Unraveled (Guzzi Duet Book 1)(48)
“Good. Stay low, off the streets, you know, the normal when there’s issues popping up. Pass the message along to Ma. I’ll tell Dom. I want everyone to be safe over the next little while. That’s all.”
“That implies you plan to make some moves of your own that might agitate an already volatile situation, Gian.”
“I’m not implying it,” Gian replied quietly.
He looked across the graveyard to see more cars had begun parking along the road. Most, he recognized. Men—the younger side of the family—that he knew would come when he demanded their presence. Even Constantino’s car was clearly visible, though Gian expected his friend to still be a little sour over their scuffle a few evenings ago.
“I’m not implying it,” Gian repeated, “because I’m outright saying it now.”
“Be careful,” his father warned. “Things that often seem clear and straightforward in this business rarely ever are, Gian.”
“What matters the most is that someone started a war, and I plan on finishing it.”
Spring was finally in the air, despite already being a couple of weeks into it. Unfortunately, the old adage of April showers bringing May flowers held true for the city, even if the only flowers that would grow were in cement pots between benches on the sidewalks. The wetness didn’t seem to want to leave, and it had rained almost every day for a week.
Cara was starting to wonder if she should invest in a poncho and rain boots.
It didn’t matter how long she lived in Canada, the weather still took her by surprise every single year. It was as though Mother Nature spent three to four months in a bitter rage Canadians liked to call winter, only to then spend two months in the wet, mucky depression of spring.
Cara tightened the coat around her neck to keep the chill of the wind out, while simultaneously keeping the umbrella high to battle the rain. She weaved in and out of the rushing people on the sidewalk, coming nearer to her destination. A small café just a couple of blocks away from her university that she frequented throughout the week.
All the while, she ignored the shadow of a man following behind her.
A bodyguard, according to Gian. Because she needed one of those now. Just in case. The guy never came close enough to speak, and Cara didn’t even know his name. He’d never introduced himself, and by the time Cara realized she had a new shadow, she was too irritated over the whole thing and didn’t want to discuss it at all.
Cara slipped inside the café, mastering the ability to pull in her closing umbrella through a shutting door at the same time. Somehow, her hair and coat still felt wet, despite having the umbrella up the whole time she had walked the two blocks.
Maybe it was time to look into getting a car, after all.
Cara had the money, as far as that went. She didn’t live in luxury, her expenses were very little in the grand scheme of things, and her trust fund was still heavily padded with a decent number. She had her long-deceased paternal grandparents—and her brother—to thank for the trust fund that allowed her several years in a university program without needing to work, though. Instead of dividing up their fortune between their children, they included their few grandchildren as well. Had they only left the trusts in the hands of her parents, Cara had zero doubts that her mother and father would have squandered it away.
The trust funds had then been signed over to Tommas when the twins were still under eighteen years of age, so that he could use it for their education, if they wanted. When Lea died, Cara had been giving a letter from a Rossi family lawyer, notifying her that the details and remaining contents of her sister’s trust had been consolidated into hers after expenses were paid.
She had money.
Cara was worried about using too much of it, even for an investment like a vehicle or a more permanent home. She liked money better when she could micromanage it, budget every single red cent, and watch her portfolio continue to stay in a comfortable area for her tastes. Maybe when this final year of university was up, and she had steady income from a job, she might feel okay with spending the money, but not now.
She grew up feeling poor, living like she was in poverty, simply because her parents had not cared to look after the state of their children or their home. She had worn clothes until they were ratty and a size or two too small, shoes that didn’t work for a Chicago winter, and sweaters, instead of a proper windbreaker in the fall and spring. Tommas had filled in a lot of those things for his sisters when he could, as he had gotten older, buying them what they needed or paying their school expenses and meals.
But she still remembered what it felt like to be dirt poor, even when she actually wasn’t.
Neglect came in too many forms to count.
Cara tried to brush off the lingering sadness from her thoughts as she stepped up to the counter and placed an order for coffee and a bagel. Once she had her order in hand, she took a seat at the far end of the café, tucked into a two-seated table with her back to the wall and facing the windows.
She saw him approach the café before she even took her first drink.
Gian didn’t come right in, instead stopping to chat with her new shadow. He gave the man a handshake, and only then did he enter the café. It was like all of the nerves in Cara’s body suddenly zoned in on the one person around her that affected her the most. She didn’t even have to see him to feel him nearby.