Paradise Fought (Abel) (27 page)

“I’ll pay for her,” I said. Elma was suddenly a commodity. I bought her once; I’d buy her again, only this time it would be her freedom.

“And how exactly do you intend to do that again?” my father asked, falling back against his chair and rocking it back and forth. He was taunting me. The rattle of the snake began again.

“I have more fights. I’ll collect and pay Cain for her.”

The slow smile on my father’s face formed ice shards inside me again. While I already shook with a chill of hatred, it appeared I could actually grow colder.

“Speaking of fights, it appears Ms. Montgomery had been forming her own plan for a fight,” my father spoke casually. Without thinking, I turned to her, but her head shot up and she glared at my father.

“Did you know she was trying to seduce someone into a fight? Against your brother.”

I didn’t want to acknowledge what I apparently did not know, but Thor Thurston flashed through my mind instantly. I couldn’t take my eyes from Elma.

“He killed my brother,” Elma bit again, not addressing me, but glaring at my father. My neck rolled and I stared at my brother. Elma and I had been through this, but she refused to return to the topic. Cain had been absolved of all charges. Her brother died, but Cain hadn’t killed him. It was an accident brought on by Montana’s actions: to fight when he wasn’t ready to return.

“Maybe she was trying to seduce you into fighting against your own brother?” my father inquired sarcastically, dragging out the words in a sinister sound. He made me question Elma’s motives. He made me wonder if she was playing me. I looked at her again. Her blonde hair hung forward. Her blue eyes averted mine still. Her delicate hands gripped the arms of the chair while she glared at my father. Ignoring the weight of my eyes on her was evidence of her guilt. I pulled my head up high and took a deep breath.

“Will fighting Cain repay the debt?” I boldly asked. My father blinked. The surprise on his face was something I’d never seen before. His angular cheeks returned to their narrowness as a smile slithered over his face.

“You wish. To fight. Your own brother?” My father paused to look at Cain then returned to me. “For a girl?”

I refused to acknowledge Elma. My heart was clenching. This was no longer about her. This was about the way my father treated me. The fact that Cain thought he could take something from me; the idea that he was owed her.
I was due, too, dammit
. I was long overdue.

I didn’t reply. It was Kursch who spoke, anticipating the movement of my father before it happened. His expression slowly altered. He pressed on the deep desk with clenched knuckles and stood, staring at me over that massive furniture that had separated us for years. His stance was one of authority. I remembered looking up at him in fear on several occasions. Suddenly, I was looking straight across at him: one man to another. I wasn’t a child any longer.

“Atom, don’t do it,” Kursch warned.

“This will be the greatest fight ever fought,” my father began, without concern for the heeding tone of Kursch’s voice.

“Brother against brother,” he paused, his excitement rising. “A fight to the death,” he added, raising an eyebrow. “All for love.”

“I don’t love her,” I spat. Elma twisted in her seat. It was finally her turn to glare at me, and while I felt her blue eyes on me, it was me who avoided her. This fight wasn’t for love. This fight was for egos: my father’s, Cain’s, mine.

“I’m not fighting, Abel,” Cain snickered outright. My father rolled his neck in an eerie motion, like a creature suddenly surprised at a side attack.

“Oh, yes you will,” Atom Callahan said to his oldest son. “You’ll prove to the world you’re back, stronger than ever. Strong enough to fight and destroy your own brother.” The lethal tone of my father’s voice slinked through the room. His mission was clear. Cain and I were to fight. This was no longer about the money. This was Cain’s redemption. While Elma still harbored her feelings of Cain’s guilt, the fighting community wasn’t convinced of his innocence, either. He wasn’t coming back as strong as he’d been before the fatal incident. My father wanted to prove that Cain was better than before.

“What if I win?” I snipped, surprising my father again. That rattlesnake twitch of his lips appeared false and shaky as he stared at me.

“If you win, you don’t need to repay the money. The girl is yours to do with as you see fit.”

“If Cain wins?” I asked, while my father returned to his seat.

“The girl remains Cain’s.”

“You don’t own me,” Elma snapped in a tone all too familiar to me. I’d heard those words and that attitude before. She had no idea who she was dealing with before her.

“You wanted a fight against my son, girl. Now, you’ve got one. He owns you unless you have that twenty thousand dollars?” My father’s sinister glare teased with a raised eyebrow. Elma’s silence was her answer. She didn’t have the money. She didn’t have a choice. Suddenly, neither did I.

“You stole all my money,” Elma barked. “I have nothing left because of you. When he killed my brother, we had nothing left.”

I didn’t dare look at her, but her words pricked me.

“Kursch, could you show Ms. Montgomery to one of Cain’s rooms?” My father asked, ignoring Elma’s outburst.

“What?” Elma and I answered in unison. Her hands gripped the arms of the leather seat again. Mine fisted at my sides.

“As she belongs to Cain, she’ll be staying in one of his rooms.”

“No,” I hissed. The inflection was a hint. The girl meant more to me than I intended for either of them to know. I’d also used a word linked with extreme consequences when placed against my father. In the past, Cain would step in, but in this instance, Cain was equally my nemesis. His silence meant he’d follow my father’s orders. In a sense, Cain was allowing me to take my own punishment this time. Elma was my beating.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Elma snapped across the room. Her eyes roamed Cain in disgust. Suddenly, I remembered meeting him in Carrie’s. He’d been watching her, aware of her. He was going to have her whether Elma wanted him or not. Cain always got women to come around to him. The cold in my veins turned to shards of steel, cutting and ripping my insides. A clamping vice squeezed my heart.

