Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
GINO
The walk to my sister’s house is quiet, and the wind whips around me. The winter is starting to dissipate, but it’s still freezing out.
Juliet’s right; I’ve been dancing around the conversation with Vanessa for months. I’ve given her surface-level details so as to not invoke overthinking. But it sounds like she’s overthinking.
I open the side door into her kitchen, and Alonso sees me first.
I give him a curt nod.
“Hey, man,” he says.
“Hey, where’s Vanessa?” I ask him.
“She’s in the living room,” he replies.
“Thanks, do you mind giving us some privacy?”
“Not at all. I’ll be in the dining room if you need me,” he replies.
He walks away, and I walk to the living room, seeing Vanessa sitting on the couch. She has her red hair in a high ponytail. And she’s watching TV at a low volume.
“Hey,” I say. I walk around the couch and sit next to her.
“Hey.” She gives me a soft smile.
“I heard you’ve been pushing Alonso and Juliet for information.”
She gives me a sideways glance.
We haven’t known of each other’s existence for long, but we act like we’ve known each other our whole lives. We banter, argue, and annoy each other as siblings do.
“I’ve been asking questions because I know you’ve been keeping secrets from me about how bad it probably is for Mateo,” she replies. “And as I told you before, and I will keep telling you, I don’t need you to baby me. Dad did that enough when I was a kid; I don’t need my brother doing it too.”
I sigh. “I know. To be completely honest, I’m terrified, Ness. I’m actually fucking terrified; I have been since the moment we knew Mateo was kidnapped.”
She turns to me and has a look of shock and understanding on her face. “I have been too.”
“I’m doing everything I can to find him,” I reassure her. “I’ve called in favors and tried negotiating, but nothing’s working.”
“I know, but why do you feel like you need to keep it from me?”
“You weren’t born in this life, Ness. I don’t want you to have to think about all of that. I want you to focus on yourself, Victoria, and Julian,” I say.
“I know that. Mateo might be your best friend, but he’s the man I love, the father of my children, and he doesn’t know that yet.” She pauses. “Wait, do you think he knows?”
“I don’t think he does. They haven’t mentioned you or the twins, which tells me they have no idea you exist, even after all this time,” I say.
“Why?”
“Because your husband, who I know is so madly in love with you, would rather pretend he isn’t married than risk your life.” I know it’s blunt, but it’s true. Mateo would never risk her life even if it meant he had to pretend she didn’t exist.
She swallows. “I know if he were here, he would be the perfect dad.”
“I have no doubt.”
“Do you know why they’ve kept him for so long?” she asks.
“I don’t have any idea,” I say honestly.
“Do you think it’s because of Dad?”
“No.” I know where she’s going with this, but this has nothing to do with him. “This deal was supposed to be easy, but Lorenzo wants something for himself. The raid on one of their warehouses allowed him to exploit us,” I say.
“And his entire family has no clue what’s going on?”
“If they do know, they are very good at hiding it. Everything we’ve gathered is that they’re none the wiser to all of this.
Salvo, Lorenzo’s brother, who was there when they drugged Mateo, either hasn’t gone into detail about what happened that day with their father, or they think something completely different happened. ”
“I know you’ve talked to Lorenzo and Anthony, but have you tried to contact Salvo? Maybe he has some intel?” she suggests.
“We thought about it, but we didn’t think it would give us any leads.”
“It might not give you any leads, but it could give you intel you didn’t have before,” she says.
We’ve looked into Salvo, and all we have on him is that he’s set to take over everything when his father dies or retires. He won’t give anything up even if he wanted to.
“What intel do you think he has?” I ask her.
“It might be nothing, but his brother did this. If they're close at all, Lorenzo has had to have let something slip by now,” she says.
She has a point. But I’ve made enough phone calls to the Russos that they won’t tell me anything directly. We'll need to find it ourselves.
“I’ll see what Drew can find. I think calling them is making it worse. Every time I talk to Anthony, Lorenzo is somehow there, or someone is telling him I’m talking to his father.”
“What about the messages Juliet is getting?” She asks.
Damn, she’s remembering everything right now.
“They’ve pretty much stopped. Whoever it is clearly doesn’t like that she and I are dating.”
She smirks.
“What?” I react.
“Nothing. It’s just…being in a relationship looks good on you,” she replies.
I huff out a laugh.
“Gino, I’m serious; find whoever was messaging her. It scared the shit out of her, and I know it scares you too that someone would message her like that.”
My sister is very good at observing the things around her. I think that’s what made her such a good nurse.
“Okay, did she tell you about her theory once you knew of the messages?” I ask.
“That she thinks it’s two people messaging her? Yeah, she told me,” she replies.
“What’s your take on that?”
“She’s right,” she says without missing a beat.
“I think the idea of one of them working for Lorenzo is plausible. Whoever it is either doesn’t like what he’s doing, or they’re trying to shift focus from Mateo, encouraging you to search for them instead.
The second person is genuinely trying to help, but how would they know Mateo was missing?
You didn’t put up posters all over the city, so it has to be someone who either knows her or you but doesn’t want to get in the way and thinks this was the best way to help,” she says.
“Well, shit. I might need you to work in the analytics department when we start this company.”
“I’m just fine working in the medical field, thank you,” she says.
I know she would never do it, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
I laugh. “Okay, fine, but the offer will always be there.”
“I bet it will, but I kind of like the stay-at-home mom life and helping you guys out when you need it.”
“How are they?” I ask, shifting topics to lighten the mood.
“They’re good,” she tells me confidently. “They would like to see their uncle and godfather more, though.”
“Did you just use your children as a way to get me to hang out with you more?”
“You can think that, but I’ve only seen you a few times over here since they were born, and I would like to see you more,” she gives me her best pouting look.
“You’re good,” I smirk at her. She knows how to get me to say yes. “Fine, I’ll come over more.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“I bet you will,” I reply.
The baby monitor crackles with one of the twins’ soft cries. She gets up and starts to walk upstairs, and I follow her.
Walking into the nursery, Vanessa picks up her son Julian, who is a spitting image of Mateo, and it hits me how much we’re losing with him gone.
I’m frozen as she holds him, watching her take her new normal in stride.
And understanding comes over me about how strong she is, and she doesn’t need a babysitter; she needs a brother she can trust.