Cara’s pov
When I woke up and realized Luca was gone, I wasted no time in showering and getting dressed, barely sitting through my poor breakfast of cold cookies and instant coffee.
I found Sergio and Nino exactly where I knew they’d be- outside my door. “We are going to Salato’s.” I said, pushing past them.
The pause coming from them told me they were probably exchanging uneasy looks. Sergio spoke first. “Is the Don aware of this?”
Not stopping my determined walk, I said, “Tell him if it bothers you that much. I’m seeing Diana today.” I wasted three days already, can’t waste any more sitting my ass at home pacing like an overstimulated mental patient. I needed to find a solution ASAP.
Sergio and Nino hurried after me as I barreled for the elevator. The ride was tense, stiff like the moment before something disastrously epic like a battle or a hurricane or an introvert’s first speech before a crowd of hundreds.
Sergio tapped away at his phone, probably updating Luca on my movement, Nino picked his nails with a knife, their demeanours completely relaxed and normal, nothing like the internal storm raging in me. Then again, they weren’t the ones with a twenty five thousand dollars blackmail with a deadline in three days.
The elevator dinged open to seven familiar yet unfamiliar men waiting in the parking lot. They were the rest of my bodyguards and Sergio must have texted them during the ride down. I stepped out and they were alert at once, forming a barricade around me as we headed for the van. It was crazy how I went from being a regular girl that walked everywhere alone to one that had more bodyguards than the governor of Illinois, and moved around in a suspicious black van. I could swear most people give me alarmed looks when I step out of the vehicle with my army of scary looking bodyguards. They either thought I was being abducted or was some female crime boss, there was no in between.
No sight of Diana when we arrived at the restaurant, which I expected because it was currently lunch hour. I put my ‘Luca’s girlfriend authority’ to good use and demanded they let me through the back, half of me expecting some resistance and delay but I surprisingly got none. The staff was more than willing to take me inside, smiling cheerily and obviously trying to get on my good side. I found it refreshing and surreal at the same time.
“Cara? What are you doing here!” Diana bounded at me when we arrived at the staff break room. She was sitting with two other waitresses and a handsome man in a chef uniform I assumed to be the sous chef she occasionally rambled about.
I managed a small smile and a hurried “hi” for her company before whispering to her, “We need to talk.”
Her surprise and elation at seeing me slowly disappeared. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“There’s something…” I trailed off, glancing at her coworkers whose attention was unabashedly on us. On me. On the harsh looking men hovering behind me. “Is there anywhere we can talk alone?”
Diana’s expression was instantly one of concern. “Yes, the pantry. It’s large enough to hold us.”
We headed there immediately and after I made Sergio promise to stand watch and keep anyone from entering, I shut the door and spun to face a curious Diana.
“Cara, what’s going?”
And I was spilling, everything-Diego, what he did to me, the videos, the blackmails, his disappearance and finally his reappearance and his new blackmail.
“Oh my God!” Diana exclaimed, furious. “We need to report him to the police. Or better, tell Luca so he can make him pay.”
My refusal was immediate. “No!” I almost screamed, ridden by the fear of that ever happening.
Diana was bewildered. “Why? He can take care of the asshole as easily as killing a fly.”
I shook my head firmly. “No.” I insisted, “I can’t have Luca finding out about the… about the…” I just couldn’t have him seeing me like that.
Diana quickly closed the gap between us and pulled me into a hug.
A flood broke out inside me and I began to cry.
“Shhh,” Diana comforted, patting me on the back softly. “We’d figure something out.”
Thinking about how hard I’d been trying to do exactly just that over the past four days and failing made me sob harder, my chest constricting painfully.
I tried to find my voice between my sobs. “I wa- was consi- si-dering going to- to Gina.”
Diana pulled away to meet my gaze. “You can’t, sweetheart. Gina would freak out and very much likely tell Luca.”
I was back to being defeated, my heart breaking into half. “What the hell am I going to do?” I cried out. “What else is there to do? Steal? Rob a fucking bank? I don’t have the faintest idea on how”
“There might be a way.” Diana cut into my frustrated tirade.
I was immediately attentive. “What way?”
“It’s a little risky and probably not in any way ideal”
“Diana, I’m willing to do anything.”
She averted her gaze, hesitant.
“Please,” I put every ounce of my desperation into the single word.
After what felt like a million years, Diana raised her eyes to mine, her expression resolute. “I know a loan shark.”
For a second, I couldn’t see through my rapid blinking then my eyes grew twice their size. “Diana!” I chided in a high pitched whisper. “Are you crazy?”
She threw her hands up in exasperation. “I know, I know. It’s dangerous but we don’t have any other options.”
I ran my hands through my hair. “But… a loan shark?”
Diana raised an eyebrow. “Do you have another suggestion?”
I didn’t. I scratched at my eyebrow, turned away from her and faced the wall, my stance akimbo. I let out a vehement curse.
“Cara,” Diana prodded.
“Okay, okay!” I cursed again and spun back to her. “Fuck it, it’s not like I have a choice. Who do you know?”
“An old classmate. He dropped out of highschool before we graduated and I never heard from him since then. Not until the day I bumped into him one time I was returning from Rico’s. We started talking and…” She inhaled slowly before continuing, “well, it was how I learned about his loan shark business.”
My eyes rose skywards. “This is fucking crazy.”
“We can get the money from him in twenty four hours. As for when we are to pay back… well we’d cross that bridge when we get there.”
We’d cross that bridge when we get there. That didn’t sound promising in the least. But there was no time to worry about later when my immediate future was in jeopardy.
“Can we trust this classmate of yours?” I asked, bringing my gaze back to Diana.
She pursed her lips, looking every inch unconvincing. “To be honest, I’m not sure but it helps that I’m familiar with him.”
“This is crazy.” I reiterated.
Diana’s voice dropped. “We’d need to change, disguise ourselves so your bodyguards won’t recognize us.”
“How are we going to get past them?” I asked, glancing to the closed door with Sergio and the rest standing guard on the other side.
My friend straightened her spine, a plotting twinkle in her eyes. “Leave that to me.”