Would Devin consider letting him stick around? Would she consider pursuing their relationship, maybe making it permanent? Did she feel anywhere close to how he was feeling?

He polished off his drink.

“I’ve had the boys sniff around a little bit more,” Byron added. “They’ve got the name of the judge, and they threw together a little history of her decisions. It ain’t good, Lucas. It ain’t good a’t all.”

“Devin’s writing the letter,” said Lucas.

“Better be one hell of a letter.”

Lucas doubted that. “And I have a backup plan,” he declared. He’d just come up with it. Right this very second. But, as Byron had said, when it was right, it was right.

“Do tell,” Byron prompted.

“Devin. Me. Babies.”

Byron slapped his knee and cackled. “You think you’ll convince that pretty little gal to have your babies?”

Lucas struggled not to be insulted. Sure, maybe he didn’t deserve Devin, but he wasn’t the worst catch in the world. “I’m not saying I won’t have to work at it.”

“And just how fast d’you think you can accomplish that feat?” Byron tapped his blunt finger against the newspaper. “Steve’s out there in public posing with his fiancée.”

Lucas leaned forward, making certain he was clear and concise. “If I have to, I can work very fast. Hell, Konrad did.”

And if Lucas didn’t have to work fast, he’d work slow. He’d be patient, romantic and thorough in order to win Devin’s love.

Ironically, Lucas felt better than he had in weeks, months, maybe years. Let Steve try his best. Lucas would fight back with everything he had. And, one way or another, he’d win. Because the goalposts had just shifted for him. He’d give up Pacific Robotics entirely for Devin and Amelia.

“But it’s only the backup plan,” he told Byron. “We’ll see what she writes in the letter.”


At the bottom of the ranch-house staircase, as Lucas’s damning words washed over her, Devin held the signed letter between her hands and methodically tore it in half. Then she tore it again and again. She struggled for breath, shock and anger pulsing through her while she turned away. The staircase was long, her steps leaden as she headed back up to Amelia’s room.

She might be under a court order to stay with Lucas, but surely any judge in the world would understand why she had to leave him.

She paused outside Amelia’s room, gripping the doorjamb to hold herself steady, trying to put her thoughts into some kind or order. Lucas was using her. Getting her pregnant was his backup plan? He’d seduced her, made love with her, made her care about him, just in case Amelia was disinherited and he needed another baby?

How could she have been so colossally stupid? She should have seen it coming from miles away. What were the odds that he’d fallen for her? Exactly zero. He needed Amelia. And, if that didn’t work, well any old baby would do. Any old woman would do, too.

He must have worked awfully hard to hold down his gag reflex with Amelia’s smelly diapers and general stickiness. Devin cringed. He’d probably had to hold down his gag reflex with her, too. Lexi was right that the rich were nasty. And Lucas Demarco was an amoral monster.

She should call him on it. Right here, right now. She should force him to own up to exactly what he’d been up to these past weeks. Her feet nearly started moving, before she realized the danger. He’d never admit it. He’d lie his way out of it, just like he always did, and she would have blown her only chance to get away. She couldn’t fight with Lucas. She had to escape from Lucas.

She had to pack up Amelia, get away from him and hide until a date could be set for the guardianship hearing.

Then she’d throw herself on the mercy of the judge.

She would tell the truth, the whole truth. She’d demonstrate exactly how Lucas and Konrad had behaved.

“Devin?”

Devin jumped at the sound of Lexi’s voice and the gentle hand on her shoulder.

“You okay?” asked Lexi.

Devin shook her head, hot tears forming at the backs of her eyes.

Lexi turned her around. “Honey? What’s wrong. You’re white as a ghost.”

“It’s…” Devin was going to cry.

She couldn’t let herself cry over that horrible man. She swallowed. “Lucas just told Byron I was his backup plan.”

Lexi looked confused. “Backup for what?”

Devin opened the door and pulled Lexi into the bedroom, dropping her voice to a whisper. “I’m leaving. Right away. Right now. You have to help me get away.”

Lexi looked stunned. “What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

“It was a plot. Just like Konrad. From the very beginning, it’s all been about the money.” Devin clenched her fists and tipped her head back. “How, oh, how did I fall for it?”

“Honey, what happened?”

