The Baby Contract

CHAPTERONE

Bran – Four Months Earlier

Tom Jameson droned on and on, but I wasn’t listening to his report on the quarterly sales. I could read it later. My mind was on my sister Harper and how she’d so effectively cut me out of her life.

Like I was a cancer. I’d known she’d be pissed, but I’d truly believed she’d understand why I did what I did, and we’d go on like before.

But now, weeks later, I was beginning to worry that the rift between us was permanent. I couldn’t bear the thought of that.

Harper was the only family I had. Everything I’d done since our parents died fifteen years ago was to care for her. She had no one but me. I had no one but her.

Well, that wasn’t quite true.

She had her friend, Anne Francis, who I blamed for turning Harper against me.

It made me rue the day I brought Harper to dinner with me at the MacLeod estate when I was trying to do a deal with Dane MacLeod and his father. I’d asked her to come because I wanted her to become more involved in the business.

That night, Anne was there as Dane’s date and she and Harper hit it off. I didn’t mind that Harper had friends. I minded that Anne was too much in our business. I didn’t trust her.

There was no doubt in my mind that she’d been after Dane because she wanted a rich husband to give her back the life she’d grown up in, but lost when her father disinherited and disowned her.

She must have done something really bad to piss her father off. I know if I had any influence, I’d cut her off myself because she was the bane of my existence.

If I apologized to Harper, she might forgive me, but I couldn’t bring myself to be sorry. How could I apologize for protecting her against a stalker?

A stalker who kidnapped another woman, thinking it was Harper.

All I was trying to do was keep her safe? Was I a little heavy-handed? Maybe.

But it was her life I was protecting. She didn’t see it like that. She accused me of keeping her a prisoner in her home. And now she avoided me like I was the bad guy.

It hurt that she could so easily cut me from her life. But she was alive. I’d done my job.

“Mr. Erickson?”

I jerked my attention to Tom. “Yes?”

The rest of the team looked at me expectantly. Shit. “I’ll review the reports and get back to you.” I stood, tired from sitting in meetings all day.

This had been my twelfth, and I still had one more to go. Luckily, this one was at MacLeod Capital Investment. The drive over would give me a chance to clear my mind.

As my drive wove through the streets towards downtown Los Angeles, I called Harper again. And again, she didn’t answer.

“It’s Bran, your brother. It’s been so long. Perhaps you’ve forgotten you had a brother. This is starting to get childish, Harper. If your goal is to hurt me, you have succeeded. Call me.”

I hung up and shoved the phone into my pocket to keep from hurling it across the car. So much for clearing my head.

My driver pulled up in front of the MacLeod Capital Investment building. I stepped out, buttoning my coat as I made my way into the building. The initial project I’d wanted to do with MacLeod Capital Investment didn’t work out. I’d questioned Dane’s business acumen, and he’d taken offense.

In my defense, he’d spent over twenty years as a Navy SEAL before returning home to take over the family business. He hadn’t ever intended to run the business. As it turned out, he was a good businessman and apparently, he’d fixed whatever rift he’d had with his parents. Maybe I should ask how he did that, so I could fix things with Harper.

I stepped out of the elevator and made my way to Dane’s office. Outside it, his administrative assistant, Lane, sat holding a baby. Ethan Wheatly, Dane’s right-hand man, and his wife, Lucy, were there as well.

Inwardly, I groaned. There must be something in the drinking water here that so many of the people who worked in this building were getting married and having babies. First Dane, who didn’t fall for Anne Francis, but instead married his employee, who weirdly enough was his best friend’s daughter. They now had twins.

Then it was Ethan, who I had expected would take over his grandfather’s business, but instead was choosing to stay at MacLeod Capital Investment.

He also married the woman who worked for him and now they had a baby. I suspected it was the one Dane’s admin was holding, who also had just gotten married to Archer Graves.