Page 134 of The Billionaire Boss and the Barista

“Yeah! Let’s go.” Stella pulled Emma to the door.

“Are you sure?” she mouthed.

He nodded, waving them on despite the fact his heart was going a million miles an hour.

“I’m good,” he lied. “I’m about to head out myself. I thought I would make a quick grocery store run. I think this baby’s fifth birthday calls for champagne. You like champagne, don’t you, Stella?”

His words were met with the tinkle of silver bells. “Yeah!” Stella cheered. “I do.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said with a nod. Mouthing ‘sparkling apple cider,’ he fished out his car keys with numb fingers.

Dear God, he might need a consult from Dr. Douchebag Desjardin. Numb extremities. That was bad, wasn’t it?

“Go play,” he rasped. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Emma gave him a weird look. She knew something was up.

“Go,” he insisted.

“Okay.” Emma let Stella tug her out the door with only one backward glance—a puzzled one, but grateful too.

He waited till they were gone to round on his hostess. “Please excuse me,” he said tightly. “I have to check something out.”

Mariana stared at him, alarmed.Yeah. That was the appropriate response.

He left before he did something he would regret. Garrett walked out of the house, waving to the girls without looking at them, hustling to the car.

Leave,as quickly as you can.

That was the smart thing to do. Not that other thing—going up to Stella and picking her up to peer into her eyes until the truth came to him.

This was crazy. He had to be wrong. That was Mariana’s daughter back there. Stella was Emma’s sister. Not her daughter. Nothis.

But the look on Mariana’s face just now.It had been as if she’d seen a ghost.

Well, so had he.

Evidence. I need evidence.Fortunately for him, some existed.

Garrett drove straight to Sally’s Liquor. It wasn’t called that anymore, but the new place still sold booze.

He glanced at the freshly painted sign, his lip curling. What did it say that the most prosperous business in this town was the liquor store? Not that he wasn’t tempted to march in there and buy out their lot of whiskey. But he wasn’t going to do that. He had work to do.

Lifting his cell phone, he pulled up the group chat he maintained with Rainer, Ian, and Elias.

I need a favor ASAP. It’s an emergency. Who is in town?

The universe was with him because the answers instantly poured in. Rainer was in a meeting in Los Angeles and Ian was on a plane. But Elias was free, and he was ten minutes from Garrett’s apartment.

Elias called him the minute he was inside. “Okay, are you going to tell me why I’m here?”

Garrett sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes, aware that what he was about to reveal made him sound like a lunatic. “I need you to go to my bedroom.”

“Wait. Is this something kinky?” Elias hesitated. He’d been anxious, spurred on by Garrett’s urgency. But now he was just his usual sardonic self. “Because if I’m about to walk into your room to find your blushing bride tied to your bed and I need to untie her, I warn you, Iwillenjoy it. Of course, I’ll act like I don’t. But I totally will.”

Garrett grunted, but the pulsing fight-or-flight adrenaline coursing through him eased back. “This is the part where I would normally threaten your life, but there is no need. Emma and I are together in Colorado.”

Elias’ amusement ended there. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Didn’t her doctors warn you about forcing memories to surface?”

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