Star-Crossed(25)

“The operator just transferred us to your room,” she said, sounding excited it was so easy. “I saw what you did on the news yesterday. I can’t believe you helped out Powerhouse like that. I would’ve let his girlfriend die.” Romeo pulled a face, unable to hide his annoyance. “Nice.”

“But I think it was totally heroic what you did,” she went on. “You wanna have breakfast with us?”

“Did you say the operator just patched you through?” Romeo asked, only now absorbing the information. “You just asked for my room, and they gave it to you?”

“Yup.”

Romeo frowned, looking around the room for one confused minute before he realized he hadn’t listed this room under a secret name. He’d been so caught up with Jules Conner he’d just blindly booked it without clarifying. He let loose with a stream of colorful Italian swear words at his stupidity.

“He’s speaking in Italian,” Sarah told her friend before she asked Romeo. “What’d it mean?”

Romeo wasn’t about to translate. “I gotta go.”

He hung up and stared at the phone for two seconds before it started ringing again. He couldn’t believe he’d left his room wide open to anyone a day after he’d been involved in a shooting. In Las Vegas, no less, three days after a championship fight.

He rolled out of bed. Now fully awake, he padded naked out of the bedroom in the suite and walked to the front door. He tried to walk quietly, which wasn’t always easy for him, but being barefoot helped. He leaned into the peephole, squinted to look through it, and spied two men leaning against the opposite wall in the hallway. He could hear them talking to others outside the limited range of the peephole. One guy

65

had an expensive camera around his neck, and Romeo was willing to bet there was a video camera resting on the floor next to the other one.

 Shit.

He snuck away from the door, looking for his discarded clothes from last night and not finding them. He headed back into the bedroom and discovered Jules had put his suit on a hanger that was hooked to the top of the bathroom door. The wrinkles had fallen out, making it obvious she’d let the heat from her shower steam press it for him.

Despite the situation, Romeo smiled.

He started the search for his other belongings and found them on the nightstand: his wallet, his cuff links, and his cell phone, which he picked up and immediately texted Jules.

 Did you get back to your room okay?

Then he sat naked on the bed and called Nova, who answered on the third ring sounding worse for the wear. “’Lo.”

“I need you to bring me some clothes down to room 1041, but you gotta be slick about it. Don’t make it obvious what you’re doing.”

“Okay,” Nova mumbled, seeming more asleep than awake. “Is there a reason why you don’t have any clothes?”

“I got my suit, but I can’t walk out wearing Versace at nine in the morning with reporters camped outside this room. It’ll look like I’m coming off a one-night stand.”

“Which you are,” Nova had to point out. “Did you say there’s reporters camped outside the room?”

Romeo winced. “Yeah.”

“Fuckers,” Nova growled, sounding dangerous despite the early hour. “Someone ratted you out. I’m gonna go down there and—”

Romeo cut off his tirade. “I forgot to put it under a different name.” 66



“Madonn’, this chick’s melting your friggin’ brain,” Nova snapped. “I told you she was trouble.”

“Just bring me the damn clothes. I’m gonna take a quick shower, but I’ll call down to the front desk and tell ’em to give you a key.”

“Fine.” Nova sighed. “I got this. I’ll get Tino and the boys. We’ll clear out the problem.”

It was on the tip of Romeo’s tongue to ask Nova not to cause a scene, but then he decided to save his breath. His brothers weren’t exactly low-key when it came to things like this, but he did want the problem gone. He was still too high on Jules Conner to deal with the media, especially trashy media that camped outside his hotel for the right shot.

Fuck ’em. Let them deal with the Moretti brothers.

Romeo hung up and checked his phone, feeling his frustration evaporate when he found that Jules had already texted him back.

 Did you think I’d need a road map back to my own hotel room? Maybe you need a few more hours sleep, city boy.

Romeo laughed and then responded, telling her about his fuckup with the front desk and the media party going on outside the hotel room. Jules wrote back almost instantly, kicking off an exchange of texts that had Romeo taking the phone with him into the bathroom and then setting it on the sink close to the shower. He washed quickly but paused every time he heard the buzz of another text from Jules; then he’d squint past the water dripping into his eyes to write her back.