Fat Cat Liar

Or did it happen before?

Did she leave me knowing she was pregnant with our baby?

Did she know when I showed up at her offices?

Questions slam around my brain, and I stumble blindly into a chair.

“She’s pregnant.” My voice sears my throat as I try to swallow.

“I can’t be sure, Lawson, but it was the way she did it. It was instinct.”

I close my eyes and see flashbacks of my mom. When she was pregnant with Clay, I was young, but I distinctly remember running for her so many times and her hands flying to protect her stomach. Eventually, I learned to be gentler, but she always moved to safeguard him. “Mom did that with you. When I was too little to understand and she saw me bulldozing to her, she protected you.”

“Fuck me.” He drops in the chair beside me, stretching out his legs and running his hands over his face.

We sit in silence as I process the possibility.

I finally snap out of my stupor and reach for the conference phone, dialing Janice’s extension.

“Lawson?” she answers cautiously, always trying to gauge my mood.

“I need you to call every single outlet that covered the ribbon cutting ceremony today. Every university, news station, radio program, business journal, absolutely everyone and request the video footage and pictures be sent to us immediately. Tell them we want them within the hour. Make up something about updating our website or some other bullshit, but I want them in my office ASAP. Then I need you to call Dad and Clay’s assistants and clear their afternoons. Yours too.”

“Consider it done. What are we looking for?”

“It’s not what, it’s who. We’re looking for Greer. I’ll be back around to the office in a few.” I drop the phone in the cradle and look over at Clay with a renewed sense of energy.

“You want to tell me what’s up?”

“We’re going to comb through every single shot and slide looking for her. She’s the daughter of the most popular tycoon in this country today. Someone was watching her. They have her on camera. I know Greer’s body—every curve, dip, and inch of her flesh. You say she’s skinny, I can overlook that, but if there’s even one change, I’ll know it.”

“You’re even more insane than I thought.”

“I told you, she’s mine.”

“Shit.” He rolls his neck from side to side then lets it fall back, his eyes on the ceiling. “Right when I thought I’d soon be going home to sleep in a bed, instead of your lumpy couch, you start up with this again.”

“Oh, you’re going home, because when Greer comes back, you are going to be nowhere near us for a while.”

His head shoots up, eyes wide. “Are you going to kidnap her?”

“No, if what you suspect is true, she’s given me my ace in a hole. She’ll never keep my baby from me. It’s not her style. We both lost our moms, and that’s a bond she can’t ignore. But, more so, she adores her dad. She knows how I feel about our dad.”

“Jesus, are you going to manipulate her again?”

A harsh growl rumbles from my throat, and I clench my fist to keep from jabbing him in the gut. “No, asshole, just the opposite. I’m going to worship her.”

“It’s been weeks, Lawson. Besides your stunt, she’s avoided calls, messages, gifts, and all attempts to contact her. You think if she’s pregnant, she’s going to run back to you with open arms?”

“No, I’ll have my work cut out for me. But I’m willing to pull out all the stops.”

“Do I even want to know what the fuck that means?”

“I’ll start at the top if needed. It was my plan all along, but after the incident at her office, it was best to show her I could respect her space. Now, I’ll go to Kevin Palmer. He may hate me, but he’ll at least give me a chance to plead my case as the father of his grandchild.”

A quiet hush comes over the room, the air turning arctic. A sharp chill starts at the base of my spine and spreads through my body. An eerie sensation of being watched falls on me.

Clay feels it, too, straightening in his chair. Both of us tip our heads to the door at the same time.