Entangled (Guzzi Duet Book 2)

by Bethany-Kris

  “I just arrived.”

  “Mmm.”

  Chris nodded at her messenger bag. “Going somewhere?”

  “School, actually. I already missed one class this morning, I’m trying not to miss a second.”

  “Would it be so bad if you did miss another?”

  Cara’s hand tightened on her bag. “Well, kind of.”

  “You look tired,” he noted.

  “Do I?”

  “A bit.”

  Cara hinted at nothing being wrong. Eight weeks after Gian’s arrest, and five weeks after finding out she was pregnant, Cara still hadn’t told anyone. Not a single soul knew her secret, and for now, she wanted to keep it that way.

  She had been going through a rough patch with her early pregnancy. Exhaustion and morning sickness were taking its toll. She slept a hell of a lot more than she normally did, which said something, considering she wasn’t a morning person at all, and she still couldn’t smell meat cooking without throwing up.

  It was not particularly fun.

  At only eight weeks pregnant, Cara was wondering how she was supposed to make it another thirty-two weeks. The doctor had assured her that the tiredness would wane in the second trimester, as would the sickness, but she wasn’t sure that she believed the woman.

  “Care to go on a drive today?” Chris asked. “There’s someone who would like to see you.”

  “Isn’t today Gian’s sentencing?”

  “It is.”

  “Is it him who wants to see me?”

  “He does.”

  Cara frowned. “How, exactly? He’s always transferred directly from the jail to the courthouse, in cuffs and a cruiser with a guard.”

  Chris shrugged. “Some strings may have been pulled today, that’s all I can say.”

  “He hasn’t even called me.”

  “His calls are monitored and he calls no one. Messages are passed back and forth during visits, and that’s how shit gets done.”

  “Oh.”

  “Jail isn’t a vacation, believe me.”

  Cara rolled her eyes. “I never said that. A call would be nice, though.”

  “You probably won’t get one. Maybe a visit, once the media fades away a bit, but not a call. He wants nothing on record other than a name and date. So, a drive?”

  Cara handed over her bag when Chris offered to take it. “Fine, a drive.”

  Cara was certain that the midtown alleyway Chris parked in was not anywhere close to the courthouse where Gian would have been sentenced earlier.

  “What are we doing?” Cara asked.

  Chris slid on a pair of sunglasses, turned the radio on low, and rested his arms behind his head. “Right now, we’re waiting.”

  Given the man’s vagueness, Cara had the distinct feeling that she wouldn’t get any of her questions answered, so she didn’t ask more. She wasn’t sure how much time passed—ten minutes or maybe twenty. Then, Chris perked up, his gaze shooting to the rearview mirror. Cara glanced over her shoulder.

  A police cruiser parked behind them in the alley.

  Chris said nothing, simply exited the car after grabbing a large envelope from the passenger seat. Cara watched from the back window as Chris passed the envelope to the first police officer who left the cruiser. A second officer, younger than the first, headed to the back of the car to unlock and open the door.

  Cara’s thoughts of the odd scene, and the obvious bribery happening, drifted away when Gian stepped out of the police cruiser. His hands were cuffed in front of him, but the younger officer quickly undid the cuffs when Gian offered his wrists out. The suit Gian wore belied the fact he had already spent eight weeks in a small jail cell, as it looked perfectly pressed and fit him handsomely.

  A few words were said, the officers turned to talk between themselves, and Gian headed for Chris’s car. Cara didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until he slipped into the backseat with her.

  At first, he said nothing.

  His hands—God, she missed his hands—drifted over her cheeks with the softest touch, and then he was pulling her close. For a moment, a blissful few seconds, all of Cara’s stress and fear and worries drifted away. His dark eyes lingered over her features, his thumbs stroked her skin, and Cara remembered how to smile again.

  “I missed your face,” Gian murmured.

  Cara let out a low laugh. “That’s all you have to say?”

  “No, not all. I’m sorry. I love you. There’s a few more, but those stand out the most.”

