Cain (19 page)

Cain couldn’t help it, he burst out
laughing. “No, baby, I can’t. You are hurting and we both know it.
Come on, let me get you to your bed. I can give you something
there.”

She led him to the staircase and waited
for her to move up it. When she turned and looked at him again, he
was sure he wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. There
was something there that made him think she was going to send him
home. At least she was going to try to.

“
There is absolutely no
reason for you to hang around. Just give me a pain pill, or better
yet, I’ll get one from the bathroom. Thomas seems to have every
over the counter drug in the world. I’ll have him give you a call
if I have any more problems. I want to thank you for—Cain! Put me
down, you moron.”

Thomas and Drew came around the corner
just as she squealed. If she didn’t stop squirming, he was going to
drop her and then she really would hurt. As it was, not touching
her back was making it extremely difficult to hold on to
her.

“
Hello, Thomas. I was
wondering if you’d be so kind to point out which room is Alyssa’s?
She seems to have it in her head that I’m leaving and I’m
not.”

When she stopped struggling and
stilled, he looked down. Her shirt was nearly off her and he could
see her skimpy bra. With both her hands over her breasts, she
couldn’t move without falling. He turned her slightly so that
neither Thomas nor Drew could see what she was doing.

“
Oh, of course. She will
need someone to keep an eye on her, I suppose. It’s the last room
on the left. There is a sturdy lock on the door as well. I believe
I’d lock it behind you if I were you. Never know when she
might…sleepwalk away from you again.”

“
Thomas Andrew Miller,
you’re fired. I never…what do you think you’re doing telling him to
lock me in? I’ll…damn it, put me down. Andrew? I want you to sue
him. I want him brought up on harassment charges right now. The
idiot can’t just cart me around like I’m a sack of potatoes.
Andrew!”

They were at the top of the stairs when
Andrew answered. “Sorry love, I don’t work for you yet. In fact,
you fired me an hour ago, remember? Sorry, just can’t help you.
Have a good night, Cain, and good luck. I think you’re going to
need it.”

~CHAPTER
NINETEEN~

It took her all of twenty minutes to
calm down. The only good thing about it was that the pain receded
when she was pissed off at Cain. So now that she was calming down,
she was hurting again.

“
I’m going to run you a
bath then I’m going to have you soak in it for—”

“
You so are not going to
help me take a bath. I draw the line at having you wash me.” She
wanted to cry but wouldn’t do it with him there. “Please, just go
home. Your sisters probably need you. I know Quinn does. She asked
for you several times when they were loading her in the
ambulance.”

“
I’m not leaving, Alyssa.
Besides, who do you think sent me here? Now hush up and let me help
you. The bath will feel good then I’ll give you something that will
knock you out and you…”

“
No! I can’t…you can’t
drug me. I won’t be drugged again. Never, you understand? Never
again.” She flushed. Cain stared at her for long moments before he
nodded once and moved into the bathroom again. The water had been
running since they had come up and she thought it was probably
overflowing by now.

When he came back out with her robe in
his hands, she knew that he was staying. She thought about stomping
her foot, but didn’t want to appear too childish. But she did growl
at him when he dropped to his knees before her.

“
I’m going to take off
your pants, not attack you.” He had them just to her knees when he
finally asked what she thought he would when he’d first gotten
there. “Are you really Alyssa Howard, the one who went missing all
that time ago?”

“
Yes. My father left me
everything when he died. I was…my mother tried to have me have sex
with my uncle and I left. Ouch.” He’d pulled hard on her pants and
jerked her around.

“
I’m sorry. Seriously?
Why?”

It was a rather personal question, but
she answered him anyway. “My mother had several affairs when she
was married to my dad. I didn’t know he knew, not until they read
the will anyway. My brothers, Nathan and Robert, aren’t Daddy’s
either, just me. When Daddy died, he made sure that Mother knew
about it. He cut them off, all of them. My uncle Samuel is my
bro…is Nathan’s father.”

