Falling For Rome Read online

  But at the same time, if this is my last night, I pray that God see my heart and know that it’s pure. I am what he created me to be, a warrior. My hands are covered in blood, the blood of bad people. I’ve never killed an innocent, only the very evil. So, if this is my last night, then I ask that he forgives me and washes me clean.

  Of course I don’t know if he will, but it helps to put me in the right frame of mind before a mission. I slid my hunter green bomber jacket that was the same color as my cargo pants on my arms over my wife beater, and then slid my skull cap that was the same color on my head.

  Young Romeo might as well meet the woman he was getting ready to deal with, because there was no way in hell I was going to attempt to break into his place wearing those damn heels.

  I left my car at my apartment, choosing to take the bus instead. It was clear Romeo had some kind of surveillance system set up where he knew who stepped foot on his blocks and when. And since I didn’t know exactly where his blocks began or ended, I didn’t take a chance.

  You see, I didn’t want him to see me coming. Yeah, I know he knows I’m coming, I just needed to do it on my own time as I studied exactly what I was getting myself into. The only way I will allow him to catch me is if I mapped a way out for when it was time to leave. There is no prison that can hold me; I always find a way out.

  Before I left my apartment, I popped two more of the pain pills and placed the bottle in my jacket pocket. They are a Godsend because they did a great job of deadening the pain so I can do what needed to be done without my injury getting in the way.

  An hour and a half later, I sat hunched down on the roof across the street from Romeo’s place looking into his dark empty loft. A guard stood only feet away from me on the otherside of the roof’s door. I wondered if it was the same man who’d winked at me earlier. My breath came through my lungs very gently. If I wanted, I could take his life before he even knew what hit him.

  But that’s not what I wanted. I’d come up here to get a better look into Romeo’s empty loft and his roof. I’d already studied the building from the ground level as well as the neighborhood. And just like I figured, the men who’d been smoking and drinking on the steps earlier were now on the roof.

  There was no one in front of the building. The street was very quiet…too quiet.

  Silently, I sat back on my haunches to process all that I’ve seen. I’m not going to lie, I’m damned impressed. I’ve been on military bases whose defensive perimeters could not hold a flame to what the young Romeo has set up here.

  Hell, I’ve seen kings protected by defensive perimeters that were far easier to penetrate than this kid’s perimeter. I had to take to the sewers to get this close to the building without being noticed.

  Jo was right, Romeo’s influence stretched wide and as they say, the hood is always watching. What made what he has going on so clever is that one would never think the guys that were hanging out in front of the liquor stores or on the corners were as organized as they were.

  On the outside, they looked like misguided youths, smoking and drinking their lives away. But if one just sat for a moment to study them, one would see that there is a method to their madness. There was an organization here that was damn impressive.

  What the hell?

  And I know you guys are saying. Well damn…they can’t be that good if you’re standing right next to a guard and across the street from the others, and not one of them have noticed.

  For the record…You can’t judge them by that fact. The deck is stacked against them. I’ve been trained by the best. And I’m not talking about the Sarge. I assume by now you guys have all met his alter, The Politician, Jo’s dirty little secret.

  He was my commanding officer for many years. A luxury I would not have been afforded had I not been able to keep up. Every soldier under his command had to become machines. Nothing less would do for that man…

  Or…

  Hell, I don’t know what the Politician is. I don’t think anybody does, not even Jo. However, I do know the thing is a war machine, and he trained all those under him to be war machines.

  Quite frankly, I’m one of the best in the game. And that’s not vanity speaking, it is just the truth.

  Even still…

  For the very first time in a long time, I felt out of my element. I’d been trained for many situations, but nothing like this. I’d never been trained on how to deal with a masterminded thug.

  Who’d ever heard of such a thing? I love my brothers and sisters, I really do. But the fact is, the United States Government didn’t look at the Black Thug as that big of a threat. They had never trained any of us for anything like this.

  And I know some of you may think I’m putting on, but I’m not. Not only has Romeo somehow managed to organize a whole neighborhood of black and Hispanic youths…mind you, many of them are from rival gangs. I knew this because as I spied on various groups of them this evening, I heard them address each other by their affiliation. And from what I can tell, there are several affiliations in this area.

  Okay, so the fact that he’s somehow made that work is not the only miracle I’ve witnessed tonight. I’m pretty sure, that ugly grey building he lived in, that looks as if it was an old factory, is in fact a smart building.

  Yep, you guys heard me…A freaking smart building.

  What the hell?

  Hmmm…

  All of my good sense was telling me to retreat. It was telling me to take some more time and get to know young Romeo better. I’d taken him for granted, although the Sarge warned me not to. How could I have known the kid was a freaking genius? Who the hell hides a mind like that in the damn ghetto?!

  Yeah, the best thing to do would be to retreat.

  Except, I’ve never really been known for doing the best thing. I wanted to see for myself what he was actually capable of. He’d declared war, and I wanted to see if he could really handle me.

  I know that’s twisted…but I’m competitive that way.

