Star-Crossed (37 page)

“That’s it?” Wyatt arched an annoyed eyebrow. He could have figured out that much on his own. “You dunno where they’re going? Did he give you an idea—”

“She was driving. Romeo being forced to leave sorta came outta nowhere. I don’t think he had someplace specific in mind.”

“Why did they have to leave? Is he running from something? There’s been mention of a fight being thrown. Is he in danger for refusing to throw it?” Tino stared at him for a long moment before he shrugged. “Maybe they left ’cause her brother hates him enough to try and keep his own kid away from him. That’s fucking bullshit.”

“You’re lying.” Wyatt narrowed his eyes. “Tell me the truth. If my sister is in danger, I need to know.”

“Now I’m starting to feel like I need a lawyer again,” Tino said and then groaned when his phone rang once more. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered angrily,

“What?”

After a few heated words in Italian, he held out the phone.

Wyatt took it and put it to his ear silently.

“I have an idea how to find them,” Nova ground out, sounding like just saying it went against everything in him. “But first you gotta promise you’ll keep the cops outta this. It’ll just create complications.”

“I
am
the cops,” Wyatt reminded him. “I’m not making that promise.”

“Fuck.” Nova groaned. “Romeo didn’t do anything.”

“I believe you,” Wyatt surprised himself by saying. “But I still ain’t making that promise.”

“He didn’t break any laws, Conner!”

300

“I already said I believe that,” Wyatt repeated. “Are you gonna share your idea?

I’m going gray waiting.”

“I need some sorta insurance. Make it worth my while.” Wyatt looked back to Tino, unable to believe the nerve of these two brothers.

“Well, I ain’t got a lick of insurance to offer. Sorry.”

“Promise you won’t let your sister take Romeo’s kid away from him. We’d fight it.

We’d hire the best fucking lawyers in the country, but I don’t want him to go through the same shit he did with us.”

“Look, my sister does her own thing,” Wyatt admitted with a laugh of disbelief because that was more than obvious. “But if we work together to find them, I could be encouraged to forget that everything ’bout Romeo Wellings grates on my last nerve.”

“You’ll back off?”

Wyatt pulled a face of distaste. “Yup.”

“Even if they get married and spend the rest of their days having little redneck babies in Garnet?”

“Long as there ain’t any trouble and he makes my sister happy, then I ain’t got any sort of opinion on him, negative or otherwise.” Nova was quiet for another long moment before he said, “You sister carries a smartphone, right? One that can access e-mail and—”

“I know what a smartphone is,” Wyatt cut him off. “So what?”

“You can track them online,” Nova went on. “I already tracked Romeo’s, but it’s off.”

“Jules’s is off too.” Wyatt huffed. “I ain’t tracked it. I don’t even know how I’d do it, but—”

“All you need is her e-mail and account password.”

“It just kicks to voice mail. I know it’s off,” Wyatt argued, hoping for a better idea than that. “And they ain’t gonna turn ’em back on if they’re trying to stay hidden.”

301

“Romeo does everything on his phone,” Nova said confidently. “He won’t be able to keep it off forever. No friggin’ way.”

Wyatt realized that was probably true for his sister too. “I think Jules keeps her brain in hers. She’s always using it.”

“So we keep tracking until one of them turns it on. They’ll get weak eventually.”

“Just check it over and over hoping they’ll turn ’em on for five minutes?” Wyatt huffed. “Day and night?”

“You gotta better idea?”

No, actually, he didn’t. That idea was sort of brilliant if not incredibly time-consuming. “I suppose we could text ’em too. Just in case they turn it on and we miss them. At least they’ll know ’bout the baby.”

“Absolutely,” Nova agreed. “I’ll give you my number. Call me when you get to a computer, and I’ll help you retrieve her password, unless you have it?”

“I don’t.” Wyatt cringed. “Jules does most everything with the computers. I ain’t that tech savvy.”

