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Clenching her fingers over the steering wheel, she wondered if she should take Joel and leave immediately. He was a shy little guy, though, and seemed to be flourishing in his pre-school class.
She remembered the look of determination on Rafe’s face and shuddered. She considered her options. Her mother lived on the other side of the world- France, in fact. Nicole and Joel could disappear there, at least for a while. Her mother, however, led an active social life and having a preschooler around would cramp her style.
Tabitha would have turned to their father and performed a butter-him-up act worthy of an Oscar in order to get money from him. Nicole limited her involvement with her father as much as possible. After what he had done…
She took a deep breath to calm herself. She’d always been told she was the practical twin. Something would come to her. No matter what, she would protect Joel at all costs.
She was lying, Rafe thought as he watched her tear out of the parking lot. He felt a tingling sensation in his left hand that had served as a warning throughout his life. The woman would be trouble. Perhaps more trouble than Tabitha had been. If that were possible.
Tabitha had acted as if she’d enjoyed living with him, but soon enough he’d learned that all she wanted from him was his money. To this day, he didn’t understand her greed. After all, her father was very wealthy. He remembered the way she’d begged him to let her sell a few of his yachts. He’d indulged her, secretly enjoying the fact that he was one-upping the mighty Conrad Livingstone via the man’s daughter. The joke had backfired, though. She’d lied to him in order to pad her commission then tried to seduce one of his customers, a Spanish prince. Unsuccessfully.
Narrowing his eyes as the wind whipped around him, he walked toward his rental car. It shouldn’t be difficult to find out the truth about Tabitha, Nicole and Joel.
Sliding into the car, he started the engine then dialed his brother.
“Hey, Rafe. What’s up?” his brother Michael asked.
“I need the name of a good P.I. who is thorough, fast and discreet,” he said.
“Okay. This wouldn’t have anything to do with your bad mood last night, would it?”
“Maybe,” Rafe said.
“Does this mean you’ll be staying an extra night at my place?”
“Yeah, unless it’s a problem,” Rafe said.
“No, but I’ll be gone most of the time. I just found a new business that I can buy cheap. You want to tell me what all this is about?” Michael asked.
“After I find out. Text me the phone number,” Rafe said grimly. He wanted answers and he would get them.
After he received an initial report from his P.I., Rafe met with an attorney. “How much can Nicole Livingstone fight me for custody?”
The attorney shook his head. “She can fight, but unless she can prove you’re an unfit parent, then she won’t win. All you need is a paternity test that proves you’re the boy’s father. It’s easy enough to get a court order for that.”
Rafe thought about the years he’d been cheated from knowing his son, all because of the Livingstones. Bitterness surged through him. “These people have deceived me in the worst way. I want to take Joel away as soon as possible.”
The attorney lifted his hand. “Not so fast.”
“Why not?” Rafe demanded. “You just told me I can get custody without a problem.”
“True,” the man said. “But you have to remember the well-being of your son. Do you really want to rip him away from the one person he’s known since birth? From all appearances, Nicole Livingstone has taken excellent care of Joel. Would you agree?”
“Yes,” he said grudgingly.
“Legally, you may have the right to take him away so that he never sees Nicole again, but you need to consider what’s best for Joel. How is he going to feel about being taken away from the woman he knows as his mother?”
Rafe felt a gut-wrenching twist at the thought. He had been through a very similar experience-losing his parents and his family when he was a child, although not so young. The traumatic event had left him feeling lost for years. Despite his grudge against the Livingstones, he had to concede that Nicole Livingstone had been a loving mother to Joel.
She seemed different from Tabitha, but it was too soon for him to be sure. He found it difficult to believe that she could be so different from Tabitha and their father, especially since she hadn’t bothered to inform Rafe about Joel.
Another surge of bitterness burned through him. He was in a position to pull off the ultimate revenge with the Livingstones. He could take Joel away and they would never see him again. Ultimate revenge was a gratifying prospect, but selfish. He had a son to think about now. The knowledge blew him away every time he thought of it.
Nicole could be useful. An image of her slid across his mind. She certainly wasn’t his usual type. She wasn’t the least bit flashy and kept her sensuality under wraps. Something about the woman made him curious in a sexual way. He suspected that when she let loose, she could be explosive. It would take the right man to light her fuse. In other circumstances, he would give in to his curiosity, but something far more important was at stake at the moment. His son.
