Star-Crossed(29)

Tino snorted. “Great. That’s what I’m good for, entertaining small children.”

“Hey, it’s more than just entertaining them and you know it. You’re teaching those kids how to defend themselves. You’re giving ’em confidence and structure and discipline that’ll help them the rest of their lives. I wish you’d actually use your gifts instead of hanging around worthless assholes like Gino and Carlo.” Tino turned and glared at him. “You don’t understand—”

“You’re twenty-two years old, Tino,” Romeo countered as he got off the bed. “At some point you gotta stop partying and grow up. Now’s as good a time as any. Gimme a brother to be proud of—please.”

“Nova’s just doing what he’s got to do. That’s all he’s ever done,” Tino interjected on Nova’s behalf, which was predictable. “And you don’t listen when he tries to tell you the truth. If you did, you wouldn’t be riding him all the time. You’d be proud of him ’cause he does everything for us, not himself.”

“Whatever,” Romeo said dismissively as he threw the rest of his belongings into the backpack and grabbed his suit still hanging on the door. “Let’s get outta here. We gotta plane to catch.”





75





Chapter Five

“Explain to me again why you decided to take into your own hands what a dozen trained officers could’ve handled.” Wyatt leaned back against the seat and folded his arms over his broad chest before he added, “Without getting shot.” Clay narrowed dark eyes at Wyatt across the small limousine. Despite Melody running a soothing hand over his leg, Clay still growled, “How ’bout I explain to you exactly how to kiss my ass.”

“Y’all need to stop with this ’cause you’re grating on my last nerve.” Jules sighed and then punched Wyatt’s arm for good measure. “Will you shut your damn trap ’bout what happened? He’s still recovering. He shouldn’t even be out of the hospital. Getting him all worked up and aggravated is the last thing he needs.”

“Someone’s touchy,” Wyatt observed and then leaned over to stare at Jules’s phone, obviously deciding to turn his nervous energy loose on her instead. “Who ya texting?”

Jules swatted wildly at his chest with one hand and clipped him behind the ear with her phone in the other. “Leave me alone. You’re in my personal space.” She dropped her phone and pushed at Wyatt’s massive bicep with both hands, trying to shove the mountain of a man God had cursed her with as a twin. “Move, ya overgrown oaf.”

“It’s a car,” Wyatt said incredulously. “What the hell do you want me to do ’bout it?”

“I should’ve rented a bigger limo.”

Jules huffed and picked up her phone once more. Wyatt could scoot over and give her breathing room, but he was still trying to see what she was doing. The lack of sleep 76



was getting to her, and it’d been a stressful morning trying to get everyone’s luggage packed and loaded. To say nothing of the nightmare it was to get Clay discharged.

Hospitals didn’t let gunshot victims walk out the door that easily, even if they had a plane to catch. In the end they had to cancel their earlier flight and book one later in the day to give the doctors time.

“Are you okay, Jules?” Melody considered her from across the limousine. The pretty waitress had a sling that matched Clay’s, and both hands were wrapped and bandaged from the incident the day before that had left her in need of several sets of stitches. Her sandy-blonde hair was in a ponytail, showing the exhaustion of the past twenty-four hours on her face, but still she was worried about Jules. “You look tired. I know you’ve been doing a lot since everything happened, and we sure do appreciate it.”

Jules gave Melody a smile. “I’m fine, darlin’. Keeping busy is what I do best.”

“You do got circles under your eyes.” Wyatt reached over, trying to touch Jules’s face in that annoying brotherly way he’d never grown out of. “Long night?” Jules swatted at him again. When that didn’t deter him, she clasped her smartphone tightly and smacked the screen of it against his forehead hard enough to make a loud thump that had both Melody and Clay wincing in sympathy.

Wyatt rubbed at his forehead. “Damn it, Jules!”

“Touch me again and lose a hand.”

Jules sat back, feeling very self-satisfied as she checked her phone to make sure she hadn’t cracked the screen on Wyatt’s thick skull. Seeing that her phone was still intact, she leaned against the door away from Wyatt and deleted her original text, replacing it with: