Valerio sat down on the edge of his bed and stared out at the city. He resisted the urge to pick up his keys and head back out again. He’d left Allegra at her apartment after checking all the rooms, testing the strength of the locks on the door and the security at the doorway of the building. He hadn’t wanted to leave her there any more than he wanted to leave, but unlike the way his brother met Natale, Valerio wasn’t hired to protect Allegra.

And, as far as he could see, Allegra’s brush with danger in the subway had only been the product of a careless man who was more of a mindless animal than he or his brothers ever could be.

Shaking his head, he stood and moved closer to the glass windows, watching the headlights down below tracing patterns around the buildings surrounding theirs.

Every night, since he’d come to America, knowing deep down inside him that his mate was alive and waiting in the city, he’d stood at this window searching the night sky. He knew that he wouldn’t find her with a neon sign blinking over her location, or some mystic divination over a map.

Strange that he’d found her under the city instead.

A knock sounded on his bedroom door. A quick indrawn breath was enough to know who was on the other side. “Come in.”

The soft click of heels across the hardwood floor made him smile. “I like to hear you walking around,” he smiled into the nearly-inky darkness, “for years it was just the three of us.”

Natale stepped up beside him and set her hand on the glass window. “I’m sure my steps aren’t exactly stealthy.”

He shrugged. “Better than three clumsy bears. You bring an element of grace into our lives.” He set his arm around her shoulders. “Salvatore would be lost without you.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I think the feeling is mutual. I know without him, this little one would certainly not be on the way.”

Valerio looked down and smiled at the way Natale smoothed her hands over her middle. “How are you feeling? Any odd cravings? Pain?”

Natale’s laugh made his smile broader. “Just the pain in the backside that your brother has become. I’m surprised he let me walk into the restaurant tonight.”

“He’s just-”

“Concerned for my wellbeing, I know, but if Salvatore keeps hovering over me, he’s going to be the one in pain.”

“I don’t hover.”

Valerio shook his head, laughing at the indignant tone in his brother’s voice. He gave Natale’s upper arm a gentle squeeze.

“And get your hands off my mate.”

Lifting his hands up in the air, Valerio turned, putting the skyline at his back before lowering his arms back down to his sides. “I would have thought the two of you would be in your bedroom by now. Leave me to my worries on my own.”

That caught Natale’s attention, and the woman that he’d come to see as his sister stepped closer and set her hand on his arm. “What are you worried about?”

Salvatore’s eyes narrowed at him, turning a little more black than human. “You checked her apartment security.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement of fact.

“Every corner of her apartment. The entry and emergency doors all over the building.”

Natale’s smile was as indulgent as her sigh. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring her here to stay.”

“She wanted to go home.”

The eldest Orsino grumbled back. “You could have stayed with her-”

“Salvatore,” Natale’s tone was loving but firm.

“I didn’t let you stay alone-”

“You didn’t listen to my wishes.”

“Your safety was more important than your wishes-”

“Oh?” Natale’s eyes opened wider, a flare of movement.

Valerio took a step back and leaned against the glass, not bothering to hide the smile on his lips.

“So that’s how you’re going to explain it?”

Salvatore shrugged his shoulders and Valerio watched Natale draw in a deep, steadying breath as her eyes darkened.

“That’s all that matters to me, Principessa.”

“And I say he did the right thing. If Allegra wanted to go back to her apartment, it’s her right. After all, you said the man in the subway went after her because of the opportunity, not because she was a specific target.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Salvatore’s voice didn’t allow for an argument, “any danger to our mates is unacceptable. Valerio should either bring her back here or he should remain with her. That is how it should be done and-”

“That would be the worst thing he could do,” Natale’s words were almost an entreaty, soft and gentle in the face of Salvatore’s demand. “She isn’t blind from an illness or nature, my love. Someone took her sight and she’s had to learn to do everything all over again. She has fought for her independence and if Val were to demand that she give it up now, he would be taking more from her than he would be giving her.”

