Cara & Gian: The Complete Guzzi Duet

by Bethany-Kris

  “You’re talking about Cara.”

  “Every part of me wishes I wasn’t.”

  “But you’ve told me you keep her presence quiet, and that you’re quiet about coming and going from here. You said you were careful, Gian.”

  “I can never be careful enough, I can only be mindful now.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “It means I have been watching and waiting for him to try and push that button with me, because he knows very well that it’s there. I do all I can to keep her safe, because I put her in this position, even if she doesn’t know it.”

  “Why not just kill him?” Tommas demanded.

  “It’s never that easy. Another person on my shit-list shows up murdered. I don’t need the fucking attention it’s likely to bring, unless he doesn’t give me a choice. I’ve managed Gabriel this long, when others wouldn’t have bothered at all, I can manage a little while longer. Surely. We’ve been entangled in this mess for years. I know his games.”

  “So just kill him.”

  “Tell me, why didn’t you just kill the person standing in your way, Tommas?”

  Tommas cleared his throat. “It wasn’t that easy.”

  “My point, merci.”

  “And if he does go after Cara?”

  “I’m doing everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “But if he does,” Tommas pressed, not even posing it as a question.

  “Then I’ll slaughter him. It’ll turn all eyes on me—it’ll cause a war between organizations. It’s everything I can’t afford to have happen right now, given the state of my freedom and famiglia.”

  “But?”

  “I’ll do it. I’ll burn the whole fucking world down for her. Imagine what I would do to just one man.”

  Jenny’s face lit up with pure joy as Cara turned the infant car seat so that a wide-awake, one month and a half old Marcus was visible. “Look at him!”

  “I do,” Cara said, laughing. “Every day, all the time.”

  “Oh, my God. He is too precious.”

  And just like that, someone else fell in love with Cara’s son. She couldn’t really blame people. There was something about Marcus’s sweet face and gold-flecked brown eyes that just did it for everybody. When he smiled, they all melted.

  “He looks like his father,” Jenny noted. “Those eyes are just unreal.”

  “So everyone keeps saying.”

  Jenny carefully maneuvered Marcus from his car seat. The baby peered up at the new, strange person in his world, but still grinned behind his soother. “I’m so glad you brought him in to the shelter to say hello. Everyone misses you so much. We were starting to consider you were never going to come back.”

  Cara waved that off. “I’ll be back. Four months is all I agreed to take off, and I can bring him in with me when I do start back. No worries there.”

  “Well, let’s go say hello to everybody, sweet boy.”

  For the next hour, Cara strolled from office to office, and section to section, watching as yet more people fell head over heels for her boy. She had wanted to come to the shelter sooner, as her coworkers were just as much her family as her own brother, but things always seemed to get in the way. She had pushed it aside for far too long.

  Cara was grateful she had made the time today.

  “So, how’s it been with the new baby?” another one of her co-workers asked.

  “Busy. Tiring. Wonderful.”

  The woman smiled as she headed back into her office. “Babies will definitely do that.”

  Cara stepped aside as the mail cart was pushed through the office wing. The man who delivered the mail stopped long enough to give the baby and Cara a quick hello, and then went about delivering the last bit of his manila envelopes to each office.

  “We will be so happy to have you back,” Jenny said, “though I understand why you want to take as much time as you can with this beautiful little creature.”

  Cara took her son when Jenny offered the still wide-awake baby back. “I do want to get back here, though. I feel like I’ll probably have way too much to catch up on, by the time I get back into the office.”

  “Don’t worry, you haven’t missed a lot, Cara. We’ve just spent the last month working through what happened with the shooting, settling back in, and getting everyone settled. Nothing too strenuous.”

  “Still …”

  “Enjoy the time with your baby,” Jenny said.

  Cara sighed. “I am, trust me.”

  “And you are always welcome to come in just for conversation. No one is going to turn you away with little Marcus here.”

  She laughed. “Yes, not because you want me here, it’s all about him, now.”

  “Well, look at him!”

  “Oh, my.”

  The quiet exclamation from behind Cara gained both her and Jenny’s attention. The previous co-worker that had been admiring Marcus stood in her office doorway with a manila envelope in her hands. Her gaze darted from whatever she was staring at, to Cara, and then back again. A pink reddened her cheeks.

  “Something wrong, Nancy?” Jenny asked.

  “Um. Uh. Well—”

  “Spit it out.”

  An odd, heavy sensation settled in Cara’s stomach. She wasn’t sure why, but just the way Nancy looked at her again, and then back down to the item in her hands, it was unsettling.

  To say the least …

  “Whoa!”

  Another shout from someone else echoed inside a different office.

  “Did you get one of these?” Nancy asked, lifting the envelope for Jenny to see. She kept the items hidden behind it, though.

  “I’m not sure.”

  Nancy’s gaze darted to Cara once more. “You should probably check, Jenny.”

  “Just … Jesus,” Jenny said, stepping forward and ripping the items from Nancy’s hands. “Give it to me. What is wrong with you?”

  Jenny didn’t bother to hide the items that had been inside the envelopes the way Nancy had. Cara almost wished her boss would have done just that. She could plainly see photos of her very naked self in the most dirty, compromising positions. With each photo that Jenny flipped through, the images became progressively dirtier and worse for Cara.

