Bridegroom Bodyguard (7 page)

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Authors: Lisa Childs

Tags: #Contemporary romantic suspense, #Harlequin Intrigue, #Fiction

BOOK: Bridegroom Bodyguard
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Chapter Ten

The gun was heavy and cold in her hands. Sharon wanted to slide the safety back on and put it aside. But curses and grunts and groans emanated from the stairwell while Parker struggled with whoever had broken into the condo.

And then Ethan awoke with a startled cry, which quickly became screams of utter terror as the loud fighting in the stairwell continued.

“Shhh, sweetheart...I’m here,” she assured him. “You’re safe.”

But was she lying to him?

She rose carefully from the bed, the gun grasped in her trembling hands. Keeping the barrel pointed away from the crib, she walked toward it and the screaming baby. “Shhh...”

He kicked his feet and flailed his arms, reaching for her. And she wanted to reach for him. But if she put down the gun...

If Parker needed her...

“You’re okay, little man,” she told the baby. But she wasn’t so sure about his daddy. So she moved back toward the stairwell and peered over the side, over the barrel of the gun she held. The men were a tangle of arms and legs. She couldn’t make out who was who.

But she did see the glint of metal in the beam of sunshine pouring through the skylights above the stairwell. While Parker had handed her his weapon, the intruder had brought one of his own.

A gun?

A knife?

She couldn’t tell. Yet...

But if Parker needed her to defend him, she would shoot. She would not let Ethan lose his mother and his father....

* * *

F
EAR
AND
REGRET
chilled his blood as Parker stared down the barrel of a gun. He should not have given his weapon to Sharon—especially since she was now pointing his Glock at him.

“I come here to warn you and this is how you thank me,” Garek Kozminski grumbled. “You break my neck on the damn stairs....”

Sharon gasped, no doubt as the memory of Brenda’s corpse flashed through her mind as it just had his. The gun shook in her trembling hands. Not only was she scared, but the weapon was probably too heavy for her given how exhausted she was.

Why had he taken off the safety?

He elbowed Garek, who cursed in protest. “Show some sensitivity, man....”

“Show some appreciation,” he retorted. “I’ve got important news.”

When Parker had first realized that the man he’d attacked on the stairs was Logan’s brother-in-law, he had been relieved. But now it occurred to him that Garek Kozminski wasn’t someone he should trust. The Payne family tradition was law enforcement or protection; the Kozminski family tradition was jewelry thieving. But that wasn’t the only crime Garek had committed; he had also killed.

And if he’d done it once...

“Why didn’t you go to Logan with your important news?” he wondered.

“I thought you were running this show,” Garek replied. “That’s what you said at the hospital.”

It was....

“But how did you find
me?

Garek grunted and shoved, trying to lever Parker off him. But Parker wasn’t ready yet to let the man up. He wanted to stay between him and Sharon. Although maybe that wasn’t the safest place for him given that Sharon’s grasp on the loaded gun was so shaky....

“I’ve been tailing you,” Garek admitted.

“How?” He had been careful to avoid any tails or so he’d thought. But the rookie cop had followed him and apparently so had a criminal....

Garek shrugged. “Don’t get all bent out of shape like your brother did when I tailed him. You guys are good at losing tails, but I’m better at—”

“Stalking?”

“I am not a stalker,” he said, and now he was the one with wounded pride.

“Then why are you holding a knife?” Sharon asked, her voice sharp with suspicion.

As Garek flashed the blade in question, Sharon steadied the barrel of the gun. She was ready to shoot. Despite everything she had been through and her exhaustion, she was prepared to protect him—better than he had been protecting her.

“I cannot say exactly what this is,” Garek began, “since I am not allowed to possess any tools for breaking and entering. But hypothetically speaking, this looks more like a lock pick than a knife....” He glanced at it as if considering how much damage he could do with it. “It probably couldn’t cause a wound much deeper than a paper cut.”

Parker could have called him on that lie since it had sliced through his shirt and grazed his skin. But then he was worried that Sharon might shoot. Hell, maybe he should let her.

“I don’t understand why you tailed me here and broke in,” he said. And he had some big concerns about the man’s motives. “Logan would have preferred you’d gone through him.”

