Page 31 of Nanny for My Billionaire

“What do you mean?” I ask, glancing over at Melissa. She hasn’t noticed our friend yet because she’s busy watching the red light, waiting for it to turn. I don’t point him out.

“It’s a long story, sir, but I think your ex-wife may not be who you think she is. Well, to be more precise, it’s either your ex-wife who has been lying, or it is the mother of the other set of twins in the same class. The big trouble is, we’ve traced the boys to this town based on the information we were given, but we haven’t determined which of these sets of twins is truly in danger.”

“Explain,” I growl, turning toward the passenger window so the others won’t overhear. The last thing I want to do is disturb Melissa while she’s behind the wheel.

“My sources say that the mother pissed off the wrong guy, and it’s possible that there’s either a hit out on her boys to teach her a lesson, or else there’s a man, Mario Apollo, who wants them taken into captivity just to keep her in line. As an outsider to the situation, there’s not much more I can tell you at this time.”

“That’s not possible,” I scoff. “Gena’s just a lousy actress, she’s never been involved with anything illegal. Is that Mario guy part of the Mafia or something?” I’m thinking this is really a crock of shit.

“I’m not at liberty to say anything else,” he says briskly. “I’m just trying to warn you that leaving your kids at the school until whoever this guy is makes a move on one set of twins or the other is pretty risky. I don’t know what his intentions are, but sooner or later the guy is going to strike. I’m hoping that it’s just a kidnapping, and not a homicide that he’s planning. Otherwise, I won’t be able to shield whichever of the boys he approaches. If I were you, I would remove my sons from the equation. Until I know his intentions, there’s nothing I’ll be able to do to help.”

“Why should you want to help?” I ask, more uncertain than ever, and thinking the police station needs to be my next stop.

He smiles. “It’s my job,” he says, and then their car turns off just as our light changes. If Vitto doesn’t want Melissa to know what’s really going on, he must have his reasons for it.

I don’t know what to believe, but one thing I do know for sure, this guy Mario has the same name as the guy that Gena took off with nearly eight months ago. She hadn’t brought him with her when she showed up the other day either, so maybe there was some truth to her having pissed him off, at the very least.

Now I’m beginning to think maybe she dropped the boys off not because she didn’t care, but because she was hoping that they’d be safe. That maybe she knew she needed to stash them so they couldn’t be used by this Mario to keep her in line. But if that was true, it was pretty stupid to bring the guy along with her at the time.

Does the notion that she might have been trying to keep them safe make me feel any better about what she’d done to them? Hell, no. If anything, I feel a whole lot worse. What sort of danger has this stupid, egotistical woman put my children in, and when exactly did she do it? I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find out that she’d dumped me after she’d found Mario. The one thing I refused to face, though, was the idea that another man had fathered the children I claimed.

Was this all some scheme on Gena’s part to trick me into giving the boys back to her? I mean, if she could convince me that I never fathered them, she probably thought it meant I’d willingly give them back, but she was dead wrong. The truth is, I love my boys. I’d never be willing to put them in danger, even if I didn’t father them myself. I am still the man listed on their birth certificates. She is never going to make me let go of them.

Then again, what if this detective guy is telling the truth, and my sons are actually in some kind of danger? Should I really deliver them to the school and give the assassins a target? Or kidnappers easy access? What am I supposed to do about this?

“Why can’t I just have a normal life for one straight month?” I grumble.

“Hm?” Melissa answers. “Who was on the phone?”

“That crazy detective guy, if that’s even what he is,” I say. “I sure hope this guy isn’t somehow working with Gena. Whoever he is, he at least knows she left here with a guy named Mario all those months ago, and he just told me the boys are in danger. But I’m not sure if it’s from whoever he’s after, or if this guy is trying to do something to them himself.”

“My dad told me a long time ago that trying to second-guess a bully never works out,” she says. “I say we just drop them off as usual, and let the security guards do their job until later.”

“Yeah? You’re not worried that something will happen after school again? Things could have gone a whole lot differently when this guy followed you and the boys yesterday. I’m just glad you played it smart and went to the diner.”

She shrugs. “I’m going to call my uncle and tell him what’s been going on,” she says. “And if Gena is involved somehow, then maybe we can actually find some proof that will assure that she will never be able to hurt those boys again.”

“Maybe I’m a lot less trusting than you,” I say. “I thought I would give my friend on the police force a call and see if she could check this guy out. If there’s really a detective named Vitto Benzo, those guys should be able to look him up, right?”

“That’s true, but listen, I don’t want to have to disrupt the schedule for the boys after we’ve got them so excited to be starting school. If we make school seem negative for them this early in the game, we may never get them back to being excited about it again.”

“I don’t know. I’m just not sure this can be all about the boys this time,” I tell her. “Not if what I was just told is true. We might be better off to keep the kids home for a while until we can figure out what’s really going on.”

She sighs, but then she nods. “Great, but you know I’ve got to go to the doctor this afternoon. If you’re that worried about their safety, I don’t think you should leave them with Sara all alone. She may put up a tough front, but if anyone built like that Vitto guy showed up to take the kids, there’s not a lot she’d be able to do about it. You might as well tell her to stay safely at home.”

I sigh. “I’m sorry, babe. Hopefully this will be taken care of in short order. But I just feel like there’s more going on here than we know. I know you wanted me to be there with you, but you’re right. We don’t want to put Sara in danger either. I just really think we should take the boys back home.”

“Fine, but you’re the one who gets to tell the kids we’re turning the car around.”

Chapter twenty

Melissa

Iknowit’sabit selfish to feel melancholy about going to my baby’s first appointment without its daddy, but I still do. The doctor has them do a special, early pregnancy exam where they use an internal wand to get pictures. I’m so excited to see the tiny little white flashes that the exam tech tells me are a heartbeat. It somehow makes the whole thing feel real in a way just being told you’re pregnant never could.

And thanks to some weirdo chasing me and the boys around, Adam doesn’t even get to see it. I have half a mind to call Vitto myself and demand to know what he said to my fiancé that has him so spooked, but I know the guy won’t tell me anyway.

How much of what he’d said when we spoke was true? How much more had he told Adam, to make him want to keep the boys at home? Adam said he would explain the entire conversation later, after I’d gotten home, because I needed to be aware of the situation so I’d be better able to deal with anything that might come up.

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