Summer’s radar pinged when he looked at her, and without missing a beat, he put his phone to his ear. She had the strangest sensation as he continued to stare.
As she walked into the hotel lobby, it occurred to her that she might have seen him before but couldn’t remember where or when.
Striding with all the confidence she could muster, Summer made a straight line to the reception desk and smiled when one of the clerks said, “I can help you here.”
As she attempted to explain her predicament, an awkward and uncomfortable moment unfolded. The understanding she sought never happened.
Arnie Templeton was not a registered guest. No message had been left for Summer Warren.
When the desk clerk repeated her name, she realized Arnie probably didn’t even know her full name. Or care.
Dejected and confused, she turned to leave but only took a few steps before the young guy in the suit was practically standing on top of her.
Uncomfortably sure he’d been eavesdropping, she was about to confront him when a shrill, sneering voice brought Summer up short. Her head swiveled, and all the air got knocked out of her lungs.
Maleficent.
Summer knew a prophetic moment when one bit her on the ass. Caught in a predator’s sight, she held perfectly still.
“Well, well, well. Look who it is,” the well-dressed and obviously wealthy witch snarled. She had a throaty Kathleen Turner quality to her speech that gave Summer a chill.
“Let me guess,” she continued unabated. “Feeling the sting of a pump and dump?”
Summer’s mouth dropped open at the crude expression. She didn’t know who this horrible woman was, but she was exactly as dangerous as imagined.
“Excuse me?” she bit back with no lack of affront in her delivery.
“Save it,” Maleficent replied. “You aren’t the first and won’t be the last stupid working girl to surrender her panties for a shot at a rich guy’s wallet.”
She wasn’t going to stand there and take any more shit. Trying to brush past didn’t work because she’d gotten boxed in with her back against a wall and nowhere to go.
“How do you know Arnie?” Summer demanded. She felt it was better to stand her ground and punch back.
“Arnie? Oh, how droll. I can hardly contain my glee.”
What the hell did she mean? Summer narrowed her eyes and looked for the deeper meaning.
“Here’s the four-one-one on Arnie,” Maleficent drawled with loads of taunt in her tone. “He’s gone. Flew the coop. Checked out yesterday afternoon. Didn’t you know?”
There was no fucking way she was giving this evil bitch the satisfaction of wringing a reaction out of her. Some things just would not stand, and giving Maleficent the upper hand was at the top of the list.
Summer crossed her arms and cocked a hip. “Go on then. The whole speech—just the way you planned.”
Bitter laughter meant her comment hit a nerve.
“Smart girl.” Maleficent chuckled. “Will make the truth bomb detonating under you less stressful.” Her fake smile had a menacing, hostile vibe.
“Men like Arnie get off on dallying with the innocent. Girls like you fuel the furnace of their enormous egos. He was always going to leave. I will say, though, his running off without leaving a gratuity or a thank you at the very least was tacky.”
She didn’t need to feel the actual slap to know when she’d been insulted to her face. The way Summer saw it, she had two options. Slap the bitch across the face and walk away to wait for the police to show up or just walk away.
There really was no other choice than to shove past the awful woman and get the hell out of this place as quickly as possible.
Maleficent’s cackling laughter gave Summer goose bumps as she walked out of the Four Seasons, vowing never to set foot in the place ever again.
14
Seven Weeks Later …
“For Christ’s sake, Summer. Are you serious?”
Reed’s temper was on full display, and she couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t every day a brother learned his only sibling, an unmarried sister, was pregnant.
She sat cross-legged on her big sofa and clutched a throw pillow to her middle while Reed paced back and forth and ripped her a new one.
“How the fuck did you let this happen? And what do you mean you don’t know where the father is? Jesus Christ, Summer. What the fuck have you been doing?”
When Reed started throwing the fuck word around, it meant he was unglued. By showing up unexpectedly for a visit just hours after she peed on a stick, he’d unknowingly walked face-first into her having an emotional meltdown. What followed was him losing his shit.
“Stop yelling, Reed. Please.” Her lip quivered, but she valiantly fought off a threatening shower of tears.
He lowered his voice, but the anxious, painful confrontation continued.
“What are you going to do?” Being in uniform and wearing a fierce expression didn’t help.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you keeping it or what?”
Her instant reaction was more of an explosion. She hurled the pillow at her brother’s head and snarled.
“Shut your fucking mouth, Reed. There’s no it, goddammit! I’m having a baby, not an it. And I’m not our mother, okay? Does that answer your vile question?”
He clutched his head with both hands and let out an angry growl. “Fuck.”
“Sit down.” She smacked the cushion beside her. “I’m the one who should be freaking out, not you.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes.
“Shit. I’m going to be an uncle.”
Summer wrapped her arms with his and leaned against him. Of all the things he could have said, those few words meant the world to her.
“Okay,” he muttered after a while. “I’m calmer now. Please fill in the blanks, sis. Explain what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
She didn’t like what he said, but choosing her battles had to take precedence over sibling snark.