  Before she could think better of it, Cara closed the distance between them. The kiss started out innocent and sweet enough, but took no time at all to burn deep with something far more sinful and desperate. She loved the way his fingers tangled into her hair as his tongue warred against hers. She nearly forgot about the people outside of the car, but she still didn’t care.

  Not when her heart was suddenly thrumming a familiar tune.

  Gian, Gian, Gian.

  That’s what the song sounded like.

  That, and love, love, love.

  Cara knew it was bad and wrong. She had no business being involved with this man after everything, never mind hoping for a future with him that could never be anything. Yet she did.

  She hoped and wished, and she thought the risk of crashing and burning might be okay, if she could just love him while it happened. Maybe.

  “I heard you pulled some strings,” Cara said when Gian kissed a soft path over her cheekbone. “Aren’t they worried you might run off?”

  Gian chuckled, and kissed her mouth again. “Not in the slightest.”

  “How much did you bribe them?”

  “A lot.”

  Cara let Gian pull her closer, and soaked in the wonderful sensations of his fingers sifting through her curls. It was the intimate, comforting action that he usually only did in private with her, but it was her very favorite thing.

  “I don’t have too long,” Gian said. “A few minutes, that’s all.”

  Cara nodded. “Okay.”

  “I’ll get Chris to bring you in for a visit sometime over the next few months, if possible. I need the news programs and the fucking media to just … lay off for a bit. I don’t want you mixed up in any of this nonsense, Cara, not if I can help it.”

  Cara’s heart stopped for a split second.

  “A few months?”

  Gian let out a hard breath. “Seven months, five with time already served. It’ll be done and over with before we know it, no worries.”

  That was easy for him to say.

  That was easy for him to think.

  “You’ve gone stiff on me,” Gian said. “Why?”

  Cara tried to let the words form, she tried to explain her reaction away, but nothing came out. She was still hearing five months in the back of her mind.

  “Cara,” Gian said gently.

  She looked up at him, and the words were right there on the tip of her tongue. Say it, and tell him, she thought. He needed to know about the pregnancy, especially now.

  A light knock on the window interrupted her from saying anything at all. Chris stood just outside the door, and then gestured back toward the police cruiser. Gian sighed, but nodded once in response.

  “I’m sorry, mon ange.”

  Cara let him disengage from her, though it cut her up. “Wait.”

  Gian already had the door open, and one foot out of the car. “What, Cara?”

  She grabbed her bag, and dug through it, searching for a small paper she had shoved in there. Her doctor had made an appointment for her to have an early ultrasound when she had complained about cramping. As it turned out, nothing was wrong, and it was perfectly normal for her muscles to cramp a bit as her uterus grew a baby. She got a little picture of a peanut-shaped blob to keep.

  Cara found the sonogram picture, and shoved it into Gian’s hand. The due date of the baby, how far along Cara was, and other information was listed at the top.

  Gian’s gaze drifted between the grainy, blac
k and white image in his hand, to Cara, and then back to the picture again. “Is this … uh, what I think it is?”

  “Yeah,” she whispered, “that’s exactly what you think it is.”

  He didn’t question her on a thing, only leaned back into the car, and kissed her hard on the mouth.

  “I’m a little scared,” Cara told him.

  Gian cupped her cheek with a firm hold, but a soft touch. “Yeah, I get that now, bella.”

  “Five months is like almost the whole time.”

  “But not all, okay? Not all, sweet girl.”

  “Boss, the cops need to get on the move, so…”

  Gian held his hand out, shutting Chris up instantly. Never once did his gaze move from Cara as he did so. “If there’s anything you want or need, Chris will get it for you, or Dom. Someone. Do you understand?”

  Cara nodded. “I’m sorry, it was busy with school starting and everything. I missed a couple of my pills and—”

  He kissed her again, quieting her. The shiver that worked its way through her spine was wonderfully familiar.

  “I don’t care, Cara.”

