Cain (7 page)

Her face, relaxed now in sleep, was
soft. She spent all her time out of doors and rather than make her
look worn, she had a healthy glow about her and rosy cheeks. Her
hair he could see now wasn’t just dark. It was black, raven black
with hints of brown and gold. He knew that it was a natural color.
There wouldn’t be any way for her to dye something to such a
beautiful color.

Cain looked at her nakedness and
realized that he would need to be more careful in the future.
Whisker burns reddened her tender skin along her breasts and neck.
Julie shifted to him slightly and he realized she was probably
chilled. Getting up, Cain pulled his pants on, walked to the door,
and closed and locked it. Picking up her clothes, he tossed them
over his shoulder and then leaned down and picked her up. With a
small moan, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and she snuggled
deep into his chest. Cain took her to his bedroom before he laid
her back on the hard floor, woke her, and made love to her
again.

Cain was glad now that he’d bought the
house as-is. He’d gotten a really good deal on it. Devin had told
him that the furniture was included in the house price because
though there was nothing wrong with it, neither he nor Ronnie
wanted to have to deal with getting rid of it. He said that they
were too busy to find someone to take it.

Laying Julie on the comforter, Cain
went to the other side of the bed and pulled down the blankets and
sheets for her. Picking her up again, he put her in the bed and
covered her up. She immediately rolled to her side facing the
middle of the bed. Grinning, he went back downstairs to set the
security alarm and lock up the house. He hadn’t realized how late
it was. At three-thirty in the morning, Cain got into bed with
Julie and pulled her tight against his bare body. He fell asleep
faster than he’d had in a very long time.

~CHAPTER EIGHT~

Julie woke with the sunlight streaming
across her face. That was normal enough when she would forget to
close up her little area. What freaked her out was the warm body
wrapped around her, tight. Moving carefully, she raised up slightly
to look at the man who currently had his arm draped around
her.

Curls fell over his face as he lay
sleeping. His hair was mussed badly and stuck up everywhere. Cain’s
face was rough. A growth of day old beard sprouted over his cheeks
and chin. Rodney had shaved everyday with a straight razor and a
bar of soap at the corner gas station. Julie wondered if Cain had
had to shave more than once a day.

Looking down at his chest, she realized
that she’d been correct about it. A fine dusting of hair covered
his chest and narrowed down his tapered waist to just below his
navel. Seeing his cock semi-hard against his thigh had her blush.
They’d had sex and she was just now seeing his body. And it
occurred to her that it had been unprotected sex at
that.

Lifting his arm off her, Julie finally
rolled out of his bed. She searched the entire room for her pants,
but they were either still downstairs in the hallway or he’d thrown
them out. She opted for the hallway as his clothes were on the
chair by the bed.

Pissed, Julie went to the big closet
and pulled one of his dress shirts off the hanger. Grabbing her bag
up, Julie left the bedroom quietly.

She wanted a shower in the worst way.
Going to the bedroom as far from him as she could, she stepped
inside and searched for a bathroom. Opening the door was like
stepping into her past life. The room was huge and elegant and
looked like hers from when she’d been a teenager trying to fit in
with the other girls her age.

The bed, a king-sized with a canopy,
was covered in white eyelet lace. There was more of it on the bed
and surrounding it. The bed was covered in pillows of all sizes
from about four inches square to the three that looked to be as
much as a yard square. The four posts at the corner of the bed were
also white, as was the rest of the furniture. Bright pink and blue
scatter rugs were everywhere over the hardwood floor. A window
seat, the curtains open to the morning sun, also had an abundance
of throw pillows in the same varying sizes. Bookshelves lined one
wall. Empty now, they would have been filled with school girl
treasures and photos. The desk, also empty of anything of the girl
who had once lived here, was also big and open, perfect for
chatting online with friends or doing homework. Walking across the
large room, Julie tried to shut out the feelings of loneliness and
despair.

