“Noted,” he said. “Spill.”
I bit my lip. “Are you sure you’re not part of the Mafia?”
“TheFamily,” he corrected with a cheeky smirk. “Stop stalling.”
“Back in college, I had a friend, Julie. She was dating a jackass named Aaron Short. Julie invited me and Lennon, um, my best friend to a party. Long story short, I was drugged and raped by two bikers while I was there. I don’t remember much of it.”
“And this Cupid guy was one of them?”
“Yes. He was let go because of lack of evidence but I guess they found some.”
“Who was the other guy?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. He’s beendealt with. His genitals were removed. They found him just recently, actually.”
“What’s this Aaron asshole’s deal?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“No one’s ever asked me that before.”
“I’m not fuckin’ surprised.”
I shivered. “Um, well, apparently, Aaron had been dealing drugs for the Supreme Riders for a year and owed them money for a batch he swears was stolen. The party was just a way to make some of that money back while also letting the Supreme Riders victimize whoever they wanted.”
“Fuckin’ asshole.”
“Indeed,” I whispered.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you, beautiful.”
I couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down my face as I nodded. “It’s done. I’ve had a lot of therapy to deal with it. It’s just when his face showed up on the screen yesterday, it flooded back. I’m really sorry.”
“If you say sorry one more time, I’m gonna lose my shit, Fizzy. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”
“Well, I kind of blew up your appointment yesterday.”
“You had a good reason.” He sighed. “I’m gonna have to find another therapist.”
I bit back more tears, forcing a nod. “Right, yes. Of course. Yesterday—”
“Not because of that,” he said, his tone one of frustration.
I frowned. “Then, why?”
“Because I don’t want to keep this professional anymore.”
Standing, I walked around my desk and sat in the chair facing him. “Gio, this is classic transference. I’ve been working on your shoulder for a little while now, and as you’ve healed, you’ve naturally equated that—”
“Bullshit,” he said. “I fell for you before you started working on my shoulder and that feeling was driven home when you panicked, and I couldn’t do shit about it because you ran.”
“Wait, what do you mean you ‘fell for me’?”
Before he could answer, my door flew open and I heard my receptionist call out, “Sir, you can’t go in there.”
“Ha... uh, Connor?” Gio hissed. “What the hell are you doing here?”
