Naz tugged the beanie down over his ears as he hung the helmet to his bike up on the steering wheel. “Didn’t know you were going to be over this way today, Luca.”
His best friend tipped his chin up from where he stood on the steps of his parents’ home leaning against the railing. Dragging a hard inhale from the smoke, Luca eyed Naz in a way that set him on edge. Although, he wasn’t really sure why it put him on edge. It just fucking did.
Naz stepped off the bike, and cocked a brow. “Something wrong?”
“You tell me, man.”
Naz stiffened. Yeah, definitely something wrong.
Luca took another drag from his cigarette and watched the cherry red tip flicker and then explode across the asphalt of the driveway when he flicked it from his fingertips. “Didn’t know you were coming this way tonight, either.”
“I called you this morning—told you I caught a flight instead of driving back. What the fuck is wrong with you? Speak up if you’ve got something to say, but I’ve got better things to do than deal with your shitty mood that I don’t even understand.”
Sure, Luca was his best friend, but that didn’t mean Naz was going to take any kind of shit from the man because he wouldn’t. He never had. Oh, they had gone through their rounds over the years. Nothing too serious, though. A couple of busted mouths, and black eyes. Stupid teenage shit that pitted the two friends against each other for whatever reason, and sent their fists flying.
They worked it out. They always did.
Luca chuckled as he nodded, and stepped down from the stairs. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, the younger man glanced up at the sky. It wasn’t nightfall yet, but they were in twilight. That time of day when the sun wasn’t quite peeking over the horizon, but it was still light enough to be comfortable and nice.
Naz’s favorite time of the day.
And right then, he really just wanted to spend it with Rosalynn. He’d been gone all fucking week with no phone on him except a burner he couldn’t use to call anyone but his partner, the buyer, and his father if something went wrong. That was the rule for gunrunning. The less communication on a run, the better. And if one of them did happen to get caught while on the run, the phone that was confiscated could only lead back to one or two people. Nothing that would do very much at the end of the day.
It was all quite purposeful.
Usually, he’d come home from a week-long run and go straight to his mother and father’s. That way, he could fill Cross in on any details his father needed to know, have dinner with his parents, and get back to work as usual the next day as a man trying to get his button for Cosa Nostra.
That was Naz’s whole life in a nutshell.
Not lately, though. Lately, it was all about Roz.
The fucking guns just got in the way for a bit.
But not now because Naz was back, and he didn’t have a gun run for another few months, at least. There would be nothing—other than the usual day to day work shit—keeping him away from Roz.
Naz moved forward, taking his steps carefully even as Luca came toward him, too. The two friends met in the middle of the driveway. Luca still looked like he was some kind of pissed off, and ready to rip Naz’s throat apart with his bare hands.
It was the why Naz didn’t get.
“Seriously, just spit it the fuck out,” Naz told his friend. “Is it Roz? Because I’m messing with her, or …?”
Luca let out a bitter laugh. “Yes, and no.”
“That makes no fucking—”
“You didn’t even tell her where you were going, Naz,” Luca snapped, his blue eyes turning on his friend with a fire blazing behind them. “You just fucking took off on her without even a goddamn note.”
“Hey, I said I had business to do.”
Luca scoffed. “Business. Do you know what that shit means to my sister? It means going into the city for a couple of days like Dad does, Naz. She’s not fucking stupid—she knows what he is, and what your father is. She probably knows what you are. She doesn’t know the finer details, though.”
“She also hasn’t asked, Luca.”
“So, then you fucking tell her anyway.” Luca shrugged. “What you don’t do is spend day after day with her, and then drop off her radar like it’s nothing. That fucks with her head, even if you don’t mean for it to. And you know what, if you fuck with my sister’s head again, I’ll fucking beat your ass. Got it?”
Naz blinked, his hackles clanging. That cocky part of him that didn’t know how to let a threat go unanswered thought to rise right to the fucking occasion, even if it was his friend who threatened him … and even if Luca was kind of justified at the moment.
“Excuse me?” Naz asked, moving closer to his friend again.
Luca moved forward, too. “You heard what I said, Naz.”
The two men were so close that if Naz or Luca leaned in, their fucking foreheads would touch. He had a crystal clear view of the anger and challenge in Luca’s gaze. There was no doubt his friend wasn’t fucking around today.
The fucking arrogant idiot Naz was meant he didn’t see those things as warnings he should heed, but rather, something he wanted to face head on. See just how far he could push Luca because why the hell not?
“My business,” Naz drawled out slowly, “isn’t any of your fucking business. Do you got that?”
“My sister—”
“Stay the fuck out of my business, Luca.”
