Page 44 of The Boss

Of course I do. You seem not to be listening. I’ll spell it out for you if you don’t stop. I will personally make sure your man is dead tonight.

Juliet

I thought you were trying to help. Why are you being aggressive now?

Drew walks into the office and shuts the door. I wave my phone at him, telling him without words that the unknown number is sending me something he needs to look at.

That’s what’s great about Drew; he’s good at reading people and signals that you could be standing a different way than normal, and he’d know something was wrong.

I give him my phone, and he plugs it into his phone.

Unknown

I’ve only been trying to get you to understand how much we’re watching you.

“Gino needs to see these,” Drew says.

“Yeah, go get him.”

He leaves the room and gets Gino.

“Bella, what is it?” He gives me a nervous look.

I glare at him. This is not the time.

“The threatening unknown number is back,” I say.

“What?” he yells. He extends his hand, wanting me to give the phone to him.

I hand it to him.

He looks it over and pauses. I can tell he wants to throw the phone. I stand up and grab it from him before he does.

“Gino, we're handling it. Please don’t do something we know you’ll regret,” I say, stopping him in his tracks.

“Regret? This person is threatening you. He clearly is a part of Lorenzo’s crew. I don’t give a shit; he needs to be dealt with.” He presses the bridge of his nose. “Drew, can you track them?”

“I’m trying.” He pauses, focusing on whatever he’s looking at.

“Wait,” I say, and both of them look over to me. “What if somehow, through all of this, this person is piggybacking off of the other one? What if they know someone else has been messaging me, and they are using this as a way to scare us? They think we still think they're trying to help us. What if we play into that? Pull everyone back, Gino, get Ryan and Jake to lay off the violence. Let’s move underground. They’re one step ahead of us right now.”

“How would they know a second person has been texting you?” Drew asks.

“Clearly they know more than they are letting on. Sorry, Drew, but they clearly know how to get around your ways to find them. Maybe they hacked into my phone or can see the phone data like we’ve been trying to do to them,” I say.

“Clearly I’ve taught you too much about phones,” Drew grumbles.

“What about the second person?” Gino asks.

“If they message or call me, we do exactly what we’re doing here: try to track them, but don’t be as open about it,” I say.

“I want them both found. I don’t care if one is trying to help; they're making you feel unsafe, Juliet, which I don’t like,” Gino replies.

I’ve noticed Drew has left my office, knowing this is a standoff he doesn’t want to be a part of.

“Gino, we have other things to worry about. I can handle this,” I grit out.

“How many times do I have to tell you that your safety is the most important thing?” He says.