Chapter Fifteen

~ Gianni ~

"There are no clues as to the identity of this person, Gianni," Janos stated. "I've had the letters and envelopes dusted for fingerprints and none of them are suspect. We even figured out that the letter was made on a printer, but we don't have a printer to match it to. We have nothing to follow up on."

"What are you going to do?"

Janos rubbed his hands over his face for a moment before dropping them and letting them dangle between his legs. "I honestly don't know."

"You know this isn't me, right?" He had answered that question before, but I had to be sure. "I would never threaten the life of the baby."

Janos gave me a wan smile as he patted my leg. "I know it's not you, Gianni. You would never harm our baby, even if you never learned that I was the father."

He was the father.

That might be taking longer to sink in than someone threatening the baby. "You're really the father?" I asked just to be sure I'd heard him right.

"That's what the test results stated. The lab sent them directly to my phone since I put a rush on them. The official documents should be here in a couple of days."

My eyes narrowed for a moment. "Who has access to your penthouse?"

"Me and Vasso." Janos frowned. "Why?"

"Do you trust him?"

"Besides you, my grandmother, and my sister, he's probably the only other person on the planet that I completely trust."

Something in the center of my chest warmed. "You trust me?"

"Yes, of course I do. I wouldn't want to marry you if I didn't."

I wrapped both hands around Janos's arm and leaned my head on his shoulder. "Thank you."

"Don't break that trust, Gianni," Janos warned. "Once it's gone, it's gone for good."

I got it. My family was the same way.

"I won't," I promised in a solemn tone. I lifted my head so I could see his face clearly. "Although, I do have to warn you that my family has pretty tough pre-nuptial agreement that you'll have to sign."

Janos lifted one dark eyebrow. "Does that mean you'll marry me?"

"Let's just say you're in the running." Luckily for him, it was a one man race. "Is there any way you can stop the lab from sending the official papers or maybe send them here instead of your office?"

"I can, but why would I do that?"

I was still trying to piece my thoughts together myself so it was going to be hard to explain it to Janos. Someone close was acting behind the scenes. I could feel it.

"Whoever is doing this knows too much about your personal life. I feel like they are close to you or getting information from someone close to you. I mean, I doubt you've talked to a lot of people about sleeping with a stranger in a hotel room and getting them pregnant. There's certainly nothing about it on the news or even the gossip magazines. That tells me that whoever is behind this wants it kept quiet."

"So, maybe we need to not keep quiet."

I frowned at Janos, not quite understanding what he was getting at. "What do you mean?"

"Marry me and we can announce it to the world that we're expecting a baby," Janos stated calmly as if he hadn't just pulled the rug out from under my feet. "If we get married and prove that the baby you are carrying is mine, then this person has no ammunition against us."

"We still need to know who they are, Janos." How was he not getting that? "This person is trying to blackmail you for ten million dollars. If they can't do it this way, they'll figure out another way."

They wouldn't stop until they were behind bars or dead.

"Don't worry, I have people looking into this."

I knew Janos was trying to reassure me, but I was not reassured. If anything, his casual reply made me think he wasn't taking this seriously at all. "And how do you know the people looking into this aren't behind it."

"Technically, I don't, but—"

I snorted as I dug my phone out of my pocket and dialed the one person I knew could help me find whoever was doing this. " Nonna , I need your help."

"Of course, Niptino. What do you need?"

"The father of my baby is in a little trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Nonna asked.

"Someone is sending him threatening letters pretending to be pregnant with his kid and threatening to have an abortion if he doesn't give them ten million dollars. Janos has people investigating it, but I'm worried these people might be involved. I need to know if you can help. We need to find this person before they do something drastic."

"Of course, Gianni. Send me all the information you have and I'll make some calls. I'm sure we can find this person."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew she could help. Nonna had contacts in some very interesting places. "Thank you, Nonna ."

"Are you ready to talk about him now?"

I glanced at Janos. "Um, well, his name is Janos Kostas and he's a real estate developer. He's worked with the family business a few times, so Frank and Martino know who he is."

"And is he going to take responsibility?"

Even if she couldn't see it, I felt my cheeks flushing. Leave it to my grandmother to ask the embarrassing questions.

