Falling For Rome

by Edwina Fort

  I rolled my eyes. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what that was.

  “For the safety of my guests, I had to cuff you to the bed.”

  I frowned at him. “What the hell did you think I was going to do? Go crazy and just start killing people?”

  There was a little irritation in my voice. I refused to believe it was because I was jealous of the woman in the red dress who’d just given Rome a coochie coupon in front of all of us.

  As if he could hear my thoughts he chuckled.

  “Shawty, you just beat the hell out of my brother’s whole squad.” Rob said as if I’d asked a stupid question.

  I drew a deep breath and killed my jealousy. I was tripping. Why in the hell did I care who Rome slept with? He was nothing to me…nothing! Just because he was gentle with me earlier didn’t mean anything.

  Get it together, Nak! You need to get out of here. Remember, stay focused.

  I blinked up at Rome innocently. I was very aware of the power of my eyes and their ability to manipulate. They were one of my most powerful weapons. Many times they’ve gotten me out of jams.

  “That’s because they tried to hurt me. I don’t just make a habit out of beating people up.” This time when I spoke my voice was much kinder. It was the voice that matched my eyes perfectly.

  “I was just protecting myself, Romeo…”

  Of course that was all load of crap. I’ve beaten up a lot of people in my time, but they didn’t need to know that, I was trying to get out of these cuffs.

  Rob twisted his mouth to the side in a way that said he didn’t believe me. “Yeah, right. You violent as hell.” He poked my arm that was covered in art.

  “Don’t think we don’t know that’s a Navy SEAL tattoo. Yo’ boy Jo got one just like it.”

  I looked up at Rome completely ignoring Rob. My tattoos were none of their business.

  “Can I have some water? My throat is really dry.” Subject change…

  The grin that was on his handsome face as he studied me made me feel as if those honey gazers could see straight through my act. It was as if he knew as soon as he freed me, I was going to beat my way out of this joint.

  “Now if I undo your hands, do you promise to behave yourself?” He asked.

  Sucka!

  Blinking innocently, I nodded. “I promise. I just want some water.”

  The man that I’d thrown into the wall earlier shook his head.

  “Man, hell no! Don’t fall for that. As soon as you let her go, she going to start busting up some sh*t. Leave her wild a** tied up for the safety of us all.” He put his hand on the back of his head, probably feeling that egg-size knot I’d assisted him in obtaining.

  “Knot true!” I cried. I couldn’t resist. “I just want water.”

  The man narrowed his eyes at me, catching my pun and I nearly burst into laughter. I had to bite my tongue to keep from doing it and ruining what I had going.

  Rome signaled for the men to leave him and me alone. Before he left, Rob leaned down until his handsome face was next to mine.

  “A little word of advice. Don’t try to lie to him. It won’t work…it never does.”

  As he whispered those words to me, Rome walked to the fridge to get my water. After grabbing a glass from the cabinet, he poured half the water in it.

  I watched him as he approached. Was what Rob said true? Is Rome a human lie detector? For a strange reason, I could feel that his words were true. Just a minute ago when I was putting on my little act to get out of these cuffs, he’d watched me with something akin to laughter in his eyes. It felt like he found me amusing.

  He sat the cup of water on the table next to the bed before he completely took me by surprise by leaning over me as if he was doing a push up, with a hand on both sides of my head. His face was only inches from mine. Those honey gazers drew me in, causing me to forget we were in a room full of people. For just a moment I thought he was going to kiss me.

  And the crazy thing about that…

  There was no reflex anywhere inside of me to stop him.

  Sh*t!

  “I saw you use those eyes on my men earlier and I called them foolish for falling prey to them, only to fall prey myself. I don’t think I could deny you anything when you look at me like that.”

  His hungry gaze lowered to my lips and I swear something strange happened to my breathing.

  No…something strange happened to my body.

  Men have always told me the effect my eyes had on them. But this was the first time it felt like a compliment.

  “If I let you go, you have to promise to behave.”

  “What am I, your dog?”

  “You’re nobody’s dog, my Queen. But there are a few things you should be aware of before you step foot out of this bed, a few things that could be very detrimental to your health.”

  Okay…

  He had my attention now, and not because he’d just called me his Queen.

  As if he knew it, he chuckled before sticking his hand in his pocket retrieving the key. Once he unlocked the cuffs, he helped me sit up. My limbs still felt a bit wobbly.

  He sat on the bed facing me before handing me the glass of water. I hadn’t lied about being thirsty. After I drained it, I handed the glass back to him so that he could pour the rest of the water in it.

  Mid drink I remembered that before I went to sleep, the doctor had cut my shirt away. I nearly spit my water out trying to look down at myself. I exhaled, visibly relieved when I saw that someone had cleaned all the blood off my skin and put a brand-new white wife beater in my size on me.

  What the hell?

  My gaze flew up to his, but the words I was getting ready to say stalled in my throat. I caught him studying me with an unguarded look on his face. He watched me as if he was fascinated with me. I licked my dry lips and his russet gaze followed.

  “Did you buy me a new shirt?”

  He nodded. “That and few more items.”

