Page 104 of His Juliet

“Ahh, didn’t know how much you knew when I picked you up,” he mumbled.

Sienna rolled her eyes. “Empire Properties is a real company, but it mostly operates as a legitimate front for some of our other businesses.” Before I could piece together what her words meant, she continued. “We’re going down to the shooting range and were wondering if you might want to join us?”

I blinked. “Shooting range?”

“We have one on the lower floor and I teach classes,” Sofiya said. “Gotta make sure these guys don’t slack.” She gestured at the two large men behind her.

“Oh, I don’t know anything about guns,” I said.

“Sofiya’s a great teacher,” Sienna said, smiling. “We’d love to get to know you better, especially since I’m sure this is all a bit overwhelming. Mafia men don’t really understand the concept of boundaries. Us girls have to stick together.”

Mafia men.

Holy shit.

Hearing someone else utter the words, especially so casually, made it even more real. Not that I believed Romeo was lying, but part of me was still in denial.

Sofiya and Sienna looked genuinely excited to spend time with me, and I wanted that, too. But just the thought of leaving the apartment or using the elevator made it hard to breathe.

I tried to come up with a good excuse for why I couldn’t join them.

I have to prepare dinner.Yeah right, I can’t cook for shit.

I have to work.Uh huh. They know you work at the bookstore.

I have… baths to take.For fuck’s sake.

There was no good reason I couldn’t go downstairs with them except for the fact thatI couldn’t go downstairs with thembecause I was a defective weirdo.

“I don’t like elevators,” I blurted out.

I was met with confused but kind expressions. Angelo eyed me carefully and then typed something on his phone.

“Oh,” Sofiya said. “That’s fair. A lot of people don’t like elevators.”

“Do you want to take the stairs instead? It’s like twenty floors, but we can get our steps in and meet Sofiya and Angelo down there.” Sienna shrugged, looking completely unfazed at the idea.

Could I take the stairs? It still required me to leave the safety of Romeo’s apartment and be around new people. And a cramped stairwell probably wouldn’t be much better than the enclosed elevator space.

Angelo grunted and stepped forward, holding out his phone.

I scrunched my eyebrows and took it, confusion filling me as I pressed it to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Hey, angel.”

Romeo’s voice instantly soothed the tension in my chest. My breaths came easier as my shoulders dropped. The influence he had over me had to be some kind of sorcery.

“Hi,” I said again, like an idiot.

He chuckled, the sound warm and low. “Angelo said Sofiya and Sienna are inviting you to the gun range.”

“Yeah.” I turned so I wasn’t directly looking at them, although they were doing a great job of pretending not to pay attention to me.

“Do you want to go, baby?”

“Maybe.” My voice was a hoarse whisper. “But I’m scared of leaving the apartment.”

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