Page 50 of His Juliet

The Pakhan’s jaw clenched—the first sign that he was affected.

We stared at each other, iciness crackling between us, until Dimitri inclined his head. “We are united in our goals. We want Sofiya safe. I want the trade routes. You want your city free of the Albanians.”

I leaned back in my seat. “Agreed. How many men can you send to us?”

“Two dozen. All highly trained.”

We needed his men to take posts around the city to track the Albanians’ movements since they were thwarting our surveillance.

“Do you know how they’re getting around your cameras?” Dimitri asked.

I shook my head. “We have eyes around the entire city, and somehow they’re avoiding them.”

“Your hacker is good?”

“He is.” Franco was the best we’d ever had. Maybe besides Sienna, who Matteo refused to bring in. But the Albanians still eluded us.

Dimitri hummed. “Do we have a deal, then?”

“We want three dozen men. We can give you six months of free use of our trade routes. Then we will go to the typical thirty percent fee.”

The Pakhan scoffed and so started our negotiations. Alessandro took point—he was more skilled with numbers—and the tedious conversation went late into the night. It took everything in me to stop my eyes from glazing over, and my fingers itched to check my phone to see if Juliet had called or texted. I didn’t like being so far away from her. What if something happened?

We finally landed on thirty Bratva soldiers in exchange for eight months of free trade, followed by a gradual increase in the percentage we would take off the top.

Dimitri clapped his hands together. “Right. It’s been a long night. Come back for dinner tomorrow, and we can sign the paperwork.”

I was relieved to stand from my chair. This had gone on way too fucking long.

Dimitri and I exchanged another bone-crushing handshake, and we were out the door, heading to the hotel rooms we had booked downtown.

26

JULIET

My heart leaptwhen my phone vibrated. It was one a.m. and Romeo was calling. I’d barely heard anything from him since he left last night. I knew he was busy on his business trip, but I hadn’t been able to shake the feeling of being rejected by his silence.

“Hi.” I cringed at how breathless I sounded.

“Hi, angel. How’s your book tonight?”

I snuggled further into the covers, sinking into the deep rumble of his voice. Tension I hadn’t realized I was holding in my chest melted away at the sound of him.

“It’s not really catching my attention. Good thing I have my gentleman caller to distract me.”

Romeo chuckled, but it sounded strained.

My brow furrowed in concern. “Are you okay?”

“How can you read me so easily, even through the phone?”

“Must be all the late-night chats.” My words were supposed to be teasing, but they came out a little too sincerely.

“Must be,” he murmured.

“So what’s going on?”

“Nothing much. I just had a long day at work.”

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