Bodyguard's Baby Surprise by LISA CHILDS Read Free Book Online Page A

said. “He bled out before security cleared the parking garage for us to treat him.”
    Tears burned Annalise’s eyes. Nick had bled to death while waiting for help?
    She couldn’t bear the thought that he had been alone and hurt. But then Nick was always alone. He insisted that was the way he’d wanted it. That was the reason he’d given for always pushing her away.
    Nikki gasped, too, and the tears that had brimmed in her eyes spilled over. “No...”
    They had been named for the same man. If they had anything else in common besides their names, they might not have pushed each other away. Now Nikki would never have the chance to connect with the brother she’d obviously resented.
    And Annalise’s baby would never get to meet his or her father—just as Nick had never had the chance to meet his. Horror and regret overwhelmed Annalise, making her legs tremble and threaten to fold beneath her. Before she could fall, though, strong arms closed around her, holding her up.
    * * *
    â€œMrs. Payne?” a young woman asked. She stared across the desk at Penny, her dark eyes wide with concern. “Are you all right?”
    She nodded and replied, “Of course.”
    She was anything but fine, though. Her heart had started pounding faster and harder, thumping inside her chest. She didn’t want to betray her fear to the young bride, though. Megan Lynch was already too nervous about her pending nuptials. Too nervous to be getting married.
    Penny held her tongue and her opinion. She had once been a nervous bride herself. Maybe, in the way that she somehow knew things, she’d known she would lose her husband too soon. There had been rewards for the pain she’d endured, though: her children.
    Panic clenched her heart.
    One of her children was hurt. She knew it. Even before the phone rang, she knew it. She had that tightness in her chest and that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was often teased about being psychic. But she was no medium. She just had a very special connection with her children. Her feeling that one of them was hurt had never been wrong.
    And it wasn’t wrong now. Her hand shaking, she reached for the phone before it even started to ring. She skipped her usual greeting of “White Wedding Chapel. Penny Payne, wedding planner, speaking,” and just said, “What is it?”
    â€œMom,” Nikki spoke tentatively—almost fearfully.
    â€œWhat is it?” Penny asked again.
    â€œI’m fine,” Nikki replied.
    And Penny remembered the first long trip Nikki had taken with her new driver’s license and the phone call she had received from her youngest and her only daughter shortly after Nikki had left. “Mom, I’m fine but...”
    Then she’d dissolved into tears over the deer she’d struck and killed. That was partially why Logan had kept his sister behind a desk instead of assigning her fieldwork. She wasn’t as tough as she acted. If she had to hurt anyone...
    â€œBut?” Penny asked. Nikki hadn’t said the word this time, but she’d heard it in her voice.
    â€œMom...” And just as when she’d inadvertently killed the deer, Nikki broke into tears. Her sobs rattled the phone.
    â€œYou’re fine,” Penny reminded Nikki and herself. Her daughter wasn’t hurt. But what about her sons?
    Nikki drew in a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fine.” And now it sounded as if she was trying to convince herself.
    â€œWho’s not fine?” Penny asked.
    Nikki’s breath escaped in a ragged sigh. “Nick.”
    The panic already clenching her heart squeezed tighter. Nikki had never referred to her half brother by his first name. She usually never referred to him at all if she could help it. The fact that she was saying his name now—and with so much emotion...
    Nicholas Rus wasn’t one of Penny’s children. She hadn’t given birth