Page 20 of In My Blood
Rafe slowly pulled back a corner of the tissues he still held to my arm, and leaned in close.
“I think the bleeding has stopped. Come and look if you think it requires stitches,” Rafe spoke up.
“Are you comfortable with me coming closer, Carr?” Dio asked as he froze a few feet behind Rafe.
“You’re the only one who ever called me that…Carr,” I told him as I took him in again. He’d been around eighteen when last I saw him, and though those same bright blue eyes still sparkled as they used to, so much of him had changed. He didn’t smile the way he used to, and he looked so serious, not that any of it took away from how devastatingly handsome he was. He had definitely become a man, and then some.
“You want me to stop? Does it bother you?” he asked.
“No,” I shook my head. “I like it. Reminds me of before.” I met his eyes and smiled just a fraction. He took it as my ascent andcame closer, taking each step very slowly and deliberately, all for my benefit, I assumed, until he was on his knees beside Rafe. He took hold of my arm and lifted the covering. The bleeding had stopped.
“It looks okay to me. Hand me the first aid box and I’ll clean it up and bandage it. No need for stitches,” Dio told Rafe.
“Are you a medic, or something?” I asked, curious.
“No. I’ve just fixed up a few wounds in my time. I work for Rafe. I oversee the finances mainly.”
“That’s bullshit. You run the whole show as much as I do nowadays,” Rafe corrected him.
“The business?” I questioned.
“We build, own, and operate a vast string of hotel and entertainment businesses. Restaurants, bars, nightclubs. Places like that, but the main earner is the hotels and resorts we run worldwide,” Rafe explained. “It’s all legitimate business and it works as a good cover for the small foothold I have no choice but to maintain in the criminal enterprises our father got us tied up in.”
“Your father. I don’t…can’t think of him as mine. He’s just Marcello to me,” I corrected him, and he simply nodded. The only good thing to come out of the whole mess my life had become, was knowing that monster of a human being wasn’t blood related to me.
We all remained silent as Dio cleaned the wound on my arm, then dressed and bandaged it. It was a little overkill for a cut Iwould have just stuck a band aid on, but I could see it calmed Rafe to have it tended to.
“What happens now? Mum’s body?” I questioned.
“We couldn’t contact the police, Cara. I’m sure you understand why. I had the apartment cleaned up and Mum’s remains taken for cremation. The ashes will be given to us, and you can spread them or keep them. I think the choice should be yours, since you knew her the most.”
“I don’t want to keep them!” I cried, cringing at the thought.
“Whatever you want to do is fine. I can deal with them if you don’t want anything to do with it,Gioia. Whatever you want,” Rafe told me gently.
“Yeah…please. I can’t….I don’t want to…to do that. I can’t,” I gasped as my breath got harder and harder to catch.
“I’ll handle it. I’ll deal with everything. It’s going to be alright,” Rafe told me as he very slowly, giving me time to move away, slid his hand to mine and gently covered it. “All I need you to do is help me take care of you, okay? Anything you need or want, you just tell me and I’ll make sure you have it.”
“Can we leave? I…I want to see Gia, a-and Terza.” I requested shakily. Seeing that my baby sister was safe was at the top of my priority list.
“Yes, absolutely. I’ve scheduled the jet for later today if you feel up to that?” Rafe asked, and I just nodded.A jet?
“I…I d-don’t have a passport though. Mum lost them,” I admitted.
“Not a problem. We’ll get you a new one, and other identification when we get you home,” Dio told me. “My Mum will be so overcome to have you home. I hope you’re ready for a whole lot of being force fed Italian food,” he added with a smile.
“Chicken alfredo…that was my favourite. Gia would only eat macaroni. Do you remember, Raffy?” I asked as the memories came back to me.
“I remember. Gia’s still a fussy eater now. She pretty much lives on chicken nuggets like a five year old,” he chuckled. “What do you like to eat now, Cara?”
“Anything. I don’t mind,” I shrugged. I definitely wasn’t fussy. I knew too well what true hunger was to ever turn away food.
“How about you get cleaned up and dressed if you want to, and we can order some room service?” Dio suggested.
“Can I…is it okay if I take a shower?” I asked as I glanced between them nervously. Ideally I wouldn’t want to be in the vulnerable position of showering naked when I had no idea of how secure I was, but I could feel my mother’s drying blood all over me and I could barely keep it together recalling why it was there.
“Of course it is,Tesorino. You don’t have to ask. Will you manage? You seem rather unsteady?”
