The Heir's Unexpected Baby

Slowly, without taking his eyes off her, he leaned forward in his seat. “What happened today?” he repeated, slower this time until she finally looked directly at him.

“Jack, I’m telling you what happened.” Now she held his eyes. Katie had fallen asleep and lay across Viv’s arm, curled into Viv’s body. “We were busy this morning with a new client and Laney handled that. I stayed in the back and logged inventory for the spring auction.”

He listened, easing back in his cushioned seat. Why was he doubting her? He’d never second-guessed her before and she was his most trusted ally in this quest. He wouldn’t have put her in this position if he didn’t trust her completely.

“And then Ryker came with lunch,” she went on. Her eyes darted down to the sleeping baby. “After that it was slow for about an hour and Laney and I ended up in the office talking baby things. She knows I foster and she had some questions.”

“Like what?” He literally wanted every detail of what went on in that office. The key to his case was in there and he was not going to rest until every possible avenue was explored.

Viv shrugged. “She was asking about different milestones at different ages. But I’ve never had an infant until now. My foster children have always been older. The youngest I’d had was three.”

Jack knew why Viv’s taking Katie in deviated from her normal pattern of only fostering older children. One, she’d worked with the Parkers when they’d come into O’Shea’s so she had a mild connection. According to Viv, she’d even played with little Katie during one of their visits.

Two, she knew the system was overloaded. Because she was certified to take in children, and since she was more than aware of the tragic situation, she’d actually asked to foster Katie.

“About an hour before we closed, an elderly lady came in and wanted to discuss some pieces she wanted to sell. She claimed they were from her honeymoon in Rome and thought they were valuable art.”

Intrigued, Jack tipped his head. “What were they?”

Viv picked up her fork and took a bite of her potato. “I’m not sure. She had some pictures, but didn’t want to bring the actual pieces without talking to Laney first.”

That all sounded like a typical, boring day. A day that didn’t help him one bit. But something was off. Viv had literally frozen when he’d first mentioned her workday at O’Shea’s, then she wouldn’t look at him.

“You’re sure that’s all?” he asked.

She shifted Katie to the other arm, which only aided in pulling her jacket open a bit more when Katie’s hand got caught in the V. Viv did readjust the gap, but not before he was awarded another view of the swell of her breast.

“I’m just stressed,” she assured him with a smile. “Katie is teething and the auction is going to be here before we know it. Working at O’Shea’s isn’t just me snooping and eavesdropping. They expect me to actually do a job, so it’s tiresome at times.”

Not to mention all the work she was doing for him. She was technically a single mother working two part-time jobs. But that part-time added up and when he was constantly meeting her outside of business hours, that didn’t help. Damn it, he was ready to wrap this case up and let the justice system take care of this mob family. But he had to be patient. It was a trait he hated, yet it was necessary in his line of work.

With Katie resting peacefully, Viv continued to eat. Jack didn’t press the topic again. He didn’t know if he was just reading too much into her actions or if she was truly just stressed, but he wasn’t about to add more to her plate.

“They don’t suspect you, right?”

Viv took a sip of her wine. “They suspect everyone who’s been in and out of that office. But, not me specifically. I’m careful, Jack.”

Why was his name on her lips like a tight ball of lust hitting his gut? He couldn’t afford the distraction—especially when it came to his damn assistant.

When this case was over, he’d head to his villa in Italy. He could relax, find a woman to spend a meaningless night with. He clearly was not thinking straight and he blamed everything on being overworked and sexually frustrated.

“There is a new shipment of paintings coming in on Monday,” Viv went on, oblivious to the turn in his thoughts. “I’m supposed to be off, but I thought I’d see if I could come in and just tell them I’d like some extra hours.”

Jack curled his fingers around the tumbler of bourbon and considered her idea. “I wouldn’t. They already know someone is leaking information. If you ask for extra time, that could be a red flag. I need you to do everything as you always had before.”

Viv nodded. “I guess that makes sense. I just wish there was more I could do.”

Taking a hearty, warm gulp of his favorite twenty-year bourbon, Jack wished there was more to be done. But he wasn’t inside, and using Viv as his eyes and ears was the only thing he could do at this point.

“I’d rather you explore the Parkers’ angle,” he told her, easing back in his seat and glancing at the sleeping baby. “You have the perfect lead-in, especially when you’re with Laney. Continue to talk about Katie, discuss how she’s adjusting, throw in the loss of her parents and you’ve opened up the floor.”

Viv pushed her plate back, wrapped both arms around the baby and pursed her lips. “That could work. Laney and I tend to always discuss the baby when we’re not talking about the auction.”

