she realized why. Concern filled her. She had been so happy—so relieved—he had come back alive that she hadn’t considered what condition he might be in. “He’s not all right, is he?”
“Physically he’s fine,” Cooper assured her.
“And...?”
“Mentally and emotionally, he has some recovering to do yet,” Cooper said. “He’ll get there. It just takes time—more time for guys who’ve been through what he has.”
“Thank you,” she said.
Cooper shrugged off her gratitude. “I haven’t gotten him to talk about it. I don’t really know what he’s been through. The only one who might know is Nick.”
Gage had always gone to Nick—had always told him everything. If Nick knew, why hadn’t he told her? Why hadn’t he called her? Had he been so determined to avoid her after they’d made love that he hadn’t even wanted to call to talk about Gage?
“Thank you for not calling him,” she clarified. “I wouldn’t want to add to whatever he’s going through.” She couldn’t imagine the horrors her brother had endured while he’d been missing. Gage was tough, but everyone had a limit.
“Then you’d better be honest with us about what’s been going on with you,” Logan said. “Your getting hurt might be more than your brother could handle.”
He was right. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to share her troubles with someone. But she wasn’t certain whom she could trust.
These were Nick’s brothers. She couldn’t trust Nick—not after the way he’d treated her. So how could she trust any of them?
“My sister told me what you said when you saw those men jacking your car,” Logan said. “This isn’t the first time that’s happened.”
“No,” she admitted.
“And it’s not the only thing that’s happened to you.”
Her head began to pound as other memories rushed in, and she squeezed her eyes shut to block them out.
“Annalise?” Logan prodded her.
They hadn’t been raised together, but he reminded her of Nick. Even before he’d become an FBI agent, Nick had always been good at asking questions and finding out information. Perhaps Logan should have been an FBI agent, too. He was a natural interrogator, as well.
And she had never been good at keeping secrets. She parted her lips to speak, but someone shouted. She opened her eyes to see a security guard running up to Nick’s brothers.
“You guys are with Payne Protection, right?” he asked.
Both men nodded. “What’s wrong?” Logan asked. Because it was clear that something was. The young man was flushed and breathing hard.
“There’s a shoot-out in the parking garage! I called 911, but I don’t think the police will get here in time. So I need to go down there.” His throat moved as he swallowed hard, obviously afraid. “I need backup.”
Annalise’s heart hammered against her ribs. “Nick’s in the parking garage.” He’d gone down to get his vehicle to pick her up. Just like her car getting stolen again, it couldn’t be a coincidence. Nick had to be involved in that shoot-out.
“I think Nikki’s down there, too,” Cooper said.
Logan’s face paled, and his hand shook slightly as he reached beneath his jacket—probably for his weapon. But his holster hung empty from his arm. He glanced at her. “I told Nick...”
That he would protect her. She had heard him, and she’d thought it was ridiculous that they thought she needed protection inside the hospital. Obviously they’d been right.
“Go,” she urged him.
He shook his head and turned to Cooper. “You go.”
Cooper was already grabbing the arm of the security guard and pulling him across the lobby.
“Be careful!” Logan called after him. “And make sure they’re okay!”
Cooper glanced back and nodded. But he could only do his best—if he arrived in time. Annalise worried that he and the security guard would be too late to help.
Nick couldn’t be gone.
She pressed her hands over her belly again. And the baby shifted within her womb. Her child couldn’t lose his father before she was even born.
* * *
As Cooper Payne shouldered open the door to the parking garage stairwell, shots reverberated inside the concrete structure. He kept the security guard behind him, shielding him as he would have a Payne Protection Agency client or a fellow serviceman. Fortunately he’d the foresight to leave his weapon with security, so he’d retrieved it before they’d left. He clasped the Glock in both hands, swinging the barrel in each direction he looked.
Where the hell were they? The noise faded to a faint echo as the shots stopped.
His heart stopped, too—for just a second. From his years in combat, he knew why the firing ceased. Because everyone was dead...
His blood chilled, and the hair lifted on his nape. He still kept his hair short, as he had when he’d been enlisted. His brothers wore theirs longer—except for Nick, who had also been a Marine. Nick looked the most like him, and they were nearly the same age.
His half brother was too young to die. Cooper bit the inside of his cheek, resisting the urge to call out to him. To Nikki...
Had she gone down to the parking garage? She hadn’t said goodbye. She had simply disappeared from the hospital. Nikki always did that when Nick was around, though. She couldn’t handle being near the evidence of their father’s betrayal—couldn’t stop blaming Nick for what their father had done.
He hoped she had left before Nick had come down for his SUV, and she was safe.
Cooper slowly moved forward, keeping low so he could duck for cover if the firing started again. Because he was staying down, he saw the blood—the droplets of it sprayed across the concrete. Someone had been hit.
How badly? And who?
Then he saw the SUV. Like the Payne Protection company vehicles, it was black, but this one had all the windows shot out, the glass scattered across the concrete like the blood. The government plate on the back confirmed his fears. It was Nick’s.
But where the hell was Nick?
He lowered one knee to the ground as he leaned down farther, looking for bodies on the other side of the vehicle. He found more blood—small pools of it. Maybe more than one person had been hit since there was blood on both sides of the SUV.
As he looked around, he noticed a Payne Protection vehicle parked nearby—not one of the black SUVs but Nikki’s small coupe. He recognized it from the furry pink dice hanging from the rearview mirror.
The