“I am
not
surprised by that,” Nova said with a bark of laughter. “But don’t worry about it. I am savvy. I can help you.”

Wyatt paused, having the insane urge to say thank you. He knew Nova Moretti was involved with the mafia. He shouldn’t be associating with him, let alone depending on him for something this important. There was a part of Wyatt that wanted to fight against it. Instead he pulled his phone out of his pocket and said, “Gimme your number. I’ll call ya as soon as I get home.”

302

Chapter Twenty-One

Romeo didn’t fully wake up until Jules got too tired to drive and pulled into a motel sometime midday. Sleeping in the car after a fight meant his entire body was stiff and hurting. He didn’t even argue when Jules shoved a pill and a glass of water at him.

The motel was two grades below shitty, but it had a bed and they were both exhausted. They were too tired to carry in anything but the guns, Jules’s purse, and the money case. So they simply stripped down to their bare skin and passed out with Romeo wrapped around Jules, his face buried in her silky hair. Taking that pill on an empty stomach made it kick in almost instantly, and the world hazed around him as he breathed Jules in and tried to forget leaving Nova and Tino behind.

When he woke the second time, he was a little less stiff, but queasy as hell and starving. Fighting the waves of nausea, he stroked Jules’s hair away from her face, seeing she had circles under her eyes from the long drive. Deciding to let her sleep, he rolled out of bed and stretched, realizing he was still plenty sore.

Knowing the pill he took was the reason he was so green to begin with, he decided eating was a better idea and tried to pull his clothes on as quietly as possible. Once dressed he fumbled on the nightstand for the key card, then searched for his phone long enough to give up when his stomach growled.

A peek outside the door told him there was nothing to eat within walking distance. He fished Jules’s keys out of her purse and took off in search of something to make him feel a little less dreadful.

The only thing he managed to turn up was burgers and fries from a greasy burger place, but it was better than nothing and he got everything to go because he didn’t want to leave Jules alone for too long. During the short drive, he gathered they were in West

303

Virginia, which certainly wasn’t where Romeo would have headed, but it seemed as good as any place.

He stuck the plastic key in the door, but it didn’t even have time to light up before the door was jerked open and Jules reached out to hit his chest. “You just take off? You didn’t think I’d be worried sick ’bout ya?”

“You were sleeping.” Romeo held up his hands, showing off the fast-food bags.

“And I needed food.”

“Next time leave a note!” Jules snapped but grabbed one of the bags like it held buried treasure and turned to go back inside. Wearing the jeans and T-shirt from the night before, she sat on the bed and tore open the bag. “I am starving. I feel like I ain’t eaten in a million years. Didja get something to drink?”

“Yeah, I gotta go back. I only got so many hands.” Romeo grabbed one of the burgers out of the bag and worked on eating it as he made his way to the car and got the drinks. When he returned and produced sweet tea, Jules was happy enough to completely forgive him not leaving a note.

“I don’t even think about writing notes anymore,” Romeo admitted as he sat next to her on the bed eating his second cheeseburger. “I would’ve texted you, but I think I lost my friggin’ phone.”

“I turned it off and put it in the center console.” Jules took another sip of her sweet tea. “You’d have gotten five hundred calls by now, most of ’em from my brother. Who needs that kinda distraction?”

Romeo knew that was a very good point. He was sure there were some very colorful voice mails waiting for him when he did turn it back on. “Wish I would’ve known. I think I lost an hour of my life looking for it.” Jules giggled. “Guess that makes us even.”

“I guess.” Romeo grinned and studied Jules, who was also working on her second burger. She wasn’t one of those women who nipped at salads. She really ate when she 304

was hungry, and she was unapologetic about it, which was something he liked about her. He reached over and cupped her cheek. “You still look tired.”

“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Jules asked defensively. “You ain’t in top form either, I’ll tell ya that.”

“You’re beautiful. You just look like you could use some extra sleep.”

