CHAPTER 3
ARRAN
I couldn’t be still. The rage and blinding fury inside of me was a living and very volatile thing.
All I wanted to do was go to the office building in the city and start very slowly torturing those fucking bastards I’d been forced to watch hurt Cara.
They’d destroyed her. I’d sat there, powerless to do anything, despite my hell-like fight to escape and get to her, as the light that I so loved about her left her as she was violated and hurt, over and over.
But I wouldn’t leave. I had put Cal and Cara straight into one of our cars as soon as I got them out of there and driven to the private clinic that we had an understanding with, in the rare case Doctor Barnes couldn’t handle our injuries.
They had a private wing where we would be taken care of without paperwork and for cash payments.
I was worried sick about Cara and how much she was struggling just to breathe. She also had what looked like a nasty head injury, and I didn’t even want to think about the bleeding I had seen coming down her legs. I knew she was likely going to need internal stitches, and maybe even surgery.
And Cal’s foot was a mess too. I worried he’d lose it if it weren’t set and full circulation restored soon.
I’d been right on both counts. Cal needed pins inserting into his ankle and was in surgery.
Cara had a concussion, and she was currently in the room, which I was pacing outside of, with a doctor who was doing a pelvic exam to check for internal injuries.
I hadn’t wanted to leave Cara for a second – Cal had made me swear that I wouldn’t – but I knew she wouldn’t want me there for such an intimate procedure.
It didn’t make it any easier to be separated from her though, when I knew how afraid she was and how much pain she was in.
I had left Rafe and Dario at the warehouse, with the rest of our men. They had sent a team after me, who were now outside the doors of the private wing, keeping guard, but otherwise they were needed to clean up the mess.
The police would need to be called because of Gia’s death.
It would all need to be registered through official channels so Rafe and Cara could bury her and her death would be registered, but it needed to be handled carefully too.
The last thing we needed in all of this mess was for the police to be sniffing around our business.
Luckily, Rafe had some contacts on the force.
They’d likely stage Gia’s death with the Russian Dario took down when he and Rafe stormed the place, make it look like a robbery gone wrong or the like.
But to make that work they would need to clean that whole warehouse of other evidence first, hence why I was the only one with Cara and Cal right then.
I didn’t even know where Dante was. I hadn’t heard a word from him since I sent him to the airport in Chicago to get a commercial flight.
I had considered ringing him, but it seemed like a bad idea.
The first thing he’d do is storm in there demanding to see Cara, and she didn’t need that.
She was terrified after what happened, and she had lost the trust she had in Dante after what he did to her.
“Mr. MacQuaid?” I turned and saw Cal’s surgeon coming towards me.
“How is he?” I asked.
“Sleeping. The repair went fine. We had to insert two large pins into your brother’s ankle. He’ll need to be in a cast for at least six weeks, and will likely need some physiotherapy, but I don’t foresee any major complications.”
“Thank you.” I shook the man’s hand. “Where is he?”
“In recovery right now. As soon as he comes around from the anaesthetic, we’ll move him to the room up here, beside Miss De Santis, if that’s agreeable?”
“Aye,” I nodded. “That’ll be fine. Thanks.”
“Of course. I’ll be close, so just have one of the nurses contact me if you have any further questions,” he offered. I nodded, then watched him walk away.
I dropped down into the chair a nurse had put outside Cara’s room for me and let out a sigh of relief. At least Cal was going to be alright. That was something.
I rested my head in my hands and took a deeper breath than I had since the minute we stepped off that bloody plane hours earlier.
My head was throbbing something rotten. I’d gotten twenty stitches in the back of it, and been advised to take a bed for the night so they could keep me under observation, but they’d done a head CT, and found nothing worrying, so I refused.
Apart from the splitting head, I felt fine, and I needed to be there for Cara.
But I was exhausted. I was beat to shit from the car crash.
We all were. Cal, Cara, and me had been thrown around like clothes in a fucking tumble drier when the car flipped and rolled.
Then Cal and I had fought with everything we had to get free from the ties holding us to those damn chairs when Cara was being hurt, but it had all been to no avail.
We hadn’t got free. Hadn’t stopped those bastards…
“Arran? Where is she?” I looked up as Dario walked in.
