CHAPTER 3
DARIO
It killed me to stay put where I was and watch Dante walk away with Cara in his arms, Callan right behind them.
She was mine. I should be the one holding her and caring for her.
I needed that. I needed her close to me, to feel her breath against my skin, just so I would know she really was alive and safe.
When we had approached the doorway of that filthy, run down garage, and saw her sat there, shaking, bleeding, and clearly in pain, yet still aiming a gun at the others as they approached, ready and willing to do whatever it took to protect herself and Gia, it both tore me apart, and made me fall even deeper in love with her.
Tore me apart because she was hurt again!
Because I had failed her again! But her strength and intelligence, along with her determination, had me falling for her more, if that was even possible.
And now she was traumatised again, after being forced to do things and face things she never should have had to.
She was hurt and in pain again! And she was working hard to hide it all, in order to protect everyone around her, again!
Things couldn’t go on this way. Something had to change.
Not only did we have to do a hell of a lot better at protecting her, but we also needed to find a way to make her feel secure in her new home, and safe from attack from her own bloody sister every time she saw her! Fucking Gia!
I knew she had been through her own terror filled horror that night, and don’t get me wrong – I had been worried sick about her as well as Cara when we got that text from Cara and understood what was happening.
But the way she just behaved with her sister right then was not acceptable, no matter how she was feeling and what she had been through.
She had torn Cara apart with her hate filled words and baseless accusations, and it wasn’t just Cara either.
Rafe was in pieces trying to work out how to handle the situation without losing either of the sister’s he loved.
“Rafe?” I went over to where he was leaning against the wall beside Gia’s room and placed my hand on his shoulder in support.
“I don’t know what to do here, Dario. Gia’s a wreck, and Cara’s hurt and badly shaken. I just want to be with both of them, but wherever I go, I’m fucking it all up, aren’t I?” he asked.
“You need to put your foot down with Gia, brother. I get that she’s shaken up, but she was treating Cara like that before all of this, and it can’t continue.
Yes, things might have changed for Gia since Cara got here, but none of that is because of anything Cara did.
She’s been nothing but patient and kind with Gia, and you know it. ”
“I do,” he agreed.
“Look, for tonight, just go to Gia and tell her you love her and that you’ll be close if she needs you.
You’re right that now isn’t the time. It’s been a long fucking day for all of us.
Cara is fine with Dante and Cal for now too.
So let’s all just go to bed and leave them both to get some sleep.
Everything else can wait until the morning,” I suggested.
“I need to know who did this, Dar. Whoever it was, they’re finished,” he growled and I completely agreed.
“The clean up crew took photos and will search for anything to identify those bodies. We should have some idea by morning who set that whole thing up,” I explained.
“Good. Whoever is behind this, I don’t care, we end it all, and them tomorrow. It’s time we reminded people that the De Santis’ are not a family to be fucked with.”
***
I was in a foul mood at the office the next day.
I hadn’t seen Cara that morning, nor had I seen any of the others to ask how she was.
All I had wanted to do was go to her room, stride in there, and pull her into my arms. It was more than a need inside of me to know that she was alright, it was a need for her to know that I actually cared about her too.
I wanted her to know how much she meant to me, and how terrified I had been when I realized she had gone missing the day before.
I wanted her to know the lengths I would go to, to end the bastards who hurt her, and any other who dared to try ever again.
I wanted her to know that she was mine, at least as far as I was concerned.
But I hadn’t gone to her room. Instead I had gone through my usual morning routine, dressed, got my shit together, and driven to the office.
Rafe had told me what he needed the night before – answers about who we needed to destroy for taking Gia and Cara from him and the family – and that was what I had to do.
At least in doing my job - and backing Rafe up, as I always had, and always would - I was also getting closer to enacting revenge on those who had dared to hurt Cara.
It was something, and it eased some of my rage inside, but it didn’t ease the desperation within me to just hold her and never let her go.
I looked up at the sound of a knock on my office door and found our head of security – Brax – walking in.
Usually our ‘security team’ – an official job title for the men who worked for our family, and got their hands dirty doing it – reported directly to Dante and Arran, but I didn’t have time to wait around that morning, so I’d called to arrange this meeting myself.
“Come in and take a seat,” I told him as I stood and moved over to the sofa in my office. Brax closed the door behind him, then sank into a leather, high back chair opposite me.
“I’m assuming you want an update on what I have so far about last night?” he asked as he set a cardboard folder on the coffee table between us.
“Yeah. It can’t wait. Rafe wants it handled right away. He feels we need to send a message, and I agree.”
“Well, we found the names of the five men we took out. Obviously, we already knew Jase, and that was his real name. Jason Rossi. I don’t know why he was double crossing us, but I have Dom digging into his background right now. The others all have criminal records that link to organised crime.”
Brax opened the folder and laid out several pages before me with images and police records.
“Wait. Is that…” I picked up a picture which had been taken the previous night, a corpse, covered in blood – courtesy of Dante’s handiwork – but it was a face I knew.
“Yeah. Yuri Kozlov. Pretty definitive proof, isn’t it?” Brax questioned, and I nodded.
Yuri was a cousin of the leader of the Kozlov family – Dimitri Kozlov - and he worked with his cousin, mainly running the clubs that they owned and operated. He had also attended some meetings with his cousin, so I knew the face.
“Proof enough,” I agreed, and I was sure Rafe would too. “And the others? Do they link back to the Kozlov’s?”
“Yep. Every one of them, except Jase. He doesn’t link to them anywhere on paper. Whatever he was up to, he was good. They put a lot of work into burying him in our organisation.”
“We need to know why. See what else you can dig up on the prick. And be prepared. I’m pretty sure Rafe is going to want to take action in some form or other tonight,” I warned him.
“We’ll be ready. I’ll leave the file with you and let you know if we find anything more.” With that, Brax left the office.
I just sat staring at the photograph of Yuri Kozlov, shocked, if I were honest. I knew the Russians were pissed with us still holding so much power over their imports and exports, primarily because they wanted to traffic girls in from Eastern Europe, and we were standing in the way of that.
But I never thought that they would be desperate enough to touch Family.
Rafe’s family, at that. They had to have a death wish.
As the leader of a crime family – which is essentially what Rafe was – he was pretty laid back.
He tended to handle all dealings in more of a business like way, never needing more than threats, and the occasional intimidation tactic to ensure others saw our illegal dealings his way too.
But it was also well known that, while Rafe was nothing like his father, he could be as ruthless as the man if anyone touched his family.
That had been made crystal clear to everyone we worked with when I had been taken on my drive home from the office a few years ago, to use as leverage against Rafe to make a deal.
Rafe had been ruthless to get me back from the Albanians, and once I was out, he killed their entire leadership structure brutally and without mercy, leaving them so messed up that they were still flailing around to reestablish their strength and their family even now.
And that was just me. I wasn’t even blood.
Kozlov had targeted Rafe’s world – Gia and Cara.
The Russians were completely fucked. Kozlov was a dead man walking.
If he had any sense he’d already be half way back to the homeland, not that running would protect him.
Rafe’s power had a far reach and he would find a way to make Dimitri pay for harming his sisters.
My main concern was Jase though. If Kozlov took the girls for leverage to get his way at the docks, that was a spare of the moment thing – him reacting to our orders following the police digging into his operations.
None of that explained what exactly he was up to though, that required him to plant a mole in our operation over a year ago – which is when Jase started working for us.
We needed answers, which may mean holding off on the bloodshed temporarily.
If there was a bigger plan in play, I wanted to know every facet of it before we killed the man with the information I needed.
CARA