Billionaire Baby Dilemma

by Barbara Dunlop

  Lexi glanced to where the two were playing on the lawn. “You don’t think he’ll still go after Amelia.”

  “Oh, I know he’ll still go after Amelia. He thinks it’s the right thing to do.” And in a strange way, Devin had to admire that. “He thinks he’s the only one who can protect her in the long term. He says Steve isn’t the only threat. If I’m guardian, the jackals will constantly be circling.”

  “Even if he did win guardianship, do you really think he would take her away from you?”

  “Are you arguing Lucas’s side?”

  “I’m just saying.” Lexi swirled the ice cubes in her drink. “He’s not as bad as I expected. And I think he likes you. And you might just be able to trust him.”

  Devin glared at Lexi for a long moment. Then she moved her attention to Lucas, who caught her gaze and gave her a wave, his familiar expression open and direct. Then he said something to Amelia and motioned for her to wave. She did. And Devin’s heart squeezed tight.

  Did she dare put her trust in Lucas?

  “That kind of betrayal ought to be criminal.” Byron smacked down the copy of the Seattle newspaper that had arrived at the ranch by courier.

  “No argument from me,” said Lucas from his armchair in front of Byron’s stone fireplace, tumbler of single malt in his hand.

  Steve had given an interview and laid out a series of false accusations about Konrad, naming Lucas as an accomplice and painting Monica as a naive victim and Amelia as a usurper. There was a picture with the article of Steve and his lovely new fiancée. They were at a charity event, handing over a big check.

  Lucas was going to have to head back to Seattle soon, if only to salvage his reputation.

  “You have to move fast on this,” said Byron.

  Lucas agreed. “Devin is writing me a letter for the judge.”

  “That’s a coup.”

  “Tell me about it.” Lucas took a sip of the Scotch.

  “What did she say?”

  Lucas shrugged. “She was working on it today. I’m not expecting miracles.”

  “Not even after last night?”

  Lucas gave Byron a “back off” glare. He wasn’t discussing his personal relationship with Devin. Though, last night had been nothing short of spectacular.

  But it wasn’t the lovemaking.

  When he thought back, what he remembered was her sense of humor, the emotion in her eyes when she talked about Monica and her mother, the joy she obviously got from raising Amelia. And he remembered feeling jealous. It was the strangest sensation. He wanted to be part of Devin’s inner circle, and simply making love to her wasn’t enough to get him there.

  “You know how I felt about your mother.” Byron’s voice had gone contemplative, and Lucas looked up.

  “I know,” Lucas acknowledged.

  “We had our ups and downs. An uncouth cowboy from Texas daring to court one of the richest women in the Pacific Northwest. A woman ten years older than him.”

  “You’re not uncouth.”

  “I’m not urbane.”

  That was true enough.

  “My point is,” Byron continued, “we both knew it was worth it. All the heartache and pain, the snide remarks, the criticism…though, trust me—” he gestured with his tumbler “—I’d have protected her from it if I could.”

  “I know you would have.”

  “But it doesn’t come along very often.”

  What was Byron saying? Did he think Lucas should grab hold of Devin? Maybe never let her go?

  Lucas turned the idea over in his mind.

  “A love like that,” Byron mused, gazing at the amber liquid while he turned his glass against the lamplight. “You don’t want to let it go.”

  Love?

  Lucas stilled.

  Did Byron think Lucas had fallen in love with Devin?

  Was Lucas in love with Devin?

  How would he know? How could he tell?

  “I don’t know for sure with Lexi,” said Byron.

  Lucas gave his head a little shake at the unexpected turn of the conversation.

  “But I know the signs.” Byron downed the remainder of his drink. “And I’m following her back to Seattle. And I’m pursuing her until she tells me to stop.”

  “Lexi?” asked Lucas. “But, you’ve only just—”

  “Met her?” Byron asked. “Like I said, Lucas. I’ve been through this before. It’s rare as hens’ teeth. So is Lexi. I can’t believe somebody hasn’t snapped her up already.”