  Hell…who was I kidding? It’s no need of lying to you guys, you’re going to find out anyway that I suffer from a mental illness called Impulse Control Disorder, which basically means that I am prone to react on my first thought rather than taking the time to think things through.

  This ailment made me one of Jo’s best soldiers, but it also made me his worst. When out in the field, you had to think quickly and react even quicker, a split second too long and it could cost you your life. That being said, when not on duty I got in a lot of trouble for my quick reactions.

  Anyway, I told you guys that so you’ll know the reason I quickly ran towards the edge of the roof, disappearing over it as quietly as I’d come, landing silently on the fire escape. I could walk through the front door since he had been nice enough to clear the way for me, but where was the fun in that?

  I climbed back into the sewer and resurfaced in the back courtyard of his building. Doing my best to avoid the cameras I could see, I quickly made my way up the back porches until I got to the top floor where I easily climbed the rest of the way to the roof. Thanks to the blueprints of the building the Sarge had gotten for me, I pretty much knew the layout by heart.

  The guys Romeo had watching from up here were looking over the ledge toward the front of the building, no doubt expecting this little lady to take the easy way and mosey right on through that front door that they cleared especially for me and into their trap. I shook my head as I silently walked right past them to the ventilation duct.

  Men…

  Gently lifting the metal grate just enough for my body, I slid in before carefully shutting it behind me. Taking my flashlight out of my pocket, I turned it on putting it in my mouth to hold it in my teeth as I crawled through the dusty duct.

  Judging by the spiderwebs and the dust, this thing hadn’t been used since the building was a functioning factory. The only reason I chose this way in is because it let out in what should be Romeo’s bathroom.
r />   Okay, so let me tell you guys a quick story. When I first joined the military, I was deathly afraid of spiders. It didn’t matter what size they were. Those as small as the head of a pen, or those as big as my head, it didn’t matter, I was afraid.

  When I was fresh out of BUD school, I was asked what my biggest fear was. Foolishly, I told the truth and said spiders. The next thing I know, I’m being placed in a plastic box, and a bucket of Black Widows were poured over my head.

  Had I panicked, they would have killed me. I had to move very slowly as not to startle any of the spiders to dislodge them and ease out the box. By the time I was free of them, I was no longer afraid of spiders. After that day, my brothers began to call me the Black Widow.

  At least, I liked to believe that’s why they call me that, and not because I’ve murdered more men under the guise of getting intimate with them than I can count.

  Anyway, I told you all that story because this duct was full of the bastards. A weaker woman would have probably turned back, but not I, I trudged on.

  When I made it to the grate that led to the dark bathroom, I carefully opened it and slid out, easing down on the sink. Although the bathroom was dark, there was enough light coming in from the street for me to see that it was very nice…and spacious.

  It still had the old-world factory feel to it. But the all-white interior was state-of-the-art, including the huge claw foot tub over against the wall. I almost groaned when I saw it. That tub is every woman’s dream come true. Come to think of it…When was the last time I took me some R&R time and just soaked in a hot soapy bath?

  Damn, I can’t even remember.

  For the last fifteen years, my life has been on the go. I enlisted right after 9/11 and have been on one mission after another ever since. My retirement was long overdue, shame on Jo for not believing me. But I was going to show him. As soon as he paid me for this job, I am ghost. The first thing I was going to do when I finally made it home was soak in a nice long bath.

  Home…

  Would it still look the way I’d left it fifteen years ago? Will I still smell my mother’s perfume in the air, or echoes of her disappointment in me for being born a girl? Will I ever feel worthy enough to exist?

  I forced myself to focus on the task at hand. Now was not the time for self-doubt. It was thoughts like these that kept me from seeing that bullet coming yesterday while I was making my escape.

  Focus, Nak!

  Silently, I crossed the floor to the door and gently cracked it open. His place was dark, but the drapes were all opened and enough light spilled in from the streets for me to see clearly where I was going.

  I exited the bathroom and waited for something to happen. Over in the sitting area, there was a GTA game paused on the big flat screen television. There was also a gentle light coming from his computer. Only one screen was on, it looked like the main screen.

  Whiffs of his cologne lingered. He had expensive taste.

  Slowly, I made my way farther into the loft, expecting him to jump out any minute. When nothing happened after a while, I began to wonder if I had been mistaken and he and his crew had actually gone to the club.

  I mean don’t get me wrong, sometimes I was off about these things…but not usually.

  Carefully, I made my way to that beautiful computer and then I waited another few minutes. When still nothing happened, I shrugged and went to work. Just like I figured, he had a passcode to wake up this beauty. What good hacker wouldn’t?

  I pulled the decoder jump drive out my pocket and inserted it into the USB. Thirty seconds later I was in.

  Wow!

  This baby was powerful. I wish I had time to explore. But I didn’t, it looked as if he and his men were actually somewhere watching, waiting for me to walk through that front door downstairs.

  Chuckling, I shook my head.

