CHAPTER 14
CARA
“No!” Dante’s barked word had startled me the first five or six times. Now I was used to it, and I just sighed deeply as I turned to him.
“They’re black leggings, Dante. What is your issue with these?” I asked as I stared up the vast difference between us to meet his glare with my own.
“You’re picking the cheapest ones again. Get the thermal ones. Those ones,” he dictated as he pointed to some black leggings that advertised thermal lining inside of them.
“Those ones will be no use to me in spring or summer,” I pointed out.
It had been this way ever since we walked into the large department store, at one end of a vast shopping centre, which Dante had driven me and Callan to, almost two hours ago.
When I had walked in and started to look at the most basic items that would tide me over for a while, Dante had stamped his foot down and told me if I didn’t buy a full wardrobe, that Rafe would approve of, he’d start choosing items himself.
Callan had advised me it would be easier and more cost effective overall if I just chose clothes I actually liked and that would fit.
I had already picked up a couple of pairs of jeans and a mixture of sweaters, both knitted jumpers, and sweatshirts.
I’d picked out a few blouse-type, floaty looking tops, in case I went anywhere a little fancier than I was used to, and a pile of basic plain t-shirts and vest tops that I liked to wear beneath sweaters.
Callan had then gone behind me and picked up the styles I chose in other colour options, going way overboard, but refusing to take anything back.
When I had gotten annoyed and tried to put my own foot down, Dante had stepped in and for some reason I found myself giving into his commanding growls that everything stayed.
There was a shop assistant following us around with a rack on wheels, filled with clothes I had picked, and items both guys had added along the way. That was the second rail already and I felt ill about the cost I knew this was all going to amount to.
“How about we get some of each, then Cara has leggings for all year round?” Callan suggested as he leaned in past me and grabbed multiple pairs of both kinds.
“Fine, but that’s it. I don’t need anything else!” I said firmly,
“That’s not it. Rafe said to get everything. That means you need sports clothes, underwear, pyjamas, shoes, socks…what else?” Dante looked to Callan.
“She definitely needs slippers for the cold marble floors. A dressing gown would be good too. Oh, and outdoor wear. Coats, hats, scarves, gloves,” he went on and I turned to him with a glare.
“You were supposed to be on my side,” I accused.
“I am. I just want to make sure you have everything you might need too,” he argued with his adorable smile in place, making me feel unable to argue further.
“Rafe wants to take care of you. You need to let him. For eleven years he almost lost his shit worrying about you and doing everything he could to get you home. You need to give him whatever he wants now that he has you back,” Dante told me bluntly.
“I don’t need all of this materialistic stuff though. I’ve managed with only what I could fit in a back pack since I was eight years old. This is all just a waste of money, and believe me when I say I hate wasting money,” I explained.
“Money means nothing to Rafe over seeing you safe and settled. I know to you these are just material things, but to Rafe it’s him providing for you, just as he’s needed to do since the day he let you go.
Just give him this, Cara. I know this sounds shitty after the years you’ve spent scrimping and saving for everything, but the money we’re spending here really is nothing more than a drop in the ocean to your brother.
Seeing you in warm clothes that he provided means everything,” Callan tried to explain, and that did make me feel a little better about it all, even though I did still hate wasting the money that would have housed and fed me and Mum for at least a year in my old life, maybe even two or three.
I wasn’t sure because Dante was doing his utmost to hide the price tags from me.
“Fine,” I sighed. “We can get the other stuff.”
“Thank you, gorgeous,” Callan smiled as he linked his arm with mine. I liked when he did that, as he had since we walked into the shopping centre. He smelled so good, his aftershave not too overpowering, but a warming mix of something sandalwood and spice.
“What are you thanking her for? We were buying it all anyway, whether she gave her permission or not,” Dante grumbled as he stared at Callan hard.
“I think Callan was just trying to give me the illusion that I was making some of the decisions here right now,” I laughed.
“Why do that when it’s pretty clear you’re not in charge right now,” Dante continued with his bluntness.
“I’ll allow you to believe that for now, big guy, but don’t underestimate me. I don’t follow orders well,” I told him playfully.
