Star-Crossed (35 page)

“So you started stripping.”

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Romeo nodded. “Even still, the state was breathing down my fucking neck. I needed to make a lot of money to keep them off my ass. That’s when Nova started gambling again. Legally this time, ’cause we couldn’t afford to get busted.” Jules looked at him in confusion. “What?”

“Stocks,” Romeo said with a grin. “He’d been watching the trends and doing whatever the hell he does for a while. Playing with mock money, tracking how much he could make, pretend trial and error. Then one day he just set me up an account and started trading in my name.”

Jules turned to him again, her eyes lighting up in comprehension. “That’s where all the money comes from.”

“Yeah. Nova invests what I make from fighting. It’s not dirty.”

“I’m so sorry,” Jules said solemnly. “I never should’ve assumed it was.”

“It was an honest assumption, and Nova does launder his fair share of dirty money. I dunno if that makes my money dirty by association.” Jules shook her head. “I don’t think so. If I have a stockbroker, and Frankie has the same stockbroker, that ain’t making the money I earn any less legally mine.” Romeo was surprised just how good it felt to know Jules wasn’t judging him anymore. He didn’t need her approval, but it was still nice to have. It really grated on him to know she’d thought he was doing something illegal for his cash.

“So it was my fault Frankie started to get wind of the money Nova was making for us.” Romeo cringed over this part; the wounds still cut too deep to talk about without hurting over it. “We’d just been broke for so long. I wanted the kids to look good. I wanted to look good. I wanted a car. I was sick of the friggin’ subway. If I knew then what I know now, I’d have kept us in ratty clothes, ’cause Frankie knew I wasn’t making
that much
from stripping. He knew Nova was doing something, and he started putting the squeeze on me.”

“How so?”

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“Threatening me. Slashing my tires. Showing up outside the club. Intimidating my employer. If I didn’t make so much for them, they would’ve fired me. Believe it or not, that was him being low-key ’cause he didn’t want to upset the kids when he needed them. I was about ready to quit and just live off what Nova was investing, maybe move somewhere outta the city, but I never gotta a chance.”

“What happened?”

“Four of Frankie’s soldiers caught me after work one night.” Romeo’s stomach clenched at the memory. “They attacked me, but I fought back. It’s instinct—”

“Except with Wyatt,” Jules cut in. “Clay told me you just stood there.”

“I didn’t wanna hurt your brother.”

“The next time my brother comes at you trying to put you in the hospital, you have my full permission to fight back. Wyatt’s a big boy. He can hold his own, and if he’s starting shit, he better be prepared to deal with the consequences.”

“Anyway”—Romeo shifted uncomfortably, the talk about Wyatt and the old memories making his ribs hurt worse—“cops showed up, but instead of nailing the guys who jumped me, they tried to pin it on me instead.”

“What?” Jules gasped, sounding horrified. “If it was four on one, how could they assume it was your fault?”

“It was a setup, and the cops were in on it,” Romeo said, thinking it was obvious.

“They knew I’d fight back, and ’cause of all my martial arts training that makes the charges more serious. All Frankie’s soldiers were sporting injuries and just sorta pointed a finger in my direction.”

“You would’ve gotten off,” Jules argued. “Even a bad lawyer could get you off the hook.”

“Yeah, that’s what Nova said later.” Romeo sighed, closing his eyes once more.

“But I knew the cops were dirty, willing to haul me in just to put a few bucks in their pocket. It was part of Frankie’s bullshit to scare me into letting him borrow Nova’s 286

brain, but I was just so pissed and sick of the injustice, I fought back. I put the one cop in the hospital. I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just nailed him, and his head hit the pavement too hard, fucking blood everywhere, and I knew I was going away. Even before they forced me into the cop car, I knew.”

“God, Romeo.” Jules’s voice cracked with emotion. “Was he okay?”

“Eventually, but it didn’t matter that he recovered. I was up for assaulting an officer. A dirty cop’s still a cop when there’s nothing to prove otherwise.” Romeo shrugged. “The injuries were serious enough to do hard time. I had a good lawyer. I got lucky with two years and ten fucking years of probation. I thought that shit would never end.”

“And you lost Nova and Tino,” Jules said sadly.

“Yeah, Frankie took them rather than let the state have them. My ma put his name on the birth certificate. They had his last name. They were legally his. His wife wasn’t happy, but she didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Frankie had custody until Tino turned eighteen. I never got them back.”

“You didn’t see them?”

“They were over at my place all the time when I got out. They spent the night more often than not, but by then they were so entrenched in the organization I couldn’t undo what was done. Once you get in, you don’t get out. Nova dropped out of high school while I was in prison and moved up from helping Frankie to helping Aldo, his grandfather, the big boss. When I got out, I saw how people looked at him, scared, like they knew he was going to end up running it all. No one wanted to piss Nova off, and Tino was just as bad. He was a known soldier for Frankie. He didn’t leave the house without packing heat, and he was still a baby. It was just—bad.”

“Did it get better?”