“
So your dad got his
revenge by leaving you everything. And the sex? Is she perverted or
something?”

He got her panties off her and stood.
For reasons she couldn’t understand, she didn’t feel timorous in
front of him. Could be that they’d had sex, but she didn’t think
that was all of it.

“
Probably. But that’s not
the reason. One of the stipulations in the will for my uncle to
inherit was that he had to find a suitable wife and have a child.
My mother told me that if he had a child with me, then when I was
gone, she and my uncle would raise the baby.”

They were in the bathroom now and Cain
was helping her lower herself into the water when he stopped
suddenly. She knew what had stopped him. It was the same thing that
had made her run. The reason why she had stayed hidden for so
long.

“
What was going to happen
to you that they’d need to raise the baby? Christ, and I thought my
mother was bad. So you were going to sleep with your uncle, have
his kid, and then what? Disappear? Fall ill and die? Your mother is
a peach, Alyssa. A real peach.”

She burst out laughing. His grin told
her that that was what he’d planned. Once she was sitting in the
water, she closed her eyes. It did feel good, actually, and she
could feel her muscles beginning to tingle with warmth.

“
She drugged me. That
night, she drugged me. I was mad at her for making so light of
Daddy’s death that I didn’t…no, that’s not right. I never dreamed
she’d do anything like she did. The tea was laced with something.
As I tried to get away from the table, she told me that Uncle
Samuel would have me, willing or not. I staggered toward the ladies
room and threw up all over our waitress. Then I escaped out through
the kitchen.”

“
And that’s where you met
Rodney Kincaid. He saved you, didn’t he? He told you how to hide
out and keep safe.”

“
Yes. I just found out
from Thomas recently that he was aware of where I was the entire
time. That he and Rodney took my pictures with different newspapers
every so often to keep Mother from having me declared dead.” Alyssa
felt the tears as they fell. She didn’t look at Cain, but kept her
eyes closed. It hurt still, after all this time, what her mother
had tried to do to her. More so that she’d been doing it with
Alyssa’s blessings. Her blessings because she couldn’t bring
herself to come home and confront her.

“
What are you going to do
now? I know that you are planning something. A woman like you
doesn’t come back without a ripple of news in the paper. She has to
have something up her sleeve.”

“
I have a plan.” She
didn’t want to tell him. She felt stupid enough at what she’d done
in the first place that had caused the issues. She knew that
whatever happened on Friday was going to have repercussions for
months, if not years.

Cain settled behind her on the floor.
She didn’t know what he was going to do until he asked her to sit
up a bit. When she did, he poured water over her head with a
plastic cup she’d brought in the bath a few days ago. When he
started to wash her hair, soothing her in ways she’d never had
before, he started talking.

“
My father is dead. No,
don’t get up. He deserved whatever happened there. I don’t know…I
talked a bit with Quinn. She said that you saved her and that you
shielded her from the actual shooting. I wanted to thank you for
that.”

As he rinsed her hair, she realized
that he hadn’t sounded like he was mad at her. Nor, now that she
thought about it, did he seem like he blamed her. She turned to
look at him when he sat back on the toilet.

“
You don’t blame me for
his death? Why not?” Alyssa flushed. And before she could dive
under the water and drown herself, he spoke again.

“
No. I know that I did
before. Blame you, I mean, but I don’t. If I had listened to Quinn
in the first place, none of this would have happened. Quinn tried
to tell me that my parents were involved in the attack of you three
the other day and I just wouldn’t listen. I was blaming you for
something that you’d had no control over.”

Alyssa turned around in the tub before
she started talking. “I’m…I was going to say that I’m sorry about
your father, but I really am not. I’m sorry for your loss, but not
that he’s dead. Lily, another homeless person, told me where to
find Quinn. She said that she’d seen Quinn and Crackers together in
one of the abandoned warehouses on Lively Avenue a few hours
before. I was going to go alone, but Drew and Cait wouldn’t let me.
I guess they were right. Quinn was tied up to one of the beams in
the sublevels and Angel was taunting her. I didn’t know your father
was there.”