  “Oh, my God,” Cara whispered, horrified.

  She recognized those images.

  They were ones Gian had taken of her.

  Some from before her pregnancy, a few early in her pregnancy, and even a couple of candid shots late in the pregnancy, although those weren’t filthy in nature, simply private.

  Smudged lipstick. Cum up her back. A handprint on her ass. Her mouth full of cock. Her legs spread wide open. Her pussy wet and open. All of the images had her face clearly visible.

  Cara’s heart rammed hard in her ribcage, taking over all other sensations. Her blood rushed in her ears as she struggled to ignore the sudden flood of absolute shame.

  “There were a lot of those same envelopes on the mail cart,” Nancy said quietly. “Probably one for every office, Jenny.”

  Jenny stayed quiet for longer than Cara liked, but eventually nodded. “Okay.”

  “I’m so sorry,” was all Cara managed to get out.

  Anymore, and she was sure vomit would follow her words.

  Jenny looked to Cara, a wariness and pity in her gaze. “This is a very deliberate act on you, Cara.”

  Was it?

  Cara didn’t know anything.

  “Why?”

  “The first time you come to the shelter since taking time off, and these get sent here.” Jenny cleared her throat, uncomfortably. “Presumably to everyone in the offices.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  She was going to throw up.

  “Who knew you were coming here today?” Jenny asked.

  Gian. That was it, as far as Cara knew. And Chris, her enforcer, as she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without him. She didn’t think either of those two people would have done this to her.

&nbs
p; “I should go,” Cara mumbled, grabbing for the infant car seat resting on the floor. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Cara, wait a—”

  She didn’t wait.

  The shame wouldn’t let her.

  It ate her alive.

  Gian found Chris sitting at the kitchen table as he stormed through the penthouse. The enforcer had set little Marcus up in a bouncy chair, and was apparently reading the newspaper to the baby. Beside him, a row of overturned photographs and a discarded manila envelope sat on the tabletop, seemingly forgotten.

  He hesitated at the sight of the overturned images, but only because he knew what he would see on the other side. He, too, had gotten a package delivered while dining with a business associate.

  Apparently, so had his mother.

  His father.

  His brother and sister.

  Several of his men.

  People he worked with.

  People who worked for him.

  His aunt in Quebec.

  His cousins.

  Gian suspected there were more, but the people affiliated with his life were probably too shocked, embarrassed, or unsure to contact him and ask about the dirty pictures of Cara. He had found that with a few, they didn’t need an explanation. Like the ones delivered to his parents—there had been no explanation. Some delivered to his men, or people he worked with, had included a simple note explaining who the woman in the images was, and how it related to Gian.

  Others, like the ones delivered to him, or to Elena, had been written on directly. Or so Elena told him. Gian believed her, if only because his package had also held the naked images of Cara with red ink marked across the photos labeling her whore and slut. To name a few.

  “Were those sent to you today?” Gian asked Chris.

  The enforcer kept his attention on the baby. “Found the package under the wiper of my car after I ran in to get a coffee while Cara was inside the shelter.”

  Gian cleared the rising rage clogging up his throat. “I see.”

  “The doorman downstairs was nice enough to let me know that the front desk also received the same package of photos.”

  Gian’s molars ached as he gritted his teeth in an effort to calm himself down. “Destroy them.”

  “I thought you would prefer to, if given the option. I didn’t bother to look beyond the first one when I pulled them out. It was enough for me to know I shouldn’t be looking at them. And then Cara came running out of the shelter like a bat out of hell … so, yeah.”

  “Does she know that you saw the pictures, too?”

  Chris shook his head. “Didn’t say a word, boss.”

  “Keep it that way.”

  “I planned to. This is bad, isn’t it?”

  Little Marcus seemed perfectly content to bounce in his chair, thanks to Chris helping by tugging on the bottom. The baby certainly didn’t know his mother’s whole world had just been turned upside down, and she would never feel safe or unviolated again. Not even in her own skin. How could she, when every time someone looked at her, she would have to wonder if they had done this to her, or if they had seen?

  “It’s bad,” Gian said, “but not in the way some might think. Someone intended to embarrass me, to shame me, and what they did was far worse.”

  “They hurt Cara.”

  “Yes.”

  Chris sighed, and stopped bouncing the baby’s seat as he turned to his boss. “Who would have access to those photos?”

  “They’re accessed only on my phone and you know how careful I am with that.”

  “But who would, boss?”

  Gian had to seriously consider his answer, because he wasn’t sure. Yes, his phone had a pin lock on it, but if someone picked up the device when his back was turned before the screen blacked out, they could easily see inside and explore his very personal and private life. Beyond that, phones were not infallible. Anyone with a decent computer program could plug one in and strip it of files, locked or not, with the owner none the wiser.

  “Whoever it was would have needed to have my phone for a bit, I think. Some of those images are back from after the bomb was set on my car, when Cara and I were a new thing. It would have taken time to grab files that far back in the gallery.”

  “Then you’re just knocking names off the list,” Chris said with a shrug. “So, who was it?”

