But I didn’t have any time to call a soul, because my intercom button was blinking. I hit the light.
“Ms. Cannavaro has arrived,” Mary’s voice said through the speaker.
“Let her in.”
Mary opened the door and I held my breath.
But I slowly exhaled when Poppy walked in. Because she wasn’t holding a gun. She was holding a toddler in her arms.
The first thing I thought of was Scarlett. But there was no cute little “Hi, Uncle Matt.” And the little girl wasn’t a redhead. She was brunette.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Mary said and closed the door behind us.
As soon as the door was closed I stood up. “Did you steal that child?”
Poppy laughed. “No.”
“I swear to God, Poppy, if you…”
“She’s mine.”
“Yours?” I looked down at the little girl and then back at her mother. The resemblance was uncanny. The little girl was even holding her nose slightly in the air like she was looking down at me even though she literally had to look up at me. “You have a…kid?” I couldn’t imagine Poppy being a mom. A mobster? Sure. A mother? It didn’t quite fit. But the little mini-her scowling back at me begged to differ.
“Funny,” Poppy said. “I know everything about you and you know nothing about me. It’s good that I’m here so we can rectify that.” She put the child down on the ground. “Go play,” she said and gestured toward my shelves that held nothing to play with. And then Poppy sat down without being invited.
I watched the little girl walk over to one of my shelves and inspect some of the framed pictures. Why did I have a feeling that she was somehow trained in surveillance even though she couldn’t be older than Scarlett? The way she examined the people in the picture sent a chill down my spine.
Poppy cleared her throat. “I heard about your eventful evening.” She started straightening a few things on my desk.
I just stared at her.
“Uncle Richard’s angry with me. So I’m here to apologize.”
I leaned forward, resting my hands on my desk. “It doesn’t matter what you say. I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth.”
It was like she didn’t even hear me. She just blinked and continued on with whatever she’d planned to say. “Obviously I’m not going to hurt a child. As a mother, I would never.”
“So you brought your kid here as a prop?”
“I brought her here to show you that I’m a caring mother.”
Well, it wasn’t working. She’d barely even looked at her daughter this whole time. “I didn’t know that you were married.” I wasn’t sure why the hell that was what came out of my mouth. I didn’t care if this woman was married. For all I knew the little girl in the corner who looked like she was about to smash a paperweight was just an actress.
Poppy raised one of her penciled-in eyebrows. “Divorced, actually. I’m very much single, Matthew. For the record. But I have a feeling that’s about to change.”
I wasn’t sure which was worse. Nigel or Poppy hitting on me.
Just as I expected, I watched as the little girl dropped the paperweight onto the ground. It shattered and for just a second a smile spread across her face.
Poppy snapped her fingers. “Behave, Gigi. Children are to be seen and not heard. How many times do I need to give you simple instructions?”
Gigi’s smile immediately disappeared and she had her lips trained in a thin line, showing no shock or guilt or anything. Like a weird little demon child.
“Do we understand?” Poppy asked.
“Yes, Mother.”
“Now apologize to the gentleman.”
“Sorry, sir.” Gigi curtseyed and then just stood there staring at the floor.
I knew she’d deliberately smashed it. But I still felt bad for her. Her mom was Poppy. Wasn’t that punishment enough? She didn’t need to be reprimanded any more by me. “It’s alright. Just be more careful. You can keep playing.”
Her eyes lit up and she turned around to touch more expensive things.
I cringed.
“So where were we?” Poppy asked. “Oh, yes, I don’t hurt children. So as long as you understand, I’ll just let Uncle Richard know you and I are on good terms and we can move forward from this hiccup of a misunderstanding.”
“You swear you’re not going to hurt Scarlett?”
“I don’t recall ever saying I would hurt her. You’re putting words in my mouth.”
“Poppy.”
“What I implied was more of a kidnapping situation, but alas. I won’t do that either. Because I’m a mother and all that. You have my word.”
“That’s the whole problem. I don’t trust your word.”
She sighed, looking human for the first time since she’d walked back into my life. “Look, my uncle is really hard to please. As you know. I was just trying to get the results he wanted. And I mean…I did. You went to go talk to him. Or yell at him I guess. You didn’t give him a chance to tell you the news.”
“What news?”
She smiled. “It’s not mine to share. And I’m not even sure that you’ll care. For some reason he thinks you will. He’s off his game.” She looked over at Gigi to make sure she wasn’t breaking anything else. “Which is why I’ll be taking over operations soon.”
Okay.
“Just me at the head of the whole business. All alone.” She touched her chest and for some reason it seemed like she just did it to make me look at the tops of her breasts.
Where the hell was she going with this?
“You know what? We’re going to need more time to catch up than just a 15-minute meeting made at the last second, don’t you think? And maybe more privacy too. A relaxing night just the two of us. Let’s do dinner to properly catch up and I can tell you all about my plans for the company.”
Is that what she called her illegal dealings? A company? Give me a break. “I’m busy.”
“Tonight? Well, let’s do tomorrow night then. I’ll arrange it with your secretary.”
“She doesn’t arrange my personal schedule.”
“All good secretaries do.”
“She’s actually an administrative assistant. And she’s fantastic at her job.”
Poppy laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re dating her. Isn’t she a little old for you? Certainly there are people in your life a little more suitable. A certain someone right under your nose, perchance?”
“Who I’m dating is none of your business.”
“So you are dating someone? Well, that should make things interesting. Let her know I’ll be preoccupying your evening tomorrow night. No reason for her to wait up for you.”
“I’m not going out with you.”
“I never said it was a date. That was all you. I’ve always loved a man who’s forward.”
I sighed. “Poppy, we’re not having dinner. No matter what you want to call it.”
“Then I’ll just have to tell the hitmen to go forward with their plans.”
I froze. Last night Mr. Pruitt said he hadn’t hired hitmen to follow me around. I knew he was lying. But for her to actually sit there and admit it? Why hadn’t I recorded this conversation? Damn it. “Mr. Pruitt said he wasn’t having me followed.”