His jacket was gone and the sleeves of his shirt were haphazardly pushed up to his elbows.
His hair was a mess and there was blood swiped on his face.
He looked unhinged in comparison to the man I knew, but I got it. I probably looked much the same.
“Wi’ a doctor. They needed to…to do an exam,” I forced out through my tight throat. “I couldnea stay for that part, but I promised her I’d be close. She’s in this room,” I explained as I nodded to the door at my side.
“And Cal?”
“He just got out of surgery. They set his ankle. He’ll be fine.”
“Rafe’s on his way. He just wanted to follow the car with Gia in, to the undertakers. We squared it all away with the police. There shouldn’t be any questions,” he told me as he sank to the floor beside the chair I sat in and pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his arms over them.
“How is he?” I asked.
“A mess. He knows what you told me, about Gia being involved in the ambush at the airport and what followed, but she’s still his sister, and she was just a kid. This never should have happened. We failed her. We never should have allowed Isabella to get anywhere near her,” he ground out angrily.
“It had to be more than Isabella, Dario. You didnae see her when she was in that warehouse. I think she was mentally ill. She was enjoyin’ it, enjoyin’ watchin’ Cara be humiliated and hit.
Beaten and stripped. She was goading the Russian fucker, like she wanted him to hurt her or somethin.
’ She took pleasure in the idea that Cal might get shot, or me.
It was like she’d just lost it. Ye know I’ve always cared fer her, but this…
what she did to Cara, I cannae forgive or excuse her for any of it, and you shouldnae either, no’ if ye care a jot fer the lass in that room, going through hell right now,” I sighed.
“Gia…she was like my sister, Arran. I don’t understand what happened, how it came to this.
I don’t know how to feel right now,” he ground out with frustration.
“Rafe, though…I don’t think he’ll ever forgive himself for her death.
I’m not sure I can either. Whatever happened, however Gia was turned into what she became, we should have known. We should have been able to stop it!”
“Maybe, but I cannae forgive her fer what she did, and neither should you. Five fucking men raped Cara that night, Dario! Five! Because Gia planned it. Because Gia brought Cara into that situation, all fer money and hatred. She goaded a man into holdin’ a gun to ma kid brother’s head in order to make her sister strip naked in front of those fuckers, and she enjoyed it!
And even after all of that, after Cara knowing Gia had set it all up, Cara still tried to tell her to shut her mouth to save her.
Cara provoked Kozlov, turning his rage on herself, just to try an’ save Gia.
And still Gia just taunted her, and enjoyed as some fucker climbed on top of Cara and pinned her naked body down.
Whatever was wrong wi’ Gia, it’ll never excuse what she did, no’ in my eyes. No’ ever!”
“Fucking Christ!” Dario hissed as he ripped his hands through his hair with rage. “This is so fucked up!”
“Aye, but right now all I care about is Cara. I dinnae know how she’ll ever find the strength to move on from here, but I do know she’ll no’ be facing any of it alone. I plan to be at her side, as much as she needs and wants me to be,” I said resolutely.
I had stood back for as long as I was willing. Cara needed me now, and I was falling in love with her. Nothing would take me away from her.
“I know,” Dario nodded as he turned to me. “I plan exactly the same. She’s going to need people she trusts around her right now.”
“She’s gonna need Rafe. Is he gonna be there fer her?” I asked with some ire.
I knew Rafe would be in pieces about losing Gia, but I had to be sure he wasn’t going to blame Cara in any way for that.
If I even suspected he would, I would take Cara away with Cal and I.
It could bring Rafe down on me, but I would handle it if it were what was needed to protect Cara from any more pain.
“Yes,” Dario said without doubt. “Don’t you dare start vilifying him in this, Arran.
He loves Cara, and he will not blame her for any of what happened.
He just also loved Gia, and losing her is going to take him time to overcome.
He’ll be here for Cara though, I know he will.
You’ve trusted him since you were a dumb kid, who he took mercy on. Don’t fucking doubt him now.”
“I just need to protect Cara, Dario! She cannea go through anythin’ else. She’s broken, she has to be after everythin’ she’s been through! How could anyone survive intact?”