Expecting His Secret Heir

by Dani Wade

  The other woman’s smile seemed bittersweet. “I’m managing. Just trying to focus on what’s right in front of us, you know?”

  Sadie didn’t, but she could imagine, so she nodded.

  Before she could respond further, Aiden rose from his chair to look over the table. Everyone’s attention turned to him. He appeared comfortable in his role as head of the family. His normally tough gaze as he took in those around him seemed to soften and glow. “Thank you for being here tonight. We wanted our family and closest friends here to celebrate the joy that is coming to our family—our newest baby, who will be joining us soon, along with the return of our brother Luke and his engagement to one of Black Hills’s own treasures, Avery Prescott.”

  Quiet applause and smiles erupted. Sadie glanced down the length of the table, noting the people she recognized. Luke Blackstone and his fiancée were new to her, along with an older couple someone had mentioned were a doctor and his wife, friends of both the Blackstones and Prescotts, and mentors of Avery Prescott. Zach and Bateman and his family were there from the mill. She was impressed to see both Nolen and Marie present, along with a younger woman Marie had introduced to Sadie as her niece, Nicole. There was a mix of ages, stations in life and connections, but Sadie had found that the Blackstones embraced others based on their presence in their lives, not what they were capable of doing for them.

  The viewpoint was refreshing for Sadie. She only hoped she could find future employers who were as real as the people she’d come to know here.

  As they were served their meals, Sadie felt Zach’s hand circle around her own. She turned to find him watching her with the fire and need she so desperately wanted to see in his eyes.

  “You look beautiful tonight, Sadie,” he said. “I love you in this dress.”

  Her throat closed for a moment. Hearing those first three words on his lips meant the world to her, even if he didn’t mean them the way she wished. “I love you in that suit,” she finally whispered. “Very dashing.”

  “Dashing, huh? Debonair, too?”

  Oh, that grin was dangerous. “Most definitely.”

  “Well, I promise to be a gentleman.” He leaned forward to brush a kiss high on her cheekbone, right in front of her ear. Then he whispered, “For now.”

  The shiver that worked its way down her spine caused her to squeeze the hand still holding hers. How much longer could she hold him to her?

  They were interrupted by the arrival of their food. Sadie leaned back as her soup was placed before her, followed by a plate of oysters for their end of the table to share. As she glanced over the half shells coated in some kind of breading and cheese mixture, her stomach turned over again.

  She sucked in a breath through pursed lips, then slowly released it. Nope, not helping. “Excuse me a moment,” she murmured to Zach.

  Luckily she’d seen where the restroom was on their way inside. Her stomach had calmed again before she reached the door, but she went inside anyway. Running cool water over her wrists helped also. Lord, she needed to get her nerves under control. Life was never easy, but why ruin her last night with Zach by anticipating the earthquake that she knew was coming?

  Did she even believe what she was telling herself right now?

  The door opened behind her. Christina and KC stepped inside. Both women flocked to her with concern in their expressions.

  “Are you okay?” Christina asked, patting her back gently.

  She nodded as KC asked the same. “Yes, I’ve just been feeling a little off somehow.”

  “Zach was worried when you left so quickly. I told him we would check, though you were probably fine.”

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare anyone.”

  “Well, I only have to make about fifty trips a night to the bathroom right now,” Christina said with a laugh as she headed for a stall. “So I’d be here soon enough anyway. If it had been any earlier in my pregnancy, those oysters would have turned me green. I wouldn’t have even made it back here.” She flashed a grossed-out face over her shoulder before shutting the door.

  “Oh, me, too,” KC said from beside Sadie as she patted over her hair. “Of course, any kind of seafood got to me. It wasn’t so much the look of it as the smell. Yuck.” She grinned. “I was so glad when that stage went away, because I love me some shrimp.”

  Sadie felt her stomach twist again as her mind conjured up the image of shrimp scampi, usually one of her favorites. She breathed carefully, glancing at the mirror to make sure her queasiness didn’t show on her face. No need to cause more concern.

  KC opened her little clutch purse and proceeded to touch up her already perfect makeup. Christina returned and washed her hands. “It’s not completely gone for me,” she was saying. “The nausea isn’t nearly as bad as it was in the first trimester, of course, but some things will still set it off sometimes. And the exhaustion. Oh, boy.”

  “I know what you mean,” KC agreed. “You have more than just the pregnancy to make you tired, but I sure remember trying to wait tables with swollen feet and that bone-tired feeling weighing me down. That was rough.”

  As the women talked around her, Sadie stared into the mirror. She could actually see the blood drain from her already pale skin. Her light dusting of freckles stood out in stark contrast, as did the glossy pink of her lips. Nausea. She’d put it down to nerves. Exhaustion. She’d simply pushed it aside as too many late nights with Zach.

  Her gaze dropped to her chest, as she suddenly remembered the recent tenderness of her breasts. She’d chalked it up to hormones, but this would be about the third week they’d been unusually sensitive.

  That wasn’t normal.

  “Are you coming, Sadie?”

