In My Soul (De Santis Family #2)

CHAPTER 1

CARA

“RAFE!” Gia screamed shrilly, the sound startling me as she sped around me and ran to Rafe.

He just about caught her, and wrapped her tightly in his arms. Relief filled me as I watched her cling tightly to him, while Rafe clutched her close, in an attempt to soothe her.

They were both alright, and that was all I had truly wanted.

Then, all of a sudden, the bubble of relief burst and Arran, Dio, and Callan were before me, crowding in. I tried not to jolt, but I was feeling a little out of it, with the pain I was in, and likely from the knock I had taken to my head, and they all just suddenly seemed to appear from nowhere.

“Easy, lass. Yer alright now. It’s just us,” Arran soothed as he reached a hand out slowly and moved some of the hair, that was stuck to my face with my own vomit, back behind my ear softly.

“Cara? Look at me, baby. Where are you hurt?” Dio demanded. I’d just managed to lift my head to meet Arran’s eyes, and I groaned as I tried to move my head again to find Dio.

“Both of you, just back off and let me check her over,” Cal barked, surprising me, even through my fuzziness, with the command in his words. I’d never heard him sound that serious before.

“Jesus Christ! Cara! How badly is she hurt?” I heard Rafe growl from somewhere behind us all.

“I’m o-okay,” I tried to reassure him, but the words came out quieter than I intended them to.

“Let me be the judge of that.” I looked up and found Cal knelt between my legs now, leant so close to my face I couldn’t miss him.

“Hi,” I whispered, hating seeing the worry on his face.

“Hi gorgeous,” he replied, and finally he smiled. It wasn’t his full, megawatt smile, but it comforted me still. “Can you tell me what happened? Where hurts the most?” he asked.

“My shoulder…I th-think it’s dislocated,” I nodded my head to the left to indicate the arm, which I knew wasn’t hanging right from its joint, but that just made my head throb angrily too. “And my head. They…I took a hit…b-butt of a gun I think. I passed out.”

A roar that sounded completely feral and lethal rattled through the air around me, and I instinctively reached for Cal as fear caused my heart rate to speed up unnaturally.

“Dante!” Arran called with alarm. I turned with concern, but I was too slow, and Arran had run off down the street, presumably after Dante.

I watched on as Dante ripped a wicked looking knife from somewhere at the small of his back and lunged for one of the guys bleeding out on the sidewalk – the one who had opened the door to the garage to me earlier, with his roll neck jumper.

Dante plunged the knife into the guys throat – right through that roll neck - then slid it sideways, as though he were simply running a hot knife through butter.

Blood began to spurt out, spraying everywhere, including at Dante, but he either didn’t notice, or didn’t care, because he simply tossed the body aside and grabbed the next – the youngest guy who had grabbed my arm when I tried to run to Gia.

A sound of distress slipped from me as Dante slashed his blood covered knife through the air, and instantly Cal was turning me to face him again.

“Focus on me, Cara, okay? Just stay with me right now,” he told me, and Rafe called to someone to get Dante under control in the background.

“Don’t l-let anyone hurt him. He…he’s upset,” I pleaded as I looked from Cal, over to Dio who was still knelt beside me.

“No one is going to hurt him, Piccola. They couldn’t if they tried right now. Not with the rage he’s in,” Dio assured me.

“Cara? Look at me now,” Cal said more firmly, and I listened, turning my face and meeting his eyes. “Good. You said you passed out. Do you feel nauseous, or lightheaded?”

“I threw up…my hair…you sh-shouldn’t t-touch me,” I warned him as I realised the state I was in.

“Sshh now. I don’t care about that,” he soothed as he cupped his hand around the right side of my face and softly traced his thumb over my cheek.

“What do you think, Cal? Concussion?” Dio asked. There was an unevenness to his voice. It was nowhere near as cool and steady as it usually was.

