18. What Needs Doing
eighteen
What Needs Doing
“Did you know?” Romeo demanded as soon as Dante answered the phone.
It was mid-afternoon, and he’d done a decent job at curbing his anger for his family’s sake, but he was back in his SUV and the reality of his destination was enough to draw that anger to the forefront again. That, and the fact that he really needed to go and deal with this shit at all, when he would much rather have preferred to stay.
Lucia was only mostly calmed down, both from the incident itself and the conversation they’d all had to have after. And Grace was once again not feeling well. She assured him it would pass and wasn’t that bad. She’d taken some ibuprofen on their way to lunch and eaten a healthy meal, so she was keeping food down, but he hated that she was suffering at all. Even if she’d agreed to it.
Part of him wondered if she’d have agreed to any of it if things had happened in a different order.
“Be more specific,” Dante said after a momentary pause.
Romeo fought to keep his tone civil enough. “What Mom did. Did you know?”
“I’m generally aware of our mother’s larger movements,” Dante replied carefully, “but I don’t stalk her every step. Quit playing word games with me, Romeo. I know you’re upset that Amber came to the house this morning, but I won’t be your punching bag.”
“Mom’s the reason Amber left,” Romeo said, pushing the words out. He hadn’t mentioned that part when he’d told his girls the story of Amber and her abandonment. He didn’t know what to do with the information yet himself, he couldn’t do that to Lucy.
“That’s a bold claim.”
“She confessed.” Romeo drew a breath and repeated his mother’s cold explanation.
Dante grunted. “I was unaware of that,” he finally said.
Romeo let himself sit with that response for a few seconds, mulling it over and deciding whether or not it felt genuine. Ultimately, he decided Dante absolutely would lie to him, but not in this. A portion of the tension in his shoulders eased. “That’s something, at least.”
“Where are you?”
“Off to visit my ex-fiancée,” Romeo bit the words out. “Grace is home with Lucy. I have to turn my phone off, but if they call—”
“I’ll take care of it,” Dante cut in. “Do what needs doing, brother.”
Romeo disconnected, gave himself a few moments to stare at the picture of the sleeping angel he’d set as his wallpaper, and turned off the phone. He dropped the device into the console and leaned back. “Take the long way, Mo. Just to be safe.”
“Detour it is.” Mo flipped on the blinker and slid into the turn lane. “I know this isn’t my place, Rome, but we’ve known each other a while and for what it’s worth … her method was wrong, but I think what your mom did spared you and Lucy a lot of pain. Despite how uncomfortable today’s been.”
Romeo frowned, irritated by the invasive statement. He refrained from barking at the other man, however, because Mo did have a couple of points. Namely that they’d known each other fucking forever—since Romeo was at least fourteen—and built up a solid friendship. That was worth some allowances from time to time, and Mo almost never asked for them. “Maybe,” Romeo allowed, turning his gaze out the side window as the SUV cruised through the city. “I’ll think about it.”
Probably Mo was right. Probably his mother hadn’t been so much wrong as she’d just been stepping on toes. That didn’t mean he wasn’t allowed to be upset about the busy-body way she’d handled things, and the months of stress it had dumped on him. Not to mention that she had potentially stripped his daughter of a mother forever. There had never been a guarantee Romeo would find a woman he was comfortable enough with to bring home in the future, let alone home to his child. He had to make peace with all of that and balance it with what his mother had foreseen, what she’d spared them of.
A task that felt a lot easier after he stepped into the basement of the not-so-innocent house on the outskirts of town.
Amber had been hauled to one of their more humane holding locations on no order of Romeo’s, but still she was zip-tied to a sturdy, anchored seat in an otherwise empty room. With the lights off, the only sense she would have had available was the pain from her restraints.
He wondered if she could even feel it through whatever cocktail of drugs was coursing through her system.
She squinted bloodshot brown eyes at him, the expression on her face quickly morphing into a glare. He couldn’t help but wince inwardly. Her eyes were a different shape and visibly jaded, but the color of the iris was identical to Lucia’s. The sound of her muffled cursing sharpened his focus and he pushed the observation aside.
Romeo stepped up and ripped the gag from her mouth, despite knowing full well he’d wish he’d left it in.