  She glanced up, realizing the others were readying to leave. “Oh, I’ll just, you know.” She nodded toward the stalls. “Then I’ll be right out.”

  They smiled, sure they’d done their duty, then headed back out to their dinner. Sadie couldn’t have felt less like eating.

  As the sound of their chatter faded, she closed herself in a stall, leaning heavily against the inside of the door. Her mind raced, frantically counting out the days she’d been in Black Hills, the number of days since she’d first seen Zach again. Finally, the number of days since they’d made love that first time.

  Please. Could she please just stop thinking? Stop remembering? But it was no use. She didn’t have experience with pregnancy herself and had never been around anyone who was having a baby. Her time with Christina was as close as she’d gotten.

  Which wasn’t much. But based on how off she’d felt the last few weeks—something she’d chalked up to guilt, nerves and grief—Sadie was afraid she’d added one very large complication to her already tangled situation.

  Heaven help her.

  * * *

  Zach lengthened his stride, hoping to make it through the foyer before Gladys heard the door close behind him. He didn’t have long before he had to be at the office. KC was helping him get their newest team member settled in town. They were signing the paperwork on his new apartment before she brought him by the office for the first time.

  Zach needed to be there.

  But he was worried about Sadie. She’d gone home early from the dinner the night before, afraid she’d come down with a stomach bug. She’d even insisted on taking a cab home, expressing concern about interrupting the event and also about infecting him.

  He’d let her go, only after she’d promised to text when she got back to the B and B. There were still things they didn’t know about each other—for all he knew, she was the type who wanted to be left alone when she was sick. Like him.

  She’d texted him when she got back and had even mentioned that she’d stopped at the pharmacy for some meds to help calm her stomach. He hadn’t heard from her since.

  A quick peek to assure himself t
hat she was okay would be enough for now.

  But later, they needed to have a talk. Zach was perfectly happy to let her be, as long as she touched base every so often to let him know she was okay. Preferably from the other end of the room, rather than the other end of town.

  Otherwise, those dang protective instincts kicked in, and he worried something had happened—

  Zach paused outside Sadie’s door, hand raised to knock. The contrast between what he wanted with Sadie and what he had with her hit him hard. He’d proceeded on tiptoes, not demanding too much too soon, not asking for what he truly needed, afraid that if he pushed too hard, she would leave again.

  Maybe he’d been overcautious. They were practically living together, and yet he’d let her go home sick without him the night before. He stood outside her door right now, waiting to knock, because he didn’t want to intrude. How ridiculously careful all of this was.

  With a frown, Zach tried the doorknob. It clicked, then opened. He walked inside. It was that easy.

  Glancing around, he was alarmed to see the bed empty, blankets half hanging off the side, as if they had trailed after the person trying to leave them behind. No Sadie in sight. He heard the shower running.

  Okay. She was steady enough to want to shower. Good deal. He’d just wait until she got out. After making sure she didn’t need anything, he’d head over to the office for a while, then come back. He crossed to the bed to straighten up the covers. A tissue box and mound of crumpled, used tissues covered the nightstand.

  Odd, she’d said her stomach hurt, not that she had a cold.

  Once more he looked around, this time hunting for the small trash can he knew to be around here somewhere. He finally located it under the low table in the sitting area. It was already filled with tissues. That explained one thing, at least. As he stood there wondering if he should risk calling Gladys for a new trash bag, Sadie’s phone lit up.

  An incoming text message.

  He didn’t recognize the name Victor Beddingfield, but the preview of the message on the screen below the name made Zach do a double take.

  Hell no, I don’t care what happens to Zach Gatlin, as long as he doesn’t show up here wanting...

  Wanting what? And why was this stranger texting about him?

  The mere use of his name gave Zach the right to pick up that phone, in his opinion. And right now, his was the only opinion that mattered. He swiped his thumb over the screen. Zach only wished he could honestly say he didn’t know Sadie’s combination to unlock the screen. Unfortunately, it was a connect-the-dots picture that he’d watched her swipe in many times. The order of the combination played out in his mind’s eye with ease.

  He didn’t even hesitate.

  As a soldier, Zach knew that doing ugly things was sometimes necessary to get the job done. Right now, breaking into Sadie’s phone was one of those necessary things. Regardless of how other people would see it.

  A violation of her privacy? Sure. Overstepping his boundaries? Definitely. A decision he’d regret in time? Absolutely not.

  Zach would rather know the truth than live in a fantasy world. The phone blinked its notice that Sadie had a text message at the bottom. He clicked on it and saw the truth in full color.

  At the top of the screen, there was a text from Sadie in a white bubble: I will call soon.

  Then a blue bubble from Beddingfield: If you don’t call me within the hour, this is gonna get really ugly. I want this over. Do you hear me?

  Followed by Sadie’s response: Don’t you care at all what happens to Zach? I’m trying very hard to do the right thing.

  Hell no, I don’t care what happens to Zach Gatlin, as long as he doesn’t show up here wanting our father’s money. You said you would dig up the dirt and I want it now. If you have to lie to disqualify him, that’s what you’ll do. I make the rules here. You simply obey me.