  Before I could ask what items, he looked down at my feet. I followed his gaze. Someone had also taken off my boots and pulled the strings in both legs of my cargo pants to draw the material up around my ankles. There reflecting brilliantly in the dim lighting of Rome’s loft were two beautiful golden bracelets, one around each ankle.

  Spellbound, I leaned closer to get a better look at them. I’d never seen anything like them. They looked very expensive. The gold was soft and wide but not cumbersome. I flexed my feet and the cuffs molded around my ankles as if they were made from leather rather than metal.

  In the center if each bracelet was a glass window. There was some kind of liquid in the glass and inside the liquid were little rotating golden gears.

  They were amazing!

  “There is a man who lives in the Dominican Republic named Enrique Almodóvar. He’s the last alchemist of his line. The things the man can do with gold defy cognitive thought.” Rome spoke low so that only I could hear him.

  He lifted his hand to caress one of the bracelets. And I swear, as he spoke, it was like I’d fallen under a spell. The whole room seemed to disappear. It was just me drowning in that honey gaze.

  How did he do that? How did he manage to draw me into himself like this?

  “When I first saw these beauties, I knew I had to have them. I didn’t know why. I just knew they were for me.” He paused for a moment studying me again. “I thought to myself at the time, I’d just wasted a small fortune because there is no woman alive that I would ever want to cuff in gold.”

  He lifted a hand and brushed some of my hair that had escaped my ponytail back behind my ear. “But then I met you, little savage, and I knew I will do whatever it takes to keep you. Even imprison you in golden shackles.”

  I frowned, the hazy love bubble he was building around me popped. “Golden shackles?”

  My gaze went back to the beautiful bracelets. Why would he call them shackles?

  “Why do you call
them shackles?”

  He smiled at me then, but it didn’t reach his eyes. His honey gaze had gone cold.

  “Because Minha Anjo, if you step one pretty foot off this bed, the gears in that bracelet are going to go in reverse. And if they go in reverse, they are going to create a spark that is going to ignite the accelerant the gears are resting in and separate that little foot from your body.”

  “Say what?” I knew I heard him wrong. Did this bastard just say—?

  “You are wearing bombs around your ankles.”

  He’s lying. “How is that possible?”

  “There is a very tiny microchip inside the bracelets that controls the gears. The chip has been programmed to reverse the gears if you step out of this bed. I can program it to allow you free rein of the loft…”

  He paused for just a moment as his intense gaze fell to my lips. And for the first time I realized how close his head was to mine. And that he’d been starring at my lips this whole time. My breath stalled somewhere in my throat when I saw his head lowering even closer.

  Nossa! He was going to kiss me.

  When his lips touched mine for the first time, it was like his caress earlier… So very gentle. He didn’t kiss my lips full on but rather just the corner.

  As if he there was nothing else in the world he’d rather be doing, his lips lowered to my chin, just below the corner of my mouth. My eyes closed when his lips lowered to my neck.

  I know I should be stopping him. I know I shouldn’t allow him to take such liberties. But his lips were softer than I’d imagined. When I felt his warm breath on my lobe right before his tongue a shiver went through me and I had to ball my hands into fist to keep from grabbing him.

  Why was he teasing me like this?

  It was the slightest of touches, but it was enough to awaken my lust like a roaring lion.

  “Yeah, I can see myself giving you free reign of a lot of things…But we haven’t reached that point yet.” He whispered in my ear, causing another shiver to go through my body.

  And then he stood, throwing a cup of cold water on the fire he’d just started. “The chip has also been programmed to reverse the gears if someone tries to remove the bracelets without the key…So tread with caution, little wild one.”

  Would yall believe he turned and walked away. Leaving me all hot and bothered.

  “You’re bullsh*tting me, right!” I called after him. I didn’t know if I was talking about the bombs around my ankles or the fact that he’d just toyed with me so effortlessly.

  He turned to look at me with a grin on his face. This time it reached his eyes…

  “Am I?”

  Completely flabbergasted, I watched him cross the floor and rejoin the party. If you can really call what he did rejoining. He took a seat on a couch that was empty, which was amazing seeing as to how the room was so crowded.

  Yet…no one sat on that couch. When I saw him lean forward and open his laptop on the coffee table in front, I saw why.

  The bartender came from behind the bar with a single glass of brown liquid on the rocks. I knew the drink was for Rome. Everybody else was drinking out of red plastic cups…Only the King got a glass.

  And well…he’d given me a glass as well, but I will not read more into that than happenstance.

  Once the bartender got near Rome’s couch, he waited for the signal for him to come closer to hand him his drink.

  Rome had everyone here trained not to disturb him when he was on his computer. What good hacker would be comfortable with someone looking over their shoulder? But I had a feeling Rome was often alone in a crowd.

  My gaze went back to the golden cuffs around my ankles. I exhaled…

  Damn, bombs…I’d like to say that this is the worst situation I’d ever been in, but then I would be lying. In fact, this is quite breezy to some of the scraps I’ve found myself in. Remember me telling you guys I got shot while fleeing an assassination that got kind of messy?

  Well what I didn’t tell you was that I was fleeing out of an eighty-four-story window and had to fight with my chute that had a hole in it because the bullet had pierced it before my flesh and didn’t get it to work until I was halfway down.

