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Though ironically that rejection turned out to be lucky for Kate—her adoptive family are the real deal. She had a good childhood.’
‘He sounds a charmer,’ Zac observed sardonically, thinking there were a lot out there, including his own father.
‘The guy is...’ The expletive down the line drew a nod of agreement from Zac. ‘He is no longer in the picture.’
Zac approved of the cold implacability in his friend’s voice. Maybe Marco had not changed that much.
‘So you’re saying Kate wants to find her sister and you want me to locate her.’ Zac’s dark brows drew into a puzzled line above his deep-set dark eyes. Marco had resources at his command that few could match. He could only assume that the prince was outsourcing the search to avoid information leaks within the palace.
‘Contacting her or not is Kate’s call and we—or at least I—know where she is...and on paper there is nothing to suggest that she is...that she...’ He hesitated.
Zak helped the other man out. ‘Is like the father?’ The subject of tainted genes, and the circuitous nurture versus nature debate, was one he was no stranger to, having spent his formative years watching for signs of inherited weakness, for his own tainted genes surfacing, until he’d latterly found some sort of closure.
If he was a monster in waiting, the chances were he would not notice the signs and, even if he did, what would he do about it? He was what he was, his philosophical attitude stopped short of risking passing his flawed genes on to his own children.
‘The debacle with her birth father upset Kate a lot and I don’t want anything like that happening again. This pregnancy is not an easy one. I just want to double-check before I give Kate the details.’
‘So you want me to check her out...and what...?’ Realisation hit and Zac’s brow smoothed. ‘Ah, you want me to pay her off if there’s an issue?’ Zac speculated, seeing the logic of this plan. With him acting as Marco’s proxy, the other man would have deniability and clean hands if his wife found out.
‘Pay her off? No, Zac, I don’t want you to pay her off!’
Shock followed by outrage resounded down the line, which seemed a pretty irrational response to what was an obvious and expedient solution to this problem. The Marco he had known would have recognised this too. Marriage had changed his royal friend.
Did marriage change every man? Zac did not intend to personally test his theory.
‘I don’t lie to Kate.’
Except by omission, thought Zac.
‘Our relationship is based on honesty.’
The fact that Marco obviously believed what he was saying deepened the cynical grooves around Zac’s mouth. Some marriages worked, buthonest...? Even marriages that were considered successful, like that of his stepfather and his beautiful, charming second wife, had their share of half-truths and compromise.
‘I just want Kate to know what to expect this time, to be prepared, no nasty surprises. She’s going to be mad as hell with me for waiting until after the birth,’ he admitted with a laugh. ‘But her blood pressure is troubling the... You don’t want to know this, do you?’
Zac, who really didn’t, said nothing.
‘I’m prepared to take the flak if it’s about keeping Kate and the baby safe.’
‘If there were skeletons that your team didn’t—’
‘I’m not asking you to dig for dirt,’ the prince shot back, and Zac could hear the frown in his voice. ‘I’ve got dossiers but they can’t tell the whole story. The father didn’t have a record, he just conned his way through life. Some of that might have rubbed off on his child...’
Zac could see why Marco had decided that it was all about nurture—to take the opposing view that DNA was responsible would mean that his wife was tainted too.
‘My stepfather is a saint, it didn’t rub off on me, Marco.’
‘Oh, you have your moments. I know that you were the anonymous investor who bailed Liam out in the early days when he could have gone under.’
A spasm of impatience quivered across Zac’s mobile lips. ‘That was Liam and I knew he’d succeed. There was no risk or altruism involved.’
‘Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you have a heart.’
Zac didn’t hide his impatience. ‘Look, Marco, I don’t really see what I can find out, short of dating her, that—’
The lightness vanished from Marco’s voice, leaving it cold as ice as he shot back, ‘I donotwant you to date her, Zac, you’re the last man in the world that I would... That would be a game-changer for me, do you hear what I am saying?’ Marco asked, drawing a very firm verbal red line in the sand.
Zac took no offence from the tone, and saw no point defending his reputation or pointing out that he had his faults, but he was no heartbreaker. He had never dated a woman who wanted more than sex, or a partner for an event, frequently both.