The bathroom was white too, including
the shower curtain and rug on the floor. The only thing left in
here that told something of the previous occupant was the shower
curtain hooks. Ducks, yellow and bright, danced across the rod and
held up the pristine white curtain.

Turning on the water, Julie pulled out
her towel she was seldom without and laid it on the rod near the
shower. When the water was just about right, grabbing up her
shampoo, toothbrush, paste, and washcloth, Julie stepped into the
steamy water. The tears fell almost immediately.

For the first time in a very long time,
Julie missed her old self. She missed her daddy and his sense of
humor. She missed the cigars he’d sneak around to smoke because her
mother had hated the smell. On Sunday mornings before the house
woke, they would go to the local pancake place and eat stacks and
stacks of them with sausage links and orange juice.

The first Sunday after he’d died, Julie
went to their old place and sat in their favorite spot, right up at
the counter, and ordered a plate for them both. When she’d eaten
the very last bite and drank the last of her juice, she paid her
bill and never returned. She wondered then if she would ever be
able to return there. She knew that right now if she had the money,
she’d go again just to have a plate for her daddy. Go on his
birthday and have a steak for him as well.

Feeling foolish, Julie finished her
shower and stepped out. Drying herself a little too roughly, she
noticed the small red places on her skin and once again, thought
about how they’d gone at each other last night. She winced at the
cut on her belly. It was healing nicely, but was tender yet. She
had to go to the clinic soon and get...she thought of the man down
the hall, the naked man down the hall in the bed, warm and hard.
His body—

Julie pulled on Cain’s shirt and
refused to think about him again as she pulled on her last pair of
clean panties. She was all the way to the door and had just put her
hand on the knob when someone knocked, scaring her enough to have
her jump back in alarm.

When the person on the other side
knocked again, Julie had her wits back enough to know that if that
person woke the man upstairs, she was a good as stuck here.
Shouting to the person to hang on, Julie looked at the security
panel to the right of the door. Smiling, she read Cain’s note on
how to arm and disarm the locks. Keying in the code, she opened the
door and was nearly knocked over by the woman just on the other
side.

“
Thank God! What the fuck
took you so...you’re not Cain. Shit! Is this his house or am I lost
again? Great!”

“
Take a deep breath before
you pass out. And I’ll have you know, you couldn’t have been
standing here for more than ten seconds—took so long indeed.” Julie
looked at the woman and then the two suitcases she had with her.
“Moving in, huh? Good, I’m about to leave.”

Before Julie could grab her own bag,
the woman grabbed her arm. “Are you nuts? He’s out there. I tried
to lose him, but he’s had a lot of practice at hiding in the
dark.”

Julie watched the woman pace when she
had released her arm. Julie wanted to be gone before Cain woke up.
Long before he realized she was missing again. Before she could
tell the woman she was out of there, someone else knocked on the
door.

“
What is this, Grand
Central Station? Sheesh.” Since the code was already turned off,
Julie tore the door open, ready to blast the person on the other
side.

Another woman, with a single suitcase
this time, stood on the stoop. “Oh thank goodness you made it,” she
said in way of greeting. “I thought for sure he was going to catch
me for a second or two.” The woman turned toward Julie and smiled.
“Hello.”

“
Hey. Well, since you both
seem to know each other then—”

The door flew from her hand and knocked
the second woman down. Before Julie could get up, a man grabbed the
first woman and slapped her hard across the face. Blood erupted
from her nose. Julie jumped up, fighting dizziness, tore the guy
away from her and punched him in the nuts. Usually that at least
slowed a man down, but this guy simply slapped her.

Julie picked up the first thing she
could get her hands on and hit him with an umbrella. All it did was
knocked him down and away from the woman he’d managed to hit a
second time. Julie had just enough time to jump on his back, grab a
hand full of his hair, and yank him back again, tossing him to the
floor, her astride his back.

