Treasured by Thursday (Weekday Brides Series Book 7)

by Catherine Bybee

  He studied her movements as she found a vase and filled it with water. He searched for any uncertainty in her actions and found none.

  “Flowers from a cheating husband makes you look guilty,” she told him.

  “And if anyone asks, the day Hayden became public knowledge I bought my wife flowers and came home early.”

  “It’s after six.”

  “Early for me,” he corrected himself. He shrugged out of his jacket and laid it on the back of a chair.

  She picked the tiny sealed card from the floral spray and pointed it in his direction. “Good thing you’re taking me out for dinner.”

  “I am?”

  “You are. Meeting the mother of your son is exhausting,” she teased as she pulled at the edge of the envelope. Gabi’s teasing smile fell when she opened the check. “What’s this?”

  He leaned a hip against the counter. “One million for every affair, alleged or proven.”

  Her eyes narrowed and didn’t let his go. “I should cash this just to spite you.”

  “A deal is a deal.”

  “How many eyes do you have on him?” Gabi lay beside Hunter, her knee draped over his, her hand on his chest drawing circles.

  “You’re asking about another man after that?”

  She smacked his chest. “Hayden. How many eyes do you have on him?”

  “My extended eyes are on Sheila and Noah.”

  Gabi leaned up on her elbow and her gaze went cold.

  Before he could utter a word, she leaned her naked body over his and fumbled with the phone on the side table. She shoved the phone into his face. “All eyes on Hayden.”

  “Wha—”

  “The entire free world was told, by the media, that you have a son. You want the free world to believe he’s yours . . . would you let your son have less protection than your wife?”

  He sat up in the bed, as did Gabi. The sheet pooled around her waist, leaving a picture of beauty he had to ignore. “I have private investigators on Sheila and Noah . . . not bodyguards.”

  Gabi placed a hand on her naked hip as she straightened her shoulders. “Why do you have bodyguards watching over me?”

  “Someone out there could . . .” His words trailed off as the point she was trying to make drove home. “Shit.”

  He tossed the sheet from his spent frame and shoved off the bed as he dialed. His head was so bent on the taking, he’d completely disregarded the target.

  “MacBain.”

  “I know it’s late,” Hunter told Neil as he made his way to his office. “I need eyes on . . .” the moment of decision was on him.

  “On who?” It was late, but Neil’s voice was solid.

  Hunter clicked on his computer. “My son.”

  Silence.

  “The news had the truth for once?”

  Something told Hunter that eventually Neil and those who knew Gabi would know the truth. Instead of a flat-out lie, he stated what he needed. “Hayden is the innocent one here. I want eyes on him, Neil. I’m here with Gabi and can send Solomon or Connor.”

  Hunter gave the address he had, the name of the day care, and the two private investigators working the case so Neil’s men didn’t mistake them for someone else.

  By the time he was off the phone, Gabi stood in the doorway, arms crossed over the black flowing robe covering her bare shoulders. “You need me,” she told him.

  Her words and stance were flippant.

  The reality of her statement, anything but.

  The difference between defense and offense is really about the placement of the players on the board. Only for Gabi, her life went from defending her position to taking what she wanted overnight.

  Hunter met with his lawyers first thing in the morning and Gabi met with hers.

  Lori ushered her into the office, offered tea and a smile. “Looks like we missed an angle in your contract with Blackwell,” she said before Gabi could explain anything.

  “Hayden wasn’t expected.”

  Lori relaxed in her high-back chair. “Something tells me Blackwell knew all about his little bundle before he offered you a contract.”

  “No doubt about it. But that’s not why I’m here.”

  “Oh?”

  Gabi opened the folder she’d brought in and held it over Lori’s desk. “Everything I say in here is confidential . . . right?”

  From the drop of Lori’s jaw, she wasn’t expecting the question. “Completely.”

  Gabi handed her the papers. Lori glanced through the pile as Gabi spoke. “My late husband was a drug smuggler.”

  From the expression on Lori’s face, this wasn’t new information. She’d been Samantha’s lawyer for some time, and if Gabi had to guess, some of the less public information was old news to the attorney.

  “You already knew that.”

  Lori shrugged.

  “What you don’t know . . . what few know is . . . I killed him.”

  Lori snapped her eyes to Gabi’s “He died in the hospital.”

  “I pulled the plug.”

  The attorney released a sigh. “Telling the doctors to take him off life support isn’t the same as killing him.”

  “Not according to the life insurance company that paid out after Alonzo’s death.”

  Lori flipped through the papers until she found the forms regarding the payout.

  “That’s a big payout.”

  “I cashed the check and then promptly gave the money to a multitude of drug prevention programs. If you look at the fine print in the policy, if my hand was in any way responsible for the death of my spouse, including removing him from life support without a court order, the policy was voided.”

  “Only you cashed the check.”

  “You see my problem.”

  Lori pulled out a legal pad and scribbled a note to herself. “Insurance fraud is a bigger deal than holding up a liquor store and shooting the clerk these days. Big companies are making examples out of anyone caught. We’re going to have to proceed with caution.”

