Page 45 of The Boss

He is definitely bipolar then. Or has split personalities? How did he just go from making me almost pee my pants with fear at how he decimated multiple attackers at once, to baby talk?

Something here does not add up. I need to puzzle it out, think it through. Away from here. I’m shaking as I stomp through the brush. Tink happily trots by my side rather than staying by her master. She pants up at me, almost mocking.

“Yeah, I was wrong. Again,” I say to the dog. I’m always talking to canines now. I’m losing it.

But.

I did learn that they train out here in the woods. Why? They have a huge state-of-the art gym at their disposal. There were only a handful of men with him. Which ones? Why them? Where are the others? Are these men going to head back to the house and scrub toilets now? Trim the damn bushes? I bet they are.

This…this is insane. I’ve thought myself into useless circles. I need to talk this out.

I stalk to the mansion, purposely avoid the kitchen and rec rooms and any other spot that I might get lemonade from—becauseabsolutelynot— and go to my beloved couch in Quinn’s room. I dig out my phone and dial the number I memorized because I still don’t know how to work this old, folding, typewriter data-less piece of crap Quinn calls a phone.

“Luna!” Ellie answers right away.

“Ellie,” I smile.

She starts ranting, “Thank God, you’re alive! I was so worried because you said only to call your new number and it gave me theyour call cannot be completedmessage over and over. Are you okay? Tell me you’re okay!”

“I’m okay.”

“Oh, thank God!”

I can’t help but chuckle, she’s so worked up. “You said that already.”

“Well, I thought you could be dead!”

“I don’t think it’d be a good move for Quinn to end his new partnership in week one. Though he did threaten to cut my head down the middle.”

“Hewhat?!”

“Yeah. Things are weird, El, things are weird.”

She squeaks, “Was that because he discovered your second phone? How did he find it?”

“I—” well, shit, “I don’t know, actually. Maybe I didn’t do a good job of hiding it, it was tucked into my skirt, he took it away right when we got here the first night.”

She hums and then warily asks, “And…that night? Oh man, did he...”

“No, No! He didn’t! Which is surprising, right? Skulls the psycho is actuallynota rapist? Everything here is surprising, that’s what I called to tell you.”

“Okay?”

“First of all, my jig is up. He knew way too much about me to buy my act. He knows I’m trained in jujitsu, a good shot, have an MBA, he even knows my secret hopes about taking over, which is weird because why would Papa have told him that? Just to have my new husband laugh at little me?” She hums in confusion.

I start to pace the room as I think aloud, “The compoundislike a frat house. Like a million Quinn juniors who look like him and walk and talk like him and worship the ground he walks on. All young, all happy and bro-ing around like they’re not all working for the most terrifying crime lord of our time.”

“Really?” She gasps the word. She gets it. It’s just too strange.

“Yes, and they make eye contact with him and clap him on the shoulder like he’s their best friend. Not their boss. And the man talks to his dogs in baby talk, Ellie. Baby talk.”

“No!”

“Yes again! Like, wait, maybe they are all on drugs. Maybe there’s a new drug on the market, some weird, happy trip like super-charged ecstasy or something.”

“But you said he threatened you.”

“Yes. He did a couple days ago. And it was terrifying. And just now, he was a beast, tearing through his men in a training fight. For a few minutes, he was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. Then he’s hugging his dogs. Like an unhinged Jekyll and Hyde.”