Page 49 of In My Heart
“There, all done,” Cal said, and when I turned he was just holding the small square of gauze to my arm, and not painfully as Barnes had either. “No usable veins, my arse,” he chuckled as he turned his perfect, bright smile on me.
“From now on, if you need blood taken, Cal takes it,” Rafe sighed.
“Do you feel alright? Not dizzy or nauseous?” Cal fussed.
“Just exhausted, but relieved. Thank you.” I gave him the best smile I could muster.
“I’ll just pop a plaster over…” Cal paused as we all looked to the kitchen door. Barnes walked in, the collar of his shirt and jacket looking a little stretched and damaged, but his face was intact at least. He wasn’t making eye contact with any of us though, and he seemed to be breathing hard. Dio, who strode in looking calmer, had obviously scared the hell out of him.
“Miss De Santis. I apologise for the earlier accusation, and for any pain I caused. I’ll arrange for someone else to come and take blood from you first thing in the morning,” Barnes said, his eyes still firmly on the ground below him. Dio coughed and Barnes added, “Someone considerably more proficient at taking blood.”
“That won’t be necessary. Cal has managed to take the blood on his first attempt, without causing my sister any further undue pain or upset. I trust you will ensure these bloods get to the lab safely, or should I ask Callan to do that too?” Rafe asked condescendingly, with a bite to every word that made them sound so cold and hard.
I was pretty sure a psychologist would have a field day seeing the distinct sides of my brother’s personality. They were so chillingly different.
“No. I assure you I will get them to the lab and have the results for you as soon as possible!”
Doctor Barnes snapped into action, jumping forwards and all but sweeping everything from the counter into the leather bag he had with him. In a matter of seconds he was scurrying out, Dio following right behind him menacingly.
“Well, let’s hope we dinnae need his help any time soon,” Arran grumbled.
“Barnes will do as he’s told, when he’s told,” Rafe ground out, then I watched as he seemed to force in a deep breath, his hand running through his hair as he tried to cool off.
“There now,” Cal uttered and when I turned to where he still sat at my side, he’d placed a small band aid over the needle mark and was watching me with his usual easy smile. “Just make sure you stand slowly. I took quite a bit of your blood, and you’ve barely eaten today, so you might feel a little lightheaded when you stand.”
“You sound like an over cautious vampire,” I joked with a genuine smile.
My smile just got fuller when Cal and Arran both chuckled at my stupid joke. It was a very welcome moment of levity.
“Come on, sweetheart. You need to get some sleep. I’ll sit with you tonight,” Rafe offered as he reached for my hand.
“You don’t need to do that,” I argued. “Don’t you have to work?”
“Nothing that won’t keep for now. After everything that’s just been uncovered, I’d feel much happier having you close for now.”
“Okay,” I agreed. I loved Rafe, and I always felt safer when he was with me, but I couldn’t help but look back to Cal and Arran, as Rafe helped me up and led me from the kitchen. They both said good night to me, and my eyes burned with tears at leaving them. I didn’t want to be alone, and I was so grateful Rafe was going to stay with me, but it wasn’t really him I wanted that night, after such a long, gruelling, emotionally exhausting day. It was Cal, Arran, and Dio…and Dante too – if he’d just come home.
CHAPTER 13
CALLAN
Both Dario and Rafe looked up with some surprise when I walked into their office the next morning. I never got involved in the business, and other than bursting into that meeting, weeks before, to demand I go to Chicago with Cara, I had never sat in on any meetings. This was different though. This was about Cara, and keeping her protected. No way they were keeping me out of the loop on that.
“Where’s Cara?” Dario asked right away.
“Sleeping. She ate some breakfast, then came to sit with me while I did some uni work. She fell asleep on my bed,” I explained.
I didn’t know how she had slept the night before, since Rafe had insisted on sitting with her all night, effectively keeping me away from her. I hadn’t heard her wake from a nightmare screaming, as she sometimes did, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t had a rough night. She hadn’t had a full night’s sleep, or anything close to it, since the warehouse.
It had killed me to be apart from her, and I had spent most of the night wide awake, laid silently in my bed, just listening out for her, worried if things got really bad, Rafe wouldn’t know what to do to calm her down. I knew. Arran knew. We were the ones who had been with her most nights since that horrendous day.We were the ones who knew that she liked to feel the heat of bare skin against hers, and tight arms banded around her when she woke up afraid and fighting to breathe. We were the only ones who had managed to calm her enough that we could actually get her back to sleep, caging her between us, surrounding her, and making her feel secure enough that she’d stop fighting her exhaustion and just rest.
Dario had tried to be there too, but it was trickier for him. Firstly, he was with Rafe constantly, so getting away to sneak into Cara’s room without arousing questions and suspicions was tough. And also because he just seemed to struggle with seeing Cara upset and afraid. He’d hold her and comfort her. He was the one who’d realised skin contact helped her calm, but when it came to an episode, he usually called for me, then tagged out and disappeared as soon as I got there.
I knew Dario cared for Cara a great deal. I believed he was just terrified of doing the wrong thing when she was in bits, scared he would do something to make things worse. He didn’t seem to understand that all she needed was to be held and made to feel safe.
“She barely slept last night. It was like she was scared to close her eyes, then when exhaustion won out and she did drop off, she woke minutes later in a panic,” Rafe explained, and that was what I had been worried about.
“She hasn’t slept more than a couple of hours consecutively since the warehouse,” I told him.
