Page 21 of Tessa's Trust

“No.” I noted Rory’s quick flash of amusement. “I’m not going home with you, Bobbo.” But then I had an idea, which was pretty darn good. “Let’s get started, and then we’ll talk.”

We tromped inside and walked up to my apartment. Maneuvering in, I was caught again by the damage. Whoever had broken in had been in quite the frenzy.

“Whoa,” Bobbo said, bumping into me from behind and nearly tossing me across the room. Rory easily caught me and set me to the side.

“Did you do this?” Bobbo asked.

“No.”

“Oh, good.” Relief filtered across his beefy face. “I thought you were messy. I can’t stand messy.”

“Somebody else did this.” Irritation and a hint of fear ticked through me as I studied the deep knife gouges in my old sofa.

Bobbo shook his head. “Trouble sure does seem to follow you Albertini women.”

As much as I wanted to argue, I couldn’t. Footsteps echoed, and then Anna and Aiden walked inside. Aiden whistled, and Anna’s eyes widened. “Wow,” she whispered. “Rory told me what had happened, but still.” She looked around at the tufts of cotton all over the floor. “What do you think they were looking for?”

“I have no idea,” I said. “I also don’t know why they left me a knife in the fridge.”

“Oh, that was a threat.” Devlin’s very slight Irish lilt emerged with his words.

His gaze met Rory’s. They shook hands and did some weird half-hug guy thing before Aiden shook Bobbo’s hand. “Somebody’s threatening you, Tessa. You’re going to have to stay with us.”

I slowly turned my head to look at the Irishman. He might be six and a half feet of raw muscle and danger, but he was Anna’s problem, not mine. “I can handle myself. Thank you.” My voice was cool.

His flash of a smile irritated me even more.

“You’re coming home with me,” Rory ordered. “After you explain what you were doing with Basanelli all night.”

“It’s not your concern.” My temper was about to make an appearance.

Bobbo took a step back. “You stayed with Basanelli last night?”

“It’s nobody’s business.” I threw up my arms. Nothing had happened, but again, I wasn’t a two-year-old, and they could all back off.

Curiosity lit my sister’s grayish-green eyes, but she wisely kept silent. Oh, I knew she’d get the whole truth out of me later, but right now, we were as united as could be. She was my sister, after all.

My cousin Quint, Rory’s brother, strode into the apartment, looked around, and whistled. “Whoa, Rory, you weren’t kidding. This is bad.” His hands were full of boxes. “Heather has a cold, so she stayed at home, but she said if we needed help to give her a call. I think we can have this done in a couple of hours.”

I took a box, nodded at my sister, and pointed her to the bedroom. “We’ll start in there. You guys start in here.”

“Okey-doke,” Bobbo said. “Although I would like to hear about Basanelli later. If you’re coming home with me tonight, I don’t think you should be staying with him.”

“I am not going home with you!” I stomped through the small apartment to the bedroom. Anna almost kept from chuckling as she followed me. Rolling my eyes, I took my phone from my back pocket and quickly sent a text.

One of the nice things about being from a small town was that everybody had everybody’s number—or if they didn’t, they knew who to call. I waited, and when the answering text from my nonna came in, I took note of the number she sent me and instantly sent another message.

“What are you up to?” Anna asked.

“Just going for some good karma,” I admitted, sitting and starting to unravel my jewelry from the thick carpet.

Anna looked around. “I’ll take your dresser, or what’s left of it. At least I’ll try to gather clothes into piles.”

“Thanks.”

“Basanelli?” She began sorting my Ugg socks, which I loved.

I picked a silver charm out of the carpet. “Brought me home, saw the mess, and took me to his condo. I slept in the guest room, and we decided to be friends because he’s leaving town, and I am not.”

---