Julie took a deep breath, her body
aching and sore. She looked at the woman, her lip bloodied and her
eye swollen, but she seemed fine. Julie hadn’t realized that the
second woman had been hurt when the door had slammed against her
head, creasing her forehead.

“
Are you all right?” Julie
asked the first woman. At her nod, Julie looked at the second woman
again. “Can you check on that other one? I think he hit her with
the door.”

“
I did fucking not! A man
has a right to see his own kids. You get the—” Julie slammed his
head on the tiled floor, hard and quick. “You fucking bitch. You
wait until—” This time, his head hit hard enough to knock him
out.

“
She’s breathing well and
her pulse is strong. Do you know Cain? And where he is?”

Instead of answering her, Julie got up,
but came back down hard. She wasn’t just dizzy now, but sick with
it. “Can you go scream for him? He’s in the bedroom to the left at
the end of the hall. I’m just...I’m just going to sit here for a
minute then leave you three to sort this out. Well, four of you to
sort it out.” Julie watched the woman come toward her. If she
wanted to finish her off, Julie was pretty sure she’d let
her.

“
You saved us. The least I
can do is help you to a chair. Come on. I’m Jazzie, by the
way.”

Julie felt the room sway slightly then
mercifully settle. The next thing she knew, her head was between
her knees and she was looking at the floor.

“
Stay that way until I get
back with Cain. You move and I’ll be really pissed. I mean
it.”

The woman even sounded like Cain,
bossiness and all. At the woman’s, “thanks”, Julie realized she’d
spoke out loud.

“
That wasn’t supposed to
be a compliment,” she shouted after her. Julie knew the woman heard
her. Her laughter could be heard all the way down the
hall.

The woman had to be Cain’s wife. No
other explanation for it. She glanced over at the woman on the
floor. And she had to be her sister. Julie felt dizzy all over her
body this time. She’d had unprotected sex with a married man in
this very hall not twenty-four hours ago. Grabbing her bag after
making sure the man was still out, she walked out the opened door
and to the stairs. She didn’t get any further than the top step
before she had to sit down again. Damn it.

~~~

Cain was sound asleep when a scream
rent the air. Jumping out of bed, his first thought was for Julie.
And she was gone. When another scream sounded, he threw open the
door, fists at the ready.

“
Damn it, Cain. She didn’t
tell me you were naked. But now that I think on it, she didn’t have
that many clothes...do you think you could put that thing away?
It’s very early in the morning for that sort of show.”

“
Jazzie? What the hell?
Where’s Julie? Damn it, if she’s gone again I’m—”

“
Cain! Focus! You’re buck
fucking naked. Sister here! Put something over that
thing.”

Cain turned and went back into his
room. Pulling on his jeans, he nearly tore his dick off when he
yanked the zipper up too hard. Picking up his shirt, he went back
into the hall.

“
You’d better have a good
reason for coming here at five in the morning. And where is Julie?
You didn’t answer me before.” Cain kissed his sister’s
cheek.

“
If you mean that pretty
woman with the dark hair, she was sitting in the hallway with her
head between her knees. I’ve called the police. This is a really
nice house.”

Cain had just awakened. He’d not had a
shower, brushed his teeth, or had anything to eat so he was
reasonably sure he’d missed something. He was halfway down the
stairs when he realized that Jazzie had said she’d called the
police and by then he could hear the sirens.

Roscoe Waite was just coming around
when Cain entered the hall. Quinn was still sitting on the floor,
but she said she was all right.

“
Where’s that fucking
girl? She’s gonna get sued after I’m finished with her. She had no
reason for knocking a man out in his own son’s house. Cain, you see
to me first. Quinny said she was all right. Look at what she did do
me.”

Cain ignored his father and looked at
Quinn, then at Jazzie. Quinn had a knot on her forehead that would
be painful for a while and Jazzie had a busted lip that could use a
couple of stitches and her eye was bruised. He was just going to
look for Julie when the police knocked on the door frame to his
open door.