Killing Game (10 page)

Cain stopped running and looked over at her.

He switched his machine off and walked toward her where she was leaning against the wall and breathing heavily. Swiping her towel off her, he grinned as he wiped the sweat off his face with it.

Lily grumbled as he handed her towel back to her. She couldn’t muster enough energy to properly protest about boy sweat and how disgusting it was, no matter how much the idea of teasing him was making her want to smile. Continuing to struggle to catch her breath, she watched in silent amazement as Cain walked over to a six-foot tall punch bag and started pounding on it. She sipped her water as her eyes followed his every movement and she couldn’t help studying him.

There was something about him as he hit the bag that made her feel uneasy.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on it at first but then it hit her—he was so focused.

It was as though there was no one else in the room, not even her. All his attention was fixed on the punch bag and as she watched him, she couldn’t help frowning slightly.

He seemed so intent, so absorbed in what he was doing, and each blow seemed so calculated, precise and efficient. They all looked as though they were designed to knock someone out quickly. He wasn’t punching the bag to work out.

He was training.

Her eyes couldn’t leave him. They were transfixed on the way the sweat that was building up on his skin was catching the overhead lights. He threw punch after punch at the bag. Her eyes followed the motions of his arms as they twisted and turned to strike it, his muscles bunching and relaxing under his skin.

Dropping her eyes to his black vest, she took in the sight of the hard packed muscles that were visible beneath it. She frowned at how little dry material was left on his top. When he’d said that he liked to work up a sweat, he hadn’t been lying. He looked as though he was never going to stop.

Or he was at least going to keep going until he passed out on his feet from lack of energy.

What was it that made him do this? This went beyond a normal workout routine. She remembered him telling her that he worked out until he could sleep. What was so bad in his life that he couldn’t sleep without draining himself so much and making himself this tired?

Her eyes widened when she realized that while she’d been lost in her thoughts of him, he’d stopped hitting the bag and was now looking at her, his chest heaving as he wiped the back of his hand across his forehead.

Cain crooked a finger at her. She’d been watching him so intently that he’d decided it was time she had a go.

Lily’s eyes widened a little more as she realized that he was trying to get her to come over to the punch bag.

She shook her head in the negative.

He arched a brow and crooked his finger again.

Lily shook her head a little harder and then almost curled up into a ball as he began to stalk toward her. She squealed as he caught hold of her wrist and pulled her up onto her feet. Bending over, she leaned her bodyweight away from him in an attempt to hinder him as he dragged her toward the punch bag.

“Really... I’m fine... I’ll just sit this one out.” She quickly realized that she wasn’t going to get very far by trying to resist him physically so she tried to resist him any other way possible.

“Come on. You could do with a little defense training.”

“Really... I’m not a fighter, it’s not my thing,” she whined but he grabbed her shoulders and forced her to stand straight. Either it was the way he was looking at her with a little smirk on his face and amusement in his eyes, or her legs were really worn out because she felt as though her knees were about to give way as she looked up at him.

Cain looked at the floor, smirking all the while, and then inclined his head to one side before looking up into her eyes.

“Afraid you might like it?” He purred at her, watching how flustered her expression became as he stared at her in an almost predatory fashion.

He reached out and ran his hand down the heavy punch bag, keeping his eyes locked on her all the while and smiling as she looked over at the bag too. He knew she’d cave soon. He could see it in her eyes. She wanted to know what he could teach her, wanted to see what it felt like to hit something.

Part of him wanted to teach her because he knew it would be fun, the other part of him, the instinctive part, told him that he needed to know that she could protect herself.

“Not at all,” Lily said and then smiled wickedly. “I’m just afraid I’ll make you look bad by being better at it than you.”

Cain grinned.

Always full of spirit, his girl.

* * *

Lily stared down at her hands, her eyes following Cain’s fingers as he wrapped the final strip of material around her left one and tucked it into place so it wouldn’t come loose. She swallowed slightly as he backed away, showing her that she was ready now and it was time to begin.

