She threw her head further back to encounter Bryce’s angry glare. Even though he’d managed to push her within a hair’s breadth of striking him, she knew what drove him. He was fighting for three little kids who weren’t even related to him when her own parents had walked away without a backward glance. For that, she admired him, and for the children’s sake she would try to get along with him.
In spite of that, she had to let him know that she didn’t scare easily. Her years in foster homes where she had to fight for what was hers, then fight some more to hold on to it, had instilled a warrior’s spirit in her. She wasn’t backing down. Not for him. Not for anyone.
“Mr. Fontaine, I’m sorry we had to meet under such tragic circumstances. I can see that you care about your godchildren and want what’s best for them. But, I’m their family, and good or bad, rich or poor, family is the most important thing to a child. I wouldn’t get in the way of your relationship with them. You can visit them whenever you want. But get this, I’m not signing them over to you, or anyone else. Ever.”
Bryce could barely contain his fury as he watched her sashay across the floor, pull a leather jacket from the coat rack, and snatch up a handbag from a corner table.
The second Steven closed the door behind her, Bryce exploded. “The nerve of that woman! Who does she think she is?”
“Their aunt and legal guardian.” Steven ran his fingers through his hair, a helpless, skeptical twist to his lips.
“You are my friend. You should have told me what Michael and Lauren had done.”
“Bryce, you know I couldn’t do that. They were my friends too, but they were also my clients. I owed them certain fiduciary rights. Loyalty and confidentiality—”
“You dare talk to me about loyalty, Steven? Where was their loyalty to me and to their defenseless children?” Bryce shook his fists in the air and began to pace the floor. “She’s taking them to Florida. Michael and Lauren would not want their children living anywhere but in Granite Falls. This is their home.”
“I pointed that out to Kaya. I don’t know if it did any good.” Steven sighed. “If I’d seen this coming, I would have instructed them to include some kind of condition on her guardianship. It’s beyond my power. Kaya has custody, clear and free.”
Bryce came to a halt in front of Steven. “It may be beyond your power, but it isn’t beyond mine. I’m not going to stand by and let that woman take those kids from their home, from people they’ve known all their lives. People they know and trust. People who love them.”
“Bryce, I don’t want you going off—”
He cut Steven off with a flip of his wrist. “I don’t care what I have to do, or whose neck I have to step on to keep those kids in Granite Falls. I will not lose them, Steven. I will not lose them!”
CHAPTER TWO
Kaya pulled her rental into the four-car garage at L’etoile du Nord. She slammed her palms against the steering wheel, releasing the anger and frustration that had been stewing inside her since she left Steven’s office.
She never thought it possible that anyone could awaken that raging little girl she’d buried years ago, but Bryce Fontaine had done it. Kudos to him.
She’d been looking forward to his return, mainly for Jason’s sake. Now she wished she’d never laid eyes on the man. He was the most arrogant, overbearing, egotistic male she’d ever met.
Dangerous, too, since he had enough money and power to break her. He could keep her tied up in a custody battle for the next hundred years if he wanted. And from the imminent rage in his black eyes and thunderous voice, Kaya had no doubt that was exactly what he intended to do. He would fight to keep the kids in his life because he loved them.
He shared a mutual love and trust with his godchildren—the kind of love and trust that would take her months, if not years to build. Especially when it came to Jason who’d made it clear that he did not like her.