Last Violent Call

by Chloe Gong

“Sock organizing wasn’t so bad once I got the hang of it,” Juliette said. “I didn’t realize you had such big feet.”

“‘I didn’t realize you had such big feet’?” Roma mimicked. “Dorogaya, I’m shocked and disappointed.” “At my terrible housekeeping?” “No, that you have such poor observation skills.”

I took your shirt hostage. The ransom is three kisses. Pay up or the whole wardrobe gets it. ♥ J

Science could tell him that the ground was below his feet and the sky was above his head and the early light of day was upon his back. Roma wouldn’t listen. To him, Juliette was the sun.

🥹🥹🥹

“Sorry, sorry, get back to it! I’ve been waiting for more kids around here, so I guess it’s fine even if you make it a public activity. . .

“Personally, I think I drive quite well for someone who had chauffeurs all his life.” “Oooh, he had chauffeurs.” “Dorogaya, I know you are not making fun of me right now.”

If he didn’t love Juliette so much, he would really spend every waking moment in fear of what went on in that mind of hers.

“It’s Juliette Montagova.” She lifted her hand and waved her fingers, flashing her gold wedding ring while she continued onward and exited the living room. “I’m a married woman. Roma, come help me get the knives, would you?” In that moment, as Roma pushed off the wall and followed her obediently, he fell in love all over again.

“Get working on the window. You are going to be the death of me.” Juliette grinned, taking out her switchblade. “I hope not. Benedikt will yell at me again. Cover your eyes.”

“I’m getting too old for this. I think my knees creaked.”

Same Juliette, same.

“Are you . . . braiding my hair?” “Yes,” Roma answered plainly. “I’m forcing you to hold still. It also keeps getting in your eyes.”

“That’s ridiculous—I would never kick him onto the sofa,” Juliette replied. “If he ever angers me, a better punishment

would be for him to continue sleeping next to me, feeling the power of my wrath.”

Juliette is me 😂

“I have an internal compass that centers on you instead of true north.”

Love, she thought, was that kernel of warmth nestled deeper in her chest, glowing with a sense of comfort whenever Roma’s eyes were on her—the same comfort she’d first found when they were fifteen, everlasting.

“Stop pleasing me so much!” Juliette yelled after him. “I can’t help it, you’re the love of my life!” Roma shouted back.

“All right. I like that.” She took his offered hand, fingers interlacing. “And then the guns start blazing?” Roma sighed with affection and exasperation in equal measure. “You,” he muttered, “are such a pain in the ass.”

“I am with you if you want to, and I am with you if you cannot.”

“Don’t even remind me about my traitorous back,” Marshall said. “Twenty-three years old and I could get a cramp from breathing wrong.” Benedikt blinked. He did the math in his head. “Mars, you’re twenty-four.” Without warning, Marshall dropped to his knees, trembling with the drama. “I’m aging!”

I am Marshall.

“Are you going to miss the warmth of my embrace at night?” “I’m actually going to have such a great time freed from the relentless twitching you do in your sleep.”

and Marshall and Juliette certainly hated missing their gossiping sessions—so

Let me love you, he mouthed. Arrested for public obscenity, Benedikt mouthed back in warning.

Marshall’s eyes flew open, his spine straightening. “I am not tired. Who told you that? Malicious slander and lies.”

Pretend I never gossiped about your cousin like this if he asks, but on the phone last month, Juliette said he was really into—”

“It’s all right,” he whispered slowly. “It’s all right as long as I have you.”

“I would reroute the train with my bare hands before I left you behind,” he said matter-of-factly. “How very romantic.”

🥹🥹🥹

“It will be the article of the century, I promise,” Marshall said. “You might even win an award. ‘Train Murder Runs Off the Rails with Unexpected Outcome.’ There—I thought up a headline for you.”

Marshall folded his arms over his chest. “Twenty-four,” he answered for the both of them. “Practically ancient.”

“You have everything?” “Yes.” Marshall rammed his shoulder into Benedikt’s. The woman standing behind them sniffed in warning, jostled by the movement. “I have everything right here.”

So long as he had Marshall by his side, the two of them could face whatever was thrown their way. Together, they were already unstoppable.