  Gabi hated the fear in her gut. “Had I known about the clause I would never have cashed the check.”

  “Do you have the money to pay it back?”

  Gabi removed the check Hunter had given her the night before and handed it to Lori.

  The attorney laughed. “That’s a lot of zeros.”

  “I think Hunter is good for them.”

  Lori paper clipped the check to the file and closed it.

  “There’s a couple other things I’m dealing with that you might need to know about.”

  Lori held out her hand. “Another file?”

  Gabi shook her head as she leaned over the desk and flipped the pad around. She wrote down the two bank names and account numbers in question. “The first is a bank in Colombia. The second in Italy. Both have my name on them. Well, Gabriella Picano.” Gabi went on to explain the details she could provide. Limited that they were.

  “You have no idea who dipped into them?”

  “No. The one in Italy had money going in, barely anything coming out. The Colombian one had a steady stream coming and going.”

  “Laundering.”

  “Probably. When I found out about them, I changed the access numbers and they’ve been silent ever sense.”

  Lori cringed. “Do I even want to know how much is in these accounts?”

  “A lot more than that personal check.”

  “This complicates everything. If the insurance company finds out about the foreign money—”

  “It’s not mine.”

  “They don’t know that.” Lori turned to the computer on her desk and started typing. “This is going to take some time.”

  Gabi thought presenting this information was the right direction and would leave her with a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. She was wrong. “I can’t go to jail.”

  “I don’t think it will come to that.”

  There was safety in that. “We have to be as quiet as possible about this while we fix
it.”

  Lori was writing a note again. “That I can’t promise. When was the last time someone as high profile as you are was accused of fraud and it didn’t make the evening news?”

  “I’m not high profile.”

  Lori burst out laughing. “You’re married to one of the richest and most influential men in the world. You’re so high profile half the people out there will want to see you in jail out of jealousy, the other will assume you’re guilty and hiding other crimes that will land you in prison eventually.” Lori took her attention back to the computer and clicked a few buttons. The printer behind her desk sprang to life. “This would have been easier to fight if you weren’t married to Blackwell. A widowed socialite done wrong by her dead husband is a lot more sympathetic than the wife of a billionaire.”

  Gabi went cold. “Do you think Hunter knew that?”

  Lori raised a brow. “Did he know about the insurance policy . . . the accounts?”

  Gabi didn’t answer and Lori shook her head. “Hunter didn’t get where he is by stupid luck.”

  Even if he had known . . . things had changed.

  Hadn’t they?

  “He’s not as selfish as it seems.”

  Lori scoffed.

  “No, really,” Gabi defended him. “He’s with his lawyers right now working on the immediate removal of Hayden from his mother’s custody.”

  “Taking a child from his mother. Sounds noble.” The sarcasm was rich on Lori’s tongue.

  “The woman is crazy.”

  Lori tilted her head and stared. “Let me paint this picture a little more clearly. Blackwell wanted a wife to demonstrate to the court what a stable married man he was . . . and he’s working hard to find fault with the child’s mother to gain full custody.”

  “She wants money. She doesn’t care about the baby.”

  “Is that what she told you . . . or him?”

  Gabi opened her mouth. Closed it. Then muttered, “I trust him.”

  Lori pointed directly at her. “That’s your first mistake.”

  “You don’t know him.” There was a little less defense in Gabi’s tone.

  “No, you’re right, I don’t know him. But I know his type. He’s rich, arrogant, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Men like him bend the law, bribe the law . . . seduce it even, to reach their goals. You went into this contract cold and detached, Gabi. I suggest you find that woman and bring her back if you want to walk away a whole person. Don’t let Blackwell do to you what Picano did.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Gabi stared at her lawyer and knew the woman gave sound advice.

  Not that Gabi wanted to hear it.

  Back inside the car, Solomon reached inside the glove compartment and removed a small box. “Neil had this made,” he told her. “And he wants you to wear it at all times.”

  She opened the lid and found a locket on a silver chain. “Why would Neil be buying me jewelry?”

  Solomon laughed as he pulled out into traffic. “It’s a GPS device. As much as one of us will be glued at your side, there are times, like today, where you’ll be out of our sight. I meant to give it to you earlier. Sitting in the lobby reminded me that you didn’t have it on.”

  She placed it over her head and looked at the simple design. Fiddling with the latch didn’t result in opening it.

  “It doesn’t open.”

  “Oh.” Overkill. From bodyguards to lockets.

  “It’s merely a tracking device, right? It doesn’t record what I’m saying?”

  Solomon offered a shake of his head. “Nope. Just GPS. It’s waterproof, too. So you can shower with it.”

  With a shrug, Gabi tucked the locket under her shirt and focused on the passing landscape and the barrage of people surrounding them . . . people who weren’t wearing tracking devices or traveling with an armed bodyguard at their side.

  The morning visit to his office was met with a subpoena from Sheila requesting Hayden’s child support. Seems the woman was moving forward faster than Hunter could run.

  Hunter sat across from Ben Lipton and his team of family law attorneys.

