Chapter 8

Lester's POV

For several precious seconds, I was frozen in place as the Plum woman's last words played over and over in my mind. That baby she's carrying happens to be yours.

Ranger's low-pitched voice barking my name brought my focus back to my surroundings to see him standing there glaring at me with that narrow-eyed stare I knew too well. I glanced around to see the two of us were alone, and I wondered if part of the reason he was so pissed off at me was because the Plum woman left before he had a chance to get in her pants…or in this case, under her dress. Not that there was much of it.

I gave Ranger a look and said, "I'm not doing this now."

He growled, "You need to handle this, Santos."

I ran a hand through what hair there was on the top of my head and let out a sigh. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, man. It's just...I never thought those words would ever be spoken in relation to me."

Ranger looked a bit mollified, but he was still giving me a blank stare. "You never told Luci that you can't have kids?"

I shook my head. "No. I only told her that I never wanted them."

"Obviously the report you got from the doctor was wrong."

I still couldn't wrap my head around it. "When we get back from this mission, I'm going to be making a visit."

The slight movement of his head was the only acknowledgement he gave, but I knew he was in agreement.

A shrill voice intruded on the quiet, and I groaned inwardly that I now had that blonde bitch Sheryl to contend with. The only reason I'd said what I did when she followed me out to the terrace was that I didn't want Luci to know how gutted I was that she was pregnant with another man's baby. Now Sheryl was going to believe I had an interest in her that wasn't there.

At the click of her heels on the tiles, Iturned to wait for her to join us.

Ranger melted into the darkness, leaving me alone with the Wicked Witch of the West.

She smiled that insipid smile of hers and then giggled. "I thought for sure you'd come find me, darling."

I winced inwardly, knowing whatever I'd thought the problems getting out of her clutches were, they'd just gotten infinitely worse. I knew I could beg off for tonight and deal with this when we got back from the mission we were going on, but I wanted this handled so that when I got back, I was free to go after Luci. Taking a deep breath, I said, "Look, Sheryl, I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, but my interests lie elsewhere."

Her eyes narrowed. "Are you saying that all those things you said to that slut, Luci, were lies?"

I gave a slight nod. "Pretty much."

Her mouth tightened. "So you only wanted to use me to hurt her? She was right about one thing… You are a bastard."

I let out a sigh. "I'm sorry if I hurt you, but I'm being honest here."

Her eyes narrowed to slits, andshe looked like she'd just taken a big bite of lemon as she said, "You should have thought about that before you used me."

I caught sight of Tank out of the corner of my eye. He pointed to his watch and then swirled his finger in the air, indicating the job was over for the night and we were free to leave. Turning back to Sheryl, I figured the least I could do was make sure she got home all right. "I'll take you home."

It looked like she was going to tell me to go to hell, but then she must have changed her mind, because she got the cat that swallowed the canary look on her face, and I knew I'd have to watch my back around her.

She moved over to where I was standing and hooked her arm around mine. "By all means, darling."

My eyes narrowed as I looked at her. "I'm only driving you home. Nothing else."

She simpered. "Of course."

We headed out to the parking lot, and doing the gentlemanly thing, Ihelped her into the SUV I was driving. It took me less than ten minutes to drive to herapartment. I was a bit distracted on the drive and pointedly kept my head turned away from her. Luckily for me there was a spot right beside the door. I didn't even bother to turn off theengine as I sat there and waited for her to get out.

Sheryl snorted. Anger permeated her voice as she said, "Thanks for nothing!"

She forcefully opened the door, and once she slipped out of the vehicle, she slammed the door with as much force as she could muster.

I waited just until she was inside the building, and then I burned rubber getting out of there.

Sheryl's POV

My eyes narrowed with anger as I looked at my ruined dress. Not only the dress, but all my plans for being Mrs. Lester Santos. For months I'd been doing my best to sabotage his relationship with the little slut he found, and then when I finally thought I'dsucceeded, he told me he wasn't interested. Well, I planned to make sure she didn't have him either.

A smile graced my face as I thought through a plan to make sure that the two of them never got together…especially since I'd heard that little snippet about the slut being pregnant with his bastard.

My gaze went to the nightstand, where I'd placed my prize. The corner of my mouth tilted up even more into a big grin. I lifted the cell phone and giggled. "Oh, Lester… By the time you get back from wherever you're going, that little madam isn't going to want to even look at you."

My cell phone buzzed, and I took it out and connected the call. "Hello."

"Did you find out anything from Reinhold?"

Letting out a sigh of frustration, I said, "No. He's more closemouthed than Homer Ramos."

"Nels isn't going to be happy."

My hand clenched as the anger that was so close to the surface leaked into my voice as I replied, "I don't really care at the moment. I have bigger fish to fry."

The creep had the nerve to laugh at me. "What, you mean lover boy finally gave you the boot?"

An idea formed, and I quickly laid out what I was thinking. "You've been wanting a chance to branch out on your own, right?"

There was a slight hesitation before he said, "Yeah, what of it?"

"I know where you'll be able to get hold of a baby in just a few months. The woman isn't married, and she's a little nobody. There won't be any trouble."

"I like the way you think. Give me the particulars."

"Not just yet. I want to play with this one a bit before I hand her over. You know, once you sell the baby, you could probably get something for the mother. Although she's used goods, she's not too old. Maybe some of your rougher customers might enjoy her."

There was a chuckle, and then after several seconds, Gavino said, "All right. We'll play this your way."

I disconnected the call and then went over to the phone on the nightstand and picked it up. There was one text message there, which I opened. "Well, well. So you have a lunch date planned, do you?" Taking out the gadget I'd bought off the black market, I attached it to the phone, typed in my message, and then hit Send before replacing the phone on the nightstand.

There was a huge smile on my face as I headed toward the bathroom to take care of my nightly ritual. Looked like I was going to get some of my own back sooner rather than later.