Keeper of My Dreams (St. John Series Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t believe her. She was a prostitute. So I reasoned that she was trying to use the child to increase her station in life. She became upset and threatened to kill the child. I couldn’t let her do it. Whether the child was mine or not, it was not the child’s fault. So I proposed to give her funds to help with the child’s upbringing, and she agreed to not kill the baby. I supplied her with more than enough funds to sustain her and a child so she would not have to work in the brothel.”
    Robert looked at Max. “I was young and foolish. If I had any sense to me, I should have taken the child myself and raised him.”
    Jacob looked at his father and then followed his gaze. “Bloody hell. Are you telling us that Max is our brother?”
    Robert’s gaze never left Max. “Yes.”
    “Hell,” Matthew mumbled, closing his eyes and rubbing the side of his face.
    “Really?” Madison beamed, ecstatic.
    All the St. John brothers began to speak at once. Robert looked at his wife and could feel her anger. Her emerald eyes had darkened. She clenched her jaw and drew her mouth tight. Slowly standing, she walked over to him. Robert braced himself for her slap but was taken aback when she balled her hand into a fist and punched his mouth.
    The room grew quiet when Elizabeth yelled, “You no-good whoring bastard!”
    Robert dabbed the blood coming from his mouth. “I didn’t even know you then, Eliza—”
    “I do not care! You produced a child and left him to be raised in a hellhole! Why would you think I would turn away an innocent child?” Elizabeth turned to look at Max. She took a small step back as she viewed him.
    Max normally had a dangerous presence to him, but this was nothing akin to dangerous. His presence would make the devil take a cautionary step away.
    The silence was broken by Nicholas. His laughter echoed throughout the room as he patted Max on the back. All were shocked by Nicholas’s act of boldness.
    “Nicholas!” Madison scolded as she stood and faced her husband.
    “What?” Nicholas asked with a pretense of innocence. “We all knew it. Just look at him. He looks like someone pulled him out of Robert’s arse.”
    Max turned and planted his fist to Nicholas’s jaw. Nicholas stumbled backwards but caught himself before he fell.
    Nicholas spit the blood from his mouth and asked, “Want ta go a round or two?”
    Max lowered his eyes to slits as he viewed his friend. “Not now, Ale—Nicholas,” he corrected.
    “Max,” Kristina softly spoke as she looked up at her husband.
    Max looked at his wife and then at his daughter who had woken during the commotion. Sophia smiled sweetly at him and reached her arms up to him. He picked up his daughter and then looked back at Robert, but said nothing.
    “I know you hate me, Max. I don’t blame you. If I could take back what I did, I would.”
    “What?” Kristina questioned heatedly as she stood, defending her husband. “Bedding that bitch Sybil or not paying her so she would kill him?”
    Robert turned his gaze to Kristina. He could sense her need to protect her husband. “No. I should have taken him from her.”
    Madison began to take in the situation in the room. “I, for one, am glad you didn’t.”
    “Madison!” Kristina shouted as she turned to her.
    “Well, I am. Think about it. If Father had taken Max, then none of us would have met. You would not have met Max and Sophia would not be here nor would you be carrying a second child. I would not have been kidnapped. If that happened, Nicholas and I would not have met. And you and I would not have become friends. Fate has a way of taking our bad choices and making them good. You just have to choose to see the good.”
    “You sound like Smitty,” Nicholas replied as he patted Madison on the shoulder, referring to The Abyss’s gunner.
    Robert gave his daughter a caring look.
    “What do you mean you would not have been kidnapped?” Oliver asked. “That damned pirate would have been around