Entangled (Guzzi Duet Book 2)

by Bethany-Kris

  “And what investigations are those?”

  Cara did not plan to make this easy on the police, but she also had to be careful with how much she pushed. Given her dual citizenship, trouble with officials could put her back across the border without so much as a paper to sign.

  “Surely you’re aware that Mr. Guzzi is affiliated to some … criminal business in Toronto? We’re aware you visited him while he was serving time in jail, just a few months ago. We would like to discuss your relationship with him, and what else you may know.”

  Cara took her time to save her document, shut down her laptop, and put her things away. She knew that no matter what, she didn’t have a choice but to play along with the detectives, and keep her nose out of trouble. That didn’t mean she planned to give them anything.

  “Would you mind a trip to the station, just so that we can get our questions and your answers on an official record?” Seeley asked.

  Cara waved a hand, as if to say, whatever. “Could I make a phone call before we go?”

  “If you think you need to.”

  “I think I do.”

  The detectives probably assumed Cara planned to call a lawyer. She called Gian. He and a lawyer met her at the station.

  Cara answered nothing after that.

  “I can’t see anything,” Cara grumbled.

  Gian’s hands rubbed her shoulders, his dark chuckles echoing in her ear. He kissed the spot behind her ear and then said, “That’s the point, mon ange. It’s a surprise.”

  She reached up to try and readjust the blindfold over her eyes, but Gian quickly rerouted her arms back to her sides.

  “Nope, hands stay down.”

  “But—”

  “Little ledge here, and then some steps, love, so be careful.”

  Cara rolled her eyes behind the blindfold, but managed to get up whatever stairs were there with Gian’s help. “Can you at least give me a hint?”

  “Where’s the fun in that?”

  “Where’s the fun in being told you’re going to have a nice night with ice cream and a back rub, only to be made to dress up and be taken out. In kitten heels, Gian. I couldn’t even wear my comfy shoes!”

  “You will be happy that I made you wear the kitten heels. Someone might take pictures, and those shoes you wear do not look nice with a dress.”

  “Says you.”

  “And you, when you’re not thirty-four weeks pregnant, Cara.”

  She huffed under her breath, hating that he was probably right. Then, she had another thought. “Why would anyone take pictures?”

  “You’ll see,” her lover replied vaguely. “Gilles will drive you back to the penthouse once this is all done and over with, as it’s not the kind of event men are usually invited to and I have something to pick up across the city.”

  “What happened to Chris?” Cara asked about her previous enforcer, who still refused to call her by her name.

  “Chris has other things to look after at the moment. Sometimes, it’s better to put people where they get the best business done. Chris happens to be very good at getting information from people, and I need that right now.”

  “Because of the cops?”

  “Amongst other things,” Gian muttered. “We’re not talking about that tonight. This is all for you. And I thought you liked Gilles?”

  “I do, he just …”

  “What?”

  “Talks a lot,” Cara said.

  Gian laughed, his hands tightening on her as he directed her around a corner, or so she assumed. “He is a talker.”

  “Chris barely talks at all, except to repeat orders or something.”

  “Okay, enough of this, smile, bella.”

  Cara didn’t know what he was talking about, but the blindfold was suddenly pulled from her face, allowing her vision to clear. It took Cara a couple of seconds of blinking, and a few shouts of “Surprise!” from the people standing around one of Gian’s restaurants for her to realize what was happening.

  Pretty, pale-blue and green decorations littered the restaurant. Each table held different items—a spot for gifts, one for a massive cake decorated in similar colors, and the like. A banner hanging from one chandelier to another read Baby Shower!

  Cara took in the people around her. Women she worked with at the shelter and the women from the shelter. Her few friends from university, and the professor she enjoyed spending time with and who had helped her through her difficult moments. And surprisingly, nearing the front of the guests, Cara found Gian’s mother and another woman, who, guessing by her features and how she kept close to Celeste, was probably his sister.

