ROMEO (book 1)

48. ROMEO

The lights were off and Delilah's food was still on the table untouched whenever I return. I could see her on the balcony.

I slide the doors open and she doesn't bat an eye, she keeps looking down. "You didn't eat." I slide the door over again.

"Neither did you."

I sit down beside her, "What are you doing?"

"Looking at the view. It's pretty." She shuffles away, I pull her straight back onto me.

"We can look at the view together."

"I don't want to look at the view with you." She gets off me. "I'm going sleep-"

"Not without eating."

"I've done it before." She walks back in.

The urge I had to shove food down her throat was very strong.

She's making me too angry recently.

I give her a minute, then I walk in after her. She was laying in bed.

"Delilah, this is me being nice. If you don't eat, I'm going to force food down your throat." I raise my voice slightly.

"Romeo." She sits up, "I struggle with these things. I struggle with you. I stood in that kitchen for two hours to make one of your favourite dishes for you to say you'll eat later, all because you needed a phone." Her voice breaks, "Put me first for once, God Damn it. I just want to be loved by you."

I frown.

"What?"

"Everything I do is for you. I let you do horrible things to my body because it makes you happy. I let you go to the strip club whenever you like because it makes you happy. I forgive you all the time because it makes you happy. I learn to cook your favourite meals. I learn how to read your body language when you want space. I learn how to give you that space. And you chose your phone over spending a meal with me. You don't do anything with me unless it involves your dick."

That's not true.

Until I recall all of our memories for the last while.

Shit.

I open my mouth but she cuts me off, "I am sick of you only treating me like a hookup. I am your girlfriend, Romeo. I like having sex with you, I do. But you also know I like romance and beaches and cafes." She gets up out of bed, "and you. I like you. I like doing anything with you even if it is just eating the meal I made."

"I'm so sorry-"

"No you're not Romeo. You're not sorry. It's okay that you're not, I didn't expect you to be. But can you try a little harder, please?"

"Of course, I'm..." I don't say sorry. "I'll try harder." I hug her.

She hugs me too, hesitantly.

I hold the back of her head, "Can you eat?"

"Only if you eat with me."

I take her to the living room and reheat the food while she searches for something to watch. She puts on a cheesy rom com.

But she doesn't laugh when she eats.

When the parts come in that she would usually laughs at, she stares blankly at the screen. She's slowly becoming lifeless and it's to do with me.

I take the food off her lap, put it on the coffee table and pull her down so her head is on my lap.
I run my fingers through her hair, she closes her eyes.

"We can go to the beach tomorrow."

"It doesn't matter, I know you're working."

"I can take time off-"

"Okay, let's go tomorrow." She grabs my hand, she just wanted to shut me up.

We sleep on the couch that night, in the morning while she's in the bathroom, I get all of our stuff ready, make sandwiches and snacks and she walks out with my shirt on.

She looked tired.

"Come on." I intertwine hands.

We walk down to the beach, she doesn't really talk until I talk. It wasn't warm, but she never cares about that. She takes her bikini off and runs straight to the ocean.

I stay on the sand, watching her from a distance.

She just likes swimming.

The seat occupies beside me and I turn to see Lorenzo. "You're still here?"

"You still watch her like a child."

I look at him, "Go away."

"No can do, after your title, Reign." He pulls a knife from his pocket.

I laugh, "Are you fucking stupid?"

"No, quite the opposite actually. No... photographic memory like you but I'm sick of Philly." He smiles, "Hey, where'd your girlfriend go?"

I don't look back at the ocean primarily for the reason that if i did, he would know she is a weak point of mine.

Leo is here watching here too, Leo is always watching her. He would have alerted me if something was bad.

"You won't get my place, Lorenzo. Give up."

"All your men have complained that you're not a good leader-"

"Well they can take that up with me, go back to your base in Philly or i'm going to drown you in the ocean." I stand up, "Now."

He stands up too, "Where's your girlfriend?" He looks dead at me. "Leo too?"

I punch him in the face, restraining him as I look out to the ocean to see nothing. "The fuck is she?" I bury his face in the sand. "Tell me or I swear to fucking God your insides are going to be full of sand."

I lift his head up and he coughs, "She's pretty."

"Where is she?"

"Secret. Until you consider me moving her to be your second, or your replacement. My men will have her."

I lift him up, pushing him under the docks so there's privacy, a group of kids were building a sandcastle. I stand on it, "Fuck off." I say to them, and they all scurry away.

I punch Lorenzo again, "You won't take my place. I am the heir, the family line; you're not blood." I kneel on his chest. "There's a reason I'm the leader, and you're forgetting your men are my men." I apply pressure. "Once I find my girlfriend and my underboss, this ocean is gaining a new body." I take the knife out of his pocket, turn his head to the side and cut his ear off, hearing him grunt but he's a sociopath like me, so it didn't bother him too much.

I hold his ear in my hand, call my brother with my other. "I'm on my way. Leo sent an alert. There's seven men at the beach already."

"Send them beneath the docks." I hand up.

"You're going to regret that." Lorenzo looks at me with pure hatred in his eyes. "Regret it so much."

He reaches his hand in his pocket and calls a number. I take the phone off him.

Jay.

Once my men run down, I leave him with them and call Jay from my phone on no caller ID. "Yes?" He answers.

"Jay Kristian. You have all of ten minutes to return my girlfriend and underboss to the beach or your little sisters brains are going to be smothered all of your bedroom wall when you return to Philly, understood?"

Defeated, he sighs. "Yes sir."

But he never shows up. I send the order for his sisters death, and then I get on the mission to find my girlfriend.

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italians smh

word count: 1232