Page 60 of In My Heart
I lifted my head at that question. It had been so long since anyone heard from him. His inbox was full, so I couldn’t even leave him voicemails any longer, and every text I sent to him remained unanswered. Everyone had been trying to contact him in similar ways too, and nothing. There had been nothing.
“Not a word. If he’s in the city, he must have heard that Rafe was shot. I don’t understand what he’s up to,” Dio growled. “Why would he just disappear like that?”
Arran and Cal looked to each other and then to me. Tears filled my eyes at the memory of what had happened in Chicago. It felt like it had been so long ago in that moment.
“What? What do the three of you know?” Dio demanded, and my gaze shot to him.
“It’s my fault,” I admitted. “Dante. He left because of me.”
“He left because he’s a feckin’ idiot, Cara. Nothin’ that happened was yer fault, lass,” Arran jumped in, sounding annoyed.
“Someone tell me what you’re talking about,” Dio snapped.
More tears fell down my cheeks silently and I just leaned into Cal again. My feelings were so mixed up and confusing about Dante, but the biggest feeling was wanting to protect him, and keep him safe. I wasn’t sure telling Dio what happened back in Chicago would be doing much to protect Dante.
“In Chicago,” Cal spoke up. “Car and Dante had a bit of an argument. Dante was being insane about her safety and Cara pushed back.”
“What’s new there? Dante is always over the top about safety, and especially with Cara.”
“This was different. Dante pushed too hard, and Cara gave him a kick to the bollocks fer it. He said a ton of shite he shouldnae have, and he deserved it alright, but Dante was pissed. He went to the hotel bar and got pished. I didnae ken what he was up to until Cal woke me up later that night. Dante had come inte the hotel room, completely steaming drunk, grabbed Cara fromwhere she was sleeping wi’ Cal, an’ carried her off into his room like a caveman. He locked the door, and wouldnae open it. Cara was crying out and we had te bust down the door in the end,” Arran explained.
“What did he do?” Dio bit out with a calm that was scary to witness.
“He hurt her. She had bruises all over her body the next mornin’. He was holdin’ on te her too tight, an’ the more she fought to get free, the tighter he held her.”
“He reeked of alcohol and it set off Cara’s anxiety. She was terrified,” Cal added, pulling me even tighter against him as he spoke.
“H-he was drunk. He thought he was keeping me safe. I’m not saying I wasn’t afraid as it happened, or angry the next morning, but I don’t think he even knew what he was doing,” I tried to defend him.
“Cara didnae want him near her the next day, and since we were flyin’ home, I told him to get a commercial flight. I also told him to stay well away from the lass until she felt ready to speak wi’ him. I warned him what would happen if he didnae,” Arran went on.
“What if something happened to him? What if Adamian or the Russians have him?” I voiced my real fear. It seemed so unlike the Dante I knew to just disappear as he had.
“Who gives a fuck?!” Dio raged, his temper bursting from him as he shot to his feet. “He put hands on you, Cara! He bruised your skin, and terrified you. Why wasn’t I told this right away? Why wasn’t Rafe?”
“I told them not to. I didn’t want anyone else knowing. I knew you and Rafe would overreact. I’m not saying I can just forgive what Dante did to me, but he was drunk. He made a mistake. Arran made sure he knew he’d done wrong. It didn’t need to go any further than that. If he’d have come home as he should have, I’d probably have forgiven him by now.”
“Forgiven him?” Dio gasped. “He hurt you! How could you ever forgive him? He’d be dead by now if Rafe and I had known about this. You should have told us!” Dio pointed an accusing finger at Arran, the rage in his face evident in the set of his jaw.
“Don’t you dare!” I barked as I shot to my feet and shoved Dio with everything I had. Unfortunately, it only caused him to stumble back a single step before he got his balance, and turned to me with shock. “Arran did what I asked of him. You don’t blame him for any of this. I’m an adult, damn it, Dio! I get to make my own fucking decisions without being tattled on!”
“Not when you’re protecting an abuser!” Dio bit out.
“An abuser? You think Dante abused me?” I scoffed bitterly. “You have no idea, do you? I’ve been abused, over and over again, so many times I lost count years ago. I lived with abusers for so many years of my life. My mother was an abuser! The men she handed me off to, they were abusers! But Dante? All he ever wanted was to protect me. Even as he left bruises on me, in his alcohol driven mind, he was trying to keep me safe. He’s extra. We all know that. He thinks differently, works differently, but I can assure you with complete confidence that never, for one moment since that man met me, has he ever abused me! Don’t you ever label him like that again. Dante is a good man at heart.” I was gasping for breath as my tirade ended, my hands shaking and my eyes glassy with tears.
“She’s right, Dario. Dante fucked up in Chicago. He terrified and hurt Cara, but that wasn’t what he believed he was doing at the time. He wasn’t being malicious when he picked her up and carried her off. He just wanted her safe, and he went way over the top trying to do that. He’s not a monster,” Cal added, backing me up as always.
“No one hurts Dante,” I said as strongly as I could, staring at Dio hard as I said it. “He’s part of this family, and he has an apology to make for what he did and for disappearing on us all, but that’s it. I’ll never forgive you if you lay a hand on him, Dio. I mean it. I care for you very much, but I care for him too. I refuse to lose anyone else. I’ve already lost too fucking much.”
“You tell him, dear,” Terza said as she appeared from nowhere. She set down heaping plates of food before Arran and Cal, then patted me on the shoulder. “Us girls have got to keep these boys in their place or they’d run rough-shod all over us.” I sniffled as I looked up to her, and she gave me a thumbs up and a beaming smile, making me laugh a little.
“Thanks for the back-up, Terza,” I told her.
“Always,” she assured me, as she gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Now all of you stop arguing and eat your breakfast. Honestly, it’s like corralling toddlers with you boys sometimes,” she sighed as she crossed the kitchen away from us all again.
The conversation ended there, as Dio sat back down and started eating. Arran and Cal called out their thanks for breakfast, and set to devouring the food too, all listening to Terza and behaving themselves. It was comical really, and I would have laughed were I not so worried about what Dio planned to do about Dante.
I wasn’t an idiot. I knew what Dante did was wrong, and he wasn’t forgiven, but I didn’t want him hurt, and I definitelydidn’t want him gone. I wanted him home. I wanted to know he was safe, and I was really starting to doubt that he was, when so long had passed without a word from him. I really felt it was time we got a little more proactive about finding him, especially since we needed to warn him Dio may be coming for him now.
