by J. Woods
Brie smoothed down the skirt of her dress as she waited for the boardroom to fill with the most important men in her company. She wanted to groan in pain at her already suffering feet. They were starting to swell the further along in her pregnancy she became and she could barely squeeze them into her damn heels this morning. She was almost dreaming about the flats she remembered to throw into her bag this morning. This was one of the biggest meetings of her career, the one that would show the board and her client that they hadn’t made the wrong decision. She knew the board was wary of allowing her to take on the multimillion dollar deal, the largest her firm had ever taken on, but the client asked specifically for her and no one was about to turn them down. And for the next hour and a half Brie stood in front of one of the most intimidating groups of executives she had ever presented to. And she kicked ass with the confidence she was known for within the industry. The smile and confirming nod from the client, once the lights were turned on and she gave her closing statement, sent butterflies of excitement through her, a rush she never got tired of.
Stacking her papers after everyone had left, she sat down in one of the empty chairs and kicked off her shoes. Placing her hands on her belly she blew out a rough breath as she looked up to the ceiling. She heard someone clear their throat, her head immediately snapping up as her toes reached for her heels.
“Just relax. It’s okay, you deserve it.” Brie smiled at her boss as he took the chair across from her. “You did great today, Brie. I just wanted to congratulate you on the presentation - fantastic work.”
“Thanks, John.” John Abbott was one of her father’s oldest friends. She was determined when he hired her as an intern while she was still in college that his relationship with her father wasn’t a deciding factor in her job. He assured her it wasn’t and he had stuck to his word. John had never worked Brie harder in the years she had put in at his firm. She demanded to be treated as any other employee and she felt the need to overcompensate with everyone’s knowledge of their familial relationship. She didn’t want anyone thinking she was getting a free pass and so she worked long hours and could proudly say, harder than anyone else in the company. She had made a name for herself in the little bubble that encompassed the marketing world - she was fierce and confident but she was also a visionary and actually listened to what the client wanted. It was a reputation she loved having behind her and as her roster of clients grew, she had to admit, so did her ego. She had ruffled some feathers in her fast track to the top but it was something she had been bred to accept. Her father had thrust her into the corporate world when she was young and as she sat there on the couch in his office, she would listen to him tell her stories about his career, the good, the bad and the enemies made along the way. But he had engrained in her a sense of confidence that could overcome any negativity she received and it was a legacy John continued after her father’s passing.
“I wanted to speak with you about your maternity leave,” he started.
“I want to come back right away, John. I haven’t figured it all out yet but I’m not going to leave you hanging.” He held up his hand to cut her off, a patient smile on his face.
“I don’t want you to figure it out all right now. I want you to enjoy that baby and take the time off you deserve as a new mother.” His soft, fatherly tones made her heart ache with the memory of her own and the gratitude that she had a surrogate in John. He had come from the same status in society her parents did, he knew her mother well and disagreed quietly with a lot of her parental decisions, something Brie was thankful for. “I did however, want to present you with the idea of part time consulting while you are away. If I know you as well as I think I do, I know you are going to be crawling out of your skin to get back to work. This is a happy medium, I think.”
“John, thank you,” she said, staring at him in wonder. He stood up, a smile of victory on his face before he leaned down and pressed his lips to her hair, a gesture she was familiar with.
“Your dad would be proud of you, kid. I’m proud of you.” She nodded and watched him walk out the door as she held back the tears that wanted to spill onto her cheeks.
Brie lifted her head at the commotion coming from the other side of her slightly open door. In the next moment Max stormed into her office, his ice blue eyes lit with a fire of burning rage with her assistant Adam hot on his heels.
“Brie, I’m sorry I couldn’t...” Adam trailed off just as Max cut him off with a growl.
“Tell me it’s not true,” he demanded through clenched teeth.
