65
had an expensive camera around his neck, and Romeo was willing to bet there was a video camera resting on the floor next to the other one.
Shit.
He snuck away from the door, looking for his discarded clothes from last night and not finding them. He headed back into the bedroom and discovered Jules had put his suit on a hanger that was hooked to the top of the bathroom door. The wrinkles had fallen out, making it obvious she’d let the heat from her shower steam press it for him.
Despite the situation, Romeo smiled.
He started the search for his other belongings and found them on the nightstand: his wallet, his cuff links, and his cell phone, which he picked up and immediately texted Jules.
Did you get back to your room okay?
Then he sat naked on the bed and called Nova, who answered on the third ring sounding worse for the wear. “’Lo.”
“I need you to bring me some clothes down to room 1041, but you gotta be slick about it. Don’t make it obvious what you’re doing.”
“Okay,” Nova mumbled, seeming more asleep than awake. “Is there a reason why you don’t have any clothes?”
“I got my suit, but I can’t walk out wearing Versace at nine in the morning with reporters camped outside this room. It’ll look like I’m coming off a one-night stand.”
“Which you are,” Nova had to point out. “Did you say there’s reporters camped outside the room?”
Romeo winced. “Yeah.”
“Fuckers,” Nova growled, sounding dangerous despite the early hour. “Someone ratted you out. I’m gonna go down there and—”
Romeo cut off his tirade. “I forgot to put it under a different name.” 66
“Madonn’, this chick’s melting your friggin’ brain,” Nova snapped. “I told you she was trouble.”
“Just bring me the damn clothes. I’m gonna take a quick shower, but I’ll call down to the front desk and tell ’em to give you a key.”
“Fine.” Nova sighed. “I got this. I’ll get Tino and the boys. We’ll clear out the problem.”
It was on the tip of Romeo’s tongue to ask Nova not to cause a scene, but then he decided to save his breath. His brothers weren’t exactly low-key when it came to things like this, but he did want the problem gone. He was still too high on Jules Conner to deal with the media, especially trashy media that camped outside his hotel for the right shot.
Fuck ’em. Let them deal with the Moretti brothers.
Romeo hung up and checked his phone, feeling his frustration evaporate when he found that Jules had already texted him back.
Did you think I’d need a road map back to my own hotel room? Maybe you need a few
more hours sleep, city boy.
Romeo laughed and then responded, telling her about his fuckup with the front desk and the media party going on outside the hotel room. Jules wrote back almost instantly, kicking off an exchange of texts that had Romeo taking the phone with him into the bathroom and then setting it on the sink close to the shower. He washed quickly but paused every time he heard the buzz of another text from Jules; then he’d squint past the water dripping into his eyes to write her back.
He was leaning past the shower door, looking at the screen to his phone, reading Jules’s latest text when Nova burst into the bathroom and set a backpack on the sink.
“Problem solved.”
Romeo gave his brother a look. “Knocking, ever hear of it? Get the fuck out.” Nova frowned at him for one moment before his dark gaze landed on Romeo’s phone, still resting on the sink where Romeo had dropped it after the shock of Nova’s
67
invasion. He made a swipe for it, guessing it was the contents on the phone and not shyness that had Romeo wanting privacy. Romeo had seen that coming from a mile away. He threw the palm of his hand into Nova’s shoulder and swiftly grabbed his phone. A lesser man would’ve landed on his ass, but Nova simply stumbled and nimbly stayed on his feet. He was built like a brick wall, and due to Romeo’s passion for the sport, both his younger brothers had been heavily involved in martial arts since early elementary school. Not much could down Nova Moretti.
Romeo pulled the glass door to the shower closed and set his phone on the ledge where it wouldn’t get wet.
“So how was last night?”
Romeo ignored Nova and used the hotel shampoo to wash his hair. It was challenging using only one hand while trying to keep his stitches on his left palm from getting wet.
“You’re not gonna tell me what happened?”
Romeo squinted past the glass to see Nova sitting on the edge of the sink. “Since when do you give a shit what I do in my spare time?”
