No fucking way. Gabe knew from experience the absolute last thing Rick would do was give a warning before screwing him over.
“Convenient.” Gabe didn’t even try to mumble. He nearly shouted the word.
“I’m talking about one thing.” Rick’s voice turned deadly cold. “You’re trying to make this about another.”
Tension choked the room. They kept glancing at one another, as if waiting for the explosion to come. Gabe decided to diffuse. It amounted to more denial, but he didn’t give a shit. “Fine, Natalie is probably safe. We’ll wait for word from Bast, who is my client, before she goes anywhere.”
“Is she leaving?” Rick asked.
The words sliced through Gabe even when someone else said them. He’d just stopped worrying every second about her cutting out on him. Now Rick raised the issue again.
“She?” The fury rumbled in Natalie’s voice.
Gabe didn’t like Rick’s dismissive tone either, but now wasn’t the time for this battle. “Not your concern, but if that’s all then—”
“You know it’s not.”
Andy got up and put a hand on Rick’s arm. “Let Gabe finish this job.”
Not moving, not ever breaking eye contact with Gabe, Rick leveled his final shot. “I’m going to the campus tomorrow and taking Brandon to dinner.”
The words knocked the wind right out of Gabe. Had a mix of fear and fury vibrating through him. He wanted to double over, come out punching—something. But he refused to give Rick the satisfaction of knowing this threat landed.
This wasn’t about his ego. This was about Brandon and putting him in a position sure to rip him apart. “You promised you wouldn’t go directly to him.”
Rick shook his head. “You are waiting too long to make a decision about the DNA test or even broach the possibility of a paternity issue with Brandon.”
“The test results won’t change if Brandon gets older.” Gabe hated to even reference them. Give them any credence, but that fact should resonate on some level. Or it would if Rick’s plans were really about Brandon and not about Rick’s ego.
Natalie started to say something but Rick talked right over her. “Under that scenario I lose more time with him.”
Rage swamped Gabe. Started at his feet and swept over him until the heat thundered in his veins. “And you don’t give a shit what I lose.”
“Look at this from my side.”
Every comment ignited more fury until Gabe could barely see. The room shrank until it was just the two of them locked in this fight. He took a warning step. Got right up in Rick’s face, ready to unload with more than words if necessary. “You mean the side where you slept with my girlfriend, lied about it, watched me struggle to raise Brandon—”
“I helped.” Rick’s yell bounced off the soaring ceilings.
A silence followed the shout. A tense quiet fell over the room. The walls seemed to be closing in and dark clouds gathered despite the sunny day.
Gabe didn’t care if they broke every stick of furniture. This was too important and the pounding inside of him screamed for him to take a shot, just one. To take out all his frustration and fear on the brother who didn’t care what happened to any of them.
“And now want to rush in, clear your conscience and claim my son as yours.” Gabe shook as he spit out the words. His jaw tightened until cracking and he had to ball his hands into fists to keep from reaching out and ending this with Rick once and for all.
Instead of taking the bait and launching the first punch, Rick stepped back. He shook his head as he stared at the floor. “You don’t know how long I debated telling you all of this.”
Gabe didn’t buy it for one second. “Stop acting like the victim.”
“Maybe . . .” Rick glanced at Natalie. “We should—”
“What?” Gabe was too far gone to listen to reasoning or anything else. Fire burned inside of him. He’d been putting it out and stomping on it from the day he learned about the affair. Now it raged.
“Ms. . . .” Rick threw out an arm in Natalie’s direction. “She doesn’t need to hear all of our private information.”
“She knows about Brandon and your claims. She is with me.” Gabe took another step, but this one put him in front of her. “Do you understand that?”
“You’re sleeping together.” Rick hesitated between each word, as if he analyzed them as he said them.
“More than that.” Andy stood up, too. Now the four of them hovered around in a tight group, with Natalie just outside of Rick’s reach, but not by far.
Rick looked confused. “I didn’t know it was serious.”
“Why, did you want to make a pass at her, too?” Andy groaned, but Gabe did not regret the smartass comment. Rick deserved the shot. Deserved a hell of a lot more.
“Okay, stop.” Natalie shoved them all out of the way and moved to the center of the circle.
Rick shook his head. “This isn’t your business.”
Not one to back down, Natalie put a hand out, not touching him but close. Her other one rested on Gabe’s chest. “Your mistakes are impacting everyone’s business.”
Rick glanced at her hand. Looked ready to swat it away but didn’t. “I am not arguing with you about my life.”
“What the fuck.” Andy kept swearing under his breath for another few seconds before continuing on. “This isn’t just about you, Rick.”
“Well, it’s sure as hell not about her.”
Something exploded in Gabe’s brain. She was off-limits and Rick . . . “That’s it.”
“No.” Natalie shoved against him as he closed in. She threw in a glare before looking back and forth between all the men. “Honest to God, I will pull my gun.” She focused in on Rick. “And you, dumbass, should not test me.”
Andy pushed them all back, giving her some breathing room. He also kept a hand on each brother. “Let’s listen to the smart lady.”
