Codename Romeo: Rogues and Rescuers Book One

by Leroux, Lucy

  The skin around her eyes tightened. “Ethan, there is a warrant for my arrest back home—for the death of Sagrado Juarez—the man who was supposed to be part of the group that killed my family. But I don’t even know if he had anything to do with it.”

  “My guess is he did.” Ethan could easily put the rest together. “Alvaro probably hired outside shooters, then got rid of them to cover it up. He was cleaning up after himself.”

  “I think so. And the crusade that followed took down the higher-ups of the cartel my father worked for.”

  Ah-ha. “It was a hostile takeover.”

  Juliet collapsed against the couch. She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to.

  Ethan rubbed his chin. “So Alvaro killed your family, then found a patsy or several to answer for it. But why did he kill that guy when he knew you were in the house?”

  “Oh, I wasn’t supposed to be there. Luna had a doctor’s appointment that got rescheduled. I didn’t mention the change to him. I believed he was going to be out, too. My plan was to go through his office while I could. I never got the chance. Instead, I left with Luna the next day.”

  He grunted. “The timing of that would have told him everything he needed to know. I mean, who the hell kills someone in their driveway?”

  “Someone ruthless and without a conscious who is used to absolute power?” Juliet shivered. “Ethan, you have to leave my past there. Please leave Alvaro alone.”

  Okay, no more rhetorical questions. Not when Juliet had an unfortunate habit of answering them. But he had to be honest with her.

  “Burying your head in the sand is not going to make your problems go away. When you ran off, Alvaro decided to pin that man’s death on you, killing two birds with one stone,” he said. “But it’s also true this may be the end of it.”

  Juliet shot him a look of patent disbelief.

  He reached over to take her hand. “I understand how scared of Alvaro you are. After watching that video, I don’t blame you. But he’s in a precarious position, too. He has a lot of power in your hometown, but leaving to chase after you would endanger that. Alvaro needs to be there to make sure none of the competition encroaches on his territory or his underlings get ideas about a coup.”

  It would have been stupid of the man to risk coming here, but sending a lackey to do his dirty work would have been smart…expected even. Especially if Alvaro thought Juliet witnessed the murder.

  Imagine if he knew she had it on video…

  Ethan didn’t want to think about that scenario. And he wasn’t going to mention it.

  Juliet opened her mouth to respond, but Luna marched into the living room on her own tiny feet. She gave him and Juliet a downright dirty look before holding her arms out. “Up.”

  Laughing, he stood and picked her up. “How did you get out of your crib?”

  Juliet stood, too. “I warned you she’s an escape artist.”

  Resigned to getting the rest of the story later, he looked down at Luna.

  “Her real name is Delilah. My sister named her after one of the character’s Mother played, and because it sounded like her own name, Daniela.”

  “Really?” He glanced down at the toddler. She stared back, then bopped him in the face with her doll with all her strength while making smooching noises.

  Ethan tried not to laugh, but he failed. “No, she’s not a Delilah.”

  Juliet almost smiled. “I like Luna, too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  A lot had changed in a few days. Under normal circumstances, Ethan would have been taking a victory lap around the office today. Instead, he was ducking all compliments and pretending to plow through the reports to avoid talking. The only place he wanted to be was at home with his family.

  And that was how he’d thought of Juliet and Luna now. There was no point in denying it. Ethan was in love with Juliet. He wanted her more than he wanted his next breath. He also loved her daughter. It didn’t matter that Luna wasn’t her biological child. Juliet was her mom, and he…

  Ethan hesitated. It was easy to do and say the right things when Juliet was in front of him, but verbally committing to be someone’s dad was something else.

  “What are you thinking about so hard?” Jason sat in the neighboring chair, taking a sip of his mug.

  “Fatherhood.”

  Jason coughed, spraying Ethan with a light dusting of hazelnut coffee.

  “Whoa,” he said once he’d stopped choking. “That’ll teach me to ask you loaded questions while drinking anything.”