“Now’s the time. That’s the angle we need to work. If we can find out more about the night they were killed, I know it will circle us right back to the O’Sheas.”

Jack didn’t care what the initial charges were. This corrupt family had plenty of crimes they could be pinned with. But first he needed concrete evidence that proved the O’Sheas weren’t so squeaky clean.

No matter who was in charge now that Patriarch Patrick O’Shea had passed, this family was into illegals so deep, there was no way they could’ve gotten out in such a short time.

“I’ll be there from eight to noon tomorrow,” she reminded him, as if he didn’t have her schedule memorized down to the very last second. “I need to take Katie to the doctor for a checkup, so I’ll text you when I leave work.”

When Katie started to stir, Viv came to her feet. Rocking gently back and forth, Viv patted the baby’s back in an attempt to calm her once again. Jack watched as she instantly went into mother mode. Viv was the most giving person he’d ever known. A born nurturer. He’d checked her background thoroughly before hiring her, so he knew she’d never married or had kids. He’d seen quite a bit of hospitalizations when she’d been young, but she’d never mentioned an illness, so he never asked. He could’ve easily found out, but he’d snooped enough and didn’t want to betray her trust at this point. Honesty was of the utmost importance to him and he expected it to be a two-way street.

“I should get her home,” Viv stated. “She needs to rest and I need to get my own downtime or I’ll be of no use to anyone.”

Viv wasn’t a superhero, though she was a working foster mother juggling two jobs and carrying a colossal lie on her shoulders, so that was pretty much the same thing. Jack set his napkin on the table and rose to stand in front of her.

“Why don’t you see if your neighbor can watch Katie for a few hours extra each day so you can relax?” he suggested. “I’ll pay for it if that’s an issue.”

Viv’s brows shot up. “I don’t care about the money, Jack. The reason I became a foster mother was to care for children who don’t have anyone. Pawning Katie off on my neighbor just so I can nap will never be an option.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he retorted, though she’d made him look uncaring, which was not the case. He cared...too much. “If you don’t look out for yourself, how do you expect to do everything else?”

Her lids lowered, her breath came out on a deep sigh. She shook her head before meeting his gaze. “Everything I do is for those I care about. This child, you. I have no family, Jack, so I work to fill a void. When I stop working, when I stop caring for those around me, I start to think. I don’t want the down time. I can’t mentally afford it. Do you get what I’m saying?”

Jack swallowed the lump in his throat. How could she put his thoughts, his emotions, into such perfect terms? It was like they lived a parallel life, and he desperately wanted to know what made her this way. Why did she use work as her coping mechanism?

He’d already known she had no family. He of all people understood the need to connect with something in life and he clung to work...apparently so did she. He’d never heard her so passionate about it before, but he understood the ache, the emptiness that needed to be filled.

“You’re talking to the workaholic,” he told her, trying to lighten the intensity of the mood. “I just wanted to make sure you were taken care of, as well.”

Shoulders squared, she tipped her head. “I assure you, I’m fine. But I do need to get home and I promise I’ll text you tomorrow. We’ll get this,” she assured him. “We’ve come this far, we’ll make it the rest of the way.”

Jack helped her with the diaper bag, then assisted her with her coat and Katie’s coat—which was no easy feat, considering she was still asleep.

Once Viv was gone, Jack leaned against the front door and stared into the empty two-story foyer. Yeah, he understood perfectly about not having anyone. He’d bought this massive home in Beacon Hill after his wife died. He couldn’t stay in the small cottage he’d bought for her, the place where they’d planned to start their family. While he’d wanted to burn the cottage to the ground, he ended up selling it to a young newlywed couple who had the same dreams he’d once had.

He’d moved on, made more money than he knew what to do with and when he started looking for a permanent residence, he knew he wanted something large...something he’d never be able to fill with a family. He wanted the space so it didn’t feel like the walls were closing in on him.

Some might say he was flashing, living in a huge house all by himself, but he didn’t care. His cars, his vacation home in the mountains, the two homes overseas, they were all material things he’d give up in a second to have someone in his life.

No. Not someone. His wife.

Yet lately, when he would think of someone to share his wealth with, Viv kept popping up. He wanted to scrub that image from his mind because thinking of another woman was surely a betrayal to Carly...right?

As he headed down the hall and passed the kitchen, he instantly remembered the cheesecake. If Tilly came back in the morning and saw that none of it had been eaten, she’d be disappointed.

Easy fix. He’d be gone before she came in and he’d take it to the office with him.