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She was going to the Caribbean! She’d pay with cash and disappear.
“Good luck finding me, Boston Kincaid.”
#
Boston roared when he realized Julianna was gone. “Find her!” he yelled to Richard, too agitated to temper his tone with his father’s oldest friend. “I want her credit cards flagged, her debit cards monitored…anything that would tip us off to her whereabouts.”
Richard frowned but kept his opinion to himself as he nodded and disappeared.
She’d left him. The little minx had picked up and split. An emotion so wild he couldn’t rightly put a name to it, whipped through his body like a white-hot lash, searing tender parts and creating chaos in his mind. She carried his child and yet she bailed. How dare she do something so reckless. He dialed her cell phone, not surprised when it went straight to voicemail. He knew she wouldn’t be so careless as to answer the phone knowing he could have it traced but he would leave her a message. “Julianna, you’re being foolish. Call me back and tell me where you are. I will come and get you — and I will forgive this transgression. But if you make me chase you…I cannot guarantee you’ll like what happens when I catch you. And make no mistake…I will catch you. You carry my legacy. Nothing will stop me. Nothing.”
He clicked off and went straight to his room, needing a shower and clarity. Richard would track her financial movements but if she paid cash, the trail would stop at a certain point. Julianna was a smart woman but she would mess up and he would be there to grab her.
That was a promise.
#
Nothing will stop me. Nothing
Boston’s words rang in Julianna’s memory as she boarded the plane and she wondered how long Boston would look for her before giving up. What about Tom? A voice worried at the back of her mind but she couldn’t think of Tom right now. Chances were Boston would stop paying the bill for Tom’s rehab at some point but he wouldn’t do it right this second. He would likely dangle that in front of her, trying to persuade her to come back to him but she wasn’t going to cave. Not this time. The stakes were so much bigger than ever before. She longed to call Tom and tell him everything but she couldn’t do that. Not yet. She still feared his reaction. Her brother was all she had in this world and she couldn’t bear knowing she’d shamed him, even if it was to help him. No, she was alone in this.
A single tear escaped to slide down her cheek but she didn’t bother wiping it away. She knew there was plenty more where it’d come from because her heart felt strangely damaged.
She wasn’t in love with Boston. She was using him just as he was using her. But now there was a baby to consider. A living breathing human being that would tether her to Boston in ways she couldn’t even fathom.
But even as she tried to tell herself that she didn’t harbor any feelings for Boston, she knew that was a lie. In the past six weeks, she’d come to feel something for the impossibly sexy and enigmatic man, but she didn’t want to acknowledge that the tears she was crying might be for something else.
She was leaving him.
And she was carrying his baby.
What a fucked up situation. For Christ’s sake, she was a walking country song. All she was missing was a tractor and a dog.
#
Boston swore under his breath. His eyes burned from staying awake all night and his gut churned from using alcohol as his only sustenance but there’d been no way sleep could find him when his mind wouldn’t shut down for a blessed minute. Julianna had done exactly what he’d figured she’d do to escape and if he weren’t half-drunk and beyond exhausted he might’ve been impressed.
“She’s using cash,” Richard said. “And since you don’t have access to her bank account, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Bullshit. “Hire a private investigator. There are ways to find people. I want to know where she is by the end of the day.”
“You need sleep,” Richard said, casting a strong look of disapproval Boston’s way. “You look like hell. And you don’t smell very good either.”
“I didn’t realize I was running for Governor,” he said sourly, rising from his chair on stiff legs to make himself another drink. “She could be anywhere by now. Hell, she could be at an abortion clinic, sucking that tiny life right from her body and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.”
“Do you really think she’d do that?” Richard asked.
“How the hell should I know?” Boston snapped, dropping two ice cubes into his glass before pouring two fingers of scotch. “It’s not like we talked about those sorts of things.” They didn’t talk much at all. All they did was fuck. Gloriously. And he was damn addicted to the feel of her body next to his at night. God, he wanted to punch something so badly that his hands shook. Or maybe it was because his blood sugar was plummeting. He downed the glass and deposited it to the bar, focusing on Richard with displeasure. “Why are you still standing there? Go find her!”
“You need sleep and a swift kick in the ass. And I’m not sure in what order.” Boston stared, unable to believe that Richard was being so openly insubordinate. But apparently, he wasn’t through because he continued without pause. “You obviously haven’t learned a thing about the girl because here you are ready to drag her back by her hair to get what you want. Has it occurred to you that maybe a different approach would yield better results?”
Boston narrowed his slightly tipsy gaze at Richard. “How so?”
“The girl is scared. The pregnancy has changed the game and thus the players. It’s time for you to woo the girl if you’re going to get what you want. Ask yourself…do you still want Julianna?”
“Yes,” he growled.
“Then you’re going to have to get her to come back to you on her terms. If you force her, it will end badly.”
“She signed a contract,” Boston reminded Richard in a cold tone but Richard was immune and simply shrugged. Boston stabbed at the air between them. “I’ll make her wish she never met me if she doesn’t come back. That’s my baby in that belly and she doesn’t have the right to keep it from me!”
“You’re not thinking clearly. Go to bed. When you wake, I’ll have something for you to go on. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and sober the hell up.”
Richard didn’t wait for Boston’s answer and simply left the room, taking Boston’s ire with him. Good God, Richard was right. He was drunk and his head was spinning. Somehow, he found himself in his bedroom and fell face-first onto his bed. Immediately, Julianna’s scent enveloped him and groaned, clutching the bedding in his hands, wishing she was still there beside him instead of God knew where, doing God knew what.
“Please don’t kill my baby,” he murmured in an agonized voice to the still room. “Please, Julianna…”
#
Julianna walked into her suite and let out a soft gasp of amazement at the deluxe accommodations that only wealth could provide and for a split second she forgot all about everything that had made the flight miserable and quickly let the diaphanous drapes fluttering in the soft, salty breeze, slide though her fingers. Everything gleamed with sunlight and her soul smiled with happiness and delight. The past few months, working two jobs, worrying about Tom, quitting school, and shelving her dreams and ambitions slid away, leaving her with nothing but hope that things were going to work out somehow.She left the windows and went to the bedroom and couldn’t help but stare at the bed wistfully, picturing Boston lying there naked with that hungry gaze trained on her, making her feel as if she were the most beautiful woman in the world. Her hand strayed to her still-flat stomach and wondered what Boston would think if she got fat. She couldn’t imagine that he would tolerate a woman who was suddenly ungainly and hormonal. Julianna bit her lip and her brow dipped with a sadness she couldn’t understand. What did she care what Boston would think of her burgeoning figure? Their relationship had been irrevocably changed from what it had been and there was no going back. Before, she’d found some kind of peace and acceptance knowing that at th
e end of the contract term, she and Boston would simply walk away from one another. At least in the beginning that’s how she’d come to terms with their odd relationship. But within the last week, she’d begun to have feelings for the jerk.
Which made the current situation so much worse.
Why had he lied to her about not being able to have kids? She couldn’t understand why he would say that to her unless he’d hoped to get her pregnant and wanted to make sure she didn’t stress about birth control.
Her head ached from the questions. And she was hungry. Always hungry. And sick. The nausea was becoming a constant companion. It was as if now that she knew she was pregnant, every symptom of pregnancy was piling up on her. She glanced at her fingers. Were they swollen? How soon did that happen? Julianna groaned and shook out her fingers, going to her bag to find some crackers to munch on. She reached for her phone and saw two more messages. Both from Boston. She deleted them both before she could change her mind and call him.
This was his fault.
