Page 72 of Secret Baby Daddies
“How did you know?”
Harvey stumbled over to the conference table and collapsed onto one of the chairs.
“She called me. Looking for a fight. Told me about you three assholes and then spewed so much vitriol that I still feel sick. Did you know? Did you know what she thought about me when you showed up at my office? Of course, you did. You came on a fact-finding mission. Sonofabitch. Did she know you were coming to see me?”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
“When did she call you?”
“I don’t know. A couple of hours ago?” He buried his head in his hands and let out a great, heaving sob. “All these years. She’s believed the worst of me for all these years. She hates me.”
I was already dialing Harley’s number. It went straight to voicemail. I tried four more times before I spun on Harvey.
“What exactly did she say? Where was she?”
Luc was on the phone, harshly demanding Ginger go check Harley’s room. She’d have his ass for it later but she was used to our shit.
“She said…she said my wife told her everything. Mywife.” Harvey wiped his eyes and the next time he looked up he was back to being a ball of rage. “My wife told her I drove her mother to kill herself. Rebeccahknewhow much I fought for Hannah. Sheknewhow much it killed me to lose Hannah. She met me while I was still mourning. She helped me grieve.”
“She’s not there. Ginger said some of her stuff is missing.” Luc’s hands shook as he tapped at his phone. “I’m calling Susie. She’ll know where Harley is.”
Harvey looked up at me as he stood up.
“She said she’s done with me. Done with you three, too.”
It was my turn to collapse into the chair closest to me.
“No.”
“She’s not at work. Susie said she stopped by and said she was leaving town for a while.” Luc stormed over to Harvey and yanked him up on his toes by the front of his shirt. “What the fuck did you say to her?”
Maddox shoved Luc away from Harvey and growled when both men tried to go at each other again.
“Wedid this. It’s nothing he said. We took up for him last night, told her we were in business with him, and then we let her go to bed on her own. This isourfault. She’s gone because ofus.”
Luc spun away and slammed his fist into the wall. The wall of glass shattered and the immediatedrip, drip, dripof his blood hitting the floor was the only sound after the glass finished falling. He didn’t glance down at his hand, just turned back to us with red eyes.
“We have to make this right.”
Harvey swore and looked at his watch.
“I have to meet my lawyer. The three of you aren’t as easy to hate when you look so pathetic. Rebeccah will have to suffer the full force of my rage for this. We’ll see how she likes it when I turn into the monster she told my daughter that I was.”
CHAPTER 49
Harley
Twenty-six voicemails. At least fifty text messages. Two emails to an account I’d never given out. If a carrier pigeon showed up at my window, I wasn’t sure I’d have been surprised. The only reason Luc, Jace, and Maddox hadn’t shown up at the Hellstone ranch was because when they’d shown up in town they didn’t know who to ask for, other than me. They didn’t remember Reagan’s name, clearly. They’d left town with just as much information as they’d arrived with.
I’d successfully managed to avoid their reach for a week. In that time, I’d cried more than any single human should be able to cry. I’d talked to Maxie’s husbands to get access to a good lawyer to help me purchase By Another Name, and I’d worked hard to hide my bitterness at seeing Reagan’s happy family. It was hard to not throw up with jealousy when her husbands so clearly worshiped the ground she walked on. They couldn’t keep their hands off her and they practically had heart eyes when they looked at her.
It was good. Reagan deserved a big, happy family. She was worth every bit of the love her men gave her. I just…I wanted that for myself. I wanted to be loved, not possessed. I wanted men who would fight any battle for me, whether it be a masked murderer or a hard to open jar. I wanted the fairytale. It would’ve been easier to settle for less if I didn’t see the fairytale coming true everywhere I looked. Reagan wasn’t the only woman around me in Devil’s Den who’d gotten their happily ever after. All of the Hellstone sisters had.
I stretched out most days and every night in Reagan’s guest room and stared at the ceiling while doing my best to ignore the sounds of lovemaking coming from down the hall. It wasn’t easy when my body was missing orgasms and big, hard muscles. Pregnancy hormones were hitting hard and the timing couldn’thave been worse. I was all alone. Just like I’d be all alone for the rest of my life. I didn’t even bother calling myself on the dramatics.
I’d just finished a crying spell on the eighth day of my Devil’s Den visit when Reagan burst into my room and crossed to the window to throw the curtains open. The sunlight burned my raw eyes and I hissed at it like a vampire. I’d been more than happy in the dark, thank you.
Reagan didn’t care. She had a stubborn look on her face and when she put her hands on her hips, I knew I was in trouble. When she started counting out reasons I needed to get up, I sighed and sat up.
