Hurt shimmers in her eyes, quickly replaced with anger. “That sounds like Saskia. I can’t imagine her husband being too pleased though. You should tread carefully.”
I bark out a laugh, tapping my fingers on the table. “Felix Barretta doesn’t scare me.”
Shock splays across her face. “You know Saskia’s husband?”
“I looked him up.”
A scowl trips over her pretty face, and I decide to go on a fishing expedition to see what, if anything, Sierra knows.
“What’s he like? What line of business is he in?”
“I don’t know him very well. I’m not close to Saskia, and I don’t spend much time with her or her husband. He travels a lot for work. He’s some kind of business adviser.”
I detect no trace of a lie on her face, which is interesting. I press on. “What about Serena and her husband? Are you close with them?”
A thunderous look washes over her face, and I stiffen. If Gifoli has done anything to Sierra, I will gut him without blinking.
“I’m close to Serena,” she says, smothering her furious expression. “Rowan is only a year older than her son, Romeo, and they are the best of friends. She also has an eight-year-old daughter, Elisa.”
“Why the murderous look?” I ask, draining the last of my coffee.
“It’s nothing.” Getting up, she grabs my mug to refill it. “I’m not close to Alfred. He’s one of my father’s best friends, and to this day, I have no clue why Serena married him. She’s miserable as sin, and he’s a lousy husband. He—” She cuts herself off, handing a full mug of coffee to me.
“He what?” I lift a brow as I blow on the steam rising from my cup.
“He’s away a lot on business too.” She averts her eyes as she plops back in her chair. That wasn’t what she was going to say before she stopped herself. “And before you ask, he’s into importing and exporting.”
I almost spit my coffee out. Is that what we’re calling it these days?
Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, she tilts her head to the side. “Why are you so interested in my sisters’ husbands anyway?”
She seems clueless, and I want to keep it like that, so I reply in a way I know will set her off. I pin her with another smirk. “I’d think it was obvious why I was inquiring about Saskia’s husband.”
21
SIERRA
My blood boils, and I know I shouldn’t say it, but it’s like my mouth is no longer connected to my brain. “Did you fuck her already, or are you waiting for the next time her husband goes out of town?”
I want to wipe the smug smile off his face as he stares at me while drumming his fingers on the table. I shouldn’t care whether he fucks my sister or not. Ben is nothing to me but a sperm donor, and if I have any say, that’s the way it will stay. I haven’t changed my mind. I don’t want him near Rowan.
Maybe Saskia lusting after him could work to my advantage. Maybe he’ll get distracted by her and forget he has a son. “As a kid, I couldn’t understand how you two were together, but I see it now. You two are a match made in heaven. Both narcissistic and cruel. You should get with her before she finds another fuck buddy.”
There was a rumor floating around town last year that Saskia was cheating on Felix, and I didn’t doubt it for a second. The only person Saskia is loyal to is our father. The rest of us are like chump change.
Folding my arms, I glare at him as he sits silently and arrogantly across the table. He’s not reacting to my statement, so I don’t know if I hit my mark. The longer he stares nonchalantly at me, the madder I get. If I had a gun, I wouldn’t hesitate to plant a bullet between his smug brows in this moment.
After what seems like an eternity, he clears his throat and straightens up in his chair. The arrogance slides behind a neutral mask. “I came here to talk about my son, not your sister.”
Spoken like a true politician. But I’m done with talk of my sister too. I just want to get this over and done with so I can get him out of my house. “What do you want, Ben? Because us relocating to New York is off the table.”
“I agree it would be unsettling to move Rowan, so I’ll let you stay here for now—on a few conditions.”
“You’llletme?” I hiss. “How big of you.” I barely resist the urge to flip him the bird.
Ignoring me, he continues as if I haven’t spoken, and I grip the edge of my seat, grinding my teeth down to the molars. “One, Alessandro and Frank go with you everywhere, and I meaneverywhere.”
“Who is Frank?”
