“She was stuck right in the fuckin’ middle of it. Gia really laid into her when Cara tried to just talk, told Cara she doesnae want her in the house, nor in the country. Blamed Cara fer everything that’s happened, and accused her of a ton of other bullshit. Rafe shut it down, but the damage was done. I’m pretty sure Cara’s thinkin’ she needs to leave. Rafe told her she wasnae going anywhere, but Gia was vicious, and Cara doesnae want to upset her anymore.”
“What the hell is going on with that kid? I know she’s spoiled and she can be selfish, but this…the way she’s behaved since Cara returned, it’s so unlike her.”
“Something’s goin’ on. The way Gia hates Cara…it’s no’ just jealousy. Maybe Jase had somethin’ to do wi’ it? Maybe he poisoned Gia against Cara for some reason?” I suggested.
“We need to talk to her, and find out what Jase was up to. I still don’t understand why they contacted Cara and tried to lure her in, when they already had Gia. It doesn’t make any sense? For some reason, someone wants to get hands on Cara and we need to work out who and why,” Dario growled, looking seriously stressed out. He hated unanswered questions and he loathed not being in control of every situation.
“What would the Kozlov’s want wi’ Cara though? How would they even know about her?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe they were offered something to get hold of Cara, something they couldn’t turn down,” Dario mused.
“Like another route for their trade?” I questioned, and he nodded. “Ye thinking this is the Armenians again? They have their own routes.”
“Yep. But what I don’t understand is why the hell the Armenians want Cara? First those bastards trying to grab her in Chicago, and now this. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Do ye think Isabella could have been tangled up wi’ the Armenians somehow? They obviously do business over there. Cara said those guys who tried to grab her were American.”
“Who fucking knows? Cara said her Mum was barely lucid by the end, but before that? She would have done anything for drugs from what I know. Maybe she got into bed with the Armenians? There’s no limit to the shit that woman willingly dragged Cara into.”
“Let’s talk to Gia, see what she kens about Jase. We can go from there,” I suggested, and he just nodded, but he looked as tense as I felt.
There were too many unanswered questions, and far too much risk to Cara right now. It was putting us all on edge. We needed to know what was going on and put an end to it as soon as possible. None of us would feel better until we did; until Cara was safe.
DARIO
The door to my office was thrown open and Gia stormed in, just as I expected her to. It seemed her foul attitude was the only emotion she was willing or able to throw around just lately.
“What?” She demanded angrily as she stopped just inside the doorway and glared at me hard. She was dressed up as if she were headed out to a party or some grand event, make up painted on perfectly, not a hair out of place. What game did she think she was playing?
“Enough,” I said calmly from where I sat behind my desk. “Drop the attitude and sit.”
“Look at you playing big bad boss,” she sneered. “Where’s Rafe? No…let me guess!” She crossed her arms over her chest, raising a manicured finger to her chin and tapping at it as she dramatically pretended to think. “With his precious, perfectly broken little sister, right?” she declared with a venomous smile.
“Jesus wept, Gia. What the hell is yer problem wi’ yer sister? She’s done nothin’ but try to make nice wi’ yer,” Arran ground out. He had entered the office behind Gia and he was now leaning against the wall beside the closed door.
“So you’re sleeping with her too, huh? She really does get around, doesn’t she?”
“Gia!” I raged as I shot to my feet and leaned down over my desk with a deafening slam of my hands on it’s surface. I got some satisfaction from seeing her jump at my outburst, and even more from the step back away from me she took. It wasn’t that I wanted her to fear me. She was like a sister to me and I loved her. I would lay down my life for her if it came to that. I had just wanted to see a real reaction from her – to know the Gia I knew was still in there somewhere, underneath the bullshit exteriorshe had been wearing like armour ever since the day after Cara arrived. “Sit. Down,” I told her through clenched teeth.
“Dario…” she began, but with one look from me she wisely stopped and moved to sit in one of the two chairs before my desk.
“I don’t want to hear any more of your crap right now. I have some questions which you will answer. I want the truth. Don’t even think about lying to me, Gia, because I will know. You’re not quite as good of an actress as you think you are.”
“And what are you gonna do if I don’t answer? Drag me down to that basement, in the headquarters building? Torture answers from me? That’s what you all do, isn’t it? I know what you are….what you all are,” she spat as she turned to glare at Arran behind her briefly too. “You pretend to be business men, but you’re monsters…all of you. Fucking monsters!”
“I said I didn’t want to hear any more of your crap!” I barked. I definitely scared her that time as she jolted in her chair, then seemed to curl into herself, some of her bravado disappearing from her face. I hadn’t meant to scare her so much, but I was exhausted, and stressed out after the events of the evening before. I wanted answers and I just didn’t have it in me to deal with Gia’s histrionics. She was acting like what she told us was news to her, and to us. It wasn’t.
Gia had known what business her family were in from an early age. She had known what her father was when he was alive, and the life Rafe and I had both been raised to live. Nowadays, we were more business men than the monsters we had been trained as, but she wasn’t wrong that monsters lived within all of us. We knew it, and so did she. So bringing it all up now, like it was some huge revelation, was only more of her dramatics.
“You can’t talk to me like this!” she cried, her voice trembling just slightly. I might not even have picked up on it, had I not been trained to find weakness at every opportunity. It was something I was good at, a skill Marcello had seen in me, nurtured, and exploited when I was younger.
“I wouldn’t need to if you would come in here and act even just somewhat human.”
“Human? Whatever Dario! You have no idea what I’m dealing with right now!” she snapped.
“I’ll bet it’s all because of Cara though, right?” Arran growled sarcastically.
“She doesn’t belong here!”
