His Juliet: An Age Gap Hurt Comfort Mafia Romance (Empire of Royals Book 2)

“The radio stations out here suck,” Sienna grumbled before changing the stereo over to Bluetooth.

“I don’t understand why you listen to the radio in the first place.”

She shrugged. “It helps me find new music.”

“For the low, low price of suffering through ridiculous commentary and millions of commercials.”

“The commentary and call-in games are just a fun bonus. It’s nostalgic.”

I rolled my eyes, but my smile never left my face. How could it, when I was just hours away from seeing Juliet? Between work and Sofiya having her baby, I hadn’t seen her since Christmas. It had been torture.

Hopefully she would let me spend the night again.

After sleeping next to her, even in her shitty little bed with springs digging into my back, any night spent sleeping without Juliet plastered to my body was a waste.noveldrama

Before our date tonight, though, I was heading upstate with Sienna to pick up some sort of custom rocking chair for Matteo and Sofiya’s nursery. Baby Clementine had been born a week early, prompting a snarling Matteo to demand we pick up this chair so the nursery would be perfect for Sofiya. Seeing him in over-the-top dad mode was fucking priceless.

Clementine had been home for a day now, and I was pretty sure she’d spent her entire short life in someone’s arms. Mainly Matteo’s, because he refused to put her down, but we were all completely obsessed with her. I’d never given much thought about having kids, but holding Clementine against my chest? It made me feel… something.

Did Juliet want kids?

“So… how are things going with you and your bookstore owner?” Sienna’s sly question pulled me from my daydreaming and set me on edge. Part of me felt like a dragon, wanting to keep Juliet hoarded away in my lair. But the other part wanted to show her off to the entire world—or at least, to my family.

“I’m seeing her tonight.”

Sienna poked my cheek and laughed. “You can’t even stop yourself from smiling when you talk about her.”

Yeah, that was because she was perfect.

But then my smile faltered. “I’m going to tell her who I am.”

“Oh, shit.”

I glanced over at her shocked expression. “Do you think it’s a bad idea? I thought you said I should.”

She reached out to grab my arm. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I was just surprised. This is a really good thing.”

I swallowed hard. “I tried to create some distance between us, but… I can’t stay away.”

Sienna squealed. “I’m so happy for you. Are you going to have her move in? I can’t wait to get to know her better.”

“It’s probably too early to ask her to move in,” I grumbled.

She threw me a look like she knew I was full of shit. And fine, I had been fantasizing about what it would be like for Juliet to live with me. Waking up wrapped around her in the morning. Fucking her all through the night. Watching her pad around my apartment, wearing my clothes.

“Sofiya and Matteo had known each other for approximately two hours before they moved in together.”

I rolled my eyes as I followed the GPS instructions and turned left onto a quiet back road. “Arranged marriage is different. And they’re both Mafia. Our world doesn’t operate normally.”

“I know. But that doesn’t mean⁠—”

The rest of her words were cut off by a series of loud bangs and the screech of metal. Bullets from the oncoming car created spiderweb cracks across our windshield and side windows.

“Get down and call Matteo!” I screamed, putting my hand on the back of Sienna’s head and pushing her forward. The SUV was bulletproof, but it wasn’t indestructible.

I grabbed my gun from the side console and cursed that I hadn’t brought more men with me. With the Butcher’s departure from the city, I’d grown complacent.

The car that shot at us pulled a sharp U-turn and accelerated in pursuit. I pushed the SUV faster, my eyes flitting to the rearview mirror as I tracked the car. Sienna stayed bent over in her seat as she hurriedly told Matteo what was happening.

“Fuck!” More bullets pinged off the SUV from a new car driving towards us. This time, they succeeded in hitting our tire. Sienna screamed as we started spinning. My knuckles were white on the wheel as I tried to straighten us out, but we went off the road and came to an abrupt stop in a ditch. We were right on the edge of a heavily wooded state park north of the city.

I gripped Sienna’s shoulder. “You okay?”

Her eyes were wide, but she nodded.

“Wait there.”

I grabbed another gun from the console and exited the SUV, ducking behind it as I waited. My heart raced, but I tapped into my darkness and let it settle over me.

These bastards were not going to harm Sienna. I wouldn’t let it happen.

The first car pulled up, stopping in the middle of the road, and the doors opened. Before the guy in the passenger side seat could fully emerge, I shot him in the forehead. Responding bullets hit the body of the SUV and I crouched behind it. The crunch of gravel let me know the second car had pulled up. I crept around to the front of the SUV and unleashed a spray of bullets at the second car. A shout told me I’d hit at least one target, but I couldn’t savor my victory because they returned fire. The sound of breaking glass sent panic shooting through me as the SUV’s windshield shattered. I threw the passenger side door open to find Sienna covered in glass. I tugged her out of the car, forcing her to stay low as I deposited her on the ground.

A line of blood trickled down her face, making me feel sick.

“I’m okay,” she mouthed.

I would check her over as soon as we were safe, but for now, I handed her one of my guns. She’d become a pretty good shot under Sofiya’s instruction.

“We need them alive!” a heavily accented voice shouted.

Sienna gripped my forearm, her nails digging in. It had to be the Albanians. I had no idea why they wanted us alive, but they’d never capture us. I jerked my head at the tree line a few feet away. Matteo knew our location, but we were about an hour away from the city and twenty minutes from our nearest warehouse. We needed to hold out until our soldiers arrived.