“You son of a bitch!” Amber shouted, her shoulders jerking as she tried to launch herself at him. “You locked me up in one of your kill houses?”
He let the gag drop to the floor. “You disappear for seven fucking years, abandoning your newborn daughter, and you have the goddamn gall to be pissed at me for anything ?”
Amber huffed. “It’s not like you missed me. It’s not like you ever even wanted me.”
“Oh, that’s rich.”
Her lips curled. “Who’s that fat-ass hussy you left with my daughter, then?”
Romeo clenched his fists at his sides. He’d been raised not to strike a woman except if it were necessary to defend a loved one. Their father had once taken all three of his sons, and his nephew, with him to watch as he strung up a man for beating on a woman. Romeo no longer remembered the man’s reasons. He remembered only the impression it had left to see his father so completely enraged on behalf of a woman they didn’t know.
But if this woman, whom he did know to some degree, slung one more insult about his future wife in his presence, Romeo wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop himself.
He leveled a cold glare on her. “Who I leave in charge of my daughter is my business. We should talk about what really matters while I have the patience for words. What the ever-loving fuck are you doing here, Amber?”
She let out a strangled laugh. “Pretty sure it was your paid thugs who brought me here.”
His eye twitched. “Are you on something right now? Do I need to have you forcefully detoxed before we talk? Because I’m not putting up with your bullshit games.”
“Fuck you, Romeo.”
“Detoxed it is. Should be fun.” Romeo turned toward the steps. He didn’t really think she needed such a thing, but he’d put her through it if she didn’t speak up before he got to the light switch. Personally, he hoped she didn’t.
“You sick bastard! I’m clean, asshole! I’m fucking sober, okay?”
Romeo stopped and faced her again, not bothering to come closer. He arched a brow for dramatic effect. “You don’t look it.”
She sneered at him, the expression only emphasizing the circles under her eyes and the way her face had sunken in. “I can’t even imagine how stoned I had to be to think you were worth fucking that weekend.”
Romeo rolled his eyes. “Pretty sure you were more interested in the idea of nailing a rich guy than anything else,” he shot back. “Too bad for you, you couldn’t stick it out. Lucky for the rest of us.”
Amber bristled. “That’s not even—”
“I do not. Fucking. Care!” Romeo bellowed. He marched forward and leaned in close, taking hold of the back of her chair in both of his hands. She was already trapped, but now he was caging her in, towering over her and making damn sure she recognized who was in control. “The only thing I want to hear from you is what the goddamn hell you’re doing here now .”
Fear flickered in her eyes and she tried to sink back against the chair, raising her head in some attempt to look down on him. Her jaw trembled for just a moment. “I want my daughter.”
If the chair had been anything other than steel, Romeo would have cracked it. “Not a fucking chance.”
“She’s mine!”
“No.”
“The hell she isn’t! I gave birth to her, dammit!” Amber wiggled against her restraints again, but froze the moment her shoulder bumped his arm.
It took all his willpower not to close his hand around her shrieking throat. “Please. You don’t even remember that part, you were fucking unconscious. And when the doctors went to have you hold her, you had a panic attack and practically threw her away. You didn’t hold her for a whole goddamn week.” Romeo leaned just a bit closer. “You know who did ?” He saw her draw breath, but he didn’t pause. “Me. My mother. My brothers. My cousin. Her family —we all cradled that innocent little baby in our arms and fucking wept. Everyone except you. You acted like touching your own daughter was poison. And now you want to take her from me?”
“I wasn’t—”
“I don’t care.” Romeo shoved away from the chair, putting space between them. “I’ll never let you near her. I hope you got a good look today, because that was your last one.”
“You selfish asshole!” Amber shouted. “Lucy’s my baby, too! I have rights !”
Romeo barked out a laugh. “You sure about that? ‘Cause a mother just up and disappearing, leaving her baby but taking a suitcase of clothes, is a real good way to persuade a judge to sign over full and legal custody to the remaining parent. Especially when time’s passed and that remaining parent can prove he’s tried all the reasonable things to find the one who left. Fuck, I even reported you missing. You know I hate working with the cops.”
