Mr. and Mrs. Rossi

Julio kept his eyes on Harley. Not wanting anyone to register anything, she looked down at everyone’s feet. “Christopher came to me about bringing new business to Villa San Juan. We’ve met at his hotel before. I couldn’t shake this gut feeling after he left with Harley.”

“You’re on a first name basis with a known criminal?” Roman snorted.

“You went with Alfaro willingly?” Dante snapped at the same time. He cut his eyes toward Harley.

“Not like I really knew he was a criminal at first,” Julio’s words faltered as he gazed back and forth between Harley and Dante.

“What must your constituents think?” Dante muttered.

“What they think,” Julio clipped, lip rose, “is really not my concern right now. Right now, I need to get down to the jail and get Hannah.”

Dante’s head jerked between Harley and Julio. “The fuck you will.”

“Harley?” Julio’s voice demanded her attention or at least an explanation.

The staples in her scalp shifted when she turned to face Julio. She welcomed the pain, thinking of it as penance for what she’d done. Last night she’d opened a whole new can of worms. Maybe the adrenaline from flying out of a window or the nostalgia of seeing Julio again caught up with her. But the man she swore she’d never lay eyes on again on purpose had undoubtedly saved her.

“He can get her out,” she told Dante.

“What the fuck is going on?” Julio’s deep voice filled the room; regardless of being the odd man out he did not cower when the team all rose. The lines were drawn and it was clear Dante and Julio did not like each other. Harley rolled her eyes in disgust that either grown man would have animosity toward the other over a woman neither of them had a right to claim.

The tension broke when Roman cleared his throat. “Let’s go in the other room, Julio. I’m going to set you up for a wire in case you run into trouble.”

The other men stayed in the living room. Their presence absorbed some of the tension between the married couple. Despite Dante’s physical protest to keep Harley from getting up, she managed to get into a seated position. She peered down at her torn blood stained dress. Her skin screamed for a hot shower to wash off the blood on her chest, arms, and shoulders. “So, you’re Dante’s team?”

“Cole Wentworth,” said the man in the middle now. He was tall and lean with a set of beautiful green eyes.

Beside Cole stood two tall men clearly in the wrong field, they should have WWE wrestling stars. The dark skinned man with the broad shoulders stepped forward and bowed. “Jerraud Anderson, pleasure to meet you Mrs. Rossi.”

“TJ Anderson,” said the lighter skinned man next to him.

Harley raised an eyebrow.

“No relation,” they both said in unison.

“Well, in that case, the name is Harley Tomasello,”

Dante cleared his throat and cursed, “Rossi.”

Harley thought it necessary to explain to the men, “We have been having a bit of an argument about the details.”

“There’s no argument, we did what we did and now we’re going to work it out.”

Some of the men scratched their heads and tried looking away. TJ snickered. Cole pressed his lips together to keep from grinning. Jerraud sat down on a barstool and shook his head in disbelief. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Jerraud gasped.

“A woman turning him down?” TJ elbowed Jerraud in the ribs. “Wait until I tell Kevin.”

Harley assumed Kevin was the one in the room with Roman and Julio. So this was Makana’s old team. No wonder she left. They were a bunch of jokers. They all sat around watching her recover when someone could have been on a stakeout for Javier or at least at the jail. “I need to check in.”

“I’ve called Mak,” said Cole. “I’ve explained what’s gone on and she is sending for you.”

“Bullshit,” Harley said, “I’m too close.”

“Too close?” Dante mocked. “Isn’t that what you said to me about Leonardo?”

Harley narrowed her eyes on Dante’s handsome but ashen face and tried to decide whether or not to slap him or kiss him. Given they had an audience who clearly enjoyed the challenge she gave them, Harley decided to stand. She slapped Dante’s hand away.

The sun was rising. She needed to get Hannah off the island and then she needed to handle Leonardo herself. The bastard shot her, albeit, a bad shot, she still owed him a bullet.