The Billionaire's Baby 3: A Single Dad Romance

by Lila Bella

  “What can I get for you?” he asked, as he hurried over to the table.

  “I’ll have a mocha Frappuccino.”

  She stated it with an almost harsh finality, as if to say she didn’t want anything else, possibly an attempt to ward off any further questions, but our waiter would not be stopped from making sure he was taking good care of his customers.

  “Anything to eat?” he asked.

  “Did I order any food? No, I didn’t. Now, a mocha Frap, please.” She waved her hand, dismissing him, and, like the good server he was, he pranced off, heading inside to get her coffee.

  “So, what did you want to talk about?”

  I sat back in my chair, stretching out my satisfied stomach. I pulled my phone out to look at the time, a habit I didn’t realize I had until that moment, as I was pulling it out at the worst possible time.

  “Do you have somewhere more important to be?” She looked at me with her rock solid stare and crossed her arms.

  “Sorry. It’s just a habit to check my phone after lunch. I don’t have anywhere to be until we’re finished here,” I told her.

  “Good. Then, let me cut to the chase.” She uncrossed her arms and leaned forward, placing her forearms on the table. She spoke in a low enough tone that no one around us could hear her as she continued.

  “Look, I don’t want to keep Kaylee from you. It’s pretty obvious she misses you and your stupid nanny, or whatever she is.”

  “Great. What are we going to do about it then?”

  I chose not to address the fact that she’d abandoned her once already, which told me she didn’t really want anything to do with her to begin with. Instead, I focused on solving the problem at hand.

  “You’re going to do like you did today and keep the police out of this.”

  “You already got them involved, Marie, when you called them hysterically ranting about how your daughter had been kidnapped by the people who have been taking care of her in your absence. Oh, but that’s right, you failed to mention the part where you walked out on her.”

  I wound up mentioning it anyway. I supposed it was a hard fact to ignore.

  “That’s okay. You’re going to help me get them uninvolved.”

  “But only if I know for a fact that I am getting my daughter back,” I added.

  “You will. I’ll call you in a few days to give you the rendezvous point. You show up with the ten mil, and I’ll hand Kaylee over to you personally. If there are any cops involved, you will never see her again. We will both disappear. I’m giving you a chance to set everything right. Don’t blow it, Jude.”

  She tapped the table and started to get up.

  “Set everything right? What are you talking about?”

  “You really don’t get it, do you?” She turned around and stood next to her chair with her fingers down on the table.

  “I really have no clue what the fuck you’re talking about, Marie. Are you talking about the money? Because if you are, you put a lot less than ten mil on the table, and it was your idea to drop out because you were afraid everyone would see you get fat while you were pregnant. Newsflash, bitch—that’s what happens when people get pregnant. No one would have judged you for it, and if they did, fuck them. They can go work somewhere else. You were the one who backed out, leaving your money in the company.”

  “But, I deserve to get something for my investment and contribu—” she started, but I interrupted her by laughing and shaking my head.

  “You pissed all that away when you walked out.”

  “I never walked away from the company. I was going to come back.”

  She raised her voice, and that was when I finally stood up from my seat, towering over her and looking down at her.

  “I didn’t mean that, Marie, and you know that’s not what I meant. You know exactly what I was talking about. I was talking about when you walked out on us. When you left your daughter in my arms and disappeared from our lives. That was when you walked away from everything you’d done. You don’t deserve a fucking dime, and the only money I’m going to give you, if I give you anything, is going to be the money you put into starting the firm. Nothing more than that was yours anyway,” I explained, letting my voice be heard by everyone sitting outside and the people walking along the sidewalk.

  “If you don’t give me what I ask for, you’ll never see your daughter again,” she threatened.

  “I’ll see her, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to run away again once I have her. In fact, that will be the smartest thing you could do next time.”

  She stared at me, her gaze eating away at my face as she tried to figure out if I was bluffing or not. I wasn’t.

  I meant everything I said. I was taking my baby back, and then I was coming after her. If she didn’t go ahead and accept my resolution, I’d be on her tail the minute I got Kaylee safely home again.

  “Keep on making threats, Jude. I didn’t tell you that my lawyer is watching Kaylee, and if things keep going the way they’re going, I’m going to take you to court for full custody and everything you’re worth. So, please, keep up with the bravado.”

  She narrowed her eyes, giving me a look that said she felt clever for what she’d just said, but there was one problem—I wasn’t afraid of her.

  “Good luck with that, Marie, but I feel like I should remind you that the police department already has it well documented that you abandoned our daughter the first time. In fact, there was even a manhunt to find you, in case something had happened to you or whatever, but even then, the official conclusion of the investigation was that you had run away. No, I’m sure they haven’t forgotten that you wasted their time back then, and have made them look like idiots now. By coming back and kidnapping your daughter, you’ve proven them right about running away. Now, if you’d like to proceed, I can make sure you never get to see your daughter again, and that if you come within a hundred feet of her at any point in her life, you will be arrested and thrown behind bars, where you belong. Are you sure you want to play with me on this?”

