“Serrano,” King said.
“Hello, King. It’s been a while.”
“Fortunately,” Joker said.
Juno bit his lip to keep from smiling. Joker wasn’t kidding. They hadn’t exactly seen eye to eye with Serrano for at least a few years. Since they’d stopped running guns, pretty much. Serrano was deeply involved in the gun and drug trade in Baltimore and King didn’t like it. Guns were one thing but the Kings had always been against drugs.
“Well, our differences aside, I believe we can agree on one thing,” Marco said and met King’s gaze. “Neither of us liked that shooting in front of our kids’ school.”
Almost a year before, there’d been a shooting involving the Henchmen in front of the school King’s daughter and Serrano’s nephew attended. They’d come together to try and find the men involved back then, though they’d only found one of the guilty parties. Joker and Saint had gotten some information out of the ones they did find and then King had let Serrano do with them what he wanted. If Juno wasn’t much mistaken, those guys were now at the bottom of the ocean.
“I found the other men,” Marco said.
Juno felt King go still and braced himself.
“When?” King asked, his voice sounding too calm.
“A few months ago.”
“And you didn’t care to share that information with me back then, because?”
There was the tiniest tic in Serrano’s jaw but other than that, he didn’t react.
“I wanted to deal with them myself,” Serrano said.
King let out a low chuckle and leaned back in his seat. “And how did that go for you? Not so well, I take it, seeing as I’m here now.”
“There’s no need to rub it in, Ezekiel,” Marco said, a spark of danger in his eyes.
It wasn’t often anyone used King’s real name which was probably why it had such a chilling effect. King only smiled at Serrano, but it was a chilly smile. Juno knew King would hold back, not wanting to make an enemy out of Serrano.
Rome
When he’d seen Juno walk into the restaurant, that little smirk on his lips, his heart had skipped a beat, his pulse spiking as Juno got closer. He was fighting a boner while sitting next to his boss who was discussing business. Normally, he would’ve been all over King for that comment, but he had a hard time focusing. Pun intended.
“Who are they?” King asked.
“The Nuevo León cartel.”
King went still and Juno’s eyes looked close to popping out. Yeah, they hadn’t expected that, either.
“It’s only one guy,” Marco said.
King put a hand up to stop him talking. “It’s never just one guy. It’s a cartel.”
“He was ordered to stand down and he hasn’t. Makes him free game in my book.”
“It’s insane,” King said with a shake of his head. “Why should we help you?”
“Because the cartel has beef with the Henchmen and while they’re technically gone now, some of those people are connected to you. Let’s take them down before they take us out.”
Before King could answer, Sally, one of the waitresses, came walking up to their table and asked with a smile if she could get anyone anything. Both Marco and King looked like they were going to tell her no, but before they could, Juno smiled up at Sally.
“You guys still have that risotto with mushrooms?” Juno asked her.
“We sure do,” Sally said.
“Great. I’d like one of those to go and do you have tiramisu today?”
When Sally confirmed that they did indeed have tiramisu, Juno ordered that as well and rubbed his hands together like a gleeful kid.
“Dude, I thought you’d already eaten enough,” the one Rome only knew as King’s son said.
Juno grinned and his gaze was on Rome’s when he said, “I can eat Italian all day, baby.”
Rome tried and failed to keep his lips from twitching and from the look on Juno’s face, he noticed.
Marco cleared his throat, and everyone turned serious again, seeming to remember why they were there.
“I’ll have to put it to a vote,” King said and stood.
Marco nodded and got up to shake King’s hand.
“Thank you,” Marco said.
“I’ll let you know.”
King and the two others walked away while Juno remained seated. Rome stood and noticed Marco glaring at Juno, so he cleared his throat. Juno glanced up at Rome who motioned with a jerk of his head for him to get out. Juno wore a confident smile as he got out of the booth.
“Serrano,” Juno said with a nod before walking up to the bar.
Rome watched him for a moment, then walked outside in time to see the three others drive by on their motorcycles. He continued walking until he couldn’t be seen from the windows of the restaurant and leaned against the building. It wasn’t long before Juno came walking out the door. When he neared, Rome could smell the food from the bag Juno was carrying.
Juno stopped three feet from him and after a few seconds of silence, Juno said, “I didn’t say a word.”
Rome arched a brow at him.
Juno sighed. “About us, I mean.”
A lump formed in Rome’s throat because there wasn’t supposed to be an ‘us’ but somehow it felt wrong to say there wasn’t.
“I wasn’t worried,” Rome said.
Juno snorted. “Right.”
The corner of Rome’s lips quirked up and he pushed away from the wall to cup Juno’s cheek in one hand. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to Juno’s. A small gasp from Juno gave him the opening to thrust his tongue inside. He owned Juno’s mouth, a hand in Juno’s hair as
