Star-Crossed (39 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Nova had gone from a social smoker to a chain smoker in the space of two days.

He sat on the couch in Romeo’s apartment in New York after setting up camp there in the vain hope his brother and Jules Conner would show up. His laptop was on his lap.

An ashtray rested on the coffee table. Romeo would have an absolute fit if he came home to an apartment that smelled like cigarettes, but that was the least of Nova’s problems.

Even if he’d bought time with Aldo on the Romeo issue, it still felt like the world was collapsing in around him. Aldo and Nova’d had a sit-down with Frankie this morning, and something about the twitch in his father’s eyes created a knot in Nova’s stomach. He wasn’t totally certain Frankie was going to listen to Aldo this time. Taking out Romeo after Aldo told him not to could start a war, but maybe that’s what Frankie wanted, to force the family to choose sides.

The spilt was starting to become obvious, and many agreed with Frankie. Nova shouldn’t have the position he did. He wasn’t even a legitimate son, and even if he was, overstepping his father was unheard of. Aldo had taken a risk by making Nova capo bastone, but he’d assured Nova that money would always inspire more loyalty than old rules and traditions.

Usually Nova agreed with him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling something bad was about to happen. Or it could just be Romeo taking off in the middle of the night.

Things couldn’t get much worse than that.

He had a lot of reasons for sleepless nights, but losing Romeo was what kept Nova up for the past two days. Even when he’d tried to sleep, all he ended up doing was

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lying in Romeo’s bed, smelling the trace of his cologne still on the sheets and trying to imagine a life without his older brother around.

When Romeo had been in prison, Nova still knew he was coming home and the hell would stop. His family would be back together and that helped him get through, but what the fuck was he supposed to do with this? Romeo couldn’t be gone forever.

That just didn’t happen. He wouldn’t leave them willingly, but it was starting to sink in that he had. Now it was driving Nova insane that he couldn’t locate him. The injustice of it burned in his gut and had him rubbing at his eyes to fight the sting in them.

He was able to find a solution to every problem except the most important one.

Now sick to his stomach, Nova reached for his phone and looked in vain for a call he might have missed even if he’d been carrying it like a lifeline for two days. He checked his texts, seeing a new one from Tino.

Answer my calls, asshole. People around here look at me like I just clipped their dog. Miss
home.

He groaned, wondering which of them had it worse, Tino, who was stuck in Hicksville with a town full of people who blamed him for losing their local lawyer, or Nova, who was dealing with the start of a Moretti family civil war.

Even as he pondered it, his phone rang. Seeing who it was, Nova answered hopefully, “Hey, Conner.”

“Hear anything?”

“If I heard something, I would have told you.”

“Did you trace his phone?”

Only a million times.

“
The phone’s off,” Nova reminded him. “Have you tried Jules’s phone again?”

“It’s still off.” Wyatt sighed, sounding as lost as Nova felt. “I should’ve told her

’bout the baby. If she’d known, she wouldn’t have left.” 316

“We all got shit to feel guilty about.” Nova lit a cigarette and blew the smoke out casually. “Hey, Garrett Shaw, how come your town’s treating my little brother like shit?

I’m not too happy with Tino right now, but I don’t like your hick neighbors picking on him either.”

“What’d you just call me?” Wyatt asked, the raw shock reverberating through his voice.

“Nothing, it was an obscure jab,” Nova said with a wince. The exhaustion was making him forget himself. “Those
Heroes of Sapphire County
books, they remind me of you.”

“How so?”

“The kid’s named Garrett Shaw. You’re named Wyatt Conner.”

“That comparison don’t make a lick of sense.”

“The comparison makes perfect sense. Pat Garrett’s a famous lawman just like Wyatt Earp.”

Wyatt was silent for a long moment, before he said in surprise, “I never thought of that.”

“Garrett’s father is the sheriff of Sapphire County. Your father was the sheriff.

He’s got a twin sister and you got a twin sister,” Nova went on, sort of enjoying the distraction. “And it’s more than that—Sapphire County, the descriptions, they’re dead-on for your town. The author must have used Garnet as inspiration. I’m not even gonna get into her pen name, but I’m pretty sure she borrowed your life too. Only the guy in the books is a friggin’ superhero. You’re just an asshole.”

“Thanks, Moretti. The feeling’s mutual.”

“You should sue T.C. Rennoc for stealing your life,” Nova told him seriously.

“The bitch has made a billion dollars off that series. They’d probably settle out of court just to shut you up.”

Wyatt laughed. “Don’t tell my sister that.”

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“If I could
find
your sister, I would. The similarities are uncanny. If I thought you knew how to read, I’d tell you to pick them up, but they’re making a movie. So—”

“I’ve read the books, motherfucker,” Wyatt snapped at him. “I know more about them than you do.”

“I doubt that.” Nova snorted, not trusting Wyatt enough to tell him the entire story was embedded in his brain. He wasn’t even sure why he was spending this much time on the phone with this asshole to begin with. “You know, I’ve talked more to you in the past two days than I have with my own brother.”

“That
is
disturbing,” Wyatt agreed.

“Course, I’m pissed at Tino right now.” Nova took another drag off his cigarette.

“And you’re the only guy getting less sleep than me.”

“That’s true. I’ve considered just putting something across the wire, but—”

“You’d lose your license if you did that,” Nova finished for him. “She wrote you a note. Tino saw her driving after they dropped off the Ferrari. She left on her own free will. There’s no evidence to prove otherwise, and you know it.”

“I can’t do it unless I have a reason to believe she’s in danger.”

“But you don’t.”

“Damn it, Moretti!” Wyatt growled, the edge to his voice sharpened with worry and exhaustion. “You can’t tell me your brother left for nothing. You know shit you aren’t telling me.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“This isn’t just ’bout my sister.”

