Loving Leo (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 3) (11 page)

After peeling away the various arms and legs locked around him and stumbling out of bed, Leo moved down the hallway, scratching his stomach, hearing a vacuum roaring in the distance.

“Good morning, Consuela,” he said, moving into the living area just in time to see Consuela vacuum up a chunk of red hair.  A chunk that belonged to the hungover woman sleeping on his couch.

“Ow!” The redhead tumbled off the couch and thudded to the floor, gripping her skull and looking up at Consuela with heated eyes.  “Consuela!  My hair!”

Consuela kicked off the vacuum and exploded into rapid-fire Spanish, jabbing her cleaning glove every which way as she presented the trashed apartment.  The party the night before had been a rager, leaving Consuela with her work cut out for her that morning.

“
Pinche puta
,” Consuela cried.  “
Yo chingé a tu madre.”

The redhead stumbled to her feet with a frown, clutching her purse to her chest as she hurried out of the living room, still holding her skull in her hand.

“Your maid is fucking insane, Leo!” she said on her way to the door.

Leo poked his lips out, still blinking the sleep from his eyes as she snatched open his front door.  “You don’t have to leave, uhhh, ahhh…”

She cringed from the door.  “Amy!”

“I
know
.  Of course your name is Amy.  I knew that—”  He winced when she slammed the door behind her, and moved his eyes back to the living room.  He smiled.  “Good morning, Consuela.”

“
Pinch mamon.  Pervertido.”

“No, really.”  He covered his heart with his hand.  “The pleasure is all mine.”

“Bueno pa nada.  Puto!”

“I did get a new haircut, thank you so much for noticing.  Big date tonight. I want to look good, you know?” He made his way into the kitchen with a grin, pouring a glass of orange juice.

Consuela’s rant carried on, and Leo smiled around his glass, hardly able to contain his excitement for his date with Ashley Williams.

***

As the sun set in Westchester, Tony Romanovsky’s eyes dashed between his three sons, all situated in different areas of the family’s expansive balcony.

“I spoke to King,” Tony said, straightening when Gary, Val and Roman’s eyes all shot to him at once.  “And, yes, someone on the inside got access to the mug shot.”

Val collapsed onto his elbows against the balcony’s stone railing, letting his head fall.

Roman gave the sliding glass doors behind him most of his weight, fingering a box from his pocket and bringing it to his lips, teething out a cigarette.  He went into his back pocket, scooped out the red lighter Ashley Williams had handed him the day before, and lit it.  Keeping the lighter clasped in a fist, a tight laugh escaped his lips after he took a hearty drag, sending white smoke fluttering into the air.

“He told us he got rid of it.  He told us it didn’t even exist anymore.” Val craned his neck toward Tony.

“He removed the mug shot from every local server in Jersey,” Tony said.  “But not the universal one.  Said if he’d attempted to make the universal shot go away, it would’ve triggered a lot of questions.  Questions that would’ve buried us.”

“Questions that would’ve buried
him
,” Roman spat. “He didn’t do it for us. He did it for himself.  Val’s face has been sitting on a universal server for
ten years
, and King never thought it necessary to tell us?”

“So a cop pulled it,” Val said.  “Which cop?”

Gary leaned forward from where he sat at the small patio set in the middle of the balcony, shaking his head.

“He doesn’t know,” Tony answered. “But he says he’s going to find out and take care of it.”

Val pushed off the balcony.  “Well if he says he’s going to take care of it…”

Tony shot him a look.  “He’s been taking care of it for the last ten years, and I trust him to take care of it now.”

“Just like his son is going to ‘take care’ of Novsky?” Roman pulled another drag from his cigarette, holding Tony’s icy gaze the moment it came back to him.  “Just like he ‘took care’ of Angie’s office?”

“Just like he’s going to take care of us?” Gary chimed in, lowering his eyes when Tony’s gaze blazed fire his way.

“We can’t trust him, Pop,” Val said.

“We have no choice but to.”

“So that’s it?” Roman cringed, tossing his cigarette.  “We stand around like a bunch of chumps afraid of our own shadows, thanking our master Victor King when he decides to throw us a few scraps and spare our lives?”

Tony looked away.

Roman spoke to his cheek.  “The closer he gets to the presidency, the more paranoid he’s going to become.  Eventually, our silence will not be enough to keep him away from our family.”

Gary craned his neck to look at Roman.  “What do you mean?”

“I mean we need to get this son of a bitch before he gets us.”

“No.” Val pushed away from the railing and faced them.  “Going after King means putting Ma, Zo and Leo at risk.”  Val’s eyes went to Roman across the balcony.  “It’s bad enough you and Angie have gotten dragged into this.  The only thing keeping you both safe was not knowing the truth.”  Val took a deep breath.  “If we go after King, we might as well throw our family to the wolves.”

