“Gia…”
“I’ll handle it, Rafe. Ye already laid down the law wi’ her. I’ll see that we get all of her technology and keep an eye on her. Dario’ll be back soon, and he can question her about Jase,” Arran stepped in, and I turned to him with a grateful smile.
“And we’ll keep an eye on Cara too. Make sure she’s resting enough,” Cal added.
“I really should just spend the day in my room. I told Gia I would stay out of her way more,” I pointed out.
“No!” Rafe countered urgently. “I don’t want you locked away in your room alone. You told me it helps you feel better, having people around. I don’t want you getting lost again,Gioia.”
“I agree. Yer no’ hiding away just because Gia spat her dummy. We havnae once done anythin’ to stop her joining us all. She’s the one who’s isolated herself, and that happened a long while before ye came back in to the picture, Cara.”
“We’ll try harder to make Gia join us when we watch movies, and boxsets, and stuff, okay? But you don’t have to stop spending time with us,” Cal added.
“I guess we could try,” I agreed. Rafe looked worried when I turned back to him and found him watching me closely. “I’m okay. I won’t get lost, Raffy.”
I just wanted to soothe his frayed edges so he could sleep. He didn’t need to know that inside the chunks that my sister had torn from me that morning and the night before, were just adding to the swirling confusion, fear, chaos, and anxiety that used to be my mind.
CHAPTER 5
ARRAN
“Where is everyone?” Dario asked as he strode into the kitchen a couple of hours later. I was pouring my fifth cup of coffee for the morning, in lieu of getting any actual sleep. I’d barely gotten any sleep the night before after everything that had happened, and even when I did lie beside Cara and closed my eyes, I didn’t sleep fully, wanting to be ready if she woke from nightmares or in pain.
“Rafe went to get some sleep after Cara made him promise he would. Gia’s sulkin’ in her room, since Rafe stripped her of her electronics, as punishment for her shite last night. And Cal and Dante are with Cara, watching some romcom bullshit in the game room.”
“How is she this morning?” he asked as he sank tiredly into a stool at the counter.
“Tired and in pain, but strong, as always,” I replied. “Ye want a coffee?” I offered and he nodded.
“I met with Brax earlier. He showed me proof the kidnapping was the work of the Kozlov’s.”
“What proof?”
“Yuri Kozlov was one of the fuckers we took out last night. No other reason he’d have been there, except he was under the orders of his cousin.”
“It’s what we expected,” I pointed out. The Russians were pissed with us, ever since we shut down their operations in and out of our docks, after the police began looking into them for the murder of that young woman. They’d made that clear enough with the shite they threw at us already. Clearly they thought taking Rafe’s family would be the leverage they needed. It was a huge fucking mistake that they would live to regret, but not for long.
“Rafe will want a meet with them as soon as we can set it up. He wants this handled fast.” Dario told me, and I nodded my agreement.
“Ye think we can get somethin’ set up fer tonight?”
“I’ve already set the ball rolling. We’ll have to see if Kozlov has the balls to face us. He must know we took out Yuri by now, and that we know it was them.”
“Then why would they even show at a meet?”
“They underestimate us. That’s why they took Gia and Cara in the first place. They seem to think we lack the power to retaliate.”
“Then they’re in fer a shock,” I smirked, knowing without question that there would be retaliation and it would not lack power, speed, or violence.
“Rafe will definitely be aiming to prove to any other doubters, just how powerful this family really is,” Dario agreed.
“We need to talk to Gia about her relationship wi’ Jase. Rafe was gonna speak wi’ her, but I told him we’d handle it.”
“Yeah. We definitely need to find out what the fuck that little prick, Jase, was up to. You mind going to coax Gia out of her room and meet me in the office?”
“Aye, though I’m ready fer her puttin’ up quite the protest. She was pitchin’ a fit again this mornin’ in the kitchen,” I sighed.
“Did Cara see it?”