“No, it’s about my brother too,” Nova reminded him. “Trust me, I want to find them as badly as you do.”

“And what about your niece or nephew out there?” Wyatt went on. “You don’t give a shit ’bout that? Jules needs to go to a doctor.” 318

“I give a shit,” Nova assured him. “You think I’m talking to you because of the stimulating conversation? My family matters to me. It’s all that matters to me.”

“So if you just gave me a reason to put something across the wire—”

“Every law enforcement officer in the mafia’s pocket would think I’m a rat, which would have them assuming my brother’s a rat for taking off. Trust me, Conner, that would be a lot worse for their health than this little Romeo and Juliet live-action remake they’re performing right now. Especially if they got picked up.”

“There’s no proof of dirty law enforcement.”

“Even living in Garnet, you can’t be that naive. Money’s a very strong motivator, Conner.” Nova had tons of proof of dirty law enforcement. Several of them worked for him, but he couldn’t say that over the phone. “This is all hypothetical anyway, ’cause I don’t know anything other than Romeo and Jules being sick of our asses enough to take off. Maybe we were bad brothers.”

Wyatt surprised him by agreeing with a huff of frustration, “Maybe.” Crisis made strange allies, and Nova honestly couldn’t believe he was feeling sorry for the asshole who’d put his brother in the hospital three days before. Maybe it was because he empathized with him more than he wanted to, and they were both searching for answers.

Nova was trading online as he talked to Wyatt. Since Romeo left, Nova had been working exclusively with his account. He knew it was a subconscious effort to get his brother back. If he made Romeo enough money, he’d forget Nova’s sins and love him enough to come back. It was pathetic and childish, and Nova couldn’t seem to stop himself from doing it. Romeo had left because of Frankie, Nova knew that, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking it was more than that.

He put his cigarette between his lips and clicked to a new window to do more research on Mematron, a small Japanese technology company that had been on his radar for the past few weeks. He could read and talk at the same time, but the silence on the other end started to get annoying.

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“Hey, Conner, whatcha doing right now?”

“Playing Angry Birds.”

Nova rolled his eyes. “You ever invest for retirement?”

“I have a financial advisor. Why?”

“There’s a new company that deals in solid-state memory technology called Mematron. They have a proprietary method of making a chip that is a hundred times better than what’s on the market now. All the big tech companies are clamoring to get on board to have first dibs. That’s a billion dollar payday out the gate, and they’re about to explode on the market.”

“I ain’t got half a clue what you just said.”

“Then understand this,” Nova said more slowly. “They just hit the New York Stock Exchange at four bucks a share. Dollars for doughnuts they’ll be trading at over a hundred in a week.”

“Bullshit.”

“Whatever.” Nova shrugged dismissively as he worked on buying a big chunk of the stock. “Take it or leave it.”

“What do you actually do for a living?” Wyatt asked curiously. “I know what I
think
you do, but the reality sounds different.”

“I give advice,” Nova said simply. “Excellent, highly valuable advice that would behoove you to heed. Unless you got some sorta aversion to making money.”

“You really think this stock’s gonna go up that much?”

“I’d bet my dick on it.”

Wyatt snorted. “So if I wanted to buy some, how do I go ’bout it?”

“Lemme guess, you have a series of low-risk, long-term mutual funds that gives you a moderate quarterly return?”

“They ain’t doing all that great right now. The economy’s fucking it all up.” 320

“It’s not the economy. It’s your shitty financial manager. I’ll walk you through opening your own trading account if you want.”

“Why?” Wyatt asked skeptically. “I could barely get a civil word out of ya two days ago; now you’re taking an interest in my financial future.”

“‘Cause I’m stressed outta my friggin’ mind,” Nova snapped. “I need a distraction, and gambling keeps my mind busy. Since you took leave from work, you call me every hour to see if I’ve checked Romeo’s phone. Might as well make good use of all this wasted time.”

“Did you check the phone?”

“Yeah, I checked it,” Nova lied, because it was starting to get depressing to constantly turn up nothing. “You gonna stop fucking around with Angry Birds and do something productive or what?”

“Okay.” Wyatt relented after a moment’s hesitation, making it obvious he needed the distraction as badly as Nova did. “But I ain’t exactly confident ’bout taking your advice when you’re referring to it as gambling.”

“You should be. I’m a very competent gambler,” Nova said confidently. “Now go to your computer, and I’ll walk you through it. When you start seeing a return, all I ask is that you take twenty percent and set up a Roth IRA for Romeo’s baby. I’ll walk you through that too when the time comes. Don’t think I won’t notice when you get a return, ’cause I’ll know it before you do.”

“Ah, that’s the deal.” Wyatt sounded amused. “Can’t do it without a twenty percent cut…’cause that ain’t stereotypical.”

“A lot of my favors cost more than twenty percent. That’s a family discount. Call me stereotypical again, motherfucker, and I’ll make it thirty.”

“I would’ve bought the IRA for the baby anyway. I ain’t intimidated by your business tactics, Moretti.” There was a shuffle on the other end and the chime of a computer coming on. “Okay, now what?”

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Nova smoked three more cigarettes and helped Wyatt set up an online trading account. It was a decent distraction against the rising worry and exhaustion, and it wasn’t until a knock on Romeo’s door had him turning toward the front of the apartment.

“Conner, I gotta call you back.” Nova grabbed his 9mm off the couch. “Someone’s at the door.”

He hung up before Wyatt could say anything, because he would start getting all demanding in that cop-like way of his, wanting to know if it was Romeo and then giving instructions like Nova was inclined to follow rules.

Nova tucked the 9mm into the back of his jeans and walked to the door. He squinted through the peephole, seeing Gino on the other side, and opened the door.