Page 37 of The Boss

I don’t know how she does it. It’s like she can read my mind.

Before I can respond, the doorbell rings.

Juliet leaves the room to answer the door, but I grab her arm, pulling her back.

“No, I'll answer it.” I look at her.

She purses her lips and nods before moving to stand behind me.

I walk to the door and open it, and my eyes fall on a teenager with a bouquet in a vase.

“Hi. Umm, someone dropped these at our house, and they’re addressed to Juliet Tran at this address. Does she live here?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Juliet says from behind me.

“Here you go.” She hands Juliet the flowers, and before we can ask her any questions, she runs away.

I turn to her, staring down as she reads the card. Then I watch as her face contorts from relaxed to shock and ultimately, fear.

“Jules, what is it?”

I look at the card, and I see it.

Get your boyfriend to stop looking for me, or else.

“Juliet, this is a threat. An actual threat. Whoever this is isn’t helping us.”

She swallows. “Gino, I’m scared.”

I walk up to her and wrap her in a hug. “I know we’ll figure out who this is.”

I’m still holding her when Ryan walks up to us. I hand him the vase and give him a signal to look at the note.

He looks up once he reads it. “I’ll get Drew to start looking at the security footage.”

I can’t help but notice how he watches me hold Juliet.

“Don’t bother,” I say. “Whoever it is, intentionally dropped it off at a neighbor’s house. One of their teenage daughters brought it by.”

“We could look at the security cameras here,” Ryan replies.

“We could try,” I say.

“Do you know what house she came from?” he asks.

“No, but she was blonde and looked to be maybe sixteen. But I don’t remember anyone on this street having a teenager.”

“I’ll look into it,” he says.

“Thanks, Ryan.” He leaves.

I let her out of my hold and can see she’s relaxed.

“Thanks for doing that,” she says. “I was about to have a panic attack.”

I swallow.

This is another issue with everything going on, and my decision to make people believe we’re in a relationship was the right decision.