“You never
do
anything in your spare time. I’m just making sure everything’s kosher.”
“Everything’s kosher.”
Nova was quiet for a moment before he admitted, “I had Angelo run a background check on her.”
“Damn it, Nova!” Romeo pushed the door open. “You gotta lotta nerve—”
“She’s a cop.” Nova spoke with an exaggerated Southern accent, raising his eyebrows pointedly. “Did she tell you that?”
“Fuck off,” Romeo said to hide the sinking feeling in his gut. “She’s a lawyer.”
“Oh, even better.” Nova rolled his eyes. “A lawyer
and
a cop. I guess they don’t got an unemployment problem down home in Hazzard County.” 68
“I think it’s Garnet County.”
“It’s the same difference, trust me.”
“I don’t believe she’s a cop.” Romeo walked over to grab a towel and worked at drying himself off. “She doesn’t act like a cop.”
“Hang out with many cops?”
“Angelo,” Romeo reminded him. “He’s over at my place to bum food at least once a week.”
“Yeah, but Angelo’s dirty as hell,” Nova said as if their cousin didn’t count. “He’s a cop to collect a fucking pension when he retires. He’s not doing it ’cause he loves it or has any sense of social responsibility aside from helping me out by keeping his ear to the ground. These people fucking love it. They live for it. Redneck cops are scary as shit, and you just spent all night rolling around in the sheets with one.” For some reason even hearing Jules was a cop wasn’t enough to turn him off, which would have shocked the hell out of him before yesterday. Romeo and cops didn’t exactly mesh, but Jules was different. He grabbed a second towel and scrubbed at his hair, deciding to go back to his original course of action of ignoring Nova.
“I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts she’ll be looking you up the second she gets back home,” Nova went on as he arched an eyebrow. “What’s your Juliet gonna think when she finds out you got a record, eh, Romeo?”
“What does it matter?” Romeo stopped drying his hair and threw the towel at Nova’s face. “She’s gone. It’s over. So drop it.”
Nova tossed the towel aside and narrowed dark, calculating eyes at Romeo. “You actually
like
this chick.”
Romeo opened the bathroom door, finding Tino camped out on the bed with his cousins, Gino and Carlo. They weren’t Romeo’s family, just part of the baggage he’d inherited with his brothers. They were mob muscle, big and mean, not too bright. They flanked Nova everywhere, because like it or not, Nova was too smart and cunning for
69
his own good. He’d made himself valuable to his grandfather and was more important to organized crime than his own father now. Seeing Carlo and Gino reminded Romeo he could one day be brother to a real-life mafia boss.
Romeo kicked at the mattress next to where Gino was laying. “Get outta my room.”
Gino casually laced his hands behind his head, making it obvious he planned to stay where he was. “What’s your problem?”
“You’re my problem.” Romeo grabbed his wallet off the dresser and checked to make sure all his credit cards were still in place because he didn’t trust them. “You skeeve me on a good day.”
“We just helped you out, and this is how you repay us? That’s some shit.”
“You’ll be all right,” Romeo said dismissively. “Can I get dressed without you
fanooks
watching me?”
“He’s pissed off at me, not you,” Nova said as he walked out of the bathroom. “Go watch TV in the other room.”
“Whatever, man,” Carlo said, rolling off the other side of the mattress. “Still sore
’bout losing. I get it.”
“I guess,” Gino reluctantly agreed. “It was painful to watch. Talk about taking one for the team.”
Romeo turned and gave Nova a look that clearly said he was about to give Gino and Carlo something painful to watch if they didn’t shut up about the fight. Nova just shook his head in response, silently holding up his hand, expecting Romeo to obey him, which skeeved worse than anything.
The words were on the tip of his tongue, something cutting that’d probably get him into a fight, and Romeo welcomed it. He could take Gino and Carlo two on one with his right hand tied behind his back. Without a .45, those two weren’t nearly as 70
tough as they looked, and he would have started in on them if their private conversation hadn’t stopped him cold.
