Falling For Rome Read online

  And I knew then what I had to do…

  I had to kick his punk ass for all of womankind. He was too arrogant. Somebody needed to knock him down a few pegs…And I guess the job was mine.

  “I tell you what.” he said as his gaze sharpened. “I’m a reasonable man. Clearly you were a bit hasty when you agreed to my terms earlier. I’m going to do something I never do…which is give you another chance. If you can make it out this building, then you’re free. I’ll give you the information you seek and let you walk away. However, if you can’t make it out this building, then you’re mine.”

  I lifted an eyebrow… “You sure you want to do this, junior?”

  He grinned. “Oh, I’m quite sure.”

  He typed something into the computer in front of him and the door to his apartment swung open. I turned to look, expecting someone to be standing there.

  “Tick Tock, Minha Anjo.”

  Startled, I looked back at the screen. He’d just called me My Angel in Portuguese. He grinned at my surprise and then tapped his watch.

  Just then, bars began to lower outside the huge windows. I didn’t waste any more time. Turning I ran back to the bathroom jumping up on the sink to lift the grate, I would go back the way I came.

  “Damn!”

  There were now bars blocking my entrance. Son of a b**** smart building. I ran back out the bathroom just in time to see bars lowering outside of the door. If that happened, I will be good and trapped. I took off for the door at full speed. There was no way I was going to make it in time…

  Rome

  I was prepared for her. I’d been watching her ever since she took to the tunnels on Sixteenth Street. If my suspicious are correct, she’s a Navy SEAL like Jo, which meant she would come by water if she could.

  I had eyes everywhere in my area, including the sewers. I’d set an alarm so that I was notified of anyone trespassing down there. And what do you know, a little over an hour ago, the alarm goes off and I see my sexy little spy dressed like the soldier she is attempting to sneak attack me.

  As soon as she planted her little bugs in my place, I was alerted to their presence. She’d even planted three of them in my mom’s apartment. Instead of removing them, I decided to feed her information.

  Obviously, she didn’t buy my going out to the club act. She’s smart…I liked that. But then I sat enthralled and watched her scout out my hood. She moved like the shadow. Her steps were so light she could be a dancer if she wanted to.

  There were times she’d stood right next to my men without them noticing. To say I’m impressed is an understatement. But then she went on to impress me even further. I watched her climb the building across the street like a f***ing spider. But what took the cake was when she casually walked past my men on the roof shaking her head at their stupidity. But they didn’t notice because they were too damned busy watching the front of the building.

  Tomorrow I will show them the footage. It will be an excellent lesson in the dangers of underestimating one’s opponent. They assumed because she was a girl, she would take the easy way in.

  Hell, if I was telling the truth, she surprised me too.

  And once I got a good look at her standing in the hunter green cargo pants that hugged her hips and round a** in a way that made my hand twitch from wanting to squeeze it, I knew she was going to be full of surprises.

  Her hunter green bomber jacket was opened just enough to reveal her dog tags and the fact that she wore a wife beater underneath with no bra. I prided myself in being something of a connoisseur when it came down to a woman’s body, so I would guess those perky beauties of hers where a B cup, maybe C.

  She wore combat boots on her little feet and a hunter green skull cap on her head, her thick long hair pulled in a loose ponytail that fell down her back.

  Damn, this little soldier is sexy as hell.

  I wanted her so bad I had to adjust myself in my pants. She looked at me with those big beautiful sloe eyes, startled when she heard me speak Portuguese. I swear I will make it my mission to break every preconceived notion she has of me.

  But first I had to catch her. I activated the lock down code on my apartment thinking that was all it will take. In lock down mode no one can enter or exit my place. Every entrance was barred.

  But then she surprised the hell out of me for the second time and ran full speed toward the lowering bars. She was fast, but there was no way—

  “Will you look at that?!” I muttered to know one in particular.

  She went down in a slide and slid under the bars just as they lowered and was back on her feet moving fast. Four of my men ran through the door she was heading for. She skidded to a halt as she took them in.

  Milo told her to come with him and that his boss wanted to talk to her.

  “Where is your boss?” She asked him.

  “In the basement.”

  “Tell your boss he can kiss my ass!” I smiled… Gladly, Minha Anjo .

  Milo opened his mouth to say something else, but I guess my angel was done with the conversation…moving at a speed that surprised my men, she hit Jermaine in the throat, when he reached up to grab at it, she kneed him in his jewels.

  His cry of pain caused me and the other three men standing there to flinch. When they saw what she’d done they all went for her at the same time.

  “Wow!” I sat back on the couch amazed as she proceeded to hand my men their a**es. And she didn’t take long doing it either. She’s good.

  Milo got it the worse. He grabbed her from behind, she did some kind of maneuver where she came out her jacket, wrapped it around his head, climbed his body like a tree until her legs were around his neck, and then did a back flip, sending him flying away from her to crash into the wall.

  There was no way in hell I will ever let him live that down. When her jacket came off, I received the third surprise of the evening. She had a full sleeve tattoo on her right arm that included the same tattoo Jo had.

