Текст книги "The Wrath of Cain"

Автор книги: Kathy Coopmans

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Chapter Eleven

Cain

“What are you talking about?”

Her face falls. Along with mine.

“I overheard you three in there talking before I came in. Please don’t lie. If it’s something I need to know, or something I can help with, then tell me. Don’t leave me in the dark anymore.”

She looks hurt. Lost. Uncomfortable, even.

“Please, Cain. Let me help.”

I loosen her arms from around my neck and she retreats to the bed. She deserves to know everything. For the first time since the day she left, I feel the pain again. If I tell her, will she hate me? Of course she will. She’s on the good side of the law, while her husband breaks it every time his feet hit the damn ground.

“I’ll tell you the truth, but I need you to promise me you will keep an open mind.”

She looks down to the floor then back up at me again.

“Now you’re scaring me. You’re in some kind of trouble, aren’t you?” she whispers.

Someone has sucky ass timing. My phone rings and I pull it out of my vest pocket. Seeing that it’s Priscilla, I answer.

“Yeah. I got it. I’ll be right out.”

Disconnecting, I shove my phone back in my vest, my eyes never leaving hers.

“Priscilla’s outside. Let me give this to her and I’ll be right back.”

I don’t stick around in the room after that. I need a moment to myself, to decide if I tell her everything or just enough to hope like hell it pacifies her enough so I can get on with my day.

By the time I’m finished giving the list and a wad full of cash to Priscilla, my mind is made up. I need for her to trust me and know I’m serious about the two of us. She’s going to flip her shit when she finds out just how deep I am into being a first class law-breaking criminal.

“Let’s go in the other room and talk. And here, put these on. You’re distracting the hell out of me knowing you have nothing on underneath my t-shirt.”

The air is crackling with a thick cable of tension. I hand her a pair of my shorts. She doesn’t even look at me when she takes them out of my hand. My gut twists in a damn knot so tight, I’m afraid it will never come undone, like a shoelace you can’t seem to undo no matter what, so you cut it. That’s how I feel right now. Like I’m about to cut my own damn heart out.

I stand there and watch her slide my way-too-big-for-her shorts up her long legs, catching a glimpse of her bare pussy when she pulls them up and ties the string.

“I promise I’ll keep an open mind. I’ll do anything to help you.”

Her words startle me. I nod in her direction when she sits on the couch and I head for the chair. I’m in desperate need of a drink. I couldn’t care less what time of the day it is.

“Do you want that cup of coffee?” I ask.

“No. I want you to quit stalling and tell me.”

She looks like she could claw my eyes out. An intimidator. A fucking lawyer. Before I even begin, I know deep in my gut my wife is the one person who just might be able to help me.

“I’m a gun thief, Calla. I steal them and turn around and sell them.”

I watch as shock takes over her body. All the color drains from her face. Her mouth goes slack. She gulps loudly.

“Why? How?”

“Why? I’m damned good at it. The best. And it makes me a shit-ton of fucking money. And the how? I’ve got my ways. Ones I’m willing to share with you if you’ll become my lawyer.”

She looks away from me for a moment, shaking her head sadly.

“How could your life have come to this?”

Disappointment in me is etched across her gorgeous features. I’m sure it matches my own. Every day when I look in the mirror I’m reminded of the failure I’ve become. The woman sitting across from me is the one person I’ve failed the most. I’m not who she thought I was. Or who I wanted to be. I’m a money hungry, blood thirsty criminal. I’m not about to ask her to forgive me. It may not be what I wanted to do growing up, but I enjoy what I do. I shrug internally.

I contemplate my response. I haven’t had to answer to anyone in a long ass time. Calla’s not just anyone; she’s my life. If there is a way out of this without anyone getting hurt, or worse, killed, I will do it. For her.

“I’m my father’s son,” I simply say.

“Yes, you are. That doesn’t mean you had to follow in his footsteps and be like him. What happened to being on the good side of life? God, Cain. Do you sell guns to kids? I mean, who do you sell them to?”

I laugh, even though none of this is funny. She sounds like a lawyer and I’m on trial already. She wants to know it all? I’ll give it to her.

“No, I don’t sell them to kids. What happens after I sell them isn’t my concern, though. I sell them domestically to a few large buyers in New York. I do not sell them out of the country to drug cartels or gangs.”

