CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE #2
“Did you hear what I said a moment ago?” Raz asked.
There was no point in lying. I’d zoned out there for a bit.
“No,” I admitted.
Cas laughed. “At least he’s honest.”
Raz shook his head. “I said Monique wants to know if you’ve decided whether you need a plus-one for the wedding or not.”
My fingers tightened around the glass. I wanted a plus one. I wanted Juliet. I wanted her sitting beside me while my brother married the woman he loved. I wanted her hand in mine when I introduced her to my family, showing them that I, too, had found love.
I wanted to lean down and whisper inappropriate things in her ear during the ceremony just to watch her try not to laugh. I wanted my family and extended family to meet the woman who’d made the one they called Ruthless Rome want to settle down.
The problem was that I couldn’t introduce a woman I couldn’t find, a woman I hadn’t even officially met yet. And I couldn’t invite a woman who hadn’t spoken to me in three days.
“Tell Monique I’ll let her know,” I said.
Raz's eyebrows rose. "That's not a no."
"I didn't say it was,” I told him.
Cas nearly choked on his drink. “Wait. What?”
Raz studied me a moment longer. “I assumed your answer would be no. Do you have someone in mind?”
Cas leaned against the bar, grin widening. “Well, damn. Is that why your eyes were glued to your phone earlier? Who is she? Do we know her?”
Leo chuckled. “Ruthless Rome has finally fallen. Never thought I’d see the day.”
Ignoring them, I took another sip of my drink.
“Who is she?” Raz asked.
“You don’t know her,” I told him, hoping that would shut them up.
It didn’t.
Cas’s brows lifted. “So there is a woman.”
All three men fixed their gazes on me. Damn it. I should’ve kept my mouth shut.
“Bro,” Cas started. “If you don’t talk, I’ll have to ask the ladies to investigate this for us.”
Raz chuckled. “Trust me, you do not want Monique, Meka, and Toya to set their sights on you. You may not survive it.”
I thought back to their plan to kidnap Raz and how savage they were during the gala incident. A cold shiver raced down my spine.
“There might be someone,” I admitted.
Cas smacked the bar counter. “I knew it. No wonder you’ve been distracted lately.”
They’d noticed. Damn.
“You met her in Italy, didn’t you?” Cas asked.
“Not exactly,” I muttered, not knowing how to explain that I fell for a woman who’d hacked me while I was in Italy.
A woman whose real name I didn’t know. I didn’t even know how she looked.
A woman who broke her promises. Who may actually be a florist here in Biloxi.
A woman who might be avoiding me because I had unexpectedly found her, leaving her shocked.
My brothers and Leo would never let me live it down if I told them that.
Cas set another drink in front of Leo before looking back at me. “Does this woman have a name?”
“Not one I’m sharing with you,” I replied.
“He’s trying to keep her hidden,” Leo stated. “That means he’s serious about her.”
I was. That was the problem. I was serious about her while she was taking me for a joke, a game. I gritted my teeth, not wanting to get irritated in front of them. But I was irritated as fuck.
So irritated that two days ago, after staring at Blossoms and Vines’ page for longer than I cared to admit, I’d contacted one of my private investigators and hired him to investigate Blossom Brooks.
I’d wanted to do it myself. But if Blossom was really Juliet, she would be planning for such a thing. I figured she would catch on to me quicker than she caught on to him. I couldn’t risk that.
So, I’d let the PI handle the dirty work. I was still waiting to hear back from Tony. He’d promised to have a preliminary report for me by today. I glanced down at my watch. He should’ve sent me something by now.
“Rome,” Raz said. “Hey! Rome!”
I looked over at him. “What, Raz?”
Damn. Couldn’t he see I was stalking his fiancé’s florist?
Raz chuckled. “I remember when I sat at this very bar with Cas and Bryce, pining over Monique.”
“The difference was,” Cas started. “You’d already lured Monique into your trap and had her kidnapped up in your suite.”
“I never kidnapped her. It was she who approached me first that night,” Raz pointed out.
“And you locked her in your suite,” Cas countered. “That’s called kidnapping.”
“Says the man who locked her best friend in his room,” Raz stated.
“Oh, I admit to kidnapping Meka. If she ever tries to leave me, I’ll kidnap her ass again.”
Raz, Leo, and Cas started laughing. I stared at them as if they’d lost their minds. But then it hit me. If Juliet refused to come to me on her own, what was my plan? Would I end up like my brothers?
Would I kidnap her? Was I that desperate for her? Was I truly that far gone? Or had that been my intention all along? I’d planned to make her mine, no matter what. Was that considered kidnapping?
I didn’t want to become my father, that was for sure. But my brothers had kidnapped their women and hadn’t ended up like our parents. Was kidnapping truly the answer to all my problems?
“Look at him,” Cas muttered to the others. “That’s the look of a man planning to kidnap the woman he loves. I guess that shit runs in the family.”
I gripped my phone tighter. If she didn’t come to me on her own, what other choice did I have? Fuck! I was truly no different than my damn brothers. I guess I really did need to start preparing my beach house.