“Sorry.” Jules rolled her eyes. “Wyatt’s been giving me hell ’bout my hormones. I get tired of him pointing out how tired and sick I look.”

“What’s wrong with your hormones?”

“It happens sometimes.” Jules shrugged. “Doctors say it’s from not having a normal cycle. I’m lucky if I get three periods a year. They put me on the pill, but it makes me sick as hell. I got an appointment in a few weeks up at Mercy General. I was gonna go ahead and try it again.”

“If it makes you sick”—Romeo pulled a face—“why do it?”

“It’d make things more convenient.”

“So what?” Romeo shrugged. “I’m the one inconvenienced, and I’d rather use condoms than have you sick.”

“I appreciate that,” Jules said with a smile. “But I got to go on ’em at some point.

Not having normal periods puts me at risk.”

“For what?”

Jules winced. “Cancer.”

That word hit Romeo in the gut like a two-by-four, and he was a silent for a moment before he said, “You shouldn’t fuck around with shit like that, Juliet.”

“I told ya, I made the dang appointment.”

“Which you’re gonna miss unless you go home. I should’ve never—” Jules put her hand to his mouth, cutting off his words. “I don’t wanna talk ’bout my periods anymore. It ain’t exactly sexy, Romeo.”

305

Romeo pulled her hand aside. “I don’t give a shit if you don’t think it’s sexy. We need to discuss—”

Jules leaned over and pressed her lips to his. It was a blunt, no-nonsense kiss that served no other purpose than to shut him up, and it made Romeo laugh, which in turn made her laugh.

Problem solved, she pulled back after a moment and took another sip of sweet tea before she added, “And it ain’t like Mercy’s got the only lady doctors ’round.” Romeo laughed harder. “Lady doctors?”

“Wyatt calls ’em that.” Jules giggled. “Poor fella, stuck with me for a twin. He’s been hearing ’bout hormones and period problems since he was fourteen. He’s got to have some defense mechanism against all of it.”

“I think
he
has hormone problems,” Romeo said with a frown. “He was definitely menstruating yesterday.”

Jules cracked up. She fell down on the bed and put her cup on the nightstand, still laughing so hard her whole frame shook. There was something about her laughter that was incredibly endearing. Romeo knew this trip would have been very different without her. Before, it had felt like he was losing everything; now it felt more like starting over. There was so much about leaving that was painful, but he had things to appreciate too.

He leaned over, pushed her hair aside, and kissed her neck. Jules hummed beneath him as she rolled over onto her stomach and tilted her head to the side invitingly. He licked, sucked, and bit harder than he usually would. It didn’t matter if he marked her now, and that was turning him on like crazy.

He pulled away from her long enough to tug at the neck of his T-shirt. He pulled it over his head and tossed it aside before he fell over her again. He pushed his hips against her thigh, letting her feel the outline of his cock through his jeans as he breathed into her ear. “You wanna fuck?”

306

“Yeah,” Jules moaned, her hand in her hair, holding it up to give him better access.

Romeo reached into his pocket, searching for his wallet and coming up empty.

“Shit, I left my wallet in the car after I paid for the food.”

“Forget the condoms.” Jules writhed against the bed, pushing her ass back invitingly. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Juliet—” He paused, trying to think of an answer that wouldn’t put her on edge when it was a sensitive subject. Her hand snaked back while he thought. Her fingers dug into his thigh, pulling him tighter against her in a way that made her needs blatant, and he fought against the rush. “Come on, baby. Lemme go.”

“I’m thirty-four,” Jules reminded him. “And I love you. Ain’t no one else in this world I’d rather make a baby with, Romeo.”

They were on the run. Jules was supposed to go home in a few days. This was all about more time and—

“You’re really not going home, are you?”

Jules sighed. “I dunno.”

“Juliet,” Romeo said more firmly as he leaned down to meet her eyes. “I thought we stopped lying to each other. Are you going home or not?”