To Claim His Own

To Claim His Own
Mary Lynn Baxter

NOTHING WOULD GET IN HIS WAYHe was an expert at uncovering secrets, but Cal Webster had overlooked a huge one. His ex-wife had hidden her pregnancy from him. And worse, she had turned the baby over to his enemy. Cal was determined to get custody of his young son.But when he discovered his ex-wife's sister caring for the child, he embarked on one last mission. Using all of his seductive skills, Cal would pose as a stranger, uncover everything he could about this woman and use it to get back what was his. He never counted on his ruse becoming all-too-real.

MARY LYNN BAXTER

To Claim His Own

Published by Silhouette Books America’s Publisher of Contemporary Romance

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

Coming Next Month

One

Calhoun Webster’s mouth fell open, then he slammed it shut.

His attorney and friend, Hammond Kyle, gave a semblance of a smile. “It’s easy to understand why you’re speechless. Under the same circumstances, I’m sure I would be, too.”

“Are you jerking my chain, Kyle?” Cal demanded in a rough tone. “Because if you are, you’re a pretty sorry bastard.”

“Chill, Cal. I wouldn’t jerk your chain about something this serious.” Hammond ran his fingers through his thinning gray hair and narrowed his eyes. “Like I just told you, you’re a father. You have a child. A son, to be exact.”

Cal blew out his breath, feeling the color recede from his face followed by an extreme weariness. Since his stint in Colombia, he wasn’t anywhere back to his normal self. He tired easily. “Mind if I sit down?”

“Actually, I was about to suggest that.” Another smile of sorts crossed the attorney’s lips. “I’d hate to think of a grown man hitting my office floor in a dead faint.”

Cal gave him a go-to-hell look before practically falling into one of the plush chairs in front of Hammond’s massive desk. A million and one questions were charging through Cal’s head, but he couldn’t seem to process them, much less organize them enough to talk intelligently.

He had a son?

No way.

Couldn’t be.

Impossible.

No, not impossible.

A mistake. Pure and simple.

Cal’s mood lightened at that last thought, and, forcing himself up straighter in the chair, he hammered his friend with brighter eyes. “It has to be a mistake.” A blunt statement of fact.

“You know better than that.” Hammond spoke quietly and with conviction.

“But Connie’s dead,” Cal countered in an argumentative and almost desperate tone. “At least that much leaked through to me.”

Hammond gave him one of those exasperated looks. “Your ex was pregnant when she left you but apparently chose to keep that to herself.” He paused with a deep sigh. “Happens all the time, which makes the poor chump of a father feel and look like an idiot, when, and if, he ever finds out.”

Cal gritted his teeth and at the same time he squeezed the padded edges of the chair arms until his knuckles turned white. “That bitch,” he muttered more to himself than to his friend.

“You knew that when you married her,” Hammond pointed out, his brows bunching together, giving him a fierce look.

“You’re right, I did.” Cal battled his weariness. “Still, I don’t know why she chose not to tell me she was pregnant.” His tone had regained some of its vibrancy, reeking with pain and anger.

“We both knew she was a piece of work, especially you,” Hammond added, again with pointed frankness.

“And I married her anyway.” Cal’s tone was bleak.

“Well, at least you didn’t have to find out about her death and the baby simultaneously.” Hammond paused. “If that’s any comfort.”