Valerio woke with a start and let his senses work around the room, searching for anything that would be a danger. Beside him in bed, Allegra was in a deep sleep. Ever since the event at the zoo, the ‘gift’ filled with glass designed to hurt her, she had been anxious, nervously turning at sounds that weren’t there.

He knew that she was worried and that didn’t sit well with him. Less than two days after she had performed at the event, Valerio had taken a visit to the Singletons.

Erik and Lana Singleton had three houses in the state of New York, but it had been all too easy to track them down to their home in the Hamptons. Perched on the beach with a prime view of the water, their home had all the trapping of a family estate, except that everything also looked like it was untouched, as if they lived in the house, but didn’t move beyond a prescribed pathway in and through the home.

He’d found Lana Singleton cold from the moment her maid had walked him into the sunroom. Her husband was the one who seemed to make an effort to be hospitable, at least until he learned why Valerio was there.

“No,” the older man’s voice had trembled when he turned away from the pictures that Valerio had tried to hand him, “I don’t believe it.”

Lana continued to arrange her flowers on the table, but each successive snip of her garden shears grew louder, harder.

“Mr. Singleton, I would like to speak to your son.”

“He’s not here.” Erik paced across the room and pulled open a cabinet. He reached in and removed a bottle, twisting and yanking the cap off it before he poured it into a cut crystal glass on the sideboard. “And you’re not getting anywhere near him.” He downed the glass with one gulp and then hissed before he slapped it back down on the counter. “You can’t anyway. He’s in Geneva.” The man laughed. “It’s costing us a fortune to keep them there, but at least he’s safe from people like you.”

“Like me, sir?” His bear wanted to see what they’d think of ‘all of him.’ “I’m certain I don’t know what you mean.”

The garden shears clattered on the table top and Mrs. Singleton leveled a look at him that gave him pause. “People who are trying to ruin his life.” She gasped in a breath and moved around the table, her stride as sure as that of a lioness zeroing in on a kill. “People who want to ruin any chance he has to move on from that horrible accident with… with… that girl.”

Accident.

Accident.

This time it was the bear holding Valerio back. He had been a heartbeat away from changing, backing the woman up against the wall… he stopped short, realizing how right his bear had been. The thought alone was staggering. He’d always been the one to use his head rather than instinct when working, but this was different. This was personal.

And his bear had been the noble one. What an interesting turn of events and it had everything to do with Allegra.

He knew they were waiting for him to speak, and a strange calm fell over him at the thought.

“It was no accident, Mrs. Singleton.” He folded his arms across his chest and watched her eyes widen as she saw how his coat stretched over his arms. “I have seen the police report. The medical records. I have seen the photographs.”

It was his bear again, claws dug deep into his back, holding him steady, keeping him human.

“What your son did to Allegra was an abomination!”

“Allegra?” Mrs. Singleton fairly sneered at him, baring her teeth in a gesture that made her look more feral than the elegant woman she pretended to be. “I see.”

Mr. Singleton poured himself another glass of alcohol, the dark liquor slopping over the edge of the glass. “What now, Lana?”

“She sank her teeth into another one.” She turned her pale blue gaze on Valerio and shook her head. “I should tell you to be careful, but you won’t listen. Lance told us about her. Told us how she used him to get ahead. She’ll do the same thing to you. And then when she’s ready to walk away, leave you behind like trash… like what she did to our baby… just you wait and see.”

“Let the boy go, Lana.” He reached for the bottle again, nearly dropping it from his hand. “Let him spend his money on her when she’s done with him.”

Mr. Singleton scoffed and leaned back against the sideboard with a sigh. “Good. I’m tired of writing those checks for her care.”

Valerio’s bear was nearly ready to let him rip them to shreds.

“I want the address and any other contact information for your son.”

