narrowed her eyes. “You think Henry will be a better parent than I will, don’t you?”
Henry finally spoke up. “Nico, I know I should probably shut up right now, but I would not answer that if I were you.”
Nico leaned back and stretched his arms over the back of the couch. He scratched the stubble on his chin. His eyes returned to Henry. “So Marissa sexually harassed you, and you didn’t feel comfortable reporting her?”
Henry froze. “I didn’t think of it that way.”
“Well, you should have. She harassed you and threatened your employment if you told anyone. That’s sexual fucking harassment, and you could have sued the winery for it. So… thanks, I guess.”
“You’re welcome?” Henry looked really confused. “You’re not angry?”
“I’m very fucking angry, Henry. I’m pissed that you didn’t report her at the time, but I’m not going to say I don’t get it. You’d just started out, and I always come off as kind of a hard-ass to new employees.”
Henry leaned forward in his chair. “Nico, I am so sorry.”
“I’m angry about Fairfield though. I understand we have a little of the snowball-rolling-down-a-hillside thing going on here—”
“Exactly,” Toni said. “Henry didn’t want to tell you about your ex-wife, so then he didn’t think he could tell you about Fairfield—”
“—but you should have told me.” Nico stared straight at Henry and ignored Toni. “If for no other reason than what he was trying to do was blackmail you. And that’s probably illegal, and we could have called the cops on him. Which would have been awesome.” Nico shook his head and stared out the window, probably still trying to sort through the deluge of information that Toni had hit him with.
Was it part of a strategy? Yes. She knew her cousin, and she knew he could be kind of a hothead. If she’d hit him with any single piece of Henry’s revelations, he might have flipped out. Hitting him with everything—including the pregnancy—had short-circuited the mad.
“So Marissa told Whit Fairfield the two of you had an affair and you’d give him insider info on me to keep it quiet.” Nico frowned. “What kind of trade secrets does he think we have around here? It’s not like we have a secret fucking ingredient. He would have had better luck messing up the winery if he’d just hired you away from me.”
“I would never work for that man.”
Nico cut his eyes to Henry. “You swear none of the sabotage was you?”
“I swear it wasn’t, Nico. And I don’t know who it was either. I would tell you if I did.”
“Hmm.” Nico was starting to brood. “If Fairfield blackmailed you, he probably has someone else on our crew on his payroll. Or he did. Dammit.” He huffed a breath. “I hate thinking anyone who works for me is a rat.”
“I can ask everyone on the staff if they’ve taken money from him,” Toni said. “I’ll know if they’re lying.”
“Yeah, you were always good at that,” Nico muttered. “I don’t think it matters now. Maybe a more important question is: Does Henry have an alibi for the night Fairfield was killed? Because you’re telling the police all this shit. I don’t think we should hide anything at this point. It’ll come out eventually—hell, Marissa might have already spilled it—and if you try to cover it up, you’ll just look guilty.”
Henry frowned. “Okay. Uh… He was killed on Friday or Saturday?”
“Saturday night is the one they keep asking me about. The week before the finger thing.”
“Oh.” He glanced at Toni. “Well, Toni and I were kind of hanging out.”
Nico raised a hand. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
“Not that, idiot,” Toni said. “I was watching a movie and then Henry called and he turned it on too, and we were kind of watching together. But we hung up around ten or so. We were probably both sleeping when Fairfield was killed.”
“Oh, probably.” Henry sighed. “Then I don’t have an alibi either.”
Nico waved a finger between the two of them. “Why were you guys sneaking around in the first place? You’re dating, for fuck’s sake. You’re both adults. Why make it some big secret?”
Toni scoffed. “We aren’t dating. Not really.”
“Toni, you were watching a movie together over the phone. The man helps you with household projects and yard work. He’s your boyfriend.”
“I’m here.” Henry raised his hand. “Just reminding you.”
“Exactly.” Toni pointed at Henry. “Who says Henry wants to be a boyfriend, Nico? He’s a grown man, not a boy.”
Henry frowned. “Toni, I’ve