  “She has to consent to a paternity test,” Ben told him.

  Hunter already had one. Underpaid staff in the clinic Sheila was taking Hayden to had no problem supplying saliva for a little money.

  “The test will prove I’m the father,” he told them. “Your job is to use the information I give you to obtain my complete and exclusive custody.”

  “As I told you before, she has to be unfit to care for her son. Your stability and proof positive that Hayden is your son will only grant you partial custody. Child support will be inevitable.”

  “The woman wants a payout, not the title of mother.”

  The lawyers glanced at each other. “She will appoint a paternity testing doctor, and we’ll have ours. That will buy us forty-eight hours to find something on her that’s unfit.”

  “You have the reports from my investigators.”

  “An antidepressant isn’t a smoking gun. And she hasn’t seen a doctor for anything psychological in five years. She might not provide well for Hayden, but she does have him with adults when she’s not by his side.”

  “Incompetent adults.”

  “Which makes them liable, not her,” Ben told him.

  The attorney on Ben’s left sat forward. “She’s not expecting you to take her son. She might come back fighting.”

  “She’s only in this for the money. Dangle a check, she’ll take it.”

  Ben crossed his arms over his chest. “How can you be so sure?”

  Hunter knew the lawyers were obligated to keep his secrets. So he gave them what they needed. “Because Hayden isn’t my biological son. I never slept with Sheila Watson . . . my brother did.”

  A collective sigh went through the room.

  “And if your brother seeks custody?”

  “He can try. Once Sheila proves I’m the father, and I confirm it, Noah will have nothing to support his claim. If he tries, I’m sure you men can make his case disappear.”

  A few nods were knocked back and forth.

  Hunter stood to leave. “Call me with the doctor we’re using. Gabriella and I will be here on Friday for the hearing.”

  “If I can push the court that quickly,” Ben said.

  Hunter offered a cold stare.

  Ben lifted his hands. “I’ll make it happen.”

  “That’s better. Good day, counselors.”

  Before he left the room, he heard someone whisper, “And I thought Christmas with my family sucked.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Gabi sat on the sofa, her legs curled up under her as the twinkling of Christmas lights added a glow to the room.

  Lori’s words had haunted her all day.

  Was she making the same mistakes? Was she trusting the wrong man? If Hunter was capable of bribing the law, seducing it . . . was he doing the same to her? All his mutterings of not being good enough for her infused her with power in their relationship. Was it false power? Was his seduction of her an extension of getting what he wanted?

  He wanted Hayden . . .

  Or maybe he just wanted to stick it to his brother.

  Lori’s other words . . . the ones not spoken bothered her, too. What if Hayden really was Hunter’s son? Perhaps the woman in the mall was fighting for the rights of her son.

  Gabi hated the doubt running like a crazy person in her head.

  The alarm on the gate sounded, signaling Hunter’s return. She saw the lights of the car, heard the front door open and close. His footsteps hesitated when he entered the room.

  “Gabi?”

  She didn’t answer, just picked at the fringe of the throw pillow in her lap.

  He approached slowly until he was standing close enough to take in the scent of his skin. The scent that had seduced her from the first day they met.

  He knelt down until he was eye level wit
h her. “What happened?”

  “I visited my lawyer today . . . you remember Lori Cumberland.”

  “How could I ever forget Ms. Cumberland?” he asked with a half smile.

  Gabi didn’t smile back. “I told her about the insurance policy, about the international accounts.”

  Hunter lost his smile and sat in the chair to her side. “I told you I’d take care of that.”

  Gabi lifted her chin. “I didn’t see a need to wait.”

  “Now’s not the time.”

  “That’s similar to what she said.” Gabi kept her eyes glued to Hunter’s. “Did you know how difficult it was going to be to clear my name after I became your wife?”

  There wasn’t an ounce of emotion on his face.

  Something inside her died. “Jesus.” She tossed the pillow from her lap and stood.

  Hunter jumped to his feet and grabbed her arm, keeping her from fleeing the room. “I didn’t know you, Gabi.”

  “And you were willing to use the information you had to blackmail me, knowing damn well I could still end up in jail for something I didn’t do.”

  He moved closer and she pulled from his grasp. “You won’t go to jail. I’ll see to it.”

  “How are you going to do that, Hunter?”

  “We’ll pay the insurance company back.”

  “It’s not that simple. You knew that long before you showed up in the back of my limousine.”

  His jaw grew tight. “Yes. I knew that.”

  “When were you going to start working on clearing my name?”

  He looked past her. “Once I gained custody of Hayden. We’ll clear your name then.”

  She colored herself all kinds of fool. “Once you have what you’re in this for.”

  “None of that was hidden from you,” he told her.

  “And nothing has changed. With everything between us . . . nothing has changed. You get Hayden and I end up in jail.”

  He looked at her then, anger close to the surface of his stance. “You really believe that?”

  “I don’t know what to believe, Hunter.”

  He took two swift steps and reached for the back of her head. His kiss was hard, demanding . . . just like the man. Damn her for responding even in her anger. She desperately wanted to believe in him, but she couldn’t.