“So we cower,” Roman said.

“We’re not cowering.” Tony’s voice rose.  “We’re sending a message.  Reassuring King that we won’t fuck with him if he doesn’t fuck with us.”

“Until he does.” Roman’s voice jumped a few notches too.  “He burned my girlfriend’s office to the ground.  I know it was him, and so does she, even if she won’t admit it.   She hasn’t been herself, she’s not sleeping, she’s not eating…  You’re asking me to wait around in silence, hoping he won’t eventually come around and ensure her mouth stays closed too?  All of our mouths?”

Gary breathed in.  “Maybe we should just go to the police—”

Scoffs sped in from every angle.  Val turned his back, and so did Tony, both going to the railing.  Gary looked up and caught Roman’s eyes, the only member of his family who hadn’t turned away from him.

“Nobody’s going to the police,” Tony said, taking in the expansive backyard.  “We’re okay.  We’re floating.  We got on top of it that night, just in time, and stopped the processing before Val’s papers could be computerized.  His prints weren’t taken.  There is only a mug shot with no trail. They cannot connect him to the Blacks.  We just need to keep our mouths shut, our heads down, and this will all go away on its own.”

“Rome?” Gary asked, hoping to get Roman on his side.

Roman smiled around the new cigarette he was lighting, and then cringed as he shoved the lighter back into his pocket.  “Ten years, Gar, and you still can’t see what’s right under your nose.” He yanked the burning stick from his lips.  “King
is
the police.  There is no one in New York or New Jersey that does not answer to him.  Not a single precinct that won’t turn a blind eye.”

“And he’ll take us all out.” Val turned his head from where he leaned on the balcony.  “If we go to the police.  He’ll take us all.  And that includes Zo.”  He faced Gary.   “Is that what you want, Gar?”

Gary’s wide eyes searched Val’s, looking like he had more fight, then he looked away.  “No.”

“So we cower.” Roman turned to the balcony doors and pulled them open.

“Where you going?” Tony demanded.

“Home.”  Roman tossed his cigarette and turned back to them.  “To cower with my girlfriend.  Call me when you’ve all grown a pair.”

They watched Roman go, and their silence was louder than ever before.

Another night fell with no leads from the cameras and microphones Jessica had planted.  Not even from the lighter she’d given Roman, who she’d been thrilled to learn was a problem smoker.  For a moment, she’d been convinced that lighter was going to close her case, but was quickly disappointed to learn that, while the Romanovskys sure did love to argue, they rarely
said
anything.  They spoke extensively about King, about the Blacks, about that fateful night ten years earlier, but not once had they named a killer.  Not once had they said a single actionable word.  Neither had King.  Jessica was beginning to worry that her controversial investigating style was going to prove useless with this family.  Never in her life had she experienced so many people who seemed to speak in code by nature.

Val was the worst of them all.  On the rare occasion he did speak, it was always work related, even when he was at home with Zoey, who had to beg for his conversation.  His silence with his fiance told Jessica that the weight of what he’d done was beginning to get to him, sinking in so deep that she and Chet had begun making bets on when Val would crack.  Chet thought he had another few months’ worth of lies left in him, but would explode once his baby was born. The guilt of seeing his child in the flesh would be too much to take.

Jessica didn’t even give him until the end of the month.  After years on the force, she knew when she was looking at a man bursting to be free.  Free from his guilt.  Free from his crime.  Free from his lies.  A thirst for freedom could bust open the tightest of lips, and it had, many times before.  Val was losing strength.  They just had to wait him out.

She pushed open the steel door to her office, stepped out into the alleyway, and came face to face with her older brother, Leroy Borgia.

Leroy worked as her personal security guard.  Since this was her private office, meant to separate her from FBI headquarters when she was working undercover, she felt better knowing she had eyes on the ground floor.  It was also a great way to keep her brother working, since no one else was willing to give him a job with his criminal record.

Leroy’s left eye traveled her body with a whistle.  If his right eye hadn’t been shot off during a gang dispute in his teens, it would be crinkling with the same laughter of his left.

“A dress?” His belly jiggled as a chortle raced through him.  “Who died?”

She straightened the dress.  It was a midi cut, falling just below the knee.  Quarter length sleeves covered her elbows, and the scooped neckline left her breasts on the verge of escape from where she’d wrestled them into a push-up bra.  This was Leo she was dealing with, after all.