Kursch’s hand wrapped around Elma’s upper arm, guiding her gently out of her seat.

“Abel?” she beseeched, but I could do nothing to defend her. I no longer had the strength. She clearly blamed my brother for her loss, enough so to use her body to tempt a fighter to fight against her brother’s killer. Pictures of Elma and Thor came to mind again. It suddenly became clear she used her body with me, in hopes I’d fight my own brother to avenge the death of hers. Images of Elma and I haunted me. I had nothing left for her. My heart stopped beating. The iron clamped shut and I heard the key lock the prison gate.

I didn’t have the will to fight for Elma, but I had the sudden desire to fight my brother. After Elma was removed from the room, my father’s attention to his desk told me I was dismissed. I turned to Cain.

“I found the girl,” I growled, glaring at him.

“What girl?” my father interjected. Cain ignored him and returned my stare. His body was still positioned casually, but there was a subtle shift. His shoulders stiffened. His crossed arms dropped and his hands gripped the cabinet behind him. He bit the lip he’d been rubbing to disguise the taunting laughter tempted to escape him previously. To him, this was a game, until I mentioned her.

“I found her,” I reiterated, ignoring my father.

“And?” Cain asked. Nothing changed in his demeanor. His facial expression remained indifferent, but something in his dark eyes softened for a moment. I dared to think he looked hopeful, anxious even for news of this girl, Sofie.

“You were right. She’s with someone else,” I spit before turning away from him and exiting my father’s office.

I paced the floor, like the caged animal I was, inside Cain Callahan’s room. My mind was slow to catch up to all that had happened. I’d been leaving my mother’s apartment when I was approached by a large man. I recognized him from Carrie’s. He’s the one that wouldn’t let me reenter the building. He told me Abel needed me and I should come with him. I didn’t think; I reacted.

In hindsight, I was beginning to see that was my nature. I hadn’t thought when I tried to get close to Thor. I hadn’t considered what the result of trying to seduce him might mean for me. I never expected a person like Abel Callahan to become a factor in my plan; a plan, which was evidently flawed, in more ways than one.

I was escorted to this prison by another man, equally large, imposing, and dressed in black. A collection of men, hard as rocks and just as stoic, guided me here after a private plane ride. It was ridiculous to fight or run. They were three times my size, and I had no doubt any one of them would catch me. Once in the air, there was nowhere to flee.

To my great surprise, I found Cain Callahan inside the older man’s office. I didn’t recognize Atom Callahan, but I identified Cain instantly. Deep dark eyes, shaved hair, and a smirk that could be sinister playful or sexy evil. Either way, he was the man that killed my brother. He’d stolen my brother from me. I didn’t care if he’d been freed of charges. His father was obviously a powerful man, one with connections to all types of people. Guilty men went free all the time.

Montana would never have been so foolish as to enter the ring without medical clearance. He wouldn’t have taken the risk with his body, with his health, with his life. Yet the deeper I dove into Montana’s tale, the darker his life outside of his family seemed. I didn’t know about the loans or the gambles. I didn’t see the people he owed or the people he used. I lived in a nice house, with my endless clothing budget, and a cute car. I went to an expensive university with the promise of a dance studio one day.

I sighed as I plopped on the edge of the large bed then realized where I sat and hopped up, as if I sat on something sharp. The bed was something I didn’t wish to think about. If Cain Callahan was like Thor Thurston, he’d want something in return for his investment. It had been explained to me that Cain was the breadwinner of this family. His hard labor in the fight was their income, and I had taken from the benefits he reaped. I owed the son, Atom Callahan emphasized, which meant I also owed the father. I was not indebted to Abel, his father clarified, but he was so wrong. I was unsettled in all I felt I needed to clarify to Abel.

Abel had been an innocent bystander to my crazy plan. I’d never foreseen him. I couldn’t have predicted someone like him, nor could I have expected what happened. I’d fallen for Abel. I swam in the stream and followed the betta, without realizing all that he was giving me, providing me, was more than monetary. Abel was stable, competent, and compassionate. I was a fool.

In Atom Callahan’s office, while my fruitless argument continued, Cain Callahan remained silent. His man of leisure stance, with a smirk I wanted to slap off his face, didn’t intimidate me, but there was something truly evil about Atom Callahan. It was like you could see his mind working faster than his mouth could spew his malevolence. He was one step ahead in his wicked thoughts. I never could have imagined how he came to the conclusion that two brothers should fight one another; especially two brothers, his own sons, fighting over me.

I don’t love her
. The words rang in my ears. The bell that tolled that deathly sound dropped to my feet. They were harsh words to hear after the days we’d had together. Even the weeks before we were intimate, Abel had been good to me. I sat in a chair opposite the bed and hung my head. My hands covered my face as I took deep breaths. My mind raced with images of Abel over me in his truck.

Your heart beat matches mine
. He’d said it only last night. I thought it was true. I thought he might feel the same way about me, too. I could see in the light of a new day, he meant it literally: human anatomy. My heart beat like his, not my heart and his were matched in emotion.

As I sat in this position, the door flew open and then slammed shut. The broad body passed mine, ignoring me then turned almost military style and sat on the side of the large bed. His hands came to his face as his head lowered like mine moments ago. Frustration ebbed off his wide shoulders. He paused for only a few seconds, as if in deep thought, then scrubbed his hands over his face and let them fall to his thighs. He turned and noticed me. His eyes opened in surprise.