Luca’s gaze flashed, and Naz didn’t even see that fucking fist coming from his friend until it was too late. He wouldn’t call it a cheap shot, necessarily. He’d pushed his friend’s line, and Luca decided to answer that call with his own actions.
Fair was fucking fair, after all.
Naz always said so.
Nonetheless, that punch landed hard against Naz’s jaw, and sent his head spinning to the side. He might have felt a tooth or two come loose, too, but it was hard to say. He was a little distracted by the pain stinging through the side of his face, and the blood blooming across his tongue. Fuck.
Naz laughed, and shook his head as he spat the blood to the ground and righted himself. Luca had moved back a step, and had his hands resting down by his side. Other than the clenching of the fist that he’d hit Naz with, and the reddening of his knuckles, one wouldn’t be able to tell that the man had hit him at all. All Luca’s anger was gone, and he seemed done with the entire show.
Nodding, Naz murmured, “You put some fucking weight behind that one.”
Luca shrugged. “It’ll only hurt for a while, asshole.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
Naz ran his tongue along his inner cheek to rid the rest of the blood, and eyed his friend all the while. “I know it’s your fucking sister, but you know I’m not here to mess around with her in that kind of way, either. It’s not like that, so back off.”
“Then, don’t make her feel like that and this won’t have to happen again. Are we clear, or what?”
Yeah, he got it.
“My bad,” Naz murmured.
Luca cleared his throat, and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he inched forward to come closer to Naz once more. “And I guess, I’m sorry about the whole hitting you thing even if you did deserve it for acting like a prick. Because you are.”
“Someone’s gotta keep me in line.”
His friend laughed, still coming closer. “Right?”
Pulling one hand out of his pocket, Luca moved to offer it to Naz to shake. Their way of saying let bygones be bygones about the whole thing. It was their thing. It happened, and now it was fucking over.
Naz shook his friend’s hand.
“If you’re all quite done measuring dicks out here,” came the sweetest voice Naz had ever heard in his life, “then I would like a second.”
Naz grinned over Luca’s shoulder, even as his friend sighed and rolled his eyes. “Hey, you.”
Roz smiled even if it was faint. “Hey.”
Luca clapped Naz on the shoulder, and moved toward his waiting Camaro. “Tomorrow for work, then?”
“Tomorrow, man. Same as usual.”
“Let’s hope you don’t bruise.”
“Fuck you.”
Luca only laughed before slapping Naz on the cheek, and going on his way. Naz waited until his friend had pulled out of the drive, and was gone down the street before he turned back to face Roz again. She was still standing on the porch, and had her arms folded over her chest.
Now, this was where it became fucking funny. Why?
Because he hadn’t been the slightest bit afraid of his friend’s anger when he first showed up, but he was fucking terrified of the way Roz looked in that moment. Disappointed, and confused.
“I should have explained more before I took off,” he said quietly, moving toward her. She said nothing, and as he came to the bottom steps, Naz added, “Gave you a clearer picture of where I was going to be, and why I couldn’t call. I’m sorry I left you hanging all week.”
Roz chewed on her inner cheek before asking, “Are you going to explain now?”
“Do you want me to?”
Because if she did, then he would.
It was that simple.
Roz nodded. “I think I do. I know you’re … I know you do family business, Naz. I know that, okay. You don’t have to keep me in the dark.”
Naz smirked, and climbed the stairs until he was standing right in front of this beautiful, crazy girl who just because he could, he loved inexplicably. It was strange and scary and entirely wonderful.
“It’s more than family business, Roz,” he said quietly.
She looked up at him, although she didn’t have to stare very far to meet his gaze. “Oh?”
“Way more.”
“And sometimes that means you drop off the radar for a while, I take it.”
“Safety reasons,” he said, chuckling “Call it good fucking policy, yeah?”
“And how often—”
“Few times a year.”
Roz glanced away. “For what?”
“Guns. People buy them. I run them to the buyer.”
He didn’t miss the stiffening of her shoulders, or the way a knot formed between her brows like she was trying to figure that out.
“So, what does all that mean, Naz?”
“I guess that I’m far more than just a genius, Roz.”
A bad man who did bad things.
Sinful.
Criminal.
And yet, he was none of those things when he was with her.
Not at all.
“Sorry if that’s all you were looking for with me,” he added after a moment.
Roz’s gaze turned back on him in a blink.
All fire.
Life.
And love.
“I was looking for you,” she whispered. “I’m looking at you.”
Naz closed that distance between them in a heartbeat, and crashed his lips down on hers in a bruising kiss.
It’d been too long, anyway.