A Daddy for Mother's Day_A Secret Baby Romance

by Natalie Knight

  “If I were you,” Carter says, his tone a threatening one, “I’d think very hard about what you’re going to say next.”

  Percy seems taken aback at Carter’s words, and so he just sinks down into a sunken silence.

  “Is this how it’s going to be?” Percy says, finally managing to find his voice again. “You’re going to choose this whore over your own brother?”

  That does it for me.

  The moment I hear the word whore leave his mouth, I don’t even think—I just act. I take one step back, allow my right leg to swing back and then I launch it straight at Percy’s crotch.

  I feel my ankle smashing right between his legs, and all blood leaves his face in a fraction of a second. He becomes as pale as a snowman, and when Carter lets go of him he just folds onto the floor.

  “I told you not to call me that,” I tell him, leaning in and looking straight into his eyes. There’s pain there—pain, confusion, and surprise. But there’s also rage, a desire for vengeance. After what I just did, I know that my time’s running out.

  Percy will come after me, and he’ll pull no punches.

  Oh, well, if that’s how it’s going to be…

  Without even thinking about what I’m doing, I reach inside my purse and take out my can of mace. I point it straight at his eyes, and before he realizes what I’m doing, I mace the fuck out of him.

  “ARGH!” He screams out, covering his eyes with the palm of his hands as if they were on fire.

  “That’s the lesson of the day,” I tell Percy, suddenly feeling more confident than I’ve felt in weeks. “Don’t fuck with me.”

  With that I turn on my heels and, arm-in-arm with Carter, start walking out of the garden. We leave Percy behind us, crying out of in pain.

  Well, this is it.

  Retaliation is coming.

  Carter

  “Where are you? We need to talk. Right fucking now,” I say into the phone, my fingers wrapped so tight against the damn thing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it shattered into a million little pieces.

  “In the house. Meet me in the ballroom,” Kieran replies, and he knows that by the tone of my voice that I have no time to answer questions. Not over the phone at least. This is too important, too serious.

  After what just happened with Percy, the clock is ticking fast. War’s coming, and we need to be ready for it. Percy’s going to start moving fast, and he’ll bury us in a matter of hours if we’re not prepared for it.

  Lucky for us, I don’t think he knows who the fuck he’s dealing with. Sure, he’s known all of us since we were kids. But from the level of his arrogance, I doubt he’ll expect us to counter his moves.

  He think he still has Nolan under his thumb, and he doesn’t know that we’re aware of what’s in the will. He fancies himself as some kind of master manipulator, and that’ll be the end of him.

  Thing is, I’m still not sure of how we’ll get out of this mess. As confident as I am on our ability to pull through and rescue both Stacy and our family’s fortune, it’s a fact that we still don’t have solid plans.

  And without a plan, we’re at his mercy.

  “What happened?” Kieran asks us the moment he sees us walk inside the ballroom, and I notice his eyes darting straight to Stacy’s face, where Percy’s fingers have left a mark.

  Swear to God, just thinking of that is enough to make me want to kill him. I can’t believe the fucking asshole dared raise his hand against Stacy. I should’ve broken his arm right there and then, fuck the consequences.

  “What happened is that we need to move against Percy. Right now,” I tell him, and Kieran just nods. He has seen the mark of Percy’s fingers on Stacy’s face, and he doesn’t need me to explain what went down.

  “Where’s Nolan?” He asks me, pulling out his phone from inside his jacket, then starts dialing. “He’s not picking up.”

  “Fuck,” I mutter. “Doesn’t matter. Just call Ardmore and tell him we need to meet right away,” I instruct Kieran, and he starts calling the family’s lawyer right away. He hasn’t put the phone up to his ear when Percy stumbles inside the ballroom, pushing both doors open at the same time.

  His hair is dishevelled, and his eyes are red and swollen. It’d almost be a comedic sight if it weren’t for the fact that he has us all by the balls.

  “Feeling special, are we?” He growls, looking around the room like a caged tiger.