Gino mumbled under his breath in Italian to Carlo something that essentially translated into the gruesome desire to watch Frankie finally take Romeo out, which in itself was a barbless threat because Nova and Tino’s father had been promising to kill Romeo since he was teenager. It was Carlo’s nervous glance back at Nova as they walked out the door, and the whispered reminder to Gino that made Romeo’s heart sink.
“Frankie’s not
capo bastone
anymore, and even if he was, Romeo’s a big earner now. I’d shut my mouth.”
The last bit was said over the
click
of the bedroom door closing, leaving Romeo alone with Nova and Tino. He stood there in horror, digesting the information. He couldn’t move, couldn’t think past that one dreaded title—capo bastone
.
Nova shook his head, looking disgusted. “Fucking idiots.”
“So tell me, Nova,” Romeo finally asked when he found his voice. “Who is capo bastone
if Frankie got demoted, and how the fuck does that happen if he’s not dead?
What the hell sorta immoral, illegal shit did you do for the old man to make
that
go down?”
“Rome, come on—” Nova started, looking everywhere but where Romeo stood glaring at him. “What does it matter?”
“It matters to me.” Romeo gestured to himself wildly, the fury and heartbreak colliding inside his chest, making him desperate to lash out and break something. “God didn’t give you that brain to use it for this bullshit. You have a gift, a friggin’ God-given gift, and you’re using it for what? For Frankie? For Aldo? He demoted his own son.
That’s insane! He’d stab you in the fucking back in a heartbeat.”
“Like hell,” Tino interjected. “He runs everything by Nova. He depends on him.
Every capo’s gotta go through him.”
Nova groaned. “Don’t help, Tino.”
71
Romeo turned around to glare at Tino, who was sitting in the middle of the bed cross-legged, looking like he wanted to start something on Nova’s behalf. “You’re not even real grandsons to him. In the eyes of the Catholic Church you’re both bastards, and nothing’s changing it now.”
“What the fuck are you?” Tino snapped. “At least our father knows if we’re still alive or not.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s such a fucking bonus,” Romeo said sarcastically before something close to a sob burst from the center of his chest as he stared down at his baby brother. “Why are you always hanging with Gino and Carlo? I know you’re doing the dirty work with them now.”
Tino shook his head quickly, but the denial seemed trapped in his throat.
“Don’t lie to me,” Romeo whispered in anguish. “Have you killed for that bastard? He’s already taken Nova’s brain and my goddamn heart; has he stolen your innocence? Has he taken away everything that made you Tino?” Tino’s shoulders slumped. “Why are you looking at me all of a sudden?”
“I already know he’s a lost cause.” Romeo pointed blindly to Nova. “But I still have hope for you. God gave you gifts too, and I would rather die than see you waste your life working for those bastards.”
“Gee, thanks, Rome,” Nova said drily. “And for your information, you don’t know shit about any of it.”
“Who’s capo bastone
?
” Romeo asked Nova again. “If the old man bites it, who’s supposed to take over?”
Nova looked away once more. “Both of you need to keep your voices down.”
“I don’t give a shit if they hear me,” Romeo said, not bothering to lower his voice.
“They all know how I feel about them.”
“You ever think that’s not exactly good for your health?” Nova gave him a dark look. “You’re always making fucking waves.”
72
“That’s ’cause I refuse to bow down to them. I’m not letting them intimidate me.
They can’t take my integrity. I won’t let ’em. It’s mine, and I’m gonna see Ma again with it intact. You think about that.”
Nova’s eyes narrowed, a look of fury crossing his handsome features as he stepped closer to Romeo and growled, “I got integrity. I gotta shitload of it, and just
’cause you don’t get it doesn’t mean it’s not there. I got one priority in life, Rome. Just one. Protect my family, and if you think for one minute Ma’s gonna be disappointed about anything I’ve done to survive, then you never really knew her.”
“Oh, I knew her, and I’m telling you right now, she’s rolling over in her grave about the shit you’ve done to survive. Protect your family?” Romeo let out a bitter laugh. “Bullshit. You’ve been dragging Tino down with you for years, and the way it’s going, the only one whose gonna know my integrity is still intact is me. Who do I got to thank for that?”