Page 55 of His Juliet

“On my signal.Three, two, one, go.”

Matteo’s voice reached me through my earpiece and I slipped through the balcony window. I grinned at the silence. Franco had been successful in turning off the alarm system.

It had taken too many days, but we finally found the apartment building housing the Albanians. Once the rest of Ivanov’s men arrived, we had enough to enter every single apartment in pairs to take them out simultaneously.

We were ending this.

Enzo covered my back as I headed further into the penthouse apartment. My fingers curled around my gun. I had a bullet with the Butcher’s name on it.

It was two in the morning and the apartment was dark. I crept down the hallway, recognizing the layout from the blueprints I’d studied. I stopped in front of the bedroom door. At Enzo’s nod, I kicked it open and was greeted by a gyrating wrinkled ass. I couldn’t see the face of the man it belonged to, but I certainly heard his constipated groans as he thrust into a woman, both leaning over the bed.

Fuck, now I needed to burn my eyeballs.

We couldn’t risk hurting the woman, so Enzo and I moved forward together and pulled him off her. My heart sank as I immediately recognized the fucker as one of the Butcher’s top generals, but not the man himself. Still, he needed to die. He didn’t have a moment to process what was happening before I put a bullet in his head.

The bastard landed with a thud on the floor. Blood pooled underneath him.

Enzo jerked his chin at the woman still lying on the bed. She was still and silent, even after the commotion and gunshot. A sick feeling rose in my stomach. I stepped forward while Enzo photographed the general’s prone corpse.

Terrified eyes met me as I crouched down. “Hi, there.” I kept my voice as gentle as possible, even as rage threatened to burst from me. She didn’t even look eighteen. “I know you have no reason to trust us, but if you come with us, we’ll take you somewhere safe.” Her pupils were dilated, eyes glassy, as she blinked at me. I spoke to her more, trying to get a response, but her eyes fluttered shut.

“Shit. She’s been drugged with something.” I kept my finger on her pulse to make sure it was steady. We’d bring her with us and get her to one of the safe houses where Aria could take care of her. I wished I had more time to devote to making sure she was okay, but I needed to get a status report from my soldiers and we needed to get the fuck out of here.

One by one, their reports came in through my bluetooth. There were thirty-five apartments, twenty-seven dead Albanians, nine trafficked girls, and no sign of the Butcher.

* * *

“They’re posted.”Franco sat back in his computer chair, a rare smile on his face.

I peered over his shoulder with a matching smirk. Franco had posted our pictures of every Albanian corpse on the dark web forum used by assassins. The world now understood what happened to those who took out hits against us.

This had been a victory—we’d eliminated the bulk of the Albanian soldiers in our city without sustaining any losses. But the absence of the Butcher built my frustration until it was a burning, visceral thing.

31

ROMEO

New York Citywas blanketed in snow and Christmas was just a few days away, but there was no magic in the season for me without Juliet.

The Albanians—or what was left of them—had been quiet since our raid on their apartment building. We’d cleaned up our mess before anyone could discover the massacre, but our actions had created a ripple through the underworld. The hits on Sienna and Sofiya had been withdrawn. Not only that, the head of the most powerful assassin syndicate in the world had put out a notice promising retaliation against anyone who took future hit jobs against innocent women in the criminal underworld. This had allowed us to take a breath, but we still hadn’t tracked down the Butcher. Until we did, the girls were still on lockdown, and I needed to stay away from Juliet. I couldn’t put her at risk.

I’d sent her a few texts since I got back from Chicago, but I’d stayed away from the bookstore and we hadn’t had any more late-night calls. I watched the cameras outside her apartment religiously and lived for the brief glimpses I caught of her as she came and went to work. It fucking killed me to hold back like this, especially since I couldn’t be truthful about why I was pulling away. The only excuse I’d given her was that I was busy with work before the holidays. Of course, Juliet didn’t complain or call me out on it. I’d learned she expected very little from life when she should expect the world.

I’d stopped myself from asking what she was doing for Christmas because if I brought it up, I wouldn’t be able to resist inserting myself into her celebrations somehow. I didn’t understand how she had worked her way into my soul so deeply. I felt like a different person from before I met her.

I sighed as I headed to Sienna’s apartment. She opened the door wearing a silver pajama set with snowflakes.

“Getting into the winter spirit?” I quipped as I walked inside.

“I ordered them online for me and Sofiya. You want a set?” She was teasing, but I was tempted to get some for Juliet. Would that be overstepping or sending mixed signals? Probably, but now all I could imagine was her in cute pajamas, curled up on my couch next to me.

“Maybe later,” I said. “But right now, I need another favor.”

Sienna flopped down on her couch. “Of course you do.”

I sat down next to her and realized she was watchingFrozen.

“This isn’t a Christmas movie.”

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