“It’s too little too late,” she threw back as she lifted her head and set her fiery glare on me again.
“Yer bein’ ridiculous, Gia. Here ye are, given back the sister ye thought ye’d lost forever, and yer just throwin’ it away, throwin’ Cara away when all she wants to do is know and love ye,” Arran sighed.
“Whatever! Are we done here?” Gia demanded as she crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
“For now. Go to your room and stay there until Rafe decides what to do with you,” I warned.
“You can’t just keep me prisoner here!” she wailed.
“We’re keeping you safe, Gia. It says more about you and your attitude if you choose to see that as us keeping you prisoner,” I told her calmly. She just let out a loud huff as she rose to her feet and stormed from the room, slamming the office door closed behind her.
I hated that she was so angry and bitter about everything, but I had no idea how to get through to her and make her see any sense. We needed to know what was going on with her, and why she hated Cara so much, but that was going to be a hell of a lot easier said than done, it seemed.
CHAPTER 6
CARA
I turned over again with a deep, exhausted sigh. My body was telling me that I needed to sleep, but my brain wouldn’t shut off long enough for that to happen. The last twenty-four hours had me reeling and I couldn’t stop thinking and stressing.
On the whole I’d had a quiet day that day. Callan had stayed with me the whole time, and Dante and Arran had been in and out too between working. I’d watched a lot of television and eaten a ton of junk food, and it had been good and peaceful, especially when my body and head ached so much from the previous nights injuries.
But I hadn’t been able to shut down my mind then either. The violence and gore of the night before had brought back so much of my past, and my mind continued to stray to faces and times I didn’t want to ever relive again. Replays of me shooting Jase had me seeing blood, and that just took me back to my apartment, and to the discovery of my Mum’s body.
I had worked hard to block it all out and not allow myself to give in to my fears and the panic rising within me, and I had put up a pretty good front for the most part. I knew I had been quiet, but the others seemed to think I was just tired and I played along with that.
Add to that what Gia had thrown at me after the attack and then again that morning and it was a lot. I hated that Gia seemed to despise me. I didn’t know what I had done to cause it, if I had done anything. The first night things had been fine. Gia seemed happy to have me back. She’d hugged me and slept beside me. She’d even seemed worried about me. I’d felt as though she wanted me there, then it all changed and I just didn’t understand why. But right then the why wasn’t as important. The bottom line was that my being there was hurting Gia. She wasn’t herself and that was hurting her relationships with her family. Yes, the way she was acting was unreasonable and childish, but she was a child. When were teenagers ever rational?
All I knew was that if I couldn’t find a way to get her to speak with me, so we could change the way things stood, then I would have to leave, and that completely terrified me, which was ridiculous! I had been on my own for years. I knew I could survive alone. I knew I would be okay, but in just a matter of days there with Rafe and the others, I had found security and a sense of safety I never even realised I was missing. Now that I had that, I knew I would feel so much more lost, left alone without that safety around me.
With a frustrated huff I tossed back the duvet and rolled to my knees from my pile of blankets in the closet. I still couldn’t bring myself to sleep outside in the vast bedroom when I was alone. It was just too open and silent. I didn’t feel safe there, especially in the stillness of the night. Cal had offered to stay the night with me when he walked me to my room earlier, but I had declined the offer, needing some space where I could safely fall apart if I needed to. Now I wished I had allowed him to stay.
I felt better when he was with me – when any of them were with me. And part of me hated myself for that – that I needed anyoneclose to feel calm and safe after so many years of fighting and proving again and again that I didn’t need anyone else.
But deep down I was pretty sure that fact hadn’t changed really. I could still survive alone if I had to, but I didn’t want to any more, and why should I now that I didn’t have to be?
I got to my feet and grabbed Dante’s sweater from where I had hung it on a hook on the back of the closet door. He had run off to get it for me earlier when I was a little chilly, pulling it on over Cal’s hoody, which I had already had on. He had seemed satisfied when I accepted it, and each time since when he saw that I still had it on. That night I had stolen it, just the way I had already stolen several of Cal’s. I knew it was crazy behaviour, but I liked having their clothes. They were not only loose and comfortable, but they gave me comfort I didn’t want to look heavily into.
Dante’s sweatshirt was huge. It hung down to my knees and I had to roll the sleeves up a half dozen times just so I could use my hands, but it was soft and smelled just slightly of Dante, which I needed right then.
I was a little unsteady as I stepped out of my closet and into my room. I knew it was because I was exhausted. Dizziness struck as I moved, caused by my still thumping head wound, from that bastard hitting me the night before. Maybe I was a little concussed after all, I mused as I reached for the door frame to steady myself.
I paused there for several minutes, just allowing the light-headedness to pass. I knew I should just lie down and go to sleep, but I also knew that wasn’t going to happen, and even if it did, I was terrified of the nightmares that would come next.
Instead I left my room, feeling a little less dizzy. If I wasn’t going to sleep I was definitely going to need coffee so I slowly made my way down to the kitchen.
It was late and the house was silent as I tiptoed down the stairs. Cal was in his room, I was sure. Gia too. I had heard her moving around next door until a couple of hours before, when she must have gone to sleep. The others? I wasn’t sure.
Rafe, Dio, Dante, and Arran had all left after dinner that night for a meeting. The details had been kept quiet and I hadn’t pushed for information because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know.
A meeting so late at night was unlikely to be anything to do with the legitimate business, and the fact the meeting was being held the day after Gia’s kidnapping couldn’t be just coincidence. Rafe was very likely taking retaliatory action against whoever took Gia and hurt us both that night. I was pretty sure of that, but I decided I wanted to be spared what I was sure would be the bloody, murderous details.
By the time I reached the kitchen I was regretting my reluctance to use the lift that was in the house. I was more exhausted than I realised and my legs were trembling beneath me again. I felt weak, and that was an unsettling feeling. In my life before, being as weak as I knew I was right then could have cost me my life. But I was safe there, I reminded myself. There was security outside the house, not to mention the place was locked up tighter than Fort Knox. No one could get into the house.
I moved into the kitchen and turned on the fancy coffee maker. It was one of those things with the pods. I only knew how to use it because Cal had shown me how to. The coffee it made was a bittoo fancy for me, especially after the machine swill I was used to drinking at the factory, but coffee was coffee and I needed it.
I was just crossing the kitchen with my steaming mug of black coffee in my hand, desperate to just sit at the island and take the weight from my exhausted, weak legs, when the kitchen door being thrown open startled me badly. It banged open against the wall, and I cursed loudly in fright, jolting so badly I spilt hot coffee on my hand, then dropped the whole mug to the ground at the pain of the burn. I cursed again as the coffee and shards of mug sprayed over my bare feet, but I didn’t take my eyes from the door.
“Cara?” Rafe walked in, closely followed by Dio and Dante.
