“That’s a relief. I hated to think of her sleeping on that mound of bedding and blankets. It’s better she stays away from Gia too, at least until we get to the bottom of all of this,” I pointed out, and everyone, even Dante, nodded in agreement.
“I intend to uncover everything from Gia when she returns home. She won’t get away with any more lies this time,” Rafe announced with determination.
“She’s shaping up to be a little too much like her mother if you ask me,” Dante ground out.
“Don’t, Dante. I know she’s fucked up, but my mother has poisoned her. God only knows what that witch told her. With everything with Jase too, Gia’s been used badly. None of what has happened is her fault. Not really. Things will change once I’ve spoken to her and explained the truth fully,” Rafe countered.
“We’ll put it right, all of it. We’ll take down anyone involved in hurting either of your sisters and we will end it all, once and for all. It’ll all work out, Rafe,” Dario assured him.
I nodded my agreement, hoping for both Cara and Gia’s sake that he was right. For all our sakes, really. None of us wouldcome back from losing any member of our family. This all just needed to be over, and fast.
Before anyone spoke again I slipped from the office, closing the door behind me. There was only one place I wanted to be. With Cara.
CHAPTER 14
CARA
I stood before the vast picture window, that made up one entire wall of the lounge area of the hotel suite we were staying in, on the North side of Chicago. The hectic city I was looking down on was nothing like the version of Chicago I had lived in. This side of the city was exciting and modern, filled with brightly lit buildings, fancy restaurants, and high-end stores I’d never dare set foot in. The sun was setting and the city was lighting up below me, literally, all of the buildings illuminated with ritzy lit up signs, and the hundreds of windows in the high rises, coming on almost like they had been synchronised to do so.
We’d only been there a matter of hours, and I already wished I had never come. For some ridiculous reason I had just assumed I’d instantly find my strength again when I stepped off of that private plane, back on American soil. I thought being back there would make me feel the need to summon up my resilience and fight, that I had worn as an armour for all the years I had survived there. But that didn’t happen.
Instead I was back in a place where unspeakable things had happened to me, over and over again, year after year. I had lost my childhood there. I had lost everything that I thought made me who I once was, and I had been forced to become someone fearful and wary of everyone and everything around me.
That place had made me strong too, but it had made me hard, and cold too, as a result. Everything had been taken from me in the United States. My family, my innocence, my life as I knew it. I had been broken there in the end – that last night in the parking lot atJewels– that had been my breaking point. And now I was back there, but this time I felt feeble, and vulnerable. My strength seemed to have left me for good, and I was afraid now. I had to face my past if I were to get the answers I needed, but I honestly didn’t know how I would do that without my armour in place.
“Cara? Yer supposed to be resting, lass.”
I turned and found Arran coming from one of several bedrooms that were within the vast penthouse suite of this palatial hotel.
“I tried, but I can’t settle,” I sighed, turning my attention back to the view of the city.
We’d all decided to crash for a couple of hours when we arrived, tired from the journey, but as soon as I’d laid in the huge bed in the silent room, alone, I had known there would be no sleep for me.
“How no’?”
“I’m not that tired,” I shrugged. “I slept on the plane. Besides, being here is making me feel antsy to get going and find some answers.”
“We will, Cara, but it was a long journey.” I heard Arran’s steps cross the shiny tiled floor and stop close behind me. “How do ye feel? Being back here?”
“Haunted,” I whispered honestly. “The ghosts from my past are all right here, Arran. I could handle it before, but now…I…I don’t feel like myself…like the old me that I need to be, to survive here. I don’t know where she went. My strength used to be my armour, and now that’s gone.”
“That lass, that ye think ye were before, she’s still a part of ye. A pretty big part too, from all I’ve seen. She’s just a wee bit fragile right now. She needs time to heal. And until she does, ye dinnae need yer armour. Let us all be yer armour. We’ll keep ye safe.”
“I know that,” I said as I turned to face him, finding him so close that we were almost touching when I faced him. “It’s not just about being safe though. I’m gonna need my strength just to walk back into my old world. The people I have to speak to, the places we need to go…if I show any weakness…”
“Cara, yer frettin’ too much. There’s no’ a speck of weakness in ye, lass. Just because ye feel a wee bit shaken right now, doesnae make ye weak. Yer strength is who ye are, and anyone who sees ye and speaks wi ye, will recognise that.”
“I hope you’re right, or we won’t be getting any answers,” I sighed.
“We’ll get yer answers. Stop yer stressin’ now and take a breath or two.” Arran wrapped his arms around me and I stepped into him, accepting the hug that I needed. “I ken ye dinnae wanna be here, wee one. We’ll get this done and get ye home as soon as we can, aye?”
“Yeah. That sounds good,” I agreed as I clung to him. I held there for a few minutes longer, just trying to take strength from his strength wrapped around me. Then I stood and took a deepbreath. “With that in mind, we should head out tonight. My first stop is only open at night.”
“Where’s that?”
“Jewels. The strip club where I worked. I think a couple of the girls there may be able to point me in the right direction of some dealers in the area.”
“The place that ye were attacked?”
