Triplets for the Texan (Texas Cattleman's Club: Blackmail 5)

“Fine.” Simone revved the engine. “Good night, Hutch.”

He was forced to step back or risk having her run over his foot. After his recent behavior, he couldn’t blame her.

* * *

Simone refused to think about Dr. Troy Hutchinson. He could hurt her only if she allowed it. The new lives growing in her womb were all she needed. Even if Hutch wanted to hang around after the babies came, she wouldn’t have time for him.

Tonight had exposed a valuable truth. Hutch didn’t love her. It hurt to admit it. It hurt like hell. But she was better off accepting reality.

She didn’t hold his bad temper against him. Anyone in a similar situation would be raw and grief stricken and likely to lash out. No, that wasn’t the root of her sadness. What pained her was that Hutch, in his hour of need, hadn’t turned to Simone for help and comfo

rt. If she dug deep to the heart of their relationship, she saw the chasm between what she wanted and what he was willing to give her.

Friendship? Yes. They had mended fences over their earlier breakup and moved on. Sex? The sex was amazing...hot, intense and deeply satisfying. She and Hutch had no problems in the bedroom.

She could even see that the two of them had established a tentative relationship of trust. Certainly, she trusted him to look after her physical well-being. Not only that, but Hutch had been very honest with her about Bethany. There were very few secrets between them.

Though in Simone’s case, the one she had omitted was gigantic.

Tonight’s drama with Hutch had stolen her appetite, replacing it with the now-familiar nausea. Nursing a cup of hot tea, she curled up in the comfy chair in her bedroom and opened her laptop.

For some reason, she had never deleted the message from the mysterious Maverick. The cryptic note was evidence, in any case. Maybe he or she was not a threat anymore. Word of her pregnancy was slowly beginning to spread. The cat was out of the bag. Perhaps Maverick had wanted to extort money from her to keep her pregnancy quiet.

When she opened Facebook, she saw that she had received a new message. She clicked on it and read, “Your day of reckoning is near. Maverick.”

That was odd. And menacing. She placed a hand on her stomach, instinctively alarmed. It was one thing to fear for her own safety. Now she carried the responsibility for three tiny humans.

The only secret she had kept from Hutch and her friends...from everyone, in fact, was private. This Maverick person would have no reason to know what Simone had done...or at least why she had done it.

She hated feeling helpless. Even more, she hated feeling powerless to track down the subpar person who held grudges against so many of Royal’s upstanding citizens. She sure as heck wasn’t going to engage in an online conversation with Maverick. The best thing to do was to go about her business, pretending that everything was normal.

Thursday morning dawned bright and clear and sunny. After a restless sleep, Simone was grateful for weather that lifted her spirits. Sometime around three the night before, she had turned on the light and made a list. She was a mother-to-be with a successful business to run.

This thing with Hutch, well, it was fun, but it was also painful. After tomorrow night, it was probably best if she put an end to it. At least that way, she would be the one calling the shots and not Hutch.

Beneath her surface calm, her heart was breaking. She wanted it all. The babies. The company she had built from the ground up. The respect of her parents. And last but not least, she wanted the man she had loved since she was twenty-two years old.

Fifty percent wasn’t a bad average. In baseball, it was extraordinary. Too bad she had never been good at sports.

After showering and drying her hair, she put on a new black knit dress and topped it with a cheery hot-pink cardigan. The knit fabric and empire waistline were designed to grow along with her belly. Today, it simply looked liked a casual outfit suited to a pleasant spring day.

She had called Tess and told her she was coming in a little late. Tess was brilliant. Simone had hired the younger woman straight out of business school with a freshly minted MBA. At no time had Tess ever let her down or not been able to handle the work. Simone was counting on that.

When she made it in to her office, she asked Tess to come in and close the door. Tess might have been alarmed, but she didn’t show it. “What’s up, boss?”

Simone had insisted that Tess call her by her first name. But Tess had just as insistently refused. Simone eyed the girl on the other side of the desk. From her magenta-accented pixie cut to her triple-pierced right ear, Tess was an original.

For some reason, Simone was having a hard time getting this conversation off the ground. “Tess,” she said, “are you happy working with me?”

Tess nodded. “Of course.”

“And do you have plans to move up the ladder? To go somewhere else? Dallas, maybe? Or Houston?”

“None.” A tiny frown appeared between Tess’s brows. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“Not at all. Quite the opposite.”

“I’m confused.”