  Usually he’s always cowering in fear, but I think that his boiling rage has gotten the best of him. It won’t end well for him if he decides to take a swing at us—sure, his treacherous tricks might have us against the wall, but if he decides to trade fists with any of us...well, that’ll be a whole new conversation.

  As for me, I almost want him to take a swing at him. Let him come. I’ll punch him so hard his teeth will be pinned against his brain.

  “What the fuck do you want, Percy?” I growl right back at him, digging my fingernails into the palm of my hands so hard that I almost draw blood. “Haven’t you learned your lesson?”

  “I think you’re the ones that haven’t learned the lesson,” he continues, lowering his voice menacingly. “You fucked my wife, and now you think you’re on top of the world, huh?”

  “I was never your wife!” Stacy suddenly cries out, standing between me and Percy. Her cheeks are flushed, but there’s a certain determination in her eyes. She’s breaking the chains that Percy has her shackled with.

  I just hope we can save her family.

  “Oh, is that so, Stacy?” Percy whispers, taking one step toward her. “Too bad your father will be sorry about those words,” he continues, wiping the spit out from his lips with the back of his hand. “All of your family will be sorry about that.”

  “Don’t you fucking dare lift a finger against her or her family, motherfucker,” Kieran joins the fray, and I actually have to place my hand on his chest to stop him from knocking Percy out cold. He’s aching to bury his fist against Percy’s face, and I totally get it—I feel exactly the same.

  But we can’t make the situation even worse.

  “You’ll regret this,” Percy says, looking around the room as if he was shooting lasers out from his eyes. If hate could murder, I venture to say we’d all be dropping dead right now.

  “You’ll fucking regret it,” he continues, taking his phone out from his pocket. “Your father’s done,” he then tells Stacy, and I watch as all blood drains from her face.

  This is it.

  We’re fucked.

  “NOT SO FAST, MOTHERFUCKER!” I hear someone say as the doors to the ballroom swing open, slamming against the wall. Nolan storms inside the room fast, stalking toward Percy, and he snags the phone out from his hands.

  With a grin on his face, Nolan drops the phone to the floor and then crushes it with the heel of his shoe, smashing the screen.

  “Someone’s done, alright,” he tells Percy, looking straight into his eyes. “But that person’s you.”

  Nolan

  The look on Percy’s face is priceless.

  Swear to God, I’d spend a fortune just so I could capture his expression of surprise. He wasn’t expecting me to storm in like this, and he sure as hell wasn’t expecting me, of all people, to take the phone out of his hands.

  His eyes are wide, so much that they’re bulging out of his sockets. There are beads of sweat on his brow, and his lips are a thin line of disbelief. Just like I said: priceless.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” He asks me in a subdued whisper, taking one step back.

  I close the distance between us, grab him by the scruff of his shirt and push him back until he’s pinned between me and the wall.

  “The tables have turned,” I growl, leaning in and smelling the fear. My blood’s boiling, and I’m more than ready to move in for the kill.

  “What are you talking about?” He insists, looking toward the door, almost as if he’s looking for a way out. No such thing right now. He had us all trapped for so long, and now he’
s the one cornered.

  “You’re lucky we put up with you for so long,” I continue, and Kieran and Carter join my side. I look from one to the other, and return the smile on their faces. “The only reason we put up with you for so long, was that we didn’t know the reason behind this bullshit marriage story of yours.”

  “Fake marriage? That’s not—”

  “Shut the fuck up, Percy,” I tell him, and then I just slap him. I don’t even dignify him with a punch. No, I just slap him with the back of my hand, doing it as if he were a little bitch. Well, not as if he weren’t—he truly is a little bitch.

  “Your debts—”

  “I don’t give a fuck about my debts,” I continue, cutting him short once more. And slapping him again, of course. Fuck, this feels good. More than good.

  “I know all about your bullshit, Percy. I know you have nothing on me. It’s all smoke and mirrors, motherfucker. I’m free from your grasp.”

