‘I’m glad for her sake that she’s turned her life around but I still don’t want her anywhere near my son,’ Gio growled without apology. ‘How do you know she’s not still turning tricks at the bar where she works at night?’
‘Because I know her and how much she values what she has now!’ Billie slammed back furiously.
‘I want my son out of this house right now,’ Gio admitted. ‘I want the two of you to move into my hotel with me until we get this situation sorted out.’
Wildly disconcerted by that demand, Billie stared back at him. ‘No,’ she said straight away.
‘Say no and take the consequences,’ Gio drawled softly, chillingly.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘That I will use whatever I have against you to make the case for gaining custody of my son,’ Gio advanced with measured force. ‘I will go to social services with my concerns and they are bound by law to investigate.’
‘I don’t believe I’m hearing this!’ Billie exclaimed jerkily, appalled by what he was telling her and cringing at the prospect of Dee being investigated once again by suspicious hypercritical officials, who would disinter the past that Dee had worked so hard to leave behind her. ‘You’re threatening me and my cousin!’
‘If it is in my son’s best interests, there’s nothing I won’t do for his benefit,’ Gio intoned harshly. ‘He is my primary concern here. I don’t care what it takes or who else it hurts but I will always do my absolute best for him by whatever means possible.’
‘How can you feel like that about a son you haven’t even met yet?’ Billie demanded shakily.
‘Because he has my blood in his veins. He is mine, he is a Letsos and I must fight his battles for him because it is my duty to do that while he is still too young to have a voice.’ Gio glanced down at the wafer-thin gold watch barely visible below his immaculate white shirt cuff. ‘You have fifteen minutes to pack.’
‘Leaving here is absolutely out of the question.’
‘No, it is your one chance to escape the penalty for defying me. If I leave this house without my son today, I will fight to win custody and I will use whatever means are at my disposal,’ Gio warned her with chilling bite.
Her eyes rounding, Billie’s upper lip parted company from her lower. ‘You’re not being reasonable!’
‘Why would I be? You’ve stolen the first fifteen months of my son’s life from me,’ Gio pronounced with lethal cool. ‘How can you be surprised that I refuse to allow you to steal one day more?’
In receipt of that caveat, Billie could feel the blood draining slowly from below her skin, shock smacking through her in a dizzy wave. He was angry, he was bitter, but he couldn’t possibly be thinking through what he was doing. ‘Are you crazy? Theo needs both of us,’ she told him tightly.
His lean, strong face clenched hard. ‘Of course he does...in a perfect world. And this, I need hardly remind you, is not a perfect world.’
‘Where are you planning to make time for a baby in your schedule?’ Billie demanded with scorn. ‘You won’t. You don’t really want him. You’re behaving as if Theo is some kind of a trophy.’
‘Pack,’ Gio urged, one long brown forefinger tapping his watch face. ‘You need only bring what you need for twenty-four hours. Naturally I will cover any necessities you need.’
Frozen to the spot, Billie stared at him, unwilling to believe that he could threaten everything she held dear in her life on the strength of what could only be a whim. ‘Gio—’
‘Not one word,’ Gio cut in fiercely. ‘I want my son. You’ve had all the time with him that you ever wanted. It’s my turn now and I’m taking it.’
Billie reached a sudden decision. She would go to the hotel and allow Gio the time and space to get acquainted with Theo. Surely that major concession would cool his temper and calm him down? Sadly, she couldn’t feel sure of the outcome. Gio’s anger was shockingly new to her and she could still feel that anger sizzling from him in invisible sparks that could ignite into an explosion. Right now, opposition would probably only make him angrier and given a few hours’ respite he would surely cool off and develop a more practical outlook, she reasoned frantically.
Billie withdrew a case from the hall cupboard and carried it up to her room. She packed the basics for herself and her son and then went downstairs to throw Theo’s feeding essentials into a holdall. In the kitchen she scribbled a note to Dee, telling her where she had gone and that she would phone.