Page 22

22

ROMEO

I grinned down at my phone. Maybe I could convince Juliet to send me a picture of her reading… naked. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and not just imagining what she would look like underneath me, bare and screaming with pleasure, but just her . The excitement in her eyes when she talked about her favorite books. The way her voice went all soft when we spoke in the middle of the night. The pink flush to her cheeks.

A knock at the door pulled me out of my fantasy.

“You ready?” Angelo asked when I opened it.

Franco had gotten intel that the Albanians were getting a shipment of girls into Liberty Port tomorrow night, and we were meeting to plan how to intercept them. I hoped the Butcher would be there. I was ready to take the bastard down.

* * *

My fingers were numb with the cold as I waited behind a shipping container for the Albanians. Uneasiness filled me the longer we were here. Something didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t pinpoint why.

I glanced over at Angelo, who looked unconcerned. I shook out my shoulders. I was being paranoid. Our intel said the Albanians were getting a shipment of girls after midnight and were transporting them across the bay to a storage facility near Newark.

We had men stationed on the other side of the water to intercept them in case we missed them on this side, but I was determined not to let that happen.

I would end this tonight.

A rumbling noise put me on high alert, but it was coming from the road, not the water. Suddenly, a huge spotlight almost blinded me as it lit up our section of the port.

“Get down!” I shouted. I hit the ground, my heart pounding wildly as shots ripped through the air.

We’d walked into a fucking ambush.

The spotlight gave away our location but also illuminated the Albanian soldiers. It made picking them off strangely easy, especially as all their shots went wide, pinging off the metal shipping containers.

I rolled, gesturing for my men to turn down another row still cast in shadow. I peered out behind the corner and took out two Albanian soldiers before taking cover again. Angelo was leading a group of men to surround them from behind.

“Vedi qualche ragazza?” I murmured into my bluetooth. Do you see any girls?

“No,” came Angelo’s response, confirming my suspicion that we’d gotten bad intel. They were never getting a shipment in tonight.

I ran through an alley between two long rows of containers. I ducked, narrowly avoiding a bullet, before returning fire. I was enraged that we’d been tricked, but fighting like this gave my inner monster a cool sense of pleasure.

This was what I was made for.

I crouched down as I reloaded, distracted only by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I fished it out and saw it was Juliet. Shit. We’d been talking around midnight every night this week. She was probably wondering why I hadn’t called her.

I took a deep breath, forcing my darkness to recede before I answered, making sure to mute my mission comms first.

“Hey, baby. You doing okay? Sorry I haven’t been able to call yet.”

I kept my voice low so the Albanians wouldn’t overhear.

“Yeah. I just… umm… Why are you whispering? Is someone there?”

I grinned. “Why, are you jealous?”

There was a beat of silence. “Well, if you’re busy?—”

“No,” I said quickly, cutting her off. “I’m never too busy for you. There’s no one with me. I’m just… at the library.”

I was struck by the urge to smack myself over the head with my own gun. At the library? What the ever-loving fuck kind of answer was that?

“Oh. I used to love the library. I didn’t know they were open this late.”

I pressed my fist against my mouth to stifle my laughter. Damn. How could she be this fucking cute all the time?

“I’ve got my connections.” Now I wanted to build her an entire library. I had plenty of empty rooms in my apartment.

“Well, I won’t keep you, but I was just thinking maybe I could order a pizza to the bookstore tomorrow night, and if you had a minute, you could come by. You wouldn’t even have to steal the pizza this time.”

Two bullets hit the side of the container I was crouching behind. I quickly pressed my phone to my chest and returned fire, my smile widening when I hit one of the Albanian soldiers.

“Romeo? What was that noise? Are you okay?”

I hated the panic in Juliet’s voice, but I reveled in her worry for me.

“Just a car backfiring. I’d love to have pizza with you. Eight o’clock work?”

“Eight is good. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“My girl just invited me to have pizza with her, so yeah, I’m doing fucking great. I’ll bring the pizza, though. You want the same as last time?”

“Oh, you don’t have to?—”

“Juliet,” I said sternly.

She huffed an annoyed sigh. “Yes, same as last time, please.”

“Good girl. I’ll see you tomorrow night. Now get some sleep, angel.”

I hung up before she could answer and shot at the remaining soldiers.