“Max?” She stood up slowly, it had only been a couple days since she’d seen him but her stomach flipped like she was sixteen years old and her first crush smiled at her. She hated how they had left things, rather the way she had kicked him out of her apartment and left herself feeling like she was floating through a storm, alone. She hadn’t slept very well since he had left and seeing him now, it looked like he hadn’t fared much better himself. “It’s okay Adam, thank you. Shut the door on your way out please.” Her eyes were glued to Max’s but she still caught the wary frown her assistant threw her way. Something was wrong, she had never seen Max other than carefree and laughing, besides the other night, but now he stood in front of her, every muscle in his body tense with an emotion she couldn’t name. Her eyes went to the visible bruise he had on his jaw. Instinctively she moved toward him, her palm reaching out to caress his stubbled cheek.
“What happened to your face? Are you alright?” Something flitted through his eyes before he masked it completely and moved away from her touch. She swallowed against the hurt that rose in her chest and she now had a name for his reaction - anger. She knew it well.
“Tell me it isn’t true.” He said each word slowly and carefully allowing her to hear every ounce of anger in his voice.
“Tell you what isn’t true?” she asked in return.
“Tell me you haven’t been keeping me in the dark, Brie.”
“What?” She frowned as she shook her head not knowing what he was talking about.
“Who’s baby are you carrying Brie?” Her heart stopped. Completely. She felt the blood drain from her face as she stared back at him.
“How...” she heard her whisper trail off, not knowing what to say.
“Is that my baby, Brie?” She could see his fists balled at his sides, his jaw tight and his eyes frigid and without emotion. She felt like someone had punched her in the gut, stealing every breath she had in her. Swallowing past the knot that was intensely building in her throat, she could only nod.
“Damn it!” he roared. She flinched at the volume of his voice. “Were you ever going to tell me? I’ve missed out on seven fucking months, Brie!” She didn’t know what she was expecting if Max ever found out he was the father of her child, but it wasn’t his heart wrenching anger she was seeing now. Max had a carefree lifestyle going from woman to woman, bed to bed, night to night - what was he going to do with a baby? Her emotions were so vulnerable, so ragged she couldn’t tell her guilt from her own anger. Hell, he had answered a phone call from another woman in front of her just two days ago!
“You have no right to come in here and,” she closed her mouth without finishing the rest of her sentence. Max was glaring at her as if he had never seen her before, as if she was the bad guy. And damn if she stood tall against the urge to shrink and flinch away from him. She wasn’t scared, but it was a side of him that she had never seen before. A side, she was afraid, that he only showed when staring into the eyes of an enemy.
“I don’t have a right? I don’t have a right, Brie? You don’t have the right to take this away from me! You don’t get to make that decision.”
“Yes, I do. When it comes to my baby.”
“Our baby,” he corrected her.
“Max, what are you going to do with a baby - really? I can take care of this baby by myself!”
“Whatever it is your thinking, you don’t get to make that choice for me,” he growled.
“G
od damn it, Max! You answered another woman’s phone call right after we had sex!”
“What?” his anger was temporarily clouded by confusion.
“The other night. You answered the phone, ‘Hey gorgeous’ remember?”
“You mean the phone call from my sister in law?”
“Your...?”
“Sister in law. Yeah, Zoe. She was calling about my brother’s birthday.” The wave of guilt that swamped her was breathtaking.
Had she made that big of a mistake?
She watched as he scrubbed his hands over his face and through his hair. “Clearly you don’t think that highly of me Brie, when really, you know nothing about me other than between a set of bed sheets. Fuck! I’m not doing this.” He turned to leave and she felt a sense of panic seep through her. She needed to do something. Try and explain to him. But what the hell was she supposed to explain? Her pride weighed against her need to apologize and when he turned with his hand on the doorknob, his icy eyes looked over her with cold indifference and she almost felt dirty. “You’ll let me know when your next god damn doctor’s appointment is or so help me I will call my aunt herself and find out.” He didn’t give her a chance to respond before he stormed out, slamming her office door behind him. She flinched; surprised the glass on either side didn’t shatter.
Shit. What the hell just happened?
