Catching Sam: Book 2 of 5: The MacDonald Brothers

by Emily Matthews

  He knew protection wasn’t foolproof, but the odds of her getting pregnant in the last few weeks were slim to none. It must be someone else’s baby, but whose? Maybe she didn’t know and was looking for someone to be the daddy. Maybe she was waiting to spring it on him and was planning to claim it was his. For the first couple of months, she wouldn’t be showing anyway, and he’d have no idea.

  He racked his brain for an innocent reason this stuff would be here but couldn’t think of anything. Perhaps she was holding the crib for a friend. Or maybe someone had given it to her for “someday” when she would need it. But in either of those cases, why would she set it up now? And why keep it under lock and key?

  As far as he knew, he was the only one who came to her house, so the fact that the door was locked was solely for his benefit. He was not supposed to see this. He got an uneasy feeling, and his stomach felt like he’d swallowed a rock.

  And just like that, he was back to the what-ifs. What if Annie wasn’t who she said she was? And was just trying to scam him? Or what if this was some sort of long play to ruin him?

  She could have come out right away after their one-night stand, but that would have been a one-time payout, and perhaps she was playing a longer game. If she had his baby, he’d be paying her for much longer. Maybe she wasn’t pregnant now, but planning to get pregnant soon.

  He thought about the note she’d sent him about the sex being consensual. That might cover him against a sexual assault charge, but it wouldn’t do anything to defend against a pregnancy scam. In fact, it would help her!

  He felt terrible doubting her again. And so soon after he’d assumed the worst of her with the sexual assault accusation. What was wrong with him? Was he being pragmatic or overly cynical? Cautious or stupid?

  He’d read the book he bought on trusting people, but it hadn’t addressed this specific situation. Obviously. Even if it had, it would have made him out to be the untrustworthy one. Do trustworthy people sneak into locked rooms? No.

  He supposed asking her about it would be the best way to find out, but then he’d have to admit he’d snooped around for a key and then used it to open her locked room. Even if he could think of some excuse—maybe he smelled smoke—she would see it as a major violation of privacy. And of course, she’d be right. And coming right on the heels of his last accusation? Even he wasn’t that stupid.

  Yeah, he’d have to keep this to himself for now. Maybe he could bring up babies in casual conversation somehow and see how she reacted. Now that Jake knew about Annie, maybe he could run it all by him to get his take too. Whatever he did, he wasn’t ready to face Annie about it yet.

  Making sure everything was untouched, he backed out of the room, locking the door behind him. He replaced the key and went back downstairs. He left a note saying something had come up and got the hell out of there.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  It wasn’t until Wednesday that he finally saw her again. He hadn’t called or texted, and neither had she. Not even to say thank you or come finish the job! Not a peep. He knew why he wasn’t calling her. He was still freaking out about “Avery” and the crib. But why wasn’t she calling him? He was beginning to wonder if he’d offended her. Maybe she hadn’t truly forgiven him for the last dumbass move he’d made.

  Everyone was wandering into the monthly Denali project meeting. It was weird to think it had only been a month ago that he’d sat in this same room and found out who she was.

  She was sitting at the other end of the table chatting with someone. Her demeanor had done a one-eighty, and she seemed to have made friends with the others.

  Bill walked in and went to her immediately. He pulled out his phone and was showing her a picture. Sam strained to hear what he was saying.

  “She loves the blanket you crocheted and wanted me to thank you again. You’re very talented,” he gushed. She smiled and turned toward him, oohing and aahing over how cute the baby was. Annie crocheted? A blanket for Bill? Probably Bill’s grandbaby.

  Cathy came in and also went straight to Annie, thanking her for a book she’d lent her. He caught bits and pieces of Cathy saying how much it had helped and Annie saying she was glad.

  Annie was doing that thing she did, grabbing her watch and squeezing, while talking to everyone. Was she nervous about something?

