15. Romeo
15
ROMEO
A fter I spoke with my father and Franco for a while, I asked why they wanted to meet in person.
My father shrugged. “Nina wanted to see Tessa. And I wanted to check on you.”
Franco and I shared a look. My father cared about everyone in the family, but he never made a habit of personally checking up on me. I was thirty-one, not three. “How come?”
“Just with this new woman in your life…” He rocked on his heels and shrugged. “Making sure you’re not too busy in La-La Land and in love and lowering your guard.”
Franco grunted a laugh. “Romeo lowering his guard? Ever?”
I smiled at his backhanded praise. I was the serious guy, but I wasn’t convinced that was a bad thing. “I’m fine.”
“You won’t deny anything I just said?” My father smirked.
“I will. I’m not in anything with Tess.” I hated the sound of those words out of my mouth. I wanted to be, but I had to do this carefully and at her pace. I hadn’t forgotten how she’d told me that she was at risk of falling for me. The wording implied that I was a risk to consider and that she shouldn’t normally want someone like me. I couldn’t fault her for not wanting to jump into anything too soon with both feet, but it would ease my worries if it seemed like she was nudging one foot closer to taking a leap of faith on me.
“But you want to be?” Franco guessed good-naturedly. He knew when to joke and poke fun. “Guess you’re taking my advice to get laid, then. Huh?” Or not.
I deadpanned at him. “Tess and I are making sure she can cope with her trauma. I’ve promised to help her however she needs me.”
Which is awfully telling because she hasn’t approached me for a whole week after we had sex.
My father nodded, patting both of us on the back. “All right. I’ve seen enough to know you’re doing fine here.”
Ha. I felt halfway crazy from wanting her and even more insane with the determination to let her come to me, to give her the right of way to initiate anything more.
And if she does, I’ll take whatever vanilla simplicity she can handle and deal with it.
I sighed, then nodded at them. “We’ll check in more often soon.” This cabin was so remote, and the surveillance at the gate would alert me to anyone coming on the path. Other than the one road toward this place, thick brush and steep slopes prevented anyone from trespassing too close. Besides, no one would be able to easily link this cabin to a Constella family member.
Franco left first, and then my father left with Nina and Eva. I ignored her teasing looks she gave me in parting, but I had to wonder what kind of girl talk those three had gotten up to while I stepped out with the others.
“I’m going to do a quick perimeter check,” I told Tess.
“Okay.” She nodded, looking up from where she perched on the couch with a new paperback Nina must have brought for her.
“Remember—”
“If I feel like anything is wrong, grab the gun and hide,” she finished for me.
I smiled, glad she hadn’t forgotten what I declared to be the first rule here. After seeing her with that dinky steak knife at the other place I hadn’t finished renovating, I planned to prepare her with lessons of real defense. She admitted to not being familiar with guns, but she seemed all right with holding it and knowing how to use it in a general sense.
As soon as it’s safer to move around, I’m arranging for lessons. Self-defense, too. I would spare her nothing. Tessa would learn to kick ass, even though I’d handle that for her.
Checking the perimeter was a task that needed to be done, regardless of the surveillance tech and equipment set up out here. It never made sense to cut corners, and every time I checked the perimeter, I felt better for seeing firsthand that we weren’t in danger.
I needed the moment to clear my head as well. Being cooped up and in close proximity in the cabin was wearing on me. I felt like she was suffering from the same longing and desire I resisted, but until she told me how she felt, I wouldn’t dare assume.
Maybe she’s just shy. I furrowed my brow as I scanned the woody path, looking out for anything that seemed off at the same time that I thought about Tess. I recalled clearly how she was quiet before we had sex. And timid, like she was learning how to kiss. When she admitted that she was a virgin before those men raped her, anger streamed through me and I had to control my temper. But in telling me that, she was conveying how clueless she was.
I wonder if she would know what to say or do to initiate anything further…
A sharp blast of pain hit me in my arm, and I spun from the impact. Agonizing throbs and stings of tingling numbness radiated from the bullet hole. I was shot. I had lowered my guard thinking about Tess. It was as if my fucking father and cousin had jinxed me.
I turned, clapping my hand to the wound as I dropped to the ground. Behind me, I saw a sniper take off from a thick clump of brush.
You motherfucker. I got up to sprint after him, but with my head pounding and blood streaming too fast from the wound, I staggered to a stop.
No.
He was running away, prompting me to chase. The asshole ran in the opposite direction of the cabin, and I worried that it was a diversion to get me separated from Tess.
No!
I refused to let anything happen to her. When I told her and promised her that I would do anything and everything to help her and keep her safe, I meant it with every fiber of my being. I couldn’t be so stupid as to fall for a ploy. If one sniper was here, then others could be lurking near as well.
Gritting my teeth to the pain, I lowered my bloody hand so I could run with both arms low to swing. I pumped my legs as hard as I could, dashing back to the cabin. Birds still sang. Leaves flittered to the forest floor. Bugs buzzed. All seemed normal and well, like this was any other ordinary day out in the vast wilderness, but it was not.
Fear charged me to go faster yet. Riding the high of the adrenaline rush, I felt less of the pain from being shot and more of the bitter panic and fury lancing through me.
