Single Mum's Bodyguard

Penny couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to Emilia. She hoped she was wrong. The young woman had already been through too much.

Chapter 2

Emilia’s heart pounded as she gave in to the nerves fluttering inside her. This was it, her chance to finally prove herself to her benevolent boss. Penny had been so sweet to take a chance on her, to give her not just a job but the responsibility of overseeing the woman’s wedding.

Nothing could go wrong.

But Penny’s premonitions were legendary. When she had one of her feelings that something bad was about to happen, it always did.

So Emilia didn’t waste time checking on the flowers. She already knew they were perfect. The minister had arrived, as had all the guests. The photographer had already begun taking pictures and setting up the camera to record the ceremony. The caterers were ready to serve for the reception in the banquet room in the chapel basement.

Emilia hadn’t lied when she’d assured Penny that everything was ready. For the ceremony...

But Emilia had that sense of disquiet, too, the same way that Penny did. Something bad was about to happen. That feeling compelled her to quickly cross the foyer to the steps leading down to the nearly walk-out-level basement. This was where the offices were and the banquet hall and kitchen.

And the nursery...

Along with all the Payne babies, Blue was there, too. Two nursery workers—teenage girls—watched all the children. But they were only teenagers. If someone tried to take one of the babies...

They wouldn’t be able to stop them.

But Emilia would.

She hastened her pace, her heels clicking against the stairs as she nearly ran down them. In her haste, she slipped. Her grasp on the railing kept her from tumbling to the concrete floor below. She steadied herself, finished descending the stairs and hurried down the hall.

Waiters and cooks milled around inside the banquet hall and the kitchen as she rushed past. Excitement hummed in the air. This was the wedding. The one everyone wanted to be absolutely perfect—because this was Penny’s wedding.

They all loved Penny Payne.

Emilia hadn’t known her as long as everyone else had, but she loved her, too. Loved her like the mother she’d never really had, because Mom had gotten sick when Emilia had been so young.

Penny was youthful and vivacious and affectionate. She was everything Emilia wished her mother had been and everything she wanted to be as a mother. Emilia didn’t want to let down the woman she admired so much.

But at the moment the wedding was the least of her concerns. She had to make certain Blue was safe. He was what mattered most to her now.

“Emilia...”

A deep voice murmured her name. She ignored it. She had no time now for questions about the colors of the napkins or when to serve the cake. She would answer all those again after she held her baby, after she made certain that Penny’s ominous premonition hadn’t been about Blue.

She was in such a rush that she nearly passed the door to the nursery. But she drew up short and reached out, grasping the knob. Her hand trembling, she turned it and pushed open the door. Little kids chattered and laughed. A soft voice sang. Small hands clapped.

Like the kitchen and the banquet hall, this room was abuzz with excitement, too—the excitement of little kids and babies.

One of the teenagers glanced up from where she played patty-cake with a black-haired, blue-eyed toddler. So many of the kids looked like that, with the blue eyes and black hair of the Payne males.

“Miss Ecklund, is everything all right?” the babysitter asked. With black hair and blue eyes, she might have been a Payne herself. Some of the kids were getting older now.

“That’s what I came to ask you,” she said. “Is everything all right?”

The girl’s brow furrowed. “With your son?”

“Yes.”

Looking at her as if she were being overly anxious, which she probably was, the girl nodded. “He’s fine.” She gestured toward one of the cribs against the wall. “He’s napping.”

Emilia stepped around children so she could get to her son. Like a few nights ago when she’d heard the crying, she approached the crib with fear and dread. And expelled a breath of relief when she found him sleeping peacefully.

She had overreacted to Penny’s premonition. It probably had nothing to do with Emilia. With a family that comprised of all bodyguards, Penny’s children were all exposed to danger.

Now Lars was a bodyguard, too. And she suspected he would soon be an official member of the Payne family if he was smart enough to ask the amazing Nikki to marry him. Her brother was smart.

She wished she was as smart as he was, as strong. She felt like she was losing her mind. But she’d rather lose that than her son.