  “I’ll fucking ruin you, I’ll destroy all of you!” He shouts, looking around the room with scared eyes.

  “You’ll do nothing of that sort, Percy.” I finally let go of his shirt, and he just slides down the wall to the floor, crumpled like an empty paper bag. “You know what I did before coming here? I called the fucking cops.”

  “The cops?” He asks me in a whisper, his voice so low that I can barely hear him. But I don’t need to hear him—I can smell his fear.

  “The cops,” I nod. “I did a little digging you see. I made a few phone calls, dug through a lot of financial files, and discovered a few things about all these shell corporations you’re involved with.”

  This time he doesn’t say a thing. He just looks up at me, cowering, and both his hands start trembling at the same time. He knows I’ve got him. He knows there’s no escape.

  “Stacy’s father isn’t in any real trouble, is he? The companies you used to buy a majority stake in his company are all bullshit. The money you used was all fraudulent, and a good portion of it funneled through money laundering operations. I always knew you were a pathetic weasel, but I was actually surprised to find out just how much of a fucker you are.”

  “That’s…that’s a lie!” He sputters, talking so fast that spit starts dripping down his chin. He wipes it with the back of his hand and then tries to go up to his feet, using one hand to support himself against the wall.

  “Well, you pulled through,” Kieran says, patting me in the back.

  “You did, man,” Carter adds in, placing one hand on my shoulder as well.

  “All I needed was some direction,” I tell them all, taking one step back from Percy. “The moment I knew what was going on with Stacy’s father, it was just a matter of doing some digging.”

  “You have no proof, none at all!” Percy continues to sputter, his eyes focused on the door. I know that, given the chance, he’ll just run for it. Tough luck for him, though—he’s not going anywhere.

  “You’re wrong, Percy,” I whisper, enjoying the way I can’t stop smiling. I reach inside my jacket and remove a couple of folded documents from the inside.

  “Here’s your proof,” I continue, throwing the papers against him. They float around his body, drifting down to the floor, and he just stares at me slack-jawed.

  He doesn’t need to see the documents.

  He knows I have him.

  “NO!” He cries out, doing it like a girl, and then starts racing toward the door. Moving fast, Kieran reaches for him and grabs him by the collar of his shirt. He pulls on him hard, and throws him over the large table.

  “Not so fast, asshole,” Carter adds, closing both doors and locking them. “You’re stuck with us now. At least until the cops get here, that is.”

  Percy gets up, looking around the room for an exit. For a moment, I almost think he’s going to jump through the window. I dismiss that thought almost immediately—a coward like Percy would never do something like that. I can imagine him going down on his knees and begging us not to turn him in, but it’s too late for that.

  We could’ve been a family, the four of us, but Percy never wanted that.

  He’s my brother, yes, but that’s just on paper.

  My real brothers are Kieran and Carter.

  “Is this real?” Stacy whispers, coming up to me and hugging me tight. I look into her eyes, and smile as I see them brimming with tears—tears of joy.

  “Yes, it is…as real as it gets, Stacy. You’re free.”

  Stacy

  You’re free.

  The moment I hear these words, I can’t stop it—I feel the tears coming, and I don’t even bother trying to stop them. I let them run free down my face, ruining my makeup, but I don’t even care about it one bit. This time they’re tears of joy, and it feels good to have them run down my face.

  Hell, it feels more than good. It feels absolutely perfect.

  “Please,” I hear Percy whisper, and his voice is weak, frail…and pathetic. Just like he is. It’s almost funny, though—I can’t believe I’m hearing him like this. It’s such a far-cry from his arrogant ways. I probably shouldn’t feel like this, but screw it—I’m enjoying each and every single second of this.

  “Please?” I repeat, walking up to him, my voice so harsh it sounds foreign to my own ears. He’s sitting on one of the chairs, his hands tied behind it, and his eyes are wide with desperation.

  We really didn’t have to bind him, but I guess, we kind of wanted to see him like that. I know I didn’t want to pass up the chance to see him tied and on the verge of tears.

