Little Secrets:Unexpectedly Pregnant(8)

"Still..." Beck's eyes connected with his and Tyce nodded, acknowledging Beck's threat. Hurt her and he'd die. Got it.

"One tear, Latimore, and all bets are off," Linc said, rising to his  feet. "We'll need a week or two, and your sister's DNA, to ascertain  whether she is Connor's daughter and, if she is, we'll meet again, with  your sister, to determine a path forward."

It was, Tyce realized, as much of a deal as he was going to get today  and it was, honestly, better than he hoped. Lachlyn would finally have,  if the Ballantynes cooperated, a shot at having the large, crazy, loving  family she'd always said she wanted.

"Two weeks and then we'll reevaluate?" Tyce held out his hand and wondered if Linc would shake it. "Deal?"

Linc's warm hand gripped his and their gazes clashed and held. "Deal."

Linc dropped his hand, sidestepped him and opened the door to the  conference room. "I'll contact you to set up the time and place for the  DNA swabs." Linc walked out of the conference room and punched a code  into the pad next to the elevator opposite the conference room. The  doors slid open. Right, it was official; Linc was kicking him out.

Tyce ignored Linc's impatient expression and walked past Jaeger to drop  to his haunches in front of Sage, resting his forearm across his knee.  He waited until Sage lifted defiant eyes to meet his. "After you've  spoken to your brothers, go home and sleep. I'm going to drop in this  evening and-we'll talk then."

"I won't be there."

Tyce resisted the impulse to roll his eyes. "We need to talk, Sage. We  can do it this afternoon or tomorrow morning but we are going to talk."

Sage muttered a curse under her breath and Tyce swallowed his smile at her hissed profanity. "Okay, this evening. Around five."

Tyce nodded, stood up and bent down again to drop a kiss on her head.  Not wanting to see her reaction, her disgust, he spun around and headed  out the door and into the lift. After punching the button for the ground  floor, he looked at Sage and electricity, as it always did, hummed  between them. He wanted to run back into the room, scoop her up and run  away with her, to hell with Lachlyn and Sage's brothers. To hell with  his art and her status as one of the wealthiest women in the world.

To hell with it all.

Unfortunately, Tyce thought as the elevator's doors closed, running away solved nothing.         

     



 



The meeting had run longer than they thought and Beck and Jaeger left a  few minutes after Tyce, both of them assuring her that they were in her  corner, that they would help in any way they could.

"Up to and including beating the crap out of Latimore," Jaeger told her as a parting shot.

When she and Linc were alone Sage walked to the small window, laying her  hand on the cool glass. Droplets of icy rain ran down the pane and the  low, gray clouds outside threatened snow. Late winter in New York City,  she thought; she felt cold inside and out.

"You okay, shrimp?" Linc asked her. Sage turned, put her back to the  wall and looked at her brother, his chair pushed back and his long legs  stretched out.

"Mentally or physically?" Sage asked.

"Either. Both," Linc answered her.

Sage lifted one shoulder and shrugged, biting her bottom lip. Linc's  eyes were on her face and she knew that her brother was hoping for an  answer. Unlike Jaeger and Beck, Linc didn't nag and as a result, she  found herself talking to him more often than anyone else.

Still, it was easier to stick to the facts. "I'm about twelve, thirteen weeks pregnant. I'm not seeing Tyce, it just happened."

Linc's expression was sober. "Do you want to keep this child?"

Now there was a question she could answer without hesitation. "With every breath I take."

Linc relaxed and his lightened. "Okay then. If you want to keep the  baby, then we'll all pitch in to help you... You know that, right?" Linc  stated.

Sage nodded. "I do. So does, apparently, Tyce." She tapped her index  finger against her thigh. "I'm really surprised that he wants to be  involved. I thought he'd take my offer to run."

Linc scowled. "A hell of a lot surprised me today and that was only one  thing of many." Linc flipped through the folder Tyce had left and pulled  out a letter-sized photograph of his sister, Lachlyn. He placed it on  the table so that they could both look at the photo. "I can't deny that  she looks like Connor, she has his eyes."