He was here, though. He was safe just like he had been that night she’d been so worried she’d wound up bruising her shoulder crashing into doorframes. She glanced down at the bruise now. Maybe she shouldn’t have worn a sleeveless dress. Or at least she should have remembered to put on the sweater she’d left hanging over the back of her chair in her office.

She hadn’t needed to worry that night. Or now.

But yet she couldn’t step back. She had a million and one things to double-check. And she didn’t want to miss the ceremony, either.

She wanted to see Penny marry her soul mate even as she felt a pang of envy that she might never find hers. Her judgment was as poor as her mother’s had been. Just like her father, Blue’s father hadn’t been a man she could count on. He’d wanted only one thing from her. And it hadn’t been her heart.

Now her heart belonged to another male. To her son. She continued to stare down at her beautiful baby...until a shadow fell across him.

Then she glanced up at the window. Since this was the daylight section of the basement, the window was halfway up the wall. So she didn’t see a face. She saw only legs standing in front of that window. Then she saw the black-gloved hands reaching down to try to lift the sash.

To try to get inside that nursery full of children.

And a scream slipped from her throat.

* * *

Her scream tore at Dane’s heart, making it race with the fear he heard in her voice. Other cries echoed hers, startled cries of kids. He pushed open the door he’d seen her enter moments ago—as he’d followed her mad dash down the stairs and hall toward this room.

Toward her son...

He saw her hurriedly step back from the window with the baby clasped in her arms, nearly falling over the children sitting on the floor behind her.

This was Dane’s worst nightmare. A room full of crying kids. But the fear he’d heard in Emilia’s voice drew him to her side. “Emilia,” he said.

After he’d seen her nearly tumble down the stairs, he’d called out to her in the hall. But she’d ignored him. She ignored him again.

So he reached for her. And yet when his hand closed around her shoulder, she flinched and jerked away from him. Now anger churned in his guts. What had happened to her those long weeks she’d been missing?

How badly had she been abused?

She had a bruise on her shoulder, which was bare. Her pale blue dress had thin spaghetti straps. If she’d gotten that injury in captivity, the bruise should have faded by now. Why did it look so fresh and painful?

She blinked and stared up at him, the dread still in her pale blue eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

Clutching her son tightly against her with one arm—maybe too tightly, if Dane could guess from how hard he was crying—she gestured with her other hand at the window. “Someone was there, trying to get in.”

He glanced at the window. Sunlight glinted off the glass. “Nobody’s there.”

“There was,” she insisted, her voice tremulous. With fear or doubt?

He glanced around the room, at the teenage girls who struggled to comfort crying babies and toddlers. One of the girls shook her head. “I didn’t see anyone.”

“There was a shadow,” the other babysitter, the one with the black hair, said. “I’m not sure...”

If it was human, or just a shadow...

Emilia reached out now and clasped Dane’s arm. His skin tingled beneath her fingers. “There was someone there trying to open the window.”

He nodded. “I’ll check it out.” But she held tightly to his arm, so he couldn’t pull away and escape her and all those crying children.

If he didn’t leave soon, he might do something stupid...like reach for her again, like try to hold her like he had tried the night she’d awoken in the hospital, screaming. That had been a mistake on his part. He wasn’t made for comforting—women or kids. He couldn’t give what he’d never received.

He glanced down at her hand on his arm, and she jerked it away as if embarrassed that she’d been holding on to him. As he passed her, she murmured, “Thank you.”

He wasn’t certain if there was really anything to check out. But when he headed outside, he found other bodyguards walking the grounds. His invitation really had been an assignment. Security was high at this wedding.

High enough?

Why would someone have been trying to get inside the nursery? Or had they just been looking for an open window to get inside the church undetected?

He walked around the white brick building to the back and found the window to the nursery. The woodchips beneath it had been disturbed, some brushed aside enough that he could make out a footprint.