  “You’re serious.”

  “You bet your boots I’m serious. I’m a serious man. Now. Back to Steve. He’s really starting to worry me.”

  “He’s worrying me, too,” Lucas admitted. He’d gone over worst-case scenarios in his mind, and any one of them could conceivably come true.

  A judge might disinherit Amelia. Steve might get married and have a baby. The balance of power could potentially shift to him. And then Lucas would have to do something drastic, like sell his shares in Pacific Robotics and start over again.

  When he thought about starting over again, he pictured Devin and Amelia as a permanent part of in his life. He stretched the image out in his mind. Amelia at five, ten, in high school and driving a car. She was going to be drop-dead beautiful. He knew that already.

  Would Devin consider letting him stick around? Would she consider pursuing their relationship, maybe making it permanent? Did she feel anywhere close to how he was feeling?

  He polished off his drink.

  “I’ve had the boys sniff around a little bit more,” Byron added. “They’ve got the name of the judge, and they threw together a little history of her decisions. It ain’t good, Lucas. It ain’t good a’t all.”

  “Devin’s writing the letter,” said Lucas.

  “Better be one hell of a letter.”

  Lucas doubted that. “And I have a backup plan,” he declared. He’d just come up with it. Right this very second. But, as Byron had said, when it was right, it was right.

  “Do tell,” Byron prompted.

  “Devin. Me. Babies.”

  Byron slapped his knee and cackled. “You think you’ll convince that pretty little gal to have your babies?”

  Lucas struggled not to be insulted. Sure, maybe he didn’t deserve Devin, but he wasn’t the worst catch in the world. “I’m not saying I won’t have to work at it.”

  “And just how fast d’you think you can accomplish that feat?” Byron tapped his blunt finger against the newspaper. “Steve’s out there in public posing with his fiancée.”

  Lucas leaned forward, making certain he was clear and concise. “If I have to, I can work very fast. Hell, Konrad did.”

  And if Lucas didn’t have to work fast, he’d work slow. He’d be patient, romantic and thorough in order to win Devin’s love.

  Ironically, Lucas felt better than he had in weeks, months, maybe years. Let Steve try his best. Lucas would fight back with everything he had. And, one way or another, he’d win. Because the goalposts had just shifted for him. He’d give up Pacific Robotics entirely for Devin and Amelia.

  “But it’s only the backup plan,” he told Byron. “We’ll see what she writes in the letter.”

  At the bottom of the ranch-house staircase, as Lucas’s damning words washed over her, Devin held the signed letter between her hands and methodically tore it in half. Then she tore it again and again. She struggled for breath, shock and anger pulsing through her while she turned away. The staircase was long, her steps leaden as she headed back up to Amelia’s room.

  She might be under a court order to stay with Lucas, but surely any judge in the world would understand why she had to leave him.

  She paused outside Amelia’s room, gripping the doorjamb to hold herself steady, trying to put her thoughts into some kind or order. Lucas was using her. Getting her pregnant was his backup plan? He’d seduced her, made love with her, made her care about him, just in case Amelia was disinherited and he needed another baby?

&nb
sp; How could she have been so colossally stupid? She should have seen it coming from miles away. What were the odds that he’d fallen for her? Exactly zero. He needed Amelia. And, if that didn’t work, well any old baby would do. Any old woman would do, too.

  He must have worked awfully hard to hold down his gag reflex with Amelia’s smelly diapers and general stickiness. Devin cringed. He’d probably had to hold down his gag reflex with her, too. Lexi was right that the rich were nasty. And Lucas Demarco was an amoral monster.

  She should call him on it. Right here, right now. She should force him to own up to exactly what he’d been up to these past weeks. Her feet nearly started moving, before she realized the danger. He’d never admit it. He’d lie his way out of it, just like he always did, and she would have blown her only chance to get away. She couldn’t fight with Lucas. She had to escape from Lucas.

  She had to pack up Amelia, get away from him and hide until a date could be set for the guardianship hearing.

