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

“Drop your weapons!”

A dozen guns fixed on me.

My mind stuttered. What the fuck was this?

What looked like over one hundred women dressed in traditional wedding garb surrounded our soldiers, their attention now fixed on Leona and me. Stranger still were the hundreds of men collapsed around them, dead. Their bodies littered the floor and slumped over long, decorated tables.

The women paid them no mind.

“Drop it!” shouted a beautiful woman with long brown hair. She carried herself like the ringleader, standing tall as she pointed her gun at me. If she thought for one second that I was going to surrender, that I gave a shit about my life, she was sorely mistaken.

I pointed my weapon at her. “Give me one good reason.” My voice was low and flat, the darkness having fully taken over my soul.

“If you ever want to see Juliet alive again, you will drop your gun,” she said.

Rage burned through me. “Too late. Juliet is dead!”

Matteo’s eyes flashed as he met my grief-stricken face.

“Juliet is not dead,” she said with infuriating calm. “But she will be soon if you don’t lower your gun.”

My heartbeat echoed in my eardrums. “You’re lying.”

She cocked her head. “Is that a risk you’re willing to take?”

Fuck.

My wild eyes met Matteo’s and he nodded. His gun lay on the floor by his feet. Beside me, Leona slowly put down her weapon.

Everything in me protested as I slowly crouched down and placed my gun on the floor, but I kept the one tucked in my waistband behind my back in place.

The woman lowered her gun slightly. “Welcome, Romeo De Luca. I’m glad you could join us.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I know much more than your name.”

“Then maybe you’ll be so kind as to tell me yours,” I snarled, my face a mask of contempt.

She grinned, a deeply unsettling expression on her face. “My name is Elira. Elira Leka. I am the new Krye of the Albanian Mafia, and you”—she gestured around the room—“are all here because I made it so.”

“What do you mean?” Matteo’s voice was strong and booming.

“Who do you think ensured the Butcher’s call to you was placed through an unencrypted server so you could find our location? Who do you think leaked the information about this wedding so your little informants could tell you the location? Nothing here has happened by chance.”

“With what goal in mind?” Matteo asked carefully, but my patience had run out.

“Tell me what’s going on with Juliet! Prove to me that she’s not dead,” I shouted.

Elira pursed her lips before walking to a man slumped over a table. She yanked on his hair, forcing his head back before taking a small vial from her pocket and pouring it down his throat.

“This is my dear husband. Bujar, can you hear me?” She slapped his cheek.

The dead man groaned and twitched as he came back to life.

Overwhelming hope crashed over me like a wave. I faltered, suddenly dizzy. Did I dare believe that Juliet was also alive?

The man—Bujar—slowly blinked his eyes open.

“There you are,” Elira said, turning to me. “See, alive and well.” Then, in a flash of metal, her knife plunged into her husband’s chest. Blood poured from the wound. His weak hand rose as if to grab the knife, but he collapsed before he could touch it. “Well, alive and well no longer, but I assume I proved my point.”

Our soldiers shifted, unnerved by the woman’s actions, but Leona raised an eyebrow, looking impressed. I didn’t give a fuck if this woman gutted every single man in this room. All I needed was my love, alive and awake in my arms.

“I carry the antidote for the poison Juliet ingested, but it will only work for the next”—Elira peered at her watch—“twelve minutes. After that, she really will be dead.”

I lunged towards her, and dozens of guns immediately pointed at me.

“Now, now, Romeo, I expect you to play nice. Juliet’s life depends on it.”

I seethed, rooting my feet to the floor. She was toying with Juliet’s life, and for that, she would pay.

“What do you want from us?” Matteo asked.

“We want to forge an alliance between the new Albanian Mafia and the Italian Mafia.” Matteo started to respond, but Elira cut him off. “But our alliance would not be with you.”

Matteo and I frowned, exchanging glances.

“Who would it be with?” he asked.

“With Juliet. My niece,” Elira said. Her green eyes pierced mine. Familiar eyes. Juliet’s eyes.

“Juliet is not the head of the Italian Mafia,” Matteo said.

“No. However, she is the one we’re willing to ally with. We do not strike deals with men.”

My body twitched with panicked impatience. “In order to form an alliance with Juliet, she needs to be alive.” I was seconds away from lunging at Elira and prying the antidote from her. I didn’t care if all the women emptied all their magazines in me as long as Juliet woke up.

“Do we have your agreement, Don Rossi?” Elira’s steely voice was laced with contempt.

I looked over at my brother, silently begging him to agree. What Elira proposed was a massive insult to Matteo’s authority, but it was the only way to save the love of my life. And from what I’d seen, we didn’t want these women as enemies.

“We will discuss terms once Juliet has recovered,” he said.

Elira nodded. “Excellent.”

She pulled out another vial from her pocket. I snatched it and sprinted back to that godforsaken bedroom.

The room where you left her. How could you have done that, you bastard?

Guilt clawed at me.

