Chapter 1

ONE

TULLY

“Custody goes to Devon McKay ?” Franklin Scott boomed. “Of my granddaughter? You can’t be serious!”

I clenched my jaw and held my tongue. His reaction was no surprise. As Katie’s parents and sole surviving family members, Pastor and Mrs. Scott might have seemed like the obvious choice to get custody of her daughter. Obvious to anyone who hadn’t been close to Katie, that was.

The founding partner at my firm frowned at me from across the large conference table. “Tully, do you know this Mr. McKay?”

I opened my mouth to respond but quickly shut it. The answer to that question was… complicated. I didn’t know him in the way that one knew a longtime friend or coworker. While I’d heard a little about him from Katie, I’d never gotten to know him personally outside of having spent a few hours with him once at a party at Katie’s house.

Having said that… I did happen to know what his face looked like when he tried to keep himself from coming. What his hot mouth felt like wrapped around my most intimate body part. The way his face had turned gently against mine as he’d surreptitiously inhaled the scent of me before leaving.

I blinked and focused back on my boss. Orris Dunlevy’s thick, chalk-white hair was always perfectly formed into a slight swoop to one side, regardless of how frustrated he was. Monogrammed cuffs peeked out from his thousand-dollar suit jacket as he studied me with his arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.

“No, sir,” I said on an unsteady exhale. “I mean, not really. I’ve heard of him, of course. I did prepare the will.”

The pastor clenched his fists on the tabletop while Katie’s mom continued to cry and flutter an honest-to-god old-fashioned hankie near her face. “Someone needs to explain to me how this happened,” he demanded.

Orris nodded but stayed focused on me. “Tully?”

“I’m unsure what you’re asking exactly,” I said carefully. While I was considered the golden boy of Dunlevy, Pace, and Trumble, no one in this firm was safe from the scales of justice around here… and by “justice,” I meant money.

As the founders of the Church of Heavenly Victory, Franklin and Paula Scott were richer than god. And they’d moved all of their legal business to the firm as soon as Orris had hired Katie out of Duke Law. Keeping the Scotts happy was the key to keeping my bosses happy.

But I’d been Katie’s friend as well as her personal attorney, and I wasn’t about to let her down, especially when she was no longer here to stand up for herself or her daughter.

“I’m asking you to tell me why Ms. Scott named this… Devon McKay … as the legal guardian of her child,” my boss clarified.

At the mention of Lellie, Mrs. Scott sobbed louder, which only made the pastor’s face turn redder.

I cleared my throat and prepared for the explosion. “He’s her biological father.”

Orris’s eyes only widened a little, but everyone else in the room, including Katie’s parents, another managing partner, two associates, a junior associate, and two assistants, all seemed to lose their collective minds.

“Impossible!” Pastor Scott barked.

“Kathryn, how could you?” Mrs. Scott sobbed.

The managing partner turned to the junior associate and spoke in a low voice, “Get us everything you can on McKay.”

I concentrated on breathing and reminded myself to stay calm and professional. While I understood and had expected the panic, I also trusted my good friend. Katie adored her daughter and would have never named Dev McKay Lellie’s guardian if she hadn’t trusted him with the girl’s future.

And it wasn’t like the man wouldn’t be able to afford to hire help. Not once he realized Lellie’s guardian would also be the trustee of the fortune her mother had left her.

Mrs. Scott seemed to get control of herself for a moment. “Wait. Isn’t that… that McKay the boy who used to work on Daddy’s ranch?”

Her mention of Dev’s past brought back memories of the night we’d met. Memories of muscled shoulders and biceps, callused hands, and late-day stubble.

I could see the man as a ranch hand, no doubt about it.

“He can’t have a pot to piss in,” Pastor Scott said, outraged. “He mucked stalls for my father-in-law?—”

His wife stopped him with a hand to his arm. “Frank, dear, didn’t he end up going to Yale? Whatever happened to him? How did he and Kathryn wind up dating without us knowing?”

I clamped my teeth together. While confessing to Dev’s biological involvement in this custody situation was appropriate and inevitable, it was not my place to remind the Scotts about the details of Lellie’s conception—specifically, that it had been done through a fertility clinic with no dating involved since their daughter had been proudly asexual. I doubted my reminder would matter anyway, not when Katie had explained her asexuality and decision to use a sperm donor several times and they seemed not to have listened.

“He did go to Yale,” Pastor Scott said, seeming to pick the details out of long-forgotten memories. “Thanks to me. She had me write him a recommendation for a scholarship, as I recall. What happened to him? Where the hell is he?”

Orris met my eye with a lifted brow.

“Wyoming,” I said. “Apparently, he lives on a ranch there and is impossible to get a hold of. If I’d been able to find a number for him, I would have requested his presence today.”

One of my peers, an older attorney named Grace, who worked full-time on the Scotts’ business, leaned forward. “I believe it’s obvious from his lack of interest in these proceedings that he has chosen to relinquish his interest in this case.”

I stared at her. “Are you kidding? I just told you he hasn’t been informed about Katie’s— Kathryn’s —passing. He couldn’t possibly have relinquished his interest.”