  “I guess you’re not as smart as I thought you were, Romeo.” I mumbled as I began to search for the information I needed…

  However, my hands stalled on the keys when suddenly the overhead lights turned on as well as every screen in front of me, including the big one mounted on the wall. Rome’s handsome face appeared on every one of them, but not individually, more like a puzzle that came together to make a whole.

  “Well that all depends, sweetheart…How smart do you think I am?” Watching me with those light brown eyes that missed nothing, he licked his full beautiful lips before smiling down at me.

  He was sitting on a couch leaning toward his laptop that must be on a coffee table or something. There was a scantily clad girl on either side of him pressing their bodies intimately into his. When I say scantily clad, I mean they were literally dressed in what looked like bathing suits. Bikinis… Each one was touching him trying to get his attention.

  “Come back, Rome, we want you to play with us daddy…” One of the sex kittens purred...

  I lifted an eyebrow. I swear I vomited a little in my mouth. It sounded as if they were at a party or something; there was a lot of noise in the background.

  “Don’t call me sweetheart…” I told him dryly.

  “What should I call you then? Surely not Brenda Bonita the Caseworker…” He paused for a moment as his eyes took their time raking down my body.

  “Maybe I should call you Sandy the Super Spy.”

  I grinned. “How about you call me unimpressed?”

  A fake look of shock came over his face. “Come now, something I’ve done so far must be even a little impressive to you.”

  I tilted my head as if I was thinking about it. “No…can’t think of a thing.”

  For just a moment, he stared at me through the screen and I swear, it felt as if his honey gaze could see straight through me to all my secrets. I began to fidget. I’ve never had anyone look at me so deeply, not even my parents. It was uncomfortable as hell…

  Yet…

  No, I was going to ignore the other feeling it caused me to feel. This was no place for those feelings.

  “What happened to the sexy little caseworker I talked to earlier?”

  I chuckled. “I killed her and replaced her with the unsexy, unimpressed woman you see before you.”

  He did this thing with those big kissable lips of his where he licked them right before they arched in a perfect grin that had me staring at his mouth in wonder. Clearly those honey colored, lady killing eyes of his isn’t the only weapon in his arsenal. His mouth made you think of all the dirty things you would like to see him do with it.

  It was a perfect mouth. Nice full lips that looked soft and so very kissable. Strong white straight teeth…beautiful pink healthy gums, and that wicked tongue that he kept flashing me with every time he licked his lips…

  Nossa! No wonder the kittens were purring next to him. That mouth of his made one think of sex. Pure, animalistic sex.

  “Unimpressed, you may be my dear, but unsexy you are not. Not by far. In fact…” He paused for just a moment. “I think I like the real you better, you’re far prettier than that imposter that was here this morning.”

  Mmmm… Did I fail to mention his incredibly deep voice? His gaze traveled along my body again, lingering on my dog tags, or maybe my breasts. Either way, it irritated me that he looked at me like that while entertaining two other women…

  What the hell?

  Men like this really pissed me off. They felt that women were created to be their toys, to be used and abused and then tossed away. My father was a man like that. He used my mother and played with her head and when he was done, he tossed her away, telling her that it was because she’d given him a stupid girl and not a boy.

  She’d believed him, instead of seeing that he just wasn’t that into her in the first place. I hate women like my mother, women too blind to see what was really in front of them, like the two bimbos on each side of the lady killer.

  Did they think he will really take them seriously? Did they think that they would put something on him that wil
l make him magically look past the fact that they are loose and fall madly in love with them? Maybe they thought that he would buy them a tennis bracelet.

  Suddenly a strong urge to defeat this man came over me. Just like the men that I’ve taken down before him. They are all like my father, wealthy and powerful, thinking they can do whatever the hell they like with no consequences.

  I was going to allow myself to be caught…but now I don’t think I will. I’ll just have to find another way to get Jo’s info.

  I put my hands in my jacket pocket. “So, what is this…some kind of game?”

  He lifted one side of that gorgeous mouth into a smirk. “Naw, no game. More like a test.”

  “Why you testing me?”

  “I test everybody I don’t trust.”

  It was my turn to smirk. “What? You didn’t buy my social worker act?”

  He laughed. Nossa! Even his laugh was sexy…

  “Hell no!”

  I shrugged. “Too bad…you and Ms. Bonita could have been good friends.”

  The laughter left his face as he focused that killer gaze on me. “Why should I settle for Ms. Bonita when I can have you instead?”

  I shook my head slightly, giving him a pitying look. “Young man, you will never have me.”

  His eyes got really cold. “Shawty, I already got you. You belong to me. We had an agreement.”

  “Yeah, well sue me. I don’t honor your agreement.”

  He chuckled again. “Too bad for you. Everybody honors their agreement with me.”

  “Oh yeah? Do you think you can make me?”

  The knowing look that came over his face should have been enough to get me to step back and reevaluate my decision to challenge him. But then one of the girls leaned forward and rubbed her hand against his chest. The move must have irritated him because he knocked her hand away as if she was nothing.