He leaned down and peered into the window, and his gaze met Emilia’s pale blue one through the glass. He nodded. And it was as if her shoulders slumped with relief when she should have been tensing with fear.

What the hell was going on with her?

Lars had been right to worry about her. Dane had thought that her brother had just become overly protective of her after the abduction. But maybe Lars wasn’t being protective enough. She had that bruise on her shoulder, marring the pale silk of her skin.

“What are you doing?” Jordan “Manny” Mannes, the dark-haired bodyguard, joined Dane near the window. “I already checked that window. It’s secure.”

“It was you?”

“Yeah, I’m a perimeter guard,” Manny said. “I thought you were interior.”

Dane nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“Then what are you doing out here?”

He glanced back at the window. “Someone saw you,” he said. “And thought you were trying to get in, not making sure that no one else could.”

After what she’d been through, it was no surprise that Emilia had suspected the worst. But was that because of her recent past or her present?

Manny leaned down and looked in the window, too. “Ah, I didn’t even realize anyone was in there. Is that Lars’s little sister?”

He said it like she was a child. But she wasn’t a child. She was twenty-something and already a mother. She and her son were a ready-made family.

Dane waited for the shudder, but fear didn’t grip him like it usually did whenever he thought of family. His experience with family had been nearly as bad as some of his missions with the Marines.

Where was that shudder? He needed the fear. It was all that had kept him alive during his deployments. Being afraid had kept him alert, had made him cautious.

He had never needed to be more cautious than now, when Lars had asked him to stick close to Emilia. He suspected he needed to be more afraid of the beautiful blonde than any enemy he had ever faced.

* * *

While his friend continued to lean over and stare into that window at Lars’s sister, Manny straightened up. No. He hadn’t missed her. If she had been inside the room earlier, he would have noticed her. Sure, she was off limits because she was Lars’s sister. That didn’t mean he would’ve failed to spot her, gorgeous that she was.

“No, man, I’m sure there was nobody in there when I checked that window earlier,” Manny said. “The room was empty.”

Dane shook his head. “How is that possible? She saw you just a few minutes ago and those kids were already inside the nursery then.”

Manny tensed, every one of his bodyguard instincts at attention. “I checked that window over an hour ago when I first arrived at the chapel.”

Dane cursed. “Did you see anyone hanging around this side of the chapel?”

He didn’t even have to think about it. “Hell, no. I would have investigated if I had. It’s just been me and Cole patrolling the grounds with a few of the guards from Parker’s agency.”

Each of the Payne brothers had their own franchise of the security business now. Parker, a former vice cop, had all former police officers on his team. Cooper’s unit consisted of former Marines like himself, with the exception of his sister, Nikki, who was as badass as any Marine that Manny had ever known. Then Logan, the brother who’d started the security business, had all family members working for him. But that family was all inside the church for the wedding of the Payne matriarch.

A wedding that couldn’t be interrupted. Manny cursed now. “I hope like hell we didn’t miss someone getting inside who shouldn’t be in there.”

He wasn’t sure if Dane heard him. His friend was still staring through that window, at Lars’s sister. Friends’ sisters were off limits to Manny, but Lars had broken that bro rule when he’d fallen for Cooper’s sister.

Dane, though?

He was the last one Manny would have thought would break a bro rule. Or fall for anyone...

He was a bigger commitment-phobe than Manny and that was saying something. No. Something else about the blonde beauty had to be bothering Dane.

“If someone’s trying to get inside the church, it’s about the groom or bride, right?” Manny asked.

He had heard the story about the wedding party that had been taken hostage in the chapel, and that this groom had nearly died that day. Of course all of the hostage takers had died. None of them had survived to storm the church again.

That reason alone would keep anyone else from crashing this wedding. They wouldn’t survive if they tried to break in now, not with so many Paynes and other bodyguards present.

Dane must have come to that same conclusion because he shook his head and murmured, “No, if someone’s trying to get into the church, I think it has something to do with someone else....”

With Emilia Ecklund?

But why?