  “Teach you?” Ethan wrinkled his nose as he searched for a napkin. Finding a crumpled tissue in his top desk drawer, he wiped his face. “I’m the one wearing eau de artificial flavoring here.”

  Recovering, Jason laughed like a ghoul. “Well, well. I guess someone has been thinking about the commitments he made when he ordered his live-in lover not to leave him. I guess that explains why you look so constipated.”

  Ethan tossed the soiled napkin in Jason’s face. He had filled his partner in on last night’s drama on the way to work. Jason had been sympathetic when he learned exactly what kind of trouble Juliet was in—up to a point.

  Jason understood Juliet’s position, and her desire to not want to dig up trouble by looking into her past, but he also wanted to know all about Alvaro and he wanted to know yesterday. Ethan agreed with him, so they had been tag-teaming researching the bastard all morning. One would run a search while the other knocked out the paperwork the big brass needed on the raid.

  His partner leaned in. “Hey, I sweet-talked Rivera into picking up some of the slack. He’s feeling a little bad for being such an ass lately.”

  “What brought about this change of heart?”

  Jason sucked in a breath through his teeth. “His divorce is final.”

  “Ouch.” Ethan had never met Rivera’s wife, but he knew the relationship had been a stormy one. The whole office did. Rivera had wanted to make it work, though, so it dragged on. But now it seemed the poor guy had finally thrown in the towel. “Well, hopefully, it’ll improve his sour-ass disposition.”

  “It can’t hurt. Especially once he starts hitting the bars again and finally gets laid more than once a year.” Jason saw Ethan’s expression and shrugged. “He used to clean up before the ill-conceived marriage.”

  Ethan made a face. “I don’t need to know this shit. But I am grateful for the assist.”

  “Yeah. By the way, social services and a few non-profits have stepped up to help with the girls we found. The one who took a swan dive off the boat is okay, too. They were worried about the effects of hypothermia because she was in pretty bad shape already, but she’s recovering nicely.”

  “Good.” Most of his concern had been reserved for his situation, but those girls had claim to it, too. He couldn’t forget that.

  Jason turned to his computer, then typed for a few minutes. “Hey, check this out.”

  Ethan spun in his chair, then nudged Jason’s out of the way with his own when he saw the screen.

  It was a news account on the page of a major Mexican newspaper, reporting the death of a high-profile cartel lawyer and his family at a child’s christening.

  Ethan read over the disturbing details in a flash. Juliet’s parents had been relatively young when they died. Both had been in their mid-fifties. Her sister had been twenty-nine, more than a decade and a half younger than her husband. The gory pictures that accompanied the story didn’t feature their bodies, only the other two victims.

  That must have been Alvaro pulling strings behind the scene. He would have still been playing the white knight for Juliet at the time of publication. Using his influence to make sure pictures of her dead family weren’t plastered all over the papers would have been play number one in the evil mastermind handbook.

  “I want to see this asshole,” he growled.

  Jason banged Ethan’s chair, pushing him a few inches to the left. “I thought you would never ask.”

  Jason punched
a few keys, then a photo popped up. Ethan narrowed his eyes at the aviator-clad man. Alvaro was in his early thirties—whipcord lean and wiry with black hair greased back with too much pomade. In the photo, Alvaro directed uniformed officers.

  “He looks like a poser in those glasses,” Ethan grumbled. Aside from the obvious he’s-a-villain thing, Ethan was realizing it difficult to find something to criticize about the man.

  “Oh? I thought they kind of looked like yours.” Jason smirked. He caught Ethan’s glare. “All right, all right. Alvaro looks smelly. You can almost see the stink fumes coming off him. And he’s too skinny, practically anemic.”

  Ethan nodded approvingly. “I don’t know about the stink fumes, but he is too skinny, isn’t he?”

  Jason stifled a laugh. “I also found most of his service record. Wouldn’t you know it? He’s squeaky clean—the local papers paint him as a hero, part of the small group battling the cartels and government corruption.”

