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

Nolan Buchanan, one of the three owners and CEO of Buchanan Enterprises, stared at the scrawl on the paper in his hand, openly perplexed and rapidly growing agitated. Was it possible?  Was this some sort of trick? There were plenty of people who wanted a piece of a Buchanan, but only an idiot would stoop to something so easily disproved…unless it was no ruse and they had the DNA to back up their claim. Sweat dampened his brow and he wiped it away as he dropped the paper to the table and stalked away, needing a moment to collect himself.

“You look as if you’ve just seen your past flash before you and you’re about to fall over in a faint,” his twin brother Vince joked as they passed in the expansive hallway of their family home. When Nolan didn’t offer a rejoining quip, Vince double-backed and followed him with a subtle frown. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Is it Penny? Oh, shit. It’s Penny
, isn’t it? Where’s Dillon? She’s not due for another month! I warned Dillon she was doing too much in her delicate state but he didn’t listen — ” Just as Vince started to jabber about Penny’s recent mad dash to repaint the nursery for the third time as if he were the father instead of Dillon, their older brother, Nolan gripped his arm tightly and shook his head.

“It’s not Penny; she’s fine,” he assured
his twin, still not able to fathom the gravity of the situation if it were true. He lifted his gaze to Vince’s and said, “You’re not going to believe this — frankly, I’m having a hard time believing it myself, but…I just got an anonymous note in the mail saying that I’m a father.”

Vince’s eyes widened then he shook his head in disbelief. “No way. It’s a shake-down for money,” he said.
“Father to whom? And who is the alleged mother?”

“Yeah, that’
s what I thought, too,” he agreed. “What do you think I should do?”

“Was there a name attached to this supposed baby mama?”

“No. Just that I’d find her working as the sports trainer for a minor hockey league team called the San Jose Juggernaut.”

“There was no contact information?”

Nolan shook his head. “Should I just ignore this and see if it’s a hoax? Maybe it’ll just go away if I don’t give it any attention.” Vince’s dubious expression mirrored Nolan’s gut instinct and he sighed, knowing what he had to do. “Looks like a trip to San Jose is in my near future,” he said.

“I could go with you,” Vince offered. “I could use a change in scenery. Besides, I’m jumpy as a long-tailed cat in a room filled with rockers with Penny waddling around, changing this and changing that when she ought to put her
ass in a chair and relax. I don’t know how Dillon deals with her right now.”

Nolan nodded but his mind was moving too quickly in a myriad of different directions to add his opinion on their stubborn, very-pregnant sister-in-law when he was fighting the urge to lose his lunch on the Italian tiles.

A child?

“It’s probably a hoax,” Vince said, trying to ease his fear but it wasn’t working and worse, Penny herself appeared from the living room, munching on one of her repulsive ice cream, corn chip, and mustard concoctions that she swore was delicious.

“What’s a hoax?” she asked, around a spoonful, looking to the twins for an answer. She rubbed her round belly and groaned, causing both Nolan and Vince to rush to her side in case she needed help but she swatted them both away with open irritation. “You’re both as bad as Dillon. I’m not going to break. You treat me like glass. I’m fine,” she assured them with a smile. “This baby is not coming anytime soon. Now, answer my question. What do you think is a hoax?”

Nolan shot Vince a look, reluctant to tell Penny just yet but he could tell she wasn’t going to let him off the hook without an answer so he simply cut to the chase, saying, “I’m fairly certain it’s a ruse to shake me down for some money but someone sent me an anonymous note saying that I fathered a child.” Just saying the words made his knees shake a little. He cleared his voice and straightened, “But I’d have known if I
’d fathered a child. I mean, I’m always careful.”

Penny narrowed her stare at him and he shifted under her assessing gaze.
The thing about Penny was, she wasn’t simply his sister-in-law — she’d once been his and Vince’s lover, too. Long story. They didn’t talk about it anymore — Dillon had already threatened to remove their eyeballs if Nolan or Vince so much as dared to gaze in memory at her lovely breasts — but in that one look, Nolan saw a wealth of knowing and he flushed. “I always check to make sure protection is used in some form or another,” he said in a low tone. “I would never be so foolish as to play without a safety net.”

“You have to find out if it’s true or not,” she said adamantly. “How old is this child?”

“The note didn’t say, just that I’ll find the mother working for the San Jose Juggernaut, a minor league hockey team, as a sports trainer.”

“Well, that settles it; we’re going on a road trip.” She turned and started to waddle away, presumably to pack and Nolan groaned and caught her arm gently. “What?” she asked, frowning. “I can travel,” she insisted.

“I’m sure you can but I’d rather handle this on my own,” he said, hoping he didn’t hurt her feelings. Please don’t cry, he prayed. Since her pregnancy, Penny had burst into tears at the oddest moments. One time he found her sobbing over the toaster oven because her toast was too dark on one side. Dillon had responded by throwing out the toaster and immediately buying her a new one, desperate to stem the tears in anyway possible. It might’ve seemed extreme but Nolan would’ve done the same. Penny was precious to them and now she was carrying the next generation of Buchanan.

