctional,” Garek told his brother.

“Milek!” Parker greeted the other Kozminski as he hurried around to the passenger’s side of the vehicle. “You need to take me to the hospital right now.”

“You’re hurt?” Milek asked, his gray eyes wide with concern.

Parker shrugged. He didn’t know and didn’t care. “No. I have to make sure that ambulance really takes my...wife to the hospital.”