Page 229 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

Yeah, she knew that, too.

“I’ll be fine,” Cara assured her boss once more.

Fifteen minutes later, Cara had holed herself in her small office, and finally gotten Gian on the phone. She probably should have called him back earlier after their conversation while she dropped off her books, but the hectic pace of the shelter that day hadn’t given her the chance.

“Mon ange,” Gian said the moment he picked up Cara’s call from her office phone. “How’s my girl?”

“Honestly?”

“Of course.”

“Tired. A little stressed. Craving that shredded ice with the cherry flavoring you brought me last week. Nothing I can’t handle.”

Gian’s chuckles were dark and wonderful on the other end of the line. “I can have some for you when you get home. Just let me know when you’re leaving.”

Cara blew out a slow breath. “Yeah, that’s the thing. I probably won’t be out of here until later than I thought. I know you were going to come over, but why don’t we just figure something out for tomorrow instead?”

“Cara, you’re supposed to be taking it—”

“Easy, I know. But shit came up.”

“Are you actually going to take your time off for maternity leave starting next week, or what?”

“Yes, Gian. I am going to take my leave.”

“You make it hard to believe, that’s all. You work harder than I do, amore. And that says something because I never stop.”

“I promise I’m going to take my leave. But tonight, I’m going to stay later. We have a new woman on the floor—domestic abuse, and it’s a risky situation right now. I feel like she just needs someone to talk to a bit more, and maybe she’ll feel less anxious about the shelter and what we’re trying to do to help her.”

Gian grunted something under his breath that Cara didn’t understand before adding louder, “Your soul is too good for this world, love. You better take your leave, and enjoy every minute of it. You deserve that, Cara. So fine, we’ll do something tomorrow, but something tonight, too.”

“I’m going to be too tired for anything tonight, Gian.”

“I’ll surprise you.”

“With what?”

“I’m actually not too far away with my brother, having dinner. How about—”

Gian’s sentence cut off, and a nothingness sounded in Cara’s ear. She looked down at the office phone, only to see the call had been cut off, but there was no dial tone. She hit the receiver button, but each time, the same nothingness came through the speaker.

“What the fuck?” Cara asked out loud to herself.

Then, the lights went out.

Instantly, backup emergency lights lit up over Cara’s head in one corner of her office. There was absolutely no reason for the phones to cut out, nor for the power to shut off. Cara might have overlooked the power thing, as sometimes that happened in the city when a car accident took out a transformer, but she hesitated on thinking that was the issue.

Why?

Because even without power, the phone lines would work. The phone lines would have needed to be cut, deliberately, for them not to work.

Instinct made Cara grab her cell phone from her purse as she headed out of her office. The shelter was a complex-style building, comprised of different areas from housing wings, to the kitchen, the offices wing, and the downstairs section, where things like the daycare, reception, a small library, and more was set up for the women to use.

Cara went for the stairs first, deciding on heading down that way to see what in the hell was going on. She had just stepped foot on the lower floor when the first gun shots rang out. Screams followed.

“Holy shit,” someone murmured from the front.

Cara stayed behind the safety of the wall that separated her from being seen by the people at the front entrance of the shelter.