Billionaire Baby Dilemma

Lucas came around the corner.

“You’re making that up,” Lexi accused from where she sat on one of the curved bench seats at the round table, but there was a distinct thread of laughter to her voice.

“I swear it’s the truth,” said Byron, as Lucas’s entrance caught his attention. “Look, there’s Lucas. Lucas can tell you-” Then Byron did a double take of Lucas’s expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Where’s Devin?” Lucas reflexively glanced around the room, moving so he could see to the far end of the kitchen and peering past the window planters into the yard.

“Did something happen?” asked Byron, coming to his feet.

“She’s out with Amelia,” said Lexi, worriedly watching Lucas.

“Lucas?” Byron prompted.

“I need to talk to her,” said Lucas. He was doing his best to keep his temper in check, but the more he thought about Devin’s behavior, the angrier he became.

What kind of a woman broke in to a man’s email account? What kind of a woman slept with a guy to cover her tracks? She was one amazing actress. He could have sworn-

“Mr. Demarco?” Teresa suddenly rushed breathlessly into the room, her feet slipping on the linoleum as she rounded the corner. She braced her hand against the counter. “Something’s very wrong out there.”

“With Devin?” Lucas automatically asked, fear pushing out his anger.

“Out where?” asked Byron.

“Out front,” Teresa answered. “At the gate. There’s a big crowd of people.”

“Where’s Devin?” Lucas was already heading for the hallway.

“I didn’t see her.” Teresa shook her head. “Not out front.”

“What kind of a crowd?” asked Byron, he and Lexi on Lucas’s heels as they all rushed down the hallway.

“They have cameras and microphones.”

Reporters? What would bring reporters to the estate?

Lucas pulled out his phone, pressing the speed dial number for Theodore Vick, talking to Teresa while the line rang. “When’s the last time you saw Devin?” he demanded as he crossed the foyer and yanked open the door.

“They went to the park, maybe an hour ago.”

“What park?” Did the reporters have anything to do with Devin? Was she up to something more sinister than snooping through his private correspondence?

The young woman’s eyes went wide, and her voice quavered. “Beside the marina. She took Amelia in the stroller.”

“Some of those are the big guns,” said Byron. “SNN, The Evening.” He lengthened his stride alongside Lucas.

“What the hell?” Lucas shaded his eyes. He’d had plenty run-ins with the press in the past, and he had no desire to make tonight’s evening news. At the same time, he needed to know what brought them here.

“I can go down there alone,” Byron offered.

“No thanks,” said Lucas, giving up on Theodore and making up his mind to take the bull by the horns.

If this was something Devin had cooked up…

If she’d somehow decided engaging the press would help her cause…

“It’s Lucas Demarco,” one of the reporters cried out as he approached, and nearly two dozen people crowded the driveway gate. Their lights came on, and they began clicking pictures through the bars, their TV cameras whirring.

Lucas scanned the crowd, recognizing a couple of legitimate news organizations amongst the tabloid reporters and the paparazzi.

A woman shoved a microphone between the bars. “What do you say to the accusations of fraud, leveled at you by-”

“She’s got the baby,” someone else cried out, and attention immediately shifted from Lucas to the sidewalk across the street.

One look at Devin’s stunned expression on the far sidewalk told Lucas she’d had nothing to do with calling the press. Which left only one other suspect. Steve.

Everyone rushed toward her and Amelia, who was sitting in a navy blue stroller.

Lucas swore out loud, plugged in the combination for the driveway gate and rushed outside with everyone else, Byron at his side.

“Ms. Hartley,” demanded the woman with the microphone, while shutters clicked and cameras whirred, everyone jockeying for an angle. “How do you respond to the accusation that your sister-” the woman glanced at a notepad “-your sister Monica was complicit in an attempt to defraud the Foster family out of fifty million dollars?”

While Devin blinked like a deer caught in the headlights, Lucas and Byron elbowed their way through the crowd. Lucas grabbed hold of a man who was leaning in to take a picture of Amelia, snagging him by the collar and all but throwing him out of the way. Byron broke the man’s fall and shoved him to one side.

Lucas swiftly snatched Amelia from the stroller and tucked her against his chest, obscuring her face with the lapel of his suit jacket. Then he grasped Devin’s hand.

“Leave the stroller,” he ordered, pasting her to his side and shouldering his way back through the crowd.

The reporters rushed alongside them, peppering them with questions and snapping pictures.

“Will there be a lawsuit?” shouted one.

“Do you expect any arrests?” came another.

“Has there been a DNA test?”

Lucas was beyond furious with his cousin.

He shoved Devin firmly inside the gate, where Lexi and several staff members had congregated. Then he rushed through the opening himself, and Byron followed with the stroller, filling the space behind Lucas and turning to block the way of any reporter who might be foolish enough to venture onto private property.

“What on earth?” Devin said breathlessly, craning her neck, even as Lucas kept her moving steadily forward toward the sanctity of the mansion.

“It was Steve,” Lucas growled. He was still plenty angry with Devin, but that conversation would have to be put on hold for now.

Amelia pulled back and looked up at him. He braced himself for one of her crying jags, but wasn’t willing to let go of her just yet.

“But, why?” asked Devin.

For some reason, Amelia didn’t cry. She simply blinked curiously at Lucas as he carried her toward the front stairs.

He looked to Byron to get his assessment of Steve’s behavior. “What does he gain?”

Byron shook his head, looking as confused as Lucas felt. “Publicly discrediting you is all I can see him getting out of this.”

“It’s not a jury decision or even a hearing,” Lucas pointed out. “It’s a technical question.”

Whether Amelia was entitled to inherit would be decided by a family law judge in some little office in the bowels of the state judicial building. It wasn’t like public opinion would factor into it.

“He could be targeting Pacific Robotic’s board of directors,” offered Byron. “Ramp up some kind of a scandal against you?”

“Does he think he can get me fired as president?”

“I don’t understand,” Devin said. “What’s going on?” Then she glanced from Lucas to Amelia. “Do you want me to take her?”

“She’s fine,” he answered shortly. When the crowd of reporters rushed Amelia, his protective instincts had kicked in. She was safe now. And since she hadn’t started crying, she was just fine right where she was.

The group trooped through the doorway and into the foyer, and Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. He waited until the staff went back about their business and only Devin, Byron and Lexi remained.

“So, what happens now?” asked Lexi. Like Devin, her gaze kept darting to Amelia in Lucas’s arms, as if she expected him to drop her.

Lucas looked to Byron. “I don’t see confronting him.” He’d already tried both reason and intimidation. And Steve