  Crystal, Cara thought her name was. Gian didn’t talk about her a lot.

  “You’ve been busy,” Gian said. “And working far too hard, mon ange. Ma asked about a shower for you, because she wanted to—at least—send something over. And then a couple of weeks ago, Jenny contacted me about helping with something like this to surprise you. You’re not too angry, right?”

  Cara just blinked.

  “Why would I be angry, Gian?”

  How could she be angry?

  “You don’t like surprises,” he said.

  She had assumed, given the circumstances of the pregnancy and Gian’s marriage, and how busy her last few weeks before birth would be, that something like a shower was out of the question. She didn’t even think she knew enough people to have a proper shower, not that it was acceptable for her to plan her own, anyway.

  She didn’t have to worry about anything, apparently.

  Gian took care of things.

  Always.

  “It’s wonderful. Thank you.”

  Gian kissed the back of her head, never hesitating with all of the eyes watching them. “Enjoy your party, Cara. I love you, pretty girl.”

  “I can certainly understand why Gian adores you so much,” Crystal said quietly, giving Cara a small smile.

  “It’s a shame things are so … complicated,” Celeste added.

  Cara cleared the awkwardness from her tone before speaking. “Thank you for coming, and for helping them set up, and everything else. Really, it was too much.”

  “Nothing is too much. Not for my grandbaby.” Celeste waved her hand as if to dismiss that statement. “What a silly thought.”

  “Cara, are you ready?”

  She looked over her shoulder to find Gilles—the enforcer Gian had said was non-negotiable for the unforeseeable future—waiting at the front doors of the restaurant.

  “Just a second,” she told the man.

  “I’ll grab the last bit of stuff and put it in the truck.”

  “Thank you.” Cara turned back to Celeste and Crystal, the last two guests she had yet to say goodbye to. Everyone else had already gone and the staff had mostly cleaned the place. Cara had managed to sneak a few keepsakes to put in her baby’s memory box of the day. “Time to get home and sleep, I do have to put in hours tomorrow at the shelter. It was very nice to meet you, Crystal. Thank you for coming, again. Really.”

  The woman shrugged. “Maybe we’ll do something again soon, Cara. It just all depends.”

  Cara didn’t ask what their future meetings would depend on, because she already knew. Privacy. Public opinion. Gian’s wife. She didn’t need the verbal reminders. Her mind never let her forget, now.

  “Okay, let her go,” Celeste ordered. “And I want one more of those pretty blue drinks before we go, too.”

  One more hug later and Cara headed out of the restaurant behind Gilles, whose arms were filled with his fifth round of baby shower gift bags, filled with too many items to count.

  “Do babies really need all of this?” Gilles asked.

  Cara helped to open the back of the truck, since her enforcer’s arms were otherwise occupied. “I don’t think they need all of it, but it certainly is cute.”

  And Cara swore everybody oohed and awed over every little outfit, pair of shoes, and tiny rattle she pulled from the gift bags.

  “But look at it. Lo
ok at all of it.”

  She did.

  The truck bed was filled.

  It was a lot.

  “I’m grateful,” Cara said, laughing.

  “But it’s too much for a baby, right? Since when do newborns care how many outfits they have, or if they have a swing thing that bounces? Does the baby really need twenty pairs of socks, or bibs that look like bandanas?”

  “He’ll use it all, eventually.”

  Gilles shook his head. “It’s crazy. Women go nuts over this stuff, and I just don’t understand why.”

  “I take it you don’t have kids, then.”

  The man looked horrified.

  “Jesus, no,” he muttered, glancing up to the sky at the same time he made the sign of the cross over his chest.

  “I’m not sure God will help to keep the babies away, Gilles. They’re not demons or evil spirits.”

  He stared at her with wide eyes. “That depends on who you ask.”

  Well, she would give him that.

  “To the penthouse?” Cara asked.

