people are so determined, and now they’ve hunted me down here.”
“That’s what Nia said. I’m sorry. I’ve called a buddy here to help you. Tanner Kirk should be here any minute.”
“I appreciate that.” She seems to withdraw into herself again. “I’m going to check on Oliver in his playpen. Excuse me.”
We both watch her go, then I turn back to Nia with a shake of my head. “She’s rattled.”
“She’s pissed. These idiots need to leave her alone. She doesn’t know anything. Barclay used her and left her holding the bag. Well, the baby.”
“From what I hear, he did that a lot.”
“Yeah.” Nia leads me into the kitchen. “Coffee?”
“I’m good for now. I had a cup in the car.”
“I’d kill for caffeine,” she says glumly. “But I can’t. It makes my little monster crazy.”
When she glides a hand over her swelling belly with a smile, I do my best to bury my envy. Evan gets to see his wife round, his child form. He gets to go to doctor visits, study sonograms, hear his baby’s heartbeat. I missed all of that with Ranger. I’m thrilled I have him now—don’t get me wrong. But if I had a do-over, I would have insisted Mercedes not shut me out during the pregnancy. And if I ever find myself in the position of becoming a father again, I’m going to be with my woman every step of the way.
Out of nowhere, an image of Masey pregnant and stroking her belly careens through my brain. In my head, a diamond glints on her left hand, and I come up behind her, drop a kiss on her shoulder, and give her bump an affectionate rub.
Holy shit. It’s way too early to think about that.
But is it? Last night was beyond amazing. I definitely want more. A lot more. And if it leads someplace serious…I wouldn’t mind that.
Actually, I’m really into it.
“Is she going to be okay?” I head bob toward the other side of the house, where Amanda presumably disappeared.
“Once this shit stops, yeah. Until then? No. Your friend can’t get here soon enough.”
“Tanner won’t be long,” I assure. “How did, um, she get mixed up with Barclay? I know she worked for him and she’d known him most of her life but…”
“I’m sure like all the others. He hired her young, just out of school. He paid her well, said all the right things, and gave her attention. Barclay was a son of a bitch, but a handsome one. And apparently good enough in bed to persuade a long line of his assistants to sleep with him.”
“Yeah. I hear he did it for decades.”
“It seems. Bethany was born only four months after Maxon. My husband was born three days before Harlow.”
“And yet…don’t you think it’s odd that he supposedly managed to go twenty-five years without getting even a single one of his assistants pregnant?”
Nia frowns. “One of them a few years back had an abortion.”
“Even so…”
“Yeah, that’s always bugged me, too. A leopard doesn’t just change his spots.”
“Nope.”
Her frown deepens. “Barclay left Evan to be a ward of the state after his mother died. He was five, and his biological father didn’t give a shit what horrors might await him in foster care.”
“The world is a better place without Barclay. I don’t know exactly what he did to Harlow, but Noah has said more than once if he ever saw the son of a bitch again, he’d kill him.”
“I’m not surprised. But Evan and I have wondered… Does the man have other children out there? If so, where are they? What are they suffering?”
It’s a logical, perfectly terrible question. “It’s a possibility worth exploring.”
“Actually, we have been. Evan’s siblings keep hoping that all the skeletons are out of Barclay’s closet now that he’s dead and buried.”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
“I’m not.” She drops her voice. “We have a lead on one possibility. He’s a junior at UCLA. His mother worked for Reed Senior not long before he was born. She was broke, then suddenly had both money and a new job. His middle name is Barclay. By all accounts, he’s an absolute prick. And other than the eyes, he’s a dead ringer for Griff.”
I wince. “Sounds like you’ve got a candidate.”
“Unfortunately, yes. We’re looking into a few others, too.”
“Holy shit, didn’t this guy believe in birth control or care about the kids he was fathering?”
I’m a fine one to talk since I don’t remember conceiving Ranger at all. I doubt I wore a condom. I’d