Page 30 of The Boss

“Well, you’re testing mine,” I counter.

“How I know your father is not the point, and besides, I know more of him than I do in a personal manner; but again, that’s not the point.”

I don’t know how to respond to that.

“Just get Drew to focus on associates that will give you something to work off of to find Mateo.”

Before I can reply, they hang up.

I stare at my phone in confusion, replaying their words. Contact more associates.

“Jules,” I hear. “Jules. Jules, there you are.” The voice calls. I turn and see Gino looking at me in the doorway. I'm clutching my phone so tight it might break. “Jules, what’s wrong?”

I don’t reply. I don’t know how to reply. Instead, I just stare at him.

He walks closer. “What is it, Bella?” His voice is lower now.

Bella. He’s never called me that before. And I have no clue what it means, but it brings me back from my frozen state.

“That person called me⁠—”

“What?” he all but yells out.

He starts to walk out, most likely to get Drew. I grab his arm, pulling him back, and he nearly knocks me over when he turns back.

“Whoever it is clearly knows us; they said to stop trying to find them and look more into Lorenzo’s associates.”

“We’re not going to stop looking into whoever this is. We’ve looked into other associates, and there’s none.” He’s so close to me and can smell his cologne; he puts his hands on my biceps to steady us both. “What do you think we should do?”

“I-I think we should look, but maybe look from a different angle,” I say, looking into his sparkling green eyes.

“What kind of angle?”

“What if we try to find what Lorenzo thinks he has on Mateo? We’ve been looking more into who they are and how they could be connected, but we haven’t seen what they know or what they think they know about him.”

“That could be a good angle to run. I’ll tell Drew to start looking into it.” He pauses, looking into my eyes. He moves his left hand to the side of my face, rubbing my cheek. It feels like he is about to lean in.

“Is everything okay?” We hear Drew and jump apart. “Uhh, shit, sorry, I just heard you yell and wanted to make sure everything was good.”

“Yeah, everything’s good. Juliet has a good idea to run by you.”

“Alright, Juliet, my computer is in the kitchen; let’s go.” I nod my head and start to walk away, but before I get too far, Gino pulls me back.

He leans down and whispers, “Thank you, everything’s going to be fine; we'll figure this all out.” He kisses my forehead and lets me go.

As I walk away, I realize what he just did. Did he really just kiss my forehead?

FOURTEEN

GINO

Drew pulls out his laptop and gets to work.

“You said it's only been unknown numbers, right, and it hasn't been the same number?” he asks her as he takes a seat at the bar.

“Yeah,” she replies, sitting next to him.

“I’ve been looking into it, and whoever this is, they're good. I know that’s not what either of you wants to hear, but I can’t deny it.”