this point?
Why had his brother insisted on coming here? There was really only one reason. Jared wanted to confront him and there was no way he could walk away from this.
There was a knock on his door. Ah, yes. He got to deal with that idiot Squirrel.
Before he could make it to the door, it opened.
“Hey, brother.” Jared stood there, blocking the way out.
Like it or not his past had caught up with him.
* * * *
Kori pushed through the door and into the bathroom. When they’d taken over this building, she’d made certain there was one feminine space. Kai liked the whole Asian, super-sleek tranquility look. Everything was in natural colors with very soothing sounds.
Sometimes a girl needed some pink, a bit of bling.
Which was why Erin was currently sitting in the lounge section of the bathroom looking perfectly incongruous on the hot pink velvet settee.
“Hey, you done puking?” She held up a frosty green can she’d found in the fridge. “Because I thought you might need one of these.”
Erin looked up and her lips curled the tiniest bit. “I would kiss you but I really did puke so that wouldn’t be such a great payment.” She held out a hand and Kori pressed the drink in her palm. Erin immediately sat back and ran the cold can over her forehead. “Thanks. It got a little real in there. Your boss is an asshole.”
He wasn’t really. Kai was kind of the nicest man in the world, but if calling him an ass made Erin feel better, she would go with it. “He’s a dude, but he means well. He doesn’t get that you’re knocked up, not dying.”
Erin stopped for a moment, her body going still, and Kori wondered if she was about to deny it. “Yeah, they definitely don’t get that.”
“So how far along do you think you are?” The key with a chick like Erin was to ask direct questions. Erin didn’t need to be treated like an invalid. She did, however, need to talk.
“I don’t know. I think it probably happened after we got back from Africa. Sometime before Theo got shot to shit.” Erin looked straight ahead. “It’s his. That’s all I was trying to say. Do you think everyone knows?”
“That it’s Theo’s? Yeah. I don’t think anyone believes you’ve been trolling, E.”
Erin groaned, but her lips had curled up slightly. “I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about the pregnancy. I really…I guess I didn’t want to think about it. I knew deep down. I haven’t been drinking or anything. I did right after I got home from the Caymans.” She turned quickly, her face white. “Oh, god. Do you think that hurt the baby?”
And there it was. There was the instinct. It might get buried again. Erin might shove it under a mile of pain and bravado, but her first impulse was to protect her child. Kori reached out and put a hand over Erin’s shaking one. Of all the women she’d met since she’s started playing at Sanctum and working for Kai, Erin was the one she understood the best. There was a soft heart under all that tough skin. “The baby’s fine.”
“It was only two beers but it helped me sleep, and then the next night I threw them out because I wanted them. I wanted them so fucking bad, but I didn’t dream. They made me not dream and that’s where I saw him.” She seemed to realize she was on the edge emotionally and pulled back. “This is so stupid.”
“It’s not,” Kori replied. “Nothing you feel now is stupid and two beers won’t hurt the baby, but not seeing an obstetrician might.”
“You sound like Kai.”
“Don’t tell him I said this but Kai is very often right.” It wouldn’t do to make the man more self-confident. He was already gorgeous and smart and sexy as sin. And a sadist. She was not going there again. Not for anything. “And he’s right about this. You can’t hide from it. You have a decision to make.”
She shook her head. “Seems like the decision’s been made for me. I guess I can’t quit now. I need the health insurance.”
Like she was going to quit in the first place. Kori happened to know that Erin loved McKay-Taggart. She’d found a home here. A lot like Kori had. She’d ended up in Texas because it had seemed about as different from LA as possible. A producer friend of hers, Sullivan Roarke, had called his old