Loving Leo (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 3) (8 page)

“Get me my arrest warrant,” Harper said.  “Your career might just depend on it.”

***

Jessica had no idea when she’d started to care about Angie Colt.

It was early in the party, and Leo hadn’t arrived, but the rest of Roman’s friends and family had, drinking and dancing as hip hop music blasted from the sound system in the darkened lounge.  A lamp cast a dull red light on Angie Colt from where she was bent over the lounge’s only pool table, her cat-eye glasses falling to the tip of her nose.  Even with that blond behemoth Roman bent over the pool table behind her, Jessica still found herself glaring at anyone who came too close to Angie.

Unable to take another second of that strange maternal feeling, Jessica paid for her drink and hurried outside.  The cold air encircled her, but spring was coming, so the nip wasn’t unbearable.  Still, she tugged her cropped leather jacket around her breasts, eyes searching the Soho street packed with intoxicated kids talking gibberish that made her feel old.  Cars honked nonstop and police sirens roared in from what sounded like every angle.

Catching sight of a black sedan parked at the corner, Jessica jetted down the sidewalk, banging her fist on the tinted window, scoffing in disgust when it rolled down.

“Rodney,” she spat, leaning down to get a look inside the car.  “You’re supposed to be watching Angie Colt.  Why aren’t one of you in the lounge fucking watching her?”

“We’re watching the door, Borgia.  We know King’s go-to men.  We know what they look like.”

“Funny thing about the mob,” Jessica said.  “There’s a shitload of them.  How the fuck can you say you know what they all look like?  She is in danger.  I need
eyes
on her, and I don’t have the luxury of looking over my shoulder every five minutes to make sure you’re doing your fucking job.”

Rodney lifted his hands, cradling a coffee and a burger.  “Fine.” He frowned, grumbling, “Poisonous bitch,” once she turned away.

Jessica ignored that, stomping back inside the lounge.  Once inside, her eyes shot straight to the pool table.

Angie was alone now, banging the end of her pool stick against the floor, frowning at the balls on the table, contemplating her next shot. She had no idea that there was a man in the shadows behind her, glaring at the back of her head, closing in with determined eyes.

Jessica’s heart blasted with fury, and she was across the lounge in seconds, taking the man’s arm just as he was reaching for Angie, kicking his leg out from under him and slamming him to the floor.  He hit the ground, face down, screaming as Jessica craned his arm behind his back and buried her high heel in his neck.

“Who do you work for?” Jessica spat down at him, bending his elbow harder and eliciting another scream.   “Who sent you, you son of a bitch?”

“I don’t know what you’re talk—”

She bent his elbow more.

“Ow! Jesus,
fuck
!”

Jessica bared her teeth.  “I
saw
you sneaking up behind her.  Who the fuck are you?”

“She has a piece of paper in her hair.  I was just trying to help her.”

Stunned, Jessica’s eyes shot up to Angie, who was now watching her, green eyes wide behind her glasses.  Sure enough, a brown piece of paper peeked out from Angie’s curls.  It was the same color as her hair, blending in and almost invisible to the naked eye.

Jessica released the man and leapt to her feet, giving him apologetic eyes as he stumbled to his own, cradling his elbow.

“Crazy bitch,” he wheezed, too fearful to say the words with any heart.

Jessica watched him hurtle out of the door.  Rodney stepped inside a second later.

Angie held the pool stick out at her side while pushing her cat-eye glasses up with the other.  “As awesome as that was, I gotta ask, Jess, what the hell was that?”

Jessica’s breathing slowed.  “I thought he was going to hurt you.”

“Why would you think that?”

When Jessica didn’t answer, Angie’s face immediately sobered, realization narrowing her eyes with understanding.

“Oh,” she said.

“King has your name in his mouth, and he’s agitated.”  Jessica lowered her voice.  “Stay close to Roman.”

Angie’s eyes widened again, but she nodded.

“In fact, don’t leave his side.  Don’t even leave the house.”

Angie swallowed, nodding again.

“Keep your phone close and charged.”

Angie’s breathing picked up.

Sensing Angie’s fear, Jessica ignored her heart when it stopped beating again.  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” she said.  “I promise.”

Angie swallowed thickly.  “Why does King want me?”

“He doesn’t want you.  He wants silence.  He wants a muzzle on anyone who knows too much.  Kind of like the muzzle he’s put on every member of this fucked-up family.”

“Why does
my
muzzle end with me dead in a ditch?” Angie’s voice picked up.

“It won’t.” Jessica lifted her eyebrows.  “As long as you stay close to Roman, and stay indoors, like I just asked you to.  Don’t tell him why, though.  It’s important that we don’t make him suspicious.”

“How can I stay close to him and stay in doors all at once?  He’s going to leave the house eventually.”

