Page 32 of In My Blood
“Thanks.” I gave a single nod in return too and tried not to stare into his wide, dark, enticing eyes as they studied me. His hair was equally as dark, almost black in fact, and it was cut short and neat, waxed in place, I was guessing by how perfect it looked. He was a beautiful man. No one could deny that, in a very rugged sort of way.
“And this is Arran. He and his brother, Callan, and Dante all live with us at our place.” I looked to the other man who stood besideDante and warned myself to keep my damn head this time, because these guys, they were too much.
Arran, as Dio had introduced him, was just as sexy and handsome as Dante, but in very opposite ways. While he too was tall, standing just an inch or two shorter than Dante, he was lean. He wore jeans and a dark sweater beneath a thick winter jacket, but even beneath the layers I could tell he was muscular. You could see the veins and muscle in his neck and the power in his hands as he pulled them from his pockets. His skin was on the paler side, but not in a bad way. It suited him perfectly, and only added to his unique attractiveness. It complimented his reddish brown hair perfectly. He had his hair pulled up into a knot at the back of his head, and I found myself wanting to know what it looked like when he let it loose around his face. He smiled at me, obviously realising I was staring hard – too damn hard! But his smile was full and bright, and it made his pale grey eyes sparkle like they were almost something other-worldly.
“Like what ye see, do ya, lass?” he teased with that grin in place, and I was taken aback by his Scottish accent. I hadn’t expected it, but that didn’t stop my core from clenching at the sound of it.Why was that turning me on now? I really was losing my mind!
“Arran! Don’t you fucking dare!” Rafe barked from my left, and I turned and saw him standing on the last step from the plane, just watching us, rage on his face as he glared at Arran hard. “I shouldn’t need to tell you that my sister is off fucking limits!”
“Apologies, boss. I was just pissin’ about wi’ the lass,” Arran explained, the smile not even slipping from his face.
“Not with Cara,” Rafe said more calmly, but the glare did not drop from his face as he stared Arran down. I wanted to tell Rafethat it was fine – that I could take a joke, but I knew better than that. My time growing up with Marcello had taught me that you never questioned the head of the family in front of his men.
Instead I shivered, and exaggerated it a little, knowing Rafe would see it. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, surrounded by so many armed, and probably dangerous men. I just had to get out of that so I could drop the bravado.
“Let’s get in the car,” Rafe said as he stepped down and came to me, wrapping his arm around me, and pulling me into his side. I was relieved to be able to lean into him and ease some of the pain in my bruised body as he led us to the middle car.
“It’s so cold,” I told him, wanting to break the silence between us.
“Did you forget how cold and miserable the winters are here?” he asked.
“I guess I did,” I nodded with a yawn I hurried to cover.
“I know you’re tired, but I’m so proud of you for how you just rallied, Cara.”
“I think the De Santis in me just kicked back in,” I shrugged. It wasn’t like it hadn’t been drilled into me enough for the first years of my life, that a De Santis never showed weakness or behaved in a way that would shame the family.
“You don’t need to be that De Santis anymore. I don’t give a shit about that crap. Remember, I’m not Dad, and things around here run very differently now. Be who you are, but the strength you just showed out there, it amazed me.”
“I’m stronger than I look, Rafe. These last days have been hell, but usually….I can be tough. I had to be.”
“I know,Gioia, but I hate that you ever needed to be.”
“Sorry to interrupt, Rafe, but we should get moving. There’s been some trouble lately and we’re sitting ducks out here,” Dante said, appearing at Rafe’s side so suddenly I startled and found myself clutching Rafe’s coat tightly in my fist.
“We’ll talk later,” Rafe said, basically dismissing Dante. Dante just nodded, then moved around us and opened the back door of the car, holding it open as Rafe led me over and helped me to climb up and into the seat. I watched Dante as Rafe stepped back so he could close the door. Dio had told me he was Enzo’s son, and just thinking that man’s name sent a chill down my spine. I had been most terrified of Enzo out of all of the men who worked for Marcello, or my father as I had known him then, when I was a girl.