Nerves flickered in her stomach.

She didn’t know what she was supposed to do.

Standing there dumbly, she just raised her eyes to meet his and formed her hands into little fists. Clearly she’d done something wrong, because Cain immediately took hold of her hands, pulling her thumbs out from inside her fingers.

“Break your bloody hand punching like that,” he muttered and then smiled reassuringly at her.

He caught hold of her shoulders and moved her over to the punch bag, standing close behind her.

Her skin felt hot where his hands rested against her and she couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying. All she could do was
stare
at the bag in front of her.

Cain released her shoulders and stepped to the side so he could see her face. She looked a million miles away as she stood there, fists raised in a defensive posture in front of her as though she was about to rabbit punch someone.

“Hit it.” Cain nodded toward the bag and Lily’s hands fell to her sides, her face full of ‘huh?
’.
He rolled his eyes. “Hit it.”

As he said the words, he threw a solid punch at the bag and then grabbed hold of it to steady it again.

Lily swallowed and raised her fists again. This was easy. All she had to do was hit the bag. It wasn’t like it was going to hit her back.

Drawing her arm back, she punched the bag as hard as she could,
emulating
the way Cain had hit it.

“Shit!” She howled as she shook her hand, frowning at Cain as he laughed raucously.
“Ha ha... very funny.”

“Sorry, I should’ve mentioned it’s pretty solid, and your little fists aren’t used to hitting things.” He caught hold of her hands and ran his fingers lightly over the knuckles of the one she’d hit the bag with. “Let’s try not hitting it as hard as we can... just hit it as hard as you want.”

Lily shot him a black look and rubbed her knuckles as he let go of her hands. She limbered up again and hit the bag with less force, following it with her other fist. When Cain nodded, she continued to hit it, trying to keep the pattern of her punches unpredictable.

She’d been hitting the bag for almost ten minutes when she realized why Cain did this. With every punch, she felt as though she was punching away all her worries and cares, releasing herself from them. She smiled as she continued to hit the bag, and then shot Cain a grin as he moved around it toward her.

Cain smiled back at her as she hailed little punches down on the bag without mercy, a smile etched permanently on her face.

She seemed like a natural.

“Don’t drop your shoulder,” he instructed as she did it for the fifteenth time. “I can see where your punch is going to come from.”

She nodded, her focus still firmly fixed on the bag.

“Keep your fist in line with your forearm. Don’t let it go off at an angle like that or you’ll break your damn wrist.” He frowned and stopped her as he showed her what he meant.

She panted and watched his hand guiding hers, showing her how to keep her wrist straight in line with her arm. She nodded when he let go of it and then went back to hitting the bag.

Cain smiled. She’d do just fine. A few more sessions and she’d be able to defend herself from most of the scum down the club.

“Don’t lock your elbow, you lose power and you might hurt yourself.” Cain nodded toward her as he walked back round and stopped dead as she gave him an almost imperceptible nod as a reply.

She was magnificent.

He cocked his head to one side as he watched her punching the bag, her body slick with sweat and her top soaked through as she bit her lip in concentration. Her nose wrinkled as she struggled to keep her breathing in check and then tried to blow a strand of hair from her face, but it wouldn’t move.

Walking over to her, Cain brushed the offending hair from her face, causing her to stop. He froze as she looked into his
eyes,
his fingers paused against her skin.

She blinked at him.

Running his fingers down her damp hair, he played with the end of the strand. His eyes dropped to her mouth and then he turned away from her, breaking the spell she’d unknowingly placed him under.

“That’s enough for now... I should get you home.” He didn’t look back at her as he grabbed his towel and walked toward the locker room, trying to make sense of everything that was running riot in his head.