“The danger,” Salvatore looked at him and Valerio understood the love in his brother’s eyes, “the danger isn’t just for her now. If you lose her. If she is taken from you…” Salvatore’s voice was a rough scratch of sound dragged from his throat. “I nearly lost Natale to a jealous heart and if I had,” he wrapped his hand around her wrist and drew her tight against his larger form, “I would not have recovered.”

“I won’t lose Allegra,” Valerio felt his heart constrict with worry, “but I will not take from her what she is not willing to give me.” Valerio’s worry sent chills through his spine. “I would lose as much as you, Salvatore,” he insisted, “but I would not have the joy that you have shared with Natale before that loss. Do not mistake my willingness to make her happy for a lack of concern. She is just as precious to me as Natale is to you.”

Natale was between them, in both her position in the room and her heart. “It’s late,” she insisted, “Val needs to get some sleep so he can be there in the morning.” She turned to look at him across the room and he knew she could see the smile that touched the corners of his mouth. “You have made arrangements to take her to her rehearsal?”

Valerio nodded and enjoyed Natale’s answering laugh before she turned to his brother.

“And you and I need to get to bed.”

Salvatore’s concern shifted to his mate, as it always did. “Are you so very tired, Natale?” His hand cupped her cheek as he looked into her warm eyes, reminding Valerio of what he had to look forward to with his own mate.

Natale trailed her fingertips from his shoulder to his heart. “I feel wonderful, but you, my love, need to listen a little closer.” She rose up on her toes and leaned closer to his ear. “I said that we need to get to bed.”

Salvatore ignored his mate’s protest as he swept her off of her feet and walked toward the door. “Give Allegra our love when you see her and let us know when she’s moving in.”

When the door closed behind them, Valerio let out a long breath and leaned his head back against the cold glass window. The room had lost much of its heat when they left, but the room didn’t feel empty.

He didn’t even feel the pangs of loneliness that he used to feel standing in his bedroom.

Allegra. His mate. He had found the one woman who called to both sides of his soul.

She was safely tucked away inside her apartment and he knew that he should follow Natale’s advice, get rest and see her in the morning. They had, he knew deep down inside, the rest of their lives to be together.

* * *

Dreams were a rare commodity for Allegra. Most days, she practiced until she was half asleep, leaning her head against the scroll, the pegs tangling in her hair. When she woke, clutching her precious Emiliani instrument to her heart, she would carefully lay the instrument down in its customary space and make her way along the wall to her bed.

By then, she was likely sound asleep, her head silent and still.

When she did dream, it was likely a nightmare. Flashes of memory, sights of anger and jagged glass replayed over and over in her head. At first, she’d had the benefit of pain killers. Later exhaustion had taken over when the pills no longer silenced her memories.

But the farther her pain receded in her memories, the easier it was to fall asleep. Recreating a life for herself was exhausting, but she welcomed the heavy sleep that rolled her under and kept her there until her alarm dragged her back into the real world.

Allegra knew that tonight was unique. Instead of practicing for hours on her concert pieces, she’d spent a good long time reliving the memories of that very day. The fear that she’d felt in the subway didn’t sting at her. Instead, she focused on the way Valerio had taken fear and changed it to relief. He’d taken danger and made it into salvation.

She’d fallen asleep to the sound of his voice in her head, not from her aching fingers.

The piano reached her ears first. A stately introduction, with a good moderate pace and then a soft rush of sound up and down the scales as if it couldn’t help but fall through the notes on gravity alone.

More piano… carrying the accompaniment forward, but where was the melody? Where was the song of the cello above the rush of fingers and pounding hammers?

The song, incomplete, begged for its other half. Chopin always did seem a little needy for her taste, so many notes. So many lines. More and more, its demand didn’t ease.

Allegra reached out for her bow and came up empty. She leaned her head to the side and felt nothing against her shoulder.