There had always been something about Enzo that made me feel cold inside, even when I was too young to understand what that even meant. He rarely spoke, and never to me, but there was so much darkness in his eyes, and when he would stare at me sometimes, I would always start to tremble right there on the spot. If Dante had been around with his father, then I probably would have at least seen him in our home, but I didn’t remember him from back then at all.
I damned sure wasn’t going to forget about him now I’d met him though. There was something about him too that gave me instant feelings, but they weren’t of fear, they were lust and heat – things I had never felt to such an extreme degree before. And I’d felt it for Arran too. And Dio to some degree, though Ihadn’t exactly been firing on all cylinders during my time with Dio to that point. The main issue, I reminded myself, was that clearly I was affection starved or something, and that was why every handsome face in my vicinity was making me all hot and bothered inside. I had just been alone for so long that so many people being pleasant had sent my hormones wild.That had to be it, right?
CHAPTER 10
CARA
I was back to feeling numb as I sat in the back of the car. We’d driven through central London, down iconic streets, and past noteworthy sights I hadn’t seen in over a decade, but I hadn’t taken any of it in. Rafe was sat in the back with me, an empty seat between us, and Dante drove with Dio in the passenger seat. The cars remained in the formation they had collected us in – one car in front of us, and another behind, both filled with Rafe’s men, all likely armed.
Maybe I should have felt scared that Rafe seemed to think such precautions were necessary, or angry that I found myself back in that place, in that life that had taken me from the people I loved and left me to survive alone for so many years. Maybe I should even feel happy to be home, knowing with every mile that we travelled through the chaos of central London, that I was getting closer to seeing my sister. But instead I didn’t know what I felt, other than numb.
So much had happened in such a brief time and I hadn’t even had the chance to just stop and try to rationalise any of it. I had been hit with one blow after another, some physical, some mental, and all completely and utterly life altering. My Mum. Rafe coming back. My fear at being trapped with him. Those men in the car park atJewels. The rape.I’d been raped. Hadn’tI? Did what happened count as rape, or was it sexual assault?Then the gore and violence after my brother and Dio arrived. Now I was thousands of miles from anything that felt vaguely familiar, being taken to a life I knew I would never fit into, surrounded by men who terrified me, siblings I barely knew, and so many unanswered questions.
Part of me knew I could trust Rafe, but things between us were different. I was grown up, and he was different in so many ways too. We hadn’t known each other for so long. I’d relented and leaned on him on the plane, and even before that, simply because I had to. I needed someone to try and hold me together while I found the strength to do it myself, and Rafe had done that for me. Maybe he would be there for me again when I needed him, if I let him be, but right then I didn’t feel ready to show any more weakness to anyone, not even my brother. So numb was best. Numb held back the images of my Mum’s body, or the terror filled sounds of my own begging, pleading, and screaming as that motherfucker beat and violated me. Numb stopped me from crumbling to pieces I didn’t have strength to hold together myself, for the time being at least.
“Home sweet home,” Dante announced, his deep voice pulling me from my dead stare at the seat in front of me. I lifted my head and looked around. We were on a residential street, obviously in Kensington, since that’s where Rafe told me his home was. It was a neat street, filled with a very long row of tall, elegant, terraced houses. They all arced around the perfectly clean and immaculate street, and opposite them all, sat a reasonable sized green area, which looked like a small park, with trees, plants, and benches to sit on, all perfectly kept to exacting standards from what I could see.
Dante had parked the car outside of the house at the very end of the street. The house was a large looking corner property, spread over multiple floors, judging by the rows and rows of windows I could see as I looked up at it. It was a grey and white stone building, simple, but classic. Elegant, was the best word to describe it. Five stone steps led up from the pavement to a large front step which was framed by two huge planters filled with bright flowers and lush green plants. It was so different from the fenced estate I grew up in. I couldn’t even see any of Rafe’s men standing around the place, like we always used to have when I was younger. It just looked like an ordinary home on that obviously prestigious and elite street in the heart of Kensington.
“It’s bigger inside than it looks from here,” Rafe told me when I just continued to stare.
