“I’m going to like you so much better now that you’re not working,” Nicole sighed happily. “That damn phone won’t be glued to your hand. No more lawyer emergencies to send you into a frenzy.”
I stilled. “You know?”
Nicole winced. She cast a look to where her husband cuddled Bianco in his arms. “I know—everything.”
While I’d left it up to Cristiano whether he wanted to tell his wife, now that she knew, I wanted to wring my brother-in-law’s neck. “What were you thinking?”
Nicole smacked me upside the head. “What wereyouthinking!” she wailed. “Planning to marry some dictator to save me without telling me? That stunt with Steven was bad enough, but this?”
I grimaced and rubbed the back of my head. “Ouch.”
Nicole crossed her arms. It pushed her incredibly large breasts up and accentuated her belly.
When did my sister get such nice tits?I stared at her.
“What?” she demanded.
“You’re pregnant.”
Nicole gaped at me. “Duh! You’ve known for months.”
But it was just now sinking in. “I can’t let Dad’s fuck up hurt you. If that means paying his debt, so be it.”
Cristiano interrupted us. “Did you ever stop to think there might be another way?”
“Yes!” I snapped, while at the same time, Nicole drawled, “Of course she did!”
We looked at each other. Tried to fight back smiles. And ended up laughing.
Grigio wove between Nicole’s legs, meowing softly. Squatting, because she couldn’t bend, Nicole picked him up.
“It’s a good thing I have such strong legs,” she muttered, hefting herself back upright.
Grigio rubbed his head against her boobs.
“You look incredible,” I beamed.
“And you look sickly,” she deadpanned. “You’ve been working too much.”
I shrugged. “None of that matters right now. Keeping you both safe—” I placed my hands on her belly “—is what’s important.”
Nicole closed her hand over mine. “Come on, we’re going for lunch.”
I shot a look at the clock. “That’s not a good idea. In fact…,” I rounded on my brother-in-law. “She shouldn’t be here!”
Cristiano’s glare could have turned a lesser woman into a pillar of salt. “She’s with me. She’s safe.”
I shook my head. “There was an assassination attempt.”
As I said the words out loud, I paused to wonder. I didn’t remember who the people in the car were shooting at. Why hadn’t they hit us? We were right there, in the open, right? Would Vincenzo go so far as to lie to me? I tried and failed to recall exactly how he’d phrased it. Words were tricky. Keep them vague enough, and the listener could create their own meaning from them.
“My brother will always protect you.” Cristiano’s statement eased the knot of worry forming in my chest. “But you’re in Morelli turf. No one would dare interfere with our lunch.”
I frowned.
“Oh, come on,” Nicole insisted. “Mama Ana’s is just a few blocks away.”
That seemed as logical an argument as any.