“So let him, but you stay inside.”

“Oh God…”

“Calm down.  I’m taking care of it.”  Jessica’s eyes searched the lounge. “Where did Roman go?”

“Bathroom.”

“Has he seen the case report you stole from my office?”

“No.”

“I know you keep that red folder in your bag.”

“I burned it,” Angie said.  “I moved everything to a disk.  There’s no way Roman saw any of it.”

“Get rid of the damn disk.”

“Okay.”

It was the most agreeable Angie had ever been.  Terror had a funny way of doing that to people.

“I don’t think I need to say how damaging it would be to this case if Roman ever found that mug shot.  The Romanovskys can’t know that we’re looking into the family.”

Angie blinked, eyes widening.  “What mug shot?”

Jessica looked away in disbelief, taking a moment before looking back.  “You
just
told me Roman hasn’t had access to the files.”

“He hasn’t—”

“Now you’re telling me the mug shot is missing?”

“I must have overlooked it,” Angie corrected herself, but her eyes told another story.

Jessica didn’t have the energy to chide her, catching Rodney’s gaze across the lounge.  “We have eyes on you, but that doesn’t mean go lax, Angie.  Have Roman take you home right now and stay inside. Stay alert.  I’m working as fast as I can to close this.”

“You’re a good friend, Jess,” Angie said.  “Thank you.”

“I’m not your friend.”  Since the moment they’d met in high school, Jessica had never had the heart to push Angie away completely, and because of that, she was now responsible for the target on her back.   She’d never make that mistake again.  “I’m doing my job.  We are
not
friends—” She straightened when Roman approached and curled his arms around Angie from behind.

Angie looked up at him.  “Roman, can we go home?—” She took a deep breath.  “I know we just got here but… I just got super tired.”

Roman squeezed her.  “Of course, Mama.”

Angie nodded, taking the kiss Roman pushed to her forehead while looking at Jessica with worried eyes.

Jessica waved good-bye and watched them leave.  Rodney followed about ten feet behind them, nodding to Jessica before he left the lounge too.

“Am I crazy?” Leo asked, stepping into her view out of nowhere.  “Or did I just see you put some grown-ass man on his back?”

Jessica’s wide eyes met his, and she sputtered.  “I didn’t know you were here.”

“I just got here.  Just in time to see that Bruce Lee dropkick.”  He squinted at her.  “What the hell did I miss?”

“I thought he was trying to cop a feel on Angie,” Jessica said later that night, as she and Leo were leaned side by side on Val’s balcony. After Angie and Roman left the lounge early, the party had quickly died down, and eventually ended at Val’s apartment. The Manhattan skyline winked at Jessica, and she frowned in return.  “I’m… very passionate about women’s rights, and I get extremely angry when I see a woman being violated against her will.”  Not her best lie, but good enough.

“Why are you so violent?” Leo asked, nudging her from the side while pushing his shirt up past his elbows.  “And why do I love it so much?” After rolling up his sleeves, he rested his arms back on the railing, gripping a beer.  His sizable forearms flexed.

Jessica’s eyes zoomed to that flex, and then she faced him, riveted.  “I didn’t know you had tattoos.”

He flexed again, making the sea of ink ripple along his arms and come to life.

“One or two,” he said.  Having come to Roman’s party straight from work, he’d gotten rid of his suit jacket and tie, leaving him in black slacks and an untucked white button down.  “You?”

“Tattoos?” She frowned.  “Never.  I hate needles.”  She motioned to him with her wine glass.  “Are they full sleeves?”

He held out one of his arms.  “Yeah.  Got my first one when I was fourteen. Been out of control ever since.”

“
Fourteen
?”

“Rome had a fake ID during a family trip to Puerto Rico.”  He turned away from her and tugged down the back collar of his shirt.  “We found a seedy parlor, and he signed for all of us.”

Jessica inspected the Chinese symbol tattooed on the back of Leo’s neck, and her stomach sank.  She knew that tattoo well.  It was the same tattoo that had been on the neck of the man who’d killed the Blacks in the streetlight footage she’d scrounged up for Angie. The footage that had spurred this entire investigation back to life.  She knew all four of the Romanovsky brothers had that tattoo, which was the reason they had yet to arrest Val.

“What does it mean?” She already knew the answer.

He turned back to her, leaning on the railing.  “It means brother.  We got them thinking our parents would like the idea… you know, brotherly love and all that?  Nope.  Pop hit the ceiling.  Almost castrated Rome.  But it was too late, the damage was already done—to me at least.  A tattoo fire was lit under my ass, and I never stopped.  Ma still blames Rome for both sleeves,” he said, holding out his arms.

“You have so many I can’t even see your skin.  You’re just a big hulking, fleshy canvas now.”

“Hulking, huh?”

