Chapter 4

RYAT WINCHESTER

“There. That’s everything you ever gave me just so I could warm your bed, Ryat. Your money is in there, your phone is in there, your clothes are in there and whatever we had is in there too. Find yourself another whore who’ll spread her legs for you. We are done, Mr. Winchester.”

Two months and counting.

Olivia Cabello has been in hiding for two months.

The fury churning my mind is still fresh.

But the thrill of the chase somewhat balances that fury because once I find her, punishing her won’t be the last thing I do. I’ll make her regret it.

“I think we can get the land if we add another million to the budget, boss. The old man might be a family man but no one can refuse that much money”, the head of my financial department urges.

Some of the board members murmur and I can hear them nod in agreement, my eyes glide to the view of New York on a humid morning and my teeth grind in my mouth.

“Ten million”, I grunt.

“Sir?”

“The old man you are speaking of. We offered him ten million and he refused us. What makes you think that one million will make a difference, Jimmy?”

“I was thinking that-.”

I chuckle.

“Thinking? No one in this room is thinking at all if you call adding one million to the table as a good deal. Get me that land, Jimmy otherwise you and all your buddies here will be fired effective immediately.”

I turn my gaze from the window meeting their pale faces.

The same fucking faces I’ve been seeing every day, faces that remind me I’m surrounded by incompetent fools.

Jimmy gives me a wary smile before he says nervously, “Yes, boss.”

“Good. Get out.”

They excuse themselves, getting out of the boardroom one by one.

Hardly a minute goes by when my boardroom’s glass doors slide open and men I’ve lived with since I learnt how to walk appear like I’ve summoned them.

Tyson Winchester, Shade Winchester, Falcon Winchester and Sinnett Winchester.

The bane of my existence. My brothers.

“Sheesh, do we want to know what has your knickers in a twist this morning?” Sinnett asks, settling with my brothers in one of the chairs in front of me.

“You’ve been acting out of character for months now, Ryat. I’m not going to keep cleaning your reputation if you don’t change and this is me telling you to behave”, Tyson adds.

The irony being Tyson visits brothels more often than Sinnett who’s been branded resident playboy by the media.

I cock my head to my older brother.

Shade Winchester should have been CEO of Winchester Industries but he declined the offer and enlisted in the army instead.

As the second son, I had to step up.

I don’t blame him for how our lives turned out. If our dead father did half of what he did to Shade, to me then I would have refused the CEO position as well.

“I’m too busy and it’s too early for a scolding. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

They wouldn’t all be here if something wasn’t up.

The only time we exist in a room all five of us is when mother dearest wants us to act like the perfect family.

Falcon scoffs, “You asked us for a favor. Well, brother turns out your favor has complications.”

My ears peak.

Shade adds in to the conversation, “We found your woman.”

I should correct him she’s not my woman. They all know I have a fiancé.

But two months of no sex have me not caring about such formalities.

“Where?”

Sinnett chuckles.

Tyson sighs.

Falcon’s searing gaze doesn’t leave mine.

“She’s in Los Angeles.”

Los Angeles?

As far as I know, Curvy’s parents were immigrants from Mexico before they relocated to Manhattan.

That’s not the least of my worries though.

“What’s the complication?” I ask.

The room drops to a dead silence before Sinnett hits me with a sly smile and words that piss me way off than my financial department from earlier.

“Your mistress is pregnant, Ryat.”

****

Pregnant?

Swollen with my child?

Full with my kid?

No.

She was on birth control, I ensured it. Every time we had sex, she was on birth control!

Yet seven hours later, I’m seated in my car my eyes stuck on the pregnant woman eating doughnuts from a café across the street.

“The woman with a woolen white scarf eating doughnuts, can you see her Jeff?”

My driver skates his eyes to Olivia.

“Yes, sir.”

“Is she pregnant?”

“I believe so, sir.”

Damn it.

I’m not the only one seeing it, am I?

Curvy’s pregnant?

“Keep the car running.”

“Of course, sir.”

I’ll be carrying Curvy out of that damn café and demanding answers the minute we get to my car.

Crossing the road and entering the small café that smells like coffee beans and chocolate does nothing to dim my fury.

My pregnant mistress doesn’t spot me at first.

Not while she’s stuffing herself with sugar and chocolate anyway.

When our eyes meet, her pink lips part and she lets out a small gasp.

Like she has seen the devil in person, she drops her doughnut, picks her bag, stands up and she’s ready to flee right before I corner her.

Dark voluminous hair cascades down her shoulders, her face might have added some weight but she’s still sexy as ever.

There’s a reason I chose her as my daily hookup.

Olivia Cabello was the type of pretty you couldn’t put into words, with a sharp tongue and even sharper features, she was the very object of many men’s desires.

“Sit down”, I bark.

She looks me in the eye and disobeys me.

She takes a step away from me and I grab her waist bringing her to my chest.

“Let me go! Let me go, now!”

“Do you want to play this game right here, curvy? In front of all these people?”

She fights in my hold and my eyes slide to the pregnancy bump between us.

“Let me go right now or I’ll scream.”

She could scream and I could care less.

“Scream and I’ll have to explain to everyone here how my woman has been hiding our fucking child for two months.”

One minute I’m speaking and the next minute, her hand slaps me right across the cheek I barely see it coming.

“I’m not your woman. I’m not your anything. You are a stranger holding me hostage and if you don’t let me go-.”

“Is it mine?”

I look at her belly that’s covered by a baggy t-shirt.

“No.”

She walked out on me two months ago. Two months later, she’s miraculously pregnant?

“I’m only going to ask again, curvy and you better tell me the truth. Is the child you are carrying mine?”

“No. I broke up with you, why would I be carrying your child in the first place?”

I see through her lies and I find myself grinning.

“Here’s where you are wrong, sweetheart. You threw a tantrum and disappeared. You ended things and I didn’t. That automatically, makes you still mine. We are going to leave-.”

Olivia is still in my arms resisting when my words are cut off by the men standing behind us.

“I suggest you unhand Ms. Olivia Cabello or you will be facing ten years of assault against a pregnant woman, Ryat Winchester.”

I turn around and that gives the woman in my arms room to escape me.

Two things happen at once.

My pregnant Curvy runs to one of the men shooting lasers at me with his eyes.

And the other man, the one I recognize as America’s top paid lawyer, William Sterling, stretches his hand out to me saying, “A pleasure to finally meet you in person, Ryat Winchester but I’ve gotta warn you, if you corner my client again like this, she’ll be forced to order a restraining order against you.”

Client?

Olivia is Sterling’s client?

“Olivia”, I growl.

Olivia steps away from the man holding her, the man who’ll disappear once I get enough information about him.

“When I said we were done, I meant it. I want you to meet the father of my child, Daniel Carrero.”