Mine

“Ms. . . .” Rick threw out an arm in Natalie’s direction. “She doesn’t need to hear all of our private information.”

“She knows about Brandon and your claims. She is with me.” Gabe took another step, but this one put him in front of her. “Do you understand that?”

“You’re sleeping together.” Rick hesitated between each word, as if he analyzed them as he said them.

“More than that.” Andy stood up, too. Now the four of them hovered around in a tight group, with Natalie just outside of Rick’s reach, but not by far.

Rick looked confused. “I didn’t know it was serious.”

“Why, did you want to make a pass at her, too?” Andy groaned, but Gabe did not regret the smartass comment. Rick deserved the shot. Deserved a hell of a lot more.

“Okay, stop.” Natalie shoved them all out of the way and moved to the center of the circle.

Rick shook his head. “This isn’t your business.”

Not one to back down, Natalie put a hand out, not touching him but close. Her other one rested on Gabe’s chest. “Your mistakes are impacting everyone’s business.”

Rick glanced at her hand. Looked ready to swat it away but didn’t. “I am not arguing with you about my life.”

“What the fuck.” Andy kept swearing under his breath for another few seconds before continuing on. “This isn’t just about you, Rick.”

“Well, it’s sure as hell not about her.”

Something exploded in Gabe’s brain. She was off-limits and Rick . . . “That’s it.”

“No.” Natalie shoved against him as he closed in. She threw in a glare before looking back and forth between all the men. “Honest to God, I will pull my gun.” She focused in on Rick. “And you, dumbass, should not test me.”

Andy pushed them all back, giving her some breathing room. He also kept a hand on each brother. “Let’s listen to the smart lady.”

Gabe wrestled with his control. He’d lost it. Really lost it. Actually wanted to hurt Rick. Inflict some damage so he’d know what it felt like to live in this tumble of confusion and frustration and panic. That realization had him inhaling and trying to get his heartbeat to settle back to normal levels.

“First, everyone stop talking about Brandon’s mother like she’s a cookie the two of you passed back and forth.” Natalie looked around at all of them but stopped on Rick. “Gabe loved Linda, and you were so far out of line that you should be grateful he lets you in his life and anywhere near Brandon after what you did.”

Andy nodded. “Amen.”

She turned on Gabe. “And you . . . Linda was young and made a mistake and it’s over. Not to minimize or diminish, because you are right to be furious and not trust Rick, but you said you don’t love her. Let that part fall into history and focus on what—who—does matter.”

“This is about Brandon,” Andy added.

“Who could be my son.”

Andy grabbed Rick’s arm and twisted his shirt in his hand. “You’ve got to stop with this shit.”

“Gabe is sitting there, patting himself on the back for raising the kid but that might not have been his right.” Rick practically screamed the insult.

He couldn’t do it. Gabe couldn’t find a place or enough time to dig out of the hole. So, he would fight his way out. “I am going to fucking kill you.”

“He’s mine,” Rick said, not leaving any doubt how he thought a DNA test would come out.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Brandon is not furniture. He is not a possession.”

Gabe listened to the words and remembered Natalie’s comment about Linda not being a cookie. It resonated. Even humbled him a little, because he had turned Linda into the villain in his mind. Forgot her age and everything going on in her life at that time with her difficult parents and painted her as evil. Something clicked. Not enough for Gabe to turn off the rage, but it decreased to a level where he could think again.

He was about to call for cooldown when Rick pointed at Natalie. “Stay out of this.”

She shook her head. “He’s not your son.”

“Right, I get Gabe’s argument about biology.” Rick waved a hand in the air. “Save it.”

She visibly swallowed. “No, I mean he’s really not your son.”

Silence crashed through the room for a second time. They all stared at her. Rick wore a look of confusion, but Gabe didn’t care about him. He focused on her. She didn’t throw out comments just to say them. She backed up claims. She did her homework.

Gabe’s mind went blank as he searched for the right words. The hollowness inside him made it tough to hear or think about anything. He touched her arm and brought her around to face him. “What are you talking about?”

“I have the test results.” Some of the strength had left her voice. She stood in the middle of the room, more or less between them all, and kept glancing from one to the other.

“What the fuck?” Andy stepped back. Way back until he leaned against the fireplace.

“I had them done so Gabe would know.”

Gabe could barely hear her. The words faded. His emotions battled. Relief at the idea of her being right. Absolute crushing pain at the thought of her working behind his back. Doing exactly what he told her he didn’t want.

“I’m supposed to trust you?” But part of Rick clearly did. The doubt about the paternity hovered right there in his voice.

“Gabe didn’t know.” She walked over to the bookshelf next to the fireplace and removed an envelope from the top of a line of books and held it out to Rick. “And you can look for yourself. Reputable lab. Gabe is the birth father.”

She’d carried that around yesterday. Gabe fought to remember through the daze that threatened to swallow him.

Rick turned the envelope over in his hands but didn’t open it. “This can’t be.”

“Natalie?” Gabe heard the rough edge to his voice and ignored it.

Sadness filled her eyes as she held a hand out to him. “I know you’re upset.”

“No.” He jerked away from her touch, because that word didn’t even come close to covering this betrayal. He had to fight his knees to stay steady and choke back the bile rushing up the back of his throat. “What the fuck did you do?”

“Ran the test.”

He didn’t know how that was possible. He searched his mind for any reasonable excuse or a way to understand why she lied and worked behind his back. How she . . . The lightbulb clicked on. Those visits from Eli. Here he thought he welcomed the guy into his house to help her legal case when she was just playing games with his personal life.

A strange darkness fell over him. “Why would you do this?”

Before she could answer Rick’s flat voice floated through the room. “I was so sure.”

Gabe leaned over and ripped the envelope out of Rick’s hand. Then he pointed toward the door. “You, get out of my house.”

“Gabe, maybe we should talk this through,” Andy said in an uncharacteristically hesitant voice.

No, this anger Gabe could handle. The kind aimed at Rick. His offenses stood out there for everyone to see. Natalie’s . . . Gabe couldn’t wrap his head around her choices. He brought her into his life and told her how he felt. How lost he was about the idea of losing Brandon.

Damn it, he fell for her. Hard and fast and with enough intensity to knock him stupid. Maybe that explained it. The great sex and growing feelings for her blocked out what he should have seen happening right there in his house. He lowered his emotional wall and she jumped over. Jumped all over him.

“Take him outside.” He gestured for Andy to usher Rick out of his sight then turned on Natalie. “Now tell me why I shouldn’t kick you out on your lying ass.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Anger radiated off Gabe and smacked right into Natalie. She could see it in his drawn features and hear it in the harsh whip of his voice.

Something inside her scrambled. The truth had tumbled out of her. Watching Rick stand there, so sure and so smug while failing to take responsibility for any of the damage he’d done. The pain hidden just behind Gabe’s fury. She thought she’d settle the matter and then they could move on. Instead she just redirected all of Gabe’s rage at her.