  “That confirms what Juliet said about him. Nothing else on the guy? Does he have a family?

  “Well, not a wife obviously.” Jason wrinkled his nose. “I’ll keep digging. In the meantime, we should put an alert on Alvaro with the border patrol. If he enters the country, we want to know.”

  It was a good idea. “Agreed.”

  His partner drummed his fingers on the table. “On second thought, the brass at BPD still owes me for that mess with Maggie and Detective Dawson. We should have them run the alert, so it can’t be traced back to us.”

  “Even better,” Ethan said, waving him on.

  Just then, Bullock, another agent, came up behind them. “Hey,” he said, leaning over to peer at the screen. Both the article and the photo of Alvaro were still up. “Is this related to the Russians you bagged last night?”

  “No, this is prep for another case.”

  Bullock’s head drew back. “Shouldn’t you wrap up this case before you move on to the next?”

  “See, Bullock, that’s why you’re going to be busting two-bit identity thieves long after Ethan moves up to the big leagues.”

  Ethan smiled as Bullock scowled. “Hey, that identity theft case is big. The ring I’m tracking has stolen tens of thousands of stolen social security numbers.”

  He stalked off, and Jason grinned. Bullock was notoriously easy to rile. “We better get our damn reports in, or the Angel won’t care how many girls we saved last night.”

  Ethan nodded and got to work, setting aside the issue of Juliet’s ex for the time being. He spent hours on his report, including the background info on both the agents and the girls the rest of the team and the social workers had gathered. Occasionally, he would text Juliet. With Luna off at daycare, she had insisted on resuming her position as his renovation’s supervisor. Ethan had gone along with it. The less time she had to think about things, the better. Predictably, Juliet had thrown herself back into the work with zeal and a determination that put his to shame.

  Sometime in the mid-afternoon, he decided to go to the hospital to check on the girl who had taken a swan dive into the harbor. He was putting on his coat when Jason appeared from God knew where with Rivera and Jimenez flanking him.

  Jason gave him a courtly bow before getting down on one knee. He held up a piece of paper the way a man presented his sword to swear fealty.

  Ethan, used to his partner’s antics, took the paper absently, his mind already on the traffic. “What’s this?”

  “You have another invitation, milord.”

  “What the f—” Ethan lifted the paper. The handwriting was the same as the first.

  Meet me at the Whole in the Wall

  Wednesday ten o’clock.

  We need to talk.

  The informant wanted a face-to-face talk. “What the fuck is the Whole in the Wall?”

  Jason hopped to his feet. “Glad you asked. It’s what passes for a dive bar in Newton. Apparently, it gets its name by virtue of the fact it’s right next to a Whole Foods.”

  Rivera snorted. “Wednesday night is amateur beat poetry night.”

  “What?” Ethan smirked. “I wouldn’t have figured our man for a…poet.”

  Jason laughed “It’s still a long shot that it’s Viktor. I mean, the location alone says it’s not.”

  “That or he wants to meet someplace his crew would never spot him.”

  His partner grinned. “Viktor would stick out like a sore thumb in that place. Ten bucks says it’s anyone but him.”

  “Fifty.” Ethan stuck out his hand, and they shook on it.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Holy shit, baby, that feels so good.”

  It was nine o’clock on Wednesday night, and the last thing Ethan wanted to do was get in his car and drive to Newton. Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact he was on his new couch, balls deep in the woman he loved as she rode him like a stallion.

  Ethan grabbed a fistful of her hair, inhaling her unique scent of caramel and flowers while her snug sheath caressed and squeezed him tight.

  They were both bare from the waist up. He loved the all-access pass to her creamy skin, especially sucking her nipples into his mouth as he fucked her.

  She moaned after he drew hard on a tightly furled bud, sending corresponding vibrations down to his shaft.