“I’m working, and this guy loves a plunging neckline.” She fingered her hair to the side when it swooped down over her eye.  She’d parted it deep, and it was now occurring to her that she’d be shoving it out of her face all night. Her lips finished the sultry look, bright red and inviting.

Leroy squinted his good eye, showing several missing teeth when he smiled.  “What poor bastard are you getting one over on this time?”

“I’m not getting one over on anyone.  I’m doing my job.”

“What else?  That’s all you know how to do.  You’ve always been married to your work.”

“That’s not true…”

“No family, no hobbies, no friends…”

“You’re my family, and I see you every day.”  She pushed her hair out of her eye.

“When’s the last time you saw Dad?  Called Mom?”

“Leroy…”

“Is he even the guilty party?  The guy whose heart you’re eventually going to tear to shreds?  Or is he just some innocent bystander you’re using to close this thing?”

“Does it matter?”

“Not to you.  Never that.” He laughed again.  “You have a
job
to do right?”

“Oh, fun.  Here comes the lecture from the ex-con.”

Leroy chuckled.

“You have no idea what it’s like to be a woman in my field, Leroy.”

“Oh, fun.  Here comes the lecture from the scorned woman.”

“You have no idea,” Jessica continued, “how it feels to know you’ll always have to be ten times better, ten times stronger, and ten times smarter just to get
half
the…”  Jessica stopped herself, glaring off into the distance when she realized he was pissing her off on purpose.

“Emotion.” Leroy nodded.  “That’s what I like to see, sis.  Sometimes I seriously wonder if you even have a heart beating under your ribs.  My money would be on no if I hadn’t seen the damn thing firsthand myself.”

Jessica sighed, hating being reminded of the open-heart surgery she’d undergone at five years old.  Her family had been allowed to watch from an elevated room while the operation that saved her life had taken place.  Leroy always vowed he would never forget it.

“Did you take your beta blocker today?” His face grew serious.

“Yes, Leroy.  Jesus, you sound just like Chet.  I’m a grown woman.  I know how to take care of myself.”  She didn’t mention to Leroy that her heart had been acting up lately.  It would only worry him.  She also hadn’t mentioned it to Harper.  He knew that her heart had almost cost her a spot at the FBI Training Academy five years earlier.  She’d passed their extensive medical exam by the skin of her teeth, having to blow through three different cardiologists before they finally concluded her condition wouldn’t interfere with her job responsibilities.   Harper would only get antsy if she revealed her heart was starting to give her trouble, so she kept her lips sealed.

“This guy you’re using?” Leroy laughed.  “Toss him a couple blockers, too.  He’ll definitely need them by the time you’re finished with him.”

“As sweet as it is that you’re worried about the feelings of my
mark
more than you’re worried about me, your own sister, you have nothing to be worried about.  Leo Romanovsky could stand to get taken down a peg or two.  Just like someone else I know.”

She shoved him, matching his laugh before making her way down the narrow alley, the click of her heels echoing off the brick walls.

***

“Hey Sarah,” Zoey said, greeting one of Leo’s girls as she stepped into his apartment later that evening, using the copy of his key that had been on her ring for years.

“Hey, Zoey.” Sarah waved, cake batter dripping down the wooden spoon in her hand, wearing nothing but an apron.  Her red hair raced past the tie around her waist and brushed her bare ass.

Zoey dropped her purse on the entryway table, smirking.  “Doing a little naked baking, I see?”

“Carrot cake.”  Sarah smiled.

“Leo’s favorite.  He must have a hot date tonight.”

“One day he’ll realize we’re the only ones for him.” Sarah winked.

Zoey grinned.  Leo’s apartment was always a party.  Drinks, drugs, and naked women everywhere. The family liked to call them his “orphans.”  Leo’s orphans always went white-hot with jealousy when he showed real interest in a girl.  God forbid he actually went so far as to take a girl on a date.  Whenever that occurred, his orphans spiraled into mommy mode, hence the carrot cake. Zoey always wanted to remind the orphans that they had nothing to worry about.  A man like Leo was not built for monogamy.  Not even when he wanted to be.

Zoey moved into the living room, meeting Leo’s eyes in the reflection of the giant floor mirror he was frowning into.  He gave her a distracted nod before making a disgusted sound and snatching another tie from the pile that was strewn over the lounge chair next to him.

Zoey circled the living room couch where Gary was watching basketball.

“Hey Gar.”  She plopped down next to him, resting her head on the back of the cushions.  “Who’s Leo going out with tonight?  He looks more nervous than I’ve ever seen him, and Sarah is
baking
.  All signs point to a hot date.”

Gary met her eyes.  “Ashley Williams.”

She chortled.  “You’re kidding.”

