Page 81 of In My Blood

“Looks like it,” a voice closer to me replied. Good. I could try to make a plan if they weren’t concentrated on me. “We need to get her out of here in case she was followed. Take the other girl back and be the hero. Make sure De Santis trusts you.”

“I fucking know what I’m doing!” I heard Jase snap. “What the fuck are you doing with her?”

“Taking her to the boss. He’s got a right hard on for her for some reason,” the strange voice close to me replied.

So I knew for sure Jase was a traitor, but at least it sounded like he planned to take Gia home. I wondered if she could hear them talking. They were quiet, but not that quiet. Maybe she would hear enough to know what was going on and alert Rafe about just how much of a traitor Jase really was. Surely my mention of him in that message would at least make Rafe look into him? I didn’t want Rafe or any of his family put in danger by Jase still working for them.

“Just get her out of here fast! I’ll get Gia back to the house,” Jase concluded.

There was some movement around me, then I heard Gia’s voice, coming towards me.

“Jase? Where are you taking me?” she asked, sounding calmer now. Maybe she felt safe with Jase. She didn’t know what a two faced fuck he was yet. I just hoped she wouldn’t be too heart broken when she found out.

“Home,” he answered flatly. Gia said something else but the voices disappeared and I felt the cool breeze drift in, the door to the street obviously having been opened.

I opened my eyes just a slit and turned my head enough to have a quick look around me. No one was in the garage with me, so I took the opportunity to reach behind me, grabbing the gun in my shaky hand and bringing it round to my front with the arm I could still move. I clutched it against my stomach and fumbled to flick off the safety, then I held it in my hand, against my stomach, ready to shoot if I got the chance. If they were going to try and put me in a car, and thought I was unconscious, I mightget the chance to escape, if I could see enough to run in a straight line.

Gia was free and on her way home. That was the main thing. She got out and she would be safe. Rafe would never allow this to happen again. I knew he’d lock her down tight until things were safe again.

Now I was only fighting for my own life, and I could be a lot more reckless about that. I wanted to live, and I’d die trying to escape if I had to. I’d rather die than be some monsters play thing, which I had guessed is what I would be from what that guy had said. I had no idea who wanted me, or how they even knew who I was when I had been in London for only days, but clearly they wanted me for terrifying reasons, and I would not allow them to get me.

Then all hell broke loose outside the doors. Gunfire erupted, and I knew that was exactly what it was from being trapped in it just days before.

“RAFE!” I heard Gia screaming, and that was what made me move and stop playing possum. I held the gun tightly in my hand, keeping my finger close to, but not on the trigger, then used that hand to push myself from the ground. My shoulder radiated agony through my whole upper body with every micro movement, and my head felt like someone was inside of it with a sledge hammer, pounding away every time I took a breath, but I pushed myself up and tried to block it all out. The adrenaline still surging through me helped.

Once I was sitting up I cradled my injured arm against my chest, then used my legs to slide myself across the cold concrete floor and over to the doorway which hung open. The men who hadtaken me were crouching behind a parked car outside the door, Jase at the end, clutching Gia’s arm as she crouched low beside him. They were popping up above the car like a game of whack-a-mole, taking shots at four black cars parked across the street, behind which I was sure were Rafe, the guys, and Rafe’s men.

“GIA!” I heard Rafe yell.

“Help me!” Gia screamed as she jumped up and started trying to pull away from the grip Jase had on her. She was only dressed in the dress she went out in, and I could see scratches and blood all over her arms and legs. She was shaking hard and sobbing so loud I could hear her even over the chaos. I didn’t even think as I lifted the gun I held and pointed it at Jase. I fired a single shot and gasped when it actually hit the centre of his back. He slumped over, blood pouring from the hole I just shot in him.

Gia’s shrill, horror filled scream pulled me back to sense and I looked to her and yelled as loud as I could, “RUN!”

She froze for a moment, looking between Jase’s slumped body behind the car, me, and across the road. Finally she seemed to make a decision and she came towards me.

“NO!” I screamed at her with every last bit of energy I had left, but she didn’t stop, or turn around as I was desperate for her to do. She just ran towards me. I glanced to the side just as the youngest thug who had held us turned to look at her. When he saw me at the door he lifted the gun in his hand, and without thought I lifted mine faster and fired a shot. It missed him, but he threw himself down to the ground. That drew the attention of the two other guys who weren’t yet slumped dead behind the car, so I just started firing at them before they could fire at us. It bought Gia the seconds she needed to get through the door.

“Cara!” she wailed as she dropped down beside me and grabbed my left arm. When I cried out in agony she, thankfully, released her grip and fell back, landing on her butt, on the floor, beside me. She was sobbing uncontrollably as she looked at me with wide, terror filled eyes.

“Stay behind me!” I told her. I wanted to comfort her, but there was still the sound of shooting outside and I knew we weren’t safe yet. I watched as she crawled behind me, where she wasn’t in the direct line of the open door, then I peered out round the corner again, just as the last of the guys stood there dropped to the floor with a bullet in his left shoulder. He seemed to flounder for a second, then he pressed a hand over the bullet wound and stumbled to his feet. He started to run, his gun forgotten on the ground. Seconds later another bullet ripped through him just yards from me, and then he fell, dead on the ground.

“RAFE!” I cried as loud as I could. “It’s clear! They’re dead!” I slumped against the wall at my side, those cries the last of anything I had left inside me. I was gasping for breath and definitely worse for wear, but I was alive, and Gia was safe.

I looked up as footsteps raced towards me, raising my gun automatically, but when I saw Dante and Dio standing opposite me, I lowered it again, dropping it to my thighs, knowing I was safe now. I watched ahead as more footsteps echoed through the silence of the empty street. I saw Arran and Callan, then Rafe behind them, and I smiled, or at least tried to.

They were safe. Everyone was safe. The relief that knowledge gave me would have surprised me a few days before, but not anymore. In less than a week I had come to trust them. I had found a family there with them, and they had made me realise that I did have something to live for now. It was scary, anduncertain, especially considering the danger I had faced in just the last few days, but it was mine, and I wasn’t alone anymore. Life might not have got any easier. In fact, if anything, I think it had gotten a hell of a lot more complicated and riskier. Survival was still going to be a fight, and maybe it always would be, but now I wasn’t facing it alone. Now I wasn’t facing anything alone any more, and that was a fact worth fighting for.