  The Master Manipulator on his hands and knees, at last.

  He played us all, made us dance like puppets…but he ended up dancing to our tune, didn’t he? A tune he never expected to hear.

  “Are you begging us for mercy? How do you expect me to show you any mercy when you treated me like an object? When you used me, when you threatened to destroy my family?” I continue, looking down at him with…contempt? Pity? I don’t even know how I feel toward him anymore. Before all this, I hated him, but now…I just don’t care about him.

  I have my freedom.

  I have my men.

  I’m not going to waste a single thought on this shadow of a man.

  “And here they are,” Nolan whispers, peeking through the curtains as a parade of police cars stop on the driveway.

  A small army of men in uniform start rushing toward the house, hands on the butts of their guns as if expecting to find some kind of financial Scarface holed up in this mansion, guns ready to blaze.

  “Chill out, guys, your man’s right here,” Kieran says, opening the door to the ballroom and casually waving toward Percy. “We got the job done.”

  Without a word, the cops step into the room, racing toward Percy.

  “You’re under arrest,” one of them, a tall guy with a bald head, growls at Percy. He hauls him up to his feet, cuts the rope we had him bound with and replaces it with a set of brand new handcuffs.

  Percy’s no longer just on the verge of tears—no, he’s crying like a little girl, tears running down his cheeks as he sobs, snot hanging from his nose.

  Now that’s a sight I want etched in my memory forever.

  “Please, stop them!” Percy wails, looking at his three brothers, pleading for them to rescue him.

  He hasn’t given up yet.

  “Do you seriously think you’ll see any mercy from us?” Kieran says, walking toward him and stopping the cops before they drag Percy out of the ballroom.

  “After what you did to us…after what you did to Stacy…you’re not our brother, Percy. You’re no one. Father would be ashamed of you…and so are we.” He takes a deep breath, runs one hand through his hair as if he’s trying to rearrange his thoughts, and only then does he continue.

  “And the moment you enter that police car waiting for you right outside, we’ll all forget about you.”

  “No, please…” Percy continues, but Kieran just turns his back to him and walks toward me. I watch over his shoulder as the cops dr
ag him out the door, leading him outside and stuffing him inside one of the cars on the driveway.

  The moment Percy’s inside the car, he lowers his head and buries it in his face, sobbing and wailing uncontrollably. Even from here, I can hear his cries out of utter desperation. I tuned them out real fast.

  Just like Kieran said, the moment the doors close, I forget all about Percy.

  That chapter of my life has been closed.

  And a new one is about to begin.

  Going on tiptoes, I brush my lips against Kieran’s and then turn around to look at Carter and Nolan. They walk toward me, their eyes never leaving mine, and place their hands on my waist. I’m right in the middle of them, circled by three perfect men, and I’ve never felt as happy as I do now.

  My life couldn’t be any more perfect.

  I know that I should be picking up the phone to call my father, but right now I simply don’t want to waste any time. I’ll do that later. Right now, I just want to enjoy this moment.

  “We did it,” I whisper, looking at the three of them. I can hear my heart beating fast inside my chest, and I’m so happy that I can’t even think straight. I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline, desire, or whatever—all I know is that I want them to pick me up from the floor and take me upstairs to one of the rooms.

  Or, hell, maybe they could just fuck me right here. I know I wouldn’t mind.

  “Time for some celebration, wouldn’t you say?” I ask my men, and the look on their eyes tells me they agree.

  Time for some celebration indeed.

  Stacy

  We don’t wait long.

  Not even one minute has passed after the last cop car left the driveway, and the four of us are already holed up inside my bedroom. Sure, we could have done our little celebration downstairs, but a proper celebration needs a proper bed.

  Besides, we now have all the time in the world to fuck inside every single room in the house. Which I expect we’ll start doing soon enough.

  Turning around to face the three of them, I suck in a breath and exhale, pushing my tits out for the men I've come to love.