Unraveled (Guzzi Duet Book 1)(44)

Cara smiled. “Thank you.”

“Let’s head out.”

She followed behind the man, letting him lead her through the apartment hall, down one flight of stairs, and outside to where a black town car sat running in front of the building. It was only a short stroll away. Chris held the back door open for Cara to walk the remainder of the way and get inside, but something caught her eye as she made it to the vehicle.

Another car—bright yellow, which was what caught her attention first—came speeding far too fast down the city road. Black tinted windows made it impossible to see inside.

By the time the car reached them, the driver’s window rolled down a few inches.

Cara didn’t understand the item that was shoved out the window, not until the color burst from the barrel, and the sound sliced through the air.

Rapid gunfire.

Bullets.

Pain bloomed in Cara’s shoulder as she was dragged to the ground. She was frozen, stuck in a strange nightmarish state of reality and memories. She hadn’t heard gunfire like that since the day Lea was murdered. It was as though she had been shoved right back into that day all over again in a split second.

She couldn’t bring herself out of it, no matter how hard she tried.





Automatic doors opened in front of Gian, but they weren’t spreading fast enough for his brisk pace or patience. His hands slammed against the doors, pushing against the pressure of the mechanical arm to force them open faster.

His heart was in his fucking throat.

His stomach had fallen to his feet.

Time had become unimportant for the moment.

Gian couldn’t remember the last time he felt this way—so fucked up in the head, an anxious mess, but still damn cold and calm on the outside.

Corrado used to tell him that this was when Gian was most dangerous. That Gian’s emotions often ruled him in his choices and behaviors, but it was only when he didn’t allow others the gift of seeing his emotions to gauge their transgressions, that it became dangerous. Because he became unstable, and unpredictable.

His grandfather had never said it was bad thing, though.

Another set of doors didn’t open fast enough for Gian’s satisfaction, and he shoved that set apart, too. A nurse on the other side barely moved out of the way, and she dropped her bags with a squeak. On any other day, Gian would have stopped and helped the woman, but his mind was somewhere else entirely.

A half of a dozen men stood gathered in a semi-circle outside of the hospital room across from the busy nurse station. Gian recognized their faces—friends of his man, younger Capos that had likely heard something happened and come down for support. He appreciated the effort and their concern, but he was neither in the mood to talk, nor interested in playing to the mafia politics.

His car being bombed was one thing.

He always had a fucking target on him.

Cara, though?

Cara was a whole other matter.

“Gian.”

“Shit, nice suit, man. Where were you heading, tonight?”

Gian ignored the greetings and questions that were thrown at him as he passed through the group of men. He strolled into the opened hospital room to find Chris cussing a blue streak under his breath as a nurse stitched a three-inch, clean slice on the enforcer’s neck.

“Well, if you hadn’t moved so much,” the nurse muttered under her breath.

“I rolled over in the bed, cazzo. Maybe they should have got it closed up better the first damn time.”

Gian cleared his throat to gain the attention of both people. When the nurse looked to him, he jerked his head toward the door. “Get out.”

The nurse’s eyes narrowed. “But—”

“Two minutes, that’s all I need. Get out, now.”

Thankfully, the woman went without much argument. She did finish the last couple of stitches before she left, though. Once Gian was alone with Chris, he turned and closed the door to keep his next words from being overheard.

“Well, talk,” Gian demanded.

Chris resituated himself on the bed to properly face his underboss. “Nothing too bad, a few scrapes from the pavement. A bullet nicked me on the throat. It’s fine.”

“Sì, I can see how fine you are. That’s the only reason I came to this room first, instead of Cara’s, because I hoped to calm down a bit more before I see her. What the fuck happened?”

“She’s fine, too, boss.”

Gian grinded his teeth. “That’s a matter of opinion at the moment.”

“She is. I got her down in time.”

“You have one job when she is in your care.”

Chris nodded. “And I did that job, Gian. That’s why she’s getting released tonight and I still have to be monitored until morning before I get my walking papers.”

That was true enough.

For the most part, Gian liked Chris because the man was straightforward and took no bullshit, yet he also understood the weight of respect in their world. So, while he would give Gian the truth in a blunt manner that someone else may not, he did it with the respect of a man who knew he was talking to his superior.

Gian’s posture softened, but barely. He was still walking on a very thin line of control. He had never been quite so worried, or so pissed off, as he was right then. “What did you see before the shooting started?”