Roman knew from the moment he hit the boutique’s door fifteen minutes late, he’d been a bear to work with. Things hadn’t gotten any better since. Carmen wasn’t speaking to him; Penny ignored him except when she had no choice. Even the customers gave him wide berth—an occurrence Livia fortunately missed, being in and out as she was.The only bright spot to the last few days had been going home to Jodi’s place instead of his own. He’d told her she had nothing to worry about from the threat, but that he’d still feel better taking the precaution and hanging around. Since Tomás had kept his distance the last two weeks, the lie had played well enough as the truth.Besides, Roman was doing enough worrying for them both, starting with having fucked up his cover story and ending with spilling to Jodi about his past. And somewhere in the middle was Tomás’s very real threat to Jodi, hanging like Damocles’ sword over Roman’s head.How the hell could he explain to her that Tomás had meant every word about packaging her up and delivering her in small, shrink-wrapped bricks?Last Friday, after ordering her to lock up her apartment and hauling ass back to Splash & Flambé, he’d found Tomás leaning on the front of his van, waiting, his temper rising with his impatience.Carmen had tried to get her boyfriend to let her or one of the floor clerks check his delivery against the manifest, but the ongoing feud between the two men gave Tomás a legitimate reason to refuse.
