by Lexi Blake
The doors opened. Steph strode out, moving toward the office. “Why don’t you head straight back to London? I don’t need you and neither does Nate.”
Sadie turned to him as well, her face flushed and eyes flashing. “You should be happy I don’t have the rest of those coffees because I might be tempted to use them on you, sir. You are a jerk.”
He stood and watched the women stomp down the hallway toward the big glass doors that led to the lobby of McKay-Taggart.
“I’m glad I didn’t make headway with the redhead,” Tucker said with a nod. “She seems very violent. I’m looking for more of a nonviolent female.”
“Good luck.” He followed the women out into the hall. “You won’t find many of those here.”
Steph strode through the door that led into the lobby and he realized if he didn’t catch up to her, she might lock herself in an office with that boy toy of hers and refuse to come out.
He walked in, stalking her like a predator. She would find out that she couldn’t lose him. Yes, he was tired and cranky, but they were going to have that conversation and she would see that he meant to do things right this time. They’d lost a year, but he could summon up a bit of charm. He would make her see that he was ready to try with her. He could soften her heart. He knew he could.
“Steph, we need to go to the conference room. We have to get everything you can remember down on paper. I need to know every single thing he said to you, everything you can recall about what he looked like,” he called out.
She turned down a hall that most certainly did not go to the conference room.
Sadie settled in behind her desk. “I’ll call everyone in. Ian’s in a meeting but he’ll be thrilled we nearly got murdered because it means he can cut it short. For a man who makes his money off corporate clients, he really hates them.”
“And get Adam on pulling the CCTV footage.” He wanted a face. If he had a face, he would be one step closer to a name. “Steph, I’m not joking. Come on. This is serious.”
She merely kept walking, her right arm in the air and middle finger extended.
“That’s rude,” Tucker commented. “At least that’s what everyone tells us when we use that gesture. I thought it was comical in all the movies I’ve seen it used in.”
Steph turned and walked through a door, disappearing from sight. Here it was, the moment he’d been dreading. He was going to meet the competition, the younger, likely less scarred rival who liked to flirt with other women when his girlfriend wasn’t around.
There wasn’t anything else to do but get the damn introductions over and let the young man know what he thought about how he took care of his girl.
He stopped at the doorway, realizing where she’d gone.
Brody stopped because she wasn’t walking into one of the offices, or even the break room. She walked into the large conference room they’d turned into a nursery. He found himself standing on the threshold of a room covered in toys and cribs. Two girls who looked an awful lot like Charlotte Taggart were sitting at a tiny table coloring. A couple of toddler boys were giggling and pushing toy cars along the floor. There was a nursery worker with a tiny baby in her arms, rocking in a rocking chair while she patted the baby’s back.
And Steph was standing over a crib.
“He’s been such a sweetheart,” the second of the nursery workers was saying. “He woke up a couple of minutes ago and he doesn’t fuss at all. He’s probably ready for a bottle though. He’s been trying to eat his own foot. Are you okay? Something happened to your shirt.”
He felt like his feet were nailed to the floor. Like he couldn’t move at all. What was going on?
Why was she here? The answer played around in his head and made him the tiniest bit ill.
Or a lot queasy. Yeah, it was more like a lot.
“It’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine. I just need to see him,” she said as she leaned over and picked up whatever was in the crib.
A baby. A freaking baby was in the crib, his inner voice was screaming. A baby. She lifted the baby up. A big baby. A big boy baby. He was wearing one of those blue shirt things mums put their infants in. It snapped together under his nappy. He had white socks on his pudgy baby feet.
Brody had seen that child before. He’d seen him at home, in pictures his mum kept on the walls.
“Nate?” His voice sounded tiny to his ears.
She turned and rolled her eyes. “Yes, I believe I told you in the voice mails I left that I was naming him Nathan. That’s his name. Nathan Avery.”
Her voice mails. The ones he hadn’t listened to. The ones he’d callously deleted so he wouldn’t be tempted by her. The voice mails where she told him she was having their child.
“Uh, Brody, you just went super white,” Tucker pointed out. “It is not a good look on you. You okay?”
Nope. Not at all. He felt light-headed and he couldn’t quite make his feet move. What had he done?
“Did I miss the big reveal?” Adam Miles showed up, a can of soda in his hand. “Damn it. I wanted popcorn to go with the show. Yeah, that’s your son, you dumbass. Whoa. Uh, I take it back. Do you need some sugar or something?”
The world spun and Brody felt himself falling. Right on Adam Miles.
He heard Steph cursing, but he was the one passing out this time.
The world blinked out and he found momentary peace.
Chapter Five
“Your ribs are fine,” a feminine voice was saying as Brody started to come out of the haze. “Your arm is not broken. I think if you hold a cold pack to your wrist it should be fine by morning.”
“No, I can tell that something is broken. I had four hundreds pounds of Australia fall on top of me. I have to have nearly died,” Miles whined. “I’m sure he broke my spleen.”
He felt a hand on his wrist, soft fingers sliding over to check his pulse.
“Brody? Can you open your eyes?” Steph’s voice was strong and clear. The voice of a doctor taking over out in the field.