“Mere
days
after we finished giving a sexual harassment seminar—one that we set up especially for him.”

“Come on, Gar.  You know Leo.  Setting up a meeting that deemed Ashley off limits is the worst thing you could’ve done.  Now Leo will die before he stops going after her.  He’ll, literally, have to die.”

“I can hear you,” Leo said, tossing a yellow tie over his shoulder before swiping up a new one.

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty.” Gary turned away from the television and joined Zoey, watching Leo hold up a blue tie to his button-down shirt that, along with his black slacks, had been ironed crisp by one of his concubines.  He chucked the tie across the room with a cringe.

“Why do I have so many shitty ties?  Why don’t I have any
clothes
?”

“You have more clothes than every woman in Manhattan.
Combined,” Gary said.

“You know, Leo, from what I could tell, Ashley doesn’t even seem like a suit and tie kind of girl.”

Leo gave Zoey baffled eyes in the mirror, wrapping a red polkadot tie around his neck.  “I want to look nice for her.”

“You always look nice.  You’re gorgeous by nature.”

The corner of his mouth lifted.  “Thanks, sis.”

Gary leaned over and pressed his ear to Zoey’s stomach.  She grinned at his shaggy head before looking back to Leo.

“She seems more like a go with the flow kind of girl to me,” she said.  "Super chill.  Super casual.”

“She doesn’t seem that way to me,” Leo said.  “Have you seen the way she dresses?  She’s girly.  High end.  She’s going to expect the same from me.”

“Just because a girl puts on a dress and heels doesn’t make her ‘girly.’  Did you see her take down that guy in the lounge the other night? When she thought he was disrespecting Ang?”

Gary’s head shot up from Zoey’s stomach, eyes wide.

“Yes!” He beamed, hand still on her belly.  “How sick was that?”

“How
hot
was that?” Leo added.

“That’s my point,” Zoey said.  “She’s not girly.  She’s chill as fuck.  She’s actually kind of
dry
and sarcastic.  If you make this a high-end kind of night, her inner cynic will mock it.  She’s not going to be comfortable, and will assume you’re not the guy for her.”  Zoey motioned to him.  “Show her who you really are.  Show her that you’re easygoing too.  Don’t put on some big production.”

Even as doubt flashed across Leo’s eyes, he removed the tie from around his neck.  When he tossed it, he didn’t reach for another.

“I think you might be right.”  He bit the corner of his lip. “A chick who has no problem putting her stiletto into some dude’s esophagus?  No way is she going to fall for a bunch of flash.”  He looked down at his clothes.  “Fuck, I gotta change.”

Zoey watched him jet out of the living room, sidestepping an orphan Zoey didn’t recognize.

“Just be you!” she called after him, receiving a half-hearted wave over his shoulder before he disappeared into his bedroom.

Her eyes went back to Gary, who was still caressing her belly, frowning at her.   “Do you really think the baby should be here? Surrounded by Leo’s harem of women?  This isn’t the most child friendly place.”

Zoey pouted.  “But I like it here.”

“Who doesn’t?”

They both waved to a brunette who greeted them with a blinding smile on her way to the balcony.  She was wearing a red bikini, probably on her way to the Jacuzzi.

“But still…” Gary lifted a shoulder..

“You’re here more than you’re at your own apartment.  Why can’t the rest of us be?”

“If you knew how much time your future husband used to spend here, you might not champion this place so hard.”

“Are you telling me Val used to be a manwhore?” Zoey gasped.  “I’m
shocked
.”  Her face fell.  “You think I don’t know who I’m marrying? I know who I’m marrying, sir.  Thank you.  Valentin Romanovsky is a changed man.  A good man.”

“He is a good man.”

“I guess I can see where you’re coming from though.”  She leaned back against the pillows.  “There’s just something about Leo’s place that’s so… honest, and free, and open.  It’s so real.  Plus, him and Val have the same eyes, and I like looking at him when Val is having one of his moods.  It’s oddly soothing for me.”  She searched Gary’s green irises, unable to help her smile.  “Leo’s eyes never get cloudy and dark like Val’s do sometimes.”

“Give him a break.”

Her mouth fell.  “Since when do
you
champion Val?”

He leaned forward on his knees, breaking their eye contact.  “He’s really going through it these days.  With Reggie King down his neck, Novsky on the skids…  He’s got a lot on his shoulders, that’s all.”

“Way to make me feel like some colossal asshole.”  Her pout deepened.  “I know he works his fingers black and blue.  I know that.”

Gary faced her.  “Can we not talk about Val?”

She grinned.  “You were fine talking about the baby a minute ago, but not about Val? You do know that the baby
i
s Val’s right?”