Teo Vitali had shown nothing but concern for me. Had protected me, made me feel safe and secure. Was I supposed to turn my back on him, freeze him out, be more distant as Father Raphael advised?
It didn’t sit well with me.
“Oh, we passed it—” I said, coming back to the present. Teo drove around the block again and pulled up outside. “Well, thanks for dropping me off.”
He looked at me, eyebrows raised. Waiting.
Oh. “Why don’t you come up with me, check it out?” I asked, and couldn’t help grinning.
“Why don’t I do that,” he agreed, and healmostsmiled back.
And when we got up to my apartment door, I was relieved that Teo had come with me. My door, splintered at the lintel where the lock had been kicked in, was wide open, and inside I could see my apartment had been completely trashed.
Chapter Seven
Aidan
“You’re not leaving this house again,” Finch snapped.
Teo had taken me straight back to Finch’s place as soon as he could. I’d been stubborn about packing some clothes first, and he’d let me do that after he checked inside my apartment. It was only a one-bedroom, so it didn’t take long. And then he’d sat through my explanations to Finch once we were back at the townhouse. Finch had asked everyone else there at the townhouse to leave us in private, but I’d grabbed at Teo’s arm.
“Not Teo,” I just about begged. “Please, I…I’d rather he stay with me, and anyway, he was with me when—yesterday. At Our Lady.”
Finch had agreed, although I could see he was thinking Luca might not like it. He did send Gio and Hudson off on some errand, and got rid of the other Morelli Family members who were hanging around the house that day, to ensure we had privacy. Once he’d heard the story of my apartment, and the security cameras that had been turned off the night before, he became quietly enraged, and insisted that I stay there in the townhouse until whoever was doing this could be tracked down and—in his words—disposed of.
“Absolutely not,” I shot back now. “I have to see Father Raphael again tonight for our spiritual development meeting.”
“That’s, like, theultimatein skippability,” Finch started, but Teo spoke up.
“I’ll go with you.”
Finch stopped, stared at Teo, and then smiled. “Yes.”
“No,” I said, but no one seemed to be listening to me.
“That’s agreatidea, Teo. I’d be willing to let Aidan go if you were with him. I know you’ll protect him as well as you do me.”
“Excuse me,” I snapped. “I amnottaking a bodyguard with me to see Father Raphael!”
Finch turned his face back to me. “Oh, yes you are, if you want to go at all. And that’s fuckingthat.”
I stood, pulling down my sweater to straighten it. “I appreciate your concern, Finch, but—”
“Teo.” It was only one word, but it dropped from Finch’s lips filled with heavy meaning.
Teo gave a long sigh and stood as well, giving me an apologetic look.
“If you think I’m going allow you to keep me here against my will—” I spluttered, as Teo came around the kitchen table to take my arm.
“Let’s take a walk,” he said, ushering me out of the room.
“I amnotyour prisoner,” I insisted as we half-walked, half-shuffled down the hallway, and Teo gave an answering, low chuckle as he steered me into the TV room that came off the hall. “You can’tmakeme stay here!”
Still standing behind me, he leaned in close and said in my ear: “You really think I’d make you? Tie you down? Handcuff you to a bed upstairs?”
My breath caught in my throat. I could smell his aftershave again—all the Italians seemed drenched in scent at all times, and I’d gotten used to it over time, but Teo’s seemed both fresh and uniquelyhimeach time I smelled it. It filled up my head now, making my thoughts cloudy, and I caught sight of my reflection in the ornate mirror hanging on the wall opposite. My cheeks were red, my lips parted, my eyes heavy-lidded.
I looked drunk.
