Unraveled (Guzzi Duet Book 1)(88)

Cara scowled. “The other woman. The whore. A goomah. Say it, Tommas.”

He didn’t even flinch at her truth, simply kept staring at her like it didn’t change a thing about how he thought of her or saw her in his eyes. “If you understand what it means to be that woman, and you can handle it, then I’ll never say a word against your choices and wishes. It is your life—live it how you want to, Cara. Live the way that makes you happy with the person who makes you happy. But the very second you find yourself in too deep, and you want to get out, you know where to find me. Okay?”

“Now beginning regular boarding for flight …”

Cara stood, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

Tommas stood with her. “Okay, Cara? Say the word, that’s all you have to do.”

She smiled, or as much as she could manage. “I won’t need to after today, but thank you.”

“That’s easy to say now, sure.”

“Tommas—”

“Okay, Cara?”

Her brother’s expression hadn’t changed from the moment he’d started talking. Never once had judgement shone in his eyes. He hadn’t shamed her for the things that she had overlooked, or the mess she now found herself in. No, he only cared for her, and her happiness.

Wasn’t that what family was supposed to do?

She forgot what that felt like, to be looked out for, and cared about, by someone who shared her last name and blood.

“Cara?” Tommas pressed again.

“Yeah, Tommas. Okay.”

He nodded, and then waved a hand toward the gate where other passengers had started lining up to hand over their boarding passes. “Have a good flight, Cara. Call me when you get home and have a minute.”

“All right. Thank you, Tommy.”

Tommas shrugged. “It’s what big brothers do, right? Or, what we’re supposed to do.”

Yeah, it was.

She had forgotten that little fact.





Customs was not half as bad coming back through Toronto International Airport as they had been when Cara entered through them in Chicago. The customs officer gave her passport a glance, barely opened her carry-on and purse up fully, and sent her on with a smile.

That was one damn thing to be grateful for.

While the flight from Chicago to Toronto wasn’t a long one, her emotional turbulence meant that Cara wasn’t in a particularly good place. She was exhausted—mentally, and physically. The only thing she wanted to do was get home to her apartment, give her brother the call she promised him, and then lie in her bed for several hours.

She needed sleep.

Cara pushed through customs, and headed toward arrivals where her luggage would be waiting, and a line of taxis outside the exit doors. She had stepped off the escalator when she spotted the guy standing at the very front of a large group of waiting people.

Several held signs with last names scrawled on them, waiting to pick up someone from their arriving flights.

Not this man.

Chris didn’t need to.

Wearing all black, his hair smoothed back, and a flat smile plastered on his face, Cara let out a sigh at the sight of Chris.

She had wanted to go home. She’d hoped for a little bit of time before she would need to have an actual face-to-face meeting with Gian. Some breathing room to get her thoughts and feelings in order, so that when she did see him, her raging emotional vomit didn’t spill all the way out, making a mess of everything it could reach. Surely, she wasn’t asking for a lot.

Apparently, Gian was not going to give Cara that option. Well, he would have nobody to blame but himself when he faced her anger. He could have given her a day or two—anything—to let his lies sink in.

“Miss Rossi?” Chris asked as he came to stand in front of Cara.

She looked him over. “Gian sent you, Chris?”

“Sì, miss.”

“I suppose if I said that I didn’t want to go see Gian, it won’t make much of a difference, huh?”

He smirked a bit. “I’m to deliver you to his penthouse, nowhere else. I only follow orders. It would be best if you didn’t make a scene. Either way, the penthouse is it.”

“Wonderful.” Cara crossed her arms.

“I will take you home once you’re done with the boss.”

The boss.

Cara didn’t miss the man’s choice of words, in regards to Gian. Was that what had happened while she was gone? Was that what he had sent her away for, so that he could take over the new boss’s seat, and get his revenge for his grandfather at the same time?

She wasn’t stupid, of course, and she knew how volatile and dangerous things had started to become before Gian sent her away. Incidents that had come far too close to Cara and Gian. Still, he never talked details. He was always careful, in that sense, and only gave her the barest bones of information. Just enough to tide her over.

For good reason, her mind taunted, you’re not his wife.

Nothing Gian ever told Cara would be safe.

Not in court.

Goomahs didn’t get that sort of closeness with their men.

Whores got nothing.

It only pissed her off even more. Cara had thought she knew everything about Gian that was important, things a man who loved her should tell her. Even a man like him, involved in things that put a constant target on his back.