Chapter 37
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.”
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.
“Hey, Ness,” Gino says.
I walk to her and grab Victoria out of her arms. She looks at me like she knows Gino needs to talk to her.
“What is it?” she asks.
I know she’s hopeful I will tell her, but Gino’s right; we can’t get her hopes up if this doesn’t go well.
“I need to send Alonso on a job; he'll be gone for a few days. Juliet will come by every day to help with the twins,” he says.
She looks at him with hopeful eyes. “Please tell me where you’re sending him.”
“I’m sending him on a job; trust me, it’s for a good reason. And before you ask any questions, I won't tell you anything. But I’ll tell you this: if this works and goes according to plan, everything will hopefully be better.”
“With that statement, I'm assuming you’re sending him to Italy,” she replies.
Gino looks at me, but he decides to give her something. “I’m sending him and Gabe to track down a lead, and if it works, it’ll put an end to all of this.”
She gives him a flat look. “That's it? That’s all you're going to say?”
“Ness, I’m sorry. For your safety and the safety of Victoria and Julian, I can’t tell you,” he says.
“I really hope you’re not using my kids as the reason you’re not telling me.”
“That’s not even close to what I’m doing,” he sighs.
“Fine, once this whole thing is dealt with, we’re going to need to talk about your communication skills.” She looks at me now. “Is he always like this or just with me?”
“Uh—” I pause.
How do I answer that?
“Don’t answer that; I’m not going to drive a wedge between you two,” she says. “Gino, seriously, why the secrecy? If this concerns me or my children, I should know.”
“Vanessa, please just trust me on this,” he pleads. “Once Alonso gets back, I’ll tell you everything.”
She swallows. “Fine, but I’m not happy about it.”
We stay for an early dinner. While Gino’s washing the dishes, Vanessa pulls me into Mateo’s office.
She shuts the door and turns to me.
“I’m not asking you to break Gino’s trust. But I need to know, Juliet, are we any closer to finding him?” she asks, defeated. “I can’t keep living like this. Everyone has been great and helpful, but the one person I need isn’t here. I don’t want my children growing up without their father.”
“All I can tell you is everyone is working their ass off to find him.” I try my best to reassure her, but there’s only so much we can offer her right now.
“Are we close? Hopefully. I’ve been trying to find new angles, and we might have one.
Clearly, Anthony Russo knows nothing of what his son is doing outside of what we’ve told him,” I reply.
“I don’t know what to do,” she admits, her voice extremely low. “My brother is hiding things from me. What should I do?”
I really look at her now. She’s been holding it together, and most days I see her, she seems to have it together, but right now the cracks in her armor are showing.
“If you can’t trust Gino, trust me, Vanessa. I promise the reason Gino isn’t going to tell you anything is not that he doesn’t want to. It’s because if he does and it doesn’t work, he doesn’t know how to face you,” I say, looking at her with soft eyes.
She purses her lips. “Okay, I’ll let it go for now, but I don’t know how long I can keep this up.”
“You’re allowed to reel through the motions, Vanessa,” I tell her. “They’re all valid.”
Tears brim her eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispers and wraps me in a hug.
I breathe in her vanilla scent. Holding her, I can tell how tired she is.
I hope Gino having me make the call was the right decision.