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ROMEO

Fuck no.

Absolutely the fuck not .

No way in fucking hell was Juliet living here .

Her apartment building was a massive dirty rectangle, and it only took a glance to know the three guys loitering by the front door were dealing.

I tightened my hold on her. What were the odds she would notice if we just kept walking until we got to a good enough apartment? I would buy it for her, whatever building in the city she wanted. Or I could take her home with me.

The vision of her tucked in my bed danced before my eyes, strangely tantalizing. Matteo’s text had said we’d gotten urgent intel. I should have been home ten minutes ago, but now I couldn’t shake the thought of bringing Juliet with me. She could sit all cute on my lap, like Sofiya often did with Matteo.

“Romeo? Is everything okay?”

I looked down at Juliet’s confused expression.

“What?” My voice came out too harsh and she bit her lip. I took a deep breath and softened my tone. “Is this building safe?”

“Oh. I’ve lived here for a couple of years and haven’t had any issues. I mostly just keep to myself.”

I didn’t move, my mind whirring as I tried to figure out what to do.

Juliet poked my side. “I thought you were in a rush.”

“I am.” But I still didn’t let her go. Why was this so hard? I’d never felt like this about anyone, and the intensity of it made me uncomfortable.

My phone vibrated again and I sighed. “I need you to stay safe, stellina. I mean it.”

She smiled. “I will.”

I walked her past the three guys on the stoop, and she unlocked the door to the lobby. My phone vibrated again and I clenched my jaw. I wanted to walk her to her apartment, but I needed to go. Besides, if I didn’t leave now, I would throw her over my shoulder and run out of here.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” I said, pulling her into my arms for one last hug. “Have a good night, angel.”

Her cheeks turned pink as she looked up at me. “You too. Stay safe with whatever you’re doing.”

My mouth tugged into a smile. “You got it.”

I watched as she headed through the dingy lobby and up the stairs. Once she was out of sight, I rounded on the dealers on the front stairs.

“Do you know who I am?”

They stopped talking right away and shook their heads. They might not know who I was, but they could sense the danger around me.

“I’m Romeo De Luca.”

Their eyes widened.

“Good, you know who I am now. That girl I was with? You stay away from her.”

They nodded furiously.

I rolled my shoulders and headed to the street. It was time for me to return to my real life.

* * *

“Where the fuck have you been?” Matteo asked when I walked into his office.

“Needed some air.”

He fixed me with a skeptical stare, but I wasn’t ready to tell anyone about Juliet, so I just took the seat across from him.

“Did Franco find something?” I asked.

He sighed, scrubbing his face with his hand. “No, but Sofiya talked to the girls you rescued.”

I arched an eyebrow, surprised that he’d let Sofiya go over to the safe house apartments.

“Not my choice. She insisted,” he bit out.

“You forcing her to rest now?” My smile widened at his responding glare. I got a kick out of teasing him, but I suddenly understood his reluctance to be away from his wife. “What did the girls say?” I asked.

“They don’t speak much English, but the men who transported them to the club kept saying the word ‘liberty.’”

I frowned. “As in Statue of? ”

“Or the Port.”

Fuck. There was a container shipping facility on Staten Island called Port Liberty.

“You think that’s how they’re getting the girls in?”

“Franco got ahold of some of the surveillance footage. Facial recognition software had a partial match on the Butcher. The man’s face was in shadow, but it could have been him. That was two nights ago.”

“You think they brought more girls in?”

“I have no idea. We’ll keep monitoring the footage, but I need you to scope it out tonight.”

I nodded. “I’ll get a small team together and connect with Franco on comms.”

“Thank you.” Matteo shifted in his chair. I waited to see if he would say anything else. “I’m sorry I’m not coming with you. Sofiya doesn’t want me in the field, especially now that she’s getting closer to giving birth.”

“It makes sense. We’ve got this, fratello. This is why you have me.”

He scrubbed his hand over his face and looked out the window at the dark city. “I’m not used to sitting on the sidelines.”

“Things have changed.”

Before he met Sofiya, I never would have imagined my brother changing his behavior for a woman, but I guessed that’s what love did to you.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be listening in on comms tonight.”

I nodded and turned to leave, but Matteo stopped me.

“You’d tell me if something was going on? I know last night was hard.” His words came out stilted.

I snorted. “Are we going to talk about our feelings now?”

He flipped me off with a smirk. “Sofiya’s been on me about emotions and shit.”

“I’m fine. I got my revenge on the bastards.”

But as I walked out of the office, I once again had the sensation of revenge not being enough.