Treasured by Thursday

Sam placed both hands in the air. “I hate gossip.”

“Well you can’t stop now.” Meg sat forward, watched for any telling signs on Sam’s face.

“Apparently her late husband set up two very large accounts in the name of Mrs. Gabriella Picano. One was actively being used, the other mildly dormant. I’m not sure how she found out about them, but she changed the passwords and locked out whoever was using them. According to Neil, Hunter thinks she’s painted a target on her back. And before you ask, no, there hasn’t been a threat.”

“Why would Alonzo do that?”

“Who knows? Maybe he thought if there was big money in her name, she was a part of the smuggling . . . keep her silent if he’d survived.”

“So who is behind the money going in and out?”

“No idea. Neil told us that Hunter has investigators on it.”

New worry for her sister-in-law surfaced. “If it’s drug money, she could be set up, end up in jail.”

“Someone would have to know about it and want to hold that over her.”

“Blackmail.”

The two of them were lost in their own thoughts for a minute . . . then caught each other’s eyes through the monitor.

“Blackmail her into let’s say . . . marriage?”

“You don’t think—” Sam cut her own words off. “Oh, no.”

Meg hated where her thoughts went. “It makes sense. Damn it. I really want to like the man.”

Sam was twisting her hair now. “But why? What was the big friggin’ hurry for Hunter to marry? Why would he blackmail a stranger into marriage in the first place?”

“The baby. Which is the most unselfish thing I’ve heard of.”

It was Sam’s turn to stare. “Baby? What baby?”

Shit, the cat was out of the crib and crawling up the walls now.

Shopping . . . nothing like a little retail therapy to pass the time. Gabi walked through the department store, felt the eyes of Solomon on her back. He kept his distance but was always close by. She probably wouldn’t notice if she were shopping with a friend, but Gwen was watching over her sick toddler and Judy was at work. Bugging Sam wasn’t an option.

She’d always found her brother difficult to buy for, but with a baby on the way, the daddy door was open and filling her head with ideas for Christmas gifts.

Unable to stop herself, Gabi wandered into the baby department and found a tiny pair of socks and a plush rattle for her unborn niece or nephew. Her gaze traveled to a pair of denim overalls. She turned away. Clothes shopping for Hayden would have to wait. A teddy bear, however, was in order.

She shifted the bags in her hands as she exited the store in search of a tie with baby bottles or some such nonsense on it.

Gabi glanced over her shoulder, saw Solomon close by. When she turned around, she stopped short.

Dark eyes bored into her as the woman slowly approached. Sheila Watson was much more beautiful in person than in her pictures. A little shorter than Gabi, more curves, but nothing remotely close to overweight.

The other woman let her eyes draw a slow line up and down Gabi’s frame. Instead of shying away, she held her ground and waited to see what the other woman was going to do.

Gabi skirted her eyes around Sheila and landed on the chubby cheeks and sleeping frame tucked into a stroller. Gabi’s breath caught in her throat, and her hands ached to touch Hunter’s nephew. Sheila’s words snapped Gabi’s attention back to the woman. “You know who I am?”

Gabi kept silent and waited.

“He promised to marry me, you know.”

“Is that right?”

Sheila lifted her chin, or maybe it was her nose. “He’ll use you, like he did me . . . then throw you away.”

That was the original plan.

“My question is . . . are you as cold as he is?”

Gabi attempted to keep all emotion from her face and forced her eyes from returning to the baby.

Sheila’s jaw tightened. “He owes me. He owes our son.” The anger in Sheila’s eyes dimmed quicker than a light switch. “If you have one decent bone in your body, you’ll convince him to take care of his son.”

A thousand different retorts died on Gabi’s lips. She bit her lip. Anything she said could tip the woman off to Hunter’s intentions.

Gabi noted Sheila’s hand gripping the strap of her purse, the baby at her side all but forgotten as the other woman stepped toward her. Shoppers funneled around them, annoyed with their stationary presence in the middle of the mall.

Sheila’s hard stare returned and she inched away from Hayden, moved closer to Gabi.

Too close.

“You look like the perfect cold bitch to his bastard.”

There it was . . . the unstable part that Hunter talked about.

Gabi pivoted but didn’t turn her back on the other woman. “If you’ll excuse me.”

The welcome voice of Solomon interrupted them. “Mrs. Blackwell?”

Sheila placed a smile on her face that hadn’t been there before. “Already have a toy?”

Gabi moved to Solomon’s side. “I’m ready to leave.”

He placed himself between the two women and nudged her toward the door.

“We’re not done,” Sheila called after her.

Gabi didn’t respond but felt the woman’s anger as they walked away.

“Who was that?” Solomon asked as they walked into the parking lot.

“Someone who can’t be trusted. If she approaches me again, please step in.”

He ran his hands through his hair, looked behind them, and walked faster.