“Oh,” I said. I could see the guys and Denise’s confusion at the statement. “Can it wait?”
She shrugged. “I guess it’ll have to.”
I waited for another second to see if she would offer anything else, but when she didn’t, I looked back at Denise. “Sorry. What were you saying?”
Denise was eyeing Willow but eventually continued. “I got her name and where she lives. My brother took your wives, right? What if you played a little tit for tat? He seems crazy about her. If you took her, you could lure him out and end things for good.”
Willow shifted uncomfortably next to me, and I was surprised when even Molly and Stacy exchanged leery glances. “What?” I asked.
“Yeah, I don’t get what the issue would be,” Luca added. “It’s the least he deserves for what he did to you.”
“She’s innocent,” Stacy said. “Gabe and I had only been together a couple of weeks when the Binachis broke into my house and beat me senseless.”
“I agree,” Molly said. “We can’t drag her into it.”
“Besides,” Willow said, her eyes dead set and glaring at Denise. “It could be a trap.”
Molly rolled her eyes, and Denise frowned. “I’m sad that you still don’t trust me. Why can’t you see that we want the same thing?”
“Because—” Willow was cut off by Marco’s phone ringing. Everyone’s gaze shot over to him. He had his phone set to only allow calls from Kelly and Ricky to pass through.
He pulled out his phone, looked at the screen, and then answered it. “Hey, Ricky. Is everything okay?” He shot up off the couch. “What! Okay! I’m on my way.” He hung up the phone and looked at Alessandro, wild-eyed. “I gotta go. Kelly’s going into labor.”
She was about two weeks ahead of her due date.
Everyone else jumped up, too, and I nodded. “Go. Gabe, you take him to the airport. Luca, can you call about the jet?”
“Yeah.”
I looked back at Marco. “I’ll walk you down to the car. Tell me what I need to know on the way out.”
Everyone started to move, apart from Denise, who just clapped her hands with the same, sick smile. “Oh, how fun. I’m so excited I got to be here for such a huge family moment.”
16
Willow
Alessandro was out the door with Marco before I could pull him aside. I couldn’t believe that I’d let the booze cloud my vision and make me forget about what Mira and I had learned about Denise. I looked at her snake-like smile as everyone rushed out of the room and was filled with a sense of dread at her statement. She was happy to be there for such a huge family moment? What did that mean? I almost felt like our family was violated by her presence, and knowing that she wasn’t being truthful about who she was made it worse. There was a lot going on all of a sudden, but I had to try and pull Alessandro aside. He had to know the truth about Denise, or at least as much of the truth as I had learned.
I stared at Denise until she finally got up out of her chair and walked out, and then I grabbed Alessandro’s keys off his desk and left the office, locking it behind us. I ran down the hallway to the stairs, hearing Denise’s footsteps trailing behind me. Paranoia told me she had managed to figure out that I at least knew something was off and that she wasn’t going to give me a chance to tell Alessandro. I wanted to put space between us, so when we got to the stairs leading down, I turned off toward Alessandro’s and my suite. Denise watched me go, and I saw her calculate whether she could follow me or not. I threw her a warning glance, and she continued off down the stairs.
I used the back staircase to get down to the first floor and then walked through the kitchen and toward the front door. There was a bustle and a present murmur in the foyer as Marco rattled directions off to Alessandro and Molly about what to take up in his absence to make sure security still ran smoothly. Gabriel and Stacy were discussing travel plans. They were going to bring Marco to the airport and then come back and check in before deciding whether to drive to Maine themselves. Luca was on the phone, barking instructions at someone, presumably the staff maintaining the family’s private jet.
I ran up to Alessandro and grabbed his arm. “I need to talk to you.”
I didn’t see Denise at first, but when I looked up, I saw her making her way down the stairs. It felt like she should have beat me down, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. I needed to talk to Alessandro before she was able to get near us again.
“I need a minute, Willow. This is kind of important,” Alessandro replied.
I took note of Marco’s disgusted look that I would even try and distract Alessandro at the moment, but I ignored it. None of them knew what I knew, and if they did, they wouldn’t blame me for interfering.
“This is important,” I looked into Alessandro’s eyes. “Very important.”
“Is it something I can help with?” I looked over, and Denise was closing in on us quickly. “I’ll help in any way I can.”
Alessandro nodded at me. “Can you work with Denise? Maybe help Molly get security checks in place?”
“What? No,” I replied. “I’m not working with