Shifting her body, she hoped to find the cool curve of wood against the inside of her thighs, cradling the instrument that she knew better than her own skin.

Nothing.

And then it came to her.

Startled she sat up and clutched her blankets to her chest as if it was a shield. As if it would protect her from him.

The music droned on, but she could swear that she was awake.

She could swear that the noise in her head was just another nightmare.

She was trapped somewhere unable to escape, locked in a memory that never happened.

Haunted by a piece of music that she had practiced but never performed.

Allegra covered her ears, squeezing her eyes shut, as if it made any difference. The sound came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time and she wondered if she was finally losing her mind.

It would be a supreme middle-finger salute to her after all of these years. To believe that she’d moved on from the attack, become independent, only to lose her sanity… was fate so cruel?

“Stop.”

She almost laughed.

Who was she talking to?

Who did she think was going to answer her?

“Please, stop.”

She flung her hand out, never more aware of how lost she was without her sight, when sound could be wielded like a weapon. Somewhere in the darkness was the source of her torment, but she was at a loss at how to discover it on her own.

Her fingers searched the nightstand beside her bed and her questing fingers triggered the talking clock that barked out the hour amidst the rampant piano accompaniment to her splitting headache.

She swept her hand and knocked the clock to the floor. The recitation of the time was cut short, gone silent in a heartbeat before a heavy clunk hit the ground. A second thump hit her like a slap.

“Damn phone.”

Turning on her stomach, Allegra reached her hands down and started to pat the floor beside her bed looking for the phone with her sensitive fingers.

* * *

Valerio sat up on the edge of his bed, pushing his hair back from his face. He turned to look at the phone beside his bed and stared at it as if it could answer his unspoken question.

But it sat in silence, staring back at him.

His bear lunged at him from the darkness, pushing him up and onto his feet. The wardrobe was steps away and easily opened under his hand. Clothes were pulled from the drawers and pulled on with efficient movements as the bear padded back and forth through his consciousness. Every so many steps of his legs, the bear would turn his massive head and give Valerio a pointed stare. His midnight eyes bled into Valerio’s with a practiced ease that spoke of how close his bear was to the surface.

Pants, shirt, jacket, then buttons, layers before details. Nameless worry over specific fear.

His hands reached for his keys and stopped.

The phone jolted to life, the display bright and easy to read.

Bringing the phone to his ear he fought the bear out of his throat. “I’m on my way.”

Doors slammed open, lights turned on, and by the time Valerio had wrenched open the front door Uberto was on his heels. Salvatore urged them on, staying behind to deal with alarms and remain with Natale. Valerio would call if he was needed.

The door to Allegra’s apartment came off the hinges like the heavy metal was no more than paperclips, unbent and snapped in two. Uberto stood in the doorway, his back to the apartment, ready and willing to stop anyone that came after his family. The smallest of the three, Uberto was not small by human standards. His form was more compact than his older brothers, but his power came from his explosive nature and the wild fury he held deep inside.

Valerio pushed through the apartment, his ears focused on the sounds present in the room. He’d dropped his cell phone into his jacket pocket when they’d approached the apartment door, needing his hands free, but as he approached the back room which served as both bedroom and practice studio, he heard Allegra’s voice calling out his name.

“I’m here.”

He stepped through the doorway just as she began to apologize. “You didn’t have to come back. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

“You can have whatever you want from me, Allegra,” he sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her into his arms.

She went willingly enough even though she kept telling him to go.

Valerio pressed a kiss to her forehead before brushing her hair back from her face. “What happened?”

Turning her face up toward his, she shook her head. “Chopin,” she mumbled, “he always wanted us to play the Chopin. Cello and piano. I heard the piano piece tonight, the music came from,” she made a strange stilted gesture in the air before covering her ears, “it came from everywhere. Inside my head, all around the room. It wouldn’t stop but I couldn’t wake up. It felt like,” he looked down and saw her hand fisting in his shirtfront, “like I was stuck in the nightmare, but I was already awake.”

