Monroe, Marla - The Bikers and the Socialite [The Dirty Dozen 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (9 page)

“Allen, calm down.” Shane drew in a deep breath.

“He thinks that if there are other men claiming paternity we won’t trust that you’re telling the truth.”

“Right.” She looked down at her hands. “I’m sorry I got you involved in my circus of a life.”

“We’re big boys, Parker. We can take care of ourselves. If you say the baby is ours, then it won’t matter how many men come out of the woodwork claiming it. A simple test will prove it’s ours,” Shane said in a calm voice. “I guess the question I have is, what are you wanting us to do?”

Parker looked up at him, then over at where Allen was standing with his hands in his pockets. She hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“I–I don’t know. I really hadn’t thought about it past that you had the right to know. I don’t expect anything. I can take care of the baby with or without your help. I just thought you should know what was going on.”

“You don’t plan to marry that asshole, do you?” Allen demanded.

“No. He can smear my name all he wants to. I figure the best thing for you is to remain anonymous.”

“Maybe we don’t want to. What if we want to be a part of the baby’s life?” Shane watched her closely.

Parker opened her mouth then closed it. A glimmer of hope sparked in her chest that maybe they would want to be a part of her life, too. Then it died remembering how Michael had promised to ruin her. She couldn’t let that bleed over to Shane and Allen. They’d been the best thing that had ever happened to her.

“Parker?” Allen walked back to her and knelt in front of her. “We can get married and that will stop everything, all the lies and the innuendos.”

“Oh, Allen. We can’t get married just because I’m pregnant. You can still be a part of the baby’s life. I would never cut you out.”

“Is it because of the will?” Shane asked, causing her head to jerk up.

“You know about the will? You’ve checked up on me?” Fear and a little bit of anger snaked into her heart.

“We were curious when you made your proposition as to what you were getting us into.”

“I guess I can understand that.” She looked down once again.

“Is it, Parker?”

“No. I would marry you regardless if we loved each other, but we don’t. We barely know each other.”

Allen started to say something, but Shane stopped him.

“Allen.”

“So, we get to know each other,” Allen finally said.

“You’d want to be friends?”

“We want to be more than friends, Parker.” Shane said. “We want to be partners in your pregnancy.”

“Both of you?”

“Is that a problem for you now?”

“No, but I just figured that you would want to know who the father was.”

Allen smiled and shook his head. “Doesn’t matter to us as long as it’s ours.”

Parker wasn’t sure what to think. Her mind swirled with all the possibilities until she felt dizzy. She ran a shaky hand over her face and licked her lips.

“I want what’s best for my baby. I think having the father—fathers—be part of his life is best. I’ll take you however I can get you.” She smiled despite the tears escaping her eyes.

“Don’t cry, baby.” Allen wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his lap.

“I can’t help it. I’ve been so worried about what you would think about me and that you wouldn’t want the baby.” She sobbed, knowing her face was getting all red and splotchy.

“You’re going to make yourself sick. Why don’t you lie down and rest? You have dark circles under your eyes. Did you even sleep last night?”

Parker could only shake her head through the tears. Allen sighed and picked her up. He carried her upstairs to the master bedroom and gently laid her down on the bed.

“Take a nap, Parker. Everything is going to be okay.”

Parker desperately wanted to believe him, but she knew nothing ever worked out that easily. At least not in her life.

* * * *

“What is it, Shane? I can tell you’re about to explode.” They stood outside on the back deck.

When Allen had come back downstairs, Shane had handed him a beer and indicated they should walk outside so they wouldn’t disturb Parker.

“Are you satisfied that the baby is ours?”

“Fuck! You don’t believe her?” Allen slammed his beer on the railing of the deck.

“I believe her. I just need to know where you stand on it.”

“The baby is ours. I can’t believe she would have willfully chosen a couple of bikers over someone she already knew.” Allen sighed and picked up his beer again. “She circulates with some important people in the world.”

“Exactly.”

“You wouldn’t let me tell her that I loved her. Why?”’

“Because I don’t think she’s in the right frame of mind to believe you, and because I think we need to wait and see what happens before we bare our souls for her.”

“You don’t think very much of her, do you, Shane? Yet you’re telling me that you love her.”

“It’s not that I don’t think much of her, Allen. I just know how society and duty can pull you in another direction, whether you want to go there or not.”

“So you’re still in love with her?”

“Nothing has changed about the way I feel about her. We need to decide how we are going handle this.”

“I want her to move in with us,” Allen said in a firm voice.

“She’s probably not going to go for that.”

“Then at the very least, she dates us and gets to know us. We get to be a part of the baby’s development from now on.”