She rolled her eyes.  “So Bette dislikes your tattoos?”

“Nah, she doesn’t dislike them.  She
hates
them.  She would slice off both my arms if it wouldn’t mean crippling me.  How quickly she forgets that her own husband is covered in ink.”

“Is that why you had them covered up at Sunday dinner?”

“Ten years later, and Ma still flies off the handle if she even
hears
the word tattoo, so yes, I wear long sleeves to Sunday dinner.  I can’t be the reason Ma has a heart attack at fifty.  I’ll leave that to Val and Zoey.”

Jessica nodded.

“Let’s talk about you,” Leo insisted, motioning to her hunter-green midi dress and black heels.

“What about me?” she asked.

“Why don’t you ever smile?”  He tilted his head at her with a mock frown.

“My smiles don’t come for free.”

His eyes lit up.  “Jesus.  It finally just hit me.  It just hit me who you remind me of.”

She rolled her eyes.  “Who?”

“That girl from the Addams Family.  The one with the pigtails.”

Jessica’s mouth dropped.

“Remember that scene where she was at camp?” Leo’s smile broadened.  “And all the camp kids thought she was a freak, so she smiled at them to try to fit in, but it only scared them even more?”

“You’re telling me my smile scares you?”

“I might be able to answer that question if I’d ever seen it.  Getting a smile out of you is like pulling teeth.”

“I smile at you all the time.”

He nodded sharply.  “False.”

Jessica smacked her lips.

“And on the, very rare, occasion you do smile at me, I can see that it pains you to do it.  It’s like you’re in
physical
pain.”

“Like I said, my smiles don’t come free.  And for the record, the bitches in that movie
wished
they measured up to Wednesday Addams’ stoic greatness.  I'd kill to be as unbothered as Wednesday Addams.”

“Let me be the first to tell you, you’re well on your way.”

“She wasn’t smiling at those camp kids to fit in, by the way.  She was smiling at them to fool them into trusting her.  All part of her master plan to destroy them all.  Of course they were too stupid to realize it.”

He tilted his head.  “Is that what’s happening whenever you smile at me?” he whispered.  “Is it all part of your master plan to destroy me?”

She cut her eyes at him.

“Allow me to save you some energy, Ashley, because I’m already destroyed. 
Been
destroyed.  Since the moment I laid eyes on you…”

Jessica’s heart froze.

One, two, three…

She jammed her eyes closed, holding her breath.

Four, five, six…

She inhaled when it started beating again.

Six fucking seconds.

That was a new record.

Leo’s eyes searched hers.  “I made reservations for our date on Friday.  A really nice little spot in Soho.  The best food and drinks you’ll find in the city.”

“I can’t wait.”  Jessica’s eyes nearly bulged out of her skull.  She meant it.

“Val showed me some of your work this afternoon.” He set his beer on the edge of the balcony, trying to catch her eye.  “It was sick.  All of it.  You’re an incredibly talented artist.”

Yes, the artist the station contracted out to throw together my bullshit portfolio is incredibly talented.

His eyes fell to her cleavage, but he forced them back up to hers.

“Can I take you home tonight?” he asked.

“You are truly a man who gets right to the point.”

“Only when I can’t see any value in waiting.”

“Well, I don’t go home with boys I don’t know.”

“What don’t you know about me?”  He stood tall, ticking off on his fingers.  “You know what kind of car I drive, I
hit
you with it.  You know where my job is, I work there with you.  You know my family is insane, you witnessed the madness firsthand…” He threw his arms out again.  “If you don’t know me, Ashley Williams, I don’t know who does.  Obviously I’m not some psycho killer…  I’m just a normal guy who finds you very beautiful.”  He motioned to her.  “And would love to show you a nice time tonight...”

“We’ll see what happens this Friday night.”

When his mouth tried to tug itself into a smile, he fought it.  He went to respond, but a thin pair of brown arms circled his waist from behind.

“Heeeey.” Zoey’s head popped out, catching Jessica’s eyes just as Leo turned and enveloped her in a hug.

“Hey, Zoey.  I didn’t even hear you come outside.”

“I move in silence.”
Zoey grinned.  “Who the hell am I kidding? My stomach enters a room ten years before I do.”

“You’re an adorable pregnant woman,” Jessica said.  “You have the tiniest little belly.”

Zoey raised an eyebrow, her eyes running over Jessica’s figure.  “You wanna trade?”

“Negative.  I’m never having kids.”

Zoey crossed the balcony and gripped her arms.  “Hold on to that logic.  It’s sound logic.  Don’t let some hot guy in a beanie swoop in and steal that logic like I did.  You’ll live to regret it.”

“Are we really going to stand here and pretend that I’m the one who seduced you, Zo?”

