Page 21 of Star Crossed
“He’s speaking in Italian,” Sarah told her friend before she asked Romeo. “What’d it mean?”
Romeo wasn’t about to translate. “I gotta go.”
He hung up and stared at the phone for two seconds before it started ringing again. He couldn’t believe he’d left his room wide open to anyone a day after he’d been involved in a shooting. In Las Vegas, no less, three days after a championship fight.
He rolled out of bed. Now fully awake, he padded naked out of the bedroom in the suite and walked to the front door. He tried to walk quietly, which wasn’t always easy for him, but being barefoot helped. He leaned into the peephole, squinted to look through it, and spied two men leaning against the opposite wall in the hallway. He could hear them talking to others outside the limited range of the peephole. One guy had an expensive camera around his neck, and Romeo was willing to bet there was a video camera resting on the floor next to the other one.
Shit.
He snuck away from the door, looking for his discarded clothes from last night and not finding them. He headed back into the bedroom and discovered Jules had put his suit on a hanger that was hooked to the top of the bathroom door. The wrinkles had fallen out, making it obvious she’d let the heat from her shower steam press it for him.
Despite the situation, Romeo smiled.
He started the search for his other belongings and found them on the nightstand: his wallet, his cuff links, and his cell phone, which he picked up and immediately texted Jules.
Did you get back to your room okay?
Then he sat naked on the bed and called Nova, who answered on the third ring sounding worse for the wear. “Pronto?”
“I need you to bring me some clothes down to room 1041, but you gotta be slick about it. Don’t make it obvious what you’re doing.”
“Okay,” Nova mumbled, still speaking Italian, seeming more asleep than awake. “Is there a reason why you don’t have any clothes?”
“I got my suit, but I can’t walk out wearing Versace at nine in the morning with reporters camped outside this room. It’ll look like I’m coming off a one-night stand.”
“Which you are,” Nova had to point out. “Did you say there’s reporters camped outside the room?”
Romeo winced. “Yeah.”
“Fuckers,” Nova growled, sounding dangerous despite the early hour. “Someone ratted you out. I’m gonna go down there and—”
Romeo cut off his tirade. “I forgot to put it under a different name.”
“Madonn’, this chick’s melting your friggin’ brain,” Nova snapped in English. “I told you she was trouble.”
“Just bring me the damn clothes. I’m gonna take a quick shower, but I’ll call down to the front desk and tell ’em to give you a key.”
“Fine.” Nova sighed. “I got this. I’ll get Tino and the boys. We’ll clear out the problem.”
It was on the tip of Romeo’s tongue to ask Nova not to cause a scene, but then he decided to save his breath. His brothers weren’t exactly low-key when it came to things like this, but he did want the problem gone. He was still too high on Jules Conner to deal with the media, especially trashy media that camped outside his hotel for the right shot.
Fuck ’em. Let them deal with the Moretti brothers.
Romeo hung up and checked his phone, feeling his frustration evaporate when he found that Jules had already texted him back.
Did you think I’d need a road map back to my own hotel room? Maybe you need a few more hours sleep, city boy.
Romeo laughed and then responded, telling her about his fuckup with the front desk and the media party going on outside the hotel room. Jules wrote back almost instantly, kicking off an exchange of texts that had Romeo taking the phone with him into the bathroom and then setting it on the sink close to the shower. He washed quickly but paused every time he heard the buzz of another text from Jules; then he’d squint past the water dripping into his eyes to write her back.
He was leaning past the shower door, looking at the screen to his phone, reading Jules’s latest text when Nova burst into the bathroom and set a backpack on the sink. “Problem solved.”
Romeo gave his brother a look. “Knocking, ever hear of it? Get the fuck out.”
Nova frowned at him for one moment before his dark gaze landed on Romeo’s phone, still resting on the sink where Romeo had dropped it after the shock of Nova’s invasion. He made a swipe for it, guessing it was the contents on the phone and not shyness that had Romeo wanting privacy. Romeo had seen that coming from a mile away. He threw the palm of his hand into Nova’s shoulder and swiftly grabbed his phone. A lesser man would’ve landed on his ass, but Nova simply stumbled and nimbly stayed on his feet. He was built like a brick wall, and due to Romeo’s passion for the sport, both his younger brothers had been heavily involved in martial arts since early elementary school. Not much could down Nova Moretti.
Romeo pulled the glass door to the shower closed and set his phone on the ledge where it wouldn’t get wet.
“So how was last night?”