The following evening, after dinner and a bath for Joel, Nicole helped her nephew into his footed pajamas and sat beside him in his little bed. “Which book do you want me to read tonight?” she asked.
Her heart squeezed tight as he lifted four books with a hopeful expression on his sweet face. He may be her nephew by blood, but in her heart, he was her son. And she’d made sure of that through the courts.
“Four?” she said. “I thought I was just going to read two tonight.”
“But I like all of these,” he said, looking at the books. The job of narrowing down his choices clearly put him at a loss.
She sighed. “Okay, but just this once,” she said, knowing she wouldn’t be able to hold the line when he asked her tomorrow night. She suspected she enjoyed these precious moments with him even more than he did.
He plopped into her lap and opened the first book about a giant strawberry and the mouse who wanted to eat it.
In the back of her mind, she wondered whether she would hear anything else from Rafe Medici. Encouraged that he hadn’t contacted her last night or today, she relaxed just a smidgeon. His intensity had frightened her so much that she’d almost given in to her fear and taken Joel out of the country.
Since Tabitha had died when he was just six months old, Joel viewed Nicole as his mother. He turned to her when he was sick or hurt. He chattered with her, smiled and laughed, and lifted his arms for hugs.
The strong attachment claimed Nicole the day he was born. The delivery had been difficult and Tabitha had wanted her sister by her side. Tabitha developed an infection in the hospital and the next six months had been a roller-coaster ride for everyone involved. Nicole had taken extra time off from work to care for both Tabitha and Joel.
Tabitha had grown impatient with her doctor’s warnings and often hadn’t taken her medicine properly. She’d insisted on going out partying at night while Nicole cared for Joel.
One night she’d collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. The infection had taken over her body and she’d died within a week.
Devastated and in shock, Nicole had secured legal custody of Joel per Tabitha’s instructions. Although her father had invited her and Joel to live with him, she’d turned him down. Nicole refused to subject Joel to her father’s unpredictable temper.
The threat of Rafe Medici continued to buzz in the back of her mind like a fly bouncing against a window, but Nicole cuddled Joel against her and read the second book, and the third. Halfway through the fourth story, Joel’s little body sagged against her, his chest rising and falling in slow even breaths.
Nicole smiled. He’d fallen asleep. She gently shifted him off of her, and he burrowed into his covers, but his eyes remained closed. She kissed his forehead and turned out the dinosaur lamp beside his bed and left his room.
Returning to her den, silence settled around her like a cloak. In the beginning, after Tabitha had just died, she’d had to talk herself down from panic at the enormous job she faced of raising her sister’s child. Was she up for it? There was no choice, she’d realized. She would have to muddle through.
After teething, chicken pox and potty training, she didn’t question herself as much. Joel was a happy, healthy little boy.
Now the silence just underlined the fact that she was alone. She used her remote to turn her sound system on low volume and skipped through the selections until she landed on a collection of mindless, but cheerful pop music. As she sipped the glass of water she’d left by the couch, habit made her reach for unfinished paperwork for her job.
After Joel went to bed at night, Nicole was aware of how alone she truly was. Her mother lived on the other side of the world. She couldn’t trust her father.
Thank goodness for her cousin Julia. Julia frequently scolded her to go out more often, but Nicole found it difficult to leave Joel in the evenings. As for a man, well, Tabitha had been the natural man magnet. The man Nicole had been seeing just before Tabitha died hadn’t been interested in taking on a ready-made family. When the time was right, maybe a man would come into her life. An average man who wasn’t an egomaniac or obsessed with success. Someday perhaps, but not today.
She forced her attention to her work to distract herself. A half hour passed, and a knock sounded at her front door. She noticed the time, 8:30 p.m. and cautiously rose. Glancing through the peephole, Nicole felt her stomach clench. Her worst nightmare was standing on her front porch.
Two
Nicole considered not opening the door, but she didn’t want Rafe Medici to continue ringing her doorbell, perhaps awakening Joel. Taking a quick shallow breath, she whisked the door open and met his gaze in silence, mentally girding herself for the battle she knew she faced.
“Joel is my son,” he said in a rock-hard voice.
“Joel is mine, legally and in every other way that counts,” she immediately responded. Keeping her voice cool wasn’t difficult since her blood felt like ice.
