CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
BLOSSOM
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Seated on the edge of my bed, holding my phone, I stared at Rome Cattaneo. The smile I’d grown to adore wasn’t on his face tonight. He looked just how others described him.
Ruthless.
And now, I was the target of that ruthlessness. He leaned back in his seat, and I swear, that muscular body of his could fill out a suit and an office chair. Damn. He lifted a glass of brown liquor to his mouth.
After taking a sip, he set the glass down and licked his lips. My traitorous body had the nerve to perk up at that. Ignoring the sensation, I kept my eyes glued to him as he clasped his hands together in front of him. We stared at each other in silence.
Neither of us uttered a word. Neither of us looked away. For months, we'd talked for hours without ever seeing each other's faces. We'd laughed together. Flirted in sweet and filthy ways. We’d challenged each other. Impressed each other.
We’d fallen in love while hiding behind masks. Now, the masks were off. There were no voice modulators. No fake names. Just the two of us. The real us. Yet, neither of us was saying anything. It was Rome who finally broke the silence.
“You’re not even going to try to deny it, are you?” he asked.
“Deny what?” I countered, already knowing what he was talking about.
“Deny that you, Blossom Brooks, are also Juliet With Curves.”
“There’s no point in denying it,” I told him. “You wouldn’t be calling my phone if you didn’t already know the truth.”
There was a tick in his jaw. With Kelly’s life on the line, I really needed to stop pissing him off.
“You used to have only sweet words for me,” he drawled. “Now that you’re no longer able to hide behind a mask or a florist apron, you’re showing me who you truly are.”
“I could say the same for you, Romeo.”
“What did you say?” he asked, leaning forward.
“You used to have such sweet words for me also,” I pointed out. “Now, you’re threatening the life of my staff member. I guess we’re both revealing who we truly are.”
Okay, I should really be quiet because if looks could kill, I’d already be dead.
“I’m sending a car to get you. Be ready,” he told me.
“Whoa. Wait. A car? Why do you need to send a car for me?” I asked, panicking. “We’re already on the phone. Say whatever it is you need to say to me.”
“A car will be there in twenty minutes to bring you to me. Be ready.”
“Wait. What?” I asked, confused.
“And if you try to call any of your staff, especially Kelly Boyd, they won’t live to see the sunrise.”
There was that fear again, threading through my veins, chilling me from the inside out.
“Don’t try to sneak and make the call, Juliet. I’ll know.”
My eyes widened. “You... you hacked me,” I accused.
“Everything you’ve done to me and my family, I plan to do the same to you and yours, Juliet. Get in the car when it arrives. You do not want to make me angrier than you already have.”
With that, he ended the call, leaving me staring at the screen with my mouth open. He was sending a car for me, which meant he knew where I lived. He knew where Kelly lived. He knew what we’d done.
He knew everything. Well, not everything. But enough to make him send for me. All my planning was for nothing. I didn’t fix anything. Hell, I could’ve possibly made it worse. What would he do if I didn’t get in that car?
Would he go through with his threat to open her skull? I blinked back tears. I really wanted to call Kelly to warn her. But he’d already hacked me and would know if I did so. Shit! How had he hacked me without me knowing?
Yeah, I’d had a crazy past few days, but my devices would’ve let me know if someone had tried to access them. What the absolute fuck? I needed to run a security scan on my devices.
But I didn’t have time. I also didn’t have time to be sitting around, crying like a weak bitch. I had to get in that car. I had to de-escalate this somehow. But I couldn’t leave my staff in the dark.
I jumped up and raced to my living room. I deactivated my security alarm and ran out of my cottage, sprinting to the store. I needed to leave a note for Dayana, who would arrive in the morning, wondering why the store wasn’t open.
Then she’d panic when she couldn’t find me. They’d know it was Rome, and they’d follow protocol to come after me. I didn’t want them to come after me. If Rome wanted to hurt me, really hurt me, he wouldn’t be sending a car for me.
He’d send a bullet. I needed to assess the situation before we escalated it. After pressing the code into the back door of my shop, I entered and deactivated the alarm. I raced through the back room and into the front of the shop.
Behind the register, I pulled out the clipboard and snatched a page from one of our fancy note sheets and hooked it to the clipboard. There was so much to say. I didn’t even know how to get it all down.
