Page 9 of His Juliet

I shouldn’t have.

Because what awaited me was a letter notifying us of a rent increase. A significant one.

I stood, frozen and stunned as I looked at the numbers.

Effective next month.

Right in time for the holidays. Thanks, landlord. Really appreciate that.

I needed to tell Arturo. My hand hovered over the store phone before I remembered he was about to leave to visit his extended family in Italy. Maybe I should wait to bother him. Maybe I could figure out a way to bring in more revenue to cover the increase.

I rested my head in my hands, allowing myself a few moments of self-pity until a couple of new customers walked in and I had to pull my shit together.

I put the letter back in the envelope. It was a problem for future me.

5

ROMEO

“Franco found them!”Enzo’s shout as he burst into Matteo’s office jolted me out of my half-asleep stupor.

We’d spent the past four days attempting to track the Butcher. We knew he was bringing girls into the city to sell, but the man was a ghost. Somehow, he avoided all video surveillance, and the few Albanian soldiers we’d captured weren’t high enough up in the organization to tell us anything useful.

The longer he taunted me, the greater my need to end him grew.

“What did he find?” Matteo asked, tightening his grip on a very pregnant Sofiya sitting on his lap.

Enzo held out his phone, and Franco’s voice rose from the speaker. He’d been Matteo’s top hacker for years. It was rare to get him out of his apartment, but he was incredible at what he did and had saved my life on more than one occasion.

“I’ve been watching this club in Midtown. It’s registered to an American company, but after a shit-ton of digging, I finally found ties to the Albanians. All the cameras in the area have been tampered with except for one in an ATM. I just hacked it and pulled footage from late last night. Most of it’s out of frame, but there were two men leading a woman inside the back of the club. I used facial recognition software on the guys, and there was a match to one of the Butcher’s soldiers.”

Matteo’s jaw clenched. “Get us whatever you can on that building. I want blueprints, footage, and any other useful intel. We’ll raid it tonight.”

Enzo ended the call and waited for orders. I was already running down the list of men and weapons I wanted with me.

Sofiya made a small noise and clutched her husband’s arm. They locked eyes and carried on a silent conversation. Something stirred in my chest that felt suspiciously like longing. Juliet had felt perfect in my arms.

Matteo turned back to me. “Can you take point on this one? I’ll stay here and work with Franco on comms.”

I kept my expression neutral to hide my surprise and nodded. Matteo wasn’t one to sit on the sidelines, but Sofiya was less than two months from delivering, so I understood her desire to keep her husband out of the line of fire. While part of me missed how things used to be—Matteo and me running recklessly around the city together—I loved Sofiya like a sister and wanted to do whatever I could to support their growing family.

“You should pull Sienna in to help Franco,” I said.

Sienna was the best hacker I knew, but Matteo was extremely protective of his sister and had never wanted to involve her in Family business.

“Franco has it under control,” Matteo said.

His unwavering gaze met mine, and I knew I wouldn’t win this argument today.

“I’ll let our men know to get ready,” I said.

“The club closes at two a.m.,” Enzo said.

My hands tightened on the armrests. That was hours away, and the darkness inside me that hungered for blood pushed me to gonow. But I would be smart about this, ensuring we had a strong plan so my men stayed safe.

I was ready for vengeance.

* * *

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