saw the apology in his eyes as he fished the phone out of his pocket. A glance at the screen, and his face hardened a touch. “I’m sorry, Tía, I need to take this. It’s business.”
“Of course.” She waved him away, watched him walk briskly out of the room. In a way she was a little relieved he was out of the way. Her nephew was nothing if not an alpha male. While she relished that on occasion, she needed to establish implacable control right now as the head of the Marshall family. Her family’s reputation and well-being depended on it.
“We’re already hosting the masquerade ball, Mom. What else can we do?” Rafe asked.
“I’ve got an idea,” Luc suggested.
Mariella turned to her son. His eyes were gleaming, a sure sign his clever brain was working at warp speed. Pride punched through her. “What are you thinking?”
“We take the masquerade ball, and we super-size the fuck out of it.”
She bit her tongue against admonishing him for swearing. He would always be her baby, but he was a grown man. Instead, she smiled as the idea took root and sprouted. “Yes! That’s an excellent idea, Luc.”
Rafe nodded, too. “We could also take a little of the heat off by doing it out of town. We arrange private jets to fly the guests out to the ball—for extra, of course—make a huge deal out of it.”
“I play golf with the CEO of Westfield Jets. He’s been on my case for months to find a way for us to do some business together. I’ll give him a call if you like,” Joe offered with a warm smile. “He’ll cut us a good deal on a fleet of jets. He’ll welcome the publicity, too.”
It felt a little treacherous to be smiling at her lover when she stood next to Harrison, but dammit, they’d gotten on board with her need to reestablish themselves with barely a hint of the disagreement that’d been rampant these past weeks. And she deserved to be a little pleased that things were going her way.
So she smiled. “Thank you, Joe, that would be wonderful.”
Anything for you, his gaze said.
Feeling a little more settled than she’d been a mere fifteen minutes ago, she stepped away from the bed. Stood firmer on her feet. “It’ll be a great time to announce our new venture, too. The nightclubs in Cancún and Miami are still under construction, but Club Elana in Vegas is almost ready, isn’t it, Joe?”
He nodded. “A few days to a week, tops.”
“You have five days. I think Vegas will be the perfect place to hold the ball. We slay two birds with one stone with the nightclub opening on Friday and the ball on Saturday. Plus, it’s not too far for our guests to fly. I’ll get the MSM team to move everything to Club Elana. The masquerade ball will be our best event ever.”
Mariella looked at her daughter, who’d been staring at her father for the last few minutes. “Elana? You have something to add?”
Elana shook her head and shrugged. “Looks like you’ve got everything covered, Mom. It’ll be great, I’m sure.”
Mariella narrowed her eyes at her daughter. “What’s on your mind, Elana? Spit it out.”
Her tone was a little harsh, she knew that. But she was done cuddling and cajoling. This family would sink if they didn’t grow bigger cojones. That included not skirting whatever delicate feelings her daughter seemed caught in.
“Well...what about the Fixer? Are we forgetting that this...person is still out there, pulling our strings?” Elana demanded.
A spike of anger and frustration threatened to upset Mariella again as her gaze flicked back to her husband. You’ve done this, she silently screamed at Harrison. But she composed herself and turned to face her family.
“I haven’t forgotten about the Fixer. But neither am I going to waste any more time on who it is or what their intentions are. This family is my number-one priority. It’s my only priority going forward. I’m taking control of it. If the Fixer, or anyone else, has a problem with that, they know where to find me.”
She picked up the purse she didn’t remember discarding on the bed, ignored the slightly alarmed looks her children were exchanging and walked out of the hospital room.
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