  My guess had been correct. She was a f***ing SEAL. No wonder she was whooping my men’s a**es. Speaking of which, she ran into another group of them as she tried to go down the stairs. This time it was seven of them.

  “Okay, okay!” she said breathing heavily. The way her chest rose and fell in that wifebeater was distracting. She had a light gleam of sweat on her caramel skin and it was sexy as hell.

  “You got me, boys…” She cooed batting those beautiful eyes at them.

  Oh! Come on!

  That sh*t was low. There ain’t a man alive who could stand up to those eyes.

  “What are you going to do with me?” She asked, her voice sounding as if she wanted to be ravished.

  I could warn my men who all wore earpieces, but I wanted to see what they will do. This is also a training exercise for them. Tomorrow they can all look at the footage and see where they went wrong.

  “Our boss want to talk to you.” One of them said. I could tell by the low rumble that was now in his voice, he was thinking with his dick and not his head. And he was getting ready to get his a** kicked for it.

  They all came closer to her, their eyes drawn to her breasts that still rose up and down as she continued to breathe heavily. When they were within arm’s length, the sexy smile left her face and a frown replaced it. The little savage even yelled like a f***ing war chief before she proceeded to hand them their a**es.

  “Damn bruh, what are you watching? You staring at the sh*t like you watching the game.” Rob said, flopping down on the couch that I was on with a blunt in his hand.

  “Ay, give me a minute.” I told the twins. They had been trying to get into one of my parties for nearly a year. Today they’d showed up in a bikini, and my boys let them in. They’d been glued to my side ever since.

  “Yo, I’m in love!” I told Rob when the girls left.

  For a moment he looked at me startled. And rightfully so…my little brother ain’t never heard me say no sh*t like that before. But onc
e the surprise wore off, he came closer to my computer screen to see who had caused me to utter such foreign words.

  “What the f***! Who is that?”

  I turned to look back at the screen. “The caseworker.”

  “What!!! Yo, she a gangsta!” Rob said, now just as enthralled as I was.

  Hell yeah, she is…I know I should probably be helping my men, but this was sexier than a mutha f****. I typed in a code locking the lobby door…But surprisingly she didn’t run to the lobby. She ran to the third floor and my mother’s apartment.

  Son-of-a-b****, my mom didn’t let me do any enhancements on her apartment, not even a camera. That was ingenious of her to go to the one place I couldn’t touch. She grabbed something out of her pants pocket and did quick work at silently opening the door and slipping in like a ghost.

  My mother was probably in her room watching the news and did not even know she had company. I knew the SEAL wouldn’t hurt her, but it may be a good idea to get her out of town until I tamed this girl.

  Moments later the woman appeared out my mother’s back door. She carefully pulled it up behind her and then grabbed the rail and leaped over the banister.

  “Damn! She like f***ing Spider-Man!” Rob yelled, but I was up and moving.

  Sh*t! I didn’t expect her to make it look so damned easy. My men were ready for her. It was at least twenty of them between her and the street. Yeah, she had made quick work of the small numbers she had ran through, let me see her do the same with twenty.

  By the time I made it downstairs, she had found a bat and was working my men over with the mutha f****. When she saw me, a huge smile came on her face as she swung the bat with all her might and nailed one of my men dead in the chest before she let it roll in her hand like a sword and take out the feet of another that charged her.

  And I kid you not, she then proceeded to wield that bat like it was a pair of num-chuks and her name was Bruce f***ing Lee. She worked that bat like she was a super hero and it was her weapon of choice. By the time I made it to her, she’d disposed of the twenty men that were in place waiting for her. They were all on the ground holding their injuries moaning and groaning.

  What the hell?

  Several more men came around the side just as I reached her. She threw the bat at me before running toward the gate. When she reached it, she climbed it flawlessly and flipped over the top. Even I couldn’t climb it that fast.

  By the time I got over it, she was hauling a** down the street. Several of my men were chasing after her, but there was no way in hell they were going to catch her, she was too fast. I cut down the alley…I will cut her off on Fourteenth. Several of my men ran behind me. As soon as I hit the corner, I saw her running toward me looking behind her, when she finally turned around, her eyes widened to see that I’d outsmarted her.

  But do y’all know this little savage a** girl cut to the right and ran towards a sewer opening that was only big enough for her little body to get through? Pumping my legs, I ran faster. I had to get to her before she got to it.

  She turned back to see how close I was. When she saw I was closer than she thought, she didn’t panic…

  Oh no… She went down into a slide and slid the rest of the way into the f***ing hole. She had the nerve to look at me before she disappeared into it fully with a wicked smirk on her face, giving me the finger with both hands as she disappeared completely from my view and into the sewer.

  “Son-of-a-b****!” I yelled.

  Damn…

  I’m in love…

  Chapter 5

  Just a Little Gentleness

  Nakhti

  When I was a girl my mom would go into these drunken rages where she would yell at me and tell me it was all my fault that my daddy left. I don’t remember much about him, except for the fact he was twenty years younger than my mother, who’d given birth to me at forty-three, and he was African-American.