Orris turned to her. “But you can go ahead and begin proceedings to challenge his guardianship.”

“I beg your pardon.” I moved my hands under the table in case they started shaking. While I would definitely defend my client vigorously, I really didn’t want to get fired in the process. “You may not do so. I understand the Scotts’ concerns, of course, but Kathryn Scott was also our client. She made her wishes very clear, and we executed them carefully in the preparation and signing of her Last Will and Testament. There is no legal standing to challenge Mr. McKay’s guardianship at this time. At the very least, it’s premature, and moreover, it is an obvious conflict of interest coming from this firm.”

Orris made a shushing gesture with his hand as the pastor began to interrupt. “Tully, I understand you’re upset. You and Kathryn were close.”

I nodded numbly. Even three days after her accident, I hadn’t really begun to process the fact that Katie was gone. Some part of me expected to see her striding into the conference room wearing her bright, mischievous smile, and I knew that when the day was done, my fingers would twitch against the urge to text her. Gurl, you would not believe the meeting I had today…

“No one is accusing you of not doing your due diligence in preparing her will,” Orris went on. “You’re a fine attorney who would have made sure the legal preparation was airtight. But surely you can see how Pastor and Mrs. Scott would be the best guardians for their grandchild now that Kathryn is no longer with us.”

I tilted my head at him, incredulous. “Surely I do not, sir. Are you suggesting a mother should not be able to choose who gets custody of her child upon her death? What is the point of preparing a will if that’s the case?”

Mrs. Scott began wailing again.

Orris spoke to me as if trying to gentle an unpredictable stallion. “Mr. McKay might be a fine man, but the child is clearly better off being raised by two loving grandparents who’ve known her since she was born, and the Scotts have plenty of money to make sure Eleanor has everything she could ever need for her comfort and education.”

It galled me to hear Lellie referred to as “the child,” as though she were “the vase” or “the chair.” It also irked me that I was expected to use her legal name, as if I hadn’t rocked Lellie for hours when she was only a few weeks old and hadn’t pulled a sticky glob of banana out of her ink-black curls only a month ago.

“Lellie is independently wealthy,” I stated, moving on to the next portion of Katie’s will. “As the sole heir of Kathryn’s estate, she inherits even more. Whoever ends up raising her will have plenty of financial support.”

I didn’t add that the estate was worth at least ten million dollars because it wasn’t her parents’ business, but they needed to understand that basing their custody case on being the more financially stable option for Lellie was a losing proposition.

Katie’s parents gasped. The surrounding attorneys typed and scribbled notes. Orris pressed his lips together.

Pastor Scott turned to Orris. “Remove Kathryn from my will and see about recouping her trust fund.”

I bit my tongue to keep from snapping at him that trust funds didn’t work that way. Katie had gotten access to hers several years ago when she’d turned twenty-five. Because of her lukewarm and sometimes strained relationship with her parents, we’d immediately moved all assets into a new one. When Lellie had been born, we’d restructured the trusts again.

Mrs. Scott sniffled. “It will have to go to Eleanor now.”

The pastor shook his head. “She will not be listed as my heir. Not as long as that… that ranch hand … has custody of her.”

His wife looked at him in shock. “She’s all we have left of Kathryn. I won’t lose her, Frank.”

Orris, ever the peacemaker when tempers flared and clients became irrational, tried to calm everyone down. “There may be a middle ground here. What if we offer McKay a visitation scheme? If he’s currently a rancher in Wyoming, she could be in line to inherit a spread in Wyoming.” He turned to me and lifted an eyebrow in inquiry.

“Devon McKay doesn’t own the ranch,” I admitted. “It’s my understanding he just works there.” Not that there was any indication of formal employment like a W-2 or payroll records. Which meant he was most likely getting paid under the table.

Orris’s white eyebrows came together. “A Yale graduate works at a ranch he doesn’t own? What in the world does he do there?”

Pastor Scott threw up his hands. “See? He never did make good, even with a Yale scholarship. Do we even know if he graduated? There’s no way on god’s green earth that low-life is getting my money. Or my granddaughter,” he added.

I thought back to the man I’d met at Katie’s house. To Dev’s inky-black curls and the striking hazel eyes that seemed to carry a lifetime’s worth of pain in them. He’d skimmed his hands along my skin as if worshipping it with tenderness. Not only had he been quiet and kind, but he’d also been generous. By giving Katie the ability to have a child with no strings attached, he’d shown himself to be selfless and thoughtful. I hadn’t realized he was the “old friend” Katie had asked to father her child until long after our hookup, but once I had, I’d understood that he hadn’t let himself come that night because he’d been due at the fertility clinic to make his contribution the following day. Dev had literally denied himself pleasure in order to do well by his friend.

Low-life? Hardly.

I may not have known Devon McKay well, but I believed he was a decent person, and Katie had certainly thought so.

Grace leaned forward, drawing attention away from the blustering pastor. “Do we know whether he even wants custody of the child?”