  Gilles nodded, urging her around to his side of the truck. “The penthouse; boss’s orders.”

  The backseat was also filled, as was the front passenger side, so apparently, she would be sitting directly behind him in the back.

  Cara turned to thank Gilles as he opened the back door to help her climb in the lifted truck, but she didn’t get the words out. The last things she saw were dimmed car lights, before the vehicle turned sharply off the road, and headed directly for them. She felt the strong hands of the enforcer shove her into the truck at the very last second, but it was all black after that.

  She could still hear the sound of metal crushing against metal when she woke up in the hospital screaming.

  Gian.

  She screamed for him.

  And for her baby.

  “Gian … Gian!”

  Cara’s hoarse, panicked cry had Gian sitting straight in the uncomfortable hospital chair. His eyes flew wide, not that he had been sleeping. He couldn’t sleep, really. In his daze of watching monitors and waiting, he had settled into a headspace that kept his anxiety and rage at bay, but forced him into a still state of semi-consciousness.

  “Gian!”

  “Shh,” Gian murmured, “it’s all right, mon ange. Everything’s fine. You’re fine. The baby is fine. I’m fine.”

  He was leaning closer to Cara’s hospital bed, instantly, already squeezing her hand that he hadn’t let go of since he came into the room. His other hand swept through her mess of curls, sweeping the hair from her face so that her searching blue eyes could find his, and she would relax.

  Again.

  This was the third time since he had arrived that she’d woken up confused, in a state, and unable to calm down. The first two times, his presence had done very little for her. Nurses had rushed in, then, needing Cara calm again for the baby’s sake, had administered something into her IV that put her back to sleep.

  She was lucky.

  So fucking lucky.

  At first, Gian had thought a concussion was likely, given the gash on Cara’s hairline, and the bump behind her right ear. The doctor had agreed, and every thirty minutes, Cara had been woken up, checked over as best as was possible, and then allowed to rest again. Not that she had understood much of what was going on.

  Cara’s frightened gaze finally met Gian’s and for the first time, she relaxed without the help of added medication. She slumped into the bed, but not before her arm—tacked and taped with an IV and tubes—snaked around his neck, and dragged him closer.

  “The baby is perfectly fine,” Gian told her again before she could ask. He could already see her questions forming. “He’s great, his heartbeat is strong and they brought in the portable ultrasound machine to look everything over.”

  Cara’s hold on him loosened, but barely. “Okay.”

  “Do you want a drink, or something?”

  “Water.”

  “Sure, bella. You have to let me go first.”

  She did but it took a while. He quickly got the glass of water ready, with a bendy straw, and then helped her to drink until she was satisfied. Her voice wasn’t as dry when she spoke again.

  “My head hurts and my side, too.”

  Gian nodded. “You hit your head pretty hard inside the truck, and—”

  “He pushed me.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Gilles,” Cara said, her brow furrowing and her gaze dimming with memories. “He pushed me into the truck, out of the way, when the lights came out of nowhere.”

  Ah.

  Well, yet another reason for Gian to thank the enforcer and make sure he was given a proper send off to the heavens. For now, though, Gilles’ body was still chilling on a slab in the morgue.

  “You probably hurt your bottom rib at the same time,” Gian explained. “Not broken, but it took a hard hit, like your head.”

  Cara’s fingers danced along her hairline, and she winced at the feeling of the stitched slice that was a good two inches long. “Ow.”

  “Don’t touch,” he said, moving her hand away and tucking it into his own. “It’s going to be sore for a while, but it’ll heal nicely, given the way they stitched it.”

  Her wince deepened into a scowl, and her body tensed.

  “Ow.”

  Gian looked over at the monitor, recognizing how Cara’s body tensed with that specific pain. He watched the little paper coming out of the machine spike but quickly drop. It had been nearly forty-five minutes since the last time it did that, and this time, the duration had been significantly shorter.

  According to the nurses, that was a good sign to see.

