by Robin Kaye
Nick fought the urge to scream Lee’s name. He kept telling himself it hadn’t been long since the threat was made, and Gianelli would most likely try to intimidate her first. But no matter what he told himself, it didn’t stop the terror from threatening to overtake all rationality; it didn’t stop the worst-case scenarios from running though his mind; it didn’t stop the copper taste of terror; it didn’t stop the regret. He should have seen this coming; he should have taken care of her; he should have done whatever it took to get her back; he should have said the words. He’d never told her he loved her.
Dave nudged Nick out of his terror-induced lightbulb moment. Shit, he was such a putz. Hugging the wall, Nick slid down the hallway, pausing to grab the fire extinguisher. He handed it to Rich and motioned him to stay.
There were two ways into his old office. He just hoped his old office was Rosalie’s new office. Rich would cover the back entrance, and Nick would take Dave through the front.
Rosalie knew no father would be happy to learn that his son was a lying, cheating embezzler, but she hadn’t expected Mr. Lassiter to deny the evidence. This was exactly what he was doing. She gripped the phone a little tighter and took a swig of Mylanta.
“Mr. Lassiter, I’m sorry. This is not something that can be hushed up. The Board hired me; I have a meeting with them Monday morning. I’m sharing this with you today as a courtesy.”
She heard someone clear his throat and looked up to find two goombata entering her office. One man took the phone out of her hand and hung it up. The other swiveled her chair around to face him.
The big goombah in front of her looked like he was a few biscotti short of a full box. He pasted on a fake smile as Rosalie stood. “Hey, you don’t belong in here. Who are you, and what do you want?”
He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket, opening it far enough to show a leather shoulder holster. Oh, God, this so couldn’t be happening. All the blood drained from her face, and most likely her brain, too, because she couldn’t think straight. That alone was enough to piss her off.
“Now Ms. Ronaldi, there’s no need to get excited. My name is Gino, and this here,” he pointed to the guy on the other side of her desk, “is my associate, Dante.”
Rosalie ignored the dumb schmuck with the gun and took a good look at Dante. She couldn’t believe her eyes. “Dante? Dante DeEsposito?”
Sure enough, the man before her was none other than her old boyfriend. The boyfriend who’d joined the seminary after she turned down his marriage proposal. The first man she’d ever slept with.
“I guess the whole priest thing didn’t work out, huh, Dante? What’d you do, leave the seminary and transfer to Cosa Nostra University?”
Gino snorted at that. “Ha, the seminary. Good one.”
Dante cleared his throat. “Gino, you never told me we were coming to see Rosalie Ronaldi. You said she was some chick named Rose.”
“What are you talking about? She’s a chick, and her name is Rose. You gotta problem with that?”
“Yeah.”
“So do I.”
Rosalie heard Nick’s voice and closed her eyes. She was almost afraid to look at him. He looked great for a guy who’d been in a fight recently. Damn, Rich, too. Nick was going to have one hell of a shiner in the morning. Leave it to Nick to pull off looking hot with his eye almost swollen shut.
“What is this—ghosts of boyfriends past meets the Godfather?”
Nick walked around the other side of Rosalie’s desk, rolling her desk chair out of the way, and pulled her to his side. “What are you talking about, boyfriends?”
Rosalie motioned to Dante. “Ex-boyfriend number one, Dante DeEsposito, meet ex-boyfriend number four, Dominick Romeo, and this,” she pointed to Gino, “is a co-worker of Dante’s named Gino.” Rosalie watched Nick and Dante stare each other down and measure each other in the great alpha male tradition. What a joke. Nick’s hold on her tightened, and though it felt really good, she had this overwhelming urge to smack him.
Nick nodded toward Dante. “You’re the one who ran off to join the seminary?”
Dante shrugged “Not for long.” His chin rose in a Sicilian acknowledgement as he looked over Nick.
“You’re the Romeo?”
Nick made the same tough-guy movement. “You’re Tony Gianelli’s muscle?”
Gino seemed to be blind to the male posturing going on right in front of him—the man had obviously suffered too many blows to the head.
