Always For You (Books 1-3) (24 page)

He fell silent for a second. “She
wouldn't want to, not after the way I acted. She's moved on, it's
fine.”

“No Cain, she hasn't moved on.” He
looked up at me. “This guy is just a rebound, it won't last.”

I could see him stifling a smile as it
tried to creep up his face. “Well, I do want to see her again,
explain what happened or, at least, part of it.” I knew he wouldn't
tell her everything that happened.

“OK, I'll talk to her, set you up for
a drink.”

He smiled. “Thanks sis.”

January 11
^th
2014

Cain

I sat there in the bar, a nice bar in
town, dressed better than I had for quite some time. I was waiting to
meet Emily, a date set up, as she said she would, by Grace. I felt
strangely nervous, apprehensive about how Emily would react to seeing
me. This was another first. No girl had ever made me nervous, no girl
had ever made me care. I didn't know whether that was a reflection of
me or her. Was it because she was special, or simply because she was
the first girl I'd ever let through my defences? Whatever the case,
she'd got to me.

I was wearing a shirt, black, with dark
blue jeans. I knew she used to like it when I dressed comfortably, so
this was a happy middle ground. I think a white shirt and chino look
might have been a little too out of character for me. My face looked
a little better than before, although I still had some bruising
around my right eye. Grace, though, had come over with some sort of
magical cream that helped to conceal the bruising. Another first –
I was wearing make up!

It was Saturday and Grace had told me
that she was throwing a flat warming party that night. She said she'd
been spending the last week trying to get the place looking more like
home, and was having some friends over to celebrate. She had begged
me to come alone, to meet Chase, meet some of her friends. I said I'd
think about it. Frankly the thought didn't appeal to me too much.

I nursed my beer as I waited, keeping
watch over the door. That had become a habit, but for a very
different reason. I hadn't seen that blue car again, not since it
trailed me home that night, but I felt sure there was still someone
after me. Call it a sixth sense, but something felt off.

I'll talked to Brad about it, asked him
to do some more digging, see if he could find out more about this Rex
guy. Nothing came of it though, and no one had seen him down in the
club since we'd had our fight. I wondered how the hell nobody could
know who he was, how he could keep his identity secret like that. All
he ever did, apparently, was come straight into the club for his
fight, take his money, and then leave. He'd been doing that for 6
months, and was making a tidy living off it.

My mind was snapped back to reality as
I saw the door open, and Emily walk in. She looked so pretty, so much
more innocent and feminine than most of the women I hooked up with.
She looked around the bar, a slightly apprehensive look on her face,
before seeing me, sat over in the corner.

Her expression changed as she walked up
to me, turning angrier than I'd ever seen it. She was usually so
smiley that it seemed forced.

I stood to greet her but she just
settled straight into the chair opposite me, her arms folded in
comical fashion. I'd never had to deal with an aggrieved ex before,
so I really had no idea how to appease her. All I could do was tell
her what she wanted to hear, what Grace had told me to say.

“Look, I just need to get this off my
chest first, I need to explain what happened.” I went straight into
my rehearsed spiel.

“I'm sorry I left, OK. I really
should have said goodbye, or at least told you where I was going. You
have to know that it was nothing to do with you, I had my own
personal things to deal with and I needed to get away.”

She sat there unmoving, her eyes fixed
on me.

“You know that you are the only
girlfriend I've ever had,” I continued. “I just didn't know how
to tell you I'd be going, so I just left. The longer it went, the
harder it got, and eventually I suppose I was too cowardly to get in
touch.” Grace's words, not mine.

Her expression began to soften a bit. I
knew she wouldn't be able to stay angry like that for long, it wasn't
in her nature. “So where did you go?” she said, her arms still
folded.

“I left town, moved around a little
bit. I didn't really stop anywhere for too long.”

“And when did you get back?”

“Early December,” I said. I knew
what she was going to say:
why didn't you come see me then?
I
had my answer all ready to go.

