The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max) novel Chapter 49

Entering the hotel, Lark kept her grip on Max and her father with Bobbie rounding them out, but they also had an entire security team accompanying them. Lark suggested as they were leaving if Sawyer was messing with them then maybe it might be worth having a security team in case paparazzi popped out of the woodwork.

Her plotting was twofold of course. Sawyer could be trying to play an angle but based on how the conversation went, she was not confident he was. However, she was also hoping the extra security would keep any of Ollie’s ex-lover’s men from getting too close to them. Sure, enough seated in the bar area of the lounge, Santiago and Heriberto were each nursing a drink and watching the entrance. Santiago’s eyes narrowed on the group as he searched for Ollie and then grimaced when he didn’t see her there.

She looked away and leaned into her father as they got into the elevator. Her father grabbed her outside of the door to his room and pulled her into a tight hug. She let him hold her for several long seconds, gripping his as tight as he did her.

“Are you okay?” his words were hoarse in her ear.

“Dad, your world is being flipped upside down and you’re asking if I am okay? I’m worried for you.”

“You do know nothing will ever change how much I love you. Not even if another daughter comes out of the woodwork.” She gave a laugh and kissed his cheek. “Dad. I love you too. Not even the possibility of another daughter could make me doubt you love me. You need to call Mom. Do you want me to sit with you while you do?”

“No. I have a feeling it’s going to be emotional, and I need to do this on my own.” He kissed her forehead softly. “I love you, Lark.”

“I love you too.”

He stepped into his room and closed the door, and she exchanged worried glances with Bobbie and Max.

“Is he going to be all right?” she asked Bobbie.

“I know when Olivier went through this when he found out about the twins, initially he was not okay. He was really upset about missing out on eight years. I cannot imagine how he would have reacted to losing thirty-two years.” Bobbie wiped a tear off her cheek. “This sucks. Charlotte is a bitch.” She exhaled, “I need to call Olivier. He’ll want to be here for Grady, and I know he can get Everly and Fallon here in the chopper. I think your dad is going to need them here.”

“We can’t go back to Houston and wait for the results there?” she knew it was selfish but the desperate desire to get as far away from the men she knew were in the lobby. She was terrified of the ramifications of pulling guns on them and worse, how Ollie was behaving. When Ollie was off, she ended up pulling Lark into crazy shenanigans. She couldn’t deal with much more.

“Lark,” Max gave her an annoyed glance. “If this Gracie person is your father’s daughter, he’s going to want to stay here and get to know her a little bit. He’s going to need you here to support him. Are you really chomping at the bit to get away from Doug?”

The elevator at the end of the hall opened to reveal Santiago Laredo and his brother Heriberto. She held Heriberto’s smirking gaze as he walked past her and swiped a keycard on the room next to Max’s and the two men entered it.

“Seriously Lark?” Max nudged her for looking at the attractive men and the way her eyes were still trained on their closed door.

She looked back at him and shook her head, “quit it. I want to get out of here.”

“Well, we can’t. This isn’t about you. Don’t be a selfish brat. Your dad needs you.”

“Max, there’s no need to be harsh with Lark. This is a lot to take in. Imagine if you suddenly found out your father had other kids out there. She’s in shock.”

She wanted to scream her desire to go home nothing to do with the potential sister. Hell, if she was as great as Sawyer said she was, she looked forward to getting to know her. It would be nice to have someone in her life who wasn’t going to get her dragged into messes with cartel leaders. She shot another worried glance at the door where the two men went.

“Look, I’m not upset about the potential sister thing,” she tried to downplay it. “I’m worried for Dad and really worried for Mom. This is going to rock her world. Not to mention the fact Dad is going to have to share a kid with a guy he hates. I mean she’s a grown adult and whatever but still.”

“Then what is your deal?” Max folded his arms over his chest. “You’re looking to bail on this situation because Houston makes you upset over Doug? You can’t let him control you like this. He can’t take an entire city from you.”

His words made her want to slap him. Was he jealous of the fact she was emotional over the connection of Houston to Doug? She played into it when the door down the hall opened, and Santiago stuck his head out and looked at them before closing it again. “Fine, I don’t trust Doug not to give me the space he agreed to in the settlement. I think the longer I’m here the likelihood of him ignoring the no-contact agreement increases. You heard Sawyer too. He heard about what happened from someone I don’t even know. How many people know what happened? It is humiliating and I want to go home away from this embarrassment.”

“Well, you can’t,” Max shook his head angrily. “We’re staying.”

“I’m not doing this with you. I’m going to my room.”

“Lark,” he reached for her, but she stormed away from him while Bobbie groaned at him.

Swiping her keycard, she got into her room and slid the deadbolt across the door and then dragged Ollie off the bed and into the bathroom. She turned the shower on, holding her finger to her lips until it was going. Max was knocking on the door, his keycard not getting him past the deadbolt.

“What is going on?”

“Sawyer dropped a huge bomb on dad.”

“What?”

“Dad’s ex-wife miscarried one kid, but she was pregnant with twins. She faked DNA results and made it look like Sawyer was the girl’s father. Six months ago, when the ex called Sawyer to ask for drug money because she’s a junkie, she told Sawyer the kid wasn’t his. Sawyer thinks this Gracie chick he raised looks like me and is my biological sister. Dad agreed to do DNA testing.”

Ollie blanched as she fell onto the toilet seat. “No f*****g way.”

“And get dragged into the room next to Max’s at gunpoint by a cartel leader and his henchman brother?”

Ollie whined, “what do we do?”

“I don’t know.” She groaned and then sat on the floor of the bathroom, the steam from the shower filling up the room. She looked around with a thought, “we could cause the smoke detectors to go off and -”

“And cause thousands of dollars of damages in Dad’s hotel?” Ollie asked. “You know what would happen Lark. He’d be in our faces trying to find out why we caused the sprinkler system to activate and then he would know I’m a bigger f**k-up than the triplets. My dad can’t know I’m a f**k-up, Lark.” Tears spilled from Ollie’s eyes and her bottom lip trembled as she struggled not to cry. “Oh god, my dad is going to find out I’m a f**k up.” She started crying.

“You’re not a f**k-up. God. I fell in love with a guy who thought it would be fun to try to sue me because I dumped him.” “He only wanted your money. My romantic interest wants to kidnap me and make me have his babies.”

Her brown eyes were luminous and reminded Lark of a baby seal in fundraising commercials.

“Do you want to have his babies?”

“Not if he’s married to someone else,” Ollie lifted her chin defiantly as she folded her arms over her chest.

Lark’s phone dinged again. “Johan is asking if I know where you are because you’re avoiding him. What’s going on there?” “Nothing. He asked me to meet him this morning. He is going through it with the cowgirl. He really likes her but he can’t get over the fact her ex walks around with his pecs hanging out while he lassos cows or something. I think he needed to scratch some itches but -” she looked away guiltily.

“But?”

“But now I’ve seen Mr. Laredo again, I can’t look at anyone else. Fucker.” She wiped her tears off. “I was kind of hoping I could find a way to wife up Johan, but Laredo is ruining my life.”

Lark grinned, “funny story. Apparently, Doug applied to Laredo Enterprises and HR responded, “f**k no” to his application.” “Too bad they didn’t deliver the refusal in person and got rid of him.”

“I don’t want him dead, Ollie,” Lark sighed. She reached out and shut the shower off and listened to see if she could still hear Max at the door and found it quiet. At least one problem was stalled for the moment.

The women exchanged glances when the room phone began to ring.

“Fuck.”