“So you both banged little Rosie here, huh? My turn now?”
Ooh, that was so not a smart thing to say. Dante took a menacing step toward Gino, while Nick pulled her behind him.
Dante grabbed Gino by the collar, and Gino threw his hands up in surrender. “Just kidding, Dante. Leggo of me.”
After a small shake, Dante put him down. Gino straightened his shirt and tucked it in over his protruding belly. “As I was saying,” Gino continued,“Mr. Gianelli sent us to introduce ourselves and talk to Rosie here about a little problem we’re havin’ concerning one of her co-workers, Jackie Lassiter.”
The tension in the room ratcheted up enough that Gino even seemed to notice. He cleared his throat. “See, we don’t want no trouble, and we’re sure you don’t neither. We just come here to give you a friendly warning.”
Rosalie tried to push Nick to the side, and when he didn’t budge, she went around the desk and got right into Dante’s face. “You call this a friendly warning? You have some nerve, coming into my office after all these years and threatening me. Does your mother know what you do, Dante?”
Gino again must not have been listening, because he picked up the conversation where he’d left off. “Yeah, real friendly-like. You see, Mr. Gianelli ain’t too happy that you and that cute little secretary of yours are sticking your noses in business that don’t concern you.” Gino shook his head. “Not happy at all.”
Nick was about to blow. Not that she wasn’t at least as pissed off as he seemed. Shit, it wasn’t everyday your ex-lover came to threaten you and did it in front of the man who recently stabbed you in the back.
“Well, you can just go back to Mr. Gianelli and tell him where he can stuff—”
Nick turned when he heard Dave bark and then growl. Rosalie shot him a what-the-hell-were-you-thinking-bringing-him-here look. Dave strolled in growling, teeth bared, ridge of black hair on his back standing up. Dave glommed onto Gino—the one with the gun—and began herding him toward the open doorway.
Gino paled. “Mr. Romeo, Dante and me, we don’t want no trouble.”
Gino moved a hand slowly toward his holster, and Nick felt like growling, too. “If you don’t want trouble, you better keep your hands where Dave can see them. Once you do, I’ll tell Dave to play nice.”
Dante nodded to Gino, and Gino held both his hands up high. Dante looked right over Rosalie’s head and spoke to Nick as if she weren’t there. “You named your dog Dave?”
Nick bit back a smile when Rosalie poked Dante in the chest. “No, I named Dave. He’s my dog.”
Rosalie was so mad, she was shaking. Nick wasn’t sure who she was madder at, Dante and Gino, or him.
Nick took a step toward her but didn’t take his eyes off Dante. “If you don’t want any trouble, then why are you here threatening my fiancé?
Rosalie turned away from Dante and glared. “Nick—”
Then all hell broke lose. Rich skulked in and hit Gino over the head with the fire extinguisher. Gino’s body crumpled to the floor. He was down for the count.
Nick turned to pull Rosalie away and when Dante reached into his jacket, Nick saw red.
“Gun!”
The next thing he knew, he was tackling Rosalie to the floor, holding her down. He covered her body with his as Dave barreled into Dante, knocked him to the floor, and planted his paws on Dante’s chest. Dave stood there, growling and frothing at the mouth.
When Nick was sure Dante wasn’t moving and Rich had collected all the guns, he helped Rosalie up and
pulled her into his arms.
Rosalie, shaking, held onto Nick, wondering if she could have imagined this whole fiasco. No, she blinked a few times, and Nick was still there. Unless her imagination came equipped with Touch-a-Vision and Smell-a-Vision, she was holding the real thing. Nick, who’d put himself between her and a guy with a gun. The dumb ass had tackled her, trying to protect her. He could have been killed.
Rosalie pulled away and took a good look at him. He was fine—well, except for the black eye. His eyes were so much bluer than she remembered, even the one that was almost swollen shut. She felt the familiar sting of tears, so she did the only thing she could to keep them from falling. She hit him.
“Who the hell do you think you are? Superman? You idiot. You could have been killed!”
Rich put his fingers between his teeth and whistled.
Rosalie faced her brother. “What?”
