Free A Billionaire for Christmas by Maggie Marr

been such a gradual change that I don’t think I really noticed how different he’d become until this summer. When he acted the way he did about Aubrey and Max.” Nonna sighed. “Justin must really love his little brother, because if anyone else had done such a thing”—Nonna closed her eyes and shook her head—“I don’t know that he would have survived, much less have remained part of the family business.”
    “He seems so cold. So angry. He’s…he’s not like I remember.”
    “He’s not the man you remember,” Nonna said. She clasped Shelly’s arm. “The only thing constant in life is change. We all change, and yet, he’s still Anthony and you’re still my Shelly. But you aren’t the same person you were even six months ago, are you?”
    Heat flooded Shelly’s face. She and Nonna didn’t speak of Shelly’s time in Texas. By tacit agreement, the two of them had cut out those five years, pretended they didn’t exist in Shelly’s life.
    “Five years ago we all lost Vinnie,” Nonna said softly. “You loved him, Anthony loved him, I loved him. You and Anthony were on the verge of a life together, and you’d both already lost so many people. And then Anthony lost you.”
    “So you’re saying this is my fault.”
    “No, honey, because while Anthony lost you, the even sadder part is that you lost yourself.” Nonna reached out and cupped Shelly’s chin. “Oh my darling girl, I’ve loved you a long time.”
    Shelly’s eyes burned and her throat tightened.
    “I think when you two lost Vinnie, both of you lost yourselves for a while.”
    Shelly nodded and swallowed. The desire to run away pumped through her body. To flee from the house filled with memories and the past and her dead brother’s ghost. To run away from the love in Nonna’s eyes. To find something, anything, to stop these feelings, this pain that rushed through her body like a living thing.
    “You’ve always felt things so deeply, and that’s not easy in this world.” Nonna stroked her hand over Shelly’s hair. “But you’re strong, too. Stronger than you know.”
    Shelly’s gaze turned away from the door, her avenue to escape, the hit she craved and could find just a couple of blocks away. Instead she concentrated on the love that flooded to her from Nonna. She leaned her head forward onto Nonna’s shoulder and simply breathed.
     
    *
     
    “What does the US Attorney’s office say?” Justin sat at the head of the conference room table, Devon to his right and Leo to his left. Three of the best criminal defense attorneys in the world, now on retainer, stared back at him. Anthony turned his back to the table and looked out the window at the New York skyline. This unscheduled meeting was an abrupt interruption to his day, one he had little patience for.
    Theresa Bennett, the lead attorney on Devon’s defense team, spoke. “They want to cut a deal.”
    “A deal?” Justin leaned forward and placed his hand on the table. “They don’t have a shred of evidence. They’ve spoken to Devon a million times. God knows they’ve managed to look under every stone. Did you know they actually went by to see his high school English teacher? For fuck’s sake, this is a fucking witch hunt. They have nothing and they want to cut a deal?”
    Anthony turned away from the window to face the conference table, crossing his arms over his chest. From where he stood behind Justin, he could see all the players in this tragedy. He wished he had the same kind of faith in Devon as Justin did, but he didn’t. Anthony didn’t believe that Devon had actually run girls through the Travati clubs, as the Justice Department suspected. But he also didn’t believe Devon had been completely in the dark. He suspected Devon had known what was going on and ignored the entire situation.
    “They’re not after Devon,” Theresa said. “The Justice Department is after Sergey Rashnikov, who’s a primary suspect in a sex trafficking ring. They’ll either