  Fuck. This felt too good to be normal. Pleasure this intense had to be illegal. It should have been necessary to break into a bank to get remotely close to this sensation.

  Putting a hand on the back of her head, Ethan pulled her close, taking her mouth as she drove him crazy, flexing and twisting until he had to stop kissing her to catch his breath.

  “Ride me harder, baby,” he hissed, flexing his hips to meet her halfway.

  “You’re in me so deep like this,” Juliet panted, her hips breaking rhythm as he flexed, making sure he hit her G-spot on the downstroke. She threw back her head and cried out, giving him permission to let go.

  The supernova blindsided him. Choking back a shout, he wrapped his arms around her and let go. His hot seed shot into her waiting womb with a last wrench as she ground against him.

  “I want every Wednesday to be like this,” he said when he could breathe again.

  Juliet giggled. “Tuesday wasn’t bad, either.” She pressed her face into his neck, still breathing fast. “And Monday in the shower was pretty nice, too.”

  He laughed, pulling her close against him. “I don’t want to leave. I just want to stay and do that two or three more times. Maybe four.”

  He could feel her smile against his skin. “As if Luna would let that happen.”

  She had a point. Ethan glanced over her head at the camera-enabled baby monitor he’d set up on the coffee table behind them.

  “Is she still asleep?” Juliet was a drowsy weight on his chest.

  “Yeah, don’t worry.” In the short time he’d been in her life, the toddler’s schedule had changed, adapting to the new one he’d imposed on her. She now slept through the night, dropping off after dinner. She woke bright and early the second he nudged her. Then he got her ready for daycare, giving Juliet time to wake up slowly. She was a deep sleeper, and it always took her a little longer to get going in the morning.

  He dropped the toddler off at daycare every day on his way to work.

  For now, the regime was working out. Ethan could count on some private time with Juliet every night—although, for good measure, he’d added a motion detector at the threshold of Luna’s door. Just in case…

  “If the new pattern holds, she’ll be out until morning and you can do something for me,” Ethan said, stroking Juliet’s hair.

  She lifted her head, clearly curious about his serious tone. “What’s that?”

  “Take a long bubble bath and relax for a change.”

  Juliet had come a long way. She was no longer the walking ball of tension he’d first met after her illness, but she was still pushing herself too much.

  “You deserve a break. And I’ll feel better about having to
work tonight if I can picture you relaxing in the tub. On second thought, don’t. The image of you naked in the tub makes me want to blow off my meeting.”

  Putting her hand on his cheek, she kissed him. “I know you can’t do that.”

  Juliet didn’t know the reason for his late-night rendezvous. He felt a little bad about not telling her, but the danger should be minimal tonight. Probably. Almost certainly.

  He wondered how Jason handled this with his partner. Technically, every day on the job was dangerous. He wasn’t worried about tonight, but he’d never faced this situation before, even with the girlfriends who had lasted longer than a few months. It wasn’t even because there was a child in the mix now, either. He felt more for Juliet than he had any other woman in his past. His life was no longer his own.

  Fuck, is this what responsibility feels like?

  Juliet tugged at his arm, lifting his watch up to check the time. “You need to jump in the shower if you’re going to make your meeting.”

  “That’s right.” Reluctantly, he let go of her so she could climb off him. “I would ask you to join me, but I would definitely be late then.”

  “What if I promise to keep my hands to myself?” she breathed, trailing her fingers down his chest as he stood.

  Ethan pictured Viktor waiting through a single-beat poet trying to rhyme ‘Scanlon’ with ‘fake tan’.

  He backed away, his arms up. “Can’t do it, sorry.”

  He jogged to the bathroom. “You have no idea how much,” he called behind him.

  * * *

  It wasn’t beat poetry night. Thankfully, the website for a “Whole in the Wall” was outdated. Instead, it was an open-mike night.

  Ethan had gotten there in time to hear some poor guy’s terrible standup, and now they were all suffering through an amateur sax player’s instrumental rendition of “Careless Whisper”.