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

Garek asked, steering the conversation back where he wanted it. Motive. “Are men hungry for revenge?”
    â€œNot just men,” Chekov said.
    Garek’s pulse quickened. What was Viktor telling him? “Your daughter...”
    â€œIs locked up in a psychiatric hospital where she can’t hurt anyone,” Chekov said.
    Garek snorted now. “Just because people are locked up doesn’t mean they don’t have any ability to get things done on the outside.”
    Chekov uttered a dirty little chuckle. He was probably still ruling his crime empire from the inside despite Nick’s best efforts to contain him. Then he shrugged. “ I would not hurt Nicholas.”
    â€œThere are plenty of other people who would like to, though,” Garek surmised.
    Chekov nodded. “I have no problem with Nicholas. He has kept his word to me. He’s a man of honor.”
    That meant more to Chekov than anything else—that a man kept his word. If someone was after revenge against Nick, it wasn’t Chekov.
    â€œBut some people don’t respect honor like I do,” he allowed.
    â€œWho are these some people?” Garek asked. Not that he expected the mobster to give up names. Chekov was old-school. He would not narc on anyone else—even if he could have reduced his own sentence.
    Predictably he shook his head. But then he added, “Tell Nicholas I hope that no harm comes to him.”
    â€œYou know Nick,” Garek said—because it was apparent that Chekov did. “He isn’t worried about himself.”
    â€œI didn’t think Nicholas had anyone else to worry about,” Chekov said.
    Neither had Garek...until he’d heard about Annalise Huxton. His wife had met the pregnant young woman. Was she carrying Nick’s baby?
    And even more important, was she in danger because of Nick?
    * * *
    Annalise studied the house. It had a stockade fence around it and bars on the windows. This was where Nick had been staying in River City? Where her brother had been staying with him?
    Nick held open the front door for her to walk past him. He’d left Candace to file the police report at the department store parking lot while he’d brought Annalise back here.
    She glanced around the stark living room. They had a leather couch and a chair, but both had been duct-taped back together. What had happened to them?
    â€œAre you okay?” Nick asked the question again—just as he had when he’d pulled open the passenger side door of the shot-up SUV.
    And just as then, she assured him, “Yes.”
    But that was only because Candace had pushed her down—below the windows. Otherwise she might have been hit. Glass from the back window had exploded throughout the vehicle and rained down onto the dash above Annalise’s head.
    She reached up to touch her hair. Nick’s hand was already there, fingering through the tresses.
    â€œThere isn’t any glass,” he said as if he’d read her mind.
    Sometimes she had wondered if he really could read minds. He seemed always to know what someone else was thinking or feeling. It was his own feelings that were hard to read—so hard that Annalise had occasionally wondered if he felt anything at all.
    His hand moved from her hair to skim along her jaw. He tipped up her chin so that her gaze met his. He stared at her intently—as if he was trying really hard to read her mind now.
    She shivered from his touch and because she knew he could see all. She had never been able to hide her thoughts or feelings. He had to have known that she loved him, that she had loved him for years. But she had finally realized love wasn’t enough—not when it was on only one side.
    â€œWere you going to tell me?” he asked.
    Maybe he didn’t know everything.
    â€œAbout what?” she asked. Finally she summoned the willpower to step back, to step away from him. His hand fell to his side. But her face still