“Where’s Gina?”
Rich was definitely frazzled, but curiously, not the least concerned about his little sister. Hmmm. “She went home with Sam and Randi.”
“Who the hell are they?”
“Sam is her brother-in-law, the cop. We thought Randi, Jack Lassiter’s secretary and mistress, might need protection until we could take all the evidence to the police.”
Nick turned on her. “Oh, yeah. You thought Randi needed protection, but you didn’t?”
Rosalie planted her hands on her hips and stuck out her chin. “You’re the one who almost got killed!”
Nick looked as if he was going to throw an embolism.
That’s when the sirens drowned out his mumbling and the cops stormed the room. After a few very uncomfortable minutes while New York’s finest sorted out the good guys from the bad, things calmed down. Rich turned over the guns; Gino got a trip to the hospital to make sure he didn’t have a concussion before going to jail; and the police put out an APB on Jack Jr. and Tony Gianelli. Everyone was taken to the police station for questioning. Well, everyone except Dave. Dave got to go home with Henry.
“Would you hold on a minute, Dave?” Rosalie called out. “I’m moving. I’m moving already. You know, it’s not like you can’t go out in the garden and take a leak. Why do you have to get me out of bed at the crack of dawn?”
She rolled over and couldn’t believe it was nine o’clock and that Dave hadn’t gotten her up earlier. Some mother she was. She went to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and got ready for their trip to the dog park. She’d gotten a ride home from the station and hadn’t seen or heard from Nick since they walked into the police station. If not for the bruise on her hip, she’d swear the whole thing had been one crazy dream.
Dave was whining at the door. The last thing she wanted to do right now was walk Dave, but no matter how depressed she’d gotten over the last month, Rosalie never missed their Saturday romp. She suspected that was the only reason Dave hadn’t turned her in to the authorities.
Rosalie pulled on a pair of Nick’s sweats that he’d left in the laundry, a bra, and a sweatshirt. She finger combed her hair, put on her dog park shoes—the ones she didn’t mind stepping in shit in—and shoved her wallet in her jacket pocket. She’d grab a coffee at Fiorentino’s on the way to the park.
Rosalie stepped into the hall, and Dave pulled her away before she could properly close the door. Not that she cared. She managed to get to the security door without falling. The sun shone in, nearly blinding her. She had no idea it was such a gorgeous day. She’d gotten out of the habit of opening the curtains in the morning. If she didn’t open them, she had one less thing to do at night. Why bother? It wasn’t as if the weather made a difference to her lately. Nothing did. It was spring. It rained. End of story.
Taking the sunglasses out of her jacket pocket, she slid them on. As she pushed the door open, Dave ran out and pulled on his leash, spinning her around. She tripped down the step, right into the arms of a very strong man.
Nick.
Dave was jumping on and around them, pushing in between them, and generally being a total pain in the ass.
“Dave, calm down. Sit.” Nick didn’t take his eyes or hands off her when he spoke. Dave sat, but he didn’t look happy about it.
“You okay?”
“Uh, huh.” My, what witty repartee.
“If I let go, you’re not going to fall over, are you?”
“No.”
“Okay.” He let go, and she noticed he held a bouquet of crushed daisies. She widened her stance and held onto the handrail next to the steps just to make sure she wouldn’t fall over.
“I brought these for you.” He handed her the flowers. She leaned back against the handrail and avoided his hand when she accepted them. She didn’t want to chance touching him; just seeing him was enough to affect her equilibrium.
Nick stepped back. “They looked better before we smashed them.”
“Thanks.”
Nick turned to Dave. “How’s my boy? I got something for you, too.” Nick pulled a pig’s ear from his pocket.
Dave jumped on Nick, but he must have been prepared, because he didn’t even step back. Dave gave him a big swipe of the tongue, which pretty much covered his whole face.
“Damn it, Dave. How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t kiss guys—not even you. I thought we got that straight.”
Dave didn’t take his scolding seriously and continued to lick Nick’s face. After Nick had sufficiently hugged and patted the huge mutt, he pushed Dave down. Dave settled for sitting beside Nick and leaning against him, the pig’s ear hanging out of his mouth.
