Romeo and the Angel: Impossible Crush Chronicles

by Leeann M. Shane

  He nodded at me. “I can’t wait to see who you are under my rule. Stay a while. Party. Get to know your future brothers.”

  “I have to work,” I ground out, pushing to my feet. “We done?”

  He didn’t look up, carefully restacking the cards. “Not even close.”

  I bumped into someone on my way out.

  They turned, delivering me a dark look. “You blind? Watch where you’re walking.”

  I wasn’t in the mood for his crap today. I knocked my shoulder into him. “Get out of my way.”

  Raf got in my face. “Make me.”

  I felt like Thor, and my fist was my magical hammer. I rammed it into his nose, rejoicing in the crunching sound. Blood squirted onto my shirt and he fell back, grabbing the bloody, broken space his nose used to be.

  Behind me, I heard Sergio chuckle. “Got a mean right hook just like his father.”

  The older gangsters laughed.

  I stepped over Raf’s body, so mad the edges of my vision blurred. I stomped home, jumping into the shower. I’d taken the twins to the babysitter as soon as I picked them up for school. I had to cut my last class to make it happen since Mama was working another double plus her regular shift. She was working more and more. I wasn’t even sure she’d seen the kids since Sunday. Anger followed me around at work.

  “Romeo, stop beating up the cabbages,” my boss ordered, frowning at me.

  Idiot. I patted the cabbage softly. “Good cabbage. Better?”

  He shook his head and headed for the back, leaving me alone for the rest of my shift. I was wired. Infuriated. Worried. Frustrated. Stuck.

  I needed to breathe.

  I hadn’t even realized I’d made the choice to walk to Rya’s house until I turned the corner and spotted it, with its oil stained driveway and peeling slate paint on the wooden garage door. It was a little after ten and her streets were as bad as mine. She didn’t live in a good neighborhood either. I knew at least one of the people on the end were in the Kings. I recognized his two-tone Chevy truck, having spotted it at Sergio’s house more than once. The idea of her walking alone at night wearing practically nothing drove me even madder.

  Her naivete could have gotten her terribly hurt.

  I marched up the walkway to the front door and pounded on it.

  It opened a few seconds later. There was a woman on the other end who didn’t look exactly like Rya, but there were similarities in her features. She had a decent sized baby bump and her hand was on it as she peeked out of the cracked door.

  “Can I help you?”

  She was scared of me. Now, why couldn’t Rya be more like her mother? “Is Rya here?”

  “Umm, may I ask who’s asking?”

  I tried to calm down. To be polite. “Sorry. My name is Romeo. I’m her friend. She wasn’t at school today and I was worried.”

  Her eyes flashed with a spark of recognition. And then worry. “You’re Romeo?”

  I shrugged. What had she said to her parents about me? The fact that she’d mentioned me at all made me feel weird inside. Not upset, just… weird.

  She sighed miserably. “You’re a stud muffin.”

  Taken aback, my brows shot up. “Interesting deduction.”

  Her lips turned up in a small smile. “Oh no, you’re funny too. You’re going to kill Chad. That’s her father. I’m Alex.” She cracked the door open a little more. “It’s after ten, young man. Where’s your mother?”

  Was she for real? I kept my snort in. No wonder where Rya got it. “She’s at work. I’ll only be a minute. I just need to see her,” I admitted, rubbing the back of my head.

  Her mother sighed again, rubbing her baby bump. She stepped back. “Come in.”

  I stepped past her and inside Rya’s place. My first reaction was to smile. Not a smile of humor but more out of understanding. Her home was a home. Warm and cozy came to mind. Mine was cold and uncomfortable.

  “She’s in her bedroom. Last door at the end of the hall.” Her mother waddled over to the sofa and fell onto her butt. “Leave the door open and I’m coming in to check in five minutes.” She propped her feet up and grabbed the bag of low-calorie popcorn on the sofa next to her, staring intently at the TV screen.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I watched TV. Could sit still for more than five minutes without my brain screaming for release.

