Page 27 of Dark Romeo

“Each Christmas,” she agreed. Something flashed in her eyes. “Whose funeral did you go to yesterday?”

“My eldest brother.”

Her face fell. “I’m so sorry.”

I shrugged, even though the loss of him fisted in my belly. Jacob and I had not seen eye to eye for a long time, but I loved him like only a brother could. Once upon a time I had worshiped him like only a younger brother could.

“Were you close?”

“Once. When we were younger. Then he changed. I didn’t like what he became.” The man they buried yesterday wasn’t the Jacob I knew and loved. The truth was, I had missed him for over a decade. For me, the real Jacob died that summer he turned sixteen—the summer my mother died—and my father began to groom him to take over our family business. I had been twelve.

Through my youthful eyes, Jacob became something I didn’t recognize. I watched him morph into one of the monsters that crawled out of one of the stories that he used to read to me before bed. He became a ball of learned rage and hatred. Of eye-for-an-eye justice. Of self-righteous fury.

Our relationship changed. I was no longer the little brother he would protect with his life. He no longer trusted me, taught by our father never to trust anyone, not even his own blood. I became a threat to his future throne.

It was only a matter of time for me to follow him down that dark path…

Julianna’s hand fell upon my arm. Her touch sent waves of heat through my body. She was like a ray of sunshine cutting through the fog I’d been drifting around in for the last fourteen years. If she knew what she was doing to me, she didn’t show it.

“Sometimes that’s harder,” she said. “Trying to mourn someone still alive who doesn’t look like the person you loved.”

I looked up at her and studied her face. Underneath the flawless features was a sadness, an empathy beyond sensing another person’s sadness. She knew. She understood.

“My brother and I,” I began, “…it’s complicated.”

“It always is with family.”

“Do you have brothers? Sisters?” I asked.

“No. It’s just me and my father now.”

“And as the only child, the weight of family expectations falls right on your pretty little shoulders.”

“Indeed,” she said quietly.

JULIANNA

____________

I wanted to change the subject off my father. I wasn’t uncomfortable talking about him. I was uncomfortable that Roman seemed to understand too much. This strange intimacy was unnerving. It went against every logical thought of how close I could feel to a man who was practically a stranger, how connected I should feel to a man I’d only just met.

I found that small puckered scar on his shoulder and ran my finger over it. “What’s this?”

For a second it seemed a flash of something dark went across his eyes. Then it was gone. “It’s a scar.”

I almost rolled my eyes. “Obviously. How did you get it?”

He said nothing.

“It looks like…” I frowned as I leaned in closer. The shape, round with a slight crater, the size of a penny. I’d seen it before. I’d seen it before at work. “Is that...a bullet wound?”

Roman grabbed my hand and pulled it off his scar. He didn’t seem to like me touching it. “It’s nothing.”

Nothing?

I stared at him. His face was totally closed off, his gaze avoiding mine. Except now I could see a glimpse of the darkness that simmered under the surface. It didn’t really come as a shock to me. I’d sensed it even from the moment we met.

I opened my mouth to ask him more. A ringing cut me off. Roman grabbed his phone from above his head and pressed a button, cutting it off.

---