Jessica breathed in when Val appeared at the balcony doors, cradling his own beer with a black beanie pulled back on his head.  Jessica wondered if it was the same beanie he’d been wearing in the streetlight footage.  He was lucky someone had taken his face off that tape, or she’d have arrested him right that second.

“Of course you seduced me.” Zoey beamed, wrapping an arm around Jessica’s waist as she kicked at Val.  “I was just an innocent graphic designer trying to eat in Manhattan—”

“And then you tripped and fell on my dick?” Val held his arms out, fighting a smile, offering himself up for whatever blow he had coming from Zoey.

“You’re delusional,” Zoey cried, a smile threatening her lips.

“Pot,” Val motioned to one end of the balcony.  “Kettle,” he motioned to the other.  “Please meet.”  He brought his hands together, eyes shining.

It was the most human Jessica had ever seen Val.  He wasn’t smiling, Jessica was convinced he didn’t even know how, but as he teased Zoey, his eyes were alive with light.

For the first time, Jessica looked at Val and saw an actual human being with a sense of humor, a heart that produced warm blood, lungs that expelled air, a working
pulse.
  Apparently, Val Romanovsky was not a robot, contrary to what she’d convinced herself was true.  No, he was just a man who had everything to lose.

“Hey, can we stop talking about which one of you seduced who?  And if we’re going to talk about it, can we please talk about it in a place where I’m not?”  Leo looked pained as he motioned to the door of the balcony.  “How about in there somewhere?”

Jessica grinned, accepting a hug and kiss on the cheek from Zoey.

“Congrats on the job, Ashley,” Zoey said.

“Hey, thanks for the reference.” Jessica watched as Zoey and Val disappeared back inside.

Leo shook his head once they were gone.  “They have no idea how weird they are.”

“They strike me as the type of couple who enjoys the discomfort they harvest in others.”

“I think you might be right.”

“Hey… If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to Zoey’s parents?”

Looking to the doors to make sure Zoey was out of earshot, Leo moved back to the balcony rail, leaning.  They both faced the Manhattan lights.

Come on, Leo, give me something I can work with
.

“She doesn’t like to talk about it,” Leo said.  “And she really doesn’t like knowing other people talked about it without her.  So this is between us.”

Jessica nodded.  Of course, she already knew what had happened to Zoey’s parents ten years ago, but she’d been looking for any reason to open a conversation about it with Leo.  Now that she could feel him beginning to like her and appreciate her without having to stare at her tits to do it, she felt like it was safe to open that door.

“They were killed in a hit-and-run ten years ago,” Leo said, his eyes jumping along the skyline, from one building to the next.  “Police never found the driver.”

“That’s terrible.”  She did her best to sound shocked, hoping she was pulling it off.  “Who could hit someone and just drive away?”

Leo’s head fell, and it seemed like he was done, so she jolted when he continued.  “Zoey was only fourteen.  She was just a kid, you know? She didn’t deserve the hand she got dealt.” He took a swig from his beer.

“What made Tony take her in?” Jessica asked, heart hammering as she felt the conversation closing in on what she really needed to know.

“He was good friends with her dad, Marcus, growing up.  They made a pact to take care of each other’s families if anything ever happened.”

“Your father is an incredible man for taking Zoey in like that.”

“He didn’t give it a second thought. Marcus was like his brother.  It’s like what we have with Zoey.  If anything ever happened to her, knock on wood, I wouldn’t hesitate to take her kids in.  Even if Val wasn’t the father, I wouldn’t hesitate.  Not for a second.”

Jessica’s heart shuddered to a stop.

One, two, three
seconds passed.  No beat.

She froze, alarmed.

After a long moment, it churned back to life.

She wondered when the day would come that it decided not to.

She wondered if she would deserve it.

“Regardless,” she breathed. “It’s expensive enough to raise four sons without adding a fifth mouth to the mix.  Especially on a police officer’s salary.”  She knew Tony hadn’t been a police officer on the night the Blacks were murdered, but a supervisor, just one step below the Chief of Police at the time, Victor King.  She hoped Leo would correct her so she could push for more information.

But he went the other way.  “Zoey isn’t a burden on us.  We never looked at her that way.  She’s fam.  That’s it.”

Jessica nodded, disappointed that he hadn’t taken her bait.

“And my father wasn’t an officer.  He’d have your head.”  Leo smirked.  “Calling him an officer back then would’ve been worse than telling him his dick was too small.”

“That’s right, my mistake,” she said.  “I forgot he was the Chief at 5th.”  By 5th, she meant
5th Precinct
, the station Tony, Knox Jefferson and Governor King had all been working for the night Zoey’s parents were killed.  The station where Val’s mug shot had suspiciously disappeared, along with his face on that streetlight footage.  The moment the word
5th
left her lips, she knew she’d said too much.