Page 1 of His Juliet

1

ROMEO

The cold rainhad driven most people off the dark Manhattan street. The streetlights cast shadows on the few of us who were out tonight—the elderly woman with a bright purple umbrella dragging a cart down the sidewalk, the squealing young girl clutching her mother’s hand as they ran inside a building, and the man who was following me with one intent: to kill me.

My phone buzzed and I brought it to my ear.

“I’m going to fucking kill you.”

I couldn’t help it—my lips twitched into a smile as Matteo, the Don of the Italian Mafia in New York City, went on a tirade about how Ibetter not get myself fucking killed because he wanted the pleasure of killing me first.

“Aww, I’m touched,” I said as I slipped down a side street. His voice escalated, and I had to hold the phone away from my ear. Matteo was my boss, my best friend, my brother in all but blood. I’d been his second-in-command since the murder of his father, the former Don. I’d sacrificed everything to help win him his empire, and he’d never forgotten it.

“I told you this was too fucking risky,” he seethed through the phone.

I glanced over my shoulder, my muscles loosening when I didn’t see the Albanian silhouetted by the streetlight.

“Are you going to help me or just bitch at me?” My voice was hushed as I turned down another street. It was lined with shops showing their closed signs.

Matteo let out a long-suffering sigh. “Find a place to lie low. They’re somehow blocking Franco from getting access to the street cameras, so we’re blind.”

I passed a small shop and stuttered to a stop. The sign on the door readclosed,but there was a light on inside. I tried the handle and let out a breath when the door opened. I slipped inside, locked the door behind me, and closed the shades.

“I’m inside a store. I couldn’t see him behind me.” I murmured as I headed deeper inside. Lamps illuminated cramped stacks of bookseverywhere. Apparently, I’d found myself in a bookstore. I turned the lights off as I passed them, bathing the aisles in darkness.

“Stay there until we can get eyes on the area. I can’t believe you caught the attention of the fucking Butcher?—”

I came to an abrupt stop when I spotted the check-out counter. A woman stood behind it, frozen, a pen in one hand and a slice of pizza in another.

“Gotta go.” I hung up on Matteo, knowing it would piss him off, but I had more pressing matters to attend to in the form of this gorgeous beauty in front of me. Her hair fell in dark brown curls with pink highlights on the bottom half, matching the pink headband she was wearing. Her eyes were bright green, her cheeks pink and freckled, and her expression was one of growing horror.

Right.

Shit.

“Hi,” I said, voice chipper as I stuck my phone in my pocket. I flashed her my most charming smile, the one that made all women, and some men, practically fall at my feet, but she seemed unconvinced.

Her eyes flitted side to side. “We’re closed,” she finally said.

“Ah, yes, sorry about that. The door was open.” I frowned. “Which is really unsafe. You should lock that when you’re closed, especially if you’re in here alone.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper as she quickly dropped her pen, grabbed her cell, and backed up until she hit a stack of books. The slice of pizza was still clutched in her hand.

“I can’t let you do that,” I said, cocking an eyebrow at her phone. Her fingers hovered over the screen as if she were trying to figure out how to call 911 without me knowing.

“What do you want?”

My gut twisted at the fear in her voice. I closed the space between us, leaned over the counter, and wrapped my hand around her wrist. “Drop the phone, beautiful.”

She hesitated for a moment before releasing the phone. I caught it and slipped it into my back pocket.

“There we go. Nothing to be alarmed about.” My thumb stroked the soft skin on her inner wrist before I realized what I was doing. I reluctantly let her go.

“I’m sure this isn’t how you expected to spend your evening, but I promise I won’t get in the way of your pizza and bookkeeping.”

She clenched her jaw and met my gaze fiercely. “I’m going to ask you to give me back my phone and leave. If you need a book, you can return during business hours.”

My lips twitched. Damn, she was cute.

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