“I didn't come see you when I got
back because, well, I'd heard you were seeing someone else. I thought
you'd moved on and didn't want to see me.”

“Well, you'd be right,” she said,
her guard still up. “How did you hear that?”

“Brad told me. He said you saw you in
the bar with this guy.”

“OK, but he told me he didn't know
where you were? I asked him about it a few times.”

“Ah, yeah well I told him not to tell
anyone, I needed to get away from everything.” I saw the look on
her face, like a hurt dog. “No, not you, just everything else.”

She breathed deep and finally uncrossed
her arms, settling them down on her lap. “I suppose it must have
been hard for you, with Trevor and Grace and all of that. I can't
really judge how anyone would behave when they heard that sort of
news.”

I nodded. “I'm glad you
understand...”

“But you still should have told me,”
she cut me off. “All you had to say was you were going away, that
you needed to get your head straight. You should have trusted me to
understand that. I would have waited for you Cain, waited until you
came back.”

“I'm sorry Em, I suppose everything
was new to me. Finding my dad, finding out I had two sisters, being
in a relationship with you. It was all new. I reacted badly and I'm
sorry. There's no excuse, I just hope you can forgive me.”

The angry look on her face had now
melted, he eyes watering slightly. “Of course I can, I just needed
to hear it all from you.” She reached across and took my hand. I
could see the conflict in her eyes, as if she wanted to kiss me but
couldn't, wouldn't let herself.

I realized just how much I cared about
her as I sat there with her. I wanted to go over and comfort her,
give her a hug, kiss her. But she had a boyfriend now, I couldn't do
that. And I knew she wouldn't, cheating wasn't in her character.

I think we were
both on the same wavelength, like we wanted each other but couldn't.
I was destructive anyway, I wasn't good enough for her. Who knows
what would happen to me the way my life was going, who knows whether
I'd leave again if something bad went down like before. I didn't want
to push her, to get her back only to fuck things up again. I couldn't
do that to her, even if I thought she would leave her boyfriend for
me. I didn't want to put her in that position.

We talked for a little while longer,
like we used to, catching up on what had been happening in her life.
I didn't tell her about my current troubles, or the fact that I'd got
involved in bareknuckle boxing. It would only cause her to worry
about me even more, so she really didn't need to know.

As we sucked down our second drink
Emily asked me whether I was going along to Grace's flat warming
party. I told her I probably wouldn't, that I'd feel a bit out of
place with all of her college friends there.

“Ah, please, I told her I'd go and I
don't know anyone really, except for Chase a little bit,” she said
once I'd shown my lack of enthusiasm.

“Your boyfriend though, he'll be
there, right?”

“No, he's got some football social
thing going on, where they all get drunk and do silly things. Oh come
on Cain, please.” She looked up at me with her big blue eyes,
pleading.

“Won't your boyfriend mind?”

“Scott, no, it's your sisters flat
warming anyway, it's not like we're going together.”

“Well, we kinda are,” I laughed.
“Shall we turn up at different times, just to be safe.” She
noticed my sarcasm.

“Ha ha, funny. It's fine - another
here and then we'll go along?”

Oh God this was going to be difficult.
Two drinks down, another on the way, then off to a party where
neither of us really know anyone
. It would be extremely hard not
to try it on and, the way she was being with me now after a couple of
cocktails, she'd welcome my advances.

Keep it in your pants Cain, just keep
it in your pants.

January 11
^th
2014

Grace

“Babe, do you think we have enough
alcohol for everyone?” I never liked asking Chase about anything
alcohol related.

Chase scanned his eyes over the various
bottles of spirit we had lined up on the kitchen counter. “I think
it'll be enough,” he said. “How many of your friends are going to
be male?”

“Erm, a dozen or so.”

“OK, I'd better get another case of
beer.”

He
grabbed his jacket and keys and shot out the door. He was so
generous, spending hundreds of dollars on drinks and snacks that he
wouldn't even partake in himself.
I guess when you've just inherited millions it's a drop in the ocean
though.

