CHAPTER 10 #2
“Rafe!” The squeal came from the top of the stairs, then a ball of red sped down and stopped halfway with another squeal. I looked up as she stopped, and there was no mistaking who looked right back at me.
“Gia?” I whispered as tears instantly filled my eyes.
I swiped them away, wanting to be able to see my sister properly.
She was so much older, but of course she would be.
Her hair was blonde and hung in long waves down her back.
Her face had changed, her adorable chubby cheeks long gone and replaced with a model like bone structure.
Her eyes were glassy, but even across the space between us I could see the bright green they had always been.
She was slim, but not thin. Her curves were perfect and she was definitely taller than me, even though she was only sixteen.
She was wearing a red fluffy hoody thing that covered her almost to her knees and below she had on red and black striped socks that pulled up over her knees.
She was obviously comfortable, and she looked so good.
Healthy and strong. Suddenly all of my pain, panic, and fear left me and I felt this warmth inside me to know she was safe and thriving.
I thanked whoever was listening that Rafe had kept her home with him the day I had been sent away.
I would never have wanted her to endure what I had been through.
“Oh my God!” she whimpered as she slammed a hand over her mouth after taking me in. “I-it really is you. I remember…oh my God!”
She ran down the last of the stairs, then she threw herself at me. I tried to brace, but I’d have definitely still fallen over if Rafe hadn’t placed himself right behind me. I grunted in pain as she smashed against me, but it didn’t stop me from wrapping my arms around her and holding her tightly.
“It’s me,” I told her as I held her and just cried. She was taller than me, by a good half a foot, and she smelled of vanilla. Her soft hair was brushing the side of my face and I remembered brushing it for her every morning when she was little.
“I missed you so much, Cara,” she told me tearfully.
“I missed you too. You grew up so much,” I sniffled as we pulled apart from one another and I took her in all over again. “You’re so beautiful,” I remarked.
“So are you. I don’t think I’m the little sister anymore though. You’re tiny,” she announced with a smile.
I looked down at myself, like I didn’t already know how short I was.
Ever since my Mum told me Marcello was not my dad, as I’d always believed, I had questioned if my bio father was where the short genes had come from.
My Mum hadn’t been short. Quite the opposite – she’d been tall and statuesque, always towering over me.
That was a part of why, even on her toughest days, she was always able to get a few hits on me before I managed to escape her in the last few years.
In contrast I was small, standing at five feet two inches.
As long as I could remember I had been skinny too, and not in an attractive way, but in a teenage boy kind of way.
As I stood there, I felt so inferior compared to my siblings, or half siblings to be accurate.
They were both good looking, tanned, and in shape. Next to me they seemed to glow,
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean anything by it. You’re gorgeous! Petite and perfect.” Gia seemed to panic, and I knew it was because I had lowered my head and not lifted it again.
I lifted my head quickly, not wanting to upset her, but the move made the room around me sway. Heat rushed to my head from nowhere and I frantically reached to grab onto something as I felt I might pass out.
“Cara!” Rafe gripped me from behind as Gia grabbed one of my arms.
“What’s wrong?” Gia cried at the same time.
“I’m alright,” I uttered as I slammed my eyes closed and grabbed onto Gia’s arm.
“Rafe! What’s wrong? Is she hurt? Does she need a doctor?” Gia panicked.
“No. I…I’m okay.” I opened my eyes and tried to push up from Rafe so I could stand on my own and show Gia I was fine, but it was a mistake. Heat rushed over me again and then everything around me went blurry, sounds echoing, and then darkness.
***
“She’s not okay! Look at her! Why is she so bruised? What the hell happened over there?” Gia’s hissed, but clearly angry and panicked words brought me back to awareness.
“She was attacked. We believe it was the men who killed our mother. They were planning to kidnap Cara, but she fought back and they hurt her,” Rafe explained quietly.
“What does that even mean? Why weren’t you protecting her?”
“I messed up, Gia, okay? Cara was scared of us and she ran away before I could stop her. By the time we found her…well, it was too fucking late.” Rafe sighed tiredly.
“She was checked over by a doctor over there. He told us she didn’t have any serious injuries. She’s just exhausted. She’s been through so much this week, and she’s barely eaten. She just needs some rest and plenty of TLC, and she’ll feel better,” Gio added.