  “Boss—”

  “Fuck off,” Gian barked over his shoulder.

  Chris stepped back with hands up. “My apologies.”

  Gian’s gaze was back on Cara in a heartbeat. “Five months is nothing. We already did three months, right?”

  “We didn’t even fix the problems or talk about all of that, either. We fucked and here we are! Not the same thing, Gian. It’s like a big bomb ticking down that’s going to blow the hell up one day.”

  “Close enough, Cara. And who cares if it blows up, as long as it’s spectacular? We’re pretty fucking spectacular, love. Je t'aime, ti amo, I love you. Always.”

  That, she did believe.

  He loved her crazy, but she didn’t entirely know why.

  He loved her stupid, and she liked it too much.

  It was all kinds of bad.

  They were all kinds of wrong.

  Maybe that’s just how they were supposed to be.

  “You do need to give me a choice in this—in us.”

  Gian laughed in that sexy way of his. “I did give you a choice. You chose to get in my car. You came with me. You’re mine, and you know it.”

  Jesus.

  Why was he so damn right?

  “Always, Cara,” he repeated, kissing her quickly again.

  “Always,” Cara echoed.

  “This was not what I expected.”

  Gian waited for Cara to sit at the round table, making sure to keep his hands visible for the watching guards. It was really their only request, besides no overt public displays of affection.

  Not that he cared at the moment …

  Gian’s attention was snagged by something far more beautiful. Cara, that was, and the way her hand curved protectively around the slight swell of her stomach. He wanted nothing more than to stand and greet her the way he liked, but the guards wouldn’t be pleased.

  He enjoyed having visitors. It kept him sane.

  Two more months, he told himself.

  That was all he had left, and he would be out of this fucking hell.

  “And what did you expect, mia cara bella?” Gian asked as she sat down.

  “A Plexiglas window and phones, maybe,” Cara said, taking in the visitor’s area.

  “It’s a jail, not a prison. I’m in on a non-violent offense. The only prison they would be willing to send me to, is halfway across the country, and by the time they got me the spot, I’d only have a month to spend there. It’s pointless.”

  “It’s easier here?”

  Gian nodded. “Quieter, less issues. Not so many inmate politics. More visitations. The guards aren’t … completely fucking useless.”

  Cara gave him a look. “It’s not supposed to be a vacation, Gian.”

  He shrugged. “Hey, if they make it easy, then they make it easy.”

  “I’m also kind of shocked at the attire.” She waved at him.

  Gian glanced down at the drab, gray uniform he wore on a daily basis. “I miss a good suit, to be honest.”

  “At least there’s no cuffs.”

  “Not until I’m escorted back to my cell, anyway.”

  “I wasn’t told what to expect here,” Cara admitted.

  “But you still came.”

  Her blue eyes flashed to him instantly, a love and wariness reflecting there. “Of course, I came, Gian.”

  “I’m sorry it took this long for us to have a visit.”

  “I had a lot going on, anyway.”

  Gian chuckled. “Or you’re making excuses so that I don’t feel like shit.”

  Cara winked. “You’ll never know.”

  Oh, he did.

  He loved her for it, too.

  “Your brother didn’t say much, though,” Cara said under her breath, shooting a look over her shoulder. “Not about anything, Gian.”

  Dom stayed just far enough away from the table to allow the two privacy. Gian sent his brother a grateful nod, which was quietly returned. Dom had too many opinions to name where Gian and Cara’s odd relationship was concerned.

  “Dom is … Dom,” Gian said lamely.

  “I don’t think he likes me very much.”

  Gian tried to hide his frown. “It’s not you personally, Cara.”

  “What is it?” His gaze dropped down to her rounded stomach, and Cara’s hands cupped the swell quickly. “Oh, well then.”

  “He doesn’t know what to think of it all,” Gian explained.

  Cara nodded once. “So it’s more you, that’s what you want to say. Not me, you.”

