Page 66 of The Boss

“You.” He gives a sly smile. And I know he can see the blush that I can feel.

I take a seat at the bar and watch him cook.

Any man who cooks looks hot, but this man looks like the sexiest man alive cooking for me. I ask if he needs help, and he says it’s his kitchen tonight. Which tells me he wanted to do this, not that he felt obligated.

Once it’s done, we quickly eat, and it’s delicious. I know he knows how to cook, but it always surprises me how good he is at cooking.

I’ve noticed that since we’ve been officially dating, people are over less for dinner. I assumed it was because everyone was focused on their tasks, but the more I think about it, I wonder if Gino told them to make themselves scarce.

I grab our plates and start to walk to the kitchen to clean.

“Not tonight,” Gino says as he grabs the plates from my hands.

“Gino, we're not leaving dirty dishes in the sink overnight,” I say.

“I know; what I’m saying is you’re not doing them tonight,” he replies.

“You cooked dinner; I’m not expecting you to clean too.”

“You’re not expecting me to because I’m doing it.”

I sigh, knowing he won’t let it go.

I turn to walk away. But his arm wraps around my waist and turns me back to him.

“This won’t take long, so just wait right there for me.”

And he’s right; it doesn’t take long for him to clean the dishes from dinner. He's like a man on a mission. And once he’s done, I know exactly what mission he was on, and I will never deny him doing the dishes again after he cooks if he wants to.

TWENTY-NINE

GINO

FEBRUARY

I can’t keep letting this go on. The last nine months have yielded no actual leads to finding Mateo, and I’m starting to second-guess every decision.

Juliet left a few hours ago to go to Vanessa’s. I know my sister appreciates the help and someone to talk to. Lucy has been a big help, too, but she lives in the city, so she can’t visit as often as I know she wants to.

Vanessa and I have become closer through all of this. She used to be slightly reserved and nervous to ask questions, and now she doesn’t hold back. Which is something I appreciate.

According to Kevin, that’s how her mother was. The second our father told her of his mafia life, she pushed for answers to not only make sure she knew but to keep Vanessa safe.

Realizing I’m going to have to completely change my game up, I call the rest of the guys to my house. Alonso will be in the know, and so will Juliet, but I’m not tipping off my sister on what I’m about to do.

Drew, Ryan, Marco, Gabe, and Jake are all in my office. These meetings are becoming more frequent than I would like, especially without Mateo.

“So what’s the plan?” Drew asks.

“I’ve been thinking this over for days,” I admit, “and Drew, I want you to do everything you can to find something else because doing this our way isn’t working. I don’t care if you need to hack directly into Russo's computers or servers, but do everything you can to find him. I know we never wanted to do anything completely illegal, but at this point I think it’s the only way we’ll find him. ”

“Got it.” Before any other words are spoken, he gets up and leaves the room.

“What about the rest of us, boss?” Marco asks. He’s got a smug look on his face. The motherfucker.

“Well, Marco, you’re going to keep your ass at the docks and make sure all that shit is running right.” I know he’s itching for a fight with someone, but I’m not doing that. He’s fucking ruthless, and I need to keep him at bay.

“Got it.” He gives me a fake hurt look because I know he wants to shoot someone or something.