  Phil came in and sat on Sam’s right. “Hey, great news. I just got off the phone with the attorneys and Stephanie has dropped her charge. She admitted to being drunk and said it must have been a dream.” Phil huffed. “Pft. More like she didn’t want to go to jail for extortion.”

  “That is good news. Thanks,” Sam said, still staring at Annie.

  “She seems to have won everyone over, eh?” Phil whispered and nodded discreetly in Annie’s direction.

  “Yeah, big change from the last meeting. Glad everyone’s getting along.” She was chummy with everyone. Everyone but him. And she seemed to be purposely avoiding eye contact with him. Was it because she didn’t want anyone catching on that they were seeing each other? Or because she was just avoiding him, period? He hadn’t spoken with her since Saturday, and she’d acted strangely then too.

  Did she know he’d entered the locked bedroom? Was she angry, and that was why she hadn’t contacted him? He wasn’t one to dick around. He’d stop by her office later and get to the bottom of it. Maybe she’d just been busy. She apparently had a lot on her plate he didn’t know anything about.

  Gayle stopped by Annie on her way in to thank her for a cookie Annie had left her. Wasn’t she just a do-gooder? It irritated him that she was doing nice things for everyone but him. And it irritated him that he was irritated about it. Man up, dude!

  He gave Phil the signal to get the meeting started. It lasted for a little over an hour, and not once did she look at him. That seemed like more than playing it safe. That just seemed rude.

  After everyone had cleared out, he made his way over to her office, only to find out she’d left for the day. Beckie told him that Annie hadn’t felt well and had taken the rest of the afternoon off.

  Once back at his office, he texted her to see if she needed anything. Was she sick because of the pregnancy? While he waited for her to respond, he tried to eavesdrop on Tracey and Phil, who were talking quietly outside his office. He wondered if Phil was finally making his move. He hadn’t had a chance to speak with Tracey yet like he promised he would, but maybe Phil was taking the bull by the horns and just going for it anyway.

  Sam started to second-guess the appropriateness of dating someone at work. Maybe Phil was right, and Sam was an idiot. Both for suggesting Phil pursue Tracey and for going for it with Annie. Well, a little late now.

  Annie finally answered his text with a curt “No thanks” about fifteen minutes later. That put him in a bad mood, which Phil made worse once he finally came into Sam’s office. He piled on with more bad news.

  “I talked with Joseph again. He double- and triple-checked and swears that Annie’s divorce is not on file anywhere, which means she is still married. I’m sorry, man,” Phil said somberly.

  “From what I can tell, she filed the papers, but her husband wouldn’t sign them.” Sam didn’t mention how he knew that. “I wonder how you divorce someone who isn’t willing,” he speculated.

  Since finding the unsigned papers, he had a feeling Phil would eventually come to him with this news. Still, having his suspicions confirmed sucked. He’d been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but that turned out to be a mistake. He mulled over telling Phil about what he’d seen at Annie’s but decided to change the subject instead.

  “So, you finally ask Tracey out? Sorry I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about you yet.”

  “Oh, no worries. You don’t need to talk to her.”

  “Did you ask her out?” Sam pressed.

  “I thought we weren’t talking about stuff like that,” Phil said cryptically as he stood to go.

  What the fuck? Was everyone hiding something from him? If Phil did
n’t want to tell him about Tracey, fine. But he’d be damned if he was going to play stupid games with Annie. They were grown-ass adults and could either work out their problems or not, but he wasn’t going to sit around and second-guess everything any longer.

  He walked out to where Tracey was sitting, typing quietly. “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Of course,” she replied. “What do you need?”

  “First thing tomorrow, can you call Ms. O’Neill, the graphic designer for the Denali project, and set up a meeting? Preferably tomorrow, maybe in the afternoon?”

  Tracey jotted down a note, said it wouldn’t be a problem, and that she’d let him know the time as soon as she set it up. He thanked her and headed back to his office.

  This bullshit stopped now. He’d confront Annie about still being married and about the crib and, depending on what she said, he’d decide whether the relationship was worth continuing.

