Page 120 of Dark Romeo

Mercutio stared at me. His mouth dropped as a look of realization crossed his face. “She was the one you left at the hotel the day you were supposed to leave Verona. She’s your Perfect Girl, isn’t she?”

I nodded, just once.

Mercutio grabbed at his hair as if he were about to tear it out. “Why would you even take her home?”

“I didn’t know who she was, okay? She didn’t know who I was.” As if I would mess around with her on purpose. Did he think I had a death wish?

Mercutio backed up until he hit against the bench top, scurrying away from me as if I were a leper. “Holy fuck, Roman.”

Yeah that pretty much summed up my situation.

“Holy fuck,” Merc repeated, “you’re in love with her.”

His words slapped me like a cold palm across my face. My head snapped to face him. “I am not in?—”

His words sank in. My chest seared and clenched as if someone had put a round of bullets into it. I tried to shake them away. I was not in love with her. I couldn’t be. The heir to the Tyrell empire could not be in love with the police chief’s daughter.

I grabbed my shake and tilted it back, drinking the entire thing down, then wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I really needed to hit something.

Merc was still staring at me with a woeful look on his face. “Dude, what the hell are you going to do?”

I know what I should do. I should walk away from Julianna. Leave her the hell alone.

But I couldn’t. I’d tried. I just wasn’t strong enough. What choices did I have left?

I shook my head. “I don’t know, Merc,” I admitted. “I don’t fucking know.”

* * *

After Mercutio left I changed into a pair of navy sweatpants. Every time I closed my eyes I saw the two men attacking Julianna. I saw the gun pointed at her, the terror on her face when she realized there was no way out. I saw Eddie grabbing her, then hitting her. I could almost feel the bruise on her swollen jaw. My blood boiled and the aggression spilled over as I remembered them holding her down. I slammed my fists into the punching bag I kept in my spare-room-turned-gym.

Eddie had gotten off way too easily. For a second it felt like the knife was in my hand again, the tip of it inside his mouth aimed at his brain. If Julianna hadn’t been there next to me, I might have killed him right then.

See…violent tendencies. Just like your father.

My father’s face flashed through my mind as I laid into the bag, sweat pouring off me. Goldfish had been his employee until he went underground, but I’d heard rumors that his supposed confession was just a ploy orchestrated by my father to get the case thrown out. Could Goldfish still be working for my father? Could he be the one who tried to snatch Jules last night?

He couldn’t… He wouldn’t…

An unwanted memory flashed in my head.

“She’s the daughter of the new chief of police. A very…interesting girl.”

“She doesn’t seem that interesting,” I said as casually as I could.

“Her father is a righteous man. He’s stubborn enough to believe that he can clean up this city. Incorruptible, they call him. But I think I just found what he’d be willing to bargain for.”

“What are you talking about?”

“No one is incorruptible. Everyone has his price. You just need to find their weak spot and know when to push.”

My stomach turned as I imagined Julianna being used as a pawn in my father’s hands. “What are you going to do to her?”

“Nothing. Yet.”

I staggered as a horrible truth slammed into me.

My own father ordered her capture.

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