CHAPTER 13
CALLAN
Both Dario and Rafe looked up with some surprise when I walked into their office the next morning.
I never got involved in the business, and other than bursting into that meeting, weeks before, to demand I go to Chicago with Cara, I had never sat in on any meetings.
This was different though. This was about Cara, and keeping her protected.
No way they were keeping me out of the loop on that.
“Where’s Cara?” Dario asked right away.
“Sleeping. She ate some breakfast, then came to sit with me while I did some uni work. She fell asleep on my bed,” I explained.
I didn’t know how she had slept the night before, since Rafe had insisted on sitting with her all night, effectively keeping me away from her.
I hadn’t heard her wake from a nightmare screaming, as she sometimes did, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t had a rough night.
She hadn’t had a full night’s sleep, or anything close to it, since the warehouse.
It had killed me to be apart from her, and I had spent most of the night wide awake, laid silently in my bed, just listening out for her, worried if things got really bad, Rafe wouldn’t know what to do to calm her down.
I knew. Arran knew. We were the ones who had been with her most nights since that horrendous day.
We were the ones who knew that she liked to feel the heat of bare skin against hers, and tight arms banded around her when she woke up afraid and fighting to breathe.
We were the only ones who had managed to calm her enough that we could actually get her back to sleep, caging her between us, surrounding her, and making her feel secure enough that she’d stop fighting her exhaustion and just rest.
Dario had tried to be there too, but it was trickier for him.
Firstly, he was with Rafe constantly, so getting away to sneak into Cara’s room without arousing questions and suspicions was tough.
And also because he just seemed to struggle with seeing Cara upset and afraid.
He’d hold her and comfort her. He was the one who’d realised skin contact helped her calm, but when it came to an episode, he usually called for me, then tagged out and disappeared as soon as I got there.
I knew Dario cared for Cara a great deal. I believed he was just terrified of doing the wrong thing when she was in bits, scared he would do something to make things worse. He didn’t seem to understand that all she needed was to be held and made to feel safe.
“She barely slept last night. It was like she was scared to close her eyes, then when exhaustion won out and she did drop off, she woke minutes later in a panic,” Rafe explained, and that was what I had been worried about.
“She hasn’t slept more than a couple of hours consecutively since the warehouse,” I told him.
“What are you doing here, Cal?” Dario asked, changing the subject, once again steering away from anything to do with how much Cara was struggling.
“I asked Arran to let me know when you guys were meeting. I’m not saying I want to get involved in whatever you have planned, but I want to know what’s going on. I need to know if I’m going to help keep Cara safe,” I told them resolutely.
“I don’t disagree,” Rafe spoke up. “But this is as far as your involvement goes, Cal. I don’t want you mixed up in this life, and nor does your brother.”
“I know. I don’t either, but I’m making no promises. I’ll do whatever is necessary to protect Cara.”
“You love her?” Rafe questioned as he sat in his chair, behind his imposing desk and studied me like he’d never seen me before.
“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate. It was terrifying opening the floodgates to Rafe’s questions about what was going on with our relationship, but there was no way I could ever deny what I felt for his sister. She was everything to me.
“And she returns these feelings?”
“Yes,” I nodded, not daring to glance behind me to Dario for fear of giving anything else away. It wasn’t my place to open that particular can of worms right then.
“Fine,” he nodded. “We’ll discuss this later. Right now you can sit in on this and any other planning meeting. Where’s Arran?”
“On his way. He j-just had to grab some files,” I tripped over my words as my nerves got the better of me.
Fine. Rafe had said ‘fine’ to the fact Cara and I were in love.
Was that good? Would Rafe be accepting of this relationship we were all building that easily?
I forced myself to move over to the sofa near the window and sat, laying my crutches down on the floor beside me, just to do something that wouldn’t give away how much my mind was reeling right then.
“Sorry boss!” Arran loudly called as he walked through the door moments later with a laptop and some papers under his arm. I was just grateful for the distraction. “Got stuck on a call wi’ Dom.”