I had to protect her. I had to get there in time. There were no excuses, not a single fucking one, for her getting hurt on my watch.
At last, I reached the cabin, coming up on two men trying to bust in a window. One raised a club-like stick, and the other looked around, scanning for any threats. Through the window, I made out the shape of Tess holding the gun up at the window as she backed away. With frightened eyes, she noticed me past the two men at the window.
They must have noticed her looking at something behind them, because the one with the stick nudged at the guy on lookout. In unison, they turned their heads and sought me out.
My chest rose and fell so fast, heaving for air as I tried to catch my breath. Already, I was getting dizzy and lightheaded from losing so much blood. My T-shirt was damp from warm blood, and I felt the numbness spread along my arm.
Before these fuckers could break the window or try anything with me, I narrowed my eyes and lifted my non-dominant hand. I’d trained with both, just for shitty situations and circumstances like this.
Aiming my gun precisely, I shot one dead between the eyes. He dropped back against the window, and as he dropped, blood smeared on the surface.
“Fuck,” the other said. He lurched to the side to run for cover, but two more shots from my gun removed any function his knees might have once had. Crying out and cursing, he pounded his fist to the ground as he strained to roll over.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I demanded as I stalked closer. He’d beat me to bleeding out, but I clamped my hand on my wound as I kicked his gun away.
His neck flexed as he clenched his teeth, scrambling over the leaves and grass. He didn’t get far because I stood on his nuts.
“A Giovanni?” I snarled, guessing that this pair had to be men from Stefan Giovanni’s organization. They weren’t too familiar, but they were dressed too sharp to be members of the Devil’s Brothers MC.
“Fuck you, Constella.”
I risked the agony of not compressing my wound to step back, shoot his nuts, then stand on the site again. His screams would scare Tessa, but I had to go this far. I had to be this macabre to get the answers I needed.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I gritted my teeth at the pain locking over my shoulder, and I pressed my foot down harder. “Talk. Now!”
“Stefan is pissed that Dante wouldn’t support him with the gun routes.” He growled, trying to tough out the hits. “And he wants to attack him however he can.”
“By taking me out?”
He nodded, shakily and quickly. “Yes. Since Dante refused to align the Constellas with the Giovannis, Stefan wants to take them out. All of you.”
I shook my head. That stupid fucker. I’d never really cared for Stefan. If he was the selfish idiot that he was today back when he was younger, I couldn’t understand why my father was ever his friend. Stefan was nothing like my father. “I thought Stefan was aligning with the fucking bikers.” I knew he was because we’d recently had to save Nina from being taken by the collaborating groups.
The man nodded, gasping for air through the agony he had to be feeling. Kneecaps shattered, balls and dick blasted to pulp, yeah, he wouldn’t be feeling too great.
“He is aligning with the MC,” he replied, “because he likes to always keep his options open.”
In other words, two-time the whole goddamn world if he could get away with it.
“How’d you find me here?” I pressed harder on my wound.
“Followed… Franco,” he replied, squeezing his eyes shut tight. “We know he’s been setting up spies to watch us, and we’ve had our men tailing him.”
And he and my father had decided to check in on me, leading the enemy closer.
“Dante’s got his place too heavily guarded.” The man was singing like a canary, telling all now. “He travels like that too, guards and security.”
Of course, he does. He’s protecting Nina now, and their baby. I thought I was over the top in wanting to keep Tess safe, but I wondered if I should follow my father’s lead. Keep the women under layers of security—not rely on hiding and staying remote.
“Once we saw Franco heading in the same direction as Dante, we knew this would be a good chance to take someone out.”
“What about the other time? At my other place?” I demanded.
“The rundown house?” He shook his head. “Stefan said Reaper volunteered to strike there.”
“And now you’ll all strike out.” I lifted my gun and shot him between his eyes. It was a mercy kill, but also an act of impatience. I was bleeding a lot. I didn’t have time to interrogate him like this. Getting to Tessa and reassuring her that she was safe was also an important goal.
That does it. We’re moving again. I’ll move her as many times as I need to in order to keep her safe and unharmed.
I staggered toward the door, breathing hard and wincing with every step. The impact of my footsteps juddered through me, and I blinked away the blackness creeping in from the edge of my vision.
“Tess.” I cleared my throat and tried to call out for her louder before I slumped onto the door. “Tess, it’s me.”
I lost the fight with gravity. Weak and breathing hard with the dizzying blood loss, I fell and aimed to break my drop with the door.
She opened it right then, though, and I plummeted forward. I crashed onto the hardwood floor, halfway inside with my body on the threshold.
“Romeo!”
I whooshed out a deep breath, glad to hear her sweet voice.
We need to move. This place is compromised. I have to hide you better. All those valid thoughts remained just that, unspoken and trapped in my mind. I couldn’t speak. I could barely move as the darkness crept closer and quicker.
“Romeo!” She screamed it as she dropped to her knees and laid her hands on me.
Then I was out. Right when I had to stay up and alert to save her from anyone coming back and making good on this vendetta Stefan was determined to see through, no matter the costs.