  My mom often told me I looked just like him. She would say it right before she grabbed a fist full of my hair and smashed my head into the nearest thing. A wall, a bed…once the bathroom mirror. I picked shards of glass out of my head for nearly three days.

  I promised myself when I left home for the military that I would never take another a** whooping again, which is why I’ve trained as hard as I have. And guess what. I’ve never taken another a** whooping…

  Until today…

  The thug just handed me my a** on a platter!

  Let me tell you guys how this travesty went down.

  So, I’d waited to resurface from the sewer till I was nearly a mile away from Romeo’s place, thinking I was in the clear. I had a huge grin on my face because as it does each time, I completely wrecked shop, my endorphins were clashing with my adrenaline, making me high.

  However when I turn around, it was to find the thug leaning against this bad a** shiny black pickup truck with chrome trim that was sitting on a crazy lift. I didn’t know what surprised me more, the truck, it’s monster tires, or the fact that the kid had come alone and was here waiting on me as casually as you please.

  That perfect mouth of his was lifted in a grin. Of course, this made my grin disappear as irritation set in.

  “How did you find me?”

  “I’ve got eyes everywhere, Minha Anjo.”

  I balled up my fists wanting to scream at him. His arrogance was so freaking annoying.

  “Yeah well, what do you want?!” I spat, not able to hide the fact that I wanted to scratch his eyes out for sh*tting on my victory.

  I told you guys, I’m very competitive.

  He lifted an eyebrow as his grin grew. “You seem…frazzled.”

  Ewww! I wanted to hurt him.

  “I’m not! I’m just fine. It’s your men that are frazzled.” I put my hand to my chest as I pretended to be concerned.

  “By the way, are they okay? I tried not to send anyone to the hospital…though they may be sporting a lump or two by morning.” I blinked innocently at him.

  That got under his skin. I could tell by the way that little muscle began to tick in his chin. My grin came back along with the blessed feeling of victory that unbeknownst to me was going to be short lived.

  Very short lived.

  However, I discovered something about my big friend here, judging by his response to my little jab, he was just as competitive as me.

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “I mean, they may have a few lumps…I think the census when I left was that the situation was a bit… inconvenient if anything.”

  I threw my head back and laughed at that. “Inconvenient…is that what it was?”

  Grinning at me he nodded.

  “Well let this sink in…I conveniently spared all of their lives, something I don’t normally do.”

  Ha! Think about that, Brainy Boy!

  The grin left his face. “Get in the truck.”

  His tone said he was done playing games. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at him again.

  I folded my arms. “Why?”

  “I’m going to be having a little after party at my place for a real good friend of mine a little later, and I want to grab something to eat first, so…get in.”

  I shook my head. “I’ll pass.”

  “I don’t think you understand. That wasn’t a question.” He still leaned casually against that monster truck as if he didn’t know he was in the presence of a goon. I took off my scully and shoved it in my pocket before twisting my hair up in a bun.

  “Jo said you took down two of his agents while handcuffed. Is that true?”

  “I took down three of Jo’s punk a** agents while handcuffed,” he shrugged. “But who’s counting.”

  I nodded.

  Three…

  Hmmm…

  You see, right then, I could have just turned and made a run for it. There were several things that warned against me engaging in a fight with him.

  First of all, he was very big. If I had to g
uess at his height, I would guess 6’4”…maybe, and he was very muscular. He didn’t have the big bulky muscles of a bodybuilder, no…his muscles were the lean type of a fighter.

  First warning sign.

  Second and by far the loudest, is the fact that he took out three FBI agents while handcuffed. That in itself was quite a feat.

  But you guys just seen what I did. So you can understand why I still didn’t budge to run or walk toward that truck. I felt that I could take him.

  SMH…Vanity! Man’s worst enemy.

  “Now let’s say I decide I’m not getting in your truck. What you plan on doing about it?”

  He looked to the side and chuckled a bit, at that point he was still very relaxed.

  “Then I guess…I will have to put you in my truck.”

  I looked amazed for just a moment. “Oh really?! Just you? You didn’t think to bring any help?”

  It was his turn to laugh. “I think I can handle it… Minha Anjo.”

  And that was the beginning of the end.

  Instead of waiting for him to come to me, I charged him with a roundhouse kick, hoping the sneak attack would give me the advantage.

  It didn’t, he moved so swiftly that I nearly kicked his truck. The only reason I didn’t was because he didn’t just move out the way, but grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back. Now I could be a big person and admit he’d just saved me from possibly breaking my leg on his truck, or at the very least injuring it badly…

  But I’d rather eat dog food than admit anything to this arrogant bastard.

  I elbowed him in the neck…this was enough to break his hold on me. Then I went back on my right hand kicking up at him with both feet. Not only did he block it, he got a hold of my waist again lifting me into his arms.

  I wrapped my legs around his waist in a Jui Jitsu hold that will squeeze the breath out of him while swinging at his head with both fists. He blocked both blows before bringing his elbow down on my thigh breaking my hold.