“I think so, and she’s right about her shoulder. We need to get her home and call the Doc in, as soon as possible,” Cal replied, then he turned to me again. “I know you have to be in a load of pain right now, babe, but do you think you can let me pick you up?”

“I…I can walk if you help me,” I told him shakily.

“No being brave right now, Carr. Cal will pick you up and carry you. I won’t risk you falling and angering those injuries anymore,” Dio told me flatly, and I didn’t have the energy to argue. Instead I just looked to Cal and nodded.

“We need to get out of here ‘afore the police turn up. No way that shoot out went unnoticed,” Arran called loudly, and when I searched him out with my eyes, I was relieved to see he had his arm around Dante.

Dante was covered with blood, and panting so hard and fast that I could see his body quaking with the movement.

He had his head lowered, and I wished he would look up and meet my eyes.

“Where’s Gia?” I asked with worry when I couldn’t see her, but then Rafe turned around from where he had been issuing orders to his men, and I was relieved to see she was still clinging to him desperately.

She was shaking and I could hear the sound of her sobs too.

Rafe had one arm wrapped around her, rubbing it up and down her back soothingly.

When Rafe turned and his eyes met mine, he grimaced. He started to head my way, but Gia stopped him, refusing to move from where they stood together in the middle of the road, away from the bodies.

“I’m okay,” I mouthed to Rafe, or hoped I did. He looked pained, like he was choosing between us, but I didn’t see it that way. Gia needed him and I had Cal and Dio. I was fine. Finally, he just gave me a single nod, then wrapped both of his arms around Gia and tried to calm her.

“Can you wrap your good arm around the back of my neck for me, Cara?” Cal asked, pulling my attention back to the task at hand.

I nodded as Dio stood, then he was at my side.

He leaned in to take the gun from my lap, where it still sat, slipping it into his pocket, then he helped to guide my weak and shaky arm around Cal’s neck.

“Just go slow, Cal. Tell us if the pain’s too much, Cara, okay?”

“I’m good,” I lied.

Cal slid his hands under my thighs and butt, then lifted me from the cold ground.

Dio grabbed me from behind and helped to ease the movement.

It still hurt like hell as Cal pulled me against his chest and wrapped my legs around his waist. My side, where one of the bastards had kicked me throbbed painfully, on the same side as I already had bruised ribs, then Cal went to put his arms around me, and my left arm was jolted slightly against his body.

I couldn’t help but cry out in agony at the pain that caused through my shoulder and up and down my arm.

“Fuck! Sorry, babe. I’m so sorry. Did I knock your arm?” Cal panicked as he froze right where he was and looked to me with horror.

“What happened?” Arran barked. I knew from his voice he was close, but I didn’t open my eyes. I couldn’t. I was barely holding it together with the pain I was in, and my head spinning from all of the movement.

“Give her to me!” There was no mistaking that bark came from Dante.

“We’re not moving her again. I’ve got her now.” Cal snapped.

“Get yer arse in the bloody car, Dante!” Arran hissed. “Ye cannae be of any help ‘til ye get yerself cleaned up.”

“Do we need to get Cara to the hospital?” Rafe asked, and he was closer now.

“I want to go home, Rafe, please. I j-just want to go home!” Gia cried breathlessly.

“I’m okay,” I said, but it was barely even a whisper this time.

“No you’re not, Cara. You don’t have to keep on saying that,” Cal told me.

I pushed through the agony it caused to move closer to his chest, until finally I could rest my head against his shoulder.

I felt so much safer and warmer there against him, and finally I just let go. The merciful darkness descended.

CAL

“Can you all just shut the fuck up?!” I yelled as I felt Cara’s weight go limp in my arms. She’d likely passed out from the pain it no doubt caused her to push close enough to me to rest her head against my shoulder.

Finally everyone around me stopped their bullshit and looked to me with worry.

“Cara?” my brother said as he moved around me to try and see her face.

“She’s blacked out. She’s in agony, concussed, and likely traumatised. Can we please just get the fuck out of here and to a doctor?” I barked to them all when they looked concerned.

