Page 67 of The Boss

“And keep your fucking gun holstered; I’m not dealing with a clean-up crew situation with you,” I grumble.

He lifts his hands in mock surrender. “I didn’t do anything to warrant that.”

“You didn’t, but you’re damn close to it,” I reply.

Being five years older than us, he’s got more mafia experience. But I don’t want him to use it. I know that by keeping him at the docks, he’ll keep his cool.

“Ryan, you're Drew's backup. If he gets anything, take a look at it,” I say, looking over to him.

“Got it,” he replies.

“Gabe, Jake, keep your ears to the ground. If the Russos plan anything here, I want to know about it,” I say.

“That’s it. I’ll let Alonso and Juliet know of the plan.”

Everyone makes their way out of my office, but Ryan hangs back.

“Have you gotten any new leads on who the person texting Juliet is?” he asks once everyone else leaves my office.

“No, they pretty much stopped after the message got out that we started dating, and they’ve been dormant for at least a month,” I reply.

“Why do you think they stopped?” Ryan asks.

“I have no clue. I’m guessing they feel like I’m too close. Most people on the outside, before we started dating, thought she just worked for me. And her theory that it’s two people makes a lot of sense. The messages come from two different locations, and one is more threatening than the other. Both have stopped, but the non-threatening messages stopped first,” I say.

“Do you have any theories on who either of them is?”

“The threatening one is from someone working with Lorenzo because they, according to one of their messages, know where Mateo is. The other messages seem like someone genuinely trying to help because they seem to be getting the same information as us, but they just don’t know we have it.”

“So the second person could be someone we know?” He asks.

“That’s the most likely outcome,” I reply.

“Any ideas who it could be?”

“No, Juliet and I thought it could be someone from the old guard, but why would they hide?”

“What if it’s someone who maybe knew your father but wasn’t in the mafia?” he suggests.

“Could be, but I don’t know who that would be.”

“I can see if your father had anyone in his files that could lead us to someone.”

“Yeah, thank you. We need to continue the focus on finding Mateo, but see if anything comes up as you look for new leads.”

“You got it,” he replies.

He leaves my office, shutting the door behind him.

I look over the new batch of documents I need to approve; luckily it doesn’t take long, and then I’m out the door to let Alonso, Juliet, and Vanessa know of my plan.

I know I need to keep my sister in the loop more, but I don’t want her to overthink what’s happening.

I open the door to the side of the house and walk in. She, Alonso, and Juliet are sitting at the bar eating.

Vanessa sees me first. “Hey, big brother, what are you doing here?”

“I came by to see you and to tell all of you about the new plan we’re working on.”