“That Michael is going to cause problems.” Shane knew it in his gut.

“Yeah, I figured as much. We’ll just have to deal with whatever happens.”

“She’s really high profile. It will mean that we’ll be, too. How do you feel about that?”

“Doesn’t bother me. I’m a biker and a construction worker. Who the hell cares?”

Shane sighed. Allen was fired up and ready to take on the world. Parker’s pregnancy was the answer to his prayers. Shane wanted it to be the answer to his as well, but he knew more about how the elite worked. They were like piranhas. They would turn on their own at the first sign of blood. He and Allen weren’t even one of their own.

“We need to talk to Cole and Zack about all of this before we go any further.”

“Not that I care that they know, but why? What does it have to do with them?”

“The backwash could affect them because of their association with us.”

“Hell, I hadn’t thought about that. If things get nasty, it could affect the company.”

“Right.” Shane pulled out his phone and pressed speed dial for Cole’s number.

“Yeah, do you know what fucking time it is?” Cole’s voice sounded sleep-roughened.

“Sorry, but we have a problem that we need to talk about.”

“If your ass is in jail, I’ll come get you this afternoon.”

Shane heard Zack’s voice in the background. “Who the fuck’s in jail?”

“We’re not in jail. Can we come over later today?”

Cole’s sigh was heartfelt. “What’s wrong, Shane?”

“I’d rather not talk about it over the phone. It’s complicated.”

“Sure, come on over after lunch.”

“Thanks see you then.” Shane heard Cole disconnect. He shoved his phone back into his pocket.

“I gather you woke him up.” Allen had a small smile on his face.

“Yeah. He wasn’t happy.”

“Let’s go look in to Michael and see what he has to play with.” Allen turned up his beer and drained it then turned to go back in the house.

“Good idea. If he is trying to blackmail her into marrying him, he won’t give up just because we don’t balk at the barrage of men.” Shane emptied his beer can and followed Allen inside.

After an hour of sifting through the Internet, they knew quite a bit about Michael Humphrey and his business interests. He came from money, but wasn’t filthy rich at all. Most of his money was tied up in the stock market and two enterprises that were not doing the best in the world.

“He needs her money. That means he’s desperate. I don’t like desperate men.” Shane gritted his teeth.

“They’re usually dangerous men. Why did he screw up a sure thing by cheating on her? Doesn’t make sense.”

“Some men just can’t keep their dicks in their pants. He probably thought he wouldn’t get caught.”

“We need to warn her that he’s desperate for her money. She needs to be careful around him.” Allen closed down the computer and stretched. “I drove by her condo one day and he was coming out of it. I was scared then that they had gotten back together.”

“I figured something like that had happened. She says she’s not going to marry him. We have to trust her on that.”

“It’s him I don’t trust. He’s a snake in the grass. He’ll be looking for a way to get to her, Shane. I wish we could talk her into moving in with us.”

“Me, too. I don’t see it happening, though.”

“Let’s go take a nap. Then I’ll cook something for lunch before we go over to Cole and Zack’s. I take it we’re taking Parker with us.”

“Yeah. They need to meet each other. She’s going to eventually be our wife, we hope.”

“A baby.” Allen shook his head. “Fuck. I can’t believe it.”

Shane couldn’t stop the little grin that stole over his mouth. He was almost afraid to believe it. Then he sobered. They weren’t daddies yet. They still had to convince Parker to marry them and get past whatever was going on with Michael.

He followed Allen upstairs where Parker was still sacked out on the bed. She had curled up around her belly with one hand lying over it. It was cute. Neither one of them pulled off their jeans. They just lay down on the bed next to her and dozed off and on. For Shane, it was more off than on.

He wanted to curl around Parker and lay his hand over hers, but they really weren’t to that stage right now. They were having to start from scratch on getting to know each other despite her being pregnant with their baby. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

A little over an hour later, he felt the bed dip as Allen got up and padded downstairs to start lunch. He probably should get up and shower, but he was reluctant to leave Parker alone just yet. He was afraid she would disappear from their lives, and this time they would never find her again. He didn’t think he could survive that after finding out she carried their child inside of her. Now all bets were off. He was playing for keeps.

Chapter Eight

“Parker. Time to wake up.”

She frowned and slowly opened her eyes to stare into Shane’s dark ones. He was lying right next to her and still didn’t have on a shirt.

“What time is it?” She rubbed her hand over her face hoping she hadn’t drooled.

“A little after eleven. Allen’s got lunch ready. Do you need to freshen up before we go down?”

“Oh, um, yeah.” She started to sit up and groaned. She was stiff.