CHAPTER 11
ROMEO

I listened as her footsteps scurried down the hallway. Far away from me as I stood in the women’s bathroom of that coffee shop. I stepped out of the room and watched her grab her belongings and storm out of the shop. She was running across the street. She couldn’t get away fast enough.

Fuck.

Running my hand through my hair, I groaned. I loved being with her. I cared for her more than she could imagine. More than I could comprehend. It was just like before. Being buried inside of her ignited those feelings I’d felt all those years ago. Feelings I knew had never fully vanished. I wanted all of her. I wanted our family to be together. Sitting with her and reliving the past, then taking her against the wall of that bathroom? It pulled deeper feelings from me. Feelings of forever I’d never experienced with any other person in my life.

I needed Julia.

I wanted to raise our family with her.

But she was right. If we were going to do that successfully, then I had to find a way out from underneath the burden of my family’s shadows. It was no place for a six-year-old boy. And I’d never be the father Matteo would need me to be if I was gunning down people my father did dirty dealings with. I had to find a way to divest myself completely of the shady dealings he roped us into. And I would have to find a way to do it diplomatically.

I strode down the hallway and slapped a hundred-dollar bill onto the table. My tip for the man keeping his fucking mouth shut. I walked outside and felt the hot sun on my face, allowing it to drip down my body. It reminded me of her. The heat of the sun reminded me of the heat of Julia’s body. It’s warming presence reminded me of the touch of her skin against mine. I was angry. Seething with fury.

But not at Julia.

I knew she was right. She was protecting our son, and I could never be angry with that. It was her job as his mother to make sure he was safe, secure, fed, clothed, and loved. And I had no doubt she was doing that. She was a wonderful mother. I was angry at my father. Angry at him for sacrificing the state of our family to run this corrupt fucking organization. Angry at him for making me feel as if I was the only one who could take the throne as opposed to Antony sitting on it. Angry at myself for thinking that killing those gun runners for the right reasons somehow justified the fact that I’d murdered someone.

I got into my car and headed to my office. I didn’t want to go home, and I needed time to think. I parked the car and walked into the building my father had established a decade ago, and I flung the door open.

I found two of my lieutenants standing there waiting for me.

“What?” I asked.

“We called,” James said.

“And I didn’t pick up. So the fuck what?” I asked.

“It’s important,” Donald said.

“Spit it out, then get out,” I said.

“We need to know what your next move is so we can orchestrate properly, sir,” James said.

“Next move for what?”

“For the guns.”

“There are no guns,” I said. “We didn’t need them, so someone else can have them.”

“With all due respect, sir. We did need those guns,” Donald said.

“For what?” I asked. “You’ve got one on your hip and one at your ankle. James has one around his back and two at his ankles. Why do you need more guns?”

“They aren’t for us. They’re for our arsenal.”

“And why do we need an arsenal?” I asked. “If we were doing legitimate business with the people of this city, we wouldn't have to point guns at their heads to get them to pay up.”

I tossed my jacket over my leather chair as the two men stared at me.

“Is there anything else?” I asked.

“With all due—”

“Cut the shit and the formalities. Talk to me like men. What’s the issue?” I asked.

“You’re growing soft,” James said.

My eyes panned over to the stout man as he cocked his head.

“You said to be blunt.”

“We like the way your father did business,” Donald said. “He was strong. Articulate. He knew what he wanted, and he had no issues going after it.”

“And I know what I want, so I’m going after it. That isn’t the real issue. The issue here is that you wanted this arsenal to gun down whoever got in your way because you’re power hungry like the rest of the men that worked for my father. So let me tell you something. The Martine family owns half this fucking city. Our renters? They pay us. And when they have issues, they look to us for guidance and help. My father’s been bleeding them dry for decades in exchange for promising them cleaner streets. But all my father did was gun down men he thought were guilty. While employing the men who were actually guilty of the crimes.

James and Donald looked at one another before nodding their heads.

“The fuck was that?” I asked.

“People respect us because they fear us. Your father understood that concept,” Donald said.

“And now my father’s dead,” I said.

“There’s no reason to change the status quo. Everyone’s used to our presence.”

“So then why do you need the guns if they’re used to your presence?” I asked.

