Page 159 of Dark Romeo

“Oh, right. Didn’t you date Jasmine for like, three minutes, a few months ago?”

Espo let out a low hum. “Best three minutes ever.”

I made a face. “Ew. I don’t need to know.”

Espo rounded the street onto my block. “Dammit, I knew it would come back to bite me on the ass.”

“You don’t get any sympathy from me, man whore.”

“But you can do damage control. She’ll listen to you. I know Lacey will say yes to a date with me if you put in a good word.”

“Which I won’t do because I actually like her.”

“Oh, ha ha, wise guy.”

I let out an easy laugh. Espo and my relationship had been strained when Roman was in my life; Espo knew I was hiding something. Partners had to trust each other with their lives. Hiding things eroded that trust, putting our lives at risk.

Bantering like this almost had me convinced that we were back to normal. Almost.

He pulled up near my building. There was an awkward pause.

“So, er,” I asked as casually as I could, “you want to come up for dinner?” Truth was, I missed Espo. I missed our easy friendship. Everything was so confusing, so conflicting, so damn hard in my life. I was tired of hard. I missed easy. “Chinese food courtesy of my personal chef, Ming’s?” I may or may not have deliberately mentioned the name of Espo’s favorite Chinese takeout.

Espo pressed his hands to his heart. “Ah, Ming. The one girl who never lets me down.”

I ignored his hidden jab, even as it snapped against me like a rubber band. “So, Ming’s, then?”

“Sure, that sounds great.” Espo’s phone began to beep. He let out a groan. “If this is a dead body, I will kill someone.”

“If that’s a dead body, I’m pretty sure someone beat you to it.”

He pulled out his phone and stared at it, chewing his lip. “Damn, I…”

I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess, it’s a woman and she wants you to come over. Is it Lacey?”

A guilty look crept over his face. Not Lacey.

I waved at him. “Go, Espo. I can eat Ming’s all by myself. At least one of us should be getting laid.”

Espo gave me a sad look. “Sorry it didn’t work out with the rose guy.”

I shrugged, even though it hurt. “It happens. Plenty of fish in the sea and all that, right?” I lied.

It took twenty-five years for me to find someone like Roman. It might take another twenty-five to forget him.

No, that was a lie. I’d never forget him.

ROMAN

____________

From the corner of the alley across her street, I watched as Julianna and her partner pulled up in his unmarked dark police sedan. My chest tightened at the sight of her lovely profile, honey hair tied back at the nape of her neck. She laughed at something Espinoza said. My stomach twisted. See, she’s happy. It’d only been a month and she’d moved on. You were easy to forget.

She was not. She was branded onto my heart, stained into my soul.

If I was going to die tonight at Dante’s hand, then at least I could say that my life had been worth it because she had been mine. At least for a time.

Espinoza placed a hand behind her seat and leaned in. Close. Too close. What was he doing? My stomach clenched when I remembered what Benvolio had said about them. “They’re fucking, dude. That’s the word on the street. And you know what they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

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