That tipped the scales for Mr. Singleton. Pushing away from the sideboard, the bottle fell from the edge and shattered into pieces, the liquor coating the man’s designer footwear. “If you want anything to do with my boy. You can call my lawyer! It’ll take a court order to get one more thing out of us.” Turning, he stalked toward the French doors and pushed through them, walking outside in the pristine yard and disappearing around the corner.

Lana turned her steely gaze toward him. “You’re still here?”

He felt a growl roll through his throat. “I need your lawyer’s contact information.”

Throwing up her hands in frustration, she crossed the room to an antique secretary desk and quickly jotted down some information on a piece of paper. She held it out for a moment and then let it go.

They watched the paper flutter down to the ground at her feet.

Her smile was cold and dark. “Be a good boy,” she lifted her chin into the air, “pick it up and let yourself out.”

She walked out of the room as if she was crossing a stage with a crown on her head and followed her husband out to the beach.

Valerio crossed the room and picked up the paper. Turning on his heel, he turned on his phone and started dialing before he was even out of the door.

* * *

Allegra shifted in her sleep, her hand lifted from under her cheek and settled over his heart, her thumb rubbing back and forth over his skin. Even in her sleep she was a comfort to him, he just wanted to return that favor and make sure that she was well and truly safe.

As soon as he took her to her rehearsal in a few hours, he was due in court to get Lance’s location from the Singleton’s lawyers. If that didn’t work, he would find a way to get the information from them or another source.

He’d do whatever it took.

He’d lay down his life for her in a heartbeat.

* * *

The intercom in the main room buzzed and he slid off of the bed, hating the loss of warmth when he moved away from his mate.

Allegra continued to sleep on in their bed, mumbling to herself as she dragged his pillow into her embrace.

As he stalked to the elevator, pulling on pants, he decided to pull that pillow out of her arms when he got back and slip back in where he belonged in the next moment.

When the doors opened on the bottom floor he felt his hackles rise. Staring at the two policemen waiting for him, he knew he wasn’t going to get back to bed anytime soon.

“Mr. Orsino?”

He nodded at the first policeman.

The other one didn’t want to be left behind. “Which Orsino brother are you?”

He didn’t have time to play their games.

“Valerio.”

The two officers shared a look and a nod.

That only served to irritate him even more.

“What may I help you with, Officers?”

“May you?” The first officer almost laughed out loud. “Listen to his manners.”

The other office kept things moving. “It’s been brought to our attention that you have Miss Allegra Rossetti held in your apartment.”

Held.

His bear didn’t like their tone of voice any more than he did, but he kept his temper in check.

“Allegra is asleep. If you would like to see her, you can come back in the morning and she will choose when she wants to speak with you.”

The second policeman stepped in, holding a hand up in surrender. “Mr. Orsino, I’m afraid we got off on the wrong foot.” He gave his partner a significant look. “We maybe a little surly because we’ve been running around all night trying to find Miss Rossetti to make sure she’s alright.”

Valerio heard the tension in his voice and saw the dark look in the other man’s eyes. It was worry… concern.

“What happened?”

The first policeman hesitated.

“I’m sure you gentleman have heard about our firm. If not, I can get the Chief of Police and the District Attorney on the phone to vouch for us.”

The second policeman waved him off. “No need for that, sir. We’re just being careful.”

Valerio heard the truth in their words. “I appreciate that.”

The officer jumped right in. “We responded to a call at Miss Rossetti’s apartment tonight.” One of the men looked at him to gauge his reaction. “It was a fire alarm.”

He nodded once, struggling to fight his bear back down. He wanted to turn around and leave them at the elevator and go upstairs to Allegra, but he knew there was more to the story.

“Someone set the blaze intentionally.”

That, he could have guessed.

“There was quite a bit of damaged before the flames. Pillows and bedding were slashed. Stereo broken, smashed to pieces. There was quite a bit of damage before they poured what smelled like gasoline on… well, they poured gasoline on the bed and lit it on fire.

