Lucas’s brows drew together. His eyes went stormy, and his mouth thinned.

“He seemed annoyed that you’d stayed over at my place. He knew you were there all night, and-”

“Hold on a minute,” Lucas interrupted. “Did he tell you that, or did you tell him?”

“He told me.” Devin resented the implication that she’d rushed to Steve with the news. Then again, why should Lucas trust her any more than she trusted him?

She continued, suddenly wanting to get the whole story out. “Then he said he had tried to make this easy for me. I got the impression he wasn’t going to make it easy for me anymore. I didn’t know what he meant. But then I heard a man’s voice.” She paused. “On the baby monitor. And for a minute, I thought…”

“You thought Steve might harm Amelia?”

“I thought he’d come back. Beyond that, I didn’t know what to think.”

Lucas wrapped a large, warm hand over her shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. “Steve is not going to hurt Amelia.”

Devin nodded, but it was only to be agreeable. Her radar was up when it came to Steve. If she had her way, he’d never be near Amelia again.

“I mean, even if he would, which believe me, he wouldn’t. He’s a jerk, but he’d never go that far. We’ll increase security, Devin. We can get Amelia a bodyguard instead of a nanny if it makes you feel better.”

Devin closed her eyes and took a deep, cleansing breath.

“Okay?” he asked.

She gave a jerky nod.

His hand tightened on her shoulder, and the next thing she knew, she was being drawn into his embrace.

“It’s going to be fine,” he promised her in a gruff voice.

His arms felt wonderfully strong as they wrapped around her. His chest felt broad and solid against her cheek. And though she knew depending on Lucas was the most dangerous thing she could do, for just a moment, she let herself sink into his strength.


Lucas couldn’t bring himself to believe that Steve was a real danger to Amelia. But he was beyond furious with him for approaching and intimidating Devin. And he’d done it right here in the mansion. The man’s audacity knew no bounds.

Lucas had immediately contacted Theodore Vick, the Demarcos’ head of security and assigned extra full-time protection to Devin and Amelia. He’d also talked to Byron about Steve pulling his legal support from Devin and what it could mean. Despite his down-home manner, Byron was a shrewd strategist, with an impressive network of contacts and a gift for sleuthing out information. If anyone could ferret out Steve’s new plan, it was Byron.

Now, Byron appeared in the doorway of Lucas’s office on the lower floor of the mansion.

“Anything?” asked Lucas without preamble. He’d spent the morning trying to focus on a problem with new high-tech foreign ownership regulations in Sweden. But he hadn’t had much success forgetting about either Devin or Steve.

Byron shut the door behind him and entered the room. “Did Steve’s mama drop him on his head when he was a baby?” he asked conversationally.

Lucas wasn’t sure how to interpret that question, so he didn’t offer an answer.

“If not, she should have,” said Byron. “There is something terribly wrong with that boy.”

Lucas stood from his chair and came around the desk that was positioned at one end of the rectangular room. The sliding glass doors were open to a small patio, and Byron motioned for him to pull them shut.

Now Lucas was very curious. “What did you find out?”

“You remember this?” Byron tossed a red-labeled videotape on the square meeting table that took up one corner of the room.

“Is that the one from Granddad’s will?”

Byron gave a curt nod. “Let’s just refresh your memory a tad, shall we?” He slid the tape into the old VCR that was connected to Lucas’s television set. Then he took up the remote and gestured to the chairs around the meeting table.

“Did we miss something the first time through?” asked Lucas, lowering himself into one of the charcoal-gray, sling-back leather chairs.

“It was right there under our noses the whole time.” Byron pressed a button on the remote, and a poorly lit picture came up on the screen.

It was a younger-looking Granddad, sitting in this same office, vintage railway photos on the wall in the background.

Byron fast-forwarded through part of the tape.

“Here we go,” he said, switching the video back to Play.

Granddad’s familiar, gravelly voice came through the twin speakers. “The reason for this is that you boys need to understand the difference between work and family. This great company you’ve inherited was built on a foundation of family. Your grandmothers and great-grandmothers may not have had their names on the stationery, but they played pivotal roles in the building of what is now Pacific Robotics.” His old eyes softened. “Lucy was my rock. She was there through good times and bad, through success and failure, always believing I could do the impossible. And, you boys, you need to find your own rocks.” Granddad folded his hands on the desk and leaned toward the camera. “And if leaving my estate to a future great-grandchild gives you inspiration to get out there and look, so be it. I can live with that.”