Well, Summer thought with a total lack of enthusiasm. She might as well come up with a standard reply for a question she was going to hear a lot.
“I, uh, met a guy. We hung out, things got serious, and you know,” she muttered with a shrug, “shit happens.”
“Shit happens?” Reed snarled. “That’s how you explain an absent baby daddy?”
“I can’t explain the absent part. That’s on him. All I can attest to is my part in what happened.”
“And does your part include failure to take proper precautions?”
“As I said, shit happened.” She squirmed at the disappointment on her brother’s face. “Don’t judge me.”
Thankfully, he gave her a side-hug and kissed her forehead.
“I’m sorry, twerp. You have to grade me on a curve and give me time to catch up. What happened to the life plan? The career?”
How in the world could she ever possibly explain absolutely none of that meant anything after she fell under the spell of a golden Adonis with beautiful blue eyes and an easy laugh?
“Haven’t you ever been in love, Reed?”
The vehemence in his direct answer reminded Summer how much older Reed was when their mother left. His view of Marie Warren’s heartless defection wasn’t the same as hers.
“No. A bunch of romance crap isn’t for me. When your emotions get involved, you end up like Dad. Wake up one day to discover it all meant nothing, and your heart got trashed for the shittiest of reasons. No thanks.”
“Ouch,” she muttered.
“Did you want me to make something up?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I get it. But it’d be easier to plead my case if you ever let down your guard and gave free rein to your emotions.”
“Is that what happened? You let your guard down?”
“I let my emotions out to play. There was no guard to let down.”
“This isn’t one of those Prince Charming fantasies, is it? Please tell me it’s
not.”
She rolled her eyes and sat back. “Fantasies don’t make babies.”
Reed’s scowl told her it was the wrong thing to say. “But real guys get young girls pregnant and then disappear?”
“He didn’t disappear.”
“Then where is he?”
She frowned and flipped her hair behind her shoulders. “Just because I don’t know where he is doesn’t mean he disappeared.”
“Do you hear yourself, sis?” Reed scoffed. “Make some sense, would you?”
“Look, I don’t know what happened, okay? Things were great, and we had plans, but he never showed up. In a way, he vanished, yes, but something else is going on. I can feel it.”
“Meaning?” Reed growled.
Her brother was Army through and through. In his time with the military, he’d seen battle, been decorated, given a top-level security clearance, and installed in one of the Army’s elite training bases. He wasn’t naïve or stupid.
“He does security stuff.” Her shrug wasn’t very convincing, but she gave it a shot anyway. “You know,” she tried to explain. “The usual stuff the former military do. Surveillance and, um, body guarding.”
This tidbit of detail got Reed’s full attention. “Are you saying he was military?”
“Well, no. I don’t think so. Not the way you are. But he did say his background was with the government, and his passport was pretty full.”
“Let me get this straight. You meet some random guy who may or may not be a mercenary or worse,” he sneered. “Shack up, get knocked up, and then he vanishes, but you’re not freaking out because you have a feeling,” he drawled with taunting air quotes.
It sounded ridiculous but was more or less spot-on.
“What did I tell you about not judging me?” She arched a brow and gave him a fierce glare.
He blew her off with more direct questions.
“What are your plans? Where are you with school? Do you need any money?”
“First of all, I literally just found out. Did the pee stick this morning. When this semester ends, I have another after plus some loose ends. Counting on my fingers, I don’t see a way to continue the fall semester. Not with a new baby. Maybe the winter term but I’ll have to wait and see. I’m okay financially, but I still have to work.”
“When are you due?”
“Going by a due date calculator I found online, sometime around the first week of October. A Libra baby,” she murmured.
Knowing her baby’s star sign made everything way too real. Without any warning, she fell apart in Reed’s arms.
“How could he leave me?” she wailed. “We talked about a future. I can’t do this alone.”
“We’ll figure it out, okay?”
“Oh god, Reed. What if I’m like Mom? Or what if the baby doesn’t like me?”
“Don’t be silly. You’re gonna be a great mom, and your kid will love the shit out of you.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Yes. No doubt whatsoever, so dry those tears and stay positive. You just took the test, so it’s early days, and you never know what might happen.”
She had no idea when she was blowing her nose, but the saying anything might happen turned out to be the grandmother of all understatements.
A month and a half later, Summer could frame her little baby bump with both hands.
It was mid-April, and she had several work shifts lined up. When the waist of her uniform skirt got too tight for comfort, she was forced to devise an elaborate network of safety pins to give her tummy room to breathe.
Her athletic build and tendency to be on the thin side didn’t give her any duck and cover whatsoever. Anyone with a discerning eye could figure out she was expecting. Not that she was hiding her baby bump. Not at all. She was just weary of the baby daddy questions and comments. Whatever happened to the notion that an empowered, determined woman was capable of handling anything? Why didn’t the concept apply to her?
“Party of two, table nine, chica!” one of the other waitresses called out as she breezed by on her way into the bustling kitchen.
“Thanks! I’m on it.” Summer grabbed a pen and her order pad, took a quick slug of ice water from the thermal bottle she took everywhere, and then stashed it at the waitress station.