“We called the Director of the music group she plays with. They told us about you.”

Valerio picked it up from there. “And you came down instead of calling, because you wanted to make sure that Allegra was alive and well.”

“And that she’s here because she wants to be, Mr. Orsino.”

“You can follow me upstairs if that is truly your aim.” He looked at them in turn. “But if your intent is to upset Allegra then I will have you forcibly removed from the building.”

He stepped back into the elevator and waited. One of the policemen stepped inside, the other hovered outside the door for a minute.

Valerio waited patiently. He was in no hurry to take them home. It was the policeman already inside the elevator that spoke to his partner. “You coming, Joe?”

The other man looked Valerio over from head to toe. “And just who will ‘remove’ us from the building, sir?”

Valerio saw the man wince and knew that the policeman had seen his eyes bleed black for a milli-second. “Me.”

* * *

Allegra yawned and heard Essa chuckle from behind his music stand.

“Sorry,” she started to apologize and yawned again. “Really,” she turned toward the rest of the orchestra, “my apologizes.”

Zane, a young man from Seattle who had a true talent for the French Horn, called out from the Brass section. “No worries, Allegra. I was out late last night too.”

Allegra smiled in the direction of his voice.

“Just last night?” Linda scoffed from her seat. “You mean ‘again.’”

Essa tapped his baton on the stand. “Gentlemen? Ladies? Focus?”

The group settled down and Essa continued to speak. “After our successful performance at the Zoo, our Board of Directors have organized another event in public before our next big concert.”

An excited rumble of voices moved through the group. Allegra tensed up and tried not to show it.

It was hard enough to focus on the concert, but adding another event was just about enough to give her a panic attack. Being in public was another adventure for her, one that she’d never felt entirely confident about when she could see. Going out in front of a large crowd now should be easier since she couldn’t see them, but it had its ups and downs. It would, she decided, depend upon the venue.

When Essa started to explain the event, Allegra could barely keep her focus on his voice, so she struggled to put a look on her face that said she was paying attention, but in fact, she hadn’t heard a word of it.

It was, she decided, a merciful gift when Essa called a break. She started to move and heard someone clearing their throat. “It’s Zane. Let me take that for you.”

“Thanks,” she felt him draw her cello from her hand and heard him set it into her stand, “that’s really sweet of you.”

He laughed. “Not really,” she thought she heard him shrug and wondered how much starch he’d put into his shirt, “I’m kind of tired of everyone else getting to talk to you.”

“You can always talk to me,” she shook her head.

“Sure, sure,” he didn’t sound convinced, “I already had my horn in the case when I thought Essa was going to call I break. That way I could be the first one out of my chair.”

She laughed, feeling a little bit of her stress melting away. “You make it sound like such a competitive thing.”

A breath wooshed from his lungs. “It was. I had to elbow Mr. Connolly out of the way to get here first.”

“Mr. Connolly?” Allegra didn’t immediately place the name. “Thomas Connolly, the trumpet player?”

“Yep, that’s him,” Zane whispered to her in a voice made for the stage rather than secrets. “That sneaky bastard. I think he’s got a thing for you.”

That had her laughing out loud. “He’s a total gentleman and isn’t he in his sixties?”

Another laugh, this time from behind Zack. “I’m seventy-two. God bless you, Allegra.”

She shrugged. “You sound so young for your age, Thomas.”

“Seriously though,” Zack sighed, “are you going to your dressing room? I’d be happy to help you.”

Allegra was about to refuse, but he kind of sounded a little eager and she didn’t mind the company. It beat moving slowly around the room, just in case. The others were really helpful in keeping their instruments in their cases and keeping the cases in their designated area so that she wouldn’t trip.

It was just being nice. Some of the instruments in the group cost a pretty penny. Her own cello was worth a few hundred thousand dollars. The criminal judge hadn’t given Lance much of a jail sentence, but the civil judge had certainly enjoyed levying a huge financial price tag on Lance and his family during the civil trial. Part of the judgment was to replace her cello; which Lance had destroyed along with her sight.