  I raised my eyebrows. She huffed and crossed her arms again, looking at me like she didn’t know what to say anymore.

  I couldn’t help but smile at her, watching her refuse to admit she was backed into a corner with no way out.

  “Where’s Kaylee?” an urgent voice asked from behind my ex.

  6 - Hollie

  “Hollie! What are you doing here?”

  “Ah, if it’s not the skank nanny from the park. Look at you, all in a huff over the baby you were supposed to be watching. Tell me something. How does it feel to be utterly useless now?”

  Marie looked me up and down with smug condescension, judging every inch of me based on whatever ideas she had working in her twisted mind.

  She smiled while she talked, but when she stopped, she put her hand to her mouth and opened her eyes wide. She gave a mock gasp, as if realizing some grand aspect of mine and Jude’s relationship, and continued.

  “Oh, that’s right, you’re not completely useless.”

  She looked at Jude and then back at me.

  “You’re the perfect little piece of ass for Jude to tap every night when he gets home. Don’t worry, as long as he can get what he wants out of you, you’ll always have a job with him.”

  She reached out and touched my shoulder lightly.

  “Keep your hands off of me, bitch. Where’s Kaylee?”

  I had considered playing nice when I’d been sitting in the car debating on whether or not to interrupt their little discussion, but she didn’t deserve any sort of politeness.

  What she deserved was to be bitch-slapped all over the outdoor dining area of the café. I wasn’t going to do that either.

  “Get your bitch in check,” she said over her shoulder to Jude. “She’s getting too big for her britches.”

  “Hollie, please, take it easy. Kaylee is safe.”

  “I’ll call you in a few days, Jude. Make sure this one stays away, too, when we get together nex
t time. I’d hate for something to happen to her because she’s forgotten her place.” She looked me right in the face as she walked past me and away from the café.

  “Hollie. Dammit!” He pulled a few dollar bills out of his pocket and left them on the table, stepping toward me and taking me by the arm to escort me out of the café.

  I looked around at the people watching. Every pair of eyes was on us as he dragged me out of there. I didn’t argue.

  I knew I’d been in the wrong to even follow him there in the first place, but I had to. I didn’t know what I’d been planning on doing when I got there, but I wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing.

  “Don’t say anything. Just keep walking,” he growled through clenched teeth.

  His grip tightened on my arm as we walked away, heading towards his car. He opened the door when we got there and looked over his shoulder. “Get in,” he ordered.

  I slid into the passenger seat and winced as he slammed the door. I hadn’t seen him this angry before, but he did seem to keep getting more and more aggravated the longer he had to deal with Marie and the issue surrounding Kaylee’s abduction.

  I had apparently crossed a line by showing up, and I knew I was going to get it now. It seemed to take him forever to walk around to his side of the car, giving me time to prepare myself, but also giving me time to tell myself I’d been asking for it for a while now.

  It seemed I kept doing things to see what would actually anger him, and I’d found it.

  “What the hell was that?” he snapped when he sat down and closed it door— much more gently than he had closed mine, I noticed.

  “I wanted to be there in case anything went wrong.” I didn’t know what I meant by that, or what I was supposed to mean, but it felt like the right thing to say.

  “Well, because you showed up, something might just go wrong now. Dammit, Hollie.”

  “What am I supposed to do, Jude? I’m not going to sit back and watch her take Kaylee away from me—away from us—like that.”

  I stopped, having originally planned to say more, but my little slip had even caught me off guard. I hadn’t intended to tell him how I felt about my relationship to his daughter that way.

  “I know you’re upset, Hollie, but you’ve got to trust me on this, okay? Let me handle Marie. I’m used to her. I know how she is… how she thinks.”

  His voice was suddenly calmer though, which was about as much acknowledgement as I could have expected from him, I supposed. We weren’t in the right place to discuss what I’d said specifically, and he obviously wasn’t worrying about it at the moment.

  “What are you planning on doing? Are you going to give her the money?” Short of more aggressive approaches, I didn’t see any other way out.

  “I don’t know yet. I need time to figure it out, I guess. She’s supposed to call me in a few days. Well, you heard her. She wants me to show up with the money then, but I’m going to try to figure something else out in the meantime.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I don’t know.” He shook his head, cranked up the car, and pulled away from the curb.

  “Hold on, where are we going? My car’s right there.” I pointed out the window as we passed it.

  “I’ll have my guys come by and pick it up later,” he said. “I need to get out of here, and so do you for right now.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He hadn’t looked away from the windshield so I looked out through it as well, trying to see if I could spot what had his attention, but I didn’t see anything.

  I didn’t see her, and I didn’t see anyone acting suspicious. Whatever it was he saw, it must have been something only for him to see.

  Unless, of course, he was simply focusing on something, and it looked like he was watching someone outside the car.

  “I don’t want to hang around, in case she’s still here or has something up her sleeve. I don’t trust her right now. She was pretty upset when she left.”

  “I’ll say,” I agreed.

  “You really didn’t help any, Hollie. You shouldn’t have come here. I’m going to have to do something to make sure you don’t follow me when I meet her next time.”