I burst through the door, ignoring Spiro’s bloodied corpse as I sprinted to Juliet’s side. I did a double take when I noticed a tiny black cat curled up on her chest. The kitten let out an outraged meow when I moved it away, but I ignored her as I gathered Juliet in my arms.

“Sweetheart, I’m here.” I pressed my fingers to either side of her jaw, squeezing tight enough to part her lips. My hand trembled as I unstoppered the antidote and poured it into her mouth.

“Wake up, angel. I need you to wake up for me. Come on.”

Each second that ticked by was an eternity. I kissed her forehead, cheeks, and lips, begging her to wake with each one.

The kitten crawled back onto Juliet’s chest, purring loudly. “Don’t worry,” I said to the cat. “She’s going to wake up. She’s not gone.”

The door opened behind me and people entered, but I didn’t look up. Nothing could tear my gaze away from Juliet.

Yet her eyes remained closed.

Despair drenched every cell in my body.

I was too late.

And then I felt it—a whisper of a touch on my arm. I looked down in time to see Juliet’s hand moving.

“Juliet, can you hear me?”

Her eyelids fluttered.

I choked out a watery laugh. “Wake up for me, stellina. Let me see those pretty eyes.” I cradled her in my arms, pressing her tight against my chest. She would be lucky if I let her get more than two feet away from me ever again. I brushed her hair out of her face, rocking her back and forth until her eyes finally opened.

“Juliet,” I choked.

I buried my face in the crook of her neck, breathing her in. Tears streamed down my face and dripped onto her skin.

“Romeo.” Her hoarse whisper was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.

I pushed myself up and wiped my cheeks. “I’m here. I’m never leaving you again.”

The kitten shoved its way under my wrist and curled up on Juliet’s chest.

“Queenie,” she said. “You’re here.”

“Queenie?”

“She kept me company in my cell.”

All the color that had leached from the world since she was stolen from me flooded back in with a force that took my breath away.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Tired.”

My chest tightened as her eyes drifted shut again. “Don’t close your eyes. Keep looking at me.” I tried and failed to keep the panic out of my voice.

She opened them, but the massive effort was clear. “I’m dizzy.”

“Okay, angel. Okay.” My fear returned in full force. What if the antidote wasn’t strong enough? What if I hadn’t gotten to her in time?noveldrama

“She’ll be fine,” Elira said from behind me. My lips curled in a snarl. This woman was responsible for hurting my love. I held my girl tighter, shielding her from Elira’s view.

“They forced her to take a drink,” she continued. “This was never a part of our plan.”

I tucked Juliet close to my chest, murmuring as I lifted her into my arms, while Queenie kept her spot on her chest.

Matteo stood by my side when I faced Elira.

“I don’t care what deal you make with Matteo. You will only form an alliance with Juliet if she wants it. And I will never forget that you are the one who threatened her safety. Who stood by as she almost died.”

Elira’s jaw clenched, but she didn’t argue. “I trust you’ll take care of my niece.”

“Better care than you did,” I bit out before striding towards the door where Leona was standing guard.

“Does she need anything?” she asked.

“Our doctor’s on the plane,” Matteo said. He squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll go first to clear the way in case anyone’s still alive. Dante and Niccolò will cover your back.”

We didn’t come across anyone on our way out, but as we passed the main hall, I stopped. The monster pulsed, ruthless and demanding. It wouldn’t let me leave without seeing this through.

“Matteo, take Juliet for a moment.”

The emptiness in my arms was torture, but I wouldn’t be long.

The men were exactly where we’d left them. The Albanian women sat around them, completely unbothered by the massacre. I stepped over the bodies, looking at all their faces until I found the Butcher. He was lying on the floor, arm outstretched. And beside him was…

What. The. Fuck.

I looked up at the gathered women. “There are two of them?”

I wasn’t sure they understood me until one of them nodded. “Triplets.”

I froze. “There’s a third?”

“Already dead. Long time ago.”

My mind spun. Well, this was the answer as to how the Butcher had been in New York and Albania at the same fucking time. I had a million other questions, but none of them mattered more than getting back to Juliet.

I unsheathed my knife and plunged it into the first Butcher’s chest. I dragged it all the way down to his stomach, gutting him until his innards spilled out. I stood back, taking in the bleeding mess. It wasn’t enough. My fingers tightened on the knife and I stabbed his dick through his pants. I hoped he wasn’t dead yet and could feel everything in his unconscious state.

I repeated the same on the twin before standing back and admiring my work. Blood and entrails soaked the floor. Their deaths had been too easy, too peaceful. They deserved so much worse for the suffering they’d put Juliet, and all the trafficked women, through.

I sucked in a steadying breath. The monster wasn’t close to being satisfied, but maybe that was okay. The darkness is what allowed me to stand against injustice and protect those I cared about, but it no longer held the central position in my soul. That had been usurped by my love for Juliet.

She was the one my world revolved around now.

I turned my back on the Butchers and strode away.

Towards love.

Towards life.

Towards my girl.