  “Am I knocking names off?” Gian asked right back. “Because that leaves a few people who I spent enough time with to maybe set my phone down and look away, but that doesn’t mean I did or would.”

  “Another question, then.”

  Gian figured he was the one who needed to be asking questions, but he didn’t see the harm in letting Chris ask, too. “What?”

  “Who would do it—do something that awful to someone like this?”

  Gian scoffed, dark and hateful. “My wife. Her father. This stinks of them. It reeks of their kind of nonsense.”

  “You don’t sound sure.”

  “I have never left my phone within reach of Elena, and she also received a package today with these photos, or so she said when she called to scream at me. I haven’t seen Gabriel since before Marcus was born, and again, he had no access to my phone. It certainly stinks of them.”

  “Except how,” Chris muttered.

  “Oui.”

  “Cara disappeared into the bedroom. I didn’t want to interrupt her, and the principe is fine with me, boss.”

  Gian nodded. “Thank you.”

  Unsure of what kind of state he would find Cara in, Gian headed for the master bedroom. He opened the door to see a hurricane of devastation staring back at him. Clothes strewn about the floor in piles, wrinkled or torn. Jewelry scattered, perfumes toppled over, and makeup palates crushed in a strange rainbow of colors on hardwood. White sheets had been ripped from the mattress, and glass from the shattered mirror glittered on the floor and the shoes that had clearly been used to smash it.

  Rage found him standing there.

  Shame screamed through the silence.

  Cara, so calm and put together, so strong even in her weaknesses, had clearly broke under a whole new kind of weight. It was not lost on him how she attacked the things that accentuated her life, beauty, or image. Her clothes, perfumes, and makeup. Her jewelry, and the mirror that showcased her reflection when she stared into it.

  It killed him.

  Because she was so beautiful. Because she was so wonderful. Because in her heart, she was everything sweet, good, and deserving of love, adoration, and respect.

  Someone had taken that from her without care or concern. They had taken private moments of her life, things that only he was allowed to see or have from her, and showed them to the world.

  And how dare they?

  Cara’s worth should never be tied to the acts of a bedroom, and yet, he feared they now would be for far too many. She probably knew it, too.

  “Cara?” Gian called into the bedroom, taking a single step inside. “Mon ange?”

  A quiet, choked sob echoed from behind the opened door of the attached master bath. Gian instantly headed in that direction, making sure to shut the bedroom door behind him.

  He found Cara tucked into the corner of the bathroom, soaking wet from a still-running shower, and naked, though she clutched at a towel. She wouldn’t look at him, not when he called her name again, or even when he got down on his knees and reached for her. She flinched away from him when he touched her, but he still pulled her into his embrace.

  “I’m sorry,” he said over and over.

  “Why would someone do that to me, Gian? Why?”

  “I don’t know.”

  But he thought he did. He thought he might know. He still didn’t want to tell her. How could he explain that someone had violated her privacy and life, simply to hurt him? Wasn’t it bad enough that Cara had to know those photos were his to begin with? That he had not been careful enough with something like those images she trusted him with?

  Cara shook from the force of her crie
s. No matter how hard he tried, Gian couldn’t wipe the tears away fast enough before more ran down her cheeks.

  “I’m so sorry,” he told her again.

  He couldn’t make this better.

  This couldn’t be fixed.

  Gian hated himself for that.

  “Cara, look at me,” Gian demanded.

  She did, but the sadness that had been constant in her eyes for a week, stared back at him. He was so angry and disappointed in himself, because she asked him the same thing every day: why and who. He was no closer to being able to answer that for her, and each time he couldn’t give her what she asked, he failed more.

  “It’ll be fine, a quiet weekend away,” he told her.

  Cara nodded, her attention drifting back to the sleeping baby in the car seat next to her. “Maybe it’ll help to get away.”

  That’s what he kept telling her.

  He hoped it was true.

  “Chris will keep an eye on you,” Gian promised, “but if you need anything, if you want me, just call. Okay?”

  “Sure, Gian.”

  He didn’t for a second think she would call. She blamed him, in a way, and Gian didn’t fault her for it. It had been his phone, his pictures. It was her job lost, her newly beginning career already stained and tainted, and her reputation destroyed with one selfish, vile act. It was her image and self-worth ruined, not his. And fuck him, because he couldn’t even tell her who or why.

  “Is it different?” Cara asked. “The Ottawa penthouse, I mean. Is it different from the last time I was there?”

  Gian smiled. “A bit. I had some upgrades done. It needed them. I think you’ll like it. Take some time to enjoy it, anyway. I haven’t been able to yet. Not entirely.”

  “You could come.”

  “You don’t really want me to, though, do you?”

  Cara glanced away. “I just need to get out of this city and breathe, Gian.”

  “I know, mon ange.” He wouldn’t fault her for that, either. Leaning into the back of the SUV, Gian kissed Cara on her forehead, and relaxed a bit when her soft fingertips stroked his cheek. It felt like a silent promise that things would be better … eventually. Quickly, he laid his hand on top of his son’s head, and Marcus’s eyes fluttered open at his father’s touch. “For anything, Cara, you call me.”