“Angelo…” Asher spoke softly, his tone laced with urgency. “I think it’s time you called in the Cabrinis. If we need someone to watch our backs, I want them to know about the situation now.”
A shadow trespassed over Angelo’s features. “Right.”
“Who are the Cabrinis?” Kara demanded, her voice breathless.
Angelo met her gaze, his expression as hard as iron. “The Cabrinis are one of the Italian mob families here in Chicago.”
The Italian mob?
A fresh wave of terror spiked her blood. What if they handed her over to the Westies in exchange for a peace treaty? Or they used her as leverage to gain access to the Westies business in New York? What if?—
There suddenly wasn’t enough air in the room. She couldn’t breathe, she was going to throw up. Something lightly shook her.
“Kara—breathe!” Angelo’s voice came to her as though through a distant tunnel.
“Kara…” her name sounded so sweet, yet it was twisted with an urgency that was enough to drag her out of the dark depths she was falling into.
Precious air filled her lungs and it burned.
“Breathe, Kara.” Angelo held her face in his hands. “Breathe in four counts, hold four, let out four,” he coached.
She did as he asked, counting the numbers in her head and slowly the panic receded the dizziness faded away.
“You okay?” He brushed his thumb over her cheeks.
She nodded as he grasped her wrists, holding on to him for a long moment.
“You have nothing to fear from the Cabrinis,” he promised her.
But he didn’t know, couldn’t understand what those men were like. Mafia men lived under different rules. Her mother had told her terrifying stories of what life had been like back in Dublin for anyone connected to the mobs there.
“Kara, you’ll be safe,” Asher said, adding his promise to Angelo’s.
Only when Kara was much calmer a few minutes later, Angelo pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. “Leo… it’s Angelo Vertucci.”
Angelo was silent for a moment listening to whatever the man on the other the line was saying. “I have a situation that needs your help. Could you and your brothers meet with me?”
“Tell him to meet in two hours at your place.” Asher whispered from the front seat.
“My home. Two hours,” Angelo said. His gaze flicked to Kara’s face briefly. “Yes, it’s incredibly important.”
When Angelo hung up, he let out a sigh. “They’ll be here in two hours.”
“Good. That will give me some time to run a check on the house and handle a couple of things before they arrive.”
The Italian mob was coming Angelo’s house. Kara swallowed hard and focused on breathing the way Angelo taught her.
“Everything’s going to be all right,” Angelo murmured and pulled her even closer against him. “The Cabrinis will help us.”
It wouldn’t be all right. She’d been on the run for so long that she knew his words, sweetly meant, were still a lie. Nothing was ever going to be okay. Maybe now was the time to face it. To get this over with. At least then she'd know if she was a dead woman or free to live her life. And it terrified her that her future might lay in the hands of the Cabrini Kings.
Chapter Thirteen
Angelo’s hands trembled slightly as he stood in his kitchen debating what to do. Kara’s apprehension at his restaurant had left him cautious, but the flash of fear in her eyes that she tried to hide from him, had left him shaking with fury. To think someone who meant her harm had been in his world filled him with a dark and blinding rage he’d never experienced before.
I can’t lose her.
That revelation wasn’t exactly a new one. It had been building inside him over the last few days, but he’d been too afraid to face it until now.
