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He hadn t, but his lack of knowledge wasn t surprising. Since his mother had the rather
unfortunate urge to kill herself whenever his name was mentioned, he d done his best to stay the hell
away from her. You really are a piece of work, Dubois. First you insinuate the man might be my
father, but now he is my mother s godfather? I need a fucking scorecard to keep up with your
bullshit.
I repeat, I never said I had proof Frank was your father.
Merde, if he ever got his hands on this bastard& I am about to hang up, but before I do, let
me give you some advice hide from me as best you can. I am going to make it my mission in life to
crush you like a fucking bug for sending me on this wild goose chase and dragging Scout through the
mud.
I wasn t trying to mislead you, came the quick reply, and Ivar took grim satisfaction in
hearing the other man s fear. I m telling you only the facts as I know them. Frank mentioned both you
and your mother Eliane while restructuring his will to include that tattoo guy, Sebastian Payne and his
sidekick, Scout. He was your mother s godfather, and he said he knew the truth about your life and
who you really are. That was when it occurred to me that the only person left alive who might have
answers for you besides your mother is Scout Upton, since she inherited his penthouse and its
contents. That s where things get tricky. I still believe that bitch won t want to admit to anything,
because I m sure she didn t get into Frank s will just because she has a great personality. You ll have
to break apart her life if you want to get any answers.
I notice you veer off the fact trail when it comes to Scout, he pointed out, disgusted and
ready to just leave the whole mess behind him where it belonged. You really seem to have a
problem with her.
She s a nightmare wrapped in a pretty package, came the surprisingly savage reply. Don t
underestimate her.
I think you are the one who underestimated the both of us. I will not contact you again, nor
will you contact me. If I hear that you are trying to undermine Scout in any way, you will be the one
who gets broken apart. Forget she exists, and I might decide to let you live in peace.
Peace would be nice, he thought as he hung up and tossed the phone onto his desk. Though he
hated to admit it, part of this was his fault. He d heard what he wanted to hear when Dubois told him
about Frank Bournival. He took that one hint and ran wild with it, hoping against hope that it actually
meant a good man like Frank could be his father.
Instead, he was back at square one, being the spawn of a monster.
A fluid flash of white, orange and black suddenly leapt up onto his desk, startling him. Cats,
he thought, watching her saunter over to sniff at his phone before scraping her face along its edge.
Okay, maybe he wasn t back where he started. He d made great strides with Scout, and he now had a
four-legged, tri-colored ninja that thought he was okay as long as he knew how to open up cans of cat
food.
I will take my wins where I can get them, cat, he said, watching the animal snap around to
face him at the sound of his voice. Carefully he held out his hand, ready to snatch it back if it looked
like she was in the mood to draw blood. Instead, she scraped her face against his fingers, and the
faintest of purrs reached his ears.
Though she hated to admit it, Scout did drop off of Sass s radar over the next several days,
and the blame landed squarely on Ivar s shoulders. If she d been asked what kept her so busy, she
would have said she wanted to share her city with a newcomer. But as she planned their days around
city-oriented activities from taking in a Cubs pre-season game, to exploring Millennium Park, to
taking tea at the Langham Hotel, to sharing her favorite spots at the Botanic Garden deep down she
knew she wasn t sharing her city with Ivar.
She was sharing herself.
That became painfully obvious when she drove him by the now-abandoned, graffiti-covered
house where she d seen her first flower. Looking at that hovel wasn t going to make Ivar love her
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