Chapter 45
FORTY-FIVE
GINO
This motherfucker. I thought they would have been over messaging Juliet since they hadn’t sent one in a while.
Looking over at her, she’s stuck in a moment of fear.
I walk to her and immediately hold her, rubbing my hands up and down her arms.
“Jules,” I whisper.
She stares past me.
“Bella,” I whisper again.
Nothing.
“Juliet.” My voice is still low, but a decibel louder.
That gets her to look at me.
“Hey,” I give her a soft smile.
“Why are they doing this?” she asks.
“Because they're an asshole who wants to scare you.” I pause and turn to look at Ryan. “When everyone gets here, come to my office.”
He nods.
I grab Juliet’s arm and pull her out of her office and into mine. I close the door behind us.
I walk Juliet to the couch and sit her down. Then I sit next to her, pulling her in to lean on me.
The next few minutes are spent in silence.
“Gino,” she finally starts, “I don’t know if I can keep doing this. I-if they’re going to continue with the messages, I mean.”
I swallow.
“Why am I the one they’re texting?” she continues, fear and terror lacing her shaking voice. “I haven’t done anything.”
“I know,” I say.
She sighs. “I just can’t risk my life like that. I know it might sound like I don’t care about what we’ve built. But I didn’t sign up for my life to be at risk like this.”
“I know. What do you want to do?” I ask.
“Find this person or persons and hopefully never have something like this happen again,” she replies.
I breathe out a sigh of relief. I was nervous she was going to leave or say she wanted to leave.
“You and I both know Drew will find them. If we need to search the earth for them, we will.” I promise her.
She swallows.
We sit there in silence. Then a knock comes to the door.
I get up from the couch and open the door. I assume it would be Ryan, but it’s my sister.
“Hey, Gino,” she says, giving me a soft smile, holding my niece, Victoria, in her arms.
“Hey, Ness.” I step aside to allow her to walk in.
“Hey Juliet,” she says, walking towards the couch. “You look like you could use some baby cuddles.”
Juliet smiles at her. “That would honestly be great.” Vanessa hands her Victoria.
“Where’s your husband and Julian?” I ask.
“In Juliet’s office with everyone else,” Vanessa replies.
“Okay, let’s all go in there. And yes, Vanessa, I want you in this conversation,” I say before she can ask.
“Must be serious.” I glare at her, which is enough of a response. “Oh, it’s serious.”
I walk out of my office and into Juliet’s, both women closely behind.
Mateo is standing there holding his son, Julian. How he jumped into fatherhood so quickly, I have no idea.
Alonso is crouched down next to Drew, pointing at something on the screen.
Jake and Gabe are sitting in the love seat, waiting for a command.
“Where’s Marco?” I ask.
“The drive is a bit longer from the docks,” Jake replies.
I nod in response.
“Call him and get him on speaker.”
And with that, I walk behind Juliet’s desk, toss my phone, and look up. Everyone’s looking at me expectantly.
Once Marco is on the phone, I look at Juliet, who’s standing next to Vanessa and Mateo. She gives me a small nod.
“Juliet got three messages just now; whoever this is clearly knows us,” I begin. “Drew, reach out to the Russos and see if you can get any info on who Lorenzo’s men are or were and see if you can get access to their cell phones. I’m guessing one of them is directly related to Lorenzo.
The messages she just received aren’t necessarily threatening, but they know about us wanting to start a business, and outside of the people in this room and a handful of others, no one knows that yet. So unless it’s someone we know, they have insider information.
Ryan, sweep the house for bugs. See if anyone has been listening or watching us.
Gabe, Jake, Marco, talk to your dad to see if he’s heard of anyone asking questions.
Alonso, help Ryan and Drew with whatever they need.
Mateo, take another look at any of the contracts we’ve signed and see if there’s anything in there that could tell us who this is. ”
Everyone nods and leaves the room except Juliet and my sister. Mateo whispers something to her as she takes their son in her arms. Then he leaves the room.
My sister smirks at me. “What?” I ask.
“Nothing.” She’s got that sisterly look on her face. “I’m going to take the twins downstairs.” She takes her daughter out of Juliet’s arms and walks out of the room.
“What should I do?” Juliet asks.
“What do you want to do?” I ask.
“I—” I can tell she’s struggling to come up with an answer, so I start talking for her.
“Go downstairs and hang out with Vanessa. If there are any numbers to look at, I’ll let you know, okay?” I whisper.
She nods. I softly kiss her and wrap her in a hug.
“We’re going to find who this is, bella.”
She swallows.
I lift her chin to look at me. “Hey, I know you’re scared. We’re going to find them. Now go downstairs and try to relax. I love you,” I say softly.
“I love you too,” she replies, and I kiss her again.
She walks out of the room, and I walk into my office. Mateo’s already looking over something at my desk.
“I thought you said these messages stopped?” Mateo asks.
“They did,” I reply as I sit at my desk.
“Why would they start again?” he asks.
“I have no fucking clue,” I say.
“Anything else outside of the messages that happened?”
“The flowers—”
He cuts me off. “What flowers?” he asks.
“Some teenager dropped them off. They were left at her house for Juliet. She and Drew looked into it, but it was a dead end. It looked like whoever placed the order had no idea why they were doing it,” I tell him.
“Who was the teenager?”
“No clue; she said she lived nearby, but I had never seen her before,” I say.
“Could be a possibility that the kid knows something.”
“True,” I say. But I remember her looking nervous to even be here, so I doubt she had anything to do with any of this except finding the flowers.
“Do you still have access to the security camera footage from that day?” he asks.
“Yeah, I saved it just in case, never looked at it, though.”
“Pull it up; let's see if we can find anything,” he suggests.
I open my laptop and search for the footage. I start playing it, and once I get a clear view of the girl. I pause the video and turn the computer to Mateo.
“That’s her,” I say.
“Jesus, she’s just a kid,” he breathes. “Do you think someone paid her?”
“No, she said someone dropped them off at her house. She looked scared to come over here,” I say.
With Mateo and I deep in conversation, my gaze flicks to the door to find Ryan. I don’t know how long he’s been standing there, but clearly, it’s long enough to express shock.
“Ryan, you good?” I ask.
That gets him out of his frozen state.
He swallows. “Why do you have a picture of Sophie on your computer?” His voice rises with anger.
“Who’s Sophie?” I ask.
“Gino, I swear to God I’ll punch you if you don’t answer the question,” Ryan grits out.
“Jeez, okay.” I put my hands up in mock surrender. “She’s the girl who dropped off those flowers to Juliet months ago.”
“Why the fuck would my sister be delivering flowers to your house?” he yells.
“This is your sister?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he swallows.
“Holy shit,” Mateo says under his breath.
“Where does she live?” I ask.
“She lives with our dad and her mom not far from here. Maybe ten minutes,” Ryan says.
“Could you walk here from their house?” I ask.
“Probably, but it would be a long walk. And she wouldn’t walk it, believe me. I wouldn’t be surprised if she drove,” he adds.
“Maybe someone dropped her off when she brought the flowers?” Mateo asks.
“That son of a bitch,” Ryan yells.
“What?” Mateo and I both blurt out.
Before he answers, Ryan’s running out of my office.