He opened his eyes, blinking at the lights. What had happened? “I’m fine. I must have fallen.”
She frowned down at him. “You fainted.”
“You tried to kill me,” Miles accused. “You were like a mountain of pain falling on me.”
“Good, you arsehole.” Brody struggled to his feet. He needed to eat something. It had been roughly twenty-four hours since he’d eaten a damn thing and it was catching up to him.
Then he remembered where he was. “I want to see him.”
Steph held a hand out. “Why don’t we go talk?”
So she could put him off? “I want to see him. Or are you going to deny that’s my child? Because I can get a DNA test very quickly.”
“I never once denied it,” she replied. “I left you several messages concerning the fact that I was pregnant. I believe I threatened you with lawyers.”
“I didn’t listen to the messages and I damn straight didn’t get any messages from a lawyer. Did you try anything else? Why the hell didn’t you come to see me?”
Steph leaned over and gently kissed the baby, who was now being held in the nursery worker’s arms, a bottle lodged firmly in his mouth. When Steph glanced back up, there was a steely look in her eyes. “Out, Mr. Carter. We can have this discussion but I’m not doing it in front of the kids. I’m not going to scare them.”
He looked around and the older kids were watching him with wary eyes. The Taggart twins were staring up at him like they were ready to jump into action if needed.
He took a step back. “All right, but we do need to talk. Tucker, go find something to do.”
Tucker nodded and started down the hall toward the kitchen.
Steph led the way out after assuring Miles that getting a knee jammed into his crotch didn’t necessarily mean he could no longer have children.
Bastard.
Steph walked into an office, Li’s office. Brody followed and closed the door behind him. They were alone for the first time in a y
ear.
She’d had his baby.
“You didn’t even listen to the messages?”
He sighed. “I was afraid I would give in if I heard your voice.”
“Give in to what?” Steph asked, obviously exasperated. “You act like I’m some kind of temptress. I asked you to sleep with me once. I agreed to all your conditions. If I hadn’t gotten pregnant I would never have called you again.”
That hurt more than he’d like. And it was perverse. He’d wanted to disconnect with her and yet the idea that she didn’t want him made him ache inside.
She shook her head, leaning against the desk. “Don’t. You don’t get to look hurt. I was honoring your wishes. You didn’t want me to call. I wouldn’t have called unless there was an emergency. You couldn’t even find out if something was happening to me. That’s how little you cared.”
“That’s not true.”
“Oh, the evidence would say differently, Mr. Carter.”
He had to get through that wall. “Stop calling me that, Steph.”
“I’ll call you whatever I like,” she replied. “You wanted a polite relationship, this is what you get. We ceased being Brody and Steph the minute you decided to ignore my calls. And don’t you dare tell me I should have done more. You want me to show up on your doorstep? With what? I barely had enough cash to get out when someone was trying to kill me. I wasn’t wasting what I had on a man who didn’t care. And I certainly never dreamed you felt so little for me that you would erase my voice mails.”
God, he was in it up to his neck now. “That’s not why I did it, luv. It was the opposite. I felt too much for you.”
Her eyes rolled. “Yes, that’s why you haven’t reached out at all in a full year. Well, I feel better.”
“The minute I thought you were in danger, I flew here. Doesn’t that say something?”
“It’s too little too late.” She crossed her arms and winced slightly.
No one had even checked her out. Things had moved quickly, and then he’d been a dumb arse and passed out at the sight of his son. God, he had a son. “Let me see your arm.”
“I’m fine.”
“I said, let me see your bloody arm,” he repeated, his voice low. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Not this time. He’d fucked up horribly, but he was going to take care of her now. A year couldn’t have changed the heat between them. A year hadn’t changed his feelings for her. For an unknown reason, this woman had wanted him once before. He could find that magic again if he stayed close to her.
Suddenly, staying close to this woman was his main mission in life.
She shrugged out of the plaid shirt she wore, revealing a plain white sleeveless T-shirt underneath. She often wore layers. He could remember vividly sitting up in bed a few days after they’d met and thinking about how nice it would be to peel back those layers of clothing and get down to her skin, to unwrap her like the gift she was.
“See, it’s nothing more than a graze,” she said, holding her arm out.
He moved behind her because the red line where the bullet had grazed her seemed to start at the back of her arm. He held her in one big hand, gently running a thumb over the raised scratch. “Still needs to be cleaned.”
He reached over and grabbed a tissue from the box on Liam’s desk, soaking it with the hand sanitizer the Irishman kept by a picture of his kid. She was perfectly still as he touched the cleaner to her wound, though he couldn’t miss the hiss that came from her mouth.
“Sorry, but if you think you need better care, I can take you to an ER,” he promised.
“I think we’re avoiding the ER. Liam doesn’t want the police to get involved,” she replied, her whole body stilling as he leaned over and blew across the wound, trying to cool the heat from the alcohol. “Li doesn’t have a lot of faith that they can handle something like this. They don’t have the kinds of contacts in Africa that McKay-Taggart has.”
She seemed fragile. Despite the weight she’d gained, she was still dainty compared to him. He could wrap his hand nearly all the way around her arm. This was why he’d been reluctant to touch her at first. He was a hulking beast and she the fairy princess who deserved a prince.
