This was not a man who needed to hear his administrative assistant hesitantly ask for a moment of his time, timidly clear her throat and then nervously announce she was pregnant and throwing up her insides. Then quickly tell him not to worry, that she would find a way to incorporate her frequent dashes to the ladies’ room into her workday so the latter wasn’t adversely affected. She would then conclude by assuring him that all would work itself out for the best.
It was a phrase her grandmother used to frequently tell her when she was a little girl.
Her grandmother’s wisdom not withstanding, Mirabella really didn’t see how that was going to happen. It was hard to hold on to the little bit of optimism when her baby’s father, after being informed of his pending fatherhood, had only four angry words to throw in her direction: Get rid of it.
He had been even less happy when she’d tersely held her ground and announced, No.
Feeling about as energetic as an overworked flea, Mirabella slid behind the steering wheel of her car and buckled up. She couldn’t help wondering how long it would be before she had to adjust both her seat and her seat belt to accommodate her enlarged size.
She supposed there was a small, outside chance she wouldn’t have to. There were, after all, some cases of women who had gone their entire pregnancy hardly gaining weight at all and never looking as though they were pregnant. Those cases were very few and far between, but they did happen.
But usually, in order for that to happen, she thought in the next moment as she started up her car, her baby would have to do only a minimum of growing in her womb—and something like that might wind up having dire consequences for the baby.
Just what kind of a vain monster was she? She couldn’t wish for something like that, Mirabella upbraided herself.
No, she was a big girl who had done big girl things, Mirabella reminded herself, and now it was time to face up to the consequences. The little being inside of her wasn’t going to be made to pay for her one wild, impetuous moment of irresponsibility.
That was on her.
Just not yet, Mirabella thought as she put her vehicle in Reverse and then pulled out of the parking spot.
Coward, the little voice in her head taunted.
Mirabella ignored the little voice. Lately, she’d gotten good at that.
* * *
When he had first begun to work at Colton Incorporated, each time he walked into the building, Zane used to feel as if all eyes were on him. He was certain that all the employees there, from the lowest to the board of directors surrounding his stepfather, were waiting for him to fall flat on his face and fail.
Fail big-time.
He didn’t doubt that these other employees were convinced he was having everything handed to him—especially when Eldridge had promoted him to be the head of the company’s security division. They hadn’t known or realized, at least not at that point, that he’d had to prove himself. Prove himself to Eldridge and especially to himself. It wouldn’t have meant something to him otherwise.
Eventually, he did prove himself.
But it had taken him time. Time to prove himself, to prove he was there to work, to get the job done and to resolve things as fairly as possible, making decisions to the best of his ability after listening to both sides of a problem. It hadn’t been easy, but he’d done it.
In time, he’d dealt with everything from employee disputes, to embezzlement and to the ever challenging matter of internet security. He liked to feel that he did this all well. Eventually, he had his proof of that. People had begun to seek him out, to trust him to handle things fairly. To treat him with respect.
But that had all changed in the last month.
He was back to square one.
Lower than square one. Because now he couldn’t help feeling that some of the employees were looking at him and wondering if he was somehow involved in his stepfather’s disappearance.
He supposed in a way it made sense because, in reality, he was guilty of doing the very same thing each and every time he and his family gathered around the dining room table for a meal.
To the outside world, the various Colton siblings, as well as the woman who called herself their mother, did what they could to present a united front, to appear to have one another’s backs. Privately, it was another story. It seemed as if they had always been at odds with one another, breaking up into smaller factions.
While Zane was always close to his younger sister, Marceline, she and Eldridge’s oldest son, Fowler, used to go out of their way to make the three youngest Coltons, Thomas, Piper and Reid, miserable. And then there were times that the others would all gang up on Piper, a maid’s daughter, who had been adopted by Eldridge and Whitney when her mother died.
As for himself, Zane had done his best to remain out of it all, focusing instead on just proving himself to the one man who mattered.
And now he was probably included in the mix of suspects, Zane couldn’t help thinking. In these cases, the family was always the first to be suspected.
He stared at the blank screen on the computer monitor on his desk, his thoughts going in a dozen directions at once.
So far, no one had accused him of anything outright, but he had an uneasy feeling it was probably just a matter of time before that happened. Being the outsider was never something shaken off completely. The only way he could make sure he wasn’t ever accused of such a heinous crime was to find Eldridge himself.
He had a far bigger stake in this than Sheriff Watkins did. After all, for him it was personal.
It wasn’t for Watkins.
But how the hell did he go about finding his missing stepfather?
Zane felt as if he was going around in circles again, the way he had been ever since this whole thing had started.
If his father was dead, why hadn’t whoever was responsible for this just killed him on the spot? Why take him and then kill him? It didn’t make any actual sense.
And if his stepfather had been kidnapped for the usual reasons, where was the ransom note?
If he’d been taken for some other reason, as leverage or to be exchanged for something or someone, where was that call?
This whole thing wasn’t adding up, Zane thought, frustrated. It was as if Eldridge had been taken for no reason.
He got up and began pacing around his desk, exasperation and impatience growing by the moment, feeling red-hot and ready to explode.
Zane struggled to hold on to his temper.
Giving in and taking it out on the first thing handy wasn’t going to get him any closer to finding the only father he had ever known.
The best thing he could do for Eldridge—other than finding him, Zane thought ruefully—was to keep the company going in the man’s absence. The company meant everything to the patriarch. This way, when he did come back, the company would be running smoothly instead of having devolved into a state of chaos.
Zane had been doing just that for the last month—keeping his end of the company going—but it was becoming harder and harder rather than easier.
With a sigh, he planted himself back behind his desk. He needed to get something productive done.
Distracted as he reviewed which department needed his attention the most this morning, he thought he heard a noise, but discounted it—
Until