“What?”
She shrugged. “Usually, you wouldn’t encourage nor discourage anyone from getting your named tattooed on them.”
“So?”
Scar grinned and patted him on the shoulder. “So. I think Romeo’s good for you.”
Juno groaned and rolled his eyes. He pushed her away, much to her amusement. He flipped her off and went to sit down at one of the desks.
Scar continued to tease him as the day went on and he continued to ignore her. Or at least he tried to. It only got harder when Bones decided to join in.
When he’d cleaned up after his latest client, he walked out into the front of the shop just as three men entered. They were all dressed in what looked like expensive suits. He walked up to them with a friendly smile on his face.
“Hi. How can I help you?”
The smallest of the men turned to Juno, his eyes assessing as he ran his gaze over Juno.
“I’m looking to get a tattoo,” he said, his voice hoarse and his accent thick.
“Do you have an idea of what you’d like?”
“Maybe a little Italian man with the word ‘revenge’ across it.”
Juno was taken aback. He hadn’t expected something like that. One of the other men made a movement that caught Juno’s eye and made him freeze. Two of the men had guns out the next second.
Juno slowly raised his hands as he realized who was standing in front of him. Jose Alvaro. Lieutenant of the Nuevo León cartel. The asshole who was after Serrano.
“This is between you and Serrano,” Juno said.
Alvaro shook his head. “Serrano is a coward. He’s hiding. But I bet your boyfriend knows where he is. In fact, I’m counting on it.”
“You want to trade me?”
The menacing smile on Alvaro’s lips confirmed it.
Juno clenched his teeth and glanced at the door to the backrooms. Stiletto and Scar were back there but one look at Alvaro and his men and he knew they wouldn’t get out of there alive if he tried to alert the girls. With a pained breath, he let Alvaro’s men take him.
The worst part wasn’t being held at gunpoint, being taken, or knowing the second Alvaro had Serrano’s location he would no longer need Juno alive. It was that Rome would never choose him over Serrano. That hurt like hell.
Rome
He let himself into Marco’s apartment, stopping for a second to listen for angry voices, but didn’t hear anything. He found Marco in the kitchen, sans shirt. He was pouring himself a glass of water, his back turned to Rome. His back which had red marks that looked rather new.
“I take it it’s good I didn’t come earlier,” Rome said.
Marco jumped, then whirled around.
“Merda! Che cazzo, Romeo?” Marco snapped.
“Sorry,” Rome said with his hands up. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
Marco crossed his arms over his chest. “You did not scare me.”
“Startled, then,” Neil said from behind Rome.
Rome glanced over his shoulder, a smile spreading on his lips when he saw the cheeky one Neil was wearing. Seeing as the guy was still there and Marco looked like he’d had a wild night, he’d say the spook must’ve prevailed.
“I hate you,” Marco grumbled and pushed past them both.
“That’s not what you said twenty minutes ago,” Neil said.
Marco stopped walking and turned around, his eyes narrowed as he looked at Neil.
“Twenty minutes ago, I was coming.”
Rome shook his head as the two of them walked down the hall, cursing at each other. He walked up to the fridge and grabbed himself a bottle of water. He could hear laughter which he discerned came from Neil. Then he didn’t hear anything from them for a while and figured they were making up. Or out, probably.
He felt his phone buzz against his thigh and pulled it out of his front pocket. When he saw Juno’s name on the screen, a smile spread on his lips.
“Miss me already, il mio re?”
“Hello, Romeo,” was said in a heavily accented voice that definitely didn’t belong to Juno.
The hairs at the back of his neck stood up and his whole body froze.
“Unfortunately, Juno can’t come to the phone right now. He’s a little tied up.”
“The fuck have you done with him? I swear if you’ve hurt him, I’ll fucking kill—”
“He’s just fine. For now.”
Rome clenched his teeth hard, fighting the impulse to punch through a wall.
“What do you want?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“You know what I want. Serrano. Tell me where he’s hiding, and I’ll deliver your Juno back to you in one piece. If you don’t tell me, I’ll have him delivered in several pieces for years to come so you’ll never forget him.”
Rome squeezed his eyes closed. The thought of anything happening to Juno had him close to throwing up. He couldn’t let anything happen to him. He also couldn’t give Alvaro Marco. The fuck was he supposed to do?
“I don’t trust you to deliver on your end,” Rome said. “But I’ll trade you. Serrano for Juno. I’ll send the address. Three hours.”
With that, he hung up, not wanting Alvaro to renegotiate anything.
He was staring down at his phone as he said, “I would never do that to you.”
A harrumph sounded from behind him and when he turned around to meet Marco’s gaze, he found the man watching him with curious eyes.
“I know,” Marco said with a shake of his head. “I’ll do it.”
Rome’s eyes were close to falling out. He cleared his throat, but his voice still sounded croaky. “What?”
Marco shrugged and said, “I won’t have to go to the trouble of finding him. I can just kill him there.”
“It’s a suicide mission,” Rome snapped.
“He won’t be there alone,” Neil said as