  Then she’d throw herself on the mercy of the judge.

  She would tell the truth, the whole truth. She’d demonstrate exactly how Lucas and Konrad had behaved.

  “Devin?”

  Devin jumped at the sound of Lexi’s voice and the gentle hand on her shoulder.

  “You okay?” asked Lexi.

  Devin shook her head, hot tears forming at the backs of her eyes.

  Lexi turned her around. “Honey? What’s wrong. You’re white as a ghost.”

  “It’s…” Devin was going to cry.

  She couldn’t let herself cry over that horrible man. She swallowed. “Lucas just told Byron I was his backup plan.”

  Lexi looked confused. “Backup for what?”

  Devin opened the door and pulled Lexi into the bedroom, dropping her voice to a whisper. “I’m leaving. Right away. Right now. You have to help me get away.”

  Lexi looked stunned. “What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

  “It was a plot. Just like Konrad. From the very beginning, it’s all been about the money.” Devin clenched her fists and tipped her head back. “How, oh, how did I fall for it?”

  “Honey, what happened?”

  Devin let out a slightly hysterical laugh, and then quickly covered her mouth with her fingers. “Lucas just told Byron that if Amelia was disinherited, me having his baby was his backup plan. He said he might have to work at it, but he could work fast.”

  Lexi staggered back. “He said this to Byron?”

  Devin nodded. “Byron asked how fast he thought he could do it.”

  Now Lexi had blanched. “So, Byron’s in on it?”

  “They are a conspiratorial lot, those Demarcos.”

  Lexi’s jaw clamped down, and she grasped Devin’s arm. “Are you positive?”

  “I am positive.”

  “Then we have to get you out of here.”

  “I know.”

  “You get Amelia,” Lexi instructed. “There are pickup trucks in the yard with the keys inside.”

  “We’re stealing a truck?”

  “We’ll leave a message. They can come and pick it up from the airport. Go.”

  “Right,” Devin agreed. But then she stumbled.

  What would they do? Where would they go? And if Devin hid Amelia against the judge’s order, was she kidnapping her?

  Could Lucas use it against her?

  She realized he could. And she realized he would. And she couldn’t risk compromising her case.

  An overwhelming sense of helplessness engulfed her. “The judge said I had stay at the Demarco mansion.”

  Lexi’s hands went to her hips. “Well, that’s not going to work.”

  “I can’t kidnap her. It would completely compromise my case.”

  They both blinked at each other. There was no solution. There was absolutely no solution.

  “What if we could get them to hold the hearing right away?” Lexi asked.

  “I don’t think it’s like a hair appointment.” Devin doubted they could call up and see if there’d been a cancellation.

  Lexi clicked her tongue for a few moments. Then she snapped her fingers.

  “What?” Devin didn’t dare hope.

  “There’s one other person on this planet who wants the hearing to happen fast.”

  Devin didn’t follow.

  “And I'll just bet he’s got the contacts and the clout to do it,” Lexi explained.

  As the truth set in, Devin felt her stomach congeal to wet cement. “Steve.”

  Lexi gave a slow, deliberate nod. And Devin knew it was their only choice.

  The next night, in the mansion’s great room, Lucas could barely contain his frustration with Devin as he faced three members of the Pacific Robotics Board of Directors. All three were loyal to him, and all three were obviously both angry and worried.

  “I thought you said you had it under control,” Craig Grenville opened, a hard edge to his voice. His snifter of brandy sat untouched on the table beside him.

  “I did have it under control.” Lucas had been blindsided by Devin’s disappearance.

  “But, she’s gone,” Peter Huntley stated in a flat tone. He’d drained his brandy glass and was glancing around for more.

  “I can’t even begin to guess why she took off.” At first, Lucas had thought they’d been kidnapped.

  But when it seemed certain she’d left of her own free will, he started searching for reasons. “There was no evidence that Steve made contact with her,” he confirmed for the Board members. “And none of the reporters found us in Texas.”

