his brothers had gone missing, he’d do whatever it took to find him. All five of his siblings were grown now, and good men, but they’d gotten themselves into a few tricky situations as teenagers. Ryder could buy the idea that a good kid could get into trouble. He had a harder time swallowing the idea that a McCabe offspring could be anything but trouble. Bad was in their blood. He’d believed Faith to be different from her family, and look how that had worked out for him.
“How do you know he’s missing exactly?” he asked.
“We talk every day without fail. I was supposed to help him with geometry homework and he stood me up. He’s never done that. Ever.” Her wide eyes conveyed panic and worry. When he examined her features, he saw how tired and worried she looked.
“Have you spoken to his mother?” The teenager could have gotten himself in over his head or involved in drugs. Even so, none of this concerned Ryder, and Faith hadn’t given him one solid reason he should get involved. With her family’s money, she could hire an investigator.
“We’re not exactly on good terms and I have nothing to say to the woman,” Faith said, and her left shoulder shot up. He’d seen that move before. She was being indignant.
From his viewpoint, a quick phone call could most likely clear this whole thing up. If Faith was too stubborn to make that call she didn’t need to be reaching out to him to do her dirty work.
“Then I can’t help you. That was my only card. I’m folding. If you really believe he’s missing, then you should talk to someone in law enforcement. His mother might’ve reported his disappearance already.” He threw his hands up in surrender. As it was, he was having a difficult time keeping a wall between them and maintaining his neutral position. A woman in trouble wasn’t something he could normally turn his back on. He blamed his Texas upbringing and the fact that he’d had amazing parents.
“I’ll sweeten the pot,” she said quickly.
“You don’t have anything I want,” Ryder said, pushing thoughts of how soft her skin had been when he ran his finger along the curves of her stomach out of his mind. Or how much the sound of her laughter had temporarily suspended the pain of losing his parents.
“You want to know the real reason I walked away from you, Ryder O’Brien?” Now she was the one who was angry. He could see the fire in her eyes. Good. She’d get mad, spit out a few hostile words meant to offend him and then leave.
Problem solved.
“It doesn’t matter.” But his wounded pride said something else entirely—he wanted to know.
“You sure about that?” she asked in her one-last-chance tone.
“Have never been more certain of anything in my life.” If she wanted his help, making him angry was the wrong way to go about it. He didn’t like the idea of her putting herself in danger if that was the case, and he’d tried reasoning with her by telling her to bring in the law. If she didn’t have enough sense to stay out of harm’s way there wasn’t much he could do about it. “Why ask me to help in the first place? You had to know that I would refuse. You’re not exactly high on my list of people I want to see again.”
“You won’t turn me down. I know you and there’s something I’ve been keeping from you...” She paused long enough to put her hands on her belly. “Anything happens to me and your child goes with me. You’re going to be a father, Ryder. And that’s why I left you. If anyone found out this was your child, then my life, heck, your life, would be over.”
“Good one, Faith.” She wasn’t afraid to pull out all the stops on...
Hold on a damn minute. The look on her face slapped him with a new reality. Was she serious?
“That’s right, Ryder. I’m carrying your child.” Her lip quivered even though her words rolled off her tongue steady as steel.
She wasn’t lying?
He stood there for a long moment and stared at her, daring her to break the glaring contest and tell him she was joking. There was no way...
Was there?
A memory came back to him in a rush. He remembered one time when they’d been so lost and so into each other during their lovemaking neither had noticed that the condom he wore broke.
Okay, so it was possible. But that didn’t mean...
Ryder took a step toward Faith to really look into her eyes.
“You’re pregnant?” he asked, knowing full well that he’d be able to tell if she faltered. She’d never been able to look him in the eyes and flat-out lie. Or at least that’s what he’d believed. How much did he get to know the real her in the few months they’d spent time together? She’d already shocked him once by walking out. And now she’d thrown him the last news he’d expected to hear from her.
“Yes,” she said plain as day.
“And the child is mine?”
“Yes,” she said with that same certainty.
She wasn’t lying.
“If that’s true—and I need a little time to come to terms with that fact—why are you telling me now?” he asked, trying to absorb that news. He couldn’t begin to process the idea of becoming a father, and he wasn’t immediately sure how he felt about it. All he knew was that his life was about to change forever. He’d seen firsthand the effects of the baby boom on the ranch with a few of his brothers.
“Like I said, I need your help and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it,” she said, her gaze a study in determination.
“Including lie about me fathering your child?” He’d thrown that question out to see if he could knock her off balance.
She stood her ground. “We both know I’m not.”
“Then I expect you to take care of yourself. Running straight into a fire doesn’t exactly fit that bill,” he said, and he meant every word. Until they sorted this mess out and knew for sure that she was, in fact, pregnant and he was the father of her child, he expected her to treat herself like a princess.
A thought struck. Was there any chance she could be so desperate for help that she’d bluff to get him to agree to help her?
Ryder studied her expression. If she was lying, she was a pro. Then again, he hadn’t seen their breakup coming, either. He’d need time to digest the possibility of being a father, especially considering all that he’d been through in the past few months. He forced his thoughts away from the fact that she’d been his sole comfort during the most difficult time of his life and their relationship had been about more than just the sex. It was saying a lot that they could be so into each other that a condom had broken and neither one realized until it was too late. Sex with Faith had been right up there with the best of his life. If he was being honest, it topped the list. Not something he cared to admit right now or dwell on too much. Even though the sex was great, there’d been so much more. He wasn’t normally one for a lot of words but holding her in their afterglow and doing just that—talking—had been even better than the sex. And that was saying a helluva lot.
“You know this qualifies as blackmail,” he said, his brain refusing to fully comprehend the news. He’d want a DNA test to be sure. And if the results proved his paternity, then he’d do what a man should—take care of his own.
“Does that mean you’ll help me?”
* * *
“GET IN. YOU’RE DAMN right we need to talk. Not here where everyone can see us,” Ryder said, opening the passenger door of his pickup and then walking around to the driver’s side without waiting for her to climb inside.
Faith almost backed out after seeing the hurt in his eyes after dropping the pregnancy bomb. She thought better of it. Yes, he was angry at her, but she’d realized that it was the only way to secure his help, and he was the only person she could trust right now.
All