“Is the nurse here?” I asked Dio, ending their goading of one another.
“He is. He has everything set up in Rafe’s room.”
“He?” Rafe growled.
“Yeah. I thought you’d feel better getting your cock out in front of a man,” Dio shrugged, but there was a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“I won’t be getting my cock out in front of anyone!” Rafe snapped. I stifled a laugh and Rafe looked to me with chagrin. “SorryGioia,” he added remorsefully.
“Moving on,” I laughed. “You have to let him check your vitals regularly. I’m guessing you won’t be letting him help you shower?”
“Jesus Christ!”
“Fine! Sorry!” I gave in, knowing Rafe hated being made to feel even remotely like an invalid.
“I’ll stay close and make sure he gets taken care of,Piccola. He’ll be fine,” Dio assured me. “Come on, Rafe. Let’s get you up to your room.”
Dio held his hand out in offering and I was relieved when Rafe took it, and allowed Dio to pull him up to his feet. I could see how much Rafe was shaking, and he still hadn’t fully caught his breath. He really was going to need to take things easy for a while. He was nowhere near healed.
As they started moving out of the kitchen I followed behind. I’d have tried to help, since Rafe seemed really unsteady, but Dio had it handled and I didn’t want Rafe to feel any more uncomfortable than I was sure he already did. It was very obvious how distressed he was at suddenly not being at his full strength.
“Have we had any progress on locating Kozlov?” Rafe asked once we were all in the lift and moving up the floors. It was the first time I had been in the thing, and I had to try hard not to show my irrational fear that we would become trapped.
“Rafe,” I sighed.
“It’s a question. It’s hardly straining me,” he defended with a look of innocence that didn’t suit him.
“It means you’re stressing about work and it’s not good for you,” I told him flatly.
“Everything is in hand right now. Just try to rest for today, like Cara wants, then I’ll answer your questions and bring you up to date tomorrow,” Dio offered.
“Fine, but only today. The attacks on this family have gone unanswered for too fucking long,” Rafe reluctantly agreed.
We were almost to Rafe’s bedroom on the top floor when he spoke again, “What about Dante? Have we heard from him?”
“No,” I answered quickly.
We hadn’t heard a word and it terrified me. At first it made sense that he went off to sulk a little after what happened in Chicago, but now? After all of the messages we had left, telling him about my kidnapping and Rafe’s shooting; messages of me begging him to just come home. Surely, if he were getting any of that he’d have been there with us? He was loyal above all else. I had believed him when he promised he would always be there for me, no matter what. With every day that passed I became more convinced something had to have happened to him.
“Not a word,” Dio confirmed. “Arran has started a search for him. We know he landed at Heathrow the day after Cara, Arran, and Cal were taken from our plane, but after that he just disappears.”
“Something’s not right. Dante has disappeared before, but never for this long, and never without a single word to check in. Tell Arran finding him just became a priority. We should have been searching for him sooner than this,” Rafe sighed.
“I’ll speak to Arran,” Dio nodded.
I just hoped Rafe didn’t catch the note of reluctance in his voice. Dio wasn’t a big fan of Dante right then, not after finding out he had hurt me in Chicago.
Gratefully, the subject was dropped as Dio helped Rafe into his room and settled him at the edge of his bed. I instantly dropped down to the ground and started to untie his trainers, pulling them off.
“I can help Rafe undress,” A strange voice spoke from behind me.
It was too close, and I leapt up and spun fast on instinct, my heart rate picking up as I looked for the threat.
“Cara, this is the nurse I hired, Micah,” Dio told me as he moved closer and placed a soothing hand at the small of my back.
I hated that he had instantly seen my panic, but I was relieved for it too, because having him at my side settled me down fast.
I looked up again and took in the guy standing opposite me. He was tall and wiry thin. His blonde hair was cut short and styled a little too precisely to my tastes. He wore plastic dark glasses and was studying me a little too hard to make me relax entirely. He looked young – older than me – but still young. He was wearing blue scrubs like they wore at the hospital with a navy zip up hoody that hung open and looked too big on his thin frame.