“
Cait said that he had
only just arrived when you and this Angel person had started to
fight. She said that my dad was coming up behind you with a ball
bat and was ready to swing it when Cait shot him the first time. I
didn’t know you knew them.”

Alyssa turned slightly and looked at
him. She decided that if he didn’t want anything to do with her,
she’d at least make sure he knew what had happened.

“
Crackers, or Pochak, was
a man who was more insane than most of us on the street. He’d been
in and out of jail for a long time, longer than I’d been on the
streets. Rodney said he’d been a punk all his life. He’d been a
part of the murder that had killed his parents when he’d been a
little boy.”

“
That would do it. Cait
said that Angel’s real name was Gus Deville and that he and Pochak
had been cell mates to my father. They were supposed to split the
money they got from you then part ways. Quinn running over Crackers
put an end to the only one of them who had any sort of brains, if
you can believe it.”

Yes, she could believe that. Crackers
was nuts, but Angel was nearly catatonic when Crackers wasn’t
around to get him moving. Once he did, there was no stopping him.
Alyssa didn’t know about Cain’s father, but it made sense. They all
seemed to be cut from the same cloth.

“
I want to get out now. I
don’t suppose you’ll leave, will you?” A part of her wanted him to
go while a large part of her wanted him to stay.

“
I’m not leaving you,
Alyssa. We have a lot to talk about and I want to be with you. Let
me help you out. Be careful now.”

Cain helped her step out of the tub and
wrapped her in a towel. Then he took another one and started to dry
her hair. Alyssa felt tears pooling in her eyes again. No one had
pampered her like this since she’d gotten sick as a child and her
daddy had taken care of her. They went into the bedroom and she lay
down on the bed, suddenly more tired than she’d ever been. She was
asleep in a few minutes.

~~~

Cain watched her sleep. She looked so
innocent lying there. He watched her for twenty minutes before he
went in search of Thomas. Cain wasn’t kidding when he said he
wasn’t leaving. But first, he had to clear it with the man of the
house.

“
She’s sleeping now. I…she
told me she wouldn’t take anything for pain. I think she’ll heal
quicker if she has some good rest, but I understand now why she
won’t. I’d like to be able to stay with her, if you don’t mind,
that is.”

Thomas was sitting in an easy chair in
the spacious living room. The room, like the man, was warm and
comfortable. The furnishings were old, mostly antiques, Cain was
sure. The room had a wonderful lemony smell like beeswax and
honey.

“
Of course you can stay.
I’m not particularly fond of you sleeping together, but I
understand things are a bit different from when I was a young
man.”

Cain didn’t say anything. He hoped
Alyssa would allow him to stay with her even if they didn’t make
love. Just holding her right now would be enough.

“
I’m glad she told you.
Her mother laced her drink with Benzodiazepine, enough to knock a
grown man on his butt. Too much for a small seventeen-year-old
girl, it’s a wonder they didn’t kill her. I had the vomit analyzed
just after Rodney got her shirt to me. It terrified me, I’ll tell
you. I even went so far as to have her father’s death looked into.
But he died of the heart attack, they said.”

Cain nodded. He also understood the
bottled water now too, and her strange ritual of opening one. She
would squeeze the bottle and then shake it vigorously. He’d seen
her do this several times in the hospital. Now he knew that she was
looking for leaks, either caused by pin holes or a broken seal. He
wondered if her need to check the bottles still had her doing it
while she was here and he saw the five cases of water in the corner
near the door.

“
She told me that she has
two brothers. Do you know where…what am I asking? Of course you
know where they are,” Cain said with humor. “Do you think they have
been involved in her recent issues? Or her uncle?”