Chapter 27 Rome
TWENTY-SEVEN
ROME
Being with her is like drinking from a vial of poison. Deceptively sweet, quickly turning bitterly sour before you realize it’s too late. The poison swims in your veins, consuming everything good left inside you until all that’s left is darkness.
“Should be any minute, Mr. Montgomery.” Marcus, my bodyguard, eyes me in the rearview before I tear mine away.
“Good.”
I don’t need him to talk me out of this. Again. I saw the hesitation in his eyes. A longtime friend and ally, Marcus has talked me out of some insane shit over the years that, to a person who didn’t have the money and social standing I do, would have had them locked up for life.
But I do have money, and I do have social standing. Therefore, I can do batshit crazy things like this without worrying about charges being filed against me. Especially her.
However, I don’t miss the resolve in Marcus’s eyes before I look away. He knows there’s no use in talking me out of this.
I’m staring at the back of Marcus’s head from the back seat when he rolls it slightly to the left, eyeing the side mirror.
“Here she comes.”
Three words are all it takes for my heart to jolt to life and the blood to drain to my toes.
I snap my head to the left and spot her immediately.
Her sharp heels click against the concrete as she stares at her phone cradled in her delicate hand.
Long legs, barely covered by her fluffy, pink, feathered skirt move effortlessly through the parking garage.
Her soft, plush lips part as she flicks her gaze up long enough to keep track of where she’s walking before turning her attention back to her phone.
Sweet, innocent, obnoxiously oblivious.
Fuck, she’s infuriating.
Hilarious considering her brother has assigned a security detail to her every move lately. But somehow, the asshole didn’t think to cover the parking garage outside her apartment.
I spend a beat too long watching her. If I don’t move quickly, I’ll miss my chance. She’s walking directly past my car, dangerously close.
I snap out of my hypnotic trance and swing the car door open, creating a wall that blocks her from taking another step.
She screeches to a halt, rolling her ankle in the process.
She hisses and curses, her hand flying out toward the door to catch herself before falling over.
She shrieks when I reach out and wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her into the back of the car with me.
“What the fuck?” she screams, falling back against the back of my leather seat. Her wild eyes turn to me and, once they’ve registered who has kidnapped her, she scrambles to try and get out of the car.
But I’m too quick. My arm flies out to grab the handle of the door, slamming it shut. My entire body pins her down as I glance over my shoulder to Marcus in the front seat.
“Keep the child lock on,” I tell him.
“I’m not a child!” she yells, slapping my shoulder, trying to shove me off her.
“Jury’s out on that one,” I mutter, my heart racing.
“Fuck you, Rome.” she grunts angrily.
“Morning, Lark,” I practically sing, deriving too much pleasure from feeling her squirming with hatred beneath me.
“Let me the fuck out,” she demands.
I simply laugh. “Not going to happen.”
Julianna’s heated breath hits my neck as she pants and huffs. “Let me out, Marcus.”
“Sorry, Ms. Capuleti,” Marcus apologizes.
“Marcus doesn’t take orders from you,” I remind her. “He works for me.”
My knee presses into the seat beside her, and I hate how her signature, intoxicating scent of patchouli and vanilla surrounds me.
Goddammit. I’m drinking from that fucking vial of poison.
I snap myself out of it, not wanting to travel down that road again.
“Let me out of here, Rome!” she yells even louder, shoving me even harder.
But I’m stone, unwilling to move above her.
She grunts and fights me, kicking her feet out. Her heels stab and scrape the back of Marcus’s seat. She’s destroying my fucking car, for Christ’s sake.
“Let me out, or I will scream even louder.”
“No one will hear you,” I tell her, my nostrils flaring with impatience. “These windows are soundproof. Doesn’t matter how loud you are. And we both know how loud you can be, Lark.”
Her icy glare pins itself to me, the blues of her irises darkening. Pupils dilated, she stares at me for several breaths. “I fucking ha—"
“Hate me,” I finish for her, rolling my eyes. “Yes, we know. If it’s any consolation, the feeling is mutual.”
“Happy to know nothing has changed,” she grunts, pushing me again, albeit slightly less forcefully this time. “Now, let me out of the car, psycho.”
“We haven’t even touched the surface of why I pulled you in here yet.”
“You kidnapped me… in the parking garage where I live, on my way to work. The only thing missing is the creepy, windowless white van.” She balls her hands into fists at her sides. “I stand by what I said—you are a psycho. All Montgomerys are.”
Her body still rolls beneath me while she catches her breath.
I give her a devilish smirk. “If I’m a psycho, you must be one too.”
She stills, and I count her breaths in my head.