Everyone got quiet. Pastor Scott lost a little of his bluster. Orris looked thoughtful before he spoke. “Grace, draw up papers for him to voluntarily relinquish custody to the Scotts. There’s no conflict of interest in that,” he added, in light of my earlier objection. “And we have several options in case he fights it.”

“What kind of options?” I asked, though I already suspected.

“Offer him whatever it takes,” the pastor insisted. “We’re getting custody of our grandchild, even if we have to pay for it.”

While Pastor Scott turned to speak with Grace about the details, Orris turned to me with piercing eyes and spoke too softly for the Scotts to hear. “How much is it going to take?”

I knew what he was asking. If the Scotts wanted to bribe Dev to sign away custody of Lellie, they’d have to offer more than he’d gain by keeping her and her inheritance.

“Over ten million,” I said in a low voice.

His eyes widened in shock. “Kathryn’s trust fund was only worth two.”

“She made good money here, and she was good at investing,” I said, not willing to be specific. “Plus, she came into some money a couple of years ago from another source.”

“What source?”

“She didn’t tell me. I only know about it because she placed it in trust for Lellie, so she needed me to draw up the papers.”

“That’s what you meant when you said she was independently wealthy,” he said. “I thought you were referring to the savings account the Scotts had set up for her when she was born.”

“No.”

He sighed and ran a hand through his previously immaculate hair. “Mr. McKay isn’t going to turn down custody of this child when he learns she comes with a fortune. Even if he doesn’t want her.”

I didn’t want to believe that, but I had to admit the truth. “No, sir. Not many people would.”

Katie hadn’t talked much about Dev. I knew they’d been close in high school but had drifted apart after college, at least in part because Dev hadn’t moved back to Texas… or stayed anywhere for very long. When I’d confessed to Katie what had happened between us the night of her party, she’d laughed, but I’d seen concern flicker in her eyes, too… until I’d quickly explained that it had been a onetime encounter with no expectations on either side. “Good,” she’d said with a soft smile. “Because Dev’s one of the best men I know, Tully, truly. But I don’t get the feeling he’s interested in commitments right now. To anything .”

I hadn’t understood what she meant by that cryptic comment, but I hadn’t felt like I could press for clarification without letting her know how often I’d replayed the events of that night, even when I’d tried to forget it.

When Lellie was born and Dev hadn’t initiated any contact—something I knew Katie didn’t expect from him but would’ve been open to—or even called to congratulate Katie, I’d figured I had my answer. Dev was a drifter. A wanderer. A kind man, sure. A beautiful man, without a doubt. But not necessarily a dedicated or responsible one.

As much as I hated to think of sweet Lellie being brought up by the influential Scotts in their hateful megachurch, I also wasn’t sure if a drifter—no matter how kind or beautiful he may be—was the ideal parent for her. And if he was an underpaid ranch hand, might he be tempted to keep custody of her simply to have the kind of financial security he’d never known before?

It was definitely possible.

I wanted to see Katie’s final wishes carried out—of course I did. It was the last tangible thing I could do for my friend. But as I thought over Orris’s words, a little bit of doubt crept in over the best way to achieve that.

Like most young, healthy parents, Katie had written up her will to protect her daughter against a theoretical worst-case scenario. In her case, though—my throat burned with unshed tears—it had become reality far more quickly and suddenly than Katie could ever have predicted. She’d probably chosen Dev as Lellie’s guardian because she’d wanted to assume the best of him and had thought he’d mature or settle down at some point, becoming the kind of person she’d actually want raising her daughter.

Maybe he had become that person. But maybe he hadn’t.

I loved Katie and Lellie enough to make sure that whoever became Lellie’s guardian would do right by her. Lellie deserved to have the kind of safe, stable, comfortable childhood I’d never had. One unburdened by worries about whether there would be food in the fridge tomorrow, or if the mortgage had been paid this month, or if, after celebrating the windfall of a rare cattle sale at the local bar, her father would come home in a roaring temper… or not come home at all. She deserved to have adults in her life who made her needs a priority and to be loved as much as Katie had loved her.

And, though I hated to admit it, that kind of stability was something the Scotts could give her… even if it wasn’t the situation Katie had wanted.

“You’ll bring the child to Wyoming, Tully,” Orris pronounced. “Along with the custody documents Grace will prepare.”

I started. “Me? Surely we should send someone else,” I tried, suddenly panicking at the idea of confronting Dev with a child he’d never met.

“The nanny can’t make the trip,” he reminded me, “and you’re the only person in the firm who knows the child personally. Would you prefer I assigned a junior associate to handle the matter?”

The thought of Lellie traveling so far with a stranger when she still called out for her mother in the night made me sick. “No. Definitely not.”

He nodded as though he’d expected no less. “Didn’t think so. You care about the child, and I trust you to do what’s best for her.” His eyes bored into me once again. “Do whatever it takes to prove Devon McKay is unfit, Tully. Beg, bribe, or bully him until he gives up custody. Do you understand?”

I could tell from his expression that there were words he’d left unsaid. I felt the weight of them regardless.

Your job depends on it.

I swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.”