Lily just watched his back as he walked away. She couldn’t understand what was wrong, or why he kept doing this. She’d seen such conflict in his blue eyes, fascination mixed with a kind of sadness. Every time he got a little closer to her, he’d pull away and leave her feeling cold and alone.

If he kept doing this, maybe she was better off alone.

She didn’t need him.

She could look after herself.

She was fine without him.

Really.

Jack patted Cain on the shoulder and watched him down another whisky. Staring at the empty shot glass in Cain’s hand, he followed its movement as his friend placed it amongst the others, and for the first time Jack realized he was making the letter ‘L’ from them. He also realized that his friend had had far too much to drink if he was that close to making the large letter understandable. Jack counted the glasses and gave up when he hit double figures.

“I tried to keep her at Infinity but I’m not the boss. Mr. Valentino came down personally and made the decision to move her here.”

“I know.” Cain was watching Lily closely as she took an order from a table full of guys. His vision was blurring and when she moved slightly, she left a trail of ghost Lilys in her wake.

He noticed the guys at the table were openly running their eyes over her body and, from where he was
sitting,
she didn’t look particularly comfortable with what they were saying to her. He could feel his whole body tense as anger started boiling up inside him, the alcohol in his veins fuelling his fire. When one of them tightly grasped Lily’s waist with one hand and her breast with the other, he snapped.

* * *

Lily struggled to free herself from man that was groping her. She closed her eyes and pushed against him with all her strength but he wouldn’t budge. A split second later, she was free and the guy was screaming out in pain.

Opening her eyes, she saw Cain holding onto the guy’s hand, the one that he’d had on her chest. She felt sick when she saw the angle that Cain had twisted it to. It looked grossly distorted and ready to break. As she thought about what had happened, her stomach tightened and hot tears spilt onto her cheeks.

Cain turned to see Lily running into the girl’s toilets. It only served to make his anger turn into blind fury. He closed his eyes and replayed in his mind how upset she’d looked when he’d arrived on the scene, and subconsciously he twisted the man’s hand around further.

“Argh... man... please... you’re gonna break it...
please
...” he whimpered.

Cain opened his eyes and stared straight into the man’s. Their emptiness seemed to scare the man more than the thought of having his wrist broken did.

“Is there a problem, gentlemen?” A smooth voice appeared next to Cain.

He turned his head to see the bar manager standing next to him, his face blank and lips pursed, and he narrowed his eyes into cold hard slits.

“No...
no
problem.” Cain’s air became cocky and arrogant as he twisted the guy’s hand a little further.

“Then I recommend you desist. You’re upsetting the patrons.”

“I’m a patron, he upset me,” he retorted.

“Gentlemen.”
The manager smiled winsomely. “Would someone care to tell me what happened here?”

Cain growled.

“Tell you what happened... mate. This tosser... here... touched her.” He looked down at the man and clenched his jaw tight, his words becoming slightly slurred as the alcohol caught up with him. “You don’t get to touch her... you worthless piece of...”

“Cain.” Jack touched his shoulder but he jerked it away from him. “What happened?”

“He touched the girl. He touched
my
girl.” Cain squeezed the man in questions hand tighter, watching his face contort with pain and relishing the feeling of satisfaction that it gave him. “He doesn’t get to lay his filthy fucking hands on my girl.”

“Okay. Breathe, Cain. He isn’t worth it.” Jack moved around and tried to reach out for his hand.

Cain twisted the man’s hand backwards, causing Jack to freeze. He knew his friend wouldn’t risk pushing him into going through with it.

“You don’t touch my girl... you’re not worthy of her... she’s a fucking angel and you...
sicken me
... thinking you can just treat her like she’s meat... nothing more than a pretty thing for you to play with... sickens me.” Cain’s heart pounded in his chest, playing out a dizzyingly fast rhythm that made his stomach swirl. He turned to look at Jack. “He made her cry. My...”

“Cain. Take a breath, man. She’s fine. You did
good
,” Jack said.

Cain’s face softened and he blinked at him.