  “We need a plan B,” Ivan Rusk spoke up. He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, crossing and uncrossing his lanky legs as he spoke. “If Steve gets control, you know we’re all fired the next day.”

  Lucas scoffed, “What plan B, where plan B?” His lawyers had already contacted him with an early court date for the guardianship trial. It had been reset for next week at Devin’s lawyer’s insistence. So it was obviously going to happen before Steve’s petition to appeal the will.

  Lucas couldn’t begin to guess what Devin would say on the stand. Or maybe he could. The fact that she’d snuck away from Byron’s ranch in the middle of the night told him a lot. Nothing she said in the guardianship hearing would help either Lucas or Amelia’s case when it came time to hear the appeal of the will.

  What the hell was she thinking?

  Byron set the bottle of brandy down on the bar and pivoted to face the men. “Well, I’ve got myself a plan B.”

  They waited while he took a step closer to the grouping of couches and overstuffed armchairs.

  He drew a deep breath. “We get Bob, my ranch vet, to geld Steve.”

  There was a moment of stunned silence, before Peter burst out laughing.

  Both Ivan and Craig stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.

  “And then,” Peter sputtered. “Lucas can take his sweet time having as many children as he wants. I like it.”

  Craig frowned in disgust. “If amateur hour is over at The Improv, can we get back to the problem at hand?”

  Lucas hid his smile behind a swallow of brandy. He knew Byron’s suggestion was ridiculous, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t like it. Lucas realized he’d want to have those children with Devin, which was obviously impossible. He had to forcibly tamp down a wave of despair.

  “What’s she going to say in court?” Ivan asked him point blank.

  Lucas admitted to himself that Devin was a wild card, never more so than now. “She knows the stakes for Amelia,” he answered evasively.

  “Could she have found something out?” asked Ivan.

  “Yeah,” Craig added. “Like the truth about her sister’s marriage?”

  “There’s no truth for her to find out,” Lucas all but shouted. “Konrad loved Monica.”

  “You’re protesting a little too much,” said Craig.

  Lucas pinned him with an angry glare. “I’m protesting exactly the correct amount. Konrad’s not
here to defend himself—”

  “Understand our positions,” said Ivan. Sweat had popped out on his forehead. “Steve knows we’ve been loyal to you.”

  Byron moved ever so subtly to position himself behind Lucas. “I’d hoped y’all were loyal to honor and integrity. And that was something you had in common with Lucas.”

  Peter lifted his glass in a toast to Lucas. “If Steve takes over, I’m walkin’.”

  Lucas gave Peter a nod of appreciation, admiring the man’s reliability.

  Craig sat forward. “It’s not that simple.”

  “It’s exactly that simple,” said Peter, all traces of humor gone. “Either you’re with us or against us.”

  “Code of the West,” said Byron.

  “This isn’t some classic movie. Good guys against the bad guys,” said Craig. “It’s complicated. And we have to think strategically. There might still be time to come to a deal with Steve.”

  “Nobody’s making any deal,” Lucas stated with conviction.

  “Speak for yourself.” Craig came to his feet. And after a moment’s hesitation, Ivan came to his also.

  Lucas slowly rose to face them. “You two have obviously made your choice.”

  “The writing’s on the wall,” said Craig. “Steve’s star witness is going to support him.”

  Ivan tugged at his collar.

  “Then good luck to you, boys,” Byron offered in a falsely hearty tone. “I hope Steve welcomes you both with open arms.”

  There was a minute of uncomfortable silence before the two men left.

  As the door banged shut, Peter leaned back and stretched his legs out on the rug in front of him. “Well, good to have the rats off the ship, I guess.”

  Lucas grunted. “The ship’s still sinking.”

  Peter swirled the golden brandy in the bottom of his glass and gave a shrug. “I can swim.”

  Byron ambled over to an armchair and eased down into the thick cushions. “At least those two won’t be in the water to steal our life preservers.”

  Lucas couldn’t help but chuckle. “I don’t think we have life preservers. I think Devin is going to hold our heads under until we stop struggling.”