How to Have Your Boss's Secret Baby - London Casey Page 0,91

tears running down her cheeks.

What the hell had my brother done to her?

I helped Maya to her feet and she reached to hug me.

I wrapped my arms around her and shut my eyes for a second.

Between us, I felt the baby kick.

I begged my heart to remind me this was my world. My only world. The only world that actually mattered.

But that didn’t happen.

My heart and brain were split into pieces.

Cody. Mr. Pickle. The deal. Danielle. Maya. The baby. What everyone in the office knew or didn’t know.

“Maya,” I whispered. I took a step back and touched her arms. “What happened?”

“He showed up and was a mess, Cole,” she said. “I tried to keep him here. I didn’t want to bother you. I knew you were in a meeting.”

“You should have bothered me,” I said. “Dammit. My brother is not your chore. He’s not your business.”

“I was just helping…”

“Not with that,” I said.

In my mind I pictured Danielle topless.

Not in that way, but in the way that as I was in a room with a paid-for, topless woman, trying to close a deal, Maya was here dealing with my brother.

It angered me in a way I wasn’t sure I could explain to anyone.

“What did he do or say?” I asked.

“First, he tried to kiss me.”

“He… what?”

“Then he started to tell me you sent him here to spy on me because I stole money from you. He thought there was some kind of cash safe or something somewhere in the office. That’s what he wanted, Cole. And he kept taking pills. Two different times he reached into his pocket and took pills.”

“Fuck,” I said.

“Then something in him snapped. And he suddenly put everything together. He pointed out my water bottle and coffee cup in the trash… my clothes… he knew that my salary could never afford that stuff. He just started talking about you and I together. You getting me pregnant. It was just so fast and mean…”

Maya gasped for a breath.

I rubbed her arms. “Come on, love, hold it together for a second. I need to know everything so I can figure out what to do and where to go.”

“Where to go?”

“I have to find him, Maya.”

“Are you serious?” she asked. “Why? He wants to hurt you, Cole.”

“He’s my brother,” I said.

“But you can’t keep doing this for him,” I said. “You have other responsibilities in life now. Bigger things in life. More important things in life.”

“Don’t tell me my priorities,” I said.

I backed away from Maya.

“Okay,” she said. “He said he was going to tell everyone. And he did. When he left, he started screaming it to everyone. That you fucked me and got me pregnant. That I set you up to get me pregnant. Basically, that I’m a whore and you’re addicted to women.”

I put my head back and groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“He said he was going to find someone to talk to,” Maya said. “That he could sell the story for a few bucks or something.”

I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.

My brother had done a lot of dumb stuff… bad stuff… but this?

I looked at Maya again. “And he left?”

“He ran out of here and I texted you.”

I opened my mouth and my heart tried to stop my mind…

“And you just let him leave?”

Maya’s face dropped.

No. No. No. No.

“What did you just say?” Maya asked.

“You should have texted me the second he showed up,” I said.

“You were in a meeting.”

“I was just talking to Mr. Pickle. And he turned out to be a prick himself.”

“What happened with him?”

“Nothing, Maya,” I said.

She jumped at me and grabbed my arm. “Tell me, Cole. This isn’t just about you anymore. This is about us. Our life. Whether you like it or not, we’re in this together.”

“Together?” I asked. My anger level rose again. I felt everything cracking around me. “Together…” I took a breath. “You have no idea what I’m up against, Maya. I showed up to meet with Mr. Pickle and you know what he did? He brought in two women. One for him. One for me. The appeal of me to him was that I was free and able to enjoy life. That I enjoyed that type of life. But that’s been taken from me, hasn’t it?”

Cole, stop.

“Taken?” Maya asked. “You son of a-”

“He left me alone with a woman with one intention,” I said. “One, Maya. One. And you know what I did? I gave her my suit jacket to