Instead, her lips did their best effort to smile. “Claudette.”
“Gabby, darling.” This time no air kisses. Claudette anxiously looked past her shoulder. “Dec?”
“He had to help Levi with something.” She kept her face from reacting when the other woman used her nickname for Declan. “I’ll let him know you’re here.”
The Hodgetown cast was coming in for a table-read and furniture needed to be moved around. Since Theo was giving his concussion as an excuse not to help, he was being deliberately difficult with furniture placement. Gabby wouldn’t be surprised if a chair flew out the window. Theo with it.
Her brother hadn’t realized yet that these men were dangerous. These men had faced death, and had no problem killing if killing needed to be done.
“Are you not inviting me in?”
Gabby looked at the other woman in confusion. “I’m holding the door open and you’re not a vampire.”
Claudette held her nose high and strutted through. “We used to be such good friends.”
“Was that before or after you slept with my husband?”
Her head whipped to Gabby, face indignant. “I beg your pardon. You cheated on Declan first, remember?”
A throat cleared, and both women jerked their heads toward the sound.
There stood Declan, Theo, and Levi as witnesses to Claudette’s last statement and maybe more.
Gabby’s cheeks flamed especially with Theo’s eyes boring into hers. Now he knows too.
What a fine mess they were in. They were the classic Hollywood cliché. Musical partners, musical beds.
But she couldn’t stand the expression on Claudette’s face as her gaze landed on Declan. Clearly she prepared for this meeting. Her Brigitte Bardot emulation, with the elaborate bouffant hair style to showcase her platinum blond hair, was completed with the sex-kittenish baby doll dress that hit mid-thigh. And God help Gabby before she stuck out her foot and tripped the other woman—Claudette slow-walked to Declan as if she were in a trance and then went on tiptoes to kiss him like a damned Hollywood heroine seeing her lover after a long period of separation.
Bile rose in her throat.
Body-language wise, Declan was stiff, but he didn’t avoid the other woman’s lips either. He allowed the kiss, but only briefly, before he grabbed her biceps and pulled her away.
“Where have you been?” Claudette asked him huskily. “You just disappeared.”
“I had to go away.”
Claudette turned to Theo. “I’m glad you know.”
“What? That you’re a slut?”
Quick clacking of heels and a slap resounded in the foyer.
“That’s enough,” Declan growled, holding back Claudette who lost all her poise and wanted to go after her son with her claws. “Let’s go. We can talk someplace else.”
He dragged her out the still-open door while she was still cursing her son in French. Levi walked calmly to the entrance and let the door swing shut.
Gabby couldn’t look at Theo.
“I’m really, really confused,” the teenager announced before disappearing down the hallway.
Gabby wanted the ground to swallow her up and she could tell Levi was uncomfortable with the dead silence in the foyer.
“When will the kids arrive?” Gabby asked, finally glancing up at him.
He checked his watch. “Within the hour.”
“I can’t stay here.”
His brow arched. “You can’t go anywhere. You shouldn’t be driving.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not. I can ask Kelso to pick me up.”
The man sighed. “Can’t stop you. You’re not my charge.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Roarke won’t like it.”
She bristled. “Well, it’s a good thing I don’t give a damn what he likes.”
She escaped to her bedroom to call her partner, but her lungs were choking her. It was pain—unbearable pain in the center of her chest—that ripped straight to her gut. Her cheeks were wet before she even knew she was bawling. Piteous wracking sobs interfered with her ability to suck in oxygen. She tried to rein it in, but her legs were like rubber and she sank to her knees, arms wrapping protectively around her belly. She wasn’t prepared to see Declan and Claudette together, wasn’t prepared to see their lips touch and walk out the door together.
It killed her.
It excavated the brutal memories from that night she lost everything … the night Claudette called her to tell her that she was frightened. What if Peter found out that the baby she was carrying was not his.
“What if it’s Declan’s?” she wailed. “What if the baby has green eyes?”
“Then you’ll have to tell Declan,” she snapped. “Goodbye, Claudette.”
“Wait! Please, Gabby, don’t hang up.”
Her grip tightened on her phone. She didn’t owe this woman anything. It wasn’t Gabby’s place to tell her father either, although she really wanted to, so he could kick that backstabbing woman out of their lives. But Claudette knew Gabby wasn’t going to say anything. Peter suffered a mild stroke six months before and another shock could kill him.
“What. Do. You. Want?”
“Maybe I should disappear until the baby is born.”
“Are you crazy? Where are you going to go?”
“A friend of mine is going to Cancun and knows of a good birthing clinic there.”
“You’re out of your freaking mind.”
“That’s what I’ll do.”
“Claudette! Don’t you dare hang up.”
“My friend is leaving tonight.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m in the Valley.”
“You come back right this instant.”
“I’m scared, Gabby.”
“You shouldn’t have slept with Declan!” she screamed. “You’re such a fucking bitch!”
“I know,” Claudette started crying. “I’m sorry, all right?”
Gabby started crying too. “I’ll come get you.”
