think he’s the only one who’s offered,” said Lexi, from the lounger next to Devin.
Byron stared first at Lexi and then at Devin. “And why do you supposed he’s offered to help?”
Devin kept her voice low since Amelia was drifting off to sleep. “I don’t particularly care.”
Steve’s lawyers were giving her a fighting chance against Lucas.
“Altruism?” Byron mocked.
“A concept you’re obviously unfamiliar with,” Lexi retorted.
Byron ignored Lexi and spoke directly to Devin. “He’s sidling up to you like some slick ol’ polecat. He helps you now. You help him later. If you know what I mean.”
Devin blinked. “Have I done something to make you think I’m stupid?”
Byron drew back in obvious surprise.
“I’m taking Steve’s offer at face value. I haven’t made him a single promise.”
In fact, she’d offered an outright deal to Lucas to manage the shares if he’d let her keep Amelia, but he didn’t trust her enough to agree.
And who was to say Steve was the bad guy in this little family drama anyway? So far, she’d put the black hat firmly on Lucas’s head. He was the one who’d plotted with Konrad to trick Monica and produce an heir to their grandfather’s company shares. Devin hadn’t forgotten that.
“Steve would steal your last dollar as soon as look at you,” Byron warned.
“As opposed to Lucas?” she asked.
“Lucas lets you see him coming.”
Devin gave a nod to that. Lucas had certainly been up front about the fact that he wanted to take Amelia away from her. He’d also been pretty clear that his interest in the baby was financial.
Devin found her hold tightening on Amelia.
“Listen up,” said Byron, shifting in the lounger so he faced Devin more directly.
“No, you listen up,” Lexi interrupted. “You are not going to convince Devin to give up her lawyers.”
“I had no intention—”
“Of course you did. That’s what this whole pretty, ‘don’t trust the evil Steve’ speech was leading up to. And it’s not going to work.”
“I’m simply suggesting she might want to be careful.”
Lexi crossed her arms over her chest. With a glance at Amelia’s sleeping form, she lowered her voice. “We are being careful.” She paused. “We don’t trust anyone… including you.”
Devin agreed with Lexi on that point. There wasn’t a single member of the Demarco family she could afford to trust. She was on her own in this. Well, except for Lexi.
Byron heaved a large sigh. “I guess there’s nothing left for me to say.”
“No,” Lexi agreed. “There’s not.”
Byron glanced back to Devin. “I’m on your side.”
She coughed out a laugh of disbelief. “You’re on Lucas’s side.”
“Lucas is an honorable man.”
“An honorable man wouldn’t try to rip an innocent baby from the arms of her loving aunt.”
Byron’s gaze moved briefly to the sleeping Amelia and then back to Devin. “You’re here, aren’t you?”
“It was his Hail Mary play in court,” she responded. “He only made the offer because he knew the judge was about to rule for me.”
Byron came to his feet. He gave his head a small shake, making a clicking sound in his cheek that transmitted his disagreement with her statement. “You can’t trust Steve,” he said simply.
“Funny,” Lexi responded. “That’s exactly what Steve says about the rest of you.”
“You cannot leave Amelia with these people,” Lexi stage-whispered after Byron had disappeared into the house. “No kidding,” Devin responded.
She poured herself a glass of iced tea from a pitcher that someone had placed on the table. Devin felt a twinge of guilt for letting herself be waited on by the Demarco staff. But she was thirsty, and she didn’t want to disturb Amelia.
Lexi followed suit. “Why can’t rich people be nice?” she asked as the ice cubes clinked against her glass. “If I was rich, I’d still be nice.”
“That should be my new book proposal,” Devin mused, getting another twinge of guilt when she talked about writing. She was behind on her manuscript, and her deadline was looming. “Nice and Rich,” she said, trying a title on for size. “The Art of Doing Them Both Together.” It actually wasn’t half-bad.
Lexi lifted her glass in a mock toast. “The rich truly do need your help.”
Devin grimaced. “Unfortunately, I don’t know the first thing about being rich.”
“Take a look at all this,” said Lexi, gesturing in a circle. “What better place to do your research?”
Devin rolled the idea around in her head.
She glanced from the pool to the tennis courts, the private dock and boathouse, and the humongous mansion that required a map to navigate. It didn’t get much richer than this. And the Demarcos were certainly prime examples of nasty.
Her editor would probably be a lot more forgiving of a late manuscript if she had another book idea in the hopper.
“Here he comes again,” Lexi intoned.
“Byron?” Devin resisted the urge to twist her head to see the staircase behind her.
“Lucas.” Lexi took a sip of the iced tea, leaned back and adjusted the damp towel. “You might want to start taking notes.”
Devin couldn’t help a calculating smirk as Lucas made his way across the pool deck. She wondered how he’d feel about starring in her next book.
He was still wearing his business suit and a pair of perfectly shined dress shoes, though it had to be seventy degrees this afternoon, hotter in the sunshine. His glance went to Amelia, and he seemed to realize she was sleeping.
“I need to talk to you,” he whispered.
“You can use your normal voice,” Devin responded, finding herself watching him closely, thinking about his life and his world and how she might use the Demarcos as fodder for her next book. “Just don’t shout.”
“Okay,” he agreed, testing the chair that Byron had vacated earlier with the back of his hand. Apparently, satisfied that it was dry, he sat down sideways, those expensively shod feet firmly planted on the