  “You mean when you go to drop of the money and pick up Kaylee?” I snapped my neck back around to look at him.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing, but you’re not coming with me when I do it,” he insisted, cutting his eyes to me.

  “So you would keep me from being there? You would keep me from being able to take that precious baby in my arms to hold her and protect her while you handle business with her screwy mother?”

  I knew how I sounded, but I didn’t care. He could think I was being overprotective all he wanted. He could even think I was being too possessive if he chose, but the fact of the matter was that I felt like she was my baby.

  “You’ll be the first one to see her when I get her home, okay? I promise,” he said, like that was supposed to placate me.

  “You patronizing bastard,” I said with a shocked laugh. “I’m the one who has been taking care of her, feeding her, changing her, and comforting her. I’m the one who checks on her in the middle of the night. I’m the one who gets up with her in the morning and puts her to bed at night. I’m the one, Jude. Not Marie. You, of all people, should be able to respect that, because you were the one doing it when I came along, right? I mean, I’m the one who sits and talks to her all day, who gets down on the floor to play with her.”

  Ever since the day Violet had come over to save me from the epic tantrum Kaylee had been throwing, I had become much more active in her daily life. I wasn’t her babysitter anymore.

  I wasn’t there to watch her like it was daycare or something. I was the primary caregiver in her life, and as soon as I had come to that realization, I had changed my focus to one of caring for her instead of taking care of her.

  I tried to treat her and look at her as my own, and as we bonded, that became the way things felt and the way they worked.

  “I get it, okay? I understand you feel hurt and betrayed that Marie came back into the picture and took Kaylee away, but I’m working on trying to fix that. I’m going to meet with the guys tomorrow and see if they have any ideas. Lane is a lawyer. He might have some advice, or he might finally be able to get me in touch with his family law buddies, okay?”

  We were pulling into the driveway at his house. He stopped the car and grabbed my hand. It was a much gentler grip than the one he’d placed on my arm. He squeezed and leaned over, throwing his other arm around me.

  We embraced in the car before getting out. It was different somehow. His hugs had always been very loving, very tight hugs, but this one was more somehow.

  It was as if all the lustful desire had faded—or, better yet, matured—into something else, something deeper and even more passionate.

  I didn’t want to think the word I was thinking, because I didn’t want to jinx what was going on between us as it developed and grew into whatever it was going to become.

  I tried to let myself go so that all I could feel was his deep, warm embrace. His arms were strong enough to hold both of us up while we worked through this situation with Marie and his daughter, and that was exactly what I needed at the moment.

  “Let’s go inside,” he said in a low voice when we parted.

  He looked into my eyes, searching them for something while reassuring me at the same time that I wasn’t alone, that he understood how I felt, and was aware of my emotions.

  It felt good to be accepted by him. I had been unsure of revealing exactly how I felt. I hadn’t wanted to seem out of line when I finally let him know what I’d been thinking.

  It was hard to even go back in that house knowing she was still with her mother, who had abandoned her once already.

  My mind kept racing over all of the possibilities, the things that could go wrong. Each one was worse than the last. I couldn’t stop myself, though. I couldn’t rein in my thoughts.


  It was like walking around with a nightmare playing in my head over and over again. How did I explain that to Jude without upsetting him even more?

  I was sure he was experiencing something similar already. If I felt as tormented as I did, I couldn’t begin to imagine how he felt.

  “Hey, it’s going to be okay.” He grabbed me and hugged me again.

  “I guess it’s that obvious, huh?” I chuckled. “How do you do it? How do you look unaffected?”

  “There are people who need my strength, so I have to.”

  He smiled, and I could see his eyes begin to water. He cleared his throat and wiped at his eyes, pushing back the tears for later. I wondered if he would allow himself to cry in private, or if he would continue to push aside his own emotions so he could focus on this problem.

  I’d been so concerned about how I felt and about proving how much I loved Kaylee that I hadn’t really taken time to consider what he wasn’t showing me.

  There had to have to been a lot of emotions stirring inside him. He’d been engaged to Kaylee’s mother, and she was the one who was giving him so much trouble to begin with.

  It couldn’t have been easy for him to have to deal with all of that, and yet, he was treating it like it was no big deal, other than when I’d overstepped my bounds and pushed him to the point of losing his cool.

  But he’d regained it quickly enough.

  “Thank you,” I said, kissing him lightly on his cheek. It was the least I could do for someone who was carrying so much on his shoulders.

  7 - Jude

  “Whatever you do, don’t give her a dime.”

  “Right. What’s she going to do then? What incentive does that actually give her? By doing that you show her you’re a pushover and you’ll give her more if she holds out.”

  “I know a guy. A couple of guys actually.”

  Lane and Jay looked at Pittman, who pulled the unlit cigar out of his mouth and shrugged. Of course Pittman knew a guy. They shouldn’t have been surprised.

  “Okay, I’m not asking you to call your guy, Pittman.”

  “All I’m doing is throwing it out there. If we need to go that route, we can. Got it?”