As they walked around the room, Zack kept up a stream of conversation all on his own. She was actually glad he did. Since the early morning visit from the NYPD, Allegra had been running on empty.

At first, she hadn’t questioned their appearance more than on its surface. The two officers had peppered her with questions about whether or not she wanted to be with Valerio at his home. It had all been shock at the beginning, but after a while she got angry. One of the officers was pretty nice about it all, but the other one seemed to think that she couldn’t very well be trusted to make a decision about where she should live.

And when he started to question whether or not Valerio had done enough to make his home ‘safe’ enough for her, she’d nearly lost her temper. Okay, so she’d lost her temper when he’d all but insinuated that she was no more capable to care for herself than a baby.

It hadn’t ended up all that bad. Angry sex was everything she’d never expected and pretty breathtaking in its power.

As Zack pushed open her dressing room door, Allegra yawned again.

“I’m sorry, Zack.”

He chuckled and remained in her doorway as she moved into her dressing room, her hand reaching out for the arm to her couch. Once she touched it she settled back into the soft cushions to relax.

“It’s okay, Allegra. I just wanted to say I really enjoyed your performance at the zoo.”

She smiled and picked up a throw pillow to hold. “Thanks, that’s really nice of you to say.”

“It’s not nice if it’s the truth,” he told her and then went silent for a moment. “Hey, I was wondering-”

“Hmm?” She was fighting off the ZZZs.

“Are you really serious about that guy?”

“That guy?” She shook herself a little, struggling to stay awake. “Valerio?”

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat, “the big guy that looks like he could bench press a Buick. He’s been dropping you off and picking you up. And yeah, he’s like one of those guys on those Romance book covers, not that I read them, ‘cause I don’t, but you know the type… tall, dark, broodingly handsome.”

“Zack? If you want to ask Valerio out”-

“Whoa!” She heard him pace back a few steps and then return to the doorway, his voice lowered into an energetic hiss. “I’m not after him.”

“What, then why…” the answer kind of popped up in her head, “wait… are you saying that-”

“I was just kind of hoping that you guys weren’t… exclusive. You know?” His voice lowered a bit, becoming strained. “Maybe you’d like to go out with me. Maybe dinner,” he started, “a concert, a movie- oh wait. That’s stupid, Zack. Good one. I mean-”

“Zack?” She waited a moment but he kept talking. “Zack?”

His rolling comments stopped short. “Yeah?”

She bit her lip for a moment and then let it go. “I don’t think we’ve discussed exactly what we are,” she didn’t like hedging around the truth. Allegra didn’t think she could explain the whole ‘mate’ thing without letting too much out of the bag. “But, I’m totally in love with Valerio.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I thought I’d totally missed out, but I just had to ask. Just in case.”

She shook her head. “No worries, Zack. Really, I’m tickled. Shocked, but tickled. I’m glad you did ask.”

“Hey,” he sighed, “I’m always too late.” His voice dimmed at the end. “If you want I’ll come back and take you back to your chair in a bit. Maybe after you read the note on your table.”

“Note?”

Zack moved passed her into the room, stopped at her makeup table and then back to her. “Hold out your hand.”

She did and felt the crisp envelope in her hand. “Thanks.”

“You want me to read it?” He sounded a little more nervous now.

Testing the outside of the envelope, she felt the raised braille letters on the paper inside. “No, I think I have this, thanks.”

Zack mumbled his goodbye and stepped outside.

Allegra leaned back in her chair and opened the envelope. She was expecting a letter from her physical therapist and was eager to hear the news from her old friend. Dropped the envelope down on her lap she set the paper on the seat cushion beside her and started to read.

Call off your dog, Allegra.

You better tell him to leave my parents alone.

I’m tired of you ruining my life.

Don’t make that mistake again.