Page 263 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

“Don’t be, Tommy. I am fine. I am going to keep being fine. It’s what I do.”

That was that.

Shortly after, Cara hung up the Skype call with her brother. Marcus was fed, fast asleep, and safe in his bed, she reminded herself. She had time to relax, and that was what she had intended to do. Instead, she had gotten into a verbal sparring match with her brother.

“He has a point, you know.”

Cara jerked straight in the office chair, glancing at the doorway to find Gian standing there. Solemn in his expression, with his suit jacket from earlier gone, his tie hanging loose over his chest, and his shirt sleeves rolled up, he looked … tired. Like his whole day had gone to hell in a handbasket, and he was just over it.

For the most part, Cara ignored the blood splatters dotting Gian’s dress shirt.

“Who has a point?” she asked.

“Your brother.”

Her brow furrowed. “You listened to my conversation?”

“Part of it,” he admitted. “I came up on the last of it, I didn’t mean to and I didn’t want to interrupt. You spy on my conversations—don’t pretend like you don’t.”

Fair point.

“And what was Tommas’ point that you agree with, exactly?”

“Quite a bit of it, actually. I could do more, be more. I could do better things, be better. A better man. You deserve the kind of man he described, and so does Marcus, and yet, you’re both very firmly stuck with me. Bit of a shame, oui? I’m sure there’s someone out there who could have, and likely would have, made you a much happier woman. How fucking selfish of me to have kept you like I did, to have stolen you like I did, when you could have been someone else’s everything, and you only get to be my something to the rest of the world. A fucking shame. I’m sorry for that, mon ange.”

Ouch.

That hurt.

“What did you just say?”

“Nothing,” Gian said, waving it off and turning to head out of the office. “Nothing that wasn’t true. I’m tired, Cara. I’ll see you in bed.”

Like fuck he would.

“Gian, don’t walk away right now.”

He kept going.

“Gian!”

Nothing.

Cara got up out of the chair, and headed after Gian, fuming and confused. She came up behind him as he shrugged off his dress shirt and tie in the hallway and tossed it into the laundry room without a care—bloodstains meant it would all need to be thrown out.

“Gian,” Cara said firmly, grabbing his arm and pulling as hard as she could to turn him around to face her. “Repeat what you just said to me.”

He stared at her with hard eyes and cold features.

His best defense.

Cara saw right through it.

“Your brother is right about the things he says. Maybe not in all the details, but in theory, he’s right.”

“And didn’t you hear what I said to him?”

“I heard you defending me when it’s the very last thing you should be doing. I have done very little to be worthy of your loyalty, Cara. It would not be such a stretch to think you would like to have more from me, or this—whatever we are.”