Chapter 12 #3
“I… I’m not sure. I just feel like someone was staring at me but…
” It was a feeling she’d had a few times over the years.
That feeling of being watched. She knew better than to ignore the sensation.
Her mother had taught her to listen to her instincts, to leave an area immediately if she felt she was being watched.
Asher was at her side in an instant.
“Kara, what’s wrong?” Asher asked but the way he said it was somehow more nuanced than Angelo’s question. It was as though he understood what she was feeling and wanted her to tell him exactly what she sensed.
“I’m being watched,” she whispered to Asher.
“Act casual, Angelo. Put an arm around her shoulders. Head straight for the car I’ll be behind you.”
Angelo casually draped his arm over Kara’s shoulder and kissed the crown of her hair as if it was most natural thing in the world, just as he’d done so often in the last few days.
Meanwhile, she was doing everything she could to hide her suddenly shaking hands.
They hastily returned to the SUV, and no one said anything until Asher had driven them several blocks away.
Then Asher focused his attention on Angelo who sat beside her on the middle row seat.
“Call your uncle and tell them we need the digital video files from the security cameras for the past hour before we entered the restaurant and the next hour after we left.”
Angelo immediately texted his uncle. “Done.”
Asher then spoke to Kara. “Did you recognize anyone in the room when you felt you were being watched?”
“No, my mom taught me to be aware of my surroundings and to never let myself make eye contact for too long, but I got used to watching for faces that were familiar faces that I would see too often. But I didn’t recognize anyone.”
Asher nodded to himself. “I’m not going back to the house just yet. I’m going to take a long way around the city to watch for tails.”
Kara felt like crying and it was so stupid because she wasn’t hurt. She was fine. Nothing had happened. But that fear she’d finally started to let go of once her father had died was coming back, clogging her throat and crushing her lungs making it hard to breathe.
“Angelo…” Asher spoke softly, his tone laced with urgency. “I think it’s time you called in the Cabrinis. If we need someone to watch our backs, I want them to know about the situation now.”
A shadow trespassed over Angelo’s features. “Right.”
“Who are the Cabrinis?” Kara demanded, her voice breathless.
Angelo met her gaze, his expression as hard as iron. “The Cabrinis are one of the Italian mob families here in Chicago.”
The Italian mob?
A fresh wave of terror spiked her blood. What if they handed her over to the Westies in exchange for a peace treaty? Or they used her as leverage to gain access to the Westies business in New York? What if—
There suddenly wasn’t enough air in the room. She couldn’t breathe, she was going to throw up. Something lightly shook her.
“Kara—breathe!” Angelo’s voice came to her as though through a distant tunnel.
“Kara…” her name sounded so sweet, yet it was twisted with an urgency that was enough to drag her out of the dark depths she was falling into.
Precious air filled her lungs and it burned.
“Breathe, Kara.” Angelo held her face in his hands. “Breathe in four counts, hold four, let out four,” he coached.
She did as he asked, counting the numbers in her head and slowly the panic receded the dizziness faded away.
“You okay?” He brushed his thumb over her cheeks.
She nodded as he grasped her wrists, holding on to him for a long moment.
“You have nothing to fear from the Cabrinis,” he promised her.
But he didn’t know, couldn’t understand what those men were like. Mafia men lived under different rules. Her mother had told her terrifying stories of what life had been like back in Dublin for anyone connected to the mobs there.
“Kara, you’ll be safe,” Asher said, adding his promise to Angelo’s.
Only when Kara was much calmer a few minutes later, Angelo pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. “Leo… it’s Angelo Vertucci.”
Angelo was silent for a moment listening to whatever the man on the other the line was saying. “I have a situation that needs your help. Could you and your brothers meet with me?”
“Tell him to meet in two hours at your place.” Asher whispered from the front seat.
“My home. Two hours,” Angelo said. His gaze flicked to Kara’s face briefly. “Yes, it’s incredibly important.”
When Angelo hung up, he let out a sigh. “They’ll be here in two hours.”
“Good. That will give me some time to run a check on the house and handle a couple of things before they arrive.”
The Italian mob was coming Angelo’s house. Kara swallowed hard and focused on breathing the way Angelo taught her.
“Everything’s going to be all right,” Angelo murmured and pulled her even closer against him. “The Cabrinis will help us.”
It wouldn’t be all right. She’d been on the run for so long that she knew his words, sweetly meant, were still a lie.
Nothing was ever going to be okay. Maybe now was the time to face it.
To get this over with. At least then she'd know if she was a dead woman or free to live her life.
And it terrified her that her future might lay in the hands of the Cabrini Kings.