“Seem to follow them just fine to me. I think you might even enjoy it in the right environment,” he teased, throwing me a wink as I stood stock still choking on fresh air at his suggestive words. Where the hell did that come from?
Callan just bust out laughing when I looked to him in shock, then dragged me behind him after Dante without even a word.
***
“Oh my God! Was that your stomach?” Callan laughed from where he sat across the back seat of the Range Rover, which Dante was driving us home in, later that afternoon.
I was just relieved the shopping was over.
Dante had refused to leave the shopping centre until we had literally bought everything he had on a list he had written, even down to me buying waterproof trousers in case of the event of deep snow.
I did try to point out that we lived in the centre of London, where the streets would quickly be cleared, but one thing I learned fast about Dante that day, was that he was not a man who relented easily, or at all it seemed.
He was blunt, short, and very direct, but I didn’t hate it.
Honesty was a pleasant change and I could respect that.
Callan had gentled Dante’s rough edges, and made things more fun, so that even after hours of trudging from store to store, I still found myself smiling and happy to be with the both of them, as different as they were.
“We should have stopped to eat. I’ll find somewhere we can stop now,” Dante announced as he looked to me via the rearview mirror up front.
“No. Let’s just go home, please. I’m not that hungry, but I am completely worn out. I just want to take these shoes off and relax.”
I had been forced to borrow an old pair of Gia’s sneakers, since I didn’t know where my own had gone.
I had a sneaking suspicion Rafe or Dio had stolen and hidden them so I couldn’t run away the first night, but I didn’t accuse anyone.
Instead I just asked Gia to borrow a pair of hers.
It had been fine for the first hour, but they were three sizes too big for me, and they had started to rub me as my feet slipped in and out of them, somewhere around hour two. Now they just hurt a lot.
“She’s right Dante. Her feet hurt in Gia’s shoes. Let’s just go home and Terza can make us all a sandwich or something,” Callan suggested. I was relieved when Dante’s grunt was followed by a nod of agreement.
“Thanks,” I whispered as I looked to Callan gratefully.
“How about you take those trainers off now? I can carry you into the house when we get home.”
“If you’re sure? They are killing me,” I groaned dramatically.
“I think I can manage it,” he laughed. “I’m not quite as nerdy as I look…or maybe I am, but I’m a nerd who works out too.”
“I believe you,” I assured him with a smile.
I leaned down to unlace the sneakers then slid my feet out of them one at a time with a wince of pain.
I’d been wearing my own socks and the ones Callan gave me, but apparently it wasn’t enough to stop the too big shoes giving me blisters and making my feet bleed.
The blood had soaked through both socks on my heels.
“Ouch. Let me take a look, Cara,” Callan said as he went to grab my foot.
“No way! You are not touching my gross feet!” I cried.
“I’m a medical student. I think I can handle a few blisters,” he argued. We were both laughing as he tried to grab my feet and I scrambled to keep them away from him.
“Fuck!” Dante’s hissed curse had us both freezing in place and looking to the front.
“What?” I asked when Dante just continued to look in the rearview mirror and not utter a sound.
“Fuck! The team following us just got cut off at the lights by a huge fucking lorry. It looked like a set up. Check your seatbelts and stay low!” he explained as he put his foot down and the car sped up so fast I was thrust backwards into the seat.
“You think someone’s, what? Coming after us?” I asked as I tried to turn to look out of the back.
“Stay down, Cara,” Callan said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me across the middle seat so I was bent down over it sideways. “Do we have a tail?” he asked Dante.
“We do now. Fuck!”
The car started to swerve around, but I didn’t lift my head to look out of the windows, mainly because I couldn’t because Callan was holding me down with a hand on my back.
Also because I was freaking out that whoever was following us, was probably coming to try and abduct me, just like those men in the parking lot of the club in Chicago.
“Arran, I need back up right now!” Dante barked loudly, and I could only just hear him over the squealing of the tyres of the car as we sped all over, or at least it felt that way.
I was being thrown around all over the back seat, and Callan was the only thing keeping me in place as he held tightly onto the tops of my arms.
“The team was cut off from us and we have a tail. Three dark SUVs. Track the location and get some men the fuck over here!”
“Do ye still have Cara and ma brother with ye?” Arran asked.