“I just told you.” He met her gaze straight on, without so much as a blink. If this was an act, he was very good.
She allowed for the slim possibility that he was being honest. “Why would you care?”
Devin heard Lexi come closer behind her. It warmed Devin’s heart to know Lexi was on her side. Not that Lexi was a lawyer, and not that Lexi was in any better position than Devin to hire an expensive law firm.
“I care, because I’m a decent human being. And I’m doing more than just warning you. I’m here to offer you the services of a first-class law firm. I have Bernard and Botlow on retainer, and you’re welcome to use them for the hearing next week. Free of charge, of course.”
Devin blinked at the man.
Lexi pulled the door wider. “What’s the catch?”
Steve saw Lexi, and his expression faltered for a split second. “Hello. And you are?”
“I’m a friend of Devin’s.”
He turned his attention back to Devin. “Do you mind if I come in for a moment? “
“The baby’s asleep,” she told him.
“I’ll be very quiet.” He waited, then he looked to Lexi. “I’m here to offer legal services, nothing more. You can check out the law firm, check out the lawyers. They have an excellent reputation, and I won’t be in any way remotely involved in the case.”
He looked back at Devin. “My cousin is treating you unfairly. He’s stacked the deck in his favor, and I want to level the playing field.”
Devin didn’t like to think about Steve’s cousin Lucas. He was a Demarco through and through. And that meant he was devastatingly handsome, sexy, self-assured and powerful. The combination should have been annoying. It was annoying. But it was also arousing in a knee-jerk, anthropological sort of way, and Devin found herself having to guard against a sexual attraction to the man who was growing more aggravating by the day. She thought about her overworked, sole proprietor lawyer down on Beach Drive. Hannah was wonderful. She was bright and hardworking, and she’d cut her fees considerably for Devin. But she wasn’t a family law specialist.
“You can always say no to me inside,” Steve offered reasonably.
Devin glanced at Lexi. The woman gave a nearly imperceptible shrug, and Devin decided to take a chance. After all, Steve was right about one thing. She could say no to him in her living room as well as she could say it on the porch. There seemed little risk in listening to what he had to say.
Lucas knew that LoJacking Steve’s car brought him dangerously close to the line ethics-wise. But when the device went still for half an hour out at Lake Westmire, he knew his suspicions were confirmed and his actions justified.
He left the mansion through the front foyer, crossing the driveway turnaround to the garage that housed his jet-black Bugatti.
He cut the hour-long drive down to forty minutes, passing the blip that signaled Steve’s Porsche coming the other way along the interstate south of Seattle. His GPS took him down the winding, beachfront road of Lake Westmire, unerringly to a gravel driveway behind a compact, white cottage that obviously fronted on the lake.
He yanked the parking brake, killed the engine and exited the low-slung vehicle.
The staircase was short, and it brought him to a narrow wraparound deck that most likely led to a veranda overlooking the lake. Facing the road, there was a painted, blue door. He knocked.
After a few minutes, Devin peeped through the small window, frowning before she opened the door to him.
“Lucas?” She glanced both ways, checking for what, he didn’t know, but obviously puzzled by his presence.
“What did he want?” Lucas asked without preamble, hoping a strong offense would put her off balance.
“Excuse me?”
“Steve,” Lucas continued, taking advantage of the small opening she’d left between her body and the entry wall to barrel inside.
She took a reflexive step backward, the action opening the door wider. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Lucas turned and braced himself against the painted, yellow wall in the small entry, leaving eighteen inches or so between them. He was disappointed that she’d lie outright. Then again, what did he know about her?
“Steve was here,” he stated.
She didn’t answer.
“Is that the way you want to play this?” he persisted. “Are you going to look me square in the eyes and lie?”
Her expression faltered for a second, but she blinked her long lashes over her deep blue eyes, camouflaging her feelings. “What are you doing here?”
“Tell me what he wanted. Did he plead his case? Try to make a deal?” If Lucas understood Steve’s tactics, he’d be in a better position to counteract them.
“You’re not making sense.”
He pinned her with a glare. “I saw his car.”
“You were spying on me?”
“No.” In point of fact, he’d been spying on Steve. “I was not spying on you. But I know he was here, and I want to know what he told you.”
Opening a manufacturing plant in South America was not a decision to be taken lightly. Steve would have given her a rosy profit picture and glossed over all the risks. It made Lucas crazy that he had to justify his international corporate strategy to a woman whose sole business experience was in autographing her trite, self-help books for the lovelorn.
Devin gave her head a little shake, her short, wispy, brunette hair moving ever so slightly with the motion. “It’s none of your business.”
Lucas felt his blood pressure rise. “So, you admit he was here.”
“That’s also none of your business.”
“Damn it, Devin,” he shouted.
A baby’s cry sounded from farther inside the house.
Devin smacked the palm of her hand against the end of the open door. “Now see what you’ve done?”
Lucas instantly realized Amelia was here.
Of course Amelia was here. She lived here.
Devin turned on her heel and swished into the living room on bare feet, her faded jeans clinging to a shapely rear end. Lucas ignored the view. Instead, he took the opportunity to close the door and follow her inside the house. He wasn’t leaving without answers.
Devin reemerged into the living room, a red-faced, blubbering and soggy-looking Amelia tucked over one shoulder. Her hand rubbed up and down the baby’s back as she snarled at Lucas. “Thanks tons.”
“I didn’t know she was sleeping.”
“It’s three in the afternoon. What did you think she’d be doing? “
Lucas didn’t have a clue, and it seemed pointless to venture a guess. “If you’ll just tell me what Steve said.”
Amelia’s cries grew louder, and Devin began jiggling her. “You have a lot of nerve, Lucas Demarco. Barging in here—”
“Steve has a lot of nerve sneaking around behind my back.”
She stilled. “He offered to help me.” Lucas snorted out a cold laugh. “Steve’s never helped anybody his entire life.”
Amelia shrieked, nearly piercing Lucas’s eardrums. He cut her an annoyed glance. “Can’t you do something to—”
To his shock, Devin plopped the baby against his chest.