Page 59 of A Son Hidden from the Sicilian

‘The debacle with her birth father upset Kate a lot and I don’t want anything like that happening again. This pregnancy is not an easy one. I just want to double-check before I give Kate the details.’

‘So you want me to check her out...and what...?’ Realisation hit and Zac’s brow smoothed. ‘Ah, you want me to pay her off if there’s an issue?’ Zac speculated, seeing the logic of this plan. With him acting as Marco’s proxy, the other man would have deniability and clean hands if his wife found out.

‘Pay her off? No, Zac, I don’t want you to pay her off!’

Shock followed by outrage resounded down the line, which seemed a pretty irrational response to what was an obvious and expedient solution to this problem. The Marco he had known would have recognised this too. Marriage had changed his royal friend.

Did marriage change every man? Zac did not intend to personally test his theory.

‘I don’t lie to Kate.’

Except by omission, thought Zac.

‘Our relationship is based on honesty.’

The fact that Marco obviously believed what he was saying deepened the cynical grooves around Zac’s mouth. Some marriages worked, buthonest...? Even marriages that were considered successful, like that of his stepfather and his beautiful, charming second wife, had their share of half-truths and compromise.

‘I just want Kate to know what to expect this time, to be prepared, no nasty surprises. She’s going to be mad as hell with me for waiting until after the birth,’ he admitted with a laugh. ‘But her blood pressure is troubling the... You don’t want to know this, do you?’

Zac, who really didn’t, said nothing.

‘I’m prepared to take the flak if it’s about keeping Kate and the baby safe.’

‘If there were skeletons that your team didn’t—’

‘I’m not asking you to dig for dirt,’ the prince shot back, and Zac could hear the frown in his voice. ‘I’ve got dossiers but they can’t tell the whole story. The father didn’t have a record, he just conned his way through life. Some of that might have rubbed off on his child...’

Zac could see why Marco had decided that it was all about nurture—to take the opposing view that DNA was responsible would mean that his wife was tainted too.

‘My stepfather is a saint, it didn’t rub off on me, Marco.’

‘Oh, you have your moments. I know that you were the anonymous investor who bailed Liam out in the early days when he could have gone under.’

A spasm of impatience quivered across Zac’s mobile lips. ‘That was Liam and I knew he’d succeed. There was no risk or altruism involved.’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you have a heart.’

Zac didn’t hide his impatience. ‘Look, Marco, I don’t really see what I can find out, short of dating her, that—’

The lightness vanished from Marco’s voice, leaving it cold as ice as he shot back, ‘I donotwant you to date her, Zac, you’re the last man in the world that I would... That would be a game-changer for me, do you hear what I am saying?’ Marco asked, drawing a very firm verbal red line in the sand.

Zac took no offence from the tone, and saw no point defending his reputation or pointing out that he had his faults, but he was no heartbreaker. He had never dated a woman who wanted more than sex, or a partner for an event, frequently both.

Hewouldn’t want someone like him to date a sister-in-law of his either.

‘Fair enough. So what do you want me to do?’

‘I want to know if she isgenuine, that her character is... It just so happens that you are actually in the perfect position toobserveher, Zac.’

Zac smiled a little to himself at the‘observe’that carried the heavy message:Look, don’t touch.Marco need not have worried. There were enough women out there without pursuing one who came with complications. ‘I don’t quite see how.’

‘She works for you.’

The pen that Zac had been rotating through his long fingers during the conversation slipped to the car’s carpeted floor. ‘You sure about that?’ Redheads did stand out, so if they were identical he would have remembered a twin of Kate Zanetti.

‘Yes, she’s a nursery nurse in one of your staff crèches. I just thought perhaps you couldobserve? Put some feelers out, see what her reputation in the workplace is. Is she reliable? You know the sort of thing—could she make Kate—’

‘Unhappy?’The interruption seemed a safe bet. These days his wife’s happiness seemed to be Marco’s main priority. Was she his? For his friend’s sake, Zac hoped so.

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