Page 99 of The Boss

“Hey, you two,” I call out.

Mateo gives me a what the fuck look, and I think I know why.

“Hey,” Vanessa replies easily.

“Where’s Juliet?” Mateo asks.

“Uh, somewhere around here,” I say, and I can feel my face getting warm.

“She’s probably upstairs cleaning something,” Vanessa says firmly. “You really need to give her a break, Gino.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I mutter. “You tell me that every time you come over.”

Juliet walks up behind me. “Hi,” she says softly to them.

“We’ll talk in my office,” I say to Mateo.

As Mateo walks up the stairs, Juliet says something to him.

“All right. Could you at least put on a shirt?” he snickers.

I snort. “Who knew you’d become so bashful?”

“Bullshit. You know you’d never be caught dead like that.”

“A year ago, sure,” I say, glancing down the stairs where Juliet and Vanessa are still standing. “Now I’ve realized I need to chill out more.”

I run to the bedroom and grab a shirt.

We walk into my office, and I come up behind him.

“All right, let’s get to business,” I say as we walk in.

“Thanks for putting on the shirt,” he says.

“What? This is my house, you know,” I reply, mocking the sound of hurt.

“I know. You just never work in sweats and a T-shirt,” he says.

“Like I said, I need to chill out more.”

He lifts a brow. “Mmm, okay. Whatever you say.”

“Take a seat.” I gesture to the chairs. “As you can see, I have no fucking idea what I’m looking at. But since I took over all of the Russos’ shit, I need to make sure everything transfers correctly.”

“What do you mean, transferred?” He asks.

“After they took you, I decided we needed to stop playing pretend and actually act like a mafia. Do some damage.”

He stares at me.

“Relax, we didn’t kill just anyone. Only the people who were trying to kill us,” I say.

“Who did you kill?” he asks.

“Me? No one. But the guys took down Lorenzo’s operation. And they killed a few of the goons that were guarding you. It wasn’t easy. It took days to find a way in. The place was secured and secluded. Like a military base.”

“Walk me through it,” he says. When I don’t answer right away, he adds, “Please. I need to know everything.”