Page 13 of The Boss

“You haven’t failed anyone, Gino,” she whispers, turning to look at me.

“You can’t say that; look at where we are right now.” I can feel my anger rising. “Mateo is gone, and no one has any idea where he is. Vanessa is pregnant, and the one person she needs isn’t here because of me. So, I am failing them, and I don’t know what to do about it⁠—”

She cuts me off, “Gino, again you haven’t failed anyone. We’ll find him.”

SIX

GINO

I hope Kevin’s suggestion of calling Anthony directly will work. So far, I’ve only had one call with someone in his organization, but it didn’t yield much, so I pray a more direct approach works.

Grabbing my phone, I dial Anthony.

“Esposito, why are you calling me?”

“Anthony, I don’t know what the fuck you’re thinking, but give him back.” I know he doesn’t have him directly, but he may know something, so I need to assume.

“Give who back?” he grumbles.

“Mateo—”

He cuts me off. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, we don’t have him. I don’t know what you’ve been told, but we can’t help you.”

“I have photos from a cafe that show him being drugged by one of your sons.” I grit out.

“Gino, I get it, you want to find your man, but I’m telling you we don’t have him.”

“Do you want something? Is that it?” I'm yelling now.

“I’m not going to listen to this. We don’t have him,” he says.

Before I can say anything else, he hangs up.

Fuck.

I’m about to call Kevin to tell him I got nothing out of that conversation. Then my phone rings.

Lorenzo Esposito.

“Lorenzo,” I grit out.

“Ahh, hello, Gino; how are you?”

“I know what you did.”

“Do you now?” he replies coolly. I hear how smug he feels through the phone.

“What do you want? To gloat?” I ask, already irritated with this conversation.

“No, I'm open to negotiating, but I will need some assurances,” he replies.

“What’s that?”

“I want all of the drugs you have left in Italy.”

“I don’t have any; I’ve given them all to your father,” I tell him.

“Figure it out; that’s what I want.”