Single Dad Read online

  Table of Contents

  Epilogue

  Second Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Single Dad

  River Laurent

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Author Note

  1. Lincoln

  2. Lincoln

  3. Lincoln

  4. Lincoln

  5. Samantha

  6. Lincoln

  7. Samantha

  8. Samantha

  9. Lincoln

  10. Lincoln

  11. Samantha

  12. Lincoln

  13. Lincoln

  14. Lincoln

  15. Samantha

  16. Lincoln

  17. Lincoln

  18. Samantha

  19. Lincoln

  20. Samantha

  21. Samantha

  22. Lincoln

  23. Lincoln

  24. Lincoln

  25. Lincoln

  26. Lincoln

  27. Samantha

  28. Samantha

  29. Lincoln

  30. Epilogue

  31. Second Epilogue

  The CEO & I

  Appreciation

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Dare Me

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Epilogue

  Sweet Revenge

  SWEET REVENGE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Coming soon…

  The Promise

  1. Cole

  2. Taylor

  3. Cole

  Untitled

  Acknowledgments

  A big, big thank you to…

  Leanore Elliott & Brittany Urbaniak & Peggy Schnurr

  Single Dad

  Copyright © 2018 by River Laurent

  The right of River Laurent to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the copyright, designs and patent act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-911608-14-1

  Author Note

  Hello!

  Single Dad is a full-length standalone novel. It ends before 100% on your kindle file because of awesome extra content. And…as promised, the full story of Sweet Revenge in right here. It’s hot and you don’t want to miss it!

  Happy reading.

  xoxo

  Lincoln

  For the love of God, tell me something I don’t already know!” I rage, slamming my open palms down on the conference room table. The water glasses tremble almost as hard as my management team. I don’t care that I’m scaring the shit out of them. They deserve a lot fucking worse.

  “We’re going back through the logs right now.” Ryland holds up his phone.

  I see messages pouring in as the tech staff scramble to find the rat in our organization. “Yeah, too little, too late,” I mutter. That sick, sweaty feeling is starting to work its paralyzing poison into every cell in my body. In two weeks, we’re supposed to showcase our latest innovation in drone technology. Everything is ready, the press, the industry experts, the buyers, the government agencies, but my arch rival, Vince fucking Weissman stole our design and passed it off as his brainchild last night.

>   I loosen my tie. Hell, I can’t even think straight. I take a deep breath and try to calm myself. This must be how people react when they find out all their years of slaving away have come to nothing. Jesus, everything we’ve worked for in the last three years—gone.

  Millions of dollars’ worth of research—flushed down the toilet.

  My stomach twists with raw hate when I remember Weissman’s smug smile, as he passed me in the hotel lobby last night. I was dying to wipe that grin off his arrogant face, but there was not a thing I could do to him. I had to nod politely, as if I wouldn’t love to see him burn in hell, and move on.

  “I’m sure they’ll find something,” Ryland soothes.

  My head jerks up and I glare at him. “I hire the most talented people I can find, make them jump through about as many security hoops as candidates for the CIA do, get them to sign watertight contracts, and all for what?”

  “Look, as soon as we know who stole the plans—”

  “We already know who stole them,” I snarl, and pushing myself out of my chair, I start walking away. There’s a real danger I might launch myself across the table and strangle him. He’s my best friend and we go a long way back, but fuck him for being so calm and reasonable while my whole life is falling apart.

  I stare out of the window.

  The bleak, rainy skyline is depressing, but even if the day were bright and sunny and full of unicorns sliding down fucking rainbows, it wouldn’t help one bit. It’s a waking nightmare. Behind me, the silence is so perfect you can hear a pin drop.

  I turn around my eyes focusing on Laura Greenwell, the leader of my legal team. “Can we sue this fucker?”

  She wants to say yes. She really does. I can tell by the way she presses her lips together and drums her fingernails restlessly on the table. “Weissman makes my blood boil, his methods have always been as unethical as sin—”

  “Unethical? He outright stole our design!” I roar, barely able to hear myself think over the raging fury going on in my head.

  She nods. “Yes. Yes, he did. He outright stole your design, but from a strictly legal standpoint, the patent on your drone is still pending, so Weissman Technologies had just as much right as anybody else to launch a demo last night. I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you something different, but we have no grounds to take him to court.”

  Lou’s my chief of security who has been ominously quiet up to this point—probably because he is wondering if the leak occurred on his watch— speaks up for the first time, “What about an injunction?”

  Laura shakes her head regretfully. “I mean, we could.” She looks at me. “That’s your call, naturally, but it will take weeks and—”

  “—we have no way to prove that he stole it,” I finish with an ever-sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. “It’ll be our word against theirs as to who stole the plans from whom. Scandal, mudslinging. Either we stand up for ourselves and look like a bunch of crybaby thieves, or we roll over like whipped dogs and let them pick up every damned contract that is rightfully ours to score.”