“Showtime.”
She made her way across the dining room and started down the walkway between two rows of booths. Retrieving a small baby toy from the foot of a highchair, she handed it to the grateful mom before she continued. Up ahead, she targeted table nine. A man sat in the booth facing her.
Summer’s steps slowed. He seemed familiar.
A strong feeling of distress filled her with dread the closer she got. When she was within twenty feet, she recognized him. It was the Brooks Brothers suit man from the Four Seasons.
Why was he here, and what did he want?
It wasn’t until she was at the edge of the booth that her mind registered the presence of someone else. Someone whose back had been to her as she approached the table.
Maleficent.
A harsh blaring of air horns and alarm bells inside her head robbed Summer of everything except fear. Soul-stabbing fear.
“What do you want?” she hissed. Her hand automatically covered her tummy protectively.
Maleficent sneered. She also gazed pointedly at Summer’s stomach.
“How nice to see you again, Miss Warren,” the evil witch said.
A trickle of unease seeped into her system. Miss Warren? Summer didn’t remember offering up her last name.
“This is my legal advisor, Mr. Wells.”
She barely glanced at the Brooks Brothers guy. He wasn’t the person in control.
In what she surmised was an orchestrated attack, Maleficent wasted no time spelling out her agenda. Too shocked to move away, Summer froze and listened with unfolding horror.
The so-called legal advisor tapped on an iPad and placed it on the table where Summer could see it.
“Summer Warren. Born in Sacramento on May twenty-fifth to Howard and Marie Warren.”
The iPad displayed a newspaper clipping with her birth announcement. Seeing it turned her blood to ice.
“Occupation, waitress.” Maleficent cackled. “Part-time student whose only asset is a Nissan Sentra.”
She’d seen enough. “Where is this going?”
“I think you know the answer to that.”
Their eyes locked, and Summer felt the woman’s powerful demonic vibe reach for her soul.
Not on her watch. No way.
She focused and pushed back with all her might.
Maleficent seemed put off—just enough to give up the effort.
“You have a decision to make, Miss Warren. Either do what’s best for the baby you’re carrying or take your chances in a court of law.”
Summer hissed, “What the hell do you mean?”
In what unfolded as a scene from a bad movie, a paper check made out to her in the amount of fifty thousand dollars slid into position beside the iPad.
Oh, my god. They were trying to buy her baby.
“Well played, Summer. Sleeping with a millionaire and getting pregnant is the oldest play in the book. Now, here’s your payday. Be smart and take the money. If you don’t, we can battle for legal custody in court. I’m sure you can afford a high-profile lawyer, can’t you, dear? I mean, after all, Arnie has unlimited resources, and the family will do whatever it takes to claim his heir.”
“Claim his what? Are you insane? What the hell are you talking about? What family?”
“Oh, don’t play innocent. Not with me. I perfected the act decades ago.”
“Look, lady, I don’t know or care who you are. My baby is none of your business. Take your flying monkey, get on your broom, and be gone.”
Maleficent laughed. “Oh, I do so love the suggestion of drama. How charming. But let’s cut to the chase, little girl. The family wants that baby, and we’ll do whatever is necessary. You know damn well
it won’t be hard to paint you as an unfit mother.”
For the second time, Summer wanted to bitch slap the smirk off the woman’s face.
Then the bottom fell out of her world.
Brooks Brothers tapped on the tablet, and Summer felt a sense of danger. In a sniveling New York drawl, he narrated a slide show designed to scare the shit out of her.
“Marie Hall. Alias, Marie Warren of Boca Raton, Florida. Her specialty is sugar daddy work. She finds old men with money to fund her lifestyle.”
Surveillance-style photographs of her mother canoodling with a parade of wrinkly old men turned her stomach. They hadn’t delivered the kill shot yet, and when it came, Summer experienced red-hot hatred for the first time.
“The apple didn’t fall far, eh, my dear? Like mother, like daughter. No judge with a lick of sense will hand over a child to someone with your background.”
She glared at Maleficent. “Does Arnie know you’re here? Is he aware of this scheme you’ve hatched?”
“Where do you think we got our information?”
Arnie did not have any of her personal details. The woman was lying but why?
Without missing a beat, she dropped her order pad and pen and reached into the deep pocket on her skirt. Finding her phone, she whipped it out and tried to snap pictures of Brooks Brothers and the evil queen.
Her actions triggered a hissing response from Maleficent, who tried to snatch the phone from Summer’s hands.
“Back off, lady,” she growled.
Brooks Brothers made an unexpected sideways incursion, but she saw it coming and tried slapping his hand away. The skirmish caused her to drop the phone.
All hell broke loose. Summer whistled for the bouncer from the bar. A busboy ran up to her as the customers in the nearby booths watched the scene unfold.
It was a complete shitshow. Threats were hurled. Gasps filled the air. The manager got involved. Ten minutes later, the two had been escorted out of the restaurant. Ten minutes after that, Summer was out of a job.
Finding Summer (Nightwind Book 3) Page 29