Page 77 of In My Blood
“I don’t know. I’m not a spy! I’m loyal to your brother, I swear,” he told me firmly, glancing at me for a split second before he turned his attention back to his too fast, erratic driving.
“Then how did you get mixed up in this?” I asked sceptically.
“Gia and I…we’re together. I…I love her. They called me, the same people who called you, I’m guessing. They told me to do this or they’ll kill Gia. I’m sorry, but I had to. I can’t let them hurt her,” he explained, and he sounded genuinely shaken and upset.
“You’re seeing my sixteen year old sister!” I snapped. “How old are you?” I couldn’t see him with any detail in the dim lighting coming from the street lights outside, but I could see enough to know he was way too old for Gia.
“We don’t have time for this bullshit now!” he snapped at me. “Do you have a plan when we get there? A weapon? What are you planning to do?”
When he glanced at me again I was watching him this time, and something in his eyes made me question myself. I had good instincts from living on the streets, and spending time with the weasels and snakes my Mum often chose as ‘boyfriends.’ Right then, those instincts were tripping an alarm in my head. Something felt off. I decided I needed to keep my cards close to my chest.
“A plan? Do I look like James fucking Bond? My plan is to get in there and make sure they let Gia go. I’ll be fine. Rafe will find me when he realises I’m gone.”
“That’s it? You just hope brother dearest comes for you?” he sneered, and again that alarm rattled through my brain.
“You’re trained, aren’t you? What do you propose?” I asked.
“I can’t take them on alone. I need back up. They’re going to take any weapons from me the second we pull up.”
“You’re right. I don’t want to endanger Gia anyway. You have to get her out of there though, okay? Make sure she’s safe, then tell Rafe where I am. You can come back for me, right?” I asked, my voice trembling to add to my distress, though that was not acting.
My entire body was trembling with adrenaline as we drove further and further from the house and to who knew where. I was walking into the most dangerous situation I had ever put myself in, and I was no idiot. I knew only too well the things evil men could do to a person, especially a woman. But better that woman be me, than my sixteen year old sister. I just had to make sure that Gia got out though. There was no way I was letting them get the both of us.
“Yes, absolutely,” Jase agreed, but it was far from convincing. “I’ll get Gia safe, then I’ll gather our men. We can be back here within an hour. You just have to hold on until we get there.”
“Right. I can do that,” I uttered, trying to make myself sound even more terrified than I actually was. I wanted him to not see me as a threat if he was working with the enemy. I wanted everyone to underestimate me, as men always did. Who wouldn’t? I was barely over five feet tall, too thin, and pretty pitiful looking. No one ever expected anything but meekness from me.
But that was why I had learned to defend myself. That was why I had toughened up and learned to trust my instincts and be mindful of everything and everyone around me – because I had no choice. If I couldn’t take care of myself, no one else had ever been there to do it for me, and alone, a girl like me would be swallowed up fast by the monsters in this world. I knew that from experience – so much experience.
I wished I could walk into this scenario that I was headed for, with confidence that I could handle whatever arose, and rise from it all at the end as some victorious badass, but the truth was, even with the skills I had, and a gun at my back I stood very little chance of fighting off a fully grown man completely. More than one man and I’d be fucked. I barely knew how to fire the gun in a straight line, and my self-defence skills weren’t that powerful with my weak body behind them, but I was going to try. I was going to get Gia out, and I was going to fight, just as I always had. Whatever happened, I would at least know I did everything I could to save not only Gia, but myself too, which was quite the revelation considering I’d almost ended my life less than a week before.
CHAPTER 22
DARIO
“What now? Have you heard from the others?” Rafe asked me as we jogged down the steps from the central London nightclub we had just walked into, and right back out of again, in search of Gia. We’d already checked out the party we’d initially headed to, but her friends told us she wasn’t there and suggested she was probably out with her boyfriend. Since neither of us had any idea she had a boyfriend, that had been a shock, as had the answer to Rafe’s next question – how she would even get into bars and clubs? Apparently Gia had a fake ID, and her new boyfriend was older.
That had just added to Rafe’s anxiety. None of us had any idea who this older prick was, who was dating a sixteen year old girl, and none of her friends had met him or could give us a description. Dante and Arran, who had been to check out the other two parties, had come up empty too. We literally had no clue where the little madam had gone, but I was pretty sure Rafe would be doing a hell of a lot more than cutting off access to her credit card when he found her this time. To say he was pissed with her was an understatement, and I felt much the same. Gia was like a sister to me too, and I couldn’t fathom how she could be so completely selfish and idiotic in one fell swoop.
“Dante said one of her friends said she likes Soho, so they were headed there to search for her,” I replied.
“What if the Russians got to her? They could have her right now!”
“They would have called if they had her. If they take her, it’s because they want something, and you haven’t heard anything. I’m telling you, brother, she’s out on the piss somewhere, not giving a second thought to how worried we all are about her. You know how much I love her, but she can be so selfish some times.”
“I’m starting to see that,” he nodded. We both got into my car and I started to head for the next, closest high end nightclub that I thought Gia would deem good enough to have her patronage.
“I think we all spoiled and sheltered her too much,” I told Rafe honestly. Gia’s behaviour wasn’t just on him. We had all coddled his sister. She was a sweet kid underneath all of her bullshit, and over the years, we’d all done all we could to make up for the fact she didn’t have her parents, and for the fact the life she lived was far from normal and ideal. She had always gotten her way with everything, because none of us liked to say ‘no’ to her. She rarely, if ever, got into trouble for any of the crap she got into. And this was the result. She did as she pleased, with no fear of consequences.
“We did,” he agreed. “I never even thought much about it until Cara came home, but Gia’s behaviour towards her has been terrible. It’s shocked me. First the thing with the clothes, and now she seems to be lashing out at Cara for everything. She told Cara she doesn’t want her around. After all of the years without her home, she actually told our sister that.”
“Did Cara tell you that?” I asked, finding it hard to believe Gia would be that cruel. She knew most of what Cara had suffered in the years she had been apart from her. I expected Gia to be protective of her sister because of that.
“Of course not. Cara doesn’t want to do anything that would upset Gia. She did let slip that her and Gia were having issues though, so I tried to speak with Gia about that this morning. Gia shut me down right away, and began hurling abuse at me, as she seems prone to do nowadays. During her temper tantrum she told me she’d told Cara she didn’t want her around, that she wished we’d never even found her.”
“Fuck,” I sighed as I leaned my head back against the head rest and took a deep breath. I had really thought more of Gia than that, Under her spoiled teenager act, I knew her to be a sensitive, and gentle kid. Something was going on with her and my worry now, was that it had to do with her paedo boyfriend, whoever the fuck he was.Dead, was what he would be when we found out his name!“I’m not making excuses, but I do think it has been weird for Gia to have Cara back. Before Cara came, Gia had all of our attention whenever she wanted it. Now that attention is split, and she’s not coping well with that. I also think she’s going through some stuff right now, Maybe it’s because of this mystery boyfriend?”
“Well, that won’t be a problem for much longer.”
