Page 42 of Naz & Roz

FOURTEEN

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.”