Page 150 of Romeo

“Nothin’ to do with bein’ naked. Everythin’ to do with havin’ broken ribs.”

“What did they use on you?”

“Tire iron. Boots. Fists.”

She rose to her feet and stepped toe-to-toe with him. “When it’s bones versus a tire iron, bones usually break before steel does. I want to see.”

“Why? So you can’ poke me in the fuckin ribs? Make me suffer for fuckin’ up your life?”

“Tempting,” she murmured, sliding her hands under his cut, and slipping it off.

He didn’t stop her, but warned her with a, “Careful,” instead.

She raised his colors in her hand. “With this? Or with you?”

Something flashed behind his dark eyes. “Both.”

She knew how important a cut was to club members and that she needed to treat it with respect. It represented their way of life. It represented their brotherhood, their found family, their loyalty to each other. It represented theireverything.

Turning his head, he watched her place it over the single chair in the small room and return to stand before him. He stood quietly, with only a few winces, as she slowly and carefully tugged his shirt from his jeans and up his torso, cautiously working it around the cast on his arm and his crutch. Once his broad torso was bare, she tossed the T-shirt onto the bed and circled him, using both her eyes and a light touch to check every inch she could see.

His magnificent body was definitely damaged. It didn’t look anything like the last time she saw him naked.

Justthe memory of the last time they had sex, made her breathing shallow and her pussy clench.

God, why did this man make her weak? Why did she keep having to remind herself what he did and what that action did to her.

She couldn’t let him off the hook easily. If at all.

She skipped over his ribs and any visible bruises, though some were harder to spot than others due to his dark skin and numerous tattoos. No road rash was found, and the visible injuries were consistent with being beaten and not crashing his sled.

He’d been truthful with her. He wasn’t only making a play to get her to forgive him. But that also meant what he was saying about Roger could be true.

Was her former boss really tied to theMafia? Was that from where his arrogance stemmed? Was he more of an awful person than Maddie ever realized?

Romeo said that the people who jumped him had beaten him with a freaking tire iron. She couldn’t wrap her mind around how he wasn’t worse off. Or dead. “Jesus, Rome. How didn’t they not break any more bones than they did?”

“Pretty damn confident when I say Jesus didn’t help me. Guessin’ he thought I deserved that ass kickin’ as a warnin’. If it wasn’t for Wick steppin’ out back for a smoke, it woulda been worse.”

Thank goodness for Wick!“Do you plan on retaliating?”

Romeo would never simply let what happened to him go. He’d want revenge despite his statement that La Cosa Nostra had a bigger army than the MC alliance. And between the three clubs, that combined biker brotherhood was pretty damn large and powerful.

They also had Diesel’s Shadows at their backs. Even though those six former special ops guys were getting up inage, they still were more dangerous than more than a dozen bikers.

“Can’t do shit right now.”

He didn’t say he wouldn’t eventually do it, either. But… would he try to handle it on his own? She couldn’t imagine that Trip or Zak would want to go head-to-head with the Mafia and start a huge war. Right now, things were quiet and content in their worlds. Their expanding clubs and families were safe.

“Are you worried that they’ll come after you again? I don’t know much about the Mafia except for what I learned from movies and TV. I can’t imagine that’s an accurate portrayal.”

“Pretty damn close.”

If that was true, Romeo being a target of the Mafia was more than concerning. “They could’ve killed you, Rome.” What was that mysterious sting in her eyes?

She refused to cry over the man who blew up her future. No matter how injured he was. No matter if what happened to him was some kind of karma. Karma she did not order.

She would never want him badly injured or dead. Despite what he did and how she’d suffered since.

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