  I walked to the last door at the end of the hallway and knocked gently with my knuckles.

  On the other side, I heard a heavy sigh. “What now?” Rya demanded. “I’m not going back to the store. No matter how much you guilt me into it.”

  I wondered if that was because she thought I might be there. I tried the handle and pushed her door open, finding a scene I hadn’t expected to find so interesting.

  There were two twin beds in the small room. On one was Kenzie staring off into space. On the other was Rya, wearing a camisole tank top with no bra, headphones in one ear, with a book spread out on her lap. Her hair was in a messy bun and her lips were popped into the shape of the letter O.

  “Romeo?” she gasped quietly.

  Kenzie’s eyes shot to the door, widening in horror.

  Last night screwed with Kenzie’s head more than Rya’s for one reason. Kenzie probably thought she was a badass her whole life. Rya was smart enough to know better.

  “Your mom let me in.”

  “She did?”

  “Said I was a stud muffin and that your dad was going to hate me.”

  Kenzie pulled the covers over her head.

  Rya laughed lightly. “She did?”

  “Stop repeating yourself,” Kenzie mumbled.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Yeah, sorry. Come in. And close the door.”

  “Your mom said to leave it open.”

  Rya got up and closed the door anyway, locking it. Her bottoms were gray cotton shorts. Too small for her and too… everything. She had long, toned legs. And her toes were painted a chipped, dark green.

  She wiggled them. “What are you doing here?”

  My eyes rose to meet hers. “You weren’t at school.”

  “Yeah, um, we didn’t feel so good this morning. My parents think we have the flu.”

  I felt sick looking into her eyes. I wanted to take last night and turn it into a bad dream that never happened. But it had. And I saw the truth in her eyes. “You want me to leave?”

  “Yes,” Kenzie groaned.

  “No,” Rya said faster than her sister could say yes. She smiled shyly, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

  There were so many stray strands, it made me smirk. “Here.” I reached over and grabbed a handful of stray smoky golden hair on each side of her head and tucked them behind her ear. “All better,” I teased.

  A small bob rose in her throat. “You worked tonight?” Her fingers reached over to toy with my nametag.

  I caught her fingers. Wrapped mine around them. Held them between us. Just to feel her pulse pound. Her heat seeped into my cold palm. “Are you going to have the flu tomorrow too?”

  She held my gaze, showed me how hard it was for her to adjust. To forget. “I think so.”

  “Can you do me a favor?”

  “What?”

  “You mind giving it to me too? I could use a few sick days off.”

  She giggled softly, squeezing my hand. I winced, causing her to look down. Her eyes widened. “What happened to your hand?”

  I’d split my knuckles open when I hit Raf but hadn’t had the concern to examine it until now. “I broke Raf’s nose.”

  Kenzie shot up, the blanket falling around her waist. Her hair looked like she’s stuck it into a light socket. “You did not. Did it feel good?”

  “Honestly? Watching him cry felt better.”

  Her lips twitched. And then she flung the covers back over and laid back down. “You can stay.”

  “Go sit down. I’m going to clean and bandage your hand.”

  “It’s fine.”

  Rya shove
d me toward her bed. “Sit down and shut up.” She left me alone with her sister.

  Awkwardly, I sat down on her bed. “Your sister always that bossy?”

  Kenzie shrugged her shoulders. “Your friend Raf always that evil?”

  “Kenzie, look at me.”

  She peeked from under her covers.

  “Raf did you a favor. Any way you look at it. If you’re anything like your sister, you deserve far more than he could have ever given you. You deserve someone smart enough not to risk losing a moment with you. Not a guy who threw them all away. I’m not going to tell you how to feel about last night, but I am going to tell you that the best thing you could do for yourself is forget about him.”

  Her eyes, more emerald than her sister’s, filled with tears. She bit down on her bottom lip hard and closed her eyes. When she opened them, I felt like she heard me. “Do you like my sister?”

  My heart pounded. “Yes.”

