The Buchanan's Baby (Billionaire Romance) (Bought By The Billionaire Brothers) (10 page)

“What’s going on?” he bellowed, equally irritated that such a fuss had interrupted his practice. He squinted and read the ribbon, turning to Shannon. “Says it’s yours. Well, is it?”

“I don’t know,” she stammered, going to the ribbon and plucking the large card on top of the windshield, embarrassed beyond belief to have everyone staring at her as if she’d just won the lottery. She ripped open the envelope and pulled out the card to read, “A more befitting ride for my two favorite girls…” Her cheeks burned and she bit her lip, unsure of how to explain such an extravagant gift showing up at her work. She looked to Jonas but he’d already lost interest and gestured, barking, “Show’s over. Back to the ice.”

While Shannon could only stare, CeCe had no trouble going to the beautiful monstronsity and checking it out with open delight. “This…is one helluva a ride,” she said in breathy wonder. “Oh! And the keys are in the ignition. Should we take it for a spin?” she asked Shannon.

“No.” Shannon shook her head adamantly, almost afraid of scratching or dinging it in anyway. She had no idea where it came from —
 well, she had a good idea — but wherever it came from, it was going back. She couldn’t afford such a luxury and besides, it didn’t look carseat friendly. “I wonder if the receipt is in the glove box.”

At that CeCe whirled around on Shannon, frowning. “What are you talking about? You can’t take the car back. It’s probably paid for and it’s a helluva lot better than that broken down piece of crap you insist on driving everyday.”

“It’s very pretty,” she acknowledged, wincing a little at the idea of parting with it but she continued, “But I have a toddler. Look at that backseat. It’s more of an afterthought. There’s no way I’ll get Aubrey’s carseat into that thing without ruining my back.” And the upholstery.

“Carseat? That gorgeous car is not meant for sticky toddler fingers or carseats of any sort,” CeCe snorted. “That car is meant for cruising in style to the best clubs. That car is easily $75,000.”

Shannon gulped, feeling faint. “And that’s exactly why it’s not staying with me. I’d be robbed blind in my own neighborhood if I showed up in something that ridiculous. What was he thinking?” she muttered, mostly to herself but CeCe caught it and laughed.

“Who cares? Whatever he did, he’s forgiven. If he showed up with a ride this sweet for me I’d be willing to forgive him, too.”

Shannon frowned. “Forgive who?”

“Nolan.”

“You know Nolan?” Shannon asked, completely confused. “How do you know Nolan?”

“I wouldn’t say I
know
him, per se, but I know him well enough in a certain way, if you catch my drift.”

Suddenly Shannon felt ill. “And why would you need to forgive him?”

“We met at the club the other night and we spent some time together but then he straight up rejected me. Not cool. He totally led me on. But,” she said, trailing her fingers along the import’s sleek lines. “I’d forgive him in a heartbeat if this were mine.”

“So you and Nolan hooked up?” she asked, her voice somewhat strangled.

“Sort of. If you count oral as hooking up.”

Nolan’s tongue had been in her intern’s crotch. Yep, Shannon definitely felt ready to hurl. So much for all that naïve hope that Nolan had changed. She’
d let him sleep in her bed last night. She rubbed her forehead as a vicious headache threatened to crack her head in two. How could he have failed to mention that he’d been hooking up with other people while he was in town? Why would he? He was Nolan Buchanan and he could do whatever he wanted, right? Her rage percolated beneath her breastbone and she stomped away from the car and back to her office while CeCe followed.

“A word to the wise, CeCe, anything that comes from Nolan Buchanan is bound to come with strings attached,” she warned her intern, still seething that Nolan had messed around —
 eww, stuck his tongue in another woman’s crotch — while professing his earnest desire to be a better person. What a crock of shit. And she’d fell for it.

Of all the dumb, naïve, stupid girl moves to make. She should’ve stuck with her original plan and just slammed the door in his face every
time he darkened her doorstep with his smarmy face. She grabbed her cell phone and dialed her attorney. “Time to escalate. No more playing nice,” she said when the attorney came on the line. “I want to file for sole custody.”

“Playing nice didn’t work?” the attorney
surmised with a sigh. “All right. I’ll put the paperwork together. In the meantime, no more talking to him until we see him in court.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,”
she growled.

As far as she was concerned Nolan Buchanan was just a sperm donor —
 and nothing more.

“What do you mean it was returned?” Nolan demanded, as openly perplexed as the car manager on the other line. “It was paid for in full”

“I know, which is why I called,” the manager said, clearly uncomfortable. “We had the car delivered just as you asked-“

“With the big bow and everything?”

“With the big bow and everything,” he agreed. “But no sooner had it been delivered, about a half hour later she called the dealership and demanded that we take it back. I tried to explain that it was hers but she plain refused to accept it. We’ve never had anything like this happen before and we weren’t sure of what to do. We figured since you paid for the car…you might want to come and get it because your lady friend will not accept it.”

Son-of-a-bitch, he thought to himself, confused and becoming angry. What was wrong with her? “Hold onto it for a few days until I can talk some sense into her,” he said darkly.

“No problem, Mr. Buchanan. We’d be happy to hold onto the car for you.”

The man was probably shaking in his boots at the idea of all that commission going down the drain if Nolan returned the car and got his money back. Nolan sighed and hung up. He was going to have to get to the bottom of this right now.

Nolan zoomed over to Shannon’s apartment and bounded up the stairs to knock hard on the door.

“If that’s Nolan Buchanan, go away. My lawyer has advised me not to speak to you until we go to court.”

Court? “What are you talking about?” he asked, pounding on the door. “Open up and talk to me like an adult.”

“Don’t you chastise me as if I’m the one acting like a child when you’re the one who—never mind! Go away! I have nothing more to say to you.”

