Page 116 of The Fates We Tame

“You knew everything. All the things I couldn’t say in front of our family. There are so many things I’ve wanted to talk to you about since the accident but decided not to unless you remembered on your own, to keep you from harm.”

“What kinds of things?”

“I missed you,” he says. “The you that you were. My confidant. You called me that morning. Before your accident. You told me that you were working on something that didn’t make sense. That you were up to your neck in spreadsheets and numbers, but something didn’t add up.”

“I told you there was a problem?”

“You did. And now neither of us will know what it was unless we start from the beginning.”

“Then yes. You can trust me,” I say.

“You and I talked about what it would look like without Papà. How we’d organize differently. You always believed I could be one of the youngest underbosses in La Cosa Nostra history.”

“And what was I going to be?”

Alessio sighs. “My invisible right hand. You know this life. It’s cutthroat.”

Word association kicks in. “A switchblade?”

Alessio laughs. “What about them?”

“I carried a switchblade.”

“You remembered?”

There’s so much hope in Alessio’s tone that my heart hurts. “More muscle memory. I held one recently and suddenly knew what to do with it.”

“You have a collection of them. Go to the locker and find them. You sure you don’t recall anything from that day? Was Papà on to us? Did he know our plans? Is that why you ran?”

“I have no idea. But surely if he did, he would have said something to you by now.”

“I’ve had a million theories with no proof to any of them. I wondered if perhaps Papà wasn’t on to us like I initially thought. Then, I thought, maybe Papà was willing to keep you in that center for a reason. I wondered if it’s because he thought you had repressed memories of what happened and he needed to know what you know, or if he was terrified of what you might know and had paid someone at the center to tell him if you ever remembered. I wondered if he was the center of it all.”

I take a breath as I think through what Alessio just told me. “I have zero memories. But at some point, I need to start living in the present, on my own terms, instead of seeking something in the past. I don’t know that I can be a participant in what you are planning, but you have my word I won’t tell our father or brothers what that is.”

“Are you happy with the biker?”

As he asks, Theo comes out of the bathroom in a puff of steam and a white towel that hugs his hips. He rubs his hair with a second towel as drips of water settle on his inked torso.

He’s utterly delicious.

“Yes,” I say loud enough for Theo to hear. “I’m very happy with the biker.”

Theo stops rubbing his hair at that and smiles at me.

“I believe you.”

“Good. Because next time anyone comes near me, I’ll have a blade in hand.”

“That’s definitely more like the old you.”

Theo tosses the hand towel back onto the sink and lets his bath towel drop to the floor. He’s aroused, his cock thick and proud as he puts his palm around it and strokes himself.

I lick my lips. “I have to go.”

I end the call and move the envelope and its contents onto the bedside table.

“Everything good?” he asks.