CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

ALICIA

“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor, princess. They’ll be here.” Nick tapped his earpiece, his voice strong and reassuring. “Because they’re rejoining us, HQ reconnected me with his team’s communications an hour ago. There hasn’t been a single thing. There would’ve been chaos over comms if anything had happened to them on the way.”

I took a deep breath, smiling at him. “Thanks, I’m sure you’re right.”

After a week of false starts and more delays, my father and Emilia were finally set to arrive at any minute. Nick was dressed in his pitch-black suit again and was standing a couple of feet away from me. My fingers itched to reach for him, but as much as I was sorry that our time alone together was coming to an end, I was also anxious to see my father and Emilia safe.

I was sure that my father and I were going to have one hell of a showdown at some point after their arrival, but some of my anger at him had turned to worry because of all of the delays. It would be wonderful for my anxiety levels if we were all under one roof again.

I’d been pacing the small entrance hall of the bungalow for fifteen minutes, stopping at least once a minute to peer out the window to the front yard. With every passing second, the tick of the grandfather clock that sat in the corner of the room grew louder. My father was half an hour late already. The feeling of dread in my stomach grew the louder the clock sounded.

“Whatever happens next, we’ll face it together,” Nick said quietly. I knew that he was referring to both the added security threat of both my father and I being together in one place, as well as if my dad should find out about us. My dad wasn’t going to be carting back and forth between the city and the house anymore, and the bungalow was a lot smaller than the house back in the Hamptons.

I gave him a tight smile, about to agree with him when the slamming of a car door outside made me jump. Lurching toward the window, I drew back on the sheer curtain to see Emilia’s homely form rushing toward the house. Alone.

My heart sputtered in my chest. Nick threw open the door and pulled Emilia quickly inside, before locking the door and turning to her to voice my exact question, all at the same time. “Where is Warren?”

Emilia’s eyes were rimmed with red and looked like she had been crying for hours. Her gray hair was a mess, and there was a slight tremor in her hands. “There was a last-minute change of plans.”

Her voice was thick with emotion, and she was clearly struggling to get her words out. I walked over to give her a big hug. Nick frowned and started firing off questions.

“What change of plans? Why haven’t I heard about it, and for the last time, where is Warren?”

Emilia heaved a sigh, and tears started rolling down her cheeks. “He’s in the hospital. There was another attack, and he was injured this time.”

The world narrowed, and my vision blurred. My knees threatened to give way underneath me. Nick was by my side in an instant, holding me up by wrapping an arm firmly around my waist. I leaned into his side. It was a gesture of support that I appreciated, but it wasn’t warm enough to hint at anything between us to Emilia. I hoped.

Then I remembered that it wouldn’t matter if she found out if anything happened to my father. I sagged a little, frenzied thoughts tumbling out of my mouth so fast that I could barely keep up with my own words. “Which hospital? We need to get there. Now. What’re we standing around for?”

I was already pulling away from Nick to dash outside when Emilia gave a shake of her head. “No, he gave me strict orders to come right here. He doesn’t want you going to the hospital. He wants you here where he knows you’re safe.”

“I don’t give a damn what he wants. I need to be there for him. I’m his only family.” I cried. It was true, I was his only family, and I’d spent the last couple of weeks constantly arguing with him. I was pissed with him, sure. Disappointed by what he’d done, of course. But I never imagined that we’d never get a chance to talk through things, to make up. “I have to go to him.”

Nick stepped into my line of sight and placed his hands on both of my shoulders, looking into my eyes with a stern, yet understanding expression on his face. “Listen to me, Alicia. Take a deep breath. Your father is right. It’s safer for you here, and the authorities will keep your dad safe in the hospital.”

Emilia nodded. “It’s true. Your dad is under heavy police guard. They won’t be able to get to him while he recovers.”

“How bad are his injuries?” I choked back a sob. If there was any chance that this was the last time I was going to be able to see my daddy, to make things right between us, I was going to that hospital, and a pack of wild dogs, or a particularly tenacious bodyguard, wasn’t going to stop me.

“I don’t know the exact extent of his injuries,” Emilia said, her voice shaky as she brought her hands up to cover her eyes. She rubbed them, then sighed and let her hands drop to her sides. “But he should be okay, Ali. He was talking when they loaded him into the ambulance, and the paramedic told me that his pulse was strong.”

The sob I was holding back broke free. His pulse was strong? That was all she knew? “What happened to him?”

“He was shot in the crossfire when the people who have been after him intercepted his security transfer. A stomach wound, I think.”

