She lifted her fingers to her temple. “But the baby... Is he or she...” They hadn’t been able to determine the sex on this ultrasound screen, either. The tiny legs had been crossed again. “ ...all right?” She needed that reassurance, needed to know that her recklessness hadn’t put her pregnancy at risk.
The doctor reached out, and his fingers did touch her, squeezing her hand. “The baby is fine. Strong heartbeat. Active. All properly developed for twenty-four weeks.”
She uttered a sigh of relief. “Then I can leave?”
The doctor pulled his hand away. “I’m not concerned about the baby,” he said. “But I do have concerns about your concussion.”
“There’s no reason for concern.” She shook her head but winced as pain reverberated inside her skull. Maybe she did have a concussion. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Nick said. “You’ve been hurt.”
He would know. He had done it. But he wasn’t referring to his breaking her heart. He probably wasn’t even aware that he had.
“The address you provided for your intake paperwork says that you live in Chicago,” the doctor said. “You definitely cannot drive that distance, or really at all, for at least twenty-four hours.”
A giggle bubbled up inside her, but not wanting to sound or become hysterical, she suppressed it. “I have no car to drive,” she said. “It was stolen.”
“Is that what happened?” Nick asked. “You were carjacked?” He uttered a slight sigh, almost as if he was relieved.
Surprised by his reaction, she stared at him.
“Logan made it sound like something else,” he explained. “Like it wasn’t random.”
She doubted it was random. After everything else that had happened, it would have been too much of a coincidence. But she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to share with Nick. He had already proved to her that she shouldn’t have trusted him—with her heart, and maybe not with anything else.
“You shouldn’t drive,” the doctor repeated as if they hadn’t spoken. “And you should not be alone tonight.”
“She won’t be alone,” Nick said. “She’s going home with me.”
She gasped. “No.” But before she could finish her protest—that there was no way in hell she would go home with him—the doctor and Nick both turned to her.
“I’m sure you’d rather not stay in the hospital,” Nick surmised—correctly. And of course, he knew the only way the doctor would release her was if he believed she would not be alone.
Damn him. He’d always had an uncanny ability to know what other people wanted or needed—except her. He had never known how much she’d wanted him—needed him—until that one night.
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
