A surge of lust went through me. Holy shit. I’d never heard Tony speak like that. The three idiots looked like they were going to shit themselves. They nodded like bobbleheads as they slowly struggled to get to their feet.
Tony waited until they hobbled around the corner. Then he held his hand out to me and said, “Let’s go.”
I held out the coat I’d been clutching like a security blanket. “Do you want your jacket?”
“Not yet,” he replied. “But I can carry it if you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s fine.” When I went to drape the jacket over my arm so I could hold his hand, my own hand brushed a solid lump under the leather. I slid my fingers over the object, tracing a shape that turned out to be surprisingly familiar. I looked over at Tony in surprise. “You have a gun in your jacket.”
“Yeah,” he responded, taking my hand in his as we headed toward my apartment building. “I usually carry one with me because of my work.”
“Oh,” I replied, not knowing what else to say.
“Is that a problem for you?” he asked quietly.
I shook my head. “Not at all. I just didn’t realize you were still doing bodyguard work.”
“Not as much anymore,” he said. “I’m in the office most of the time, assigning teams for events, setting up personal security details, and hiring new people. But every once in a while, an emergency pops up, and I have to take someone’s place. Or Jeremy has an event. I always take point for those.”
Tony opened the outer door for me when we got to my building. “I noticed that.” I took out my key to unlock the inner door, which thankfully hadn’t been wedged open this time. “Jeremy said you two have been friends for almost ten years.” I hit the call button on the elevator.
Tony smiled. “Yeah, that’s about right.”
I cuddled against him while we rode the elevator to my floor. It was then that I noticed the bruising and swelling on his jaw. I gently traced my finger over it. “We need to get you an ice pack.”
The elevator doors slid open. I took Tony’s hand and led him down the hallway to my apartment. Once inside, I hung up his jacket and mine and had him sit at my kitchen table. He was flexing the fingers of his right hand, and I saw that his knuckles were swollen as well. I went to my cabinet and pulled out a couple of disposable ice packs. I popped the inner seals to activate them and set them on the table. I placed a soft kiss on Tony’s injured jaw. “Thank you for protecting me.”
Tony rested his injured hand on the table and put an ice pack across his knuckles. He pressed the second one gingerly against his face. “It was my pleasure,” he replied. I must have given him a skeptical look because he added, “I’m serious. It’s satisfying to beat down a bunch of homophobic dickheads.”
I had to laugh. “I’ll take your word for it. I haven’t had the opportunity.”
“Come sit with me,” he said. “I have to be still for fifteen minutes.”
“Of course.” I took the seat across from him. “Tell me the story of how you and Jeremy met.”
“Okay,” he replied. “But first, I gotta ask, why do you have a whole box of ice packs in your kitchen?”
“Oh, I guess that is a bit strange,” I began. “I use them for when I overdo it playing the piano. I try not to, but sometimes I get into the zone and lose track of time.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe you should take better care of yourself.”
“Says the man whose brothers had to make him hire someone so he wasn’t working seven days a week,” I retorted.
He chuckled. “You got me there. So, how I met Jeremy,” he continued. “I’d only had the business for a couple of years at that point. It was just Michael and me and a couple of part-time drivers.”
My brows rose. “Wow. You’ve come a long way since then.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “And a lot of that growth is because of Jeremy.”
“How so?”
“He was still up and coming at the time, but very well-known in the tri-state area. He’d picked up a cyber stalker who’d started to leave actual notes on the door to his apartment and in his dressing rooms when he played concerts. One time, he even pretended to be a food delivery guy and tried to deliver food to Jeremy’s dressing room. He ran away when security saw him.”
My stomach twisted. “Oh shit. That must have been scary.”
He nodded. “It was. The longer Jeremy didn’t respond, the more aggressive the messages became, both online and in real life.”
“So he hired you?” I surmised.