  He felt like he’d gotten to know her so well in the last month, and it seemed like they had something special. Something he hadn’t felt with any other woman. He didn’t want to give up on it, but he had to know she wasn’t out to screw him in some way.

  Lying about being divorced was bad, but who would want to tell someone they’d just started dating that they were still married? Obviously, she wanted a divorce, but that wasn’t the same as being divorced. He’d give her a chance to come clean on that and let her know that he didn’t tolerate lying.

  But the crib. That was the real mystery. Who was Avery? Was Annie pregnant? And, if so, with whose baby? And why was she suddenly avoiding him? That didn’t make any sense if she was about to drop a baby daddy announcement on him. The whole thing was confusing the hell out of him.

  His baby brother’s bachelor party was this weekend. He was leaving for New York on Friday and wanted all this shit dealt with before then.

  Tomorrow. He would find out tomorrow. He hadn’t gotten where he was by pussyfooting around. He’d get the facts and make some decisions. That’s what he did. Feeling better about it, he packed up his stuff and headed out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Wayne had finally had a small streak of luck. After finding out what Annie drove, it only took him a few tries to catch her coming out of the parking garage. He discreetly followed her to a gated neighborhood several miles from the building. He couldn’t get through the gate on the first day, so the second day he’d parked his car nearby and walked to the neighborhood.

  As a pedestrian, he entered easily and was wandering around, pretending to be some schmuck out for a walk when she came through the next day. He watched her take a left and pull into a driveway at the end of a cul-de-sac. Easy peasy. Now he knew where she lived.

  The next bit of luck came the very next day while he was doing his schmuck walking routine around her neighborhood. First off, he noticed that no one did anything about cars that piggybacked through the gate. If he ever wanted to drive to her house, he could easily follow someone else into the neighborhood.

  As if that bit of information weren’t good enough, he about shit his pants when he watched Sam MacDonald pull a sleek BMW into her driveway. Wayne used his cheap-ass phone to snap a few pictures of Sam walking to the doorstep.

  The photos wouldn’t be the highest quality. In fact, from where Wayne was standing, Sam would most likely be indistinguishable, but hopefully, the mere threat of their existence would be enough to get what he wanted.

  When Annie left alone a little while later, he decided to follow her rather than watch the house. That turned out to be a waste of time. All she did was drive to the grocery store, sit in her car, and read for two hours.

  He tried and failed to come up with a reason why she would leave Sam at her house alone. If they were dating, why wouldn’t she want to go back to him? What did he see in her anyway? That Sam would want anything to do with Annie was mind-boggling, but if he could get a payday from their relationship, he might as well take advantage.

  Now that he had the photo, he had a new plan. Sam’s pockets were much deeper than Annie’s. It was highly possible they weren’t dating or sleeping together, but if Sam denied it, Wayne would simply let him know that he had no problem lying to get what he wanted. Wayne’s story, made up or not, along with the picture, would be enough for the tabloids. They seemed to play fast and loose with the facts. Surely, Sam would rather pay Wayne than deal with a story that questioned his integrity.

  Wayne would deal with Annie at some point—they had unfinished business—but his new target was Mr. Big Bucks. It took him the better part of the next week to figure out when and where Sam arrived to work, but he finally got his shot to confront him that Thursday.

  ***

  Sam woke both dreading and anticipating the day. Even if everything fell apart with Annie, at least he’d know the truth and have the answers to all of his questions. He thought of it as a sort of do-or-die day for their relationship. She’d been avoiding him for days, but that ended today. He wondered how she’d been spending her evenings. He wondered about the baby. Or if there was a baby.

  Once he’d calmed down and thought about it, he supposed a baby could be his. And, notwithstanding the fact that he was possibly being set up for a money grab, that had him a little excited. Could he be a dad in eight or nine months? After freaking out a little, he’d come to the realization that he wasn’t opposed to it. In fact, he welcomed the idea.

