Paradise Found: Cain (Paradise #2)(70)

I didn’t know where he was staying. He’d only been to Preston one other time that I could recall. He hadn’t been welcome to stay with Abel, as my brother was my opponent at the time. I hadn’t invited him to my home either, although I’m certain he knew where I lived. There wasn’t much I did that my father wasn’t aware of because of Kursch. Loyal bodyguard and general protector, my father was still his primary supporter. Although, most of the funds that were my father’s income came from my labors. All this would change, now that I quit.

Kursch drew the line at Sofie. For whatever reason, he hadn’t told my father the truth. The truth of our marriage. The truth of our divorce. He’d kept my secret as well as he could, until Sofie appeared at the fight. With my mother’s cross and her engagement ring, Sofie’s identity was revealed. It wasn’t something my father would blast to the press for promotion. In fact, he wanted to keep the “situation” as much undercover as possible.

“A wife will ruin your appeal. Women’s interest in the fight is nearly forty-percent of your fans. That’s a huge chunk we can’t risk,” he warned.

I was sick at the thought. After what I’d done with Malinda in front of Sofie, I didn’t want to think of other women. Married women looked all the time. Hell, some even touched, but no other hands were going to be on me again.

Kursch was easy to locate. My father was after that.

Carrie’s. I’d been to this strip club on my initial visits to Preston in search of Sofie. She didn’t work at the club, but it was here that I found Elma Montgomery, Joey Montana’s little sister. When charges of murder were dropped, I began to worry about the debts Montana left behind. Winning big was the goal of his fight with me: his last fight. He’d illegally bet on himself then fought with an unhealed concussion. The wrong blow to the head, and he went down like a crumbling brick wall. Thinking he was only unconscious, I didn’t bother to look after him. I’d knocked guys out before. When Montana didn’t revive after a few minutes, the urgency became real. He was dead, leaving behind a mother that relied on him too much and a kid sister in college. The same college as my younger brother. Fate is a tricky mistress. She brought Abel and Elma together.

I entered the dimly lit club to the beat of a sultry tune and a scantily clad college girl shaking her ass all over the stage. A pole and a cage framed the wooden platform. The girl used a chair for her performance. I wasn’t here for the show, though.

I found my father sitting at a table I’d often sat at in the past. I imagine his posture was the same as mine. He was staring forward but not watching the sight before him. I allowed myself a seat across from him. Without breaking his trance, he listened to me speak.

“You have a problem with what I’m doing, you come see me,” I began. “You stay the f*ck away from Sofie.”

“Awww,” he mocked. “Isn’t that chivalrous? The knight trying to protect the princess.” He turned slowly to face me. “Only you’re no f*cking knight, and she’s not a damn princess.”

My eyes narrowed at the insult. I was well aware of what he thought of Sofie. His first impression of her had been in my bed. He’d called her names, like she was any other woman that I’d shared the sheets with: a woman who was using me as much as I was using her. He had no idea that Sofie was different. From the first moment, she’d been something other than the women who followed me, who threw themselves at me. She hadn’t wanted me the same way as others. She’d wanted only me, even when she didn’t really know me then.

“I don’t care who she is, you come to me with your issues.”

“Of course you don’t care about her. She’s a damn f*ck, like them all.”

“Is that how you felt about your wife?” I bit, cursing myself for speaking of my mother in this manner, but wanting to strike back at him.

His hand shook. He was ready to retaliate. I was ten years old again, talking back to him, tempting him to hit me. Only this time, the threat was empty. He couldn’t touch me like he used to.

“Your mother was different.”

So is Sofie, I wanted to retort. It was the first hint that my father had felt something for our mother before he turned her out.

“You have a problem, you see me, not her.”

My father eyed me. He was onto me with those beady eyes of his. He could see right through me.

“Sofie is off limits,” I clarified, giving my own glare of warning in return.

“You can’t throw it all away for a piece of ass.”

“I’m not throwing anything away.”

“We’ve worked so hard for your success.”

“I’ve worked hard,” I retorted. He’d been my coach and he rode my ass, but it wasn’t his body doing the fighting. I wanted to save that body for something else now.

“I have so much money invested in you,” he growled.

“And it’s been repaid sevenfold,” I barked. The amount of money made by my winnings, sponsorships, and advertisements was beyond any initial backing my father put up for my success.

“She’s only a piece of ass,” he bit again.

“She’s my f*cking wife!” I roared, slamming a hand on the sticky wooden table. The area around us grew quiet, and some even hushed us, as if we were disturbing the peace within a strip bar.