Page 33

Sitting down on the park bench, I stretched my long legs in front of me and leaned an elbow casually across the back of the bench. On the other side of the bench sat my cousin Benvolio, but I didn’t turn to him. I didn’t even look at him. To anyone who might be looking we were two strangers enjoying the sunny weather.

I stared at the ducks across the pond as they fought over bread being thrown to them by an overenthusiastic boy, his mother clinging to his elbows to keep him from falling in. My mother used to take me to this park. We used to feed the ducks together. Happiness used to be that simple.

“What have you got for me?” I said in a low voice.

“Julianna Capulet,” Benvolio began in a matching low voice.

Her name caused my dick to twitch and my chest to tighten like I was having a heart attack.

No fucking panties.

Fuck, she had some balls on her. If she had confronted anyone else in my family like that, she would be dead. Laying in a ditch somewhere in ribbons. Or held in a basement, all her holes raped raw until they got bored of her and she ended up in that ditch anyway. I teetered between wanting to punish her for her recklessness and stealing her away for her own safety.

She made me fucking crazy. She made me do stupid shit. She was dangerous. I had to stay away from her. Or we were both dead. So why the hell was I getting my cousin to dig around for information about her?

Benvolio continued, oblivious to my internal distress. “The only daughter of the Chief of Police Montgomery Capulet and deceased Prosecutor Abigail Capulet. Awarded top marks at her police training academy, including an award for marksmanship. One of the youngest to ever make detective, six months ago. Her and her partner, Luiz Espinoza, have been working together since then at the twelfth precinct. Her partner is loyal to her father; they worked together at one point. Rumor has it that Daddy hand-picked Espinoza as her partner to keep her out of trouble and to report back on what she’s up to.”

I flinched. “Her father’s spying on her?” I thought I had problems.

“Not spying exactly…but keeping an eye on her.”

I doubted Julianna knew about this. If she did, she wouldn’t stand for it.

Look at you, thinking you know the lady cop so well.

“She’s well liked, well respected,” Benvolio continued, “has a reputation for keeping her nose clean. I suppose with who her daddy is, that’s not a surprise.”

“Tell me more about this partner, this Espinoza guy?”

“He’s in his mid-thirties, never married, no kids. Also a spotless record. Him and Julianna are close, if you know what I mean.”

Only then did I glance over and catch the smirk on his face. My stomach tightened. “No,” I said through gritted teeth, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“They’re fucking, man.”

The idea of her being with anyone else, the idea of anyone else touching her, was enough to make me vibrate with fury. I wanted to rip this bench out of the ground and beat the shit out of Benvolio for daring to suggest that she was fucking someone else. “How do you know that?”

“That’s the word on the street. And you know what they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Julianna and Espinoza. My mind flashed to them sitting across from me at the interrogation table. Had they been sitting closer than they should? Where were his hands? Could they have been on her leg?

Why the fuck did I care?

I studied this unfamiliar biting feeling coursing through my veins. The answer smacked me in the face. I was jealous. I didn’t get jealous. I heard a growl and realized it was coming from me.

“You okay, bro?” Benvolio asked.

I shoved my emotions down and forced my face into a cold mask. Later I’d go bash the shit out of a bag in my private gym. For now, I had to keep my shit together. I couldn’t let Benvolio get even a whiff that I cared about who Julianna was fucking.

“What about her friends?” I barreled on like nothing was wrong. “What does she do outside work?”

“As far I can see, her work is her life.” Benvolio was staring at me out of the corner of his eye. “If you’re thinking of approaching her with a bribe, it won’t work. It’ll cause you more trouble than it’s worth. Besides, they don’t have anything to pin Vinnie’s murder on you.”

I snapped my head towards him. What the hell was he doing? He should know better than to say anything incriminating out loud, especially in a public place like this. I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know anything about Vinnie’s murder. Neither do you.”

Benvolio’s eyes widened, then he nodded. He stared around us, as if looking for anyone who might be listening. “Yeah, right. We know nothing about nothing.”

I almost rolled my eyes. Benvolio was like a squirrel, great at ferreting out hidden nuts of information, but he had a brain the size of a nut.

“If that’s all you’ve got, then I have somewhere to be.” I got up and left him sitting on the bench, my head a fucking mess.

What the hell was wrong with me? I was getting jealous over a woman. Not just any woman, but Julianna fucking Capulet.

My enemy.