Byron clicked a button to stop the tape.

“I don’t get it,” said Lucas, tapping the tabletop in front of him. “We’ve seen this all before. What’s the point?”

“You gotta want it,” said Byron. “Look between the lines. That’s what Steve did.”

Lucas gave his head a small shake, still not following.

“Steve and his lawyers have rustled up a set of legal precedents for videotapes being used as a preamble to a will.”

Lucas gestured to the blank screen. “Granddad only reiterated that his firstborn great-grandchild inherits.”

Byron nodded. “You got that right. Your granddaddy hoped you boys would find yourselves some pretty gals, fall in love, get married and have children.”

“Yes, he did,” Lucas sighed in exasperation. It was a ridiculous way to structure an inheritance.

His grandfather should have left his shares to the person who would do the best job of managing the company. This crap about family being the rock of a man’s existence was just the ramblings of an old man. Single men could be great managers, and married men could be terrible managers. There was much more to it than marital status.

“And Steve has entered a brand-new petition that asks for this videotape to be considered the spirit of your granddaddy’s will.”

“He can do that?” As far as Lucas was concerned, the will was already settled.

“It appears as though he can,” said Byron. “It seems the court can decide to balance the letter of a will with the spirit of a will.”

“But, the shares are already in Amelia’s name.”

“It’s like an appeal.”

“He could get the will overturned?”

“He might. He’s swearing Konrad only married Monica to get the gal pregnant. That’s a clear violation of the spirit of the will. And Steve’s got a lot of lawyers hunting up precedents to back him.”

“Amelia could lose her shares?”

She could.

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“Does he have a chance in hell?”

“I’m told he does. And it gets worse.”

Lucas paused, eyes narrowing.

“His star witness?” asked Byron. “The person who’ll get up there and testify that Konrad and Monica’s marriage was a sham?”

Lucas brought the end of his fist down on the table, rattling the water glasses as he swore out loud.

Byron nodded.

“Devin,” said Lucas.

“Devin,” Byron confirmed. He rose and ejected the tape from the machine, stuffing it back into its cardboard cover. “When she takes you on over custody, that lady will sit up there on that witness stand and hand Steve his evidence on a silver platter.”

Six

Devin had said yes when Lucas offered to join her on her evening jog around the grounds. She was still rattled from her encounter with Steve, and company didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

A security guard was posted in the hallway outside the nursery, and one of the housekeepers was watching the new video baby monitor. Deep down, Devin knew it was overkill. But she didn’t care. It was hard to forget the fact that Steve had simply sauntered into the mansion and into her room.

She realized he was a member of the Demarco family, so there was no reason for anyone to stop him. But Lucas assured her the staff had been instructed to announce all guests, including family members, from here on in.

They’d followed the pot-lighted mulch pathway as it wound through the grounds. In contrast to the last time they’d jogged, Lucas kept his pace easy, chatting about maintenance on his sailboat and upcoming events for the new hospital wing. Devin found herself relaxing.

They rounded the stables, where two tall chestnut horses stood near the rail.

“Do you ride?” she asked, her breathing heavy.

“Occasionally. Byron’s the family cowboy. He’s got quite the spread down there in Texas, and he’s firmly committed to the country lifestyle. I half expect him to show up with a few steers one of these days. Apparently, we have some grazing potential on the north side of the property.”

Devin took in Lucas’s jogging short and runners. “Somehow, I can’t see you riding the range.”

“What? You don’t think I’d look good in a Stetson?”

Actually, she assumed he’d look great in a Stetson. But that wasn’t something she was prepared to think about, much less talk about. “I don’t think you’d like the dust.”

“True enough,” he said, and nodded. “Give me a clean shirt, a hot babe and the Bugatti, and I’m in my element.”

“Or a set of polished clubs and a golf cart?”

“That’d work, too,” he agreed. “What about you? You golf?”