Page 90 of Romeo

When Maddie lifted her hand, her face changed the second she saw what she did. Her eyes flicked to the floor.

“Now!” Smith barked. “Someone could slip and fall on that mess, and you know who will be getting sued? Not you.”

“Sorry.” The second she jerked into action, so did Romeo. But not to haul off and teach Smith a lesson.

Not here, not now.

When the man least expected it. When there wouldn’t bewitnesses. Some would call it a “random” act of violence. Romeo would call it karma.

Smith’s time was coming.

Tick motherfucking tock.

He strode after Maddie as she headed toward the back of the building.

“Mr. Carter, you need to leave. You’re heading the wrong way.”

Romeo ignored Smith and instead called out, “Maddie!”

When she stopped and turned, she lifted her hand with the mangled peach. “I need to throw this out.”

“In a second.” Closing the gap between them, he tucked his thumb under her chin to lift her face to his and lowered his voice. “Gonna go before I end up locked in a concrete box, but want you to go, too.”

“I can’t,” she whispered. “I need this job.”

Romeo sucked on his teeth and a muscle jumped in his cheek. “If you couldn’t tell, that wasn’t me askin’ you, woman. That was me tellin’ you. So, gonna make it fuckin’ clear… you ain’t stayin’ here. Plenty of other jobs out there. Don’t gotta deal with his bullshit.”

“I told you why I stay,” she whispered more fiercely. “He’s got important connections in the industry. I only have to hold on a little longer.”

“How much longer?”

He was making a point because even Romeo knew it was a crapshoot whether this job would end up leading her to bigger and better things. Her boss was a narcissistic dickhead. That was never going to change. He was the kind of motherfucker who only did anything that would benefit himself, not others.

In the short time he’d been coming to her job, it was pretty damn clear her boss ruled his employees with fear, notrespect. At first, Romeo hadn’t seen it with Maddie, but now that he had…

When she closed her eyes, his anger spiked through the roof. He understood that she was torn. She had a career goal. She thought this was the only path toward it.

The truth was, that was total bullshit. There had to be another way to get what she wanted.

And if he needed to find that alternative for her, he would. Because the fuck if she was going to continue to be verbally abused by that asshat.

Not on his watch.

Romeo stoodoutside of unit number twenty-two and pounded on the door.

Noises came from the other side before he heard a muffled, “Who is it?”

He sighed. “Got a peephole. Know who the fuck it is.”

“Do you have a good reason to be here?”

He shook his head. She was testing his patience. “Seriously, woman? Open the fuckin’ door. Otherwise, I’m gonna embarrass the shit outta you ’til you do.”

“By doing what?”

He leaned closer to the door and warned, “Really want to find out?”

“With you, it could be anything.”

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