Page 43 of Nanny for My Billionaire

“No, kiddo, I don’t think so,” Adam said. “If you want to see her sometimes, along with someone else there to watch over you, maybe sometime you could do that, but your mother will never be welcome in our home.”

“I should go,” Gena says, wiping at the tears that have formed in her eyes. “I have no right to be here, but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna just let some slimeball try to hurt my sons. I guess I’ll just have to go back and tell everyone on set that since the producer’s headed for jail this movie is probably a wrap.”

Adam sighs. “Gena, for what it’s worth, thanks for thinking of someone other than yourself this time. It will mean a lot to the boys once they process this.”

Vitto had gotten Kevin into the car, but now he paused long enough to say, “He wasn’t trying to kill the boys, he was just trying to get rid of Kevin because he would have prevented him from taking the kids and that was the fastest solution he could think of. Megan, you get Kevin to the hospital as fast as possible. I’m going to get on the horn with the local law enforcement and have them come collect the garbage off the side of the road.”

Chapter twenty-seven

Adam

Vitto explains everything to the cops, and then comes to the house to explain some things to me. Melissa is trying to calm the kids down with comforting bedtime stories when he arrives, and I’m not going to intrude.

When Vitto tells me he overheard an argument between Gena and Mario, I’m not overly interested in it until he tells me what it was about. Now, of course, I realize just how serious the whole thing was.

I suppose hindsight really is twenty-twenty.

Apparently, around the time Gena returned, asking for the boys, she had just broken up with her Italian stallion. She told him she was pissed off that even after she’d given up her boys, he’d still only given her a bit part in the movie they were currently working on.

“Mario Apollo has been on our radar as a suspect in the murder of an actress in New York. She didn’t bend to his will either, apparently. We’ve just been waiting for him to show his cards so we’d have some damning enough evidence. My assignment over the past couple months has been to monitor Mario’s activities and maintain a report,” Vitto explains. “Except when I overheard him plotting to hurt your sons if Gena didn’t agree to get back together with him, there was no way I could stand idly by and just let that happen.”

“So, this whole time you’ve been hanging around waiting for him to do something crazy like this? Why are you only telling me this now?”

“I didn’t know until just before we took off to see the lights. I overheard another argument between those two. He told her he was going to grab the kids tonight. He sounded really pissed. I was worried he might just decide to really do something.”

“So you knew that bastard really was about to try something, and you used my kids as bait? He might have somebody in the wings who will still take the boys,” I tell him angrily, but he shakes his head.

“No, your boys were never in danger,” he disagrees. “Kevin may be out of the picture right now, but you’ve got me, remember? I’ve really come to care about Megan, and that means you’re important to me too. I don’t want to see anything happen to those two boys any more than you do. We knew he wasn’t going to shoot the kids—they were too important in his plan to keep Gena. We need to stay calm and keep this just between us, right?”

We’ve kept our voices low enough not to upset the kids any further. I know that by now they’re out of shock and realizing that what happened to us tonight was a whole lot more like real life than any video game or TV show.

None of us expected Mario to show up, and we sure as hell didn’t expect him to show up with a gun. And now? Now Kevin is in the hospital as a result.

As much as I want to stay home with my boys and Miss, I need to go the hospital to make sure my best friend’s brother is going to survive this ordeal. Melissa comes out to let me know the boys are asleep, and I tell her where I’m going..

“I’m sure they’ll probably have to do surgery on Kevin,” Miss points out. “There’s no way you’re going to find him awake now. You could probably wait a few hours before you go.”

I shake my head at her. “No way. Sara and Megan are there dealing with this by themselves. Even if Kevin isn’t awake, they could sure use some moral support. I might even ask them to head back here to offer some comfort to you. I’m sure the boys are going to have nightmares, even if they don’t realize what all of this means. Just stay here with them and don’t worry about me, okay?”

She nods. “I can do that. But you better call me as soon as you find out what’s happening. God, I sure hope he’s going to pull through. I’ve never seen anyone get shot before, least of all someone I know.”

“Of course, you haven’t,” I scoff lightly. “You’re a business major and a nanny. Not exactly jobs that would take you into that sort of experience, I would hope.”

She chuckles and kisses me. “Fine. I’ll see you when I see you.”

“Make sure all the doors and windows are locked. I’ll set the alarm on my way out. I’m going to call Margie to come and stay with you.” I don’t want to leave her here alone, for even a minute, but Margie agrees to come by in about ten minutes and let me know when she’s arrived at the house.

When I get to the hospital, I find Sara and Megan waiting in the emergency area. So far, the only thing that they’ve been told is that the bullet did not appear to have exited Kevin’s body, and he is being prepped for exploratory surgery to see if they can locate it.

“Well, that can’t be good,” I say, frowning. “I suppose I better give Elliot a call and let him know what went down.”

Sara frowns. “Maybe it’d be better to wait until we know more about his brother’s condition first. As in, if they can even locate the bullet and how likely it is they’ll be able to extract it. I think he’d be a lot less upset if he knew at least that much up front.”

“He might, but if Kevin were to die while they were trying to get that bullet out, I’d feel pretty bad about not telling Elliot beforehand. If you were lying on an operating table like that, I’d sure as hell want to know about it.”

Sara nodded. “Yeah, okay. I get it. I’d feel the same way about you, even if you are a pain in the butt sometimes.”

“Gee, thanks,” I grumble as I press the button on my phone that will place a direct call to Elliot Ross. Since he’d see from the caller-id that it’s me, I’m not overly surprised when he picks it up on the first ring.

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