  Another thought had come to him overnight. A semi-positive, not-so-cynical thought, no less. What if Annie was avoiding him because she was nervous about telling him? Maybe she was scared he’d immediately think she did it on purpose and be angry, but she hadn’t and was just worried about his reaction. Maybe there was no malicious intent on her part at all. That thought was comforting, but still didn’t explain why she’d set up a crib and named the baby already.

  Like most days, Sam had Steve drive him to work and drop him at the front of the building. Sam didn’t like hassling with the parking lot and Steve was on call all day, ready to pick him up for off-site meetings or if he left work early.

  “Thanks, Steve. See you later,” Sam said absentmindedly as he exited the car. He was still thinking about Annie and lost in his own thoughts when a man approached him just before he reached the elevators.

  “Excuse me. Sam? Could I have a minute of your time?”

  “Sorry, I’m headed to a meeting that’s starting soon. You’ll have to make an appointment with my secretary.” Judging by the man’s appearance, he probably didn’t want a meeting so much as some cash.

  Sam was extremely generous with his money but made it a point never to give directly to the homeless. There was no way of knowing where that money went, and he didn’t like the idea of enabling people with destructive habits.

  “My name is Wayne. I’m Annie’s husband. I think we should talk.”

  All the color drained from Sam’s face and a chill ran through him. He stopped and turned toward the man. Wayne was short, though most people were compared to Sam, but decent looking. He wore an ill-fitting, baggy suit and had an edge of desperation about him.

  “Yeah. That’s what I thought.” The sneer in his voice immediately rubbed Sam the wrong way.

  “What do you want?” Sam asked bluntly.

  “First of all, I want you to leave my wife alone.”

  Sam had a feeling he knew what second of all was going to be. And it would have more to do with Wayne’s bank account than with his wife’s honor. Not wanting to be overheard, he walked away from the elevators, and Wayne followed. Most employees came up from the parking garage, so the lobby was empty this early in the day. There was no one around to overhear, but Sam didn’t want to take any chances.

  “Annie isn’t married,” said Sam, fairly sure he was bluffing but hoping for a miracle.

  “Is that what she told you? That she was divorced?” Wayne gave Sam a smug smile. “There was a time she wanted me to sign some papers, but I never did. Now that I’m out of prison, we’ll be get
ting back together and probably moving back to California.”

  “Is that what she told you? That she wants you back? Does she even know you’re here?” He threw the same questions back in Wayne’s face. That seemed to fluster him a little, but he rebounded quickly.

  “Yeah, I mean, she sent me to talk to you. To tell you she didn’t want to see you anymore. So, you know, time to lay off. Find someone else’s wife to bang.”

  His crudeness had Sam clenching a fist. “She sent you here to tell me that?” Sam asked. “I don’t believe you.”

  “You can ask her yourself. We had some issues, but we’ve resolved ‘em. We don’t need you in our lives, so bug off, eh?” He chuckled. “Well, we do need one thing from you.”

  Here it comes, thought Sam. “How much?”

  “Unless you want the photos I took of you entering Annie’s place on Saturday to get to the media, along with the story that your girlfriend is married—and to an ex-con no less—I’ll take a cool million. By noon today.” He leaned back and crossed his arms as if he’d just given a devastating closing argument to rest his court case.

  “You don’t know much about me, do you?” asked Sam, standing to his full height, which was almost a foot taller than Wayne.

  “I know you’ve been fucking my wife. And now it’s time you paid for it.”

  It took all of Sam’s self-control not to punch the self-righteous smirk off his face.

  Sam took a step closer and slowly leaned down until he was an inch from Wayne’s face. Wayne blinked nervously but didn’t back away.

  “If you knew anything about me, you’d know I don’t do blackmail.” He pulled out his phone, punched in a number, and glared at Wayne as he spoke.

  “Security? Hi, it’s Sam MacDonald. There is a small, pathetic man here in the lobby who needs an escort out. He has brown hair and a horrible suit.” He hung up without looking. “Get out of my building and do not come back.” He spun on his heel and headed back toward the elevators.