Page 26 of Complications

“Anything else?”

“The old man said he was going to call you, but Elio threatened him. And his grandkid he was babysitting.”

“There was a goddamn kid there?”

“Well, yeah, a baby.”

What had been anger in Matteo morphed into pure rage. I gave up any pretense of working on my patient.

He’d previously stepped back from Elio but now stalked forward again. Before anyone could pull another breath, Matteo reached down and twisted his fist into Elio’s shirt front. He reared his fist back with every intention of it smashing into Elio’s face.

“No!”

The surprise of my interference stopped everyone in their tracks.

“Don’t…” Elio gasped.

Before anyone could interfere, I abandoned Sam and yanked Elio free. Whatever happened next, nothing was more important than protecting the man I loved.

“Doc, what the fuck are you doing?” Joey shouted.

He moved toward us, and I scrambled to shove Elio between me and the wall. It was more difficult than it should’ve been because Elio wouldn’t stay where I was trying to keep him.

“Michel, you want to tell me something?” Matteo drawled.

“Elio and I are in love.”

I ignored the strangled sound that came from behind me. We could address my less-than-romantic method of declaration at some other time. Right now, I was focused on keeping him alive and, if we were both lucky, in one piece.

“Christ, Michel, don’t say that. No one will believe that,” Elio murmured into my ear.

The rest of the room faded away as the implication of what he’d said, and meant, hit me in the sternum. Matteo and the rest of his crew no longer mattered.

“Why the hell not?” I demanded before turning around to face him.

“You’re you. I’m me. And we both know it’s not love,” Elio muttered.

The pain in his voice took my breath away because I knew it didn’t have anything to do with me and everything to do with how he felt about his place in this family—his family.

“You don’t get to tell me who I love.”

“I do if it’s about me.”

“No, you fucking don’t. I decide that. You don’t have to agree, you don’t have to love me back, but you don’t get to fucking tell me who I get to love. And if I want to fall in love with a man who never gives up, who always does what he thinks is right, no matter the fallout, who protects the people around him even when he knows he’s likely to be punished for it? Then I get to fucking love that man if I fucking want to.”

“Yeah, see, I’m gonna interrupt this lovefest real quick,” Matteo said with a smirk. “There’s still a man bleeding on my floor, and I would very much like to know what the fuck is happening in my business.”

“He’s a⁠—”

“Shut up, Sam. I want to hear from Elio,” Matteo snapped.

“What do you want to know?” The flippancy in Elio’s tone was guaranteed to annoy the hell out of Matteo.

“For starters, dial down the attitude. Why were you at the apartment?”

Rather than answer, Elio stood silent, his chin thrust in the air and his eyes flashing with defiance. Matteo responded to none of it. He just stared at him—no expression, just the penetrating eyes of a man used to getting his own way, no matter how long it took.

I’d known him long enough to know that look. He wasn’t moving on without an answer.