“I don’t want Logan putting himself and my sister in the line of fire,” Garek said. And that reply made more sense than him wanting to tell Parker directly. “She was nearly killed because she was with him when he was mistaken for you. My sister’s already been through too much....”

And her brother had blamed Logan for that. Now he knew that Parker was really the one to blame. But then maybe he had reasoned that if he killed Parker, people would stop trying to kill his twin.

“Sharon has already been through too much, too,” Parker said. And he glanced up again, but she—and the gun barrel—were both gone. She must have determined that Garek was no threat. Or she had decided that Ethan needed her more than Parker did because the baby’s cries had subsided. “Don’t hurt her.”

“You think I came here to hurt you?” Garek asked, his voice gruff with more than wounded pride. “I came here to warn you, to help you...” He shoved off Parker and struggled to his feet, groaning as his body shifted.

Parker had hurt him, but probably more emotionally than physically. Maybe since their siblings had married, Kozminski had begun to feel as if they were family. Parker had begun to feel that way, too, until he had suddenly gained an instant family of his own with Ethan and...Sharon. He wasn’t sure what she was, but before he had even known that the baby was his, he had witnessed that she and the boy were as connected as if they were mother and son.

His mother was right.
Damn her...

“I’m sorry,” Parker said. “I just have to be careful....”

“You have to be more careful now,” Garek advised.

“Why? What have you learned?” What information did he have that was so important that he’d broken into the condo to share it?

“The reward for your murders has been doubled,” Garek said. “And it was already a generous amount of money for a hit.” He shook his head, as if he was dumbfounded. “Now it’s an
obscene
amount of money.”

Parker cursed.

And Sharon appeared at the top of the stairwell. Those enormous eyes wide with concern, she stared down at him. Apparently she had heard only his curses, not what Garek had said. “What’s going on?”

He wished he knew. Why was someone so determined that he and Sharon die?

“You should tell her,” Garek advised.

Parker wasn’t sure she could handle knowing how badly someone wanted her dead. But then he remembered how her grip had steadied on the gun and how she had been ready to shoot to protect him.

“Tell me what?” she asked, and as she stepped closer to the stairs, he noticed the baby in her arms. Ethan clung to her, his little fingers tangled in her hair.

While Parker was his father,
she
was the boy’s security. Ethan couldn’t lose her. The greatest thing Parker could do as the boy’s father was to make sure he kept this woman safe. “Whoever wants us dead upped the ante.”

He wasn’t sure she would understand, but she nodded and sucked in an audibly shaky breath. And then with the boy balanced on one of her lean hips, she pulled the gun out with the hand on her other side. The barrel was pointed straight and steady down the stairwell.

Garek laughed. “So
she’s
going to shoot you to collect?”

“I have money,” Sharon said. “I’ll pay you to leave us alone.”

Garek tensed as he realized what she thought, that she had the same suspicion that Parker had briefly entertained. “I have never met two more ungrateful people,” he murmured. “I come here to warn you and you both think that I came here to collect on the damn rewards.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “But you’re a Kozminski, right?”

He hesitated but nodded.

“Detective Sharpe warned me about you.”

Garek sighed. “Of course he did.”

“He warned me about Parker, too.”

Garek laughed. “I knew the guy was an idiot. But you have nothing to fear from any one of the Paynes—they’re all about law and order.” But he notably didn’t make that claim for himself. “You’re safer with this guy than you would be with anybody else—probably even with the police right now.”

Parker flinched as he remembered how the greed of a certain police officer had cost both him and Garek their fathers. Parker’s dad had died and Garek’s dad had gone to prison for killing him even though another man had pulled the trigger. Parker hadn’t had time to deal yet with finding out how his father’s partner had betrayed him before he’d found out that someone was trying to kill him.

And then he had found out he was a father....

No wonder his head was pounding now. It wasn’t just because of the concussion or exhaustion...

He was overwhelmed.

No doubt so was Sharon. So many people had been telling her so many things. Was it any wonder that she might struggle over what to believe and whom to trust?

She said, “Detective Sharpe warned me that Parker’s a playboy.”

