Paradise Found: Cain (Paradise #2)(10)

Abel continued to face off with our father, not allowing me to interfere.

“Just like old times. The older brother tries to protect the younger. Doesn’t it get exhausting?” Our father addressed me. “Don’t you get tired of taking care of him?” Atom sighed.

“That’s enough.” I spoke as if I was bored. I was bored of this torture. I just wanted to get out of Vegas.

“For. Once. Just stay out of this, Cain. Let him fight his own battle.” The collective shock between us filled the room. I went rigid. I had my reasons for protecting Abel.

“How do you want me to fight? You want me to raise my fist to you like you did to Cain?” Abel sneered.

“Abel,” I warned.

“You want me to insult you with words, cut you down to nothing, like you did to me?” Abel growled, beating on his chest. My father narrowed his eyes.

“Or should I just ignore your existence like you’ve done to Evie?”

“Abel!” I hissed. We never mentioned our little sister. Her exile had been almost as painful as our mother’s. Our father was turning red, a telltale sign of his anger. His eyes widened. His hand rose. In a shocking move, Abel caught that hand with the speed he had developed as a youth and mastered as an adult. He shoved our father, and for the first time ever, Atom Callahan stumbled, caught off guard. Unable to accept his fluster, he straightened quickly.

“I won’t ever let you raise a hand to me,” Abel threatened. In a way, it felt like an insult, as if I’d let our father beat me, as if I had allowed it by choice.

“You know I hardly did,” my father said. “I couldn’t do it. Her eyes looked back at me. It was easier to fight my mirror image.” His words were eerie, as if he enjoyed hitting me. He saved his precious punches. For me. He never took his disappointment out on her, our mother, which is what he wanted to do; he simply sent her away. Banished her. Then he punished himself, by punishing me.

Abel looked at me with uncertainty. I’d seen that look before. He pitied me. He knew what I would endure on his behalf and he felt sorry for me. I despised his sympathy.

In our brief attention on one another, my father got Abel. The crack of skin on skin was familiar; the sound of crushing bone an instant memory. Abel’s hand went up in retaliation, but I stepped in between them, uncertain if I was protecting Abel or my father

“Abel. Get out. Now,” I demanded. The instantaneous shock on Abel’s face was a blow in itself. He couldn’t believe I stood before him, as if defending our father, and the pain was etched into his face, right next to the swelling of his eye. He stared at me in utter confusion. My head shook infinitesimally. It was our signal to listen to me. I would handle this, it said. I always handled things between our father and Abel. Abel stepped back, then lunged forward in that lightning speed he had perfected. His fist connected with one blow before I hauled him off our father and pushed him toward the door.

“Elma, get him out of here,” I demanded. Willingly, Abel retreated, with Elma quickly behind him. The door slammed hard enough to shake the wall. I rounded on my father immediately.

“Why can’t you just leave him the f*ck alone?” I hissed.

“Why can’t you just let him fight his own battles?”

We glared at one another, mirrored images, except for the graying temples and the harder outlines of his older face. I was larger than him. The student had surpassed the master in stature and ability. I did not want to surpass him in anger and bitterness. My mind slipped to the sweet image of Sofie sleeping. In that secondary slip of focus, my father’s eyes weighed heavy on me.

“You let him win,” he growled, as he had the night before. “There’s no way he could beat you. Not you. Not the Cobra.” His voice rose in emphasis; the tone confirming the impossibility. Nothing would beat me, he believed. I wasn’t, however, invincible, despite what he thought. I’d been fighting for years, so many I’d lost count. There had to be something more, I decided. I just wasn’t certain what. To win the fight was no longer everything to me.

“Your little stunt cost us,” he snapped, as he walked around the suite desk and sat with a thud. The furniture wasn’t as imposing as the power-hungry looking desk in his office at his home. I was surprised our father stayed in the casino resort for the night. It wasn’t like him. He liked to be in his castle, his house on the edge of Vegas. The irony of it all was that I had paid for that house. The fight hadn’t cost us. It only cost me, and in matters that had no monetary value. I needed to get back to Sofie.

“Where’s your head?” Atom bit. “You keep drifting off. Didn’t you get laid last night? You have some energy to burn?” He paused to examine me. I couldn’t let my fists clench. It would be a sign I hadn’t gotten laid. I refused to think about Sofie like that. Of course, my father didn’t need to know these things.

“Maybe you need to get back in the gym, if you want to convince me you lost.” His voice was incredulous. It was impossible for him to believe I lost that fight fairly. He decided we’d cheated, and I’d never admit, we had.

“I need to go,” I stated, turning on my heels and walking toward the door.

“Where?” he inquired, but there was something under his tone.

“I have somewhere I have to be.”

“You have another fight in a week,” he said, and without looking I sensed he narrowed his eyes at me. He was questioning my motives. He’d been doing it a lot lately: wondering where I was going, why I was gone for long absences from Vegas, inquiring where I’d been. It wasn’t any of his damn business. It wasn’t concern that drove the inquisition. At least not concern for me directly. I didn’t wish to answer his question. I had other answers to search out.