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 wasn’t going to suddenly develop a conscience.

“The boys’d know how to take care of it back home,” Byron offered, stretching out his interlaced hands and letting his knuckles crack.

“An assault charge isn’t going to help us,” said Lucas, much as he’d love to take a swing at Steve right now. What was the man thinking, painting a target on both Devin and Amelia? How did he sleep at night?

“I don’t see the press attention interfering with the legal decision,” said Byron. “The judge is going to follow legislation and precedent. I doubt he’ll even be reading The Tattler.”

“So, Steve’s master plan is to aggravate us?” asked Lucas.

Seattle was a small city, and Pacific Robotics was a prominent business. Lucas had been in the spotlight many times before, and he knew the paparazzi would hound all of them for many long days to come. There’d be nowhere to hide.

“It seems like that’s the case,” said Byron.

“That reporter,” Devin began. “She asked if we expected arrests. What did that mean? Who would get arrested, and for what?”

Lucas avoided making eye contact with her. His instinct was to worry about her, but he had to stay angry. “The reporter was fishing. Steve dangled a story in front of them, and now they’re digging for the details.”

“I don’t want Amelia on the front page.” Devin seemed to instinctively shift closer to Amelia, who had relaxed and was now a soft, warm bundle against Lucas’s chest.

“Neither do I.” His tone was sharper than he intended, and Devin gave a slight cringe.

“But they can’t get on the estate?” Lexi questioned.

“Lucas?” It was Theodore Vick, who was hustling into the front hall. “Sorry. I was out on the water. I’ve got two men at the front gate now.”

“It’s under control,” Lucas told him. “At least for the moment.” Then he answered Lexi’s question. “They’d have a hard time getting on the estate. But it’s not a fortress.”

“I’ll bring in some extra men,” Theodore offered. “We’ve got the new lighting system installed at the back of the property, and Chad will make sure the dock is guarded around the clock.”

Devin reached out for Amelia, but she stopped herself short, pulling back in obvious surprise. “She’s asleep.”

Lucas glanced down to see Amelia’s closed eyes. Her cheeks were rosy and her pink mouth was relaxed, slightly opened as she breathed in and out.

Lexi stepped in. “Looks like Uncle Lucas doesn’t scare her so much anymore.”

Lucas knew he had to focus on security. They needed a plan to protect Amelia and thwart Steve. But for a brief second, he let the unfamiliar emotion flash through his chest. Amelia trusted him.

He silently vowed that he wasn’t going to let her down.

“Can you increase the video surveillance?” he asked Theodore.

“Absolutely.”

“What about long-lens cameras?”

“I can’t give you any guarantees,” said Theodore. “I can put on some extra guys, but there’s a lot of fence line to cover, and you’re open to the bay. It’s probably best to stay inside as much as you can.”

Devin’s eyes narrowed in concern. “For how long?”

“A couple of weeks,” Lucas admitted. “Maybe. They’ll go away once we have a decision on Steve’s challenge of Amelia’s inheritance. Byron’s trying to get more information on the timeframe.”

“And are you going to hide in the house?” Devin asked Lucas.

He shook his head. “I don’t care if they take pictures of me.”

“Should Devin care?” asked Lexi.

It was Byron who answered. “Does she want a private life after this is over?”

Devin glanced around the circle. “So, I’m a prisoner?”

“Unless you want to leave Seattle,” suggested Theodore. “It’s a local story. I doubt it would follow you out of state.”

Devin crossed her arms over her chest. “Unfortunately, I’ve been sentenced to stay here in this house.”

“You want to leave?” asked Lucas, thinking that it might not be such a bad idea to get Devin and Amelia out of town and away from Steve.

“Of course I want to leave. I want to go home.”

Theodore shook his head. “Your house is out of the question. There’ll be reporters there, too.”

The news obviously surprised Lexi. “Am I going to be ambushed when I get home?”

“You should stay here,” Devin declared.

“You can all come on down to Texas,” Byron offered.

Lucas scoffed at the idea.

But Byron widened his stance. “Ain’t nobody getting their boots on my land.”

“What?” Lexi mocked. “You gonna shoot ’em fer trespassin’?”

Byron didn’t answer, but his expression said he just might.

“You couldn’t-” Lexi paused “-really shoot them.” She cocked her head as she peered at Byron. “Right?”

Byron offered nothing but a self-satisfied smile.

Theodore spoke. “It’s not the worst idea in the world.”

Lucas met his chief of security’s eyes, mentally debating the pros and cons. Amelia and Devin would be well out of both Steve’s and the any reporter’s reach. And although Byron wouldn’t literally shoot anyone who trespassed, he definitely had some hard-bitten ranch hands on the payroll who would dissuade anyone from bothering the residents of the ranch. Long lenses would never find them from the road.

And it would throw Steve a curveball. It would throw Steve one heck of a curveball, which was exactly what Lucas needed right now. He’d been reacting to Steve’s maneuvers for days on end. It was about time he took some action on his own.

“Fine,” he said, nodding decisively. “We’ll go to Texas.”

Devin’s jaw dropped open. “But-”

“I’m coming, too,” Lexi immediately insisted.

“Isn’t that a bit drastic?” asked Devin. “First I leave my home to come here, and now you want me to traipse halfway across the country?”

Lucas understood the reason for her reluctance. If she was in Texas, she couldn’t snoop. There’d be no way for her to continue pawing through his private correspondence.

Too bad, honey.

They were so going to Texas.