Page 100 of The Boss

I sigh. “We spent months digging through every property they owned across Italy and came up empty. I leaned on some old contacts my father had, and had them scour the country for you. Nothing came of it. The first six months were nothing but dead ends. Every lead Drew found turned out to be bullshit. Anytime Lorenzo called, he was nowhere near where he was holding you. He used his father’s villa as cover.”

I take a deep breath. “When Vanessa had the twins, I knew I couldn’t let other people handle it. They were taking too long to get me information, so I took matters into my own hands⁠—”

He cuts me off. “Did you go over there yourself?”

“Hell no.” I laugh. “Your wife and Juliet would actually kill me if I even suggested it. I gave Drew full authority to do whatever he thought was necessary to find you. He started hacking directly into the Russos’ servers. It took him time, but he eventually got in. Lorenzo used his father’s computers for most of his communication, which is why we couldn’t track you. That was the blind spot. We finally got a break about two weeks ago. Drew cracked their accounting and banking systems. There were properties and assets tied to his mother, and Juliet dug into it.”

“Juliet?” he asks.

“She suggested we look into the properties attached to Lorenzo’s mother.”

“What about his dad and the other brother?” he questions.

“They’re alive. They had no idea Lorenzo was holding you. They thought he scared you a bit, and you went straight home,” I tell him.

“What?”

“Yeah. That’s how I was able to take so much from them without raising alarms. This was supposed to be a clean, easy deal. Lorenzo just wanted it all for himself.”

“Jesus. Why would he do that? And how did no one see it?” He’s going to continue this until I give every last detail.

“Because he had his own guys. He wanted to run the Russo empire by himself. He built separate teams that didn’t interact with anyone else,” I say.

“What did you get from them?”

“All of their Stateside properties, which is a lot more than I expected,” I respond.

“How much?”

“Ten warehouses, two commercial buildings, four office buildings, and three apartment complexes,” I run down the list quickly.

“I didn’t know they had that much here.”

“Neither did I. But they didn’t want a war with us, so they handed it all over. And honestly, I think it’s because Lorenzo ran the Stateside business. They wanted to distance themselves from it.”

“So who’s your lawyer now?” he asks.

“What kind of question is that?” I scoff. “You are.”

“Who’s been helping you with all of this? We both know you have no clue what you’re doing when it comes to legal jargon.” He’s right; I know none of this. But I don’t trust anyone outside of this group.

“Juliet has been helping with everything. She knows a lot about contracts and that kind of stuff. She also called her dad a few days ago to help with all this real estate.”

“About Juliet, when did she stop waking up at sunrise?”

“I don’t control when she wakes up.”

“I beg to differ, considering when I walked in, both of you were still in pajamas at almost ten,” he mentions.

“So now it’s a crime to sleep in?” I ask sarcastically, lifting a brow at him.

“No. But you know what? I’m not going to pry into what you do in your free time.”

“Good, and never fucking start,” I grit out.

I need to change the topic right now, or else I’m going to answer questions I want Juliet here for.

“How did you take the news about the kids?” I ask.