Paradise Found: Cain (Paradise #2)(83)

“Actually,” Atom drew out, “she is.” The confusion of the words hung in the air, but the shock of Kursch punching Atom square in the mouth dissipated the puzzlement.

“He’s not worth it,” I replied, stepping forward to wrestle the strength of my mentor.

“No, but she is,” Kursch stated, ignoring my warning and hitting Atom again at short range. His eye instantly swelled. His nose bled. The spray came back onto Kursch and dripped on his forearm.

“Wait? What?” Abel intervened, his voice filled with frustration.

“It’s not my story,” Kursch growled, “but it’s time to tell it.” He pulled Atom upward with two fists wrapped in the collar of his shirt.

Atom spit again, saliva mixing with the blood from his nose.

“Speak,” Abel demanded and Elma, who had sauntered up to him, flinched beside him. Sofie had moved next to Ava. Something in Abel’s tone forced our father to begin his tale.

“Your mother was always meant to be mine. She was intended for me. We were going to be the perfect couple, but she got knocked up before we were married. She was young and scared. I was new to the circuit. I couldn’t take on the responsibility. I wanted a fighter, some day but not at seventeen. I made her give the child away.”

Elma’s breath hitched. I glared at my father.

“It was a girl,” he spoke in disgust.

My first thought was how could he do this twice. My mother and Evie. But then, it hit me like that spit on Kursch’s face. Another daughter, born before me, was out there somewhere because of his selfish intentions. He made our mother give up a girl because she was a girl.

“Where’s the child?” I hissed, sensing my father would know. His eyes shifted, then the dark daggers returned to Kursch.

“She was given to a family friend. He was a fighter who’d lost his wife and baby in childbirth. He was devastated, so we gave the child to him. We thought it would ease his pain, replace his loss, to care for the baby. He couldn’t raise his wife from the dead, but he could have our girl as his own.”

“What?” I questioned, my voice sharp, but it was Sofie’s sweet voice that filled in the blank.

“Ava,” Sofie addressed in a soft tone. My eyes flipped to Abel’s coach, as Sofie placed one hand tenderly on Ava. The woman visibly trembled. Her head shook back and forth, her eyes never left the hard face of Atom. Sofie’s hand soothed up and down Ava’s arms.

“No,” Ava muttered. “No, no, no, no,” she murmured.

Kursch released Atom and quickly crossed the space to Ava, gripping her shoulders.

“Ava, look at me. I told you I was telling the truth,” he spoke softly, but his tone commanded her attention.

“Lies. Always lies. You said you knew something that would stop him. You said you held his secrets. But this?” Her voice rose as she pushed her arms upward, breaking his grasp.

“You’re a liar!” she yelled in his face. “You’re both liars!” she screamed. “You already killed my father in the ring. What more could you want? The death of your own children? You are a sick bastard, Atom. Sick.” She stepped back from Kursch.

“And you?” she addressed the large man before her. “You’re still no better than him,” she bit, and briskly walked away from our circle.

“Shepherd,” Abel called after her, but she raised a hand to signal he should not follow her.

“Let her be,” Sofie soothed him.

“What the ever-loving-f*ck is going on here?” I demanded. Nothing was making sense. Why was Kursch comforting Ava? How did she know him? My mind raced with questions.

Kursch spun to face Abel and me. Sofie stepped around him and came to me. Both needing her comforting touch, and fearing it, I didn’t reach out for her.

“Your mother had a daughter. She was given up for adoption like Atom said, and she was raised by Zeke Shepherd.”

“The Z?” Abel questioned, interrupting Kursch’s explanation. A famous fighter in his own right during the time of our father’s attempt to climb the ranks. Atom’s strength paralleled Zeke’s, but when he killed him in the ring, questions went unanswered, and my father became a legend in his time.

“Yes.”

Abel and I turned in unison to face our father. We had heard this story before. Our own father was so intense in the fight; he killed. It was one reason my father felt so connected to me. We had shared a similar experience in the cage. My case had been ruled an accident; his case was never investigated. A young upstart bodyguard, freshly out of the military, had connections that got Atom off the hook. Abram Kursch. Atom had originally owed Kursch, until something happened, and the tide turned in favor of Atom.

“How do you know Ava?”

“I was the investigator on the case. I’d been in the Marines and returned Stateside to work security duty. I researched the case and met Ava.”

“You did more than meet her,” Atom hissed behind us. My father’s face was that ruddy red, typical of his growing anger. With the swollen eye and the bloody nose, he didn’t come across half as fierce. He suddenly looked like an old man who’d been beaten by life.

“I fell in love with her,” Kursch said, letting his head fall. His large hand came up to rub his forehead as his eyes remained toward the ground. “But Atom disapproved.”