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“If she’s after more money, she’s got a lot of nerve hitting you up. She cheated, and you still gave her a generous settlement.” Hammer glanced at his phone. Sixteen missed calls and three text messages. “Shit.”
Liam leaned over to read his screen. “Bloody hell. Here we go.”
Pike: Call me ASAP.
Pike: Liam’s wife is here. Help!
Pike: What a cunt! BFP.
“BFP?” Liam asked.
“Big fucking problem,” he explained. “Obviously, he hasn’t thrown her out because he thinks she’s still your wife. I’ll set him straight.”
Pike answered on the first ring. “Thank fuck it’s you, Hammer. What am I supposed to do with this…woman?”
“Show her the door. Gwyneth is Liam’s ex-wife. She’s got no business at my club.”
“I’ve tried to get her to leave, but she’s not budging.”
“Call the cops. She’s trespassing.”
The Dungeon Monitor hesitated. “If I do that, what happens to the baby?”
Hammer froze. “The what?”
He couldn’t possibly have heard that right.
“What is it?” Liam frowned.
He thrust a hand in his friend’s face and focused on Pike. “Say that again.”
“A baby. She’s got a fucking baby. I assumed it was Liam’s, so I put them in your office.”
Oh, holy shit. No. That was impossible…right?
Hammer eyed his friend, his brain whirling like a cyclone. Liam, a father? That would be news to everyone—especially to Liam.
“I’ll call you right back,” Hammer barked and hung up. Then he turned to Liam and pointed to the toilet. “You should probably sit down.”
Liam scowled. “Why? What’s going on?”
Hammer hoped he’d jumped to conclusions. Pike had only assumed. Liam and Gwyneth had separated over two years ago, so it shouldn’t even be possible. In theory.
He pinned Liam with a heavy stare. There was no delicate way to ask this question. “When was the last time you fucked your ex-wife?”
He gaped at Hammer as if he’d lost his mind. “Why the hell would you ask me that?”
“Because Gwyneth arrived at Shadows with a baby. Please tell me there’s no chance that’s your kid.”
Liam paused for a long moment, then turned white as a ghost and stumbled back, sliding onto the toilet seat as if all the air had escaped his body. “Oh, fuck me…”
Hammer gnashed his teeth. “Apparently, she already did.”
If this kid was his, Hammer was right; Gwyneth had fucked him but good.
Liam rubbed a hand over his face, his thoughts whirling. A baby?
“I last saw her at a benefit about a week after our divorce was final. Because I helped a local children’s hospital with fundraising, I received a community award. Gwyneth walked in, and I couldn’t leave. So I got shitfaced. Next thing I know, it’s morning. I’m naked in her hotel room, and she’s going on about how we’d shared the fuck of the century.”
Hammer cringed. “Did you?”
“No.” He paused, trying to stay calm and logical. “At least I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so? Either you put your dick in her or you didn’t.”
“I was bloody drunk. I don’t remember.”
“But you don’t know for sure?” When he shook his head, Hammer looked as if he wanted to hit something. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
Liam broke out in a cold sweat.
“Exactly how long ago was the benefit?”
He wished he could forget. “A year ago this past October.”
Mentally, Liam counted out the months and watched Hammer do the same on his fingers.
“That would make this baby…what, five or six months old?” Hammer shook his head. “Hang on. Your ex isn’t the kind of woman to endure nine months of pregnancy and a minute of single motherhood in silence.”
“You’re right,” Liam agreed, grateful for Hammer’s common sense.
“If this baby is yours, why did she wait until now to say something?”
“That’s a fine question. Did Pike happen to mention how old the baby was?”
“I was too shocked to ask.”
Liam shook his head. “I won’t believe the kid is mine until Gwyneth proves it because she’s too crafty to have come all this way with some half-baked notion. She’ll have spun a tight timeline, like a fucking spider determined to trap me in her web.” He swallowed the ball of unease lodged in his throat. “Christ, I need a drink.”
“Sounds like you also need a paternity test and a damn good lawyer. But you know…maybe she’s not here to claim this kid is yours. Maybe she’s here for something else.” Hammer didn’t sound like he believed that.
Neither did Liam.
If the child was his, he’d be a good and loving father. Whatever his beefs with its mother, the baby shouldn’t suffer. But if this was another of Gwyneth’s manipulations, she might not survive his wrath.
Hammer clapped him on the back. “Let’s move this downstairs before Raine wakes up and overhears us. We’ll talk in the kitchen. And get you that drink.”
With a nod, Liam staggered to his feet and exited the bathroom, pausing to stare at Raine. She looked beautiful in sleep. Peaceful. She’d had so little of that in her life, and he refused to let Gwyneth destroy it.
