Absolutely no way.
In case Lucie didn’t know, two people had to have sex in order for that to happen and he sure as hell knew he’d never had sex with her because if he had, he would fucking remember it.
Leaning back in his chair, Kane dropped his hands into his lap and stared back at her. She was crying and his first thought was that he’d missed something vitally important. His second thought was that she was totally out of her fucking mind.
“Want to run that by me again?” Kane asked the question when he finally found his voice. He didn’t even sound like himself.
“Haley is your daughter,” she repeated, sounding as though she actually believed what she was saying.
Kane couldn’t believe his ears, but there was something in the back of his mind that told him she wasn’t out of her mind delirious. For years, Kane had felt like he and Lucie had a connection, although, for the life of him, he had no idea why he felt that way. Sure, he was attracted to her. Lucie was a beautiful woman. But that was as far as it went.
“It’s not possible,” he barked, the fury beginning to churn in his gut. She was lying to him. Why the hell would she do that?
“It’s true.” Lucie was sobbing almost uncontrollably now, and Kane had no idea why she was crying.
“When? How?” Ok, now that sounded stupid because he knew how babies were conceived, but he just could not figure out how he factored in to this.
“I drove you home from the bar one night after we’d all stayed late. You’d been drinking shots, and you were in no condition to drive. You invited me in your house.”
Kane heard her words, but he didn’t know what she was talking about. She had to be delusional. There was no other way to explain it. Kane would’ve remembered. He couldn’t have been that...
Oh, shit.
Kane was having a hard time breathing again.
Haley was four years old. That meant she was conceived nearly five years ago. That was the year... No. No, no, no. He hadn’t.
Staring back at her blankly, Kane said the only thing he could say. “I want a paternity test.”
“Absolutely,” Lucie agreed easily, wiping her eyes with a napkin she’d taken from the table as Kane watched her. “I’ll pay for it. I’m so sorry, Kane. So very, very sorry.”
With the blood crashing in his ears, Kane could barely make out the words Lucie was saying. He couldn’t believe... It had to be a mistake...
Kane blinked; his vision hazy for a second before it cleared. Staring back at the dark haired woman sitting across from him, he suddenly realized she was telling him the truth. He couldn’t remember, but he knew without a doubt that Lucie Werner wasn’t lying to him. He had no idea why he believed her, but he did. And she agreed to a paternity test which would prove it. He needed proof. He’d get proof.
He wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to stand up and walk out of the restaurant, but he knew three things for absolute certain: He had slept with Lucie and Haley was his daughter. He didn’t remember a fucking thing about that night. And Lucie had been keeping him from his daughter all this time.
Now, if only the red haze would fade from his vision, and he could manage not to wrap his fingers around Lucie’s neck and squeeze the life out of her, Kane might just be able to figure out what to do next.
Chapter One
Six months later...
Standing behind the long edge of the bar, Kane Steele watched as his boss descended the stairs from the second floor. If he’d thought a shitty day couldn’t get worse, he hadn’t considered the fact that Luke McCoy had been in rare form for the better half of the night.
“Kane!” Luke’s powerful voice boomed from across the room and raked like fingernails down a chalkboard across Kane’s last nerve.
It was the end of the night – or rather morning – for crying out loud. Didn’t the man have something better to do? Or better yet – someone... no, make that two someone’s to do?
“What’s up?” Doing his best not to sound frustrated, Kane pasted on what would pass as a smile and turned his attention to the imposing man making his way across the now empty club floor.
Call him a pessimist but after having spent the last few nights watching all of the happy fucking people wandering around the bar – namely the McCoy clan who’d been congregating at Club Destiny in celebration of one thing or another it seemed for weeks now – Kane wasn’t finding it easy to be in a good mood these days.
The fact that Luke had thought it funny to introduce karaoke night to the already rowdy crowd hadn’t helped either. If he had to listen to another garbled rendition of one of Adele’s songs, he’d be inclined to gouge his own ears.