She didn’t know she’d signed the death warrant for her baby when she got into that car to retrieve her stepmother. She wouldn’t be easily recognized in Van Nuys, but she still took precautions and tucked her hair under a hat and wore a trench coat with a turned-up collar, using the belt to hold the coat around her almost nine-month belly. Claudette said she was waiting inside the La Familia bodega. The Our Lady of Lourdes Clinic was a landmark beside it, Claudette said.
Gabby remembered parking the car, noting with trepidation how the area was dimly lit. There were very few pedestrians. She stepped out of the vehicle and went into the convenience store and saw Claudette. Her stepmother appeared very relieved to see her.
She remembered leaving the convenience store with Claudette. Remembered her head exploding in pain and she wished she had drifted into blessed numbness, but instead, excruciating agony eviscerated her insides. It was her baby being born, her baby never getting a chance to cry. Gabby almost bled out and died.
Then the voices came as she floated in and out of consciousness.
“She lost a lot of blood.”
“Get out of here!”
“I’m staying, Peter … I’m her husband.”
“You abandoned a pregnant wife and she nearly died, you son of a bitch—”
“Things were complicated between us. You wouldn’t begin to understand.”
“Do the right thing. I beg you, Declan. Give her back the life she deserves.”
After three days, she woke up and the first person she saw was Declan, sitting in a chair, his head buried in his hands.
She didn’t say anything, just stared at the top of his head. Her hands drifted to her belly and it felt so empty. A sob rose in her throat.
His head jerked up and he walked briskly to her side and pushed the button for the nurse. His face had aged, eyes were bloodshot, and his usually clean-shaven face was darkened by several days’ worth of stubble. He briefly closed his eyes and his mouth mo
ved as if saying a prayer, but he didn’t touch her.
“You’re awake,” he said gruffly. His eyes were suspiciously bright with emotion, but not a single tear fell.
“My baby?” she whispered.
Devastation was written all over Declan’s face, and he started shaking his head.
“You didn’t want him,” she accused.
“Gabby …”
“You didn’t believe he was yours.”
“I’m sorry—”
“Get out! Get the hell out!”
The nurses rushed in and then the doctor. Declan stayed behind them, his fingers digging into his hair as she continued to curse him and blame him for their baby’s death. The medical staff tried to calm her down but there were no words to drive out the excruciating pain that was tearing her up from the inside. She fought everyone who tried to give her comfort until finally they sedated her.
The next time she woke up, the only person she saw was Nick. He was the one who broke the news that her father had taken Claudette and their new baby to France.
By her bedside was a thick folded document.
Divorce papers.
She stared at them dispassionately. Her world already imploded the day her baby died.
Gabby realized she’d stopped crying. And, instead, a ball of anger formed at the base of her throat. Anger was good. It was better than despair. With anger came adrenaline and what followed adrenaline?
Clarity.
Our Lady of Lourdes Clinic.
She scrambled to her feet and grabbed the phone off the charger and called Kelso.
He answered on the second ring. “Hey, partner, was about to call you.”
“Do you have a lead on Ortega?”
“Uh, no?” His voice sounded very baffled.
“Well, I do, and don’t give me bullshit about taking it easy because I have a damned concussion.”
There was silence and then, “You all right, Woodward?”
“I will be if you tell me there’s an Our Lady of Lourdes clinic in our case file on Ortega.”
“That sounds familiar, but I’ll have to take a look.”
“That’ll take too long. Just come and get me.”
She ended the call without waiting for his response, and jumped into the shower with a renewed purpose.
“What’s your game, Claudette?” Declan navigated the Porsche SUV out of the Brentwood district. He figured they could drive around. He still didn’t know how to handle her, how to pump her for information without showing his disgust. The urge to shove her away when she kissed him was so strong, it was a wonder he stood as still as he did.
He glanced at the rearview mirror. Her bodyguards were following them in a black Explorer. It figured if her boyfriend was a billionaire.
“I missed you, Dec.”
His skin crawled. He hated that name since he was a kid and forbade anyone to call him that except Gabby. Somehow it felt right for her to use it.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Gabs does.”
“She was my wife.”
“Exactly. Was. So why does it matter if I call you the same?”
Claudette could be dense. She didn’t get it.
“Why don’t you tell me how Theo came to be your son?”
“He was better off with me and Peter.” Out of the corner of his eye, he noted Claudette squirming in her seat.
“Don’t feed me that bullshit.”
“She was only keeping the baby to hang on to you. It was for the best!”
“So your answer was to steal our kid?”
“I did you a favor. I set you free. If you found out you had a son, would you have gone on with your dream to join the Army? You hated her. You were going to divorce her. But you had second thoughts, didn’t you? You had the restraining order on her, but you were the one stalking her.”
Declan glanced sharply at Claudette. “How did you know?” It took months before he was able to think about Gabby and the baby. Deep down he knew it was his, but he couldn’t erase the image of her in bed with another man, letting his rage keep him physically away. Watching over her from a distance was all he could do. But that one night he got hung up on a modeling job, she got attacked. Guilt crushed his heart and he let her go.
“How, Claudette?”
“I had you followed,” she said slowly. “I got involved with a very dangerous man.”
“Raul Ortega?”
“How …” There was surprise on her face, but also satisfaction. “Of course. This is why I contacted you. You have connections that I need.”
