Page 112 of In My Heart
I almost jumped out of my skin when Arran’s phone chimed loudly, then I just stared at him as he pulled it from his pocket and read a text message. He tried to hide his reaction, but he couldn’t hide the way his face paled, or the creaking sound his phone made when he squeezed it too tightly in his hand.
“What?” I demanded.
“I need to go,” Arran tried to step around me but I put myself in his path and grabbed his wrists.
“No. Tell me now. What’s going on? You went pale. It’s bad. Is it Dante?”
“Cara….” Arran sighed.
“Oh god, it is! Tell me, Arran! Just bloody tell me!” I snapped. “Is he dead?” Those last words would barely come out.
Cal came closer and tried to wrap his arm around me, but I stepped aside, evading him.
“T-tell me…please Arran,” I pleaded.
“He’s alive,” Arran told me reluctantly. “But…but the Armenians have him.”
“Oh God!” I cried as those words hit me like a physical blow. Adamian had taken Dante! “How long? Wh-what does he want? Me?” I gasped as my breathing sped up, panic setting in.
“Cara, just slow down,” Cal calmed. He appeared before me, putting his hands on my shoulders, but I barely felt it. It didn’t steady me the way it usually did.
“I dinnae know any of the details, darlin’, but we’ll figure it out,” Arran told me. “Stay here wi’ Cal, and I’ll go an’ talk wi’ yer brother an’ Dario.”
I didn’t bother speaking. I was in too much of a panic to try and force the words out, and I didn’t want to waste time with the arguments that I knew would come. Instead I slipped from Cal’s grasp and marched to the door, throwing it open.
“Cara!” Cal called after me, but I was already across the hall and heading down the stairs.
I was trembling with the mix of worry and anger that was coursing through me. Adamian had taken Dante because of me, because he wanted me! It was all my fault, again! Everyone around me was getting hurt, their lives endangered at every turn because of me. Because of my fucking mother and the monster who donated sperm to create me. No more. I was getting Dante back no matter the cost. This all had to end once and for all.
“Cara, slow down, lass.” A hand clamped on my shoulder and pulled me back, as I stepped onto the first floor landing. I knew it was Arran as he wrapped himself around me, stopping me from continuing to the office.
“Arran…” I tried to growl, but it came out shaky and raspy. “Let me go. We have to….I have to get him…”
“Stop,” he said firmly as he clutched my face between his hands and made me look at him. “I ken what yer thinkin’, that yer blamin’ yerself. Ye need to stop right now. None of what has happened is on you, and dinnae even think about doing anything stupid because ye foolishly think it is.”
“He’s been gone for weeks, Arran,” I sniffled. “Weeks! If they had him all that time…if they h-hurt him….”
“We’ll get him back,” he told me firmly.
“They want me.”
“Tough. They cannae have ye, Cara. We’ll make a plan to get Dante out, but whatever it is, you willnae be a part of it. We all need you safe.”
“I’m so sick of being protected while everyone I care about gets hurt!” I cried desperately.
I felt as though I was in shreds inside. Ever since I arrived there, everything had gone to shit. I got my brother back, but I lost my sister. Any strength I arrived there with had been leeched from me by horror after horror. Violence. Kidnap. Loss. Grief. Rafe had been shot, and now Dante was in the hands of monsters.
Nothing – not even falling in love with the most amazing men I had ever known – was worth all that had happened, all we had been forced to survive and endure. And I felt like it was all my fault, because there was a very clear and present fact – none of it would have happened if I had just stayed hidden where I was in Chicago.
“Cara?” I turned sharply at the sound of Dio’s voice. He was right behind me, which startled me, because I hadn’t even heard the office door open. “What’s happened?” he asked as he looked from me to the others.
“She knows. She knew as soon as she saw Arran’s face when he read your message,” Cal sighed.
“Why shouldn’t I know?” I demanded. “This involves me! I should fucking know!”
“We were just trying to protect you,” Dio started, but I cut him off as anger rushed through me.
“Stop it!” I yelled. “Stop trying to protect me! You can’t. Don’t you see that you can’t protect me! How much more needs to happen before you get that through your heads?”
