Paradise Found: Cain (Paradise #2)(86)

“He’s closed off to me,” I whispered to no one, but hoping Abel would hear me. “I’m sure it’s the shock. So much information.” Abel turned to face me.

“He’ll come around.” His slow smile attempted to assure me.

“Of course,” I stated quietly, not really certain that would be the case. Abel leaned forward to kiss my forehead. When he pulled back, we heard a low rumble.

“Well, don’t let me interrupt,” Cain growled from behind the security guard. A soft rush of skin brushed my arm, as Elma approached Cain.

“You need to chill. She loves you,” Elma stated. Cain reached around the large man, getting one of his arms free, and motioned for Elma to step away from him.

“Hey!” Abel shouted, rushing to Elma’s side. “That’s not necessary.”

“I didn’t touch her,” Cain defended. He hadn’t actually, but it wasn’t necessary to swat at Elma.

“I’m fine,” Elma tried to assure Abel, her hands on his chest ready to hold him back.

“We’re all hurting,” Abel clarified over his small girlfriend. “We all heard too much today.” Abel’s voice was rising.

“Kursch isn’t your concern,” Cain bit.

“He’s my uncle, too,” Abel deflected.

“He’s not even related to us,” Cain snapped. He shuddered. “He loves our sister. That would be … that would just be wrong.”

“He loved us,” Abel demanded, pointing his finger between the brothers. “Differently, but we both know he was there for us.”

“Oh, and what did he do for you, Abel? Protect you from Dad? Comfort you? Coddle you?”

“Don’t,” Abel pleaded bitterly. “Don’t do this.”

“He took care of you because you were weak,” Cain spit. I gasped. “He didn’t favor you. He felt sorry for you. He was there for me!” Cain yelled, slamming a hand on the wall nearest him. The guard had his fill of the family drama. With full effort, he had Cain moving backward toward the emergency doors.

“Gentlemen, I’m going to have to…”

“Your lashing out at me isn’t going to help,” Abel said through clenched teeth. His hands fisted at his side. A vein protruded from his neck.

“Nothing’s going to help,” Cain roared.

“Cain, we don’t know that,” I offered, despite my effort to stay quiet. I reached out for him again. His eyes opened wide again, and that’s when I saw it. Cain Callahan was afraid I’d touch him. His body vibrated as he hissed at me.

“Don’t. Just don’t.”

I stepped back. He didn’t want my touch? The question rang slowly through me. If he’d hit me, I might have taken the blow better than the venom in his tone.

“He doesn’t mean that,” Abel comforted, reaching out to rub my arm. Cain’s eyes followed the motion. Despite Abel holding Elma with his other hand, the connection of Abel and I was watched with dark orbs that gleamed fire. I retracted my arm from Abel but it was too late.

“Get out of here,” Cain said, his voice low, but his tone laced with evil. He flicked his hand in the air again, as if he was shooing away a bug. My heart crushed and crumbled inside me. He’s hurting, I tried to reason. He doesn’t know what to do, I argued in my head, but the dismissal was too much. The final blow came in words, not contact. “This happened because of you.”





Twenty-four hours later, Kursch was in stable condition. He survived the surgery, but he was monitored with so many machines he looked like an alien. I hadn’t left his side. Neither had Ava. Abel and Elma eventually went home when visiting hours were over. I argued my way into staying. My head had fallen forward, my eyes closed, but my mind couldn’t rest. I’d never been so afraid before.

I didn’t understand fear. Neither the feel of skin against skin in combat nor the harsh words lashed out at me by my own father frightened me. The rough touch of a woman or the sharp bite from one never worried me either. Control was my mistress. I took it for Abel. I took it for Evie. I desired it from Sofie, but the emotion that encompassed me, as I watched the large powerful anchor of Kursch crumble before me, froze my body in unprecedented horror. When he turned white, then went limp, I couldn’t describe what took over in my heart, the lack of air I breathed, or the sound in my head. All I heard was a montage of angry words spewed year after year from my father, and the soothing tone of Kursch telling me I could take it. I was tough. I’d find a way to live through the pain.

Beatings. Betrayal. Abandonment. He’d been there through it all, and still he smiled. He joked and offered a hand. He wasn’t soft on me. He was soft on Abel. Abel? I’d been unnecessarily cruel to him earlier. The hurt in his eyes wasn’t as evident as when he was a child. He was learning to mask his emotion, which a fighter needed to do. He couldn’t show pain. He couldn’t show weakness. He dared never show fear.

Fear. That’s what made me strike out. I was in protection mode. I couldn’t let any of them get to me or I’d crumble myself. My nerves frazzled inside me. It was like an electric current was sizzling below my skin and the softest of touches would unravel me. I’d exploded. My mind wandered.

Sofie? Softness. I couldn’t handle it. She tried and the only way I knew to keep her from seeing me was to push her away, but then again, maybe that was the real me she saw. Finally, for the first time, she recognized the devil inside me. The one ready to take what I wanted to possess but would just as easily regurgitate it when I was done. Her tenderness would undo me and I needed to stay strong. I was strong, I told myself repeatedly. I would not give in to the pressure behind my eyes. The fear of crying was superseded by anger at the possibility.