Amber rolled her eyes. “You own half the damn department. Prob’ly bought off the judge, too. Consider me not impressed, jackass.”
Romeo narrowed his eyes at her. “You scared the shit out of my little girl today. So don’t give me that desperate mother crap. What’re you really after? You just looking to fight for custody so you can get your hands on the child support you figure I’d owe?”
“You’re a real judgmental piece of shit, aren’t you?”
“Hard not to judge after what you did.”
“It was your fault! Your stupid, psycho family!”
Slowly, and without breaking eye-contact, Romeo reached behind him and pulled out his handgun. He flicked off the safety and made a show of chambering a round before bringing it up to level. “My what?”
For the first time since he’d entered the room, Amber hesitated. She drew a shaky breath, her gaze glued to the barrel of the gun. “You can’t do that. If something happens to me … people will know. People will come lookin’.”
“What people? Your drug dealer?” He raked his gaze over her with a deliberately derisive sneer. “Not likely you have a pimp. Less likely I give a flying fuck.”
Her brow furrowed with another spark of anger and she struggled to control herself. “The people who knew I was coming out here. And I told you, I’m sober.”
“Your face says different.” Romeo paused for two seconds. “Now, I won’t ask again. What are you really after?”
“Oh, fuck you, Romeo De Salvo,” Amber bit out. “Fuck your whole nightmare family! I’m gonna get that girl, and I’m gonna take her far the fuck away from you, do you hear me? You’ll never see that spoiled little princess again. We’ll both disappear this time. You know I can do it.”
Romeo’s finger closed on the trigger. He didn’t blink, and no remorse flared in his chest at the bloody hole that exploded through Amber’s forehead. “Nope,” he said as his arm swung to his side and he watched her body sag against the restraints. He was going to have to figure out a way to half-lie to Lucia about this, but knowing that Amber could never threaten her again made that palatable.
Romeo tucked his gun away and started up the steps, flicking off the light as he walked. “Mo,” he called. “We’re leaving. Use one of the burners to signal Mikey—we need a cleanup.”
“Sure thing. Straight home?”
“I need to make another stop on the way.”
Grace blinked her eyes open early on Saturday morning, her body still far too comfortable to climb from bed. Although she was a bit warm—inside and out—and that was definitely due to the strong, heavy arm curled around her. Probably also the lips trailing down the side of her neck. Though, for just a moment, the only thing her brain could fully process was the sight of one of her newly gifted potted amaryllis, resting in the far corner of the room.
Romeo had come home with two of them this time, claiming he felt bad she hadn’t been able to yet enjoy the one he’d brought her at the office and that she needed some for the house. One had gone immediately into the dining room, where apparently Iris had said it would do best, and the other had been taken upstairs.
Grace smiled and leaned in to his warmth. “Good morning.”
She felt his lips lift in a grin as he murmured against her skin, “Good morning, angel. Sleep well?”
“I did.” She slept so contentedly in his arms, it made a mockery of the strained and sometimes fitful sleep she was used to.
Romeo dipped his hand under the waistband of her sleep shorts, rubbing it tenderly along the lower curve of her belly. “How’re you feeling?” He pressed his lips to her pulse point. “Cramps eased up?”
She could have melted right there. The cramps she’d developed after getting her IUD removed the previous day hadn’t been terrible, but at no time ever were cramps a comfortable experience. “I think so,” she said, even as she became aware of a moment-ruining sensation. She squirmed and sighed. “Can you let me up? I need to use the bathroom.”
Romeo chuckled. “Fine, fine. But don’t bother showering. If you’re feeling better, then we’re definitely taking advantage of the early morning.” He kissed her cheek and pulled his hand from her skin.
Grace laughed softly and pried herself from his arms, making her way across the room to the bathroom. She took care of business as quickly as she could, even making sure to brush her teeth before stepping back into the bedroom.
Romeo was not where she’d left him, and had most certainly not fallen back to sleep. The comforter had been pulled down and the man himself was perched on the corner of the mattress. His blue eyes practically glowed with hunger as he raked his gaze over her like he hadn’t had plenty of opportunity to see what she was wearing.
“Is this a hint?” she asked with a poorly swallowed laugh.