Garek laughed harder—so hard that the baby laughed with him. “Maybe Sharpe’s not as big an idiot as I thought....”

“He’s an idiot,” Parker insisted to Sharon. Then he turned back to Garek. “And
you
have no room to talk in the playboy department.”

He laughed again. “I’m not denying that....”

Parker couldn’t deny his reputation, either. He had vowed to never marry, to never have children. But he’d had reasons. He had actually wanted to spare someone mourning him the way he and his mother and siblings had mourned the loss of their father. And even before the hit had gone out on him, his life had often been in jeopardy. As an undercover cop, he’d put his life on the line with every dangerous assignment. And when he protected someone, he again placed himself between that person and potential danger.

“Thanks for breaking and entering,” Parker said, “to give us the heads-up.”

Garek shrugged and winced. “Don’t mention it. I’d stay to help protect you and all, but I’m a lousy shot. And I should probably stop by the emergency room and have them x-ray my ribs.”

“Sorry about that,” Parker said with a carefully light slap on Garek’s shoulder.

“I would have called...”

But Parker had pulled the battery out of his phone so no one would have been able to hack the GPS and find out where he was. He pulled another phone from his pocket. “I replaced my cell with this one. It’s an untraceable track phone.” He gave the number to Garek. “Now you can call next time....”

“Let’s hope there isn’t a next time. You don’t want the reward getting tripled.” He grinned. “Or I might be tempted to collect.” Then he turned and headed down the stairs to the basement garage.

Parker wasn’t so sure that Kozminski was kidding. If double an already generous reward was obscene, then triple would probably prove irresistible.

After the door clicked behind Garek, Parker made sure it was locked and the alarm was engaged. Then he headed up the stairs to where Sharon waited for him. Instead of the gun, she held a bottle, which Ethan was eagerly sucking down. She arched her neck to indicate where she had left his weapon sitting on the nightstand next to the rumpled king-sized bed.

He only noticed how delicate her neck looked; how slender she was. Vulnerable. And beautiful...even as exhausted as she was.

She hadn’t had much sleep, and it showed in the dark circles beneath her enormous eyes. After what they had just learned from Garek, she probably wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep even if Ethan did.

“I’m sorry about that,” he said.

She skeptically arched a brow. “Sorry that he made you tell me?”

“Yes,” he admitted.

“Why?” she asked, and she bristled with pride. “Do you think I’m too weak or fragile to know what’s going on? That the reward for our murders has been increased?”

He glanced again to where she’d put the gun. “You handled that pretty well.”

Her mouth curved into a slight smile. “Don’t patronize me. I could barely hold on to it. But that wasn’t because I’m weak or fragile. It’s because I don’t like guns.”

Probably with good reason. Had her mother been shot? Or worse...

And at a young, impressionable age, Sharon had seen that and survived. “I don’t think you’re weak or fragile,” he assured her.

She narrowed her eyes and stared at him suspiciously. “Are you still patronizing me?”

“No,” he said. “I know how strong you have to be when you lose a parent.”

She gasped. “Oh, that’s right....” Her face flushed a bright red with embarrassment. “I’m sorry....”

“You know about my dad?” he asked.

“Brenda told me that he died when you were a teenager,” she said. “And then I saw on the news that it was just discovered that another man killed him than the one who’d been in prison for his murder.”

“Garek’s dad was the man in prison for his murder,” he said, “until he died there.”

Her brows lifted in surprise. “And his sister is married to your brother?”

Parker laughed. “They used to hate each other—or so they claimed. But Stacy always knew it wasn’t her dad who had killed ours.” A twinge of pain struck his chest over the betrayal that had led to his dad’s death. “She was right. It wound up being another officer—his partner.”

She nodded. “Brenda told me not to trust the police.”

“I can’t argue with her now,” he said. “I’d like to say they can’t be bought. But some of them can be more greedy than honorable.” He wondered about Sharpe and that kid that Sharpe had sent to follow him. Why hadn’t he identified himself as an officer when he’d pulled the gun on Parker? What might have happened if Logan hadn’t shown up?

“And the reward to kill us is a lot of money?” she asked nervously.

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