  “Don’t do to her what he did to me, Romeo. Do you hear me? Last night broke me and it also opened my eyes to a lot of things. Rya’s too good for all of us, but because of that she’ll never see it. We have to keep her that way.”

  And other times, war made you appreciate everything you could have lost.

  CHAPTER NINE

  RYA

  My arms were full as I came out of the bathroom, almost running into my mother standing in wait on the other side.

  I yelped, stumbling back into the wall. “Ugh, Mom. You scared me.”

  “What are those for?”

  Lying to your mother was awful but telling her the truth would be worse. Especially since I was still skittish after last night. “He hurt his hand at work. I’m going to clean it.” I held up the rubbing alcohol and bandages for proof.

  She leaned close to me, her eyes serious. “You look better.”

  “Do I?” I asked, genuinely surprised.

  The morning had been a hard one. Dad had woken us up when we didn’t get up for school. Kenzie and I had launched ourselves at him, and he’d asked why he had a call from my cell phone. Kenzie lied and said we were so sick that we needed his help last night. He took one look at us and determined we had the flu. We didn’t argue. Not with the sound of bullets still ringing in our ears; we didn’t feel good.

  “I don’t feel better. You’d better stay away.” I backed into the hall, faking a cough. “And stop looking at me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like a detective.”

  She let out a laugh. “My nose is on to something. Something tall, handsome, and terribly male.”

  “You should get that checked out.” I slipped back into my room and closed the door, leaving it unlocked that time.

  Romeo was sitting on the edge of my bed, elbows on his knees, hands plunged into his hair. He didn’t respond to my presence, and I wondered what was consuming his thoughts.

  I cleared my throat, making his head shoot up.

  Under the covers, Kenzie shifted.

  I was worried about my sister.

  I was worried about myself.

  And I was worried about the boy on my bed who was stuck in a revolving door of violence when he deserved peace.

  I sat down beside him, crossing my legs under me. “Hand, please.” I patted my thigh.

  He shifted, so our legs kissed. He rested his large hand on my thigh. For a second, I studied the lovely contrast in our skin color. His skin a smooth, buttery tan. Mine a soft pale. They complimented each other perfectly. The heat of his palm seeped into my skin like steam, billowing inside of me and heating me from the inside out.

  I swallowed hard and gave my head a tiny determined shake, tearing into the cotton pads. Focus, Rya. I soaked it with alcohol and then flicked my eyes to meet his, finding that they had either been waiting for mine, or already on my face.

  “Wanna make a bet?” he murmured.

  I nodded.

  “If I react to the alcohol on my knuckles, you win. If I don’t flinch, I get to ask you something. Anything. And you have to answer it.”

  “Okay,” I agreed, my tone too soft to carry much weight. “What do I get?”

  His lips twitched in the corner. “I already know what you want, Rya.” His eyes shot to my lips.

  Heat, hot and sudden, brushed over me. “Don’t be cocky. I want something else tonight.”

  “Oh, you do?” he asked, like he didn’t believe me.

  “If you flinch, I want you to tell me why your mother named you after Romeo and the Angel.”

  He hardly reacted, but the very edges of his eyes tightened. “Hit me.”

  I wasn’t sure what his obsession with betting was. But it was impossible not to give in, not to take the risk of winning and getting what I wanted. Another piece of him.

  I doused the cotton pad once more and then capped the alcohol, sitting it onto my bedroom floor by his boot and my bare foot. And then I brought it down onto the largest slice in his middle knuckle. I waited for him to hiss, but he remained still. Not even when I pressed down into the cut itself. His refusal to react amused me. I gently cleaned the scrapes and nicks.

  “I win,” he said, voice cool and unbothered.

  I didn’t answer him. I waved my hand over his, trying to dry the alcohol down before I applied the antibiotic pain cream. Once I had, I wrapped a fresh pad of gauze around his knuckles and then followed it with a beige elastic bandage. “There. All better.”

