Chapter 46

Nic reluctantly left Burke and LJ alone in the bar. Romeo wanted a private word in his office. Nic knew that couldn’t be good. His uncle was notorious for his temper and hated when people showed up unannounced.

Joey led Nic past the pool tables and the bathrooms to an old door made of a dark mahogany. A gold plaque on the door read, Office — Do Not Disturb.

As Joey reached for the knob, he said, “Good luck, Nicky. He’s already in a pissy mood today.”

Nic winced and said, “Wonderful. Thanks for the warning.”

The office smelled like a mixture of old leather, cigar smoke, and some kind of floral aroma. He noticed a diffuser on his uncle’s desk, probably pumping out something like lavender oil. Romeo used it to mask the cigar smell. In case Aunt Cecilia stopped by unannounced.

Romeo had his feet up on his desk, a glass of scotch in his hand, and he was staring at the massive marlin mounted on the left wall of the office above the many dark red leather couches that filled the room. This was a very bad sign. Romeo had caught the marlin on a fishing trip to Bermuda with Nic, his older brother, and his father.

It was a great memory, but he knew that Romeo only stared at the fish like that when something was wrong, and Romeo was considering running away to somewhere tropical.

Romeo didn’t look over at Nic, but he said, “Sit. I’d offer you a drink, but I know you’re on duty, officer.”

“I remember when you reeled that thing in,” Nic said. “It put up one hell of a fight. Junior and I almost fell in trying to get the big SOB into the boat.”

“Yeah. Better days.”

This was an even worse sign. Romeo was not a calm man. He was usually bursting with an almost manic energy, always on the verge of laughter or anger. Nic wasn’t even sure how to handle his uncle in this kind of state.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Romeo downed the scotch and returned his feet to the floor. “What do you care?”

“Don’t do that. We’re family, and I love you. Even if you are a grumpy old asshole.”

A faint smile crept onto Romeo’s face. His uncle was in his late fifties, but the years had been good to him. He still had a thick head of slicked-back brown hair with only a touch of grey at the temples. He was a very handsome man, even with the scars on his neck and jaw line. Once upon a time, he had been quite the ladies’ man, hence the nickname. To a casual observer, the scars weren’t all that noticeable anymore. They could have been from a bad case of acne in Romeo’s youth or something equally mundane. Nic, of course, knew that the scars were actually from a car bomb that had killed his uncle’s first wife.

“I love you too, kid,” Romeo said. “But you don’t make it easy. Why did you have to become a cop, and, even worse, then you tried to become a fed?”