Page 88 of The Boss

“I need to take the condom off,” he whispers.

He gets up and walks into the bathroom, and I have the perfect view of his toned ass. I bite my lip as I watch him. He walks out of the bathroom and smirks at me.

He takes a damp washcloth and cleans me off. Then he wraps me in his arms.

THIRTY-SEVEN

JULIET

Gino is putting a lot of trust in me—maybe too much trust.

Everyone’s in his office and ready to listen to whatever decision he is going to make.

He’s standing behind his desk, arms crossed. The rest of the guys stand throughout the room.

“Jules, what do you think is the best move?” Gino looks over to me.

I take a deep breath.

“There are properties in and around Rome in Anna Russo’s name⁠—”

Drew cuts in. "Didn't she move to France last year?”

“Yes, that’s why I think it’s a potential lead to where Mateo could be.”

Everyone looks at me in anticipation.

“I’ve narrowed it down to two locations,” I tell them. “One, a villa in the middle of nowhere. The second is an old warehouse outside of Rome.”

Gino cuts in. “Lorenzo mentioned Mateo saying something about Roman.”

I gape at him. “When did that happen?” I ask.

“In one of my past conversations with him. He said something about Mateo mentioning Roman,” he says.

This is it. I know it is. Gino told me to trust my instincts, and it’s screaming at me that he’s in the warehouse. Lorenzo hasn’t made any indication he’s done much to Mateo outside of questioning him. But I wouldn’t put it past him to do something else.

Everyone looks to me in anticipation now.

“Juliet, you make the call,” Gino calls out.

We make eye contact, and I can tell by the look in his eyes that he wants me to be 100% sure of this.

All the guys stare at me. I can tell by the looks on their faces that they’re wondering why Gino is letting me make this call. This has always been our relationship: we bounce ideas off each other, listen to each other, and let each other run the show at the right time. Most of the time it’s him. Sometimes it’s me. And this time, I’m running the show.

Regardless of how long it took, getting into a romantic relationship with him was simple once it started.

“The warehouse,” I finally answer. “Go in the morning. Not too early, though. We need it to be a surprise. We can’t send more than two or three of you. We’ll need to make sure Lorenzo isn’t there either; we can’t risk him getting hurt and starting a war. I do think we need to get something from Anthony through this. He might not know anything, but his son is responsible for this, and he needs to deal with that.”

Gino smirks at me. “What do you think I should ask Anthony for?”

“His properties in the US seem like a fair trade. They kept one of our men for almost a year. But wait to make that call until we have Mateo. We don’t want to risk them doing something Stateside beforehand. Anthony still believes his son did nothing more than a little roughing up, I finish with air quotes.

Everyone gapes at me, except Gino. He smirks and walks over to me.

He places a kiss on the side of my head and places his hand on my lower back.

“You heard her, warehouse. Alonso, Gabe, you go to Italy and search this warehouse. Get Mateo out. Jake, Ryan, you both make your rounds through the city and make sure we know of every associate, building, or anyone his people know.”