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

My phone rang, jolting me awake. Instinctively, my hand reached for the gun on my nightstand as I sprang out of bed, my body tense and ready for anything. Late-night calls never brought good news. When my eyes finally focused on the screen, I saw that it was Juliet calling. My heart skipped a beat. I had set my phone to Do Not Disturb, only allowing calls from her and Matteo. She had never called me before, and certainly not at four in the morning.

“Juliet, what’s wrong?”

Silence met me on the other line, broken only by a soft sniffle.

“Angel? Talk to me.”

My heart pounded as each torturous second ticked by. I was ready to jump in my car and tear through the city to get to her.

“I’m sorry.” Her voice came through the phone, soft and broken. “I shouldn’t have called.”

“You absolutely should have. Did something happen? Are you hurt?”

“No, it’s stupid. I just—” She sniffed again and my heart broke at her tears. “I had a bad dream.”

I let out a shuddering breath and sat down on the edge of the bed with my head in my hands. “I’m so sorry, pretty girl. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. I’m sorry. I’m so embarrassed I called. I was just scared and I didn’t know what to do.”

“You did the exact right thing. I’m here for you.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Are you in bed?”

“Yeah.”

I set my gun on the nightstand and laid back down. “Me too.” I tried to figure out what else to say, how to make it better. “Are you working in the bookstore today?”

“Yeah. I have a new shipment of books coming in.”

“Any that you’re excited to read?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Tell me about it, baby.”

Her sniffles grew less pronounced as she told me about the new book releases. I didn’t understand any of it, but I loved the passion in her voice. I could listen to her talk for hours.

“I don’t think I’ve ever read romance. Maybe I should give it a try,” I said.

“I’ll give you a copy if you come into the store.”

I smiled at her shy invitation.

“I’ll need to come in soon, then.” What I really wanted to do was go over to her apartment right now so I could hold her in my arms. But I had to be up soon. I was working with Matteo to shore up our defenses in all parts of the city. We couldn’t figure out how the Albanians were transporting girls and weapons without being caught on any of our cameras.

We both grew quiet, but there was something comforting about us being connected like this.

“Romeo?”

“Yes, Juliet?”noveldrama

“Thank you.”

My throat felt tight when I responded. “Anytime, beautiful. Anytime.”