“You’re too soft,” James said. “You want to run a legitimate business, but you’ve had criminals working for you for damn near a year. So if you can’t run this operation the way your father saw fit, then maybe you need to step aside and let someone else take over.”

“Someone that will do it like it needs to be done,” Donald said.

“What? Like you?” I asked.

The man rolled his shoulders back making my vision drip red. That was what this was about. These two goons who had worked with my father since he first took over felt they were entitled to sit in his fucking seat now that he was dead. I slowly walked around my desk, my fists balled at my sides. I locked eyes with Donald and he faltered, taking a step back when he saw the anger behind my stare.

I reached out and fisted the man’s shirt and brought his piggish face to mine.

“You don’t like the fact that I’m trying to clean up my family’s act?” I asked.

“Sir, that isn’t what—”

“If you really wanted to live by my father’s rules, then you would know that the one thing he hated more than cowardice was a man that backtracked on his word. A man who didn’t own up to the opinion he had,” I said.

“Mr. Martine, what Donald was trying to say—”

“Silence!”

Donald’s eyes squeezed shut, and he turned his head away from me. I released him from my grasp, and he rolled his shoulders and smoothed down his jacket. I felt anger rushing through my veins as I closed my eyes. I felt myself on the outskirts of uncontrollable rage. I had to keep my promise. I had to clean up this family’s act. I had to change, and for the better, so I could be with Julia.

Be with my son.

Be with the family I’d created.

“Told you he wouldn’t do anything,” Donald said.

And my eyes snapped open at his words.

In an instant, I whipped around and brought my fist into his face. He fell back into the wall, and I lunged at him, my teeth bared and my eyes wide. I pummeled him until I finally came to my senses and tossed him onto the floor.

James fell to his side and helped him up, and I watched as blood dripped from Donald’s mouth onto his suit.

“Get the fuck out,” I said as I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket. “Because if you can’t support me, then you can go find someone else to work for.”

Then the two men stumbled out of my office without another word uttered.

I clenched my jaw as I cleaned the blood off my hand. Fuck. I couldn’t believe I’d lost control like that. How the hell was I supposed to be the man and the father Julia and Matteo needed if I couldn't even control my fucking temper? The longer I sat in my father’s chair, the more I was turning into him. Into the angry, tyrannical man I’d known him to be in his later years. I threw the handkerchief against the wall and let it fall to the floor.

I walked over to my chair and sat down, then put my face in my hands.

I was losing my family. I took two steps forward only to be thrown right back to the beginning. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes to keep myself rooted in reality. I didn’t see a way out of this. I couldn't continue beating people into submission and putting bullets between people’s eyes, but my father had brainwashed all of them. Into loyalty. Into subservience. Into running the streets with fear instead of legitimate business practices. And if I fired everyone, they would seek out employment elsewhere and divulge secrets that could cost me my entire family.

But if I kept them, I had to find a way to control them.

And violence was all these people knew.

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes again. I conjured Julia’s sweet face. Her dazzling eyes and her beautiful hair and her perfectly-packaged body that shivered against mine. I could still feel her lips against my neck. Her hands rushing to my hair. Her legs locked around me and her lips begging me for more. Her hands were so small, they fit into the palms of mine. And her fingers were delicate. Soft. Warm.

They made the giant in me melt every time she ran them up my neck.

My priority was my family. But which family? The family that had raised me? Expected me to take this seat? Looked to me for guidance and advice? Or the family I’d created?

Where was my loyalty supposed to lie?

I thought it was with both. I dreamed it could be with both. But the deeper I got into everything, the more I felt forced to choose. Like I felt forced to choose when I was a teenager. Julia had been ripped from me by her father, but now her father was dead. Nothing was standing in the way of me whisking us away and never looking back.

Except that my family would hunt me down and kill me if I ever left this seat. If I ever gave it up to anyone who didn’t deserve it.

I’d made them a promise, and I couldn’t go back on it. But I’d also made myself a promise. From the moment I figured out Matteo existed, I promised to be the man he needed. The father he needed. The father I never had. I promised Julia I wanted peace with the families and to somehow merge all of us, but I was getting buried underneath promises and words that clashed more than they meshed.

I needed to find a way out of this with both of my families intact. And that was going to take a fucking miracle.