She’d already been abducted and held hostage for weeks. And the man responsible for that was dead. Who could be after her now?

Chapter 3

Dane Sutton was staring at her through the glass, like she had begun to stare at herself in the mirror the past few days. With concern.

With fear.

She couldn’t look into his dark eyes anymore, but it was hard to look away from him, hard not to look at him. He was so big. So handsome...

His features were chiseled. His dark hair almost shorter than the standard military brush cut. He wasn’t on active duty anymore, but he still looked like a Marine. Still no-nonsense. To the point. That was why she hadn’t been able to look at him anymore and see the doubts she already felt.

Was she losing her mind? Obviously it had only been the other bodyguard checking the window earlier. Nobody was after her baby.

She forced herself to release him and hand him back to one of the irritated babysitters. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I saw the man.”

The girl nodded and took Blue from her.

Emilia had to get back to the wedding. But she couldn’t leave the nursery with the commotion she’d caused. Fortunately Penny—who thought of everything—had had the room soundproofed. Emilia must have left the door ajar when she’d rushed inside, or Dane wouldn’t have heard her scream.

While his assurance to check things out had momentarily made her feel better, now she wished he hadn’t heard her. He was certain to tell Lars how paranoid she was. And her brother already stared at her as if she was so fragile that she would shatter at any minute.

But she was stronger than that. She was capable. She didn’t want Lars or Penny to think otherwise. So to quiet the startled nursery, she began to sing. She sang a popular kids’ song from a musical she’d done in school.

The teenage girls looked more astonished now than they had when she’d screamed. The kids must have been equally surprised, for they’d all fallen silent with awe now.

Emilia smiled and headed toward the door. But then she saw that Dane had returned and was leaning against the jamb. He’d heard at least some of the song.

Heat rushed to her face, and she hurried past him. “I need to check on things now,” she murmured. “Make sure the ceremony is going well.”

Hopefully she hadn’t missed it. She wanted to see Penny get her happily-ever-after. The woman had planned so many for other brides that she deserved the happiest ever-after for herself.

Dane kept pace beside her in the hall. He was so big, so tall and broad and heavily muscled, and the hallway was narrow enough, that his arm brushed against hers. Once their hips even bumped. She felt an arc of awareness sizzle between them, which was ridiculous. As ridiculous as she had been to scream moments ago.

“Don’t you want to know what I found out?” he asked.

She sighed. “It was your friend,” she said. “The other one I saw standing outside with you. He must have been who I saw. He must have been checking the window.” She hadn’t been able to hear every word they’d spoken but enough, with their hand gestures, to get the gist. “I overreacted.”

“After what you’ve been through, that’s understandable,” he said.

She didn’t want his pity, didn’t want him looking at her the way Lars did. She wasn’t fragile or weak. She wasn’t crazy, either. “Penny had said she had a strange feeling.”

Dane cocked his head. “What?”

“You haven’t heard about Penny Payne’s premonitions?” she asked with shock.

He shook his head.

“She always knows when something bad is about to happen.”

“If she has that feeling today, maybe she shouldn’t be getting married.”

“This feeling wasn’t about her,” she said. The look on her boss’s beautiful face had been about Emilia. Emilia knew that.

Her own instinct was already warning her, so it was especially unnerving.

“No wonder you’re a little edgy,” Dane said.

A little was an understatement. She felt as if she might never sleep again, not without hearing that crying.

“It’s an important day,” she said. “I need to make sure everything goes well.” And she’d nearly blown that by screaming down the church.

Dane must have been the only one outside the nursery who’d heard her, otherwise her brother would have been there. Dane looked away from her now, and she saw that his hand was near his tuxedo jacket, as if he were about to reach for his weapon.

“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“You were right,” he said. “Manny did check the window. But it was when he first got here.”

She tensed now. “And when was that?”

“Over an hour ago.”

“So there was someone there when I thought I saw someone?”

He stared at her as if wondering if he could believe her, if he could believe that she had really seen anything at all. She had as many doubts as he had. But she stopped and turned back toward the nursery.