Her pride won and she didn’t go after him. Instead she swiped at her eyes as Adam tentatively knocked on her office door. “I brought you a tea,” he told her quietly, placing the mug on her desk.
“Thank you,” she mumbled, forcing her attention to her computer and the work that still needed her attention today. Adam left just as silently as he came in, closing the door behind him. She heard the hitch in her breath and knew she had to get out of there, work be damned. Feigning not feeling so well, she shut down her computer and walked out into the bright winter day, ignoring her assistant’s too knowing look. Placing a hand on her belly, she smiled at the small kick she felt against her palm. She needed to figure this out.
Chapter Ten
Max was still fuming. A part of him really wanted her to tell him she wasn’t having his baby, to confirm that she hadn’t been that cold, that distant enough to keep such a secret from him. And for so god damn long. He had missed out on so much. The first ultrasound, the first kick, everything. And Brie had selfishly taken that away from him because of some fantasy, reckless man she had conjured him up to be. The other part of him was jumping for joy and screaming in fear - he was going to have a baby. Just the thought alone was able to stop him in his tracks. But damn if he wasn’t still shaking with anger. His hands trembled and he knew there were two things that could tame his emotions right now. Sex or the gun range. Well, sex was out because the only woman his dick responded to now, the rest of him was furious with. He climbed into his truck and headed for the Barn. Gun range it was.
His brother met him outside as he pulled his truck down the snow covered gravel road. He could tell by Luke’s stance that something was up. Great, just what he needed.
“I was just about to call you,” his brother told him as he stepped out of his truck.
“What’s up?” He tried to force some sense of normalcy into his voice but knew he was sorely lacking in the acting department. Luke raised an eyebrow at his tone and Max just ran a hand over his face. “Don’t ask.” He sighed, briefly contemplating confiding in him but he wasn’t ready for that yet. Hell, he could barely wrap his own head around it.
“Come on, everyone is waiting inside.”
“What’s going on?” Something was up, he could feel it just from a few simple words. He followed his brother inside and found Logan, Aiden and Nate all standing around the table looking at a map, Cameron sitting in front of her computer, her fingers furiously flying across the keyboard. Max moved to stand beside Logan who was circling an area against the black and white images laid out on the hard table top.
“Cam, can you put these coordinates on the screen?” He listed off the coordinates as she instantly had the image up on the screen for them all to see.
“What the hell is going on?” Max growled.
“Break in the West case. I may need to take you off of inactive duty after all,” Logan grinned, expecting one in return. But Max felt like his brother had dropped a ball of lead to the bottom of his gut.
“How long?” How was he supposed to leave now? Brie had just told him they were having a baby, he was supposed to go to the next doctor’s appointment and if he missed that, well, he would just be confirming the image of the unreliable, untrusting playboy she had conjured up in her head. He watched Logan frown at him in confusion. He understood his brother’s response, he’d been bitching about being forced to take a break and now when the opportunity came up he was questioning it.
“Three or four days, tops.”
“I’m in.” Three or four days he could handle, three or four days was exactly what he needed. It would give him time to figure it out, whatever it was.
“Me too.” He looked across the table to Nate who had his eyes glued to the projection which Cameron had changed to a photo of the woman they were supposed to be using as a pawn in this mission - Libby West, the daughter of who authorities believed to be one of the biggest underground drug lords. He was good, owned a pharmaceutical company and lived in the Caribbean. He had more money than God and for years had flown just out of reach. But authorities knew he was running on borrowed time. There were murmurs through the pipelines that he was creating a new synthetic drug, something every mainstream and street corner dealer wanted their hands on. He was stepping into the spotlight and it was the wrong move.
“Libby West just bought a bus ticket to Montreal tomorrow morning. We need to know what she is doing and if she is going to be having any connection with her father. We know he has allies in Montreal and Ms. West has yet to make hospitality arrangements or a return ticket home. We need to track her movements and who she contacts while she is there. Your plane leaves in two hours.” Logan turned to face Max, his eyes serious. “How are you feeling?”