  He stretched his hand out, studying my work. Kenzie’s snoring was soft and easy.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” I closed everything and set it all down with the alcohol bottle on the floor. I got comfortable, folding my hands on my lap. His eyes were so thick with heaviness tonight. It was hard to look into them but also impossible to look away. “So, um, what do you want to ask me?”

  “How did last night make you feel about me?”

  Out of every question he could have asked me, that had to be the most difficult. Mostly because I didn’t know. I didn’t know how strong my feelings were until I was scared of him not coming back. I didn’t understand how true his fears were until they were mine. “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean, Rya.” He leaned close, so our faces were inches apart.

  I closed the gap, pressing my forehead to his. Unable to help myself. My hand settled on his leg. His resettled on mine. “It made me afraid,” I admitted. “But not because of you. For you. It made me sad. It made me terrified of the world outside of my house. Or the world you’re forced to live in. When I know that you and your siblings deserve so much more. It made me want to… save you.”

  “Isn’t that my job? To save the angel?”

  His breath, so sweet and so warm, caressed mine. “It doesn’t say anywhere that the angel can’t do the saving.”

  “Open your eyes,” he commanded.

  They flashed open, finding his dripping toffee and midnight all over me. I felt warmth shoot to my chest, filling me up until it was hard to breathe. “Kiss me,” I whispered.

  He reached up with his hurt hand to gently grasp my chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Last night changed how I feel about you too.”

  “How?” I slid my hand up his shin and knee, not stopping until I gripped handfuls of his shirt.

  “Well, for one, I had to admit I did in fact feel something. And I also had to admit that was one of the scariest things I’ve ever had to do.” He nuzzled his nose against mine. “There’s a lot of things you don’t know. Things at stake you never chose to wager. It’s too late to pretend I don’t care. But it’s not too late for you to do the right thing and leave me where you found me. Because I don’t think I’m strong enough to leave you alone anymore.” His voice became gruff, and I knew he wasn’t kidding. He wasn’t saying the right thing. He was spilling his guts. “It’s so dangerous for you.”

  He added himself into the danger problem. But in my mind—and heart—he wasn’t part of the problem. He was as stuck as I was. “I
know it is.”

  He blew out a breath, shaking his head; the tip of his nose brushed over mine. “You don’t know. You think you do. But you don’t. That’s one of the reasons I’m drawn to you. You’re so different. You’re so… pure. And I’m pulling you into my filth. But I can’t help myself,” he breathed, his lips so close I could feel my pulse pounding in mine.

  “Then don’t.”

  He shifted, moving his face to the side of mine. His jaw, smattered with a patch of stubble, was enticingly rough against my soft cheek. His warm breath fanned over my ear. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

  “All I’m asking for is to know you, Romeo. That’s all.”

  “For now,” he exhaled.

  I didn’t agree or deny. All I knew was if he took this… closeness… this pull, away from me, I’d scream. “So, it’s official? You can stop acting like you don’t want to kiss me just as bad?”

  He chuckled; it traveled down my back and over my spine, leaving behind heat chills. “You think I only got kissing you on my mind?”

  Oh man. My eyes closed and my head hit his shoulder. “I hope so. If not, you’re going to make breathing even more impossible.”

  “You having a hard time breathing?” He said it so close to my ear, I shuddered. “Funny, me too.”

  We both pulled in a shaky breath.

  I never felt so clouded and grounded at the same time. So in the moment and far away from reality. I loved that new space. The in-between of Romeo Moreno. A unique land where I finally belonged.

  “I should go.”

  “You should stay.”

  “It’s late.”

  “It’s early on the other side of the world.”

  “But we’re on this one.”

  “Did you borrow your mom’s car?”

  “I walked.”

  My pulse spiked. “No way are you walking home at this hour by yourself.”

  He laughed. “Rya, I’ve done it a million times.”

  “Romeo.” I pulled back so he could see how serious I was. “If you leave now, I won’t be able to sleep worrying.”

  He wiggled his fingers at me. “Where’s your cell?”

  “Why?”

  “Give it here.”