CHAPTER 2 #2
“I believe you,” I told him. I turned my head just enough for my lips to meet the side of his fingers and I laid a kiss there, then I settled my head against his chest again and closed my eyes.
The pain pills were definitely kicking in, as was my come down from adrenaline, and my exhaustion.
I was almost asleep when a commotion awoke me with a start.
“Fuck!” I hissed as I jolted awake and caused a ton of renewed pain to shoot through every inch of my body.
“I’ll kill them!” Dante growled as he cradled me closer to him, I suspected in a desperate attempt to ease my pain.
I looked to Dante with concern, but then I heard Gia yelling and relaxed somewhat. At least it wasn’t more unknown assailants coming after us all.
“What’s g-going on?” I pushed the words through my gasps of pain. Damn it, that hurt!
“No! It’s your fucking fault, Rafe and you know it!” Gia screamed from right outside the door of my room now, I was guessing based on how loud it was.
“Gia, please just calm down,” Rafe pleaded more quietly. “You’re upset, and I suspect, pretty drunk too.”
“UPSET! Are you fucking joking?! I was kidnapped Rafe! I was beaten and threatened! Do you even care about any of that?!”
“Of course I do, Gia! I’m just asking you to stay with Dario for five minutes though, so I can check on Cara too, please? I almost lost both of you tonight and I have to know you are both alright now you’re home,” Rafe pleaded.
“Come on, kid. Rafe has stayed with you since the second he got you back, and he’s told you that he’ll stay with you all night too. Just give him five minutes with your sister, so he can see for himself that she’s as well as she can be right now,” Dio spoke up.
“Fuck you, Dario. I’m not a kid!”
“You’re acting like one right now though,” Cal cut in sharply. “Don’t you even care about Cara? She walked into that nightmare, not knowing what she would face, and got hurt as a result, all to save you! Don’t you give a single crap how she’s doing right now?”
“L-let me up, Dante, please. This is crazy,” I groaned as I started trying to move from his grip.
“No. Stop!” he demanded, and I did, though I told myself it was because moving hurt too much, rather than some weird urge I seemed to have to do as he said and please him.
“Be still and I’ll carry you.” I nodded and clung tightly to Dantes arm to steady myself as he carefully slid from the bed, trying not to jostle me.
“…all taking her side! Is she fucking you all or something? Is that her deep, dark secret, huh Rafe? Was she a fucking whore?” Gia screamed just as Dante got to the door and ripped it open.
Rafe was stood closest to the door, and beside him was Cal. Gia stood opposite them, facing me as Dante stepped out, and Dio was right behind her.
They all looked exhausted, and Gia was still in a state, with scratches and a bruise on her face. Someone had draped a coat over her shoulders so her dress was covered now, and she wasn’t shaking like she had been before.
“Cara?” Rafe turned instantly and looked down to me in Dante’s arms. My own gaze returned to Gia. I was shocked into silence, just trying to process what she had said about me.
“Are you alright, Gia?” I asked shakily, pushing away her hate filled words. She had been through something terrible, and if she were drunk too, like Rafe said, she was likely just lashing out because she was shaken.
“Oh, aren’t you just Mother Teresa?” Gia spat. “So worried about me, are you?”
“Gia, enough!” Rafe snapped.
“I am worried about you, Gia. You…you’re my sister, and no matter how mad you get with me I w-will always care about you, and love you,” I told her, hoping it would calm her down. I was wrong.
“Fuck off, Cara! You never cared about me. You left me! You took our mother and never even gave me a chance to know her, and now you got me fucking kidnapped! Everything is your fault! And now you have all of my family wrapped around your little finger, at your beck and call constantly. You should have left me tonight, No one even would have noticed or cared if those pricks had killed me!”
The rage she turned on me hit me harder than any blow ever could have, and I started to cry, huge tears rolling down my cheeks as I fought for something to say. But what could I say? In Gia’s eyes I had come along and ruined everything for her, and maybe she was right in a lot of ways.
“Rafe, do something or I will!” Dio raged. “I get that she’s been through a lot tonight, but she doesn’t get to talk to Cara that way!”
“How is she?” Cal asked Dante.
“In pain and in desperate need of rest. She was just drifting off when this shit show broke out!” Dante growled.
“Gia, please just go to your room and calm down,” Rafe pleaded. I knew he was struggling because he didn’t want to upset her anymore than she had already been that night, and I was relieved for that. She was scared, and the last thing she needed was Rafe losing his shit with her.
“Rafe, stay with Gia, okay?” I told him as my eyes met his. “I’m alright. Dante said he’ll stay with me, and my injuries are minor. I’ll be fine,” I assured him.
“Forget it! I don’t want any of you staying with me now, anyway! It’s clear I’m everyone’s second choice! Stay with your precious Cara!” With that Gia marched next door to her own room, slamming the door closed behind her.
I collapsed back against Dante with a groan when the yelling and slamming of the door reverberated through my pounding head.
“Deal with that,” Dante grunted as he nodded towards Gia’s room. “I’m taking Cara down to my room so she can sleep in peace. Do not disturb her again.”
“Cal?” I called without thought. When I opened my eyes and looked for him, he was right there before me. “Will you come too?” I asked. I knew it sounded childish, but I was attached to him and I felt better when he was close.
“You don’t need to ask me, Cara. I’m on you like white on rice from now on,” he told me with a gentle smile.
“Tesorino?” I looked past Cal to my brother and forced a wobbly smile for him.
“I need to sleep for a while, please Rafe. Gia needs you now. I don’t want her to be alone after what she went through,” I pleaded.
“What about what you went through? You’re hurt,” he pointed out.
“Not the first time, remember big brother. I’m just rolling with the punches,” I told him, reminding him of an earlier comment I had made about sometimes having no choice but to roll with the punches life threw your way.
“Gia will come around. She’s just in a state right now,” he told me, and I nodded, even if I didn’t believe it for a second.
I’d obviously done something to make Gia loathe me.
Maybe she was right and I had made her life harder since I got there.
Whatever it was, I was beginning to realise maybe this new life I had stumbled into wouldn’t be quite as simple as I thought it could be.
If things with Gia went on the way they were, I couldn’t stay there much longer.
If she wanted me gone, then I refused to force my presence on her.
It was making the whole house feel uneasy and unbalanced, not to mention it was all stressing Rafe out to breaking point.
Maybe me leaving to find my own life would be for the best after all. Rafe could still be in my life, but I didn’t have to be in his home, fucking up all of the peace he had built for himself and those he cared for.