by Reina Torres
The quiet rush of sound told her that both men had pushed back their chairs.
Allegra’s cheeks flushed when she felt Valerio’s hand on her arm.
“Thank you,” she murmured, and felt the reassuring stroke of his thumb on the inside of her elbow as she stepped closer to Natale.
Another moment of indecision was taken care of in an instant. Natale took her hand and then her elbow, a secure and gentle hold. “I’ve got you.”
And it felt like she really did.
Allegra smiled and leaned closer. “Thank you.”
Natale gently lead her around the table and leaned closer to whisper into her ear. “No thanks needed. You’re family.”
Inside the bathroom, the first thing she noticed was the soft music over the speakers. Rosemary Clooney’s cheerful version of ‘Mambo Italiano’ that never failed to make her tap her toes was loud enough to hear the lyrics, but not loud enough to drown out normal thought or decent conversation.
And a soft voice offered a welcoming greeting as soon as they entered the room.
“Welcome back, Mrs. Orsino.”
“Thank you, Alva. Good to see you too.”
Natale continued to walk Allegra through the room. “My friend and I want a few minutes alone. Would you mind?”
“Oh, no worries, Mrs. Orsino. I’ll be just outside. When you’re finished, just open the door.”
Allegra didn’t hear anything further from the other woman. Natale walked her to a stall doorway and set her hand on the side of the opening.
A few minutes later when she unlocked the door and stepped out onto the tiled floor, Allegra took a moment to listen for movement.
“I’m here in the sitting room, just inside the door.”
Allegra nodded and moved across the tile to the counter.
Natale gave her a few easy instructions to find the sink, the soap, and a basket of fancy folded cloths to wipe her hands on. Using the sound of Natale’s voice, Allegra easily made her way to Natale’s side.
“I left you half of the bench if you’d like to sit.”
Leaning slightly to the side, Allegra felt the solid side of the bench against her knee and edged along to find her seat beside Natale. “Thank you, for helping me.”
There was a puzzled silence beside her. “Everyone has to go when they have to go.”
Allegra shook her head. “For trusting me to take care of myself. The first time I had to leave rehearsal to go to the restroom, you would think I was the Queen of England with a whole slew of retainers and assistants. I don’t know what they thought I’d need help with while I was in there. I do live alone. I have two hands. I’m just blind.” Allegra felt her emotions running away from her and let out a long shuddering breath. “I’m just blind.”
She felt a gentle touch on her arm and turned on the bench toward Natale.
“Sorry, I must seem like I’m whining.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Natale’s voice was gentle and warm. “You’re frustrated. Trust me. I know what that’s like.”
Allegra’s laugh was thin, almost bewildered. “I find that hard to believe. You’re amazing! An award-winning designer. From where I’m sitting, you have an amazing life.”
“It took a lot of frustration to get there. If it wasn’t for my father believing in my dream and my mate for encouraging me, it would have been an even bigger struggle.”
Tracing her fingers along the edge of the bench, feeling the brass brads that secured the fabric to the frame, she listened to the intensity of Natale’s voice before speaking again.
“It means a lot to have support. If it wasn’t for my teacher, my nurse, and my therapist, I don’t know what I would have done. It was their job,” she took a breath, “but they cared. They really took an interest in helping me do more than survive.” She pressed her eyes closed, trying to ward off her tears. “I know I was blessed to have them for as long as I did. Others don’t have that luxury in their lives.”
Natale’s hand left her arm and settled over the hand that Allegra had set on the edge of the bench, and gave her a friendly squeeze. “After Val called, Salvatore looked you up online.”
“Me?” Allegra felt a nervous flutter in her chest. “Why?”
“Well, I’m sure sisters would do the same thing for each other like the brothers do,” she explained, “but it wasn’t because he didn’t trust Val or you, Salvatore’s not like that. He’d trust Val’s instincts because of the three of them, Val’s the most in tune with his… nature.”
Natale’s hand lifted away and Allegra heard the metal click of a clutch purse opening. Then the twisted whisper of a lipstick case. “What Salvatore did when he found the advertisement for your debut concert is buy the family a block of seats upfront in the Founder’s Circle.”
Allegra coughed and pressed a hand to her chest as she struggled to swallow.
Taking her free hand, Natale pressed a small item into her palm. “A mint.”
Nodding, Allegra popped it in her mouth and then cleared her throat. “Those seats are only for members of the Orchestra’s biggest donors they’re not for sale like regular tickets.”
“Mm hmm.” It sounded like Natale closed the lipstick case and returned it to her bag. “Orsino Security’s Board of Directors are now all members of the Founder’s Circle.” Setting her hand on Allegra’s shoulder Natale’s laughter was soft, sympathetic. “It’s a little much, isn’t it?”
Allegra nodded. “It’s all so…”
“Overwhelming?”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“A little like a tidal wave?”
“Basically.”
“And you’re not sure if you know exactly what it is you got into?”
Allegra reached out for Natale and found their hands clasped together. “Is that how you felt when you met Salvatore?”
Natale pressed a friendly kiss on her cheek. “That, and then some. But while the rush might seem scary, you should know that there’s two things I’m sure about in the world.”
“Oh?” Allegra braced herself, her teeth biting into her lower lip.
“First, if Val says you’re the one… then you are.”
Allegra struggled to process the words through the rush of sound through her ears, from the accelerated pulse of her heart in her chest. Natale’s tone was sure, her voice was full of conviction about what she said.
It took her a minute to get up the courage to ask, “And the second?”
“The second,” Natale gave Allegra a one-armed hug, “is that you’re going to fit right in to this family. I’m glad he found you.”
Chapter Four
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 darkne
ss, “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.