Page 32 of The Boss

I was losing all sense of perspective. Any concept of decency had been tossed out the window.

Get your shit together. She isn’t to be touched.

No, she wasn’t.

Business was required. I shook my head as if that would help alleviate the cobwebs she’d managed to create. The phone call had to be made.

Given it was almost seven p.m. in Athens, that meant it was noon in New York City, the place Gregory now called home. There was no good time, so I pressed the single button for his number, moving toward the set of doors leading out to my private patio. Once outside, he almost immediately picked up.

“This is getting to be a habit,” Gregory stated. Given his voice was still chipper, holding a sense of amusement, I knew the Athens police had yet to contact him.

I had no doubt the police had already tried to contact Willow. So far, no one had texted or tried to call again. Additional proof Shane was already dead or hiding. I’d heard the strangled urgency in her voice. If that didn’t prompt Shane to return the call then one of my two suspicions was correct.

“A habit I hope will continue.”

“What’s wrong? I can always tell when you’re holding back on me.” He was still laughing, noise in the background indicating he wasn’t alone.

“Greg, listen to me. Wherever you are, can you step outside or go into another room?”

“O-kay. I don’t like the sound of this, but sure.” He did as I asked. I heard a door close. “I was just prepping for a lunch meeting, but the assholes can wait. What is going on, bra?” He’d used the term for brother since I could remember, acting like the Boston brat he was. Fortunately, his accent wasn’t as strong as it used to be.

Neither was mine.

“There’s been a terrible incident in Athens.”

“Incident? What the hell?”

“Greg, there’s no easy way to say this. Your brother and his wife were killed.”

I heard my friend suck in his breath then all was quiet. Too quiet.

“Are you there?” I asked him.

“How?” The single word allowed me to hear clearly just how affected he was by the news. I closed my eyes, trying to catch my breath.

“Murdered. It was violent and I’m not going to lie to you, so far there are no suspects.”

A noise indicated he’d either sat down or tossed something. “What about my niece and nephew? Where are they? Are they hurt? Do they know? How the fuck do you know?”

“Calm down. Willow is with me.”

“With you. Alright. And Shane?” He seemed confused.

“He’s nowhere to be found.”

After snorting I could hear his nervous laughter. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“That means he’s not answering his phone and Willow hasn’t seen him since they arrived, although he was supposed to attend a family celebration.”

“My God.”

I allowed him time to absorb what I’d told him, if that was even possible.

“Okay. What is Willow doing with you?” My friend was already moving to the anger phase. Something I knew far too well.

“She’s under my protection.”

The next round of silence was followed by an explosion of emotion including hatred. “So that fucking life of yours finally affected my family? My. Family? I told you never to allow them to know about your business. I asked you one thing from our friendship. One. Never, ever to allow your fucking criminal world to bleed over into theirs. Let me guess. This is all because of you and your fucking mafia friends. Right?”

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