  “What in the hell was that?” Cara asked when the spike dropped and tapered off completely.

  “A contraction,” Gian said gently. “You were having them pretty steadily for a while, and they gave you some meds to slow it down, if possible. It worked, anyway. Soon, the contractions will taper off to nothing at all, and it’ll be fine. That’s what these are monitoring.”

  He moved the sheets covering Cara aside, so then she was able to see the bands and circular monitors wrapped around her middle.

  “A what?”

  “A contraction,” he repeated, “though they’re pretty short and not spiking high when they do hit now.”

  “I shouldn’t be having those yet, Gian. It’s too soon.”

  He shushed her again, kissing her softly on the mouth to quiet her fears. “The accident set them off, but he’s fine. They’re stopping. They checked and there was no dilation. He’s got a bit more time to be safe in you, no worries there.”

  How Gian managed to stay calm, and speak carefully as to not panic Cara more than she already was, he didn’t know. Inside, he felt like a raging fucking hurricane. A very small part of him knew that right then, Cara needed his calm, controlled demeanor.

  He could do that.

  For a little while.

  Cara blinked, her panic subsiding slowly. “Where is Gilles?”

  Gian sighed, his gaze darting away. “He didn’t survive the impact.”

  “What about the other car—the driver? Are they okay?”

  His rage flooded back into his veins, hot and heavy, demanding attention and wanting soothed in some violent way.

  Gian would get to it.

  Eventually.

  “Hit and run,” he said as calmly as he could manage.

  In other words: entirely fucking intentional.

  Gian wouldn’t tell Cara that, though. At least, not while she was recovering in a hospital bed. These were the kinds of conversations that shouldn’t be had in a hospital, simply because the walls had ears that were always listening.

  And the cops would be back soon enough …

  Gian, on the other hand, would be looking for the fucker behind the wheel that killed his enforcer, and damn near took the love of his life and his unborn child away from him. Soon. He already had a suspicion of who might be involved, though he had no par
ticular reason to suspect her, except he wouldn’t put it past his wife.

  That, and he didn’t trust Elena as far as he could throw her. He certainly didn’t have a reason why Elena would have set something like this up, but sometimes, she didn’t need a reason. She just needed to be able to do something and she would. Especially if it meant hurting someone who had hurt her.

  “All those things,” Cara said quietly.

  “What things?”

  “The baby things. The gifts from the shower. They were beautiful and tiny. They’re all ruined now.”

  “You don’t have to worry about those things, Cara. They can be replaced. They’re just things, they’re not you or the baby. Some of it is probably okay, whatever was in the back under the truck bed cover. But it doesn’t matter right now, don’t focus on it or worry.”

  “I know, I just …”

  “Your mind’s way of processing,” he supplied.

  Cara nodded faintly. “I’m tired, Gian.”

  He could see that in her, too. In her dropping lids, slack lips, and weakened grip on his hand. Another nurse would be in to check on her soon, but he figured she could get a bit more sleep before that happened.

  “Rest, amore.”

  “You won’t leave, right?”

  “Not tonight,” he promised.

  “Did you see the baby on the ultrasound when they checked him?”

  Gian smiled, cupping Cara’s face in his hands, and stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. “I did. He looked like he might have waved, but I think he was just swiping at the thing pushing on him. He didn’t like that very much.”

  “He does that every time. And he’s okay, you’re sure?”

  “He’s beautiful and perfect, Cara.”

  Just like her.

  So beautiful.

  So, so perfect.

  And fuck anybody who tried to ruin that or take them from him.

  Gian stepped out of his Mercedes, and surveyed the cars parked around the Guzzi mansion’s circular driveway. Too many cars for a Saturday. And none he particularly recognized right off the bat.

  A flash of irritation settled in his gut, as he had come to the mansion for a fucking reason, and he wanted to deal with it right then. Not at some later point, when his wife was alone.