Under Pressure [IAD Agency] (Siren Publishing Classic)

rule, right, hon? If you don’t answer me, I am going to come in, in ten seconds. One, two, three—”
    “I’m coming!”
    Bella scurried off the bed, struggling on pants and an oversized sweatshirt as she flew to the door. She undid the locks and the alarm and wrenched open the door as Tony’s imposing form bounded into the room. Bella threw herself into his waiting arms as he picked her up. Cradling her in his arms, he moved silently to the couch in her living room.
    Gently, he stroked her hair and crooned soft words to her as he held her shaking body close to him. Although Bella was close to all her brothers, she and Tony had always had a special bond. Being the youngest of the brothers, Tony was closest to her in age, only being three years older than her, but that was not what had made them close.
    Over the years people had jokingly said that they were like twins, knowing more about each other than anyone could understand. He was her best friend. They could read each other’s face as well as their own, feel the depths of each other’s emotions, and Bella knew that her terror and pain had cut him to the bone. Growing up, they had always known if something was wrong with one another, even at a distance.
    When she had moved to France for school and then to New York to live, she had hurt Tony by leaving even though he understood. When she had opened her eyes in the hospital, Bella had met Tony’s pain-filled eyes and knew that he hurt for her as deeply as anyone possibly could. It was all there in his face. He thought he had failed her, was terrified that he almost lost her. Tony had been in California for work when Victor had attacked her. Unexplainably, before any of his family had been able to reach him, he was already on a plane heading to New York, praying that he wasn’t too late.
    As Bella lay in the hospital, Tony had quietly purchased the three-story brick condo building in Chicago’s Gold Coast area where they now lived. He had the condo on the third floor furnished for her, moving his stuff into the unit on the second floor, reconstructing the first floor as a common area for both of their use. He had gotten an old friend of his to install the best security system money could buy, along with a few bits and pieces that were not available to the public, some of which he himself had created.
    When Bella said she had wanted to move home to Chicago, her parents had insisted she move home, but Bella made a stand and said she needed to find her own place. Tony had told her it was taken care of and immediately moved her into her new apartment as soon as they arrived.
    Bella rested her head on Tony’s broad shoulder, burrowing her face close against his neck, seeking comfort, letting his warmth chase away the cold that always seized her body after her nightmares.
    Tony was the only man who could calm Bella after the storm, much to the upset of both her papa and Danny. During her recovery, if one of them had tried to touch her, she would claw and fight them until her terror had released her. With Tony she was calmed almost immediately, turning her head into his neck, and wept silent tears.
    Tony had moved into the building with her because he needed to make sure she was safe, needed to be able to get to her when the nightmares clawed their way to the surface and tried to drag her under. She knew he felt as though he had failed her, but the truth was that it was her own ignorance that had left her open to predators like Victor Dane.
    She had tried to stop Tony from rushing to her rescue every time she had a nightmare, but he knew whether she told him or not. He would race up to her apartment, needing to make sure she was safe and alive for himself. They had set the ten-second rule for the sake of her privacy, allowing her ten seconds to answer him before he would use his own keys on her door and deactivate her alarm.
    “I can’t keep doing this to you, you know.” Bella sighed.
    “What, Bells?”
    Tony continued to stroke her hair, his hand hesitating only after she said, “Interrupting your life. You can’t keep babysitting me. I know you being here taking care of me like this is destroying your life, your freedom. You should move into a place where you don’t have to deal with me all the time, or I should move out.”
    He pulled back slightly, looking at her face, his chocolate eyes darkened with anger, mouth drawn in a tight line.
    “You are not destroying anything! And hell no, you’re not