“Is calling in Doctor Barnes enough, Cal, or does she need a hospital?” Rafe asked with worry.

“I can’t Rafe! Please! Don’t make me go to a hospital!

” Gia wailed. She was clutching onto Rafe with everything she had, and I knew she had to be shaken and scared, but she was still moving, and didn’t look badly hurt.

I just wished she would try to consider her sister - who risked everything to save her - just for a moment at least.

“Dario can take you home. I need to be with Cara right now, Tesoruccia. She’s badly hurt,” Rafe told her.

“What? You’re picking her again! After I was kidnapped you still pick her!” Gia screeched bitterly, as all of her fear seemed to vanish, replaced by fury.

“Gia!” Rafe snapped.

“I’m not leaving Cara right now,” Dario said at the same time.

I looked past them all to my brother and Dante, both of whom seemed to be staring down at Cara with the same fear that I felt inside.

“Home or hospital?” Arran asked over the continued drama between Rafe, Gia, and Dario.

“Home. Doc Barnes can handle these injuries,” I said with confidence.

“I’m driving. Get her in the back of my car,” Dante announced, then the three of us were moving.

Dante jumped in the driver’s seat, the only sign of his earlier, blood rage, the red staining his face and clothes.

He started the car as Arran helped me to climb carefully into the back, still clutching Cara to me, then he jumped in beside me, closed the door and we were off, ignoring Rafe and Dario when they started yelling at the moving car.

“Call Barnes. Get him to our place now!” Dante commanded, but Arran was already bringing up the number of the doctor, who we used occasionally, for injuries which we didn’t want to have to explain to hospital staff.

Barnes worked as a general surgeon at one of the fanciest private hospitals in the city, or so Rafe had told me.

But his gambling habits had led him into some deep debts, and got him into some serious shit a few years back.

In exchange for Rafe clearing those debts and getting the gang he borrowed money from, off of his back, he now worked for Rafe, and as far as our family was concerned – he was always on call.

“How bad?” Dante growled a few minutes later. The doctor had agreed to meet us at our place, and we were making good time through the city, the roads quiet so late at night.

“She’ll be alright, Dante,” I tried to reassure him. “Her shoulder is dislocated and she took a nasty knock to the head, but with plenty of rest and us all taking care of her, she’ll be herself again in no time.”

“Those fuckers died too easy!”

“We’re no’ gonna argue with ya there, pal, but we cannae change that now. Cara and Gia are safe. That’s what matters,” Arran told him.

“Cara’s not safe! Look at her! She’s hurt. We let her get hurt again!”

“It won’t happen again. I’m never leaving her side, ever again,” I pledged. I may have only known her for a very short time, but it was enough for me to have some extremely strong feelings for her. I felt like I was falling in love with her, as insane as that sounded.

“Aye. I think it’ll be a wee while before any of us feel right about leavin’ her alone again,” Arran agreed.

The car remained quiet as we drove the rest of the way home, all of us seeming to be deep in thought.

I knew Arran was attracted to Cara too, but that was nothing new.

My brother was always attracted to a pretty face and a good body.

Dante too seemed to have some fixation with Cara, but I felt like he saw her more as a possession than feeling any kind of attraction to her.

Whatever our feelings were, we all cared for her very much.

Despite none of us knowing her long, she had found her way into our hearts, and it was cutting all of us up, seeing her hurt.

We had to do better at protecting her. Clearly someone wanted to get their hands on her, for some reason no one yet understood, and we had to make sure that didn’t happen. I had to.

It made the most sense that I stay closest to her.

I didn’t work, and apart from my classes I spent a lot of my time at home.

I was definitely the most available member of our family to take care of her, and I would.

I’d do all I could to be there for her as much as she could stand me to be.

I wasn’t trained to protect her, like Dante and my brother, but I wasn’t useless either, and I knew there was no length I wouldn’t go to in order to keep Cara where she belonged, with all of us, and especially with me.