“Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes. Thank you, Salvatore.”
“We’re family. Family helps each other.”
I handed the phone back to Alessandro. “That’s why you came, isn’t it?”
He tilted his head in acknowledgment. “As Mr. Vitale said, we’re family.”
Greg was standing near the doorway to the bedroom when I got back. When he saw me, he threw his arms around me. “You killed him,” he whispered. “What’s going to happen now?”
“Everything’s going to be okay, sweetheart.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
GREG
My phone vibrated with a call just as I got out of my therapist’s office. When I saw it was Tony, I smiled and shook my head. He was the very definition of a mother hen. I swiped to answer. “Hello, handsome. What’s up?”
“I was just checking in. How did your appointment go?”
I walked to the elevator, pressing the down button when I reached it. “It was fine. She gave me homework.”
“Homework? What kind of homework?”
I braced myself. He wasn’t going to like it. “She wants me to try to take the subway from here to my apartment.”
As I expected, he ground out, “No fucking way. Doesn’t she know what happened to you?”
I rolled my eyes as I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor. “Of course she knows what happened to me. She also knows how anxiety works. The more I avoid doing it, the worse my anxiety about it will be.”
“But it’s only been three weeks,” he objected.
The elevator reached the ground floor, and I stepped out into the lobby. “I know, sweetheart. But I have to be able to get around the City.”
“And I can get you around the City without you having to take the subway,” he insisted.
I sighed. “Tony, I love you, but you being overprotective isn’t going to help me recover my sense of safety.”
He let out a string of curses. “Fine. But I want you to text me as soon as you get on the train. I’ll be waiting for you at the station.”
“It’s a deal,” I replied.
I knew Tony was struggling too. Initially, he’d resisted going to therapy, saying he wasn’t the one who’d been stalked and kidnapped. That all changed after we had a huge argument about me going back to work at City Lights. He’d insisted it was too soon. I told him I wanted to put joy back in my playing instead of only remembering the fear. He finally broke down and told me how scared he was that someone else at the club would see me and start stalking me.
After a lot of crying and some awesome makeup sex, Tony agreed to find a therapist. He’d had his first appointment a week later. He was still anxious about me being out in the world by myself, but he was getting better. I was glad because it was enough for me to manage my own fears, without also having to manage his.
It was a beautiful day, the early June sun warm on my skin as I made my way to the subway station. I found myself smiling, eager to get to my apartment. Today was moving day, and I couldn’t wait.
Another agreement that had come out of our argument was that I move in with Tony. I was spending all my nights there anyway, so it made sense for me to be there officially. I’d decided to sublet my place since my lease wasn’t up until the end of December, but I hadn’t gotten around to advertising it yet.
It wouldn’t take Tony long to get to the subway station to meet me because he and his brothers were already at myapartment waiting to help move my things. I’d told them I would call when I got home, but they insisted on getting there early so we could get done quickly. I knew they originally wanted to move everything while I was at my appointment, but I’d insisted on being there because it was my stuff, dammit.
When I got to the stairway leading down to the subway platform, I paused. Was I really ready to do this? I took a breath and took the first step down. One after another, I made my way down the stairs to the subway turnstiles. I used my phone to pay the fare and walked onto the platform, joining the other passengers waiting for the train. I blew out a breath. I’d made it through the hard part. An announcement came over the speakers that the train was approaching the station, so I sent Tony a text like I promised.