“Is she safe now? Are these men, whoever they are, going to come after her again?” Gia asked, and she sounded so much older than her sixteen years. It worried me. Had she been forced to grow up too fast too?
“I don’t know, but I’m doing everything in my power to see that doesn’t happen.
In the interim, she’s safe here, with us.
I have extra men outside and in the garages.
Arran, Dante, Sil, and Jase will be personal protection for both of you if you leave this house, until this is over, and you don’t go anywhere without one of them, and a team tailing you, understood? ” Rafe told her.
“Yeah. I’m not an idiot. I won’t do anything that means we could lose her again. We only just got her home again,” Gia sighed.
I opened my eyes then, not wanting to eavesdrop any longer.
I was laid on a wide bed, the sheets beneath me white and soft.
I could see a lilac duvet folded at the foot of the bed and sat on it, at the side closest to me, was Gia.
Rafe stood at her side, and we were in a bright, spacious, modern bedroom.
“Where are we now?” I groaned as I pushed myself up onto my elbow and glanced around me. Thankfully, the room didn’t spin, but I felt groggy, my head heavy.
“This is your room, Tesorino. You’re home now,” Rafe told me gently as he came closer and crouched beside the bed so we were at eye level with each other. “You fainted on me,” he sighed with a lopsided smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Embarrassed mainly. I don’t think I’ve ever fainted in my life,” I replied.
“Don’t be silly. You’re obviously exhausted and in pain,” Gia cut in as she jumped up the bed until she was sat at my side.
I tried not to grimace as the bouncing of the mattress caused pain up my side.
It wasn’t until I felt her soft hand running up my bare arm that I realised she had pulled off the hoody I was wearing, so a lot of the bruises I had on my arms, chest and shoulders were visible.
“It’s Rafe’s fault for making you walk into the house.
He should have been carrying you. It’s not like it would be hard.
What do you weigh? Five, six stone? You need feeding up. ”
“Gia!” Rafe bit out.
“It’s fine,” I interrupted before Rafe could upset her. It wasn’t like she was saying anything untrue. I knew I needed to gain some weight. It had been years since I looked in a mirror and found anyone remotely healthy looking back.
“See! It’s fine.” Gia turned and stuck a tongue out at Rafe, then turned back to me. “We’re sisters. We can tell each other anything, can’t we?” she asked me.
She looked younger in that moment, more like the child I had left behind, so filled with mischief and innocence, reaching out for me to show her that I loved her.
She had always needed that reassurance, even when she was small – not that I had known that was what she was seeking when I was younger, but it all made sense later.
“Of course we can,” I agreed.
“I need to go and make some phone calls. I’ll be in my room if you need anything,” Dio spoke up, then he looked to me with a small smile, which I tried to return. As soon as he left the room I wished he would come right back. I felt safer with him there.
“I love your accent. It’s such a mix. You sound American, but I can still hear the London accent in there too,” she laughed.
“I guess I am a bit of a mix now,” I shrugged. “I was over there for a long time. It’s hard not to pick up the accent.”
I tried to push myself up to sitting, my elbow no longer able to hold me up alone any longer, but it was a struggle, and I ended up laid back down against the pillows with a deep huff of annoyance.
“How much pain are you in right now?” Rafe asked me as he stood to his full height and studied me.
“I’ve lived with worse. I’m just exhausted,” I replied.
“You should go, Rafe. Get some sleep yourself. I’ll help Cara get settled and we can let her sleep for a while,” Gia suggested.
The idea of Rafe leaving panicked me in the most irrational way, but when I turned to look at him again I could see how exhausted he looked.
I didn’t think he had slept a wink in all of the time he’d been with me in Chicago, and he had to be injured too from fighting off that motherfucker in the car park outside Jewels.
I was being ridiculous feeling nervy about him leaving me and I fully knew it, but I was beginning to understand that he really did care about me, and that he truly had been just desperate to get me back home with him.
Knowing that brought back all of my own feelings and memories of how much I had loved him before, and of how safe I used to feel with him.
It made me want to latch onto him and never let go, because I didn’t want to be alone anymore, and when Rafe was close, I felt as though I wasn’t.