5 Bikers for Valentines

MALCOLM

“I'm very glad to see that things are working out for you, Malcolm,” Terrance Houston said as we sat down at the conference room table together. “I'm most impressed to see that you've already come a long way as the company's CEO. Your father must be very proud of you.”

“Thank you, Terrance,” I said. “I appreciate that you trust me to run the company, and to represent my father's name to the best of my ability and not be a total embarrassment.”

Passive aggressive? Maybe a little.

“I'll admit, I made some mistakes,” he said.

He looked nervous, and he probably should be considering he'd insulted my future fiancée on such a deep level. When she'd told me what he'd said to her, I wanted to fire him on the spot. More than that, I wanted to kick his ass.

It was Casey though, who counseled peace and patience. It surprised the hell out of me. She was the type who usually wanted to go in fists flying. But, she'd

said to look at things from Terrance's perspective and understood that he was only acting in the best interest of the Crane family as a whole.

Yeah, pregnancy hormones do weird things to people.

“But, I couldn't be happier for you and Casey,” Terrance went on. “Twins even. Who'd have expected that the fertility meds would work that well? Congratulations, Malcolm. I'm genuinely thrilled for you.”

I nodded. I believed him. For the most part, at least.

“Well, I have to say, I couldn't be happier with how it all worked out.”

“It's nice of you to still let your brother have a role in the company, after all that he'd done,” Terrance said. “Most of us assumed you'd fire him on the spot for trying to steal everything from you. It takes a big man to do what you did. A mature man. The sort of calm presence and cool head Crane needs moving forward, now that you father has stepped down.”

I shrugged. “Adam might be a scheming asshole sometimes, but it's only fair he gets his share,” I said. “Besides, he fulfilled my father's last wish too.”

He and Danielle had a darling little boy of their own. They weren't together, but the child she was carrying turned out to be Adam's all along. Apparently, Tyler wasn't the only side piece Danielle had been stringing along. The more I learned about her, the more disgusted with her I became. She really was a reprehensible human being.

Truth be told, I wanted my children to grow up knowing their uncle and cousin. I wanted that even given the somewhat strained circumstances. Family was important, after all, and Adam's son – Lucas – was family. He was my nephew.

Like Adam, he also didn't ask to be born into this mess, so we played nice for his sake. He needed family every bit as much as the rest of us did.

As I thought back on it all, I just shook my head. Adam and Danielle had planned all along to keep me believing that I had a child on the way with her. Once that die was cast and we'd all bought into it, they were going to drop the bombshell and admit that Lucas was, indeed, Adam's child.

The baby had been conceived after we'd broken up, she wasn't nearly as far along as she'd pretended to be. There was no way he could have been mine, so there was need for paternity tests to determine it. Lucas was Adam's son. Adam finally admitted it, and I'd let him keep a job with the company.

And Casey would be giving me not one, but two, beautiful daughters.

My phone buzzed, and when I checked the caller ID, I saw that it was my mother. I picked it up on the first ring.

“Casey's gone into labor,” she squealed. “It's time, Malcolm.”

My heart raced, and I started to panic, trying to remember everything I needed to do.

“Terrance, I have to go,” I said, scrambling to get my things together.

I hung up the phone and rushed toward the door, but Terrance was right on my tail.

“But the meeting with Mr. Brownstein,” he said. “This is an important meeting, Malcolm.”

“Yeah, but my fiancée is in labor with our babies right now,” I said. “So, it looks like you'll be handling it for me.”

“You know your father would stay, right?” he said. “He'd see this through.”

Yeah, I knew that. I knew it all too well. He'd stayed to take a meeting and had missed some of the more important parts of my life. I’d determined long ago that when it came to my own children, I would never let business take precedence over them. “I'm not my father, Terrance,” I said. “I love this company and I'll work my ass off for it, but my family will always come first. Always. So, if you'll excuse me--”

I stepped out of the conference room and rushed out of the building. I had to get to Casey. She was the all that mattered to me. Her and the babies.