"He says he wants to marry me so we can be a family and raise our baby together." Janos nodded vigorously when I said that. "We actually started dating before we knew he was the biological father."

"Before?"

"We liked each other, but I was hesitant to start dating because I was pregnant and didn't know who the father was."

"You didn't know who the father was?"

I groaned, knowing I shouldn't have mentioned that part. It just kind of slipped out. "Long story. I'll explain that part later." I really didn't want to, but I doubted I'd get away with not explaining this whole sordid tale.

"All right."

"Sufficient to say, we had this paternity test done and found out that Janos is the father of my baby, but we had already started dating before the results came back." I smiled as I glanced at him. "He said he didn't care if it was someone else's baby. He still wanted to be a part of my life."

There had been a lot more to our conversation than that, but that was for him and me. I didn't need to share all the details with my grandmother.

"Now," I continued, "someone is threatening him and saying they will abort his baby if he doesn't pay them ten million dollars, except I'm pregnant with his baby. You can see why I'm worried, right?"

"Send me what you have so far," Nonna said again. "I'll make some calls."

"Thank you, Nonna ."

"Your parents are going to want to meet him."

"I already told him about the pre-nup, but I suspect he'll have one for me to sign as well." He might actually have more money than my parents.

Wouldn't that be a switch?

"I'll call you as soon as I hear anything, Nipotino ."

"You're the best, Nonna ," I said. "I knew I could count on you."

"Always, my dear boy." My grandmother let out a little laugh. "Don't forget to bring your young man home so I can meet him."

"Maybe this weekend, Nonna ."

"I'll let Mrs. Rovito know so that she can plan dinner."

"Goodbye, Nonna ." I hung up and then glanced at Janos again. "How do you feel about going back to the old house and meeting all the family this weekend?"

"Can I put an engagement ring on your finger first?"

I swallowed tightly and then nodded. "You can."

Janos beamed at me before jumping to his feet and then pulling me up. When he started dragging me toward the front door, I dug my feet in. "Where are you taking me?"

"To buy an engagement ring."

Oh.

I snickered as I allowed Janos to pull me from his penthouse into the elevator. I didn't mind getting engagement rings now, but I wasn't sure I wanted to get married right away. We still needed time to get to know each other better.

"How about we plan a wedding for after the baby is born?" I suggested. "Maybe a summer wedding outdoors somewhere?"

Janos shot me a quick look. "You want to wait until the baby is born?"

"I think we need time to get to know each other a little bit better."

Sounded reasonable to me.

Janos's brow furrowed. "If that's what you want."

"It doesn't sound like that is what you want."

"Honestly, I'd marry you right now if there wasn't a three day waiting period, but I also don't want to rush you into anything you're not comfortable with. I'm willing to wait until you're ready to get married."

"You don't think we should wait?"

Janos's arm wrapped around my waist as the elevator doors opened. "I think we are going to be together for a very long time, whether it's dating engaged, or married. Just because we put a label on it doesn't mean we won't spend the next fifty years getting to know each other."

That made a weird sort of sense to me.

"So, you're saying, if we got married right now it would be no different than if we were just dating or engaged because we'd still need to get to know each other?"

"Basically, yes," Janos replied. "There are differences, of course. If we got married before the baby arrives, then there's no issue with custody or my right to be in the delivery room with you. The three of us would also have the same last name, assuming you want to take my name."

That's one I'd have to think about.

"I wouldn't mind getting married before the baby was born I suppose," I said, "but I don't want a big wedding. Just our family and a few close friends. Nothing fancy."

"I'd still want to put a notice in the social pages just so people were aware we are off the market and stop trying to date us."

I let out a light chuckle. "I'd agree to that."

I hated how many people tried to hook up with me once they found out who my family was. They didn't really care about me. They just wanted the money.

My eyes narrowed. "You haven't had anyone coming onto you lately, have you?"

Janos shook my head. "Nothing note-worthy."

That wasn't a no.

"Get in the car," I growled. "We need to get those rings."

I suddenly understood Janos's desire to let the world know we were off the market. If I caught anyone coming on to him, I'd punch their lights out. Janos Kostas was mine.

Maybe an early wedding wasn't a bad idea.