Page 3 of Not Your Romeo
The lawn was immaculate, but something about it looked even more special than normal. When we stepped inside, there was a team of men servicing the piano. Maids scurried about dusting shit that hadn’t been touched since my mother died.
I noticed Sean finally, on the stairwell. The way he looked at me was so peculiar. Something inside me knew my life was about to be thrown off course.
“I– I didn’t realize there was a funeral,” I guessed.
Sean smiled and waved for me to join him upstairs, rather than descending the rest of the way.
I slowly started up after him, pausing just outside my old bedroom door when he did.
“Who died?” I whispered.
There was a man standing nearby that I didn’t recognize. Sean cleared his throat and gestured me onward, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the stranger in the leather vest. His eyes were dark and dangerous, and I could tell by his stance and expression he was capable. It was a different type of capable than the men Sean and Keefe surrounded themselves with, but I recognized the energy all the same.
He suddenly started toward us, and I sucked in a breath, not expecting his brisk movement.
“No one died, lass. It’s a wee weddin’ is all.” Sean smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder that made my skin crawl.
He wasn’t a nasty man. I just wasn’t all that reassured by the gesture.
“I can’t do this,” the stranger interrupted. “I can’t go through with this while my daughter is on her way to—”
“Your daughter is fine, lad.”
“Yeah, I can’t trust that.” The gravelly tone doubled down.
“Me, either,” Sean shrugged, “I told you. I intend to have her when Menace’s time is up. Did you think I'd trust fate and the woman I intend to marry, to a man whose back is against the wall? Don’t get me wrong about our Sammy, she’ll be a good piece of insurance— No?”
The stranger’s face fell and he slowly backed away and fled down the stairs.
“Who’s that?” I whispered.
“That’s the man you’re marrying this afternoon.”
I snorted and bumped his arm with mine, “Be serious.”
Sean was such a terrible joker.
His pale gaze anchored on me, however, and I knew in my soul he wasn’t kidding.
“You can’t make–”
“I can, actually, love. I can do a lot. You have scales and contraband in your dorm as we speak.”
“Weed is legal, and you’re no snitch.” I shifted to pointedly look at him.
“Marijuana might be, but what my generals drop when they go back– Won’t be.”
My face twitched, as I desperately held out hope for laughter, or some sign of his teasing.
“You wouldn’t,” I finally managed.
Sean didn’t flinch.
“When the alternative is watching you hop around the streets and campus shaming me and our brother? It’s bad enough having a sister that toils in the shallow end of the drug trade like a common…” He trailed off and took a deep breath, “Now I hear you’ve been robbed? They tell me some gang members publicly disrespected you. Word is you were relieved of both property and product.”
He sucked his teeth in silent fury.
Meanwhile, my inner wheels were spinning as fast as his words. How the hell did he know Zander robbed me?