I gestured for Sienna to move ahead of me. We would need to make a run for it to get into the forest. Once we were in there, it would be much harder for the Albanians to hit us, but crossing those few feet would leave us exposed.

“Ready?” I mouthed at her.

She nodded and started running, staying as low to the ground as she could. I followed hot on her heels as we sprinted to the tree line.

Bullets bounced off the ground near my feet, but we kept running. “To the right,” I said, following Sienna as she turned off the trail into the denser wooded area thick with evergreen trees.

We kept going, the silence ringing in my ears, almost painful after the ear-splitting bullets. When Sienna tripped, I lunged forward to prevent her from falling.

“Here, sit down.” I guided her behind a large tree, scanning the forest for any sign of the Albanians.

She hunched over as she tried to get control of her ragged breathing. Her hair was filled with tiny shards of glass and I cursed as I tried to pick them out so they didn’t cut more of her skin.

Sienna pulled out her phone with trembling hands and answered the incoming call from her brother. “We’re hiding in the forest off the road from where we were ambushed,” she whispered.

I kept my gun in my hand, my eyes peeled the way we’d come until Sienna nudged me with her phone. I took it from her.

“Six soldiers from the warehouse are ten minutes out,” Matteo said.

“We’ll stay in the forest until then.”

“Guard her with your life.”

“Always.”

I gave Sienna the phone and gestured for her to sit down. Her legs were shaking, and she looked seconds away from collapsing from the adrenaline crash.

“Backup is coming,” I reassured her, keeping my voice low. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

She blinked slowly, pushing her tangled hair out of her face. “I’m okay.”

I’d gotten the larger pieces of glass, but I was worried there were smaller pieces left in.

The minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly. Should we head deeper into the forest? If we moved, they might hear or see us better than if we stayed hidden behind this tree, but quietly waiting went against every instinct I had. I wanted to run back to the road and eliminate all of them, but I had Sienna to think about.

A cracking twig had both of us freezing.

I gestured at her gun, and she tightened her hold on it with a nod, moving onto her knees. I held up my hand for her to stay put as I moved around the side of the large tree trunk.

I locked eyes with the Butcher, standing fifteen feet away on the forest path.

The Butcher, who was supposed to be in fucking Albania.

He smiled at me through the trees like we were sharing some private inside joke. Hatred boiled my insides as my darkness rose to the surface. My gun was in my hand, but I hesitated. The gunshot would signal to the other Albanians where we were, and I wasn’t sure I could single-handedly hold them off without risking Sienna.

The Butcher’s gun was in his relaxed grip, inexplicably pointed down at the ground in confirmation that he wasn’t here to kill us. Did he think taking us as hostages would give him leverage over the Don?

A shout in the distance, followed by a flurry of gunshots from the road, told me our men had arrived. I used the split-second of distraction to take a shot at the Butcher. It went wide as he dove to the side with a bark of laughter.

“Stay here,” I said to Sienna as I jumped out from behind the tree and ran towards the trail.

A flash of black fabric ahead was my only warning that the Butcher was running away. Warning alarms blared in my head—why wasn’t he shooting at me? Was he leading me into a trap?

“Are you too much of a coward to face me?” I shouted.

He spun around with a snarl. There were still too many trees between us to get a clear shot, but I took it anyway. He let out a roar and cradled his hand, blood dripping from it.

“Romeo!”

Sienna’s scream had me turning just in time to see a man point his gun at me. I dove to the ground, but a searing burn in my arm told me I’d been hit. I hoped it was just a graze, but I didn’t have time to stop and check. I rolled over and pushed up to my feet, aiming my gun in the direction of my attacker, but he was already on the ground. Sienna emerged from behind a tree, her hands shaking as she looked down at the man she’d shot. I whirled around, looking for the Butcher, but he was gone. Instead, I saw two of my men, Elio and Gianni, running down the trail towards us.

“Gianni, stay with Sienna. Elio, with me. The Butcher is here somewhere.” I pointed up the trail where I’d last seen him, and Elio took off down the path. I followed, trying to keep my arm as still as possible as I sprinted through the trees.

But after fifteen minutes of searching, he was nowhere to be found.

“Cazzo!” I cursed as I came to a stop.

“Where the fuck could he have gone?” Elio asked.

I scrubbed my hand down my face. I had no clue. I’d been looking for drops of blood on the forest floor to see if we could track him that way, but nothing.

“Let’s get back to Sienna, but stay on your guard,” I said.

We headed back to the road where Sienna, Gianni, and Antonio were waiting for us. I opened my arms to Sienna for a hug, pulling her close.

“You’re a badass,” I said. “You doing okay? Any other injuries?” She’d cleaned the blood off her face.

“No, I’m fine. I just want to go home.”

“I talked to the Don about cleanup,” Gianni said. “We moved all the bodies into the Albanians’ cars and our cleanup team is on the way. Antonio and I will stay here to meet them. Elio will return to the city with you and Sienna in our SUV.”

“Does the Don know about the Butcher?” Elio asked.

Antonio’s eyes widened. “The Butcher?”

My jaw tightened. “He was here. I’ll call Matteo once we’re on the road. Scan my car for trackers before you get rid of it.”

Sienna bit her lip. “You think we’re being tracked?”

“They found our location somehow.”

The men and I carefully checked over the armored SUV they’d driven from the warehouse for trackers, finding nothing. I would have waited for the cleanup crew to ensure everything got taken care of, but I wanted to get Sienna back as quickly as possible, and Matteo and I needed to plan our retaliation.