He drew her closer, tucking her head under his chin. “You were frightened and you called me. I could never stay away when you needed me.”

“I don’t want to be afraid.” She trembled in his arms. “I want to put it all behind me.”

He heard something unspoken in her words, but there would be time to worry about it later. There were other things to do first. “Then that’s what we’ll do, but right now there’s a problem with your door.”

“My door- Hey,” she sat up a little, confusion written across her features, “how did you get inside?”

“That’s the problem with your door.” He eased his hold on her body and smoothed his hand over her back. “I didn’t have a key and I had to get to you.”

“The door-”

“Is in the hallway.” He saw the shock register on her face and smiled. “You don’t believe me?”

She shook her head. “That’s the trouble, Valerio. I believe you. Don’t ask me how I know that you managed to pry it out of the frame, but I know. What I don’t know,” she smoothed her hand over his chest to work out some of the wrinkles she’s twisted into the fabric, “is how I’m going to fix it so I can get some sleep.”

“I’ll fix it.”

“You mean I’ll fix it.”

Valerio glared at his brother, his arm tightening ever so slightly around Allegra’s generous curves. “Mine.”

Uberto’s laughter only made Valerio draw her closer. “Relax. You know I’m not going to try and steal her from you.”

Allegra tensed just a little. “Who is it?”

Gesturing for Uberto to move closer, Valerio gently touched the soft skin under her chin, lifting her face up so he could see her face instead of the top of her head. “My little brother.”

“Little, my ass.” Uberto wasn’t known for holding his tongue. “I could kick your ass, ‘big’ brother.”

Allegra’s arm pushed across Valerio’s stomach as if she could hold him back. Her touch sent all kinds of delicious sensations through his body. “You won’t,” she wondered aloud, “will you? Hurt your brother?”

Valerio saw Uberto’s reaction as plain as day even in the darkness of her apartment. The youngest Orsino knew how to growl and snap like the rest of them and more practice in bluster. He wasn’t afraid to let emotions ride him hard. It was part of his nature and what made him the fiercest of the three even if he was the youngest. Over the years, Valerio had seen many an emotion reflected in his brother’s dark gaze, but this was perhaps a first.

Uberto was concerned… and strangely enough, silent.

Taking Allegra’s hand in his, Valerio brought it up to his lips and brushed a kiss over her knuckles. “He won’t, Stellina. My brother would defend each of us with his last breath, but hurt us? Only by accident. Childish wrestling.”

“Childish?” Uberto huffed, his eyes darkening in the shadows. “But I wasn’t the one who broke down her door.”

Valerio felt a growl roll through his chest and Allegra’s answering shudder. He fought down his bear to help her relax against him, she had no idea what lay beneath his skin and now was not the time to delve into that truth. “I’ll call someone.”

“Already done.” Uberto’s voice was smug. “You were a little busy cuddling and I don’t think I want to sit around waiting until you dragged yourself away.”

“You wouldn’t joke if you-”

“Don’t say it, brother. Don’t finish that thought. You don’t understand. Just go.” His brother’s usual bluster had changed to something darker, angrier. “I’ll stay here and wait for the crew, take her home and get some rest.”

His bear was tired of the conversation. The sound of ‘home’ in their ears was heaven. Standing up from the bed, Valerio brought Allegra along with him, carefully cradled in his arms.

“I can,” she clutched at his shoulder, trembling slightly, “I can walk.”

“Let me hold you.” He leaned into her temple, inhaling her scent, filling his lungs with her. “Please, let me.”

He felt the tension bleed from her body as she relaxed against him. A little yawn escaped her lips as she leaned her head against his shoulder. “Just don’t drop me.”

His bear wanted to argue with her words, as if they’d ever let anything happen to her. Valerio ignored the growling objection and carried Allegra through the front room and out into the hall.

The only problem he was going to have was letting her go… ever again.