  “In a way, sure. Except he can’t say shit to me because I’m the boss, brother or not. He’s in a shitty situation where his opinion is not welcome, but he still wants to give it. Not that any of that matters. Enough about this, Cara, tell me about my baby.”

  The sweetest, prettiest smile bloomed on her features, lighting up her whole face. That was one of the things Gian missed seeing the very most. Even worse, he missed being the one to make Cara smile. He felt that he had given her far more reasons to frown.

  “Halfway there now,” Cara said. “Twenty weeks this week. He’s very active, makes for interesting prenatal appointments when he keeps moving away from the wand as they’re trying to hear his heartbeat. I would let you feel, but he’s quiet right now. For once.”

  Gian was sure his heartbeat had stopped for a split second. “He?”

  Cara pulled a small roll of sonogram photos from her purse, and slid it across the table to Gian. “A boy. So far, a very healthy, active boy, Gian.”

  He looked over the sonograms, taking in the shadowy profile of a baby in the middle of the picture. The tiny slope of a nose, and the roundness of his cheeks and lips were the most prominent features. Another photo showcased five small toes of a perfectly formed foot. The final image was a strange mixture of shapes that Gian didn’t understand at all.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  Cara used the tip of her finger to outline the central image. “What do you think?”

  His laughter rung out in the quiet visiting area, gaining the attention of several other inmates and their family. “Shit, really?”

  “Yep.”

  “Definitely a boy, then.”

  “You couldn’t miss it if you tried, once it’s pointed out,” Cara said, shaking her head.

  “Thank you for bringing this, Cara.”

  “I have copies for me, too.”

  “I know, but—”

  “He’s your son, Gian, so why wouldn’t I bring this to show you? We might have unfinished business, but he’s brand new and he has no baggage. You know?”

  “Yeah,” Gian agreed. “Come here.”

  He hooked his finger at her, willing to take the scolding or whatever other issue that might pop up for what he was about to do. Cara, always trusting when it came to him, even when she didn’t have the first clue of his motives, leaned closer at t
he table, until he could cup her face and bring her in the rest of the way.

  Gian kissed Cara quickly on her painted red lips, feeling her smile grow when he kissed her twice more in quick succession. “God, I love you. You know that, huh?”

  Cara nodded. “I know, Gian. I just don’t understand why sometimes.”

  “Because you’re you, Cara. And you’re mine.”

  He figured that should be simple enough.

  It was enough for him.

  Having Cara close was not necessarily a good thing for Gian. Now that he had her there, he wanted to drag her into his lap, tangle his fingers into her hair, and hide away from the world that never left him alone. She was his peace, even if she couldn’t possibly know it.

  Gian settled for resting his palm over the slight, hard swell of her stomach. “Two more months, Cara, and then we’ll have all the time in the world to deal with the unfinished business.”

  “Don’t look forward to doing that too much, Gian.”

  “I love you. The rest doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters,” she argued, “to me.”

  “The details matter to you. The details aren’t us in the grand scheme.”

  “We’re part of the details, whether you want to admit it or not.”

  “Cara—”

  “Yeah, I know,” she mumbled when he kissed her cheek. “You’re impossible.”

  “I am,” he willfully, and happily, admitted. “More so when it comes to you.”

  That didn’t mean that Gian was stupid, of course. He knew there was a lot that had been left unsaid between them. There were details of his life and his marriage that bothered Cara on a moral and ethical level. She didn’t want to be the other woman in his life, but his only woman. He knew these were all things that would somehow need to be dealt with, but he believed—stupidly, maybe—that because he loved her, and he knew that she loved him, it would work itself out.

  It had to.

  Gian only noticed the guard approaching when the man was just a few steps away from the table. “My apologies.”

  The guard gave a short nod. “Hands in view, Guzzi.”

  Gian put his hands on the table, and moved an inch or two away from Cara. She frowned at the guard, as the man walked back to his previous post.

  Before either of them could talk again, Dom had stepped up to the table, and cleared his throat. “We’ve only got a few more minutes left, Gian.”