Chapter 14

14

JESS

B ang! Bang! Bang!

It’s a war zone out there. Like an armada of soldiers has stormed Mayfair Manor to rescue me. Maybe it is. Romeo said Salvatore Lione wants Father destroyed, and my guess is he’s called in the big guns. Not that there are any weapons larger than his tree trunk arms.

“What the fuck is going on out there?” Father roars at the two men standing watch in the corner of the room. They barged in here a few minutes after the shooting started, peering nervously at the door ever since.

“It’s that fucking brute,” Martin hisses.

“You.” Father points at the priest. He’s been here a while now and bit off way more than he was willing to chew by doing so. “Get on with it. I want this marriage sorted. Immediately.”

“But there’s shooting.” The priest’s lip trembles.

As fucked up as it sounds, I appreciate Father’s attempt at demeaning and bullying me one last time. Had he not felt the need to force me into a wedding dress and get my makeup done before he left me to Martin, the papers would’ve been signed, and my life as a free woman would be over.

“I don’t give a fuck. Have them say the lines, sign the papers to—” A knock at the door silences Father. If he was scared in front of me before, he hid it well. But the way his head slowly arches to the knock while he recoils away from it is a beautiful sight indeed.

“Who’s there?” He tries to growl the words and match the furious temper he’s known for. Instead, he sounds like a purring kitten.

“Housekeeping.” It’s just like him to throw out a cheesy one-liner in the heat of battle. Brazen, careless, and free.

My Romeo.

“Why are you smiling?” Martin hisses.

I ignore his question. Fuck him.

“What did I tell you, Valesca?” Father raises his hand to the two guards with a finger pointed to the ceiling. A commanding gesture to his soldiers leveling their guns on the door.

“Don’t know. I got hit pretty hard last time I saw you,” Romeo calls back. “Never start with the head if you want to drive a point home. It leaves you all fuzzy.”

“Then let me remind you.” He drops the finger, and his two guards rain bullets toward the door. They don’t stop until their magazines run dry and a splintered hole replaces what used to be solid wood. “Still out there?”

Silence.

“No clever remarks? Witty quips?” Father cautiously sticks his neck out to inspect the scene.

My face sinks. No, it can’t be. Romeo did all this just to fall so close to his goal? It’s hard not to blame myself for this. Had I not indulged Romeo the night we met, he’d never have become another victim.

“Get on with it, you stuffy cunt,” Father says to the priest, sighing in relief.

Oh God. What have I done?

“Honored guests,” the priest starts as if he didn’t just witness a murder. “We’re gathered here today?—”

The belittling tone doesn’t feel so good anymore, with the man I think I love splattered across my hallway. It’s made worse by Martin taking my hands by the fingertips and holding me as though there actually is a spark between us.

“What the hell happened to the door?” Romeo’s voice comes from behind. It’s quickly followed by two well-placed gunshots that drop Father’s guards behind the priest. “I had to take a piss.”

“What the fuck?” Martin releases his grip on me and reaches for a pistol behind him.

He barely clears the holster before another echoing clap rings in my ears. Martin screeches as he falls through the red mist of a gunshot exit wound. The priest stumbles back and topples the guards below him.

“Don’t do it, old man,” my beast says. The lighthearted nature he carried a moment ago was gone. He’s gravely serious and wants Father to know it. “If those hands move, you’re going to regret it.”

I remember our first meeting. How intimidated I was to gaze upon all his glory. Butterflies swarm in my belly at the anticipation of peering into his burning eyes again.

“You’re threatening me?” Father’s on his ass, cowering in the corner. I didn’t even see it happen with everything going on around me.

“Same goes for you, Tweed,” Romeo orders.

I shouldn’t, but I giggle at his comment anyway. I don’t think Martin’s going to try anything else tonight. He’s howling and writhing on the floor, lucky to be alive.

“Fuck me, you look stunning in that dress,” Romeo speaks directly to my soul. “I can’t wait ‘til you’re wearing one for me.”

A joyous tear breaks free against my attempts at holding it back. With it, the floodgates open wide, and I weep. Not with the same somberness as before. I’m so overwhelmed and overjoyed; these tears are the only way I can express it.

I finally work up the courage to face Romeo. He’s crouched in the hole Father’s men left, his gun trained squarely on Father’s head.

“You’re going to reg?—”

Romeo opens the door with his free hand and gets back to his feet.

“Shut your fucking mouth. I’m talking, you’re listening,” Romeo barks. Father nods. He extends a hand to me, and I take it. “You’re ordered to cease operations at Mayfair Pharmaceuticals, effective immediately.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” Father asks, gulping as he stares down the barrel of Romeo’s pistol.

“Because, Billy boy, you’ve seen what I can do on my own. Next time I come knocking on this door, I’ll have the Lion’s Den behind me.”

“Sal Lione sent you?” Father’s turning different shades of green. Almost looks like he’s going to be sick, knowing the mafia’s after him.

“He did. Your move, Billy. I urge you to consider it wisely.”

“If it’s money you’re after?—”

“It’s not. Not anymore.” Romeo turns his eyes away from Father and looks deeply into mine.

I keep my eyes on Father, as much as I want to stare straight back into Romeo’s. He will not get a chance to try anything stupid.

“You’re really going to do this?” Father asks. For the first time in my life, I see a different emotion other than mockery on his face. “Set this whole world on fire for her?”

He’s scared, but there’s something else there too.

Respect.

“I would. I did. Isn’t he proof?” Romeo flicks his wrist to point the gun at Martin.

“Why not kill me? End this before I can cause waves?” Father’s breathing is erratic. As if this is the question that’s going to have Romeo change his mind and end it.

“You didn’t kill me, either. Said it was because of Jess.” Romeo pulls me into his side and squeezes me against him tightly. “Has to mean somewhere deep down you love your daughter, that you want what’s best for her and know that it’s me.”

“And you are,” I say, nestling cozily under his arm. “My Romeo. My monster. My beast.”

Father talks again, but neither of us listens as we walk backward through the door. He keeps me tucked under his arm the entire walk out of Mayfair Manor and to his car a short distance up the road.

It’s over. He knows it, and so do I.

We can finally be happy.