“Well, at least someone missed me.”
Rosalie met his eyes and didn’t know what to say. Did he want her to say she missed him?
He pulled her sunglasses down. “Lee, are you in there?”
She nodded.
“Good. You’re late getting out this morning. I thought I might have missed you. Are you okay?”
“Um, yeah, I’m fine. Nice shiner. I could kill Rich. I told him to stay out of it.”
Nick touched his left eye. “It’s not as if I didn’t deserve it. Rich and I have history. I had it coming to me long before I met you. We fought; we talked; we worked things out. It’s all good . . . except for a few bruises. Then Lois came over with Ty and told us about Tony Gianelli.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Listen. I was thinking that I could take Dave to the park while you try to salvage the flowers. I’ll pick up breakfast on the way back and we can talk. Okay?”
“Sure.” She handed him the plastic bags she had in her pocket.
He took them and gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Ah, I’d almost forgotten about that part of walking Dave. It’s the only thing I haven’t missed.”
Nick kissed her cheek and breathed in the scent of her. God, she smelled good—she looked awful, but she smelled like a dream. He’d even bought a bottle of her perfume to sniff every now and then. It didn’t help. It wasn’t the same. In a little over a month, she looked as if she’d lost twenty pounds. If Rosalie was pregnant, she sure as hell wasn’t glowing.
She pushed her glasses back in place and handed him Dave’s leash. Nick wished he could still see her eyes. Her eyes were so telling. A minute ago, she’d looked as if she might cry.
Nah, Rosalie was not the crying type. She was more the get-pissed-instead-of-hurt type; she sure showed that yesterday. Dave pulled Nick down the steps, giving him an easy out.
As he turned to walk toward the park, he thought about his plan. It was going well so far. She’d agreed to talk with him, and he’d kissed her cheek without getting punched. That was something, anyway.
She didn’t look especially happy to see him—not that she looked unhappy, either.
Before they reached the park, they were joined by Jasmine, the basset Dave had a crush on, and Tommy, the basset’s owner.
The two guys did the usual nod and let the dogs set the pace, which was slow for Dave—Jasmine had short legs.
Tom cleared his throat. “I haven�
�t seen you around for a few weeks. Were you out of town?”
“No, Rosalie and I stopped seeing each other.”
“So, you back together?”
Nick wanted to know why the hell Tommy was so interested. “Yeah, we are.”
“Good. I saw her last week at the park with Dave, and it looked like she was crying.”
“Lee was crying? In public?”
Tommy nodded. “It looked that way. She was sitting on that bench over by the pond, and Dave was practically on her lap. I thought she was hurt or something. She said nothing was wrong, and she looked embarrassed as hell. So I left.”
“Thanks, Tom. Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you around. Come on, Dave, let’s go home.”
Nick loved the idea that Rosalie cared enough to cry over him. Why else would she have been crying? It didn’t matter if Rosalie was sick or pregnant. Nick would do whatever it took to get her back. If they had a baby, that’d be great. Nick had begun to get used to the idea of having a family.
When he started worrying about being like his old man, he reminded himself of what Lois kept telling him. He’d been a part of Tyler’s life for the last ten years; he loved him like a son; and he’d never leave him, no matter what. Ty could always depend on him. So why would it be different with Nick’s own kid, or his wife? All those lectures Lois had given him had finally sunk in. Nick made a mental note to give her another raise and pick up that new Xbox for Ty.
Dave seemed to sense the rush, so he took care of business quicker than usual. When they got to Rosalie’s door, Nick didn’t know if he should knock or walk in. He couldn’t remember ever knocking on Rosalie’s door, and he didn’t want to start now.
He walked in, startling her. She spilled ground coffee all over the counter. It looked as if she’d tried to fix herself up a little. She’d changed her clothes, though what she’d put on was hanging on her. She was bony. What had happened to his Lee?
He saw why Gina had called Rich. He tapped down the worry. He’d take care of her, and she’d be fine. But damn, if she was pregnant, she was one sick pregnant lady.