“Great,” Max nodded but kept his face serious. No part of him could even muster a fake smile now but he held his brother’s eye contact, refusing to stand down.
“How is your side?”
“Perfect.” He turned to face Nate before walking out. “I’ll meet you back here in an hour.”
“You look like shit,” Nate told him as he looked out the small circular window on the plane. He turned and faced his brother who sat across from him, the contents of the information file spread out on the table that sat between them.
“I could tell you the same thing,” he said, grinning. It was the first time that day that Max actually felt the urge to smile. The last time they had a conversation mirroring this one they found themselves fighting a handful of Locos in the rain.
“What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing,” he shrugged, turning to look out into the black sky.
“You know I never really understood how you manage to get so many women because you are such a terrible liar. Do you just keep your mouth shut and nod, or... how does that work?” Max couldn’t contain his laughter and damn, if it didn’t feel good to laugh.
“Something like that,” he answered, grinning at his brother’s smirk.
“Does this have anything to do with Brie?” Nate asked. Max nodded his head, sobering at the thought. He rubbed his hand over his mouth, not ready to talk about it but knowing he had to. His mind was going in circles and he felt himself standing at the edge of crazy.
“She’s pregnant,” he stated.
“Well, I thought that was pretty obvious,” his brother commented with sarcasm, raising an eyebrow that Max chose to ignore.
“The baby is mine.” The four words hung between them like a grenade, neither of them wanting to touch it. After some of the longest moments of his life, Nate shifted in his seat.
“Are you sure about that?” He felt
himself tense with a new kind of anger at his brother’s question. Nate held up his hands in surrender. “It’s a fair question, Max. You were with this girl what, one time?”
“The dates add up.”
“Do the dates add up with some other guy too?”
“Enough,” he snapped.
“Max, just be careful. I know how much you love kids and I’m obviously here for you no matter what. All I’m saying is just be sure. I know you like this girl, that is obvious regardless of the foul moods she has put you in lately... I just, I don’t want you to get attached to an idea and then it turn out not to be true.” Max nodded as he clenched his jaw until it hurt. He heard what his brother was saying, he even understood it. The thought had briefly crossed his mind but it wasn’t something he wanted to entertain. And he didn’t think, hell the little he knew of Brie, he knew she wasn’t that type of woman. If she wasn’t sure, she just wouldn’t tell him and would have kept her little secret.
The rest of the plane ride was fairly silent, a few murmurs between them as Nate continued to study the file Max knew his brother could recite from memory. He wondered what this affixation Nate had developed with this case was, and more specifically Ms. Libby West. They checked into the hotel and their specific room that looked directly out onto the bus station. And now the waiting game began.
“If I get shot again I’m going to be real pissed,” Max growled from the bed, the echo of the bullet grazing his arm from his last mission as Nate looked out on the city with a pair of binoculars.
“If you’re ass gets shot again I’m petitioning you for permanent desk duty.”
Max couldn’t help but fall back onto what his father had told him the day before. He had stormed out of Brie’s office and directly into his father’s mechanic shop. It was a shop that he had ever since they were kids and he had retired from the military. On the outskirts of town, his dad had made a name for himself and was known to pull in his sons when he needed the extra help. When they teased him about hiring more mechanics his usual response was that was what he had a brood of sons for. His dad knew how hard they worked, hell, it was because of him that they had all enrolled in the service, but he also knew the necessity of downtime. Of coming back to a reality where there weren’t guns and explosions and having to constantly look over your shoulder for the next time shit hit the fan. He wondered at times if that was the reason his father kept the garage. He didn’t need it, he and his mother had been quite successful over the years and could retire comfortably without a care in the world, but he had kept it around and continued to work day in and day out, maintaining the refuge that they all ran to. Max had walked in, in a rage, and picked up the nearest wrench and got to work under the nearest car, taking his frustrations out on the engine. He could feel his dad’s eyes on him from the office and he appreciated the space he was given. After an hour his hands were black with grease and he felt his tension easing, his mind on nothing but the task in front of him.