  “So what do we do now, boss?” Mark, my sales manager asks.

  They’re looking at me for the answers because I am the boss, the guy who’s supposed to come up with the solutions. I turn away from them and stare unseeing out of the window. As a kid, my mother told me a story she read in the Reader’s Digest. It was about this young woman who had spent all day cooking a turkey. A man she wanted to impress was coming to dinner. They had drinks, canapes and everything was going really well. Finally, it was time for the main course, the piece de résistance, the thing the young woman had worked on all day long.

  Proudly, she carried in the perfectly done bird on a large tray. There were gasps of admiration from the assembled guests. As she crossed the threshold though, her shoe caught on the carpet. The tray jerked out of her hands. The turkey went flying across the room and landed on the floor.

  There was a shocked silence in the room.

  For a few shocked seconds nobody moved. The young woman was ready burst into tears. She couldn’t believe her luck. All her hard work slaving in the hot kitchen had come to nothing. Then the girl’s mother spoke up, “It’s okay, darling. Throw this turkey away and serve the other one you roasted.”

  I turn around and look decisively at my management team, making sure to meet each member’s eyes for emphasis. “We won’t cancel the upcoming demo. We’ll show them the other drone.”

  Ryland frowns. “What other drone?”

  “The one Sam and her team are working on.”

  His jaw drops. “What are you talking about, Lincoln? That drone is months away from ready. It’s has a major kink, remember? It can’t pass the seven minutes mark without frying up its circuits. It’ll never be ready in two weeks.”

  “Yes, it fucking will. It will, if I have to work twenty-four-seven myself,” I growl.

  “What about the rat?” Lou asks. “If we don’t pin down exactly who took the plans and handed them over to the enemy, even the design for the second drone are in danger of falling into Weissman’s hands.

  “Oh, don’t you worry. We’ll find them, and I’ll deal with them personally,” I say softly.

  “Mr. Cage?” Erica’s voice rings through the room, via the speaker on the phone in the center of the table.

  “What?” I demand, yanking the receiver from the base to keep the conversation between the two of us.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but—”

  “Which part of do not disturb me under any circumstances did you not understand?” I snap with irritation.

  “I know, sir, but…” Her voice drops to a whisper. “Your…ex-wife is here.”

  Lincoln

  She might as well have thrown a bucket of ice water over me. I freeze in place, my mind the only thing still able to move. And it’s racing. What the hell is she doing here? Is it Maddie? A shudder passes through me. Oh God, it must be Maddie. Suddenly, all the anger I felt about Weissman Technologies stealing my company’s secrets disappears and I am filled with fear. Terrible, mouth drying, bone shriveling fear.

  “Right, I’ll come there,” I say. Even my voice sounds strained and strange.

  “Umm…sorry Mr. Cage, but she went straight into your office. I couldn’t stop her. She’s in there now.”

  “That’s fine,” I say automatically.

  Ryland picks up on the change in my demeanor instantly and tries to catch my attention, but I avoid his gaze as I cross the room. This is the day from hell. God, please let it not be about Maddie. I open the door that connects the conference room to my office. My fists are clenched hard as I step through.

  Fuck me.

  The mind-numbing fear for Maddie drains from me in a rush, leaving me almost weak with relief. I close the door to give us a measure of privacy and lean back against it and survey the scene before me. My leather chair is tipped right back. Inside it is my ex-wife. There is a slight pout on her scarlet mouth, and her stiletto shod feet are resting on my desk. Against the leather and dark wood, she makes a languid, sensuous picture. For one second, a memory comes back. Those pale, smooth legs wrapped around my neck as I pound into her. Then the memory is gone, as quickly as it came, and I feel my balls shrink with revulsion.

  Shit.

  I need to get laid.

  Badly.

  Now that I know nothing is wrong with Maddie, I have no time for whatever it is she is up to. I need to get rid of her, and fast. I glance at my watch. “What’s this all about, Regina? I don’t have the time today.”

  She sniffs derisively. “There’s something new. Lincoln, not having the time.”

  I frown. “I’m serious. What do you want? And can you fucking get out of my chair?”

  Setting her feet on the ground in a smooth movement, she stands. As always, she makes a stunning picture. She is the mistress of the little black dress. Nobody wears it better than her. Still a little dressed up for lunch with the girls. Then again, it’s been a very long time since I cared enough
to keep tabs on her schedule. My eyes rove over her. I have to admit I’m impressed by the amount of money she’s wearing around her neck and ears. I’ve bought enough jewelry in my lifetime to know the good stuff when I see it. She must have found a new sucker to buy them for her.

  I sit behind the desk. The chair is still warm from her body. “Well?” I prompt, impatiently.

  She goes to stand at the other side of the desk. “I thought you should know that I’ve decided to let you spend a little time with Madison.”