Nick sucked in a sharp breath, his voice harsh when he asked. “His team was back with him?”

“They were,” Emilia confirmed tearfully. “They weren’t as lucky as Warren was, those young men.”

“What do you mean, Em?” I was deathly afraid of her answer. Nick was so tense next to me that I thought his teeth might crack if he ground them any harder.

Emilia shook her head sadly.

“They didn’t make it?” I was stunned. There were so many of them. They were so strong and diligent. “None of them?”

Emilia shook her head again as a fresh stream of tears flowed over her cheeks. I couldn’t hold back mine anymore, either. Emilia and I reached for each other, locking in a tight embrace as we cried together. Nick came up behind me and started rubbing my back, even though I had no idea how he was holding it together.

He knew my father’s security team. He lived with them in the Hamptons. I’d never even been given their names, and I was devastated. Their deaths had to have hit him harder than it hit me. And he could have been with them, if the situation had been slightly different. Nick could have lost his life, too.

“Are you okay?” I asked him when Emilia and I broke apart, casting a worried glance over his features. There was anguish in his eyes, and his lips were pressed into a thin line, but you’d have to know him very well to see it.

I turned toward him and rested my palm on the smooth fabric of his designer suit, right over his heart. Forgetting about the fact that we were no longer alone, only needing him to know that I was there to support him, and needing to be comforted by knowing that he was there for me, too.

He glanced at Emilia, then nodded at me and took a swift step backward. I let my hand drop to my side when I realized my faux pas.

Nick cleared his throat, his tone cool and businesslike as he fixed his gaze to Emilia’s. “What about the additional security Warren was going to order?”

“They were with him, too,” Emilia said, curiously looking between Nick and me.

Nick’s jaw went slack. “All of them went down in one attack?”

Emilia nodded, her eyes filling with tears, and then she fell to the ground. She clasped her hands tightly together. “It was horrible,” she said. “Just horrible.”

“Jesus Christ,” Nick muttered, dragging his hand over his cheek and staring out the window before bringing his gaze to mine. “You’re not stepping foot outside of this bungalow. No more switching on your phone, even for short periods of time, got it?”

“I have to go to the hospital, or at least call them,” I pleaded quietly. “Please, Nick.”

“You father was right to tell Emilia that it’s not safe for you out there. I agree with his assessment.” His tone was firm, cold even. His eyes darted to Emilia’s. “Do you happen to know if he pulled together any of the other resources we talked about?”

Emilia shook her head, not meeting his eyes fully.

Nick’s eyes narrowed. “So, you don’t know anything else?”

Another head shake, but Emilia pulled a scrap of paper from her pocket. “No, Warren’s final instructions to me were to proceed to this address. So, I got here as fast as I could.”

Nick snatched the paper from her hand, and my heart lurched when I saw my father’s handwriting on it. It was scratchy, not as elegant as I knew it usually was. “When did he write this?”

“Before they… before the ambulance… took him away,” Emilia stammered.

In my mind’s eye, I could picture how my father scrawled the address out with a shaky hand before he handed it over to Emilia. The realization that the picture in my head, or some variation of it at least, was true ripped me apart.

I collapsed to my knees, my hands pressed to my eyes as sobs wracked through my body. The tiles were hard under my knees, as cold and unforgiving as the reality I was stuck in. Nick knelt in front of me, pulling my hands away gently and tipping my chin up with his thumb and index finger. His voice was as soft as a whisper and just as tender. “He’s going to be okay, princess.”

My eyes darted around for Emilia at his use of the term of endearment that he’d been calling me since that night in his car when I told him that I wasn’t a damsel in distress, but she wasn’t in the room anymore.

“Hey, look at me, Alicia.” I did as he asked, the pain in his eyes reminding me that my father wasn’t the only person who was hurt. “Your dad’s going to be okay. If the paramedics waited for him to talk to Emilia, let him write out the address and give her instructions, they didn’t have any reason to suspect that he was in immediate danger. If one of his vital organs had been hit, they wouldn’t have allowed any of that. Trust me.”

“I do,” I breathed. “But it’s not just that. The other bodyguards were killed in the attack, Nick. What if something happens to you?”

The very thought had my heart hammering, and a tormented sob broke free, even though I tried to suppress it. Nick pulled me into his arms and held me against his chest, the steady beat of his heart against my ear.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me, warrior princess. You wanna know how I know?”

I nodded, breathing in his spicy scent as I tucked my head into the crook of his neck.

He pressed a soft kiss onto the top of my head. “Because I would never let anyone hurt you that way.”