“You could say that.” Romeo stood, his sweatpants hanging tauntingly low on his hips. “We need to get to work. Babies don’t make themselves.”
Grace grinned, purposely fiddling with the hem of her pajama top. “What about Lucy?”
“It’s Saturday. When she wakes up, she’s going to run straight to the family room and park herself in front of the TV for three hours of cartoons. The only other thing she’ll have on her mind is breakfast, which Irene will take out to her.” Romeo slid his hands beneath Grace’s top, his fingers skimming her skin. He pushed the fabric up as his hands raised, until he had both breasts beneath his palms.
Grace gasped softly as he rolled his thumbs over her nipples.
“You really do have beautiful breasts,” he said, his voice dropping deliciously low.
She moaned unintentionally as he lingered over her chest, and just when she went to reach for him, Romeo swept her shirt entirely away. He bent down and trailed kisses along the length of her neck, over her collar bone and down between the valley of her breasts, until he’d dropped to his knees before her. Her pajama shorts fell to the ground and, carefully, he helped her step free of them.
Instead of setting her second leg back on the floor, Romeo draped it over his shoulder and leaned in, kissing his way up the inside her thigh. His mouth sealed over her pussy and she curled a hand into his hair, her head falling back. She was barely staying upright, little electric jolts of pleasure zinging through her with each sweep of his tongue. He pushed it inside, he swirled it over her clit. He was everywhere.
Just as she was surely about to explode, he backed off. Her leg was lowered from his shoulder. She blinked at him, too breathless to voice the question.
Romeo smirked at her, standing, and shoved his own pants to the floor with a single motion. “The only place you come this morning is on my dick.” He anchored both hands to her ass and rocked his erection against her, taunting. “But once I’m inside you, angel, you come as many times as you want.”
Grace licked her lips. “Romeo, please…”
He nibbled on her ear, walking her slowly backward toward the bed. “Please what?”
She reached up and curled her fingers into the backs of his arms. “Please … fuck me. I need you.”
He growled low in his throat and spun her around without warning. “Bend over, hands on the bed. Show me this glorious ass.”
Heat rushed through her and Grace gripped hold of the piled-up comforter, her breasts pressing into the fabric as she tipped forward enough to do as he’d asked. She widened her stance in anticipation and drew a breath.
Romeo squeezed both cheeks of her ass, then stroked his hands over her hips. She felt his length slide between her folds. A second later he was driving himself deep into her core, the distinctive sound of skin slapping against skin reaching her ears as he stretched her. “Fuck, you’re so tight, angel.” He wasted no time falling into a hard rhythm, slamming so deep inside her she swore she could feel it in her soul.
He moved a hand to her hair, twisted it around his fist, and tugged enough to arch her back as her head was pulled up again. Somehow, the miniscule movement altered his angle, and she choked on a cry.
“That’s it, angel,” he said roughly. “Come. Come for me.”
Tears stung her eyes and her body shattered in sparkling, burning, fabulous heat.
Romeo didn’t stop. He released her hair, his fingers sliding down her neck and squeezing gently before his arm adjusted, curving to latch on to the nearest boob. Bent over her, his pace became a deeper, more drawn out drag against her now sensitized nerves. He groaned, cursing under his breath, and his lips found her skin. “Gonna fill you so full,” he murmured between kisses. “Can’t wait to see your body swollen with my seed.”
Grace gasped and ground into him again.
She felt his cock jerk, felt his body shudder, heard his long, low groan as he released inside her.
Romeo held her in place for a long moment, both of them breathing hard. Then he turned her around again and hauled them both onto the bed. A wicked grin curved his lips as he laid back and dragged her on top of him. “Wanna watch you fly, angel. Ride my cock until we both come.” His hands stroked over her skin, over her thighs, over her belly, over her hips. “Let me see you let go.”
His insistence convinced her, and Grace lowered herself onto his somehow still erect length. He’d held her in his lap before, but this felt different. This made her feel more powerful.
She tipped her head back, her fingers digging into his sculpted abdominal muscles, and rocked her hips to seat him deeper. It felt sinfully good, so she let herself focus on only that—only him, and her, and them.