“Are you sure there’s nothing else wrong?” Brody asked quietly.
“Besides the fact that I’m tired and I’ve barely slept because I’m terrified a maniac is going to kill me and my son? I’m great.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. She always held her tension there. How many nights had he run his hands along her shoulders, rubbing until she finally relaxed? It had served as a way to quell the deep need to touch her. He let his thumbs slide along the rigid muscles, satisfied at the way she sighed.
“I came as soon as I found out you were in trouble. I don’t intend to leave. I’m going to take care of this for you.”
“It’s fine, Brody. I’m hiring bodyguards and Li is sure that they’ll figure out how to handle this man.”
“What does he want from you?” He wanted to talk about Nate. Desperately. He wanted to know everything about the kid, but she was talking to him, allowing him to touch her. He wasn’t about to stop. They would have plenty of time to talk later.
“I don’t think he wants anything but revenge.” Her voice was softer now.
He would rather keep that sweet voice of hers softening up. He knew how to do it. She melted when he touched her, responded like no woman ever had to him. But that would have to wait. Li would be back any moment and they needed to solve the problem.
“That’s not how he sounded on the phone. He wanted something. He said he knew what you had and he would get it back one way or another.” He’d thought about those words over and over again. He’d carefully typed them into his phone so he would have notes on the conversation.
Her shoulders were tight again and she moved away from him. “I didn’t take anything except Nate. I barely had time to shove a can of formula in his diaper bag. I left my phone behind, my laptop, everything except my purse. I had to buy clothes and a small suitcase when I got to Guinea. I only did that because I knew there would be questions about a woman traveling to the States without a suitcase.”
“That was smart.” He kept his voice low and soothing despite the fact that he wanted to shout a million questions at her, wanted to drag her back into his arms. “They likely would have questioned you and that would have cost you time.”
“Well, I didn’t actually think of it. Alfi did,” she replied. “He’s another Aussie, believe it or not. I can’t seem to find a security guy who wasn’t born in Oz.”
Alfi. Bloody Alfi. Oh, he should have known better than to think Alfi could do one favor for him. “What did he do?”
“The boss? I don’t want to go through this again, Brody. I’m tired.”
“I meant that wanker Alfi Dauterre.”
She was quiet for a moment and then her jaw dropped. “How did you… Of course. You sent him. I should have known he was too good to be true when he showed up two weeks after you left and wanted nothing but room and board.” Her hands went to her hips. “And you say you had no idea about Nate? Alfi knew. And by the way, if you sent him to take your place, sorry, I turned him down. I’d had enough larger-than-life Aussie sex for a lifetime.”
“He did what?” Brody felt his fists at his sides again. “He tried something with you?”
The door opened and Liam stood there. “What’s going on? Carter, if you lay a hand on her…”
Steph waved the notion off. “He’s not going to hit me. He’s pissed that his plan to foist me off on someone else didn’t work.” She frowned as though something had just occurred to her. “Or maybe it did. You know Alfi could be Nate’s bio dad. Maybe you’re off the hook.”
“Don’t you even pretend that boy ain’t mine,” he growled back. “Don’t try me right now, luv. I’m not capable of handling it the way I should. Or maybe it would be the way I should. You always were interested in D/s, weren’t you? You keep pushing me and you’ll find
out what it means to be my sub.”
Steph started to open her mouth.
Li put a hand out. “Don’t. He’s been pushed enough, darlin’.”
“I thought you were on my side.”
Liam turned to her. “Have you figured out that he’s a dumb bastard who didn’t know about the boy?”
“Like that matters,” she shot back. “It means nothing. He didn’t care enough to even listen to my voice mails. And according to him, he sent Alfi to take his place. Did you think if I started sleeping with Alfi that I would leave you alone? Seriously? You are one of the most arrogant men I’ve ever met.”
“He’s not arrogant at all and that’s part of the problem,” Liam said, holding the door open. “And I doubt he sent someone to take his place in your bed.”
“I bloody well didn’t, and when I get my hands on him, he’ll find out how little I thought of his help,” Brody said between clenched teeth. “He was my friend. We grew up in the same town, went into SASR together. The bastard was supposed to tell me if she needed anything. I sent him to watch over her because I couldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t,” Li corrected.
He wasn’t going to argue the point now. “He didn’t bother to tell me she was pregnant and now I find out he tried to sleep with her. I’ll kill him.”
“He also managed to get her out of there before she got killed.” O’Donnell seemed determined to be the voice of reason. “Now, we’re wanted in the conference room. There have been a couple of developments and Big Tag wants to talk about how we proceed.”
“I don’t want him here,” Steph said, her arms crossed over her chest.
O’Donnell’s jaw firmed and he pointed her way. “Then you shouldn’t have made a baby with the bastard. He is here. He is Nathan’s da and you’ve got to deal with that. Unless Carter doesn’t want the boy.”
“I want him.” He spat the words out as quickly as he could. There would be no doubt as to whether or not he wanted the child. That boy wouldn’t spend another day without his father in his life. “I didn’t think I was good enough for Steph, but none of that matters now.”