“Hell no.” He lets out a short laugh. “Your wife and Juliet would actually kill me if I even suggested it.”
He sobers. “I gave Drew full authority to do whatever he thought was necessary to find you. He started hacking directly into the Russos’ servers. Lorenzo used his father’s computers for most of his communication, which is why we couldn’t track you. That was the blind spot.”
He leans back. “We finally got a break about a week ago. Drew cracked their accounting and banking systems. There was one property tied entirely to his mother’s name. That’s what gave it away. We never would’ve looked there if it hadn’t been for Juliet.”
I frown. “Juliet?”
“She suggested we start looking at the women,” he says. “Some of them are like us. They trust deeply. They love hard. And they protect the people closest to them.” He gives me a reassuring smile.
“What about his dad and the other brother?”
“They’re alive. They had no idea Lorenzo was holding you. They thought he scared you a bit and you went straight home.”
“What?” I ask in shock.
“Yeah,” he says. “That’s how I was able to take so much from them without raising alarms. This was supposed to be a clean, easy deal. Lorenzo just wanted it all for himself.”
“Jesus. Why would he do that? And how did no one see it?”
“Because he had his own guys,” Gino says.“He wanted torun the Russo empire by himself. He built separate teams that didn’t interact with anyone else.”
“So what did you get from them?”
“All of their stateside properties,” he replies. “Which is a lot more than I expected.”
“How much?”
“Ten warehouses, two commercial buildings, four office buildings, and three apartment complexes.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t know they had that much here.”
“Neither did I. But they didn’t want a war with us, so they handed it all over. And honestly, I think it’s because Lorenzo ran the stateside business. They wanted to distance themselves from it.”
Knowing I’ve gotten enough out of him for now, and that I’ll keep digging until I have every last detail, I ask the one question I know will annoy the shit out of him.
“So who’s your lawyer now?”
“What kind of question is that—” He scoffs. “You are.”
“Who’s been helping you with all of this?” I press. “We both know you have no clue what you’re doing when it comes to legal jargon.”
“Juliet,” he admits. “She’s been helping with everything. She knows a lot about contracts and that kind of stuff.”
“About Juliet,” I say carefully. “When did she stop waking up at sunrise to get things done?”
“I don’t control when she wakes up.”
“I beg to differ,” I counter. “Considering when I walked in, both of you were still in pajamas at almost ten.”
“So now it’s a crime to sleep in?” He lifts his brows at me.
I shrug. “No. But you know what? I’m not going to pry into what you do in your free time.”
“Good,” he says flatly. “And never fucking start.”
I snicker. We both know I see straight through him. I’vebeen calling it for years, the two of them together. But I also know he doesn’t want to have a heart-to-heart, so he keeps his mouth shut—and so do I.
“How did you take the news about the kids?” he asks.