But I had to hurry. In the note, I let them know I was okay.
I also told them that I’d switched up my plans and that I wouldn’t be going to Alabama.
I told them I was working on something that would improve things for all our branches and, hopefully, get our contracts reinstated with our suppliers.
I was writing so fast that my words were becoming illegible.
“Fuck!”
I tore that paper off, tossed it in the trash, and got another one. If they saw that chicken scratch, they’d know I wrote it under duress. I took a deep breath and rewrote what I’d already jotted down.
I told Dayana to make sure all the stores proceeded with everything they were already working on. And that I would contact them as soon as I could. I also left her a note asking Kelly to take care of my garden and the flower nursery for me.
That would keep Kelly away from the front of the store. What else could I say? Oh, right, Ebony. I reminded them to contact Ebony if they needed assistance. And to call the temp agency if they needed workers to help with venue setups.
What about The Circuit?
There were a few Petals, me included, who monitored The Circuit, responding to posts, accepting jobs, declining jobs, and monitoring where our Petals in the wind were. With me gone for a few days, no one would suspect anything.
It would be business as usual. But if I didn’t check in for a prolonged period, they’d send someone to check on me. It wouldn’t matter if Dayana tried to tell them I was okay or not. They would follow protocol and wouldn’t rest until they found me.
Though I’d have my phone with me, I didn’t know if Rome would let me keep it. I didn’t know what his plans for me were. Though he’d hacked my devices, I knew he hadn’t hacked The Circuit’s server.
The entire network would’ve gone on lockdown if he had, and I’d be getting calls from all over the world with Petals wanting to know what was wrong. So, The Circuit was safe... for now.
I left a note for Tracy to let my mom know I loved her and would visit as soon as I could. Blinking back tears, I also told her to contact her daughter, Nina, and let her know I’d changed my plans and that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the Alabama store.
I wanted Nina to post on The Circuit to see if there were any Petals available to help her out for a few weeks. Not relocate. Just temporary help. In closing, I told them all to be safe and pay close attention to their surroundings.
I told them not to get caught slipping, knowing that would put them on alert. That was all I could think of right now. I stared down at my note, rereading it to see if I’d left anything out. I was sure I had.
There was no way I could tell them everything I wanted to in such a short amount of time. And telling them too much would only make them worry. Sighing, I added my signature with one last message telling them that I was safe and not to worry about me.
I placed the clipboard on the counter and then wrote CODE DAISY on the top of the note.
Daisies represented innocence and purity, and in many traditions, they were seen as protective symbols, offering a sense of security and well-being.
I wanted them to know I was okay. I was safe. They didn’t have to worry.
I blinked back tears as I thought of my mom. I couldn’t risk calling her. I couldn’t risk calling Tracy. I couldn’t have them on Rome’s radar. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I left the front of the store.
After activating the alarm, I jogged back to my cottage. I didn’t know how much time I had before the car Rome was sending arrived, but I knew I needed to gear up. I stared down at my attire.
It wasn’t the best, but it would have to do. If he was smart, which he was, he’d check me for weapons or have his driver do it. So, I couldn’t bring my gun or my knives. I headed to my closet and shoved my clothing aside.
On the back wall, I opened my safe, then pressed the red button. The back wall panel slid to the side, and I stepped into my secret weapons room. This room used to belong to my mom.
About two years before she got sick, she decided to purchase a new house, saying she wanted her privacy. I’d thought it was because she was dating someone. Now that I thought about it, that purchase could’ve been a sign that something had been wrong.
My mom had never been a big spender. But all of a sudden, she’d wanted a new home, a new car, a new life. She’d gone all out furnishing the place and not in her usual style. Maybe she’d known something was wrong and had been trying to hide it from me.
Or maybe her brain chemistry had already begun to change, and that was a manifestation of it. I didn’t know. And now, I’d never know, because she couldn’t tell me. She couldn’t tell me what she was truly thinking.
She couldn’t even tell me who I was to her these days. I wiped my eyes. Now was not the time to get emotional. Now that I lived here alone, I’d moved all my weapons to this closet.
For me, it was sort of like when I was a kid, trying on my mom’s high heels and wanting to be like her. Now, I was an adult, using her weapons room, wanting to be a badass like she was.