Chapter 17
The first step of his plan to capture his woman was…dealing with her brother once and for all. On the issue of Calvin’s paternity. He just hadn’t expected to deal with Gene Hiller quite so soon.
“What is the damned meaning of this?” The man who’d stormed into Kurt’s office Wednesday afternoon demanded.
He tossed the letter on the desk in front of Kurt.
Kurt shot a look toward the playpen in the back corner of his office.
Bronte was sound asleep. He’d brought her with him to the office today.
She’d been fussy from a developing ear infection, and he was terrified of overwhelming the nanny enough that she quit.
And he wanted to be there, in case she needed him.
She was just too little—the thought of her or Bristol being sick at all absolutely terrified him.
But she was still sleeping now. She slept like a rock, that one. Her older sister…not so much.
“Keep your volume down, my baby is napping. She’s coming down with an ear infection.” Kurt stood. He would meet this bastard face-to-face, on equal footing. “And I think the letter is self-explanatory. Is Calvin my biological son?”
“Calvin is not yours. I know exactly who the biological father of my son is.” Greer’s older brother was incensed. Gene Hiller had one hell of a temper, everyone knew that. Well, Kurt could more than hold his own. “I’ve already had DNA tests run. Years ago. It’s not you.”
He’d always respected and appreciated Chantal Fields. She was a gorgeous redheaded woman he had seriously considered asking out a few times, but never actually had. Kurt almost wished there was a way to save her from Gene Hiller somehow. She was far too good for the man in front of him.
Someone else came in through his office door. Luna was right behind him, protesting. And practically pulling on the big guy’s arm. The guy could lift her one-handed, easily. Kurt would have thought it was funny—under different circumstances.
Hudson Hanan nodded at Kurt—then shut the door in Luna’s gorgeous face. “Sorry I’m late. So, shall we get started.”
It wasn’t a question. And Kurt wasn’t damned well going to lose control of the situation in his own office.
He had more important things to worry about than Gene Hiller. Like Greer Hiller, for one thing. “I am merely requesting a DNA test to prove Calvin isn’t my biological child. Carly contacted me six months ago. She said our affair almost four years ago produced a son—”
Gene snorted. And laughed at him. “That evil bitch lies, pal. Big time. And…Calvin’s four and a half years old now. He’ll be five in August.”
“What?” He was under the impression the boy was only three. “Carly said he was born nine months after we dated. And she was already divorced then. I don’t sleep with married women. Ever.”
“No. Just innocent young women too damned young for you.” Gene laughed at him.
Right in his face. Kurt wanted to slug the asshole right where he stood.
“Carly is the biggest liar on the planet. I watched her slap one of my sisters across the face, then she lied to my face about it. I kicked her out the next morning.”
“Which sister?” Kurt asked, immediately.
“That’s irrelevant,” the attorney, Hanan, said. “What’s relevant is that you need to drop the paternity case. Unless you were involved with the boy’s mother five years ago, during Gene’s marriage to the woman in question? Did you help Carly commit adultery?”
“I don’t screw around with married women. Ever.” Kurt had to reevaluate here. But he’d always been fast. “Can you prove it?”
“You mean besides the fact that his birthday is obviously listed on his birth certificate?” Gene asked. “I could put you in touch with his biological father? I’m well aware of who it is. We did the test years ago, and he signed over all rights.”
Kurt hadn’t ever expected that. “You know he’s not yours.”
“I’ve known from two days after he was born.
It doesn’t matter. I love him. He’s my son, legally.
And I’m raising him as such. And I don’t need assholes like you coming around every few years whenever Carly wants to screw with me.
You are not the first guy she’s yanked around like this, Chase.
Just the first stupid enough to come after my kid.
No doubt in a few months she’ll be demanding money from one or the both of us to keep this quiet.
She played you. Surprise. She’s good at that. ”
Kurt felt like a damned idiot. He didn’t know what to say.
If what the guy was saying was the truth…All of this was for nothing—and he’d probably just made everything worse with Greer.
But he wasn’t finished with Gene yet. Just…not yet. Greer was just more immediate. He didn’t know how he was going to make it work, but he would. He wasn’t ready to let her go.
If Calvin wasn’t his…that still left what had happened fifteen years ago. Gene Hiller was hiding something—they probably all were. And Kurt was going to get to the bottom of it.
All he wanted was the truth—and to see the person responsible for his brother’s death punished. He owed his brother that much.
“You send me the proof, and I’ll have my own attorney drop the suit,” he finally said.
He hadn’t forgotten his brother. Not by a long shot.
But he needed to make a strategic retreat.
Especially since this was the brother of the woman Kurt wanted.
“I just wanted to make certain, if he was my son, that he was in a healthy, safe environment. I was trying to do the right thing. I had no intention of doing anything that would have hurt Calvin. I just wanted to know if he was mine biologically.”
“I’ll send you the damned proof. Then you stay the hell away from my family. You should have just come to me. I’d have filled you in on how Carly is, and it would have been a hell of a lot cheaper for both of us. The woman is a piranha, pal. Took your life into your hands sleeping with that one.”
Kurt jerked a nod. There wasn’t much more he could say to that at all.
The other men were almost to the door, where an incensed Luna waited, when he called Gene’s name.
The man turned, impatience on the face that was more like Greer’s than Kurt wanted to think about. The resemblance between the Hillers was definitely obvious. “What?”
“Give your sister a message for me, will you?” He lifted Bronte out of her playpen when she fussed.
“What?”
“Tell Greer I’ll be calling her soon.”
“Like hell you will. You stay away from my baby sister, Chase. You won’t like what happens if you don’t.”
Well, that was a threat, now, wasn’t it?