Valerie smiled so big, and although it made Isabel green with envy, she laughed anyway. She was really enjoying her time with Valerie. If she could get past her roommate’s messy side of the room and her habit of leaving things everywhere, she might actually get used to this.

CHAPTER 3

Moving On

Romero

Manny and Max weren’t happy when they found out that not only was Romero not going into the family business, he wouldn’t even be doing the doorman gig anymore. Of course, he’d help out if they were ever in a bind and needed him, but he had a goal and he was sticking to his plan.

After a year of doing the doorman thing exclusively, he started landing jobs at other bars and clubs. He needed the experience of dealing with more than just throwing a bunch of drunks out on their asses.

He landed a job at a sports arena working security during concerts and events. The bigger celebrities had their own security, but the small-time celebs needed to be escorted in and out. As different as the venue was, compared to his uncles’ bar, the sexual encounters were surprisingly similar. His choices in this case, were of a more sophisticated caliber but the outcome was still the same. The women may have been classier on the outside, but to Romero they were just as hollow on the inside and the act itself, just as meaningless.

The biggest difference was while the women at his uncles’ bar looked up to him as if he were on a higher level because his uncles owned the joint, these women had the f**king nerve to look down on him because he was the security guard to their gig. They’d spread their legs just as easily as the girls from the bar and moaned just as loud. It was laughable. Though most of the time he didn’t feel much like laughing.

One night he walked the back stage, keeping an eye out for any eager fans that might sneak back to get a closer look at the musicians performing that night. The music blared so loud you could actually feel it vibrate through the halls.

Thoughts of his next step to get to his goal consumed him. He’d already enrolled in an online course required by the state to get his business license. Talking to Angel and Eric helped him stay on course. They were always talking about the next semester and having to pass this or that prerequisite. Even though he never talked about his own goal, he had a lot to take care of before he got to where needed to be.

The main thing slowing the process for him now was money. His uncles had it, but he wasn’t about to hit them up. He was doing this on his own. That was part of the reason he sought out another job—more money. His uncles had offered him more money to stay but he knew it was a hand out. Most of the time he sat out there for hours. Some nights he saw no action at all. How the hell could he justify a raise for doing nothing more than sitting and keeping an eye out?

Loud voices jolted him from his thoughts. He turned to see a man and a woman arguing just outside the ladies’ room at the other end of the hall. He hurried toward them. From what he could see, they both seemed to have the proper backstage passes around their necks. Their argument was escalating. The music was loud, but so were they, and Romero could make out what they were arguing about.

“You don’t talk that way to a man in his position!” The man barked right in her face, but she didn’t back down.

“The hell I don’t. He insulted me!”

The man grabbed her arm and she pulled it away. “Get your paws off me!”

The second Romero saw his other hand go for her throat, he broke into a sprint. He felt something ignite in him and the memories of that night with Cici in the parking lot assaulted him. “Get your f**king hands off her!”

They both turned, startled by his voice. The man backed away from the woman just seconds before Romero reached them. Romero slammed him against the wall. “You think you’re a tough guy, hitting women? Hit me, mother f**ker!” He held his hands open to his sides dying for this guy to take a swing.

People from inside one of the backstage rooms walked out after hearing the commotion.

“I didn’t hit her,” the guy said, holding his hands in front of him warding off any punches Romero might take.

Romero grabbed him by the neck and squeezed. “You like how this feels, ass**le?”

“All right that’s enough,” someone from behind Romero yelled. Romero kept squeezing and the man’s face began turning red. The rage he felt got worse by the second. The coward didn’t even try fighting him off. Romero reached for the passes that hung around the man’s neck with his other hand and ripped them off. He had every right to throw anyone out who started trouble. This guy had started more than that.

He pulled his hand off the guy’s neck and grabbed him roughly by the collar of his shirt instead. Romero hauled him off toward the exit. “Where are you taking him?” A bald man surrounded by a few bodyguards asked.

Romero didn’t even turn to look at him, trying desperately to calm himself before he did more than he should and responded. “He’s out of here.”

“Do you know who that is?”

“I don’t give a shit.”

As it turned out, he should’ve given a shit. The man he’d thrown out was the brother of one of the boys in the wannabe boy band performing that night. Even though the band was still up-and-coming, their clout was big enough to get Romero fired.

It was a pisser, but a well-worth-it pisser. All this time he thought he was over what had happened to Cici that night. Seeing that man put his hands on that woman brought back the ugly memory. He played the scene repeatedly in his head every night. The look in her frightened eyes just before he slapped her, then seeing her body fly backwards. Images of her swollen bloody lip made him squeeze his eyes shut. There was no doubt in his mind that if he had to do it over, he would pound Fred’s face into the ground until he was unconscious.