“And did you tell her Cara’s plans?”
“Yes, I think so. Why? What has Gia to do with this?” he demanded, his hands clenching tightly in his lap, a sure sign of how irate and impatient he was getting.
“The kids at the restaurant, their cousin goes to school with Gia. They’re good friends, she and Gia. Dante and Arran paid her a visit and she spilled her guts almost right away. Said that Gia called her and asked her to send someone to watch Cara. Gia wanted to know if it was a date, and for evidence to be gathered of Cara with the guys.” I ground out.
I hated putting this on Rafe, and I still found it so hard to believe, but Dante had been sure of his information when he called me. Gia had sent people to track her own sister in some ridiculous mission to catch Cara out.
“No. That can’t be right. Why would she do that?”
“Because she wants Cara gone, Rafe. She’s made that very obvious. I think she was hoping if she showed you evidence that Cara is having some kind of affair with the others, that you’d throw her out on her ear. She’s still got it in her head that Cara is trying to entrap us all.” I couldn’t make it any plainer for him than that. I knew he loved Gia. We all did, but ever since Cara arrived, the Gia we knew before was gone and in her place was this cold, manipulative, vindictive little witch that I was really growing to dislike. “Either that, or she just wanted to scare andfuck with Cara, prove she could, even while she’s not in the bloody country.”
She was putting Cara through so much and I didn’t understand why she couldn’t see that. Didn’t she understand that Cara had already endured so much more than anyone should have to? How could she hate her own sister so much, when all Cara wanted to do was love her?
“This can’t be right. Gia is spoiled and bratty at times, but this? To plan and connive like this? It’s not her,” Rafe denied.
“It gets worse. Dante and Arran went into the office to check Gia’s phone records to confirm the girls story. When they did that, they found more.”
“More? What more? What the hell is happening to my sister, Dario? This isn’t her. She’s gentle at heart. She cares about people.”
“I don’t know. Dante just told me to get you and get over there. Whatever it is, I think it’s bad, Rafe. I’m so sorry. I can’t believe Gia would behave as she has either, but things just keep escalating, and right now I think we have to think hard about protecting Cara. You saw her tonight. She’s not as strong as she would have us all believe.”
I couldn’t get rid of the image of her curled into herself, covering her eyes, and shaking violently in the doorway of her bedroom that night. She had looked so small and innocent. So broken. All I had wanted to do was sweep her up and shelter her from the entire world. All I ever wanted to do, every time I saw her, was hold her and protect her from anything that could ever upset or hurt her ever again.
The more I got to know her, and spent time with her, the more I wanted her. I was in love, not just with her strength, but with her fragility too. She needed me, and that turned me on. She had fire in her, and yet I had seen the way her cheeks heated and her eyes widened when she submitted by following a simple direction. She would thrive under my guidance and I wanted to witness that. I wanted to teach her who she truly was and show her just how strong she could really be.
But my plan to make her mine was flawed. Firstly she was my best friend’s little sister. There was no doubt in my mind that Rafe would kill me if he knew even a fraction of the things I dreamed of doing to Cara every time I set eyes on her. I wasn’t afraid of the beating I knew he’d give me when he found out. I could handle Rafe. But I was terrified of losing my brother. Rafe had been in my life for as long as I could remember, and losing him wasn’t an option. I was falling hard for Cara, but I already loved Rafe as my brother, and I would be lost without him in my life.
And even if by some miracle we could find a way to win Rafe around, there were the others to consider. It was very obvious that Cara liked Callan. I saw it every time they were together, the way they looked at one another, and the easy smiles and touches they shared. It was all just so natural. I wasn’t sure if they’d taken things further than that, but they would. Of that I was sure.
Dante was obsessed with her too, and I was pretty sure he had already decided he was claiming her, whether Cara agreed to this or not. And I’d noticed Arran watching her too. Much like his brother, he had an easy and fun relationship with her, and they seemed to laugh together a lot. Cara looked at him the way she looked at the others and that was not good. Out of all ofus, I had spent the least time with her, since I was always busy with the business. Being Rafe’s second came with long hours and unshirkable responsibilities.
Even though I had known Cara the longest, we had barely had time to talk, and I didn’t think we had much in common. I wasn’t even sure if she was interested in me the same way she seemed to be interested in the others, and that fucking hurt. Because I couldn’t see my future without that beautiful, strong, sexy woman in it. Not anymore.
“I have to protect both of them, Dario. Cara from Gia, and Gia from herself, it seems,” Rafe threw back.
“Let’s just see what the others have found and go from there, but I don’t think Gia and Cara can live together again once Gia gets back. I honestly don’t think Cara can take much more on her shoulders right now.”
“I can’t just send one of them away. They’re both my sisters. I want them close, where I can protect them,” he roared.
“We’ll figure it out,” I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with Rafe as worked up and pissed off as he was.
“Do you think she’s alright? Cara?” Rafe asked after several minutes of tense silence.
“Cal will keep a close eye on her, but she’s not alright, Rafe. She needs some professional help. I know she doesn’t like the idea, but she tried to commit suicide. Now she can’t even promise you she won’t do it again, and her mind is such a dark place. It terrifies me what she’ll do if she is left alone for too long,” I admitted.
“Me too,” he agreed. “I know she’s strong most of the time, but then it’s like a switch is hit, and she just shatters to pieces. If thatwere to happen when no one were around I worry what her past and her fears would drive her to. I’m terrified to leave her most of the time. I obsessively watch the cameras at the house, just to check on her.”
“We all do. She means a lot to all of us now. We have to do more to help her,” I pushed.
“I’ll look into finding a therapist she can see. It’s like you said in Chicago – I need to step up and be the bad guy sometimes, if that’s what it takes to get her the help she needs.”
“She’ll understand eventually, Rafe. She knows you love her and that you just want the best for her.”
Rafe remained quiet for the rest of the drive to our office building. I parked up in the underground car park, and we walked silently to the lifts.
We were almost to the executive floor when Rafe’s phone beeped. He looked down at it, then turned the screen to face me, showing me the image, which Cal must have sent, of Cara fast asleep, her head laid on Cal’s chest as he too seemed to be laid out on the sofa in the living room.
“She looks peaceful,” I told Rafe when he turned his cell away from me far too fast. I wanted desperately to ask him to send me the picture, so I could study it more closely. Oddly, I didn’t feel jealous that she was settled with Callan. I just felt relief that she was peaceful and getting the rest she needed.