"And his nose," Sage added. Apart from their hair color, she and Lachlyn could almost be sisters.

Linc folded his arms. "He made quite a few threats today. Do you think he'd act on them?"

Sage knew he would. Tyce never said anything he didn't mean and she told  her brother so. "The media is fascinated by him and, because he's so  reclusive, when he speaks the world will sit up and listen."

"Crap."

"If his sister is Connor's daughter... God," Sage said, her voice  trembling. She couldn't say more, hoping that her brother would know  what she was trying to say without her having to verbalize her thoughts.

"If she's his daughter she's entitled to some part of his wealth? Is  that what you are trying to say?" Linc asked her, pain in his eyes.

Sage nodded. "Isn't she? We're not his biological children, Linc. Yes,  he adopted us but we're not his blood," Sage muttered. "If he knew about  her, he would've scooped her up and pulled her into the family, his  family."

"He wouldn't have tossed us aside," Linc stated, his voice full of conviction. "Connor had an enormous capacity for love."

"But he wouldn't have ignored her either."

Linc nodded, his face grave. "You're right. She would've been pulled  into this family. And five people would've inherited his wealth and not  four."

Sage traced the curve of Lachlyn's cheek with her finger.

Tyce's sister would've been hers, as well. The mind just boggled at the thought.

Linc rested his arms on the table, his brows lowered. "It's important  that we take this one step at a time, that we don't get carried away. We  need to do the DNA testing."

She had a sister; Connor had a child; there was a missing Ballantyne out  there. Sage felt the world tilting and she leaned her back against the  wall and closed her eyes. She couldn't do this; it was all too much. The  pregnancy, Tyce, Lachlyn... Too much change.

And let's not forget the little detail of Tyce deliberately targeting  her to gather information on her family. Their meet-cute at that art  gallery had been anything but fortuitous. He'd intentionally set out to  meet her with the goal of getting her to spill company information. And  strangely, that hurt the most and made her doubt everything that had  happened between them. Were they really that sexually compatible or had  he been just pretending? Was he as attracted to her as she was to him?  Had it all been one horrible, well-thought-out, excellent act on his  part?         

     



 

God, just the thought that the six weeks they'd spent together three  years ago might be one-sided made her feel like someone was ripping out  her internal organs without any pain relief.

Had he laughed at her, was he still laughing? Did he think she was a  gullible idiot? That she was easily manipulated? God, she had to know.

Right now.

Sage lunged for her phone and pulled up his number, punching the green button. Tyce answered just after the first ring.

"Yeah?"

"Where are you?"

"In the alley behind the store-I went out the back exit," Tyce replied. "Why?"

"Wait there," Sage ordered, her skin prickling with embarrassment. She  disconnected the call and picked up her coat, draping it over her arm.  She could cope with a baby, with being on her own, but she didn't know  how she would handle the truth that she was simply a means to an end for  Tyce.

And a very easy lay.

God, she'd never felt more off-balance in her life. She looked at her  favorite brother. "I'm going to go. I'll talk to you later."

Linc placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "Shall we all have  dinner at The Den tonight and you can break the news to the rest of the  family? That way you can answer all the questions that I don't have the  answers to."

Sage nodded. "Sounds good."

Linc pulled her into his arms and rubbed the top of his chin across her  head. When he spoke, his voice was rough with emotion. "Our baby is  having a baby. How is that possible? How did it happen?"

Her eyes burning from unshed tears, Sage knew that in order to stop her  tears from falling, she needed to diffuse the emotion swirling between  them. "Well, Latimore and I met and then we stripped each other naked-"

Linc took a hasty step back and slapped his hands over his ears. "Shut  up, shrimp. God, now I need brain bleach to get that picture out of my  head."



Sage was a bundle of dread and anxiety.

She wanted to run away and hide, to do her ostrich impression-head in  the sand-but at the same time she needed to know, she needed to have her  worst fears confirmed.