“No.” Romeo shook his head. “It’s gotten steadily worse. Frankie wanted me to throw the fight with Lipton. He’s retaliating against Nova because Aldo demoted Frankie to give Nova the underboss job. That’s how good Nova is, twenty-four and he’s

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got Aldo kicking his own son to the curb because the payday Nova delivers on a regular basis is that massive.”

“But you ain’t throwing the fight if you’ve forfeited.”

“Doesn’t matter. Frankie has been looking for an excuse to whack me for years.

Now it’s got the added bonus of hurting Nova after he stole his underboss job. He’s coming after me. I’m not gonna have Tino or Nova get caught in the cross fire, and I’m tired of all the bullshit. They told me to throw the fight with Clay, you know? I didn’t. I was gonna take the mob hit instead, but I lost anyway. Now I’m never gonna get a title, and I don’t even give a shit. I just want my brothers back.” Romeo let his eyes close once more. The exhaustion. The heartache. The throb in his skull suddenly felt like more than he could bear, and his words were slurred with the crash of his confession.

“Just really tired.”

Jules slowed to a stop at one of the endless small intersections before the interstate. Romeo could feel her eyes on him, but he felt a little too beaten and exposed to acknowledge it.

“Did the doctors give you something for the pain?”

“Yeah,” Romeo said, not expecting that to be her reaction to his story.

“Have you taken any of it?”

“No,” Romeo said, his words still heavy. His tongue felt like lead in his mouth.

“Was driving, remember? Not totally irresponsible, Juliet.”

“I think you’re the exact opposite of irresponsible, Romeo,” Jules said, soft and reassuring; her voice was a balm of companionship when he should be feeling alone and lost in the darkness. She reached over, clasping his big hand in hers. “You’re a good brother. They were lucky to have you. I hope you know that.” Romeo squeezed her hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing it blindly rather than argue with her. Then he turned on his side, trying to get comfortable. He cursed his large size and his bruised ribs. He refused to let go of Jules. She was one of the more talented drivers he knew; she could navigate one-handed.

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“Do you want me to pull over and get your pain medicine out of your bags?”

“You’re my pain medicine.” He kissed her hand again. “Just gonna rest my eyes.” The low hum of the tires against the road and the silence that stretched out between them lulled Romeo, relaxing him to the point that some of the stress eased in his shoulders. It was nice to give up worrying for a moment, to let Jules drive and know without a doubt she’d get them somewhere worth being. For the first time in his life he let down his guard by falling asleep, trusting Jules enough to let her take the wheel for him and not fuck it up.

Chapter Twenty

Wyatt’s back hurt every time he crashed on the couch in his office. He’d just meant to rest his eyes, but when he opened them the first rays of morning were shining through the window and the smell of gourmet coffee permeated the air.

That meant Adam was on shift, which made it past six in the morning. Wyatt unfolded himself from the couch and sat up, rubbing his back and trying to wake up more fully.

“Morning.”

Wyatt glanced to his open office door to see Adam in his tan deputy uniform, looking wide-awake and happy to be alive. A powerfully built black man, with startling amber eyes, Adam was naturally handsome and enjoyed the novelty of it until a city girl named Kesha visited some of her kin after graduating from college two summers ago and stolen his heart. They’d gotten married last year. Now a newlywed, Adam was always annoyingly chipper.

With a knowing smirk, Adam arched an eyebrow at Wyatt. “Heard you had some trouble yesterday with the Gladiator.”

Wyatt groaned and fell back on the couch. Regardless of how badly it hurt his back, he suddenly wanted to go back to sleep. He grabbed the pillow and put it over his face. “Who told ya that?”

“Everyone.”

“Hell.”

“You got a few bruises showing.”

Wyatt snorted. “You should see the other guy.”

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“I heard he just stood there.”

“Oh Christ.” Wyatt groaned, knowing that fight was going to hurt his reputation.

“There goes the next election.”

“No one runs against you in those bogus elections.”

“I know.” Wyatt sighed. “Maybe someone should. You want the job?”

“You just slept on the couch. I’m gonna pass on that.” Wyatt tossed the pillow aside in defeat. “So much for early retirement.”

“Why dontcha head home?” Adam suggested with a wince. “You’re looking rough, man. Maybe you ought to cash in the two years of sick time ya got saved up.”

“Nah, I’m okay,” Wyatt said dismissively. “I’ll take a power nap at home and be back at two.”

“I can work a double.”

“Kesha gets pissy with me when I let you do that.” Wyatt tried to make the falsehood sound believable when Kesha was never anything but nice to him. Too nice.

Wyatt always felt guilty making her new husband work too much. “She gives me hell.

You don’t even know.”

“No, she doesn’t. She worries ’bout you as much as I do. You’re just using that shit as an excuse to work yourself to death.”

“I’d love to take a fucking vacation, but that wife of yours intimidates me.”

“I’m gonna tell her you said that,” Adam warned. “And she’s gonna hire Jules to sue ya for libel ’cause that’s the biggest damn lie I ever heard.”