Page 11 of In My Blood
Dante picked up my call on the third ring. I was already on my feet and headed out of the office, not wanting to waste any more time.
“We’ll be there in a few. Got stuck in fucking traffic,” Dante ground out clearly annoyed that he was late for the meeting we were all supposed to be in. Dante was never late for anything usually.
“Meeting’s cancelled,” I told him. “Cara called Rafe. We have a location for her.”
“She called! What the fuck? Where is she?” he asked all at once. Dante had known Cara before she disappeared. His father – Enzo – had worked for Marcello, and Dante had spent a lot oftime hanging around – his Dad eager for him to join the family when he was grown. He’d gone the other way though, and joined the army instead. He hadn’t been around when Cara left, and he hadn’t known her well. I wasn’t even sure he had ever really spoken to her, but he knew who she was, and he had worked just as hard as Rafe and I had, to find her again, ever since the day he saved Rafe’s life years before.
“She’s in Chicago. Something’s happened. She told us her mother had been murdered and mentioned the fuckers coming back for her. Me and Rafe are arranging the jet now to get to her, but I need some security or someone who can handle themselves to go to her now until we can get there. Please tell me you know someone? Rafe needs to know she’s protected.”
“I can get someone there. I worked with some SEALs who I’m sure live around there. Send me the location and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Make sure they’re armed. I’m pretty sure whoever killed Rafe’s Mum, chopped her up and left her there. I have no idea who we’re dealing with here, but it’s bad.”
“Jesus Christ, Dario.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I know. Keep me updated.” With that I ended the call.
I was running down the last set of stairs to the underground garage, my heart racing the entire time. It was an odd sensation. I wasn’t a man who was easily shaken after the life I had lived and the things I had seen and been forced to do. It was rare for my adrenaline to even kick in nowadays, but hearing Cara’s panicked and terrified voice after trying for so many years to find her, it had shaken me deeply.
For so long, even though we never said it, Rafe and I had believed we had failed her, and that she was gone for good. Just to know she was alive was one thing, but to find out instantly how much danger she was in, and so far from us too – that had set my adrenaline off and nothing seemed to be calming it down. I just wanted to get to her before it was too late.
***
We were on the company jet, and just over an hour into the long flight when the satellite phone I had given Dante the number for, rang deafeningly loudly in the silence of the space. Rafe and I were sat upfront, opposite each other with our laptops open. We had been trying to find anything we could on Cara or Isabella in Chicago, but they obviously must have been using fake identities because we hadn’t found anything, just as I knew we wouldn’t.
For years Rafe, me, and countless professionals we had hired had scoured the world for any trace of Isabella or Cara, and we had come up empty at every turn. There’d been so many false leads that we had followed, only to be led down a path that took us nowhere. Now that we knew a location, it had been unlikely to bring anything new up either, but we both had to do something as we sat idly on that bloody plane, just counting down the hours until we could get to Cara.
“Dante?” I said as I answered the call and set it on speaker between myself and Rafe.
We had three other guys with us – part of a very trusted security team that had worked for Rafe, and with our family, for years now. They were there to watch Rafe’s back with me, and I was relieved to have them with us when we had no idea what we were walking into or who had killed Isabella. Even with as legitimateas Rafe had made the family business, he still faced threats from the shady people we dealt with, and without security watching his back, he might as well walk around with a huge target painted on the back of it.
“No. My name’s Kyle Roberts. I work forShepard Security. My brother, Lincoln, was contacted by Dante. They know each other from their military days. I’m at the address he was given with a team right now. I was told to call you before we go in.”
“Thank you for responding so quickly,” Rafe spoke up, a control to his voice that I could see he wasn’t feeling inside. Before me he still looked pale and shell-shocked. “I’m not completely sure what you’re about to walk into, but I do know that my little sister is inside that apartment and possibly in danger. I will pay anything you ask if you can just keep her safe until I can get to her.”
“I’ll do everything I can,” Kyle said, and I heard a sureness in his words that I found reassuring. “Can you tell me what you do know? I’ve already been to scope out the door of the apartment and it’s all quiet, the door closed with no signs of a break in.”
“My sister…she’s been missing for eleven years. She rang me tonight, terrified and telling me our mother, who was missing with her, had been murdered. Cara was really upset, but I believe you might be about to walk in to my mother’s dismembered body,” Rafe explained, his voice never once wavering and showing an ounce of weakness.
“And you didn’t call the cops because…”
“Because I don’t know what’s happened. I’ve been searching endlessly for Cara since the day I lost her and I don’t wantthe police storming in there an arresting her for murder!” Rafe snapped.
“And you’re sure she wasn’t the one who killed your mother?” Kyle questioned, making me tense. I already knew Rafe was going to lose it before he started raging at the phone.
“Yes I’m damn well sure! Do not ever accuse my sister like that again or you’re going to find out just how far my power extends, Mr. Roberts!”
“I don’t do well with threats. You’d do well to remember that when me and my guys are the only thing standing here between your sister and whoever could come to finish the job they started,” Kyle threw back, coldly, and completely calmly. I smirked as I met Rafe’s glare. He wasn’t used to people outside of our family not cowering to his veiled threats.
“Can you just do your fucking job and get in there? I need to know that Cara is safe. She’s all that matters right now,” Rafe barked.
“We’re going in now.”
Rafe and I were barely breathing as we listened to the sound of the door being kicked opened loudly. Cara had most likely locked it at some point after walking in there.
“Jesus fuck!” Kyle cursed in a low whisper, our call obviously coming through some kind of headphone or headset.
“What is it?” Rafe demanded. Patience had never been one of his virtues.