Gabe wrestled with his control. He’d lost it. Really lost it. Actually wanted to hurt Rick. Inflict some damage so he’d know what it felt like to live in this tumble of confusion and frustration and panic. That realization had him inhaling and trying to get his heartbeat to settle back to normal levels.
“First, everyone stop talking about Brandon’s mother like she’s a cookie the two of you passed back and forth.” Natalie looked around at all of them but stopped on Rick. “Gabe loved Linda, and you were so far out of line that you should be grateful he lets you in his life and anywhere near Brandon after what you did.”
Andy nodded. “Amen.”
She turned on Gabe. “And you . . . Linda was young and made a mistake and it’s over. Not to minimize or diminish, because you are right to be furious and not trust Rick, but you said you don’t love her. Let that part fall into history and focus on what—who—does matter.”
“This is about Brandon,” Andy added.
“Who could be my son.”
Andy grabbed Rick’s arm and twisted his shirt in his hand. “You’ve got to stop with this shit.”
“Gabe is sitting there, patting himself on the back for raising the kid but that might not have been his right.” Rick practically screamed the insult.
He couldn’t do it. Gabe couldn’t find a place or enough time to dig out of the hole. So, he would fight his way out. “I am going to fucking kill you.”
“He’s mine,” Rick said, not leaving any doubt how he thought a DNA test would come out.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Brandon is not furniture. He is not a possession.”
Gabe listened to the words and remembered Natalie’s comment about Linda not being a cookie. It resonated. Even humbled him a little, because he had turned Linda into the villain in his mind. Forgot her age and everything going on in her life at that time with her difficult parents and painted her as evil. Something clicked. Not enough for Gabe to turn off the rage, but it decreased to a level where he could think again.
He was about to call for cooldown when Rick pointed at Natalie. “S
tay out of this.”
She shook her head. “He’s not your son.”
“Right, I get Gabe’s argument about biology.” Rick waved a hand in the air. “Save it.”
She visibly swallowed. “No, I mean he’s really not your son.”
Silence crashed through the room for a second time. They all stared at her. Rick wore a look of confusion, but Gabe didn’t care about him. He focused on her. She didn’t throw out comments just to say them. She backed up claims. She did her homework.
Gabe’s mind went blank as he searched for the right words. The hollowness inside him made it tough to hear or think about anything. He touched her arm and brought her around to face him. “What are you talking about?”
“I have the test results.” Some of the strength had left her voice. She stood in the middle of the room, more or less between them all, and kept glancing from one to the other.
“What the fuck?” Andy stepped back. Way back until he leaned against the fireplace.
“I had them done so Gabe would know.”
Gabe could barely hear her. The words faded. His emotions battled. Relief at the idea of her being right. Absolute crushing pain at the thought of her working behind his back. Doing exactly what he told her he didn’t want.
“I’m supposed to trust you?” But part of Rick clearly did. The doubt about the paternity hovered right there in his voice.
“Gabe didn’t know.” She walked over to the bookshelf next to the fireplace and removed an envelope from the top of a line of books and held it out to Rick. “And you can look for yourself. Reputable lab. Gabe is the birth father.”
She’d carried that around yesterday. Gabe fought to remember through the daze that threatened to swallow him.
Rick turned the envelope over in his hands but didn’t open it. “This can’t be.”
“Natalie?” Gabe heard the rough edge to his voice and ignored it.
Sadness filled her eyes as she held a hand out to him. “I know you’re upset.”
“No.” He jerked away from her touch, because that word didn’t even come close to covering this betrayal. He had to fight his knees to stay steady and choke back the bile rushing up the back of his throat. “What the fuck did you do?”
“Ran the test.”
He didn’t know how that was possible. He searched his mind for any reasonable excuse or a way to understand why she lied and worked behind his back. How she . . . The lightbulb clicked on. Those visits from Eli. Here he thought he welcomed the guy into his house to help her legal case when she was just playing games with his personal life.
A strange darkness fell over him. “Why would you do this?”
Before she could answer Rick’s flat voice floated through the room. “I was so sure.”
Gabe leaned over and ripped the envelope out of Rick’s hand. Then he pointed toward the door. “You, get out of my house.”
“Gabe, maybe we should talk this through,” Andy said in an uncharacteristically hesitant voice.
No, this anger Gabe could handle. The kind aimed at Rick. His offenses stood out there for everyone to see. Natalie’s . . . Gabe couldn’t wrap his head around her choices. He brought her into his life and told her how he felt. How lost he was about the idea of losing Brandon.
Damn it, he fell for her. Hard and fast and with enough intensity to knock him stupid. Maybe that explained it. The great sex and growing feelings for her blocked out what he should have seen happening right there in his house. He lowered his emotional wall and she jumped over. Jumped all over him.
“Take him outside.” He gestured for Andy to usher Rick out of his sight then turned on Natalie. “Now tell me why I shouldn’t kick you out on your lying ass.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Anger radiated off Gabe and smacked right into Natalie. She could see it in his drawn features and hear it in the harsh whip of his voice.