“Like hell you do,” he shouted, kicking the door for good measure. “Shannon, I swear if you don’t open this door I’ll kick it down.”

“Do it and I’ll call the cops.”

“Fine! Call the cops. In the meantime, I’m going to stand right here until you open the door and your neighbors are going to get an earful of our personal business.”

He didn’t know why he wasn’t simply leaving to wait until she calmed down from whatever snit she was in but he was pissed as hell that she’d refused his gift and doubly pissed that he had no idea why. “You have an awfully strange way of showing your gratitude,” he said, banging on the door one last time. “A thank you is the usual way of showing someone appreciation for a nice gift.”

“Go screw yourself Nolan. I never asked you to buy me a car and I certainly didn’t ask you to barge into my life and mess it up.”

“How have I messed up your life?” he demanded.

Aubrey’s cry sounded on the other side and he bit back the swear words that bubbled to the surface. “Shannon, open the door, please. No more yelling, I promise. Just open the door.”

“Talk to my lawyer.”

“What do we need lawyers for?” he asked. “I thought we were trying to build something together for Aubrey…was I totally off-base? If so, what was last night about?”

At that the door flew open and Shannon’s eyes blazed while she juggled Aubrey on her hip. Aubrey reached for Nolan and he instinctually opened his arms to her but Shannon hissed and whirled Aubrey out of reach, saying, “I’ve got to hand it to you. You played me really well. I actually believed you were changing but I’m onto you now. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps the rumors were false but I was wrong. You’re a womanizing w-h-o-r-e,” she said, spelling out the word
whore
to protect Aubrey’s little ears, but Nolan felt slapped by the venomous attack. “Next time you’re trying to convince someone that you’re anything but a b-a-s-t-a-r-d make sure you don’t end up sleeping with that person’s young, blabbermouth intern!”

And then the door slammed shut again and Aubrey’s cry followed.
Nolan stared, at first unable to make sense of what Shannon had said and then an awful feeling came over him as he put two and two together.
Fuck
. He scrubbed his hands over his face and fought the urge to bust down the door, if only to explain but what could he say? He’d screwed up. He knew he should’ve listened to his instincts and stayed at the hotel.
Damn you, Vince for convincing me otherwise.
No, damn himself for not listening to that little voice he could only assume had been his good sense.

He took a minute to calm down but he was rapidly losing his ability to think rationally, mostly because he knew she was right. He hated
that he’d screwed up so royally and this was the first time his money couldn’t save him because Shannon didn’t care about his money. “Shannon, at least take the car,” he managed to bite out. “Your car isn’t safe. I don’t want Aubrey in that piece of junk you call a vehicle.”

“I had it returned.”

“I know that,” he said, glowering. “If you don’t like it, pick out something else. Bottom line, it’s paid for and you need something more reliable when you’re driving my daughter around.”

“I don’t want anything from you,
go away
!”

Nolan’s mouth compressed to a fine line. She wanted to play with lawyers? Fine. Let’s see how her lawyer stacked up against his team of lawyers. By the time he was finished with her, she’d be lucky to see Aubrey on weekends for supervised visitation.

“See you court, babe,” he called out caustically and spun on his heel.

Shannon would find he made a terrible adversary —
 Buchanans made it a point to never lose.

Ever
.

Shannon wept for days. Or at least it’d felt like days. CeCe had agreed to take over her duties while she sorted things out with Nolan and she was grateful for the intern’s help, although she’d never realized how competent CeCe was until this crisis had arisen. It made Shannon feel guilty for not giving her more responsibility but Shannon had taken one look at CeCe and worried mostly about her sleeping with half the team before her internship was finished.

How could Shannon have fallen so quickly and so hard for Nolan Buchanan when she’d only truly known him for such a short time? And given the circumstances, it was apparent, she’d never truly known him at all.

She stared dully at the paternity results, not surprised that Nolan’s paternity had been confirmed. Likely, Nolan had the results as well as they were each mailed the results. It was a formality insisted upon by the court and her attorney said it was necessary to establish child support. She’d balked. “I don’t want his money. I want him out of our lives.”

The lawyer looked at Shannon with exasperation. “It doesn’t work that way.
He’s the father; he should pay. Technically, you’re considered low-income so any money the state has already paid for Aubrey will be docked from his paycheck. The money will be paid one way or another. Besides, you’re angry right now; when you come to your senses, you’re going to want him to help with expenses for the baby.”

But Shannon didn’t want Nolan to have any reasonable justification for being around Aubrey. He wasn’t father material in any way shape or form and she’d pointed that out to the lawyer.

“Is he abusive?”

“No,” Shannon answered, frowning.

“Is he a danger to the child?”

“No, of course not. He’s very good with Aubrey.”

“Then you’ve got no leg to stand on in court. You will be awarded 50-50 joint custody,” she’d said. “I suggest you get used to it.”

Hot tears burned under her lids. She felt helpless to stop what was happening and she was getting sick at the thought of handing over her daughter when the time came. She was down $5,000 and, just as the lawyer had told her, nothing had changed. The fact was, it didn’t matter if Nolan was a total lying, womanizing bastard, because he looked good on paper.

Oh, who was she kidding? He looked good, period. That was the problem. His handsome face and loose morals — bad combination!

A knock at the door sounded and she glanced up from her sodden pillow, tempted to ignore whoever it was. Aubrey was still taking a nap and thus Shannon had tried to do the same but sleep had eluded her just as it had been avoiding her at night, too. The knock sounded again and Shannon reluctantly climbed to her feet and hastily wiped the tears from her face before opening the door. A heavily pregnant brunette with cheeks pinked from the exertion of climbing the stairs smiled at her but placed her hand on her back with a wince, saying, “Are you Shannon Garrity?”

“Y-yes?”