“Does he have anything?” Rafe asked.
“Nah. No’ yet, but we’re settin’ up surveillance.”
“And you’re happy with Cal sitting in on this meeting and others that follow?” Rafe clarified.
He always did that, despite him being the boss and having the final say in all matters concerning the business and the family, he always checked in with Arran on matters involving me.
It grated somewhat, since I was an adult and had been for some years now.
I was fully capable of making my own damn decisions.
Still, after the brief interaction I just had, I opted to keep my mouth shut on this occasion, unless Arran didn’t agree. Then we’d be having a serious argument.
“Aye, as long as he’s no’ getting his hands dirty. I think he has a right to ken what’s coming, especially when it involves Cara.”
“You know what Adamian has planned?” I asked in surprise.
“No, but we’re working on finding out,” Dario replied.
“Adamian and his family are not in a strong position right now. We took out a lot of their key men when they went after you, Cara, and Dante in that shoot out. Their numbers are low, their leader is dying, and there’s discord with Yuri – Grigor Adamian’s cousin – trying to take power before the man is even cold in the ground.
This is all good news for us,” Rafe explained.
“But he brought guys over from America? Guys that work for the same family over there, didn’t he?” Arran had given me the abbreviated version of everything he and Cara learned from this ‘Hilton’ character the day before, but I still had some gaps and questions.
“Yes, but only around a dozen men according to Hilt. We vastly outnumber them, even with those additional men. We also have more allies, should we need them, and likely, more money behind us,” Dario clarified.
“So what’s the plan then? This guy…Daniel? He wants to marry Cara?”
“He probably doesnae want to, but he’ll have to if he wants a legitimate claim fer leadership.
Blood is everything in some of the old families, including the Armenians.
Daniel, whoever he is, he isnae a blood relative, apparently.
If there were no one with blood ties contesting, maybe Adamian would have gotten to hand his empire over as planned, but because the cousin – Yuri – is blood an’ wants to claim the leadership, this Daniel doesnae have a hope in hell, unless Cara marries him and makes his claim legit too,” Arran explained.
“But you can’t just force someone into marriage. That won’t work anyway,” I argued.
“It won’t work because we’re not going to let it happen, but they will have ways.
They’d likely drag Cara back to Armenia, force her into some twisted marriage there.
As long as it’s binding on paper somewhere, it’s all that will really matter.
Then they’d just keep her prisoner, or worse, get rid of her.
All they want is a legitimate bloodline shown on paper after all,” Dario ground out, and the tension in the room ratcheted up massively as we all filled with rage at just the idea of anyone else putting hands on Cara.
“So we stop it.” I looked to Rafe. “How?”
“We need to try an’ find out what they’re up to first, hence our men setting up surveillance at Adamian’s compound.
We have men set up, covertly watchin’ the comin’s and goin’s, and we’re also flying drones over regularly to get intel.
I’ve also got our tech team hackin’ into their networks and pulling all the correspondence they can.
Emails, text messages, anythin’ that might give us a clue as to what their plan is. ” Arran described.
“We need more intel on this Daniel. We don’t even have his last name right now.
I haven’t heard mention of him, and Adamian has never brought him as his second to meetings either.
That’s suspicious in itself. I want everything we can get on him and his link to Grigor.
There’s more to this story. No way Grigor Adamian works this hard to make a no body his protégé without a strong reason. Find out why,” Rafe ordered.
“Why don’t you just take the guy out? It doesn’t matter who he is. He can’t lead anything if he’s dead, and he won’t need Cara any longer either,” I pointed out.
“It’s a final resort,” Rafe nodded. “And I will take that step, or any other needed to protect my sister. However, I am currently very close to pulling out of this world altogether. I’m in talks with Kean, and the Irish, for them to take over the docks completely.
If I turn this situation with the Armenians into a full out war, that plan will go to hell. ”
“You’re getting out? I thought that wasn’t possible?”