Page 88 of Forbidden Romeo

Kate lowers her glasses to look me up and down. “Well, that’s why we’re here, aren’t we?”

Before I have the chance to feel offended, Kate marches through the doors like she owns the place.

Judging by the reactions of the staff, she probably does.

“Ms. St Michael! What a pleasure to see you again so soon.” A dark–haired man approaches us, somehow pulling off a highly stylized mullet, and kisses Kate on both cheeks. “Did the nails break already? I can fire someone.”

“Craig,” Kate says as she steps away from the embrace. “I would like you to meet my new friend Roisin.”

Craig’s attention is suddenly on me, and I can practically feel his laser-focused eyes analyzing every hair out of place. He seems to float over to me as if drawn to my lack of personal grooming like a magnet.

“Your friend Roisin is cute. Is she single?” Craig says as he circles me.

I see Kate offer me an apologetic smile. “She’s actually engaged to my cousin.”

“May I?” he asks as he reaches for my hair, and I resign myself to my fate. “You’re getting married? Congratulations!”

“Thanks?” I reply tentatively as he continues to poke and prod at me.

Finally, he takes a step back and examines me from afar again. “I can work with this. Shall we get you in the chair?”

He doesn’t wait for me to respond before he indicates where he wants me to sit and flies away, presumably to find the numerous tools and instruments he needs to work on me.

“If you wanted to torture me,” I say quietly to Kate as we walk over to the chair, “you could have skipped the salon part.”

Kate merely pulls up her own chair and sits casually, “If it makes you feel any better, I’m on your side in all of this.”

“You haven’t even heard my side of the story yet.”

“When it comes to Jack? I trust he’s somehow in the wrong,” she says simply.

I watch as Kate pulls out her phone and begins scanning through a bunch of pictures that look suspiciously like hairstyles.

We’re similar in many ways, I realize. Both daughters of organized crime, both doing our best to please the ones we love. It makes me wonder what her relationship with Jack really is. If she was Graham’s maternal cousin… that means she’s not even biologically related to him. Could it be that once they were more than just allies?

But she’s never come across as if she holds him in any high regard. Even now, I don’t feel the malice of someone scorned by a lover. Besides, she’s the only one who seems to know the truth. The only one that might be able to provide me with some kind of company or even friendship.

Perhaps that’s why she bought me here. After all, being a daughter of the mob is a lonely line of work.

“Why do I feel like I can trust you?” I say slowly.

“It’s the face, I think,” she quips back easily, just as Craig rejoins us with an entire cart of supplies.

“And a beautiful face at that,” he says with a grin toward the blonde before turning his attention to me. “Shall we get started?”

I try a smile back. “Do your worst.”

He begins picking at my hair again, and I try to settle into the chair. “So, what’s your fiancé like?”

“He’s an asshole,” I reply automatically with a pointed glance at Kate.

“They’re going through a rough patch,” she says a bit more gently, by way of explanation to Craig. “Roisin was just about to tell me all about it, weren’t you?”

I glare at her before letting out a sigh. Without Roisin around, I’ve had no one to talk to about this whole mess. Maybe it will feel easier if I unload…

“I just…” I begin, then sigh. “I don’t know where I stand with him. When we’re together and alone… it feels real, like he actually means everything he says.”

“Like what?” Kate asks curiously.

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