His knees trembled again. Was there another Buchanan out there? Was it a boy or a girl? He scrubbed his hands over his face, focusing. “I need to handle this privately, love. Besides, didn’t Dillon promise you a quick getaway to Napa for a spa pampering day?”

She brightened. “Oh! That’s right! He did,” she agreed, remembering. “Sorry, Nolan. I need that spa day. My back is screaming. You think you can handle this on your own?”

He nodded. “I do. It’s probably nothing. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Okay. Let me know how it turns out.” She smiled and waddled away, her mind likely already focused on full-body massages and chocolate-dipped strawberries, which was fine by Nolan. A distracted Penny at this stage in her pregnancy was a good thing.

“You dodged a bullet there,” Vince said, chuckling.

“Don’t I know it. I love her but…”

“Say no more. So, do you want my company or would you rather go solo?” he asked.

“Actually, I think I’ll handle this on my own. Besides, aren’t you supposed to be at the club tonight? Something about a new sub to introduce to the dungeon?”

Vince grinned broadly. “Yeah, I can hardly wait.”

Yeah, he’d rather spend time in pursuing something pleasurable as well but he knew he couldn’t rest until he put to bed this ridiculous claim. He forced a grin for his brother’s sake and perhaps for his own. “It’s nothing. And when I find out who thought pulling this ruse was a good idea, I’m going to give them a taste of Buchanan justice.”

Vince nodded in support. “Go get ‘em, bro.”

Feeling far more confident than he did a moment ago, Nolan strode from the room to make the arrangements. Perhaps with some luck, he’d be back within a day or two and he could catch a little entertainment with his brother.

Bolstered by that cheery thought, a true smile more fitting for his easy-going nature found his lips and he started to whistle, his mind already forming all the appropriately cruel ways to ruin this misguided fool who’d dared to threaten a Buchanan.

“Ow! You’re killing me!”

Shannon Garrity ignored the outraged bellow of the hulking beast of a man, affectionately known
on the ice as “Killer” and continued to carefully rotate the man’s leg to see how badly damaged it was. Judging by the reaction of her player, it was pretty bad. She sighed and gave Killer a look that conveyed the unfortunate news she was about to share and the man started to plead ‘I can still play!’ but she shook her head sadly. “Sorry, but that leg’s going to have to heal if you want to have any chance of playing next year. You’re benched effective as of today. I’m sorry, Carl.” She placed a hand on his shoulder with compassion. “Next stop for you is the doctor for an MRI — not the bar, okay?”

Carl, six-foot four-inches of solid muscle but not a lot of brain, nodded like a child who’d been caught before h
e’d even put his plan into motion and hopped from her table to grab his crutches. She watched as Carl made his way out of the small room she used for examining team injuries and CeCe, her intern, walked in holding Aubrey, Shannon’s nearly three-year-old daughter. “There she is,” Shannon cooed, accepting the toddler from CeCe’s arms. “Thanks for going to pick her up. I got swamped and wasn’t able to break away to get her,” she said.

“No problem,”
CeCe said, smiling. “She’s such a cutie.”

“Yes, she is,” Shannon agreed, rubbing her nose with her daughter’s and causing her to giggle. Her laughter lit up the days that were a challenge, such as today.
She hated this time of year — draft cuts. She tried not to get too attached but some of the guys she worked with were like oversized kids and she adored them all. Many had dreams of moving onto the NHL but some just weren’t cut out for the next level. She always winced when she saw the empty lockers after the cut players received their notice.

“Is there anything else you need?”
CeCe asked and Shannon shook her head. “Okay, if you don’t mind, I’m going to cut out a little early. I have some studying to do.”

“No problem.” Shannon smiled and collected her stuff to leave. “I’m actually done for the day. I’ll see you bright early tomorrow, right? We have assessments to do on the players.”

“Yep.”

CeCe
, a young college grad with her eye on landing a position similar to Shannon’s, was the typical college coed – if one went by stereotypes. The girl had curves and wasn’t afraid to use them if the hungry gazes from the players were any indication. Shannon had tried to talk CeCe about the importance of separating business from pleasure but the bottom line was, Shannon was a temporary fixture in her life until she moved on to bigger pastures.

With Aubrey on her hip, she navigated past the locke
r rooms and popped out the backside of the rink to walk toward her car. A strange prickling sense caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up and she glanced around, to survey her surroundings. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she kept walking, although she picked up her step a little bit. After fastening Aubrey in her car seat, she hopped into her little sedan and headed home.

You're being a silly goose. And paranoid. The more miles
she put between herself and that feeling, she realized she'd been silly. No more late-night movies about crime dramas, she reasoned to herself.

Turning up the radio, she perked up when she and Audrey's favorite song came on. Shannon sang while Aubrey
kicked her feet and giggled and by the time Shannon pulled into her small apartment complex, she’d completely forgotten about the weird sensation she'd had back at work.