Devin let out a slightly hysterical laugh, and then quickly covered her mouth with her fingers. “Lucas just told Byron that if Amelia was disinherited, me having his baby was his backup plan. He said he might have to work at it, but he could work fast.”

Lexi staggered back. “He said this to Byron?”

Devin nodded. “Byron asked how fast he thought he could do it.”

Now Lexi had blanched. “So, Byron’s in on it?”

“They are a conspiratorial lot, those Demarcos.”

Lexi’s jaw clamped down, and she grasped Devin’s arm. “Are you positive?”

“I am positive.”

“Then we have to get you out of here.”

“I know.”

“You get Amelia,” Lexi instructed. “There are pickup trucks in the yard with the keys inside.”

“We’re stealing a truck?”

“We’ll leave a message. They can come and pick it up from the airport. Go.”

“Right,” Devin agreed. But then she stumbled.

What would they do? Where would they go? And if Devin hid Amelia against the judge’s order, was she kidnapping her?

Could Lucas use it against her?

She realized he could. And she realized he would. And she couldn’t risk compromising her case.

An overwhelming sense of helplessness engulfed her. “The judge said I had stay at the Demarco mansion.”

Lexi’s hands went to her hips. “Well, that’s not going to work.”

“I can’t kidnap her. It would completely compromise my case.”

They both blinked at each other. There was no solution. There was absolutely no solution.

“What if we could get them to hold the hearing right away?” Lexi asked.

“I don’t think it’s like a hair appointment.” Devin doubted they could call up and see if there’d been a cancellation.

Lexi clicked her tongue for a few moments. Then she snapped her fingers.

“What?” Devin didn’t dare hope.

“There’s one other person on this planet who wants the hearing to happen fast.”

Devin didn’t follow.

“And I'll just bet he’s got the contacts and the clout to do it,” Lexi explained.

As the truth set in, Devin felt her stomach congeal to wet cement. “Steve.”

Lexi gave a slow, deliberate nod. And Devin knew it was their only choice.


The next night, in the mansion’s great room, Lucas could barely contain his frustration with Devin as he faced three members of the Pacific Robotics Board of Directors. All three were loyal to him, and all three were obviously both angry and worried.

“I thought you said you had it under control,” Craig Grenville opened, a hard edge to his voice. His snifter of brandy sat untouched on the table beside him.

“I did have it under control.” Lucas had been blindsided by Devin’s disappearance.

“But, she’s gone,” Peter Huntley stated in a flat tone. He’d drained his brandy glass and was glancing around for more.

“I can’t even begin to guess why she took off.” At first, Lucas had thought they’d been kidnapped.

But when it seemed certain she’d left of her own free will, he started searching for reasons. “There was no evidence that Steve made contact with her,” he confirmed for the Board members. “And none of the reporters found us in Texas.”

“We need a plan B,” Ivan Rusk spoke up. He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, crossing and uncrossing his lanky legs as he spoke. “If Steve gets control, you know we’re all fired the next day.”

Lucas scoffed, “What plan B, where plan B?” His lawyers had already contacted him with an early court date for the guardianship trial. It had been reset for next week at Devin’s lawyer’s insistence. So it was obviously going to happen before Steve’s petition to appeal the will.

Lucas couldn’t begin to guess what Devin would say on the stand. Or maybe he could. The fact that she’d snuck away from Byron’s ranch in the middle of the night told him a lot. Nothing she said in the guardianship hearing would help either Lucas or Amelia’s case when it came time to hear the appeal of the will.

What the hell was she thinking?

Byron set the bottle of brandy down on the bar and pivoted to face the men. “Well, I’ve got myself a plan B.”

They waited while he took a step closer to the grouping of couches and overstuffed armchairs.

He drew a deep breath. “We get Bob, my ranch vet, to geld Steve.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, before Peter burst out laughing.

Both Ivan and Craig stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.

“And then,” Peter sputtered. “Lucas can take his sweet time having as many children as he wants. I like it.”

Craig frowned in disgust. “If amateur hour is over at The Improv, can we get back to the problem at hand?”

Lucas hid his smile behind a swallow of brandy. He knew Byron’s suggestion was ridiculous, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t like it. Lucas realized he’d want to have those children with Devin, which was obviously impossible. He had to forcibly tamp down a wave of despair.

“What’s she going to say in court?” Ivan asked him point blank.