  Miraculously, the thing opened enough for me to land unscathed to make my escape. That parachute saved my life in two ways. Had the bullet not gone through it first, my wound would have been a lot worse than just the flesh wound I ended up with.

  I turned my ankle so that I could see the other side of the bracelet, and sure enough, there was a little opening in it where a key would go.

  No, this wasn’t traumatic, but it sure the hell was problematic. It had thrown a monkey wrench in my second mission, which was to get the hell out of here.

  Oh well!

  Being here was my original plan anyway, so there was no big loss there. He said he can program the bracelets to allow me the run of the loft. If I could convince him to do that, then I could find the key. It had to be here somewhere.

  Once I found the key, I can get the Sarge’s information and get the hell out.

  “Would you like something to eat?”

  A very soft voice came from the kitchen area pulling me from my thoughts. A beautiful pregnant young woman stood at the dishwasher loading it with dishes smiled kindly at me.

  Oh my God! Was she Rome’s woman? That bastard!

  “Are you Rome’s girlfriend?”

  She chuckled shaking her head. “No, I’m Derrick’s girl.” She gestured to a man that stood off to the side talking to one of the men who’d stood by my bed earlier.

  Instantly my gut tensed up. Derrick was a bad man. I could smell his stench from across the room. I’ve always been able to spot evil. Turning, I took in the beautiful young lady, now studying her closer.

  My instinct that me and my whole team have always trusted, coupled with my training, screamed that this girl was being abused.

  I nodded. “Yes, I am very hungry. What do you have?”

  She went to a side table where a buffet had been set up. There was a man in a chef jacket standing behind it. When she came back the plate was laden down with goodies.

  “Here, sit with me while I eat. I don’t know anybody here and I feel kind of lonely.” It was a lie. I just wanted to get a closer look at her.

  She had long braids that she let hide her face. When I invited her to sit with me, she blushed as if I’d just bestowed a great honor on her, before easing down on the corner of the bed.

  All of her movements spoke of her abuse. The way she’d have yet to look me in the eye. The way she eased down on the bed as if she was used to stepping lightly as not to upset someone. When she pushed her braids behind her left ear, I saw it.

  She was covering a bruise on the side of her face with make-up. To those with untrained eyes she looked normal…just a shy young lady.

  But I knew the signs…

  I knew them really well.

  “Why are you cleaning up behind Rome’s guests?” I asked as I spooned potato salad in my mouth.

  She looked up, startled that I cared, but quickly looked away before chuckling nervously.

  Nossa! She was being abused badly.

  “Rome pays me to clean up his place.”

  “What?!” That bastard…this beautiful girl was nobody’s maid!

  “No, please!” She held up her hands to calm my anger and I instantly felt bad for getting worked up around her.

  “It’s a good thing. He pays me more than some nurses make. God knows with the baby coming we need the money.”

  “What about your man, doesn’t he work?” I could not hide the contempt in my voice.

  “He was working, but he got into an accident on the premises and they laid him off. He’s looking for a job though.”

  Let me translate this for all of you at home who’s never seen this before. Her man was high and messed something up at the company he worked for and they fired him.

  “But
look at you.” She said turning the attention from her and her f***ed up man.

  “Rome has you here laying on his bed like his Queen.” She chuckled. “He put gold ankle bracelets on you while you slept.” Longing came into her eyes.

  “He honored you. You’re his ghetto Queen.”

  Wow, this one’s head is way in the clouds…

  “What’s your name?” I asked her, bringing her back down to earth.

  “Happy.”

  For a moment I thought I heard her wrong. “Did you say, Happy?”

  She nodded and then smiled at me, and I realized why she had that name. Her smile brightened the room. Happy was also a dreamer. Maybe a poet…She was optimistic and genuinely happy for me and the honor she perceived Rome had given me by decking me in gold while I slept.

  She was happy for me although she was going home to hell.

  If only she knew that he’d put golden bombs around my ankles…But I didn’t want to destroy the image she had created for herself. She’s the type that experienced happiness through other people, because she didn’t know she could have it herself. If only she’d be brave enough to walk away from her tormenter.

  “My name’s Brenda.” The lie slipped easily from my lips…

  “Please to meet—”

  “Happy! Come here!” Derrick said, snapping his fingers at her.

  She jumped when she heard his voice, before looking at me, trying to cover her action with a chuckle.

  “I have to go, Brenda. It was nice meeting you.”

  I watched her go, nearly snapping the plastic fork in my hand from wanting to follow her and beat the shit out of Derrick. Maybe Rome had been right in having the foresight to prevent me from leaving this bed.

  As God is my witness, I would be whopping that bastard right now. My hand twitched under the plate of food I was holding. Every cell in my body signaled for me to toss it at the bastard.

  “Nak, what the hell is wrong with you?! Your impulsive reactions are going to get you killed! You’re my best soldier, but I will ground your a** if you don’t learn to control that.”

  Those were The Politician’s words to me my first year under his command. And do y’all know the crazy thing? I think those were his last words to me the last time he and I went on a mission together.