Page 89 of The Boss

He pauses, looking at everyone.

“I don’t want to get my sister’s hopes up, so no one tells her. I’ll tell her I’m sending you, Alonso, on a job but won’t give her any details,” Gino says.

“She’ll fight you on that,” Alonso replies.

“I know.” Gino sighs. “But I’ll just have to take the fight.”

“When do you want us to leave?” Gabe asks.

“Tonight.”

Now that everyone has their tasks, they leave Gino’s office. As soon as they’re gone, Gino turns to me.

“You did great there, bella,” he says.

“They might guess I only made the call because we’re together now,” I say honestly.

“I don’t think so.”

“Gino, when you told me to make the call, they all looked at me in surprise and shock. They weren’t expecting it,” I say.

“I know. They know that you, me, and Mateo were the first three of this group. They know I bounce ideas off you, and we are equal in this,” he tells me.

“Uh huh,” I smirk at him and roll my eyes.

“I’m going to need your help with the whole Vanessa thing. She’s going to ask questions. We need to both make her not suspect a thing. If this doesn’t work, I don’t want to get her hopes up and then tell her he’s still not coming home,” he says.

“She’ll trust you. What are you going to do when he comes home? Are you going to wait, or as soon as they have him, you’re going to tell her?” I ask.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead. But I want it to be a slight surprise. I’m not just going to drop him off or have him walk through the door.”

“Okay, I go over there all the time. I can stay over with her.”

“As nice as that is, I’m not letting you out of my bed for one second,” he says in a low tone.

I hum in response.

“We are going to walk in there now, and I’m going to tell her Alonso is going on a job for me. You’re coming with me. Your job is to distract the babies.”

“Vanessa is not going to like this at all,” I tell him honestly.

“I know.” He takes a deep breath. “I really hope I’m not making a terrible decision by keeping this from her.”

“You’ve kept things from her before, and she hasn’t been happy about it. Just promise me that you won’t lie; you'll just wait to tell her. But don’t wait too long like you did the last time you knew something she didn’t.” I hope I’m getting my point across.

He looks at me with remorse. He knows I’m referring to the marriage arrangement between Vanessa and Mateo that he chose not to tell her about until it was too late.

We walk to Vanessa’s house, and before we walk in, Gino takes a deep breath.

He turns and gives me a sad smile. Leaning down, he presses our foreheads together.

He sighs. “I know this isn’t the best way to do this, but I can’t give her false hope. She’s been hanging by a thread for months.”

I swallow and nod in agreement.

Once we get to the door, he takes a deep breath and opens it. I follow behind him. We make our way to the living room, where Vanessa is holding her daughter, Victoria, while her son, Julian, is on the ground playing with baby toys.

She turns and looks at both of us. “Hey, you two.” A bright smile flashes on her face.