“Tell me how Ortega is connected to this baby switch.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call it that. Theo will always be my son.”
He was fast losing his patience. “Talk, Claudette. Why did you do it? Did yours really die?”
“How dare you! Are you suggesting I killed my own baby?” she gasped. “I cried for days when I found out my baby was dead in my womb.”
He stilled.
“Are you saying,” he had to space out his words, fury curdling the blood inside him. His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. “The switch was premeditated?” He had to continue driving. If he pulled onto the shoulder, he might murder her and damn the consequences.
“You don’t understand!” she sobbed. “Ortega would have killed me if I had no baby to show for it.”
“He was the father.” His voice was dead quiet.
“Yes!”
Declan took a couple of deep breaths to process this confirmation. He waited until they reached the next traffic light before he spoke again. “Let’s back up a bit. How serious was your affair with Ortega?”
Claudette started talking. Telling him that Ortega was obsessed with her and prized her connections into Hollywood via her marriage to Peter Woodward. A jealous lover yet selfish when it came to what she did to his bottom line. She admitted her infatuation with the crime lord and the danger he represented. She loved the thrill it gave her and then she got pregnant.
“He deliberately planted his baby inside me,” she whispered. “When Raul found out I was pregnant, he was scarily ecstatic. He threatened me. Said he would kill me if I had an abortion. For all his criminal activities, he is a very religious man. Fanatically so.”
“Why didn’t he just ask you to divorce Peter and live happily fucking after?” Declan snarled. That would have spared everyone a lot of grief as it looked like Ortega and Claudette deserved each other.
“He said I could never be his queen because the cartels can’t be trusted. A wife and a son would be his weakness. That I had to be patient. But my baby died a month before I was to deliver. I panicked.”
His jaw clenched. “So you lured Gabby to Van Nuys that night. Took our baby instead. Who did you bribe, Claudette?”
She didn’t answer and looked out the window.
“Answer me!”
“I’m not telling you anymore until I know you’ll help me,” she said.
Declan lapsed into silence as he concentrated hard not to floor the gas. They reached the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and he made the turn to head to the Valley.
“Where are you going?” Claudette asked.
“What did you think was gonna happen?” he asked. “That we’re gonna have a cozy breakfast on Rodeo Drive?”
She gave a nervous laugh. “I wouldn’t dare be seen there.”
“What’s the matter, Claudette? Ortega found out you were a lying bitch and put a hit on you?” Declan cast a glance at her. She was staring at her linked fingers on her lap, twisting them in a sure sign of anxiety.
“He did, didn’t he?”
Her chin trembled. “It’s quite the opposite. Raul used me and now Andrade thinks I’ve connived with him, and I think he has the cartel looking for me.”
“Andrade?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Her mask of perfection cracked and revealed a very frightened woman. Declan almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
“But
it was all Raul, I swear,” she continued. “I thought the shipment I brought in was XZite pills.” At his snort, a defiant look crossed her face.
“You’re a drug mule.”
“That’s harsh. The XZite pills are a perfectly acceptable party drug in Europe.” She crossed her arms and hugged her biceps, giving a sniff. “I don’t do cocaine or the heavy stuff. Oh, I still gave Raul targets, but I stayed far away from trafficking or using. I was a good mother to Theo. Peter didn’t see that and had to ruin everything. He had suspicions about Theo being his son, especially when the boy started losing the baby fat. And then in one of our fights, I threw Raul at his face.” She laughed bitterly. “Peter couldn’t divorce me fast enough. Packed up and moved back to Los Angeles. Left me in Paris, scared that Ortega would come after me.”
“Did he order the hit on Peter?”
“It’s very possible,” she whispered almost too softly that Declan wasn’t sure those were her words. “The reason Raul wanted Theo to grow up with Peter was to shield him from his enemies. Before the fentanyl attacks, Raul used to be more visible in public. He and Peter were acquaintances. Peter confided in me that Raul had been inordinately fixated on Theo in the common gatherings they attended. Only Peter already knew that Gabby was Theo’s mother because he’d run a DNA analysis after our divorce three years ago.”
“When was the last time you talked to Peter?”
“Three months before his death. He was pissed. Told me to tell Raul to fuck off or he would.”
“Ortega was harassing Peter? He was in hiding by that time, right?”
“Yes. He’s a crime lord, Declan. He has people.”
“They threatened Peter?”
She shrugged. “I told him to leave well enough alone. Let Raul continue to believe that Theo was his. That’s all I really know.”
“Not everything. I want to know about you, Andrade, and Ortega.”
She looked out her window. “I found out from my bodyguard that I’ve actually handed a dangerous prototype to Ortega.”
“What prototype?” His voice was low and controlled.
“Some kind of biological weapon.”
“Jesus Christ!” Even when he expected her to say this because Garrison had already given him a heads up, it was still too much to be having this conversation and driving around. He scanned the road up ahead and looked for an exit. He pulled into a Denny’s parking lot, put the Porsche in park but kept the engine running. He twisted in his seat and faced her. “Why the hell would you do that?”
The Ex Assignment (Rogue Protectors Book 1) Page 10