Star-Crossed(5)

“And it looks worse than it is,” Romeo assured him. “I really shouldn’t be here.

The only reason I came was because the cops insisted, and I didn’t feel like making waves.”

“What the hell happened? The hotel is surrounded by news cameras. I had a whole bunch of ’em attack me in the lobby. They’re outside the hospital too. They’re saying you’re a hero.”

Romeo snorted. “Lucky me.”

“Clay Powers’s girlfriend was almost kidnapped by her crazy ex-husband, and Superman here decided to step in,” Nova explained.

Tino nodded as if this was a perfectly normal situation. “Was she hot?”

“Yeah,” Romeo said, because no one could deny Clay Powers’s girlfriend was attractive. “She’s smoking.”

“Are you fucking her?”

“No.” Romeo frowned at his youngest brother. “Nova just told you she’s Powers’s girl.”

“Are you gonna fuck her?” Tino amended as if her being the girlfriend of Romeo’s archrival was of little consequence. “She’ll be real grateful after all this. She’d probably slip you something on the side.”

“I’m not interested.” Romeo hoped to end the conversation. “She’s not my type.” Tino frowned and turned to Nova. “Then I don’t get it.” 14



Nova shrugged. “I don’t get it either.”

An uncomfortable silence settled in the curtained room. Romeo had a different father than Nova and Tino—some big, blond shmuck of a construction worker who took off before Romeo could form a memory of him. Romeo and his two brothers were raised in the same house, with the same mother. All three of them grew up poor as fucking dirt and lacked a male role model because Nova and Tino’s father kept their mother as his filthy secret for a lot of years. He didn’t take any real interest in his sons until they got old enough to be useful.

It would make sense that Romeo and his brothers thought and acted the same, but sometimes it became obvious the six-foot-nine oaf who’d nailed their mother and knocked her up at seventeen left more of himself in Romeo than green eyes and a massive build.

He wasn’t like his brothers, and he never would be.

Romeo loved them. They were his family. He’d do just about anything for his younger brothers, but he didn’t understand them and more often than not, they didn’t understand him either.

Tino suddenly broke the silence with, “A blowjob?” Romeo sighed, knowing in his own way this was Tino’s floundering attempt to understand. “No.”

“Threesome?”

“With Powers?” Nova cut in. “What the fuck?”

Tino ran a hand through his short, black hair as he looked back and forth between Nova and Romeo. “What? You never shared a girl with another guy?” Nova shook his head, his eyes wide as he stared at their youngest brother in horror. “No.”





15

“What the hell are you doing in your spare time, Valentino?” Romeo asked, getting paternal when he thought about his youngest brother getting into God knew what kind of trouble.

“Romeo’s right. You gotta stop partying, man,” Nova said, still looking horrified.

“Some of the shit you do scares me. Fuck that. I don’t need to get it bad enough to rub dicks with another guy.”

Tino pulled back, looking affronted as he straightened his shoulders. “You don’t gotta rub dicks, ’cause see, chicks got—”

Tino was cut off by the curtain sliding back to reveal a paunchy, middle-aged doctor looking at a clipboard. “So what seems to be the problem?”

“Thank God.” Nova turned to look at the doctor, who effectively silenced Tino’s threesome explanation. Nova actually crossed himself as he breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’ve never been so glad to see a doctor.”

Romeo laughed despite his general bitterness with life. “You and me both.

Sometimes I’m happy I don’t share a full gene pool with him.” Nova laughed with him. “Pity me.”

“Fuck both of yous,” Tino snapped and then turned to glare at the doctor, who was gaping at the three of them. “What the fuck are you looking at?” The doctor held up a hand passively—Tino’s muscular build made him intimidating to most men. The doctor’s gaze darted from Tino to Romeo. “Do we have a problem I don’t know about? I can come back.”

“Hell no.” Romeo stuck out his bandaged hand quickly, hoping to lure the doctor with the sight of blood. “Fix it so I can get outta here. Hospitals give me the creeps.”

“You’re in the wrong profession then.” The doctor cast another concerned look at Tino, who was running a hand through his hair and was twitchy like he always got right before he started something that usually ended badly. The doctor turned back to 16