One. Two. Three. Four…
“Whatever.” She groans, falling back against the seat with a defeated huff. “Can you get off me now?”
“Promise you’ll have a calm, civilized conversation with me, and I’ll move.”
“I don’t think you’re capable of a calm, civilized conversation.”
“Come on, Lark.” I press my lips together. The silence swells, and I tighten my grip on the leather seat, forcing me to keep my hands to myself.
Stay away from the poison, Rome. Remember the reason you hate her.
“Fuck,” she breathes, crossing her arms over her chest. “Fine, I promise.”
“Good girl,” I tease, taking one last jab at her for the fun of it.
She doesn’t take the bait, though, now unwilling to even look me in the eye. She keeps her arms crossed over her chest as she stares blankly out the tinted window.
I sit back in my seat and adjust my tie, straightening out my suit before clearing my throat. "I dropped the lawsuit against Holt."
She lets out an audible gasp before snapping her head to the right.
Somehow, I pull myself together and gather the strength to look back at her.
“You did?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“My lawyer contacted his team this morning. I’m sure he’ll have received the information by now.”
Her eyes soften, the relief practically oozing out of her the moment she realizes I’m telling the truth. But it doesn’t last long. Suspicion is written all over her face, as it should.
“Thank you for dropping the lawsuit.” She swallows and unravels her arms. “Can I go now?”
“We aren’t finished.” I lower my voice.
Her eyes roam over my face, and I see it all there staring back at me.
The hatred.
The betrayal.
She’s always been so easy to read. Perhaps it was our downfall.
And it continues to be.
“I should have known there was more,” she says dryly. “This entire conversation could have been an email up until this point.”
I shove down the sting that pricks my chest at that. “Yes, you should have known. You nearly destroyed my life with your silly, anonymous article.”
She rests back against my seat and stares at me with those wide blue eyes I’ve seen up close too many times before.
I clear my throat and force myself to say what I came here to say. “I may have dropped the lawsuit against Holt, but let’s not get this twisted. I didn’t do this for your benefit.”
I haven’t been able to let go of the anger I have for Julianna. I would say it’s lingered since she told me the truth three nights ago, at the masquerade ball, but it’s been around long before that. I’ve held a hatred toward Julianna Rosaline Capuleti for as long as I can remember.
Her cheeks heat again, the color turning from pale pink to bright red. Her icy glare turns to fire. “I never thought for once you did do this for my benefit.”
“I figured to save myself the trouble of going to court over defamation, there are better ways to spend my time getting revenge on the Capuletis.”
She inhales sharply but stays silent.
“My revenge would be best served going straight to the source,” I add.
“Me.” The word falls from her disgustingly pretty mouth on a near whisper.
“Yes.” I chuckle. “You honestly didn’t believe your confession the other night would let you and your family off the hook, did you?”
Her delicate neck bobs as she gulps nervously. Then she quirks a brow. “What did you have in mind?”
“Oh, come on.” I smooth my hands over my suit jacket. “You know me better than that, Lark. I never show my hand before the appropriate time.”
She tucks her bottom lip between her teeth, and I think she’s going to bite a chunk right out of it with the pressure she’s applying.
She doesn’t even need to say the words I know she’s thinking. She hates me. Despises me.
Good. Because I feel the same.
“Timing is everything, Lark,” I tell her, lingering on her gaze a second too long.
Then I nod toward Marcus, blinking at him once through the rearview mirror. The clicking sound of the child lock releasing echoes throughout the car. I lean forward, hovering over Julianna the same way I had when I dragged her in here.
“You’ll be hearing from me.”
“When?” She looks up at me with blue doe eyes.
Turning away from her, I pull on the door handle and push it open. It swings open, and the sounds of the city outside quickly return. We’re no longer in our own world.
She surprises me when she doesn’t immediately jump out of the car. Her hands rest on the tops of her legs, tangling the gentle delicate feathers of her skirt. Funny how even snakes can disguise themselves as gentle birds sometimes.
I slowly back away and settle back into my seat, where I wait.
She opens her mouth as if she’s about to argue but doesn’t. Instead, she snaps it shut, blinks several times, then turns her back on me. Once she’s slid out of the backseat, I wait until she’s taken a few feet away from the door before shutting it.
She spins around, turning her back to me, and simply stands beside my car. My lungs burn with every second that passes where she doesn’t move.
Drop the vial of poison or drink every last drop?
“Go, Marcus,” I order before I say or do something I’ll inevitably regret.
“Sir?”
I squeeze my eyes shut and breathe through my nose before turning to shoot him a furious glare in the rearview mirror. “Get us the fuck out of here. Now!”