He caught her arm. “You had things to check on,” he reminded her. “The ceremony...”

She shook her head. “Nothing is more important than my son.” She would never let him down again. She couldn’t risk losing him. “I need to watch over him.” Or get him the hell away from the church.

But were they any safer at home?

Were they safe anywhere?

“Manny is watching him,” Dane assured her. “I told him to stay right outside that window. Nothing will happen to Blue.”

She turned back toward him. “You know my son’s nickname?”

He nodded. “I know that. I don’t know his real name.”

“Lars.”

“Good thing he has a nickname.”

Since she’d always believed he and her brother were such great friends, she glanced at him in surprise at the snarky remark, but then she realized he was kidding. His face was serious, though. He really had the emotionless expression of a soldier. Or a bodyguard...

This job was perfect for him. But she didn’t need a bodyguard. Or did she?

Was everything that was happening just in her head?

She would have to figure out that later. Right now she had a wedding to oversee. She hurried down the hall and up the stairs.

Dane stayed at her side, just like a bodyguard. “It wasn’t that bad a joke, was it?” he asked.

Her lips curved into a slight smile. “Lars wrote about you during boot camp and your deployments...” So much that she felt as if she knew him already—or at least as much as Lars knew him—which by her brother’s own admission wasn’t totally.

Dane’s an enigma, he’d written once. I trust him with my life. But I never know exactly what he’s thinking or feeling. Or if he feels anything at all...

She understood that now.

“I really need to make sure everything’s okay with the wedding.” But when she climbed the stairs to the foyer, she found Nikki Payne looking for her.

“There you are,” the petite brunette said. Her beautiful face was tense with anxiety.

“Is something wrong?” she asked. “Why hasn’t the ceremony started?” She knew Penny Payne hadn’t changed her mind and that her groom would have no second thoughts about marrying such an amazing woman, either.

“We’re not ready,” Nikki said.

Emilia had thought everything was set to go. That she’d had everything in place. The minister. The photographer. The caterer.

Every detail.

Then she noticed the eerie silence but for the slight murmur of whispering voices, and she questioned, “Why hasn’t the music started?” She had helped the musicians set up.

“The singer,” Nikki said. “She hasn’t showed up. We have the guitar players and pianist but no singer.”

A big hand nudged Emilia forward. “Yes, you do. She can sing.” She turned to Dane and shook her head.

It was one thing to sing to a nursery of children screaming their heads off. It was another to sing in front of a crowded church of quiet adults.

“You can sing?” Nikki asked, her brown eyes brightening with hope.

She shook her head again.

“I just heard her,” Dane said. “She’s amazing.”

Her pulse quickened, and her heart warmed with pleasure that he’d thought so. But she shook her head again as nerves fluttered in her stomach. She wasn’t certain if she was nervous about singing. Or about Dane standing so close to her.

Hell, maybe singing was one way to get him to leave her side.

“Would you do it for Mom?” Nikki implored her. “She thinks the world of you. And she deserves this day to be incredibly special.”

“My singing might hurt that,” Emilia warned her. But then she sighed. She already knew she couldn’t say no to Nikki. Lars’s girlfriend was the only one who hadn’t given her up for dead. “What song?”

She had expected a classic befitting Penny Payne. But her daughter named a newer pop song. It was about loving someone like you might lose them. She shivered. Penny had nearly lost her groom before he’d even been able to ask her on their first date. He’d wound up proposing instead. Emilia couldn’t imagine a love like that, one where they had fallen so quickly for each other and had been so confident that it was the real thing.

But then Lars and Nikki had that same kind of love—that soul-deep connection. She glanced back at Dane, and something shifted in her chest. But his handsome face remained expressionless.

Unfeeling.

She doubted she would be lucky enough to find a love like Penny and Woodrow’s or Lars and Nikki’s for herself. No. She wasn’t going to love a man like she was going to lose him. She would love her son like that—because she knew what it felt like—because she had already lost him once.