  Deep in Zach’s chest, coldness bloomed, then spread. Questions whirled in his brain. First and foremost: Who was this person? And what did he mean by “our father”? Was Victor Sadie’s brother, talking about the two of them when he said “our”? But they had different last names.

  Or was he Zach’s brother?

  Zach didn’t know his father, so half or stepbrothers were definitely a possibility. Though the fact that his father would want to have other children when he couldn’t be bothered to care for the one he already had was hard to take.

  The second line of thought was the more painful one. He didn’t even want to think about it. Didn’t want to form the words that would rip apart the foundation he’d thought he was standing on for the last two months. But as the water shut off in the bathroom, he knew the detonation was coming.

  The phone was still in his hand. He didn’t bother to put it down, didn’t bother to move. By the time Sadie came through the door, he’d even stopped breathing. That cold, cold part of him wanted to thaw, wanted to go to her.

  Her long auburn hair was piled in a messy bun atop her head. She looked tired, her features slightly drawn. Her naked body was wrapped in one of the fluffy towels he’d often used to dry her. When she saw him, her eyes widened, but then she produced a small smile.

  “Zach, you startled me,” she said. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

  Before he could speak, the phone in his hand rang. Her gaze flicked down to it, alarm invading her expression when she saw it in his hand. It played through an entire ringtone, then went silent. Zach’s fingers tightened. Almost immediately the ringing started again.

  Zach reached out, offering the phone to her. “Beddingfield wants an answer to his question,” he said. “Don’t you think you should take his call?”

  Fifteen

  The fact that she could take the phone from Zach’s hand and switch it to mute actually amazed Sadie. Her body shook so hard she wouldn’t have thought the move was even possible.

  But she did it. Because she had to—because she deserved whatever Zach was about to dish out.

  But she’d rather not do it in just a towel.

  Turning away, she dropped the phone on the bed and reached for her robe. She hadn’t even gotten it over her shoulders before Zach’s questions started. She was actually surprised he’d waited at all.

  “Who is Victor Beddingfield? Your brother? Your lover? Your what? Employer?”

  Sadie’s stomach turned, this time from more than just the pregnancy she’d confirmed after a stop at the drugstore last night. She couldn’t think of that now. Luckily, she hadn’t eaten, so there wasn’t anything to come up.

  “Tell me now, Sadie.”

  She absorbed the blow of the staccato words as she tied the robe’s belt around her waist. Then she faced Zach, attempting to keep her expression blank.

  “Victor is my current—temporary—employer.”

  As if her calm answer infuriated him, Zach spoke next through gritted teeth. “And what the hell does he have to do with me?”

  She slowly drew in a breath before answering. “He’s your half brother.”

  Should she say more? This was one reason why she’d put off this moment—there were no guidelines telling her how much or how little information she should give to the man that she’d lied to for two months...no, five years.

  “That doesn’t tell me what he wants with me.” Zach’s harsh expression didn’t give her any clues or guidance as to how to proceed.

  Okay, here goes... “Your father recently passed away.” She paused to give him a moment to absorb that, but his expression only grew harder. “There is a rather, um, large inheritance.”

  “Then this Beddingfield should take it and leave me alone. My father never wanted anything to do with me. Why would I want his money now?”

  That wasn’t technically true, but Sadie wasn’t going to explain that his father had sent her before. At lea
st, not now.

  “It isn’t that easy,” she said instead. “Victor can’t inherit your father’s estate because it has been willed to you.”

  Zach frowned, but didn’t say anything.

  “On one condition.”

  Then his gaze flipped to her phone on the bed before returning to her face. “The dirt?”

  Reluctantly, she nodded. “You’ve been selected to receive the bulk of your father’s estate, provided you haven’t been immoral or corrupt in any way. There can be no arrests, convictions, scandals or incidents showing distinct lack of character in your—” she had to swallow “—history. Your father wanted to reward you for being a better man than he was.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  Sadie shrugged. “Mr. Beddingfield played by his own set of rules.”

  “So you’re, what, here to spy on me?”

  Leave it to Zach to get to the heart of the matter.

  “Wait. Were you here to spy on me before, too?”

  Straight to the heart. “Yes.” Why prevaricate? He was going to hate her anyway. She might as well cut the ties cleanly, even if the frost encasing her heart was starting to bite. “Your father sent me the first time.” She could go into details later, if necessary. “Victor sent me this time—”

  “To find out the truth? Or to make up some plausible lies?”

  “Victor doesn’t really care either way.”

  “He made that clear.”

  “But I can assure you, I’ll be telling your father’s lawyer the truth.”

  She couldn’t stop herself from flinching as Zach stalked to her. He seemed to grow larger and more menacing as rage lit his features. “You know nothing about the truth. You’ve lied to me from the beginning, haven’t you?”

  “Not about the things that matter.”

  Rage mutated into disgust. “I doubt you have any idea what matters to me. None at all.”

  Oh, but she did. He valued family, loyalty, honesty, compassion, helping hands and going the extra mile. He was everything Victor wasn’t. With each thing she’d learned about Zach, Sadie had known she fought a losing battle for his heart.