Something inside her scrambled. The truth had tumbled out of her. Watching Rick stand there, so sure and so smug while failing to take responsibility for any of the damage he’d done. The pain hidden just behind Gabe’s fury. She thought she’d settle the matter and then they could move on. Instead she just redirected all of Gabe’s rage at her.
She took a step back. “Listen . . .”
“Don’t do that. Don’t act like I’m going to hit you.” Tension pulled at the corners of his mouth and around his eyes. All the light and charm had seeped right out of him. “You know that’s not the case.”
But his words ripped into her with the force of a slap. It was as if he took every secret she’d ever shared and discounted it all before rolling it into a ball and throwing it back in her face.
“You were not handling the issue.” She regretted referring to Brandon like an item to be checked off on a list, but she couldn’t call it back. Not when she had so many other things she regretted right now.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Color washed through Gabe’s face, red and angry. “We’ve known each other for weeks and you think you know what’s best for me better than I do?”
Each sentence struck her like a lash, leaving scars. But she stayed on her feet and fought through. “I thought I meant something to you.”
“So did I.” He didn’t move from his position looming in front of her, hands on his hips as he practically screamed the words.
She tried to swallow. Tried to find her breath but she couldn’t draw in enough air or force her body to work. “My job—”
“I don’t work for you.”
He wasn’t giving an inch. All signs of the caring man who held her at night and gently brushed his hands over her skin vanished. “I am the type of person who resolves problems.” When he started to talk she ran right over his words with a few of her own. “Don’t even think about throwing the fact I was fired in my face. You will regret it.”
He stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds, possibly trying to stem his rage, but when he looked down again all the signs of him being furious held in place. “I told you I didn’t want the test.”
She plowed through that fact as she pushed forward. She’d known that would be a problem. That’s why she hesitated and held back the envelope. Why she debated looking inside, but she had. As soon as he fell asleep last night, she snuck downstairs and found the paperwork right where they’d left it on the couch. She scanned the contents then tucked it away.
Now it haunted her. Good news or not didn’t seem to matter to Gabe, and that’s the part she didn’t get. “We both know you couldn’t hide from it forever.”
“We talked about this.” Her knuckles turned white as he tightened his hold on his hips. “I was clear.”
His words floated through her brain. End of story. She couldn’t exactly claim confusion about his meaning. “Very.”
“But you decided. You took away my choice.”
“I thought . . .”
She eased away from him toward the couch. Standing behind it suddenly felt safer than standing in front of him unguarded. One glance at the open front door and she realized they were alone. Andy wouldn’t come rushing to her aid. Not on this.
Gabe leaned in. “You thought what?”
“I don’t know.” God, she didn’t. It all made sense to her at one point. This is what she’d done for her team. Rushed in and fixed the problem before they stepped into any more danger. The steps made sense to her. Now to put them into words. “I wanted to help, and I figured if I knew the answer I could prepare you.”
His eyes actually bulged. “That was your plan?”
Sugarcoating her thoughts now didn’t make much sense, so she grabbed on to the top of the couch cushion with all of her might and let the facts spill out. They would condemn her or not in Gabe’s eyes. She didn’t have any control over that. “If the news turned out to be bad, I planned to tell Andy and get his help. If it was good, like it was, I’d hope to ease you into the idea of a test, knowing how relieved you’d be.”
“You were going to let me wait, make me
tell Brandon about the possible outcomes even though you would have known everything was fine?” She didn’t have time to answer. Didn’t even have an answer to that. Gabe stepped right in front of her. He nearly shook as his jaw clenched. “I’m not a fucking child.”
“Obviously.”
“I don’t need to be handled or for the woman I’m sleeping with to sneak around my house for evidence.” A nerve in his cheek visibly ticked. “That’s what happened, right? You took something of mine and his.”
“We both know how DNA tests work.” Hearing the details wouldn’t help, and she couldn’t take much more.
Her emotional shields kept rising and she tried to hold them down. She deserved some of his wrath. She just never expected his rage to catch her up and toss her around the way it did. If this was how deep the blows went when you fell in love, she’d stay single and uncommitted forever.
His exhale sounded like a harsh cough. “Do you really not understand what you’ve done?”
“Solved your problem. Brandon is yours.”
“He was always mine.” Gabe’s voice rose until it echoed through the house. “That’s the goddamn point. Who donated the sperm was not my concern.”
He kept saying that. She thought he probably even believed the words on some level, but she didn’t. When it came to Brandon, Gabe couldn’t hide his vulnerability. “Yes, it was. That’s why you balked at finding out the truth.”
“I was trying to spare Brandon.”
“At least be honest and admit that you hid from the truth for your sake as well as for Brandon’s.” Under all the guilt and the blame he kept heaping on her something else poked through. A hint of temper and it slid in before she could bite it back.
“You don’t get to be angry or disappointed in me right now.”
“Fine. But I’m the one who stepped up and tried to resolve this. Your solution today was to beat up your brother.” Gabe’s expression went blank but not before she knew she’d hit on the truth. Those threatening steps. The words. Gabe had been on the verge of breaking into a full knockdown fight. “You think I didn’t notice? I know you.”
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