It was about 7 PM and the party was set
to start, with a good few dozen people already committed to attend.
Most of them were my friends, with Chase only inviting a handful. He
told me that he wanted most of the guest list to be on my end seeing
as it was, essentially, a flat warming for me. He'd been there for a
while now, so his mates had already had a party when he moved in.
“Plus,” he said, “I wanna meet your friends, get to know them a
bit.”

“Do it quickly,” I'd replied,
“before they drink too much.” A fair few of my friends were very
much in the college lifestyle, drinking heavily whenever they could,
especially at house parties. I'd estimated that by about 11 PM they'd
all be wasted, and wouldn't remember much of what went on after.

As I waited for the first guests to
arrive I wondered if Cain would show up. I'd set him up with Emily
for earlier in the day and she'd told me she was coming. If I'd
judged things right, hopefully they'd come along together. I didn't
think of myself as a meddler, I was just looking out for my brother,
making sure he was happy. After all he'd done for me it was the least
I could do. Sorry, but Scott would have to be collateral damage.

Cain

I realized as I sat there with Emily
how much I'd missed her. I had tried not to think about it much while
I was away, and there were certainly other things that were weighing
heavily on my mind, but now, sitting here with her, it was becoming
hard not to pull her to my chest and kiss her. We were finishing up
our third drink and I knew that this night was only going one way.

I
splashed my face with water as looked into the mirror in the toilet.
If you hook up with her
tonight, when you're both drunk, it might just fuck things up. She's
not a cheater, and I don't want to make her one.

It was hard though. The chemistry
between us was undeniable, and I doubted that it was the same with
Scott. I didn't see how it could be, inexperienced with all this
stuff as I was. The idea of having chemistry with one person was hard
enough for me to fathom, so two? No way. Not like this anyway, this
was different.

She was being ultra giggly as we
stepped from the bar and headed towards my bike. I knew I shouldn't
drive, not after three drinks, but Emily was insisting. She always
liked that bad boy, dangerous side of me, especially after a drink or
two. Bike or cab? Easy choice in the end.

It wasn't far to Grace's place, just a
few blocks really, but I took it slow anyway. I only had my helmet,
so Emily was unprotected and, despite her yells in my ear to speed
up, I wasn't going to take any risks.

As we
went I thought I saw a flash of blue, a car following behind. I
looked in the wing mirror but it was nothing, a navy SUV, not the
station wagon that had trailed me before. That had happened a few
times, where I thought I'd seen that same car but I turned out to be
something completely different. Man was I paranoid.
Fuck
it, nothing's happened for a week, it was probably nothing.

It
was about 8.15 PM when we pulled up to Grace's building, a luxury
high rise in the
center
of town. It was a far cry from where I lived.

“This
is Chase's building?” Emily asked as we stepped onto the
sidewalk,
sounding impressed. I looked at her as she gazed up.
I
wish I could afford to live somewhere like that
.
How
out of place would I look!

We
went through into the front lobby and towards the lift, hitting the
button for the 10
^th
floor. The sound was immediate as soon as the lift opened up, a loud
banging coming from a room down the hall. It was so plush this place,
it looked like a fancy hotel. I was surprised not to see bell boys
down in the lobby, and waiters dishing out room service down the
hall.

We knocked a few times before the door
opened and Grace stood there, glass of wine in hand, looking great.
It was kinda surreal seeing her pull Emily in for a hug, like they'd
known each other for years. I guess we were all pretty close now,
what with Grace's dad - my dad - seeing Emily's mom. In some sort of
warped way I'd be dating my step sister if I did ever start seeing
Emily again. For someone who'd spent their entire adult life on their
own, it was weird having all these people so closely intertwined.

There
must have been a good couple of dozen people in the apartment by the
time we got there, most of them drinking away vigorously in the
kitchen or living room. It was all open plan, with the kitchen round
the corner to the right as we walked in, stepping straight down into
the living area. Over to the left was a door which led, according to
Grace, into the second spare bedroom.
Two
spare bedrooms. I guess this is how the other half live.