Star-Crossed(4)

“There are newspeople everywhere.”





11

Romeo glared at his younger brother. Nova was in a dark mood, all hard angles and dangerous edges, as if his defense mechanisms had kicked in the moment he got the call from Romeo in the hospital. Nothing but eyes and ears, he was absorbed with the heavy job of damage control, but Romeo had shit to be defensive about too.

“Last I checked, stopping a crazed gunman wasn’t against the law. So back off before I use your friggin’ face to work off frustration.” Nova’s shoulders slumped with a guilty wince tossed in Romeo’s direction.

“You’re still pissed off about the loss.”

“Yes.” Romeo looked away once more as the back of his neck burned and his hand throbbed. “I’m still pissed off about the loss.”

Nova snorted as if Romeo was being juvenile, shaking off the guilt easily. “Big deal. You lost one fight.”

“It was a championship fight,” Romeo reminded him, not knowing why he was bothering to explain. If it didn’t revolve around family loyalty or financial gain, it was outside Nova’s realm of understanding. “I worked my entire life for that fight.”

“So you’ll win the next one. You win all your fights.” He knew Nova left it unsaid that Romeo won all the fights he didn’t throw on purpose, but that’s what Nova thought. Romeo didn’t know what hurt worse, knowing his brothers had expected him to throw a fight he’d worked his ass off to win, or the fact that he’d decided to win it anyway and then lost legitimately.

Romeo couldn’t decide if he should hate Clay Powers for kicking his ass in that match, or thank him for keeping a bullet out of his back with that technical knockout. If Romeo had won the fight like he’d planned when there was so much dirty money riding on his loss, someone would’ve shot him. He didn’t believe his brothers would have pulled the trigger. They would have fought to save him, but the cold, harsh reality was one didn’t fuck with the mob’s finances and live to tell about it.

Now Romeo was free and clear until the next time his brothers decided to fuck with his career. He had a clean conscience. He’d fought tooth and nail for the title that 12



meant so much to him not even a mob hit could scare him from it. Then he’d seen Clay Powers’s sweet little girlfriend get kidnapped by a gun-toting lunatic, and decided to step in. Now he was a hero.

It seemed his luck was changing for the better. Too bad Romeo felt totally fucking miserable about all of it.

“Where the hell is Powers anyway? Shouldn’t he be here kissing your ass for risking your neck? It took some friggin’ stugots to do what you did.”

“He’s got a bullet hole in him, asshole,” Romeo told his brother. “He jumped that guy trying to kidnap his girl, and the scumbag shot him.”

“Maybe he’ll die,” Nova said indifferently. “Prick.” Charming of him to be put out over Romeo’s public ass kicking after Nova collected on the loss.

Romeo sighed. “Those country bastards are made of lead or something. Nothing hurts them. He’s not gonna die.”

He was certain of that if nothing else. He’d fought Clay. He knew the guy was almost inhuman. He’d never been in the cage with someone who radiated that much raw power and determination, and he’d sure as shit never seen anyone jump at a guy with a gun like Clay had done in the casino. Where Romeo came from, people ducked when guns were pointed in their direction.

Romeo still wasn’t sure what had made him go after Melody Dylan, who was sweet and cute and certainly not his type. She was a little too sweet for him, but Clay seemed taken with her, and he did save Romeo’s life by beating him fair and square in that title match. Even if Clay didn’t know it, Romeo supposed he owed him.

Romeo was still pondering his life and the bizarre turn it’d taken when the curtain was pushed open. He was hoping for an ER doctor and a free pass out of the hospital.

Instead he got Valentino, his youngest brother. Like Nova, Tino wasn’t nearly as tall as Romeo, but they both still had the dark good looks of their mother and broad, stocky Italian builds that served them well.





13

“I sleep in and the world goes to shit. I grabbed a cab as soon as I got your text.

Did you see the bacon crawling all over this place?” Tino barked, his voice echoing off the white linoleum. “This hospital’s filled with pigs.”

“Wow, say it louder. I don’t think they all heard you.” Nova shook his head and met Romeo’s gaze. “Whatta idiot.”

“I don’t care if they fucking hear me,” Tino said defiantly, then eyed Romeo’s bandaged, bleeding hand. “Shit, Rome, your hand. You said it was nothing.”