“How do you get them?”

This is the part that is going to rip her heart out. I look her straight in the eyes when I tell her.

“I steal them.”

I watch her shoulders sag. She leans back on the couch, her head goes to the ceiling where she stares at a particular spot for the longest time.

“You get rid of the serial numbers.”

“Yes.”

“Then you sell them so they can’t be traced.”

“Again, yes.”

“What else have you lied to me about?”

“Nothing,” I lie.

Actually, this is only a half lie. I haven’t technically lied to her about who my partner is yet. I just haven’t said.

“Do all these people really have jobs, or are they all in on this, too?”

“Everyone has a real job, including me. Manny, Bronzer, who you already know and our other friend Beamer, and I work together. No one else knows we front this bar to cover our tracks.”

I shrug as if it’s no big deal when really, it is.

“And this is where your snitch comes in? Someone here found out, or they’re an undercover cop, or they’re out for revenge. Am I right?”

“You’re very inquisitive, baby. I like it. I’m getting hard sitting over here, admiring how you’re questioning me like I’ve been arrested and now being interrogated by a sexy-as-hell lawyer.”

She looks over to me, a deep frown line creasing her forehead.

“None of this is funny. It’s both illegal and immoral. You could spend the rest of your life in prison or wind up dead.”

“It’s not funny at all. It’s not who I wanted to be, but it is who I am,” I say with an edge.

“Who do you sell them to, Cain?”

She’s demanding now, her tone heavy and completely in control. Me, not so much at the moment. The answer I’m about to give her is going to scare the hell out of her.

“Salvatore Diamond.”

She jumps off of the couch, her eyes becoming wide.

“Jesus, Cain. Are you serious? How in the hell did you get mixed up with the fucking mob?”

I sit there, watching her pace back and forth across the carpet. Her hands run through her hair out of frustration.

“I don’t know if I want any part of this. Do you know what this means, for God’s sake? It means you will never get out of stealing and dealing guns. You can’t just get out of the mafia. Everyone in the world knows that. If you want out, the only way those people let you out is by killing you and burying your body somewhere where no one will ever find you. And you say you love me? You’ve kept me safe from a drug dealer? Well, who the hell has been keeping you safe? Who has your back?” she snarls.

I take a deep breath and steeple my hands under my chin, resting my elbows firmly on my knees.

“Your dad keeps me safe, Calla.”

I half expected her to go on a rampage, but she does the complete opposite. She stays calm, acting like I haven’t just tossed her into a tornado.

“I knew there was more to the reason why my parents were so adamant about keeping us apart, but never in my wildest of dreams would I have ever imagined this. You have a lot more explaining to do. And I demand to see my parents.”

She stalks over to me and leans down right into my face. Not so calm anymore. She’s become the eye of the twirling tornado and fuck me, she’s destined for destruction.

“You said you weren’t lying to me about anything else!”

“I haven’t.” She’s so close to my face. Her face bright red from anger.

“No? Are you sure? Because I have a very good memory, and I recall you telling me just yesterday that I couldn’t call my parents because the less they knew, the safer they would be. Get them here now, goddamnit. I want, no, I deserve to know everything. My God. The mob! This is insane! We’re better off just putting one of those guns you steal to our own heads and blowing our brains out. Those people don’t mess around.”

“Calla. Enough.”

Our attention swings to the door. Neither one of us heard it open.

“Well, speak of the devil. Hello, mom and dad. Or would you prefer I call you Bonnie and Clyde?”

“Sit your ass down, and watch your mouth.”

John Greer stalks into the room. The fucker is big. I’m talking huge. He towers over his daughter. The two of them stare each other down. Her stubbornness matches his.

“I’m a little old for you to be telling me what to do. Considering the lion’s den you all have thrown me into, I think you should sit down. Or better yet, start fucking talking.”

Her mouth. Christ almighty. If we were by ourselves right now and she kept on running her mouth like she is now, I’d love nothing more than to… Yeah. Fuck, I’m not going there. I palm my hands down my face, then toss a glance at Manny, our eyes saying the exact same thing. This is about to get real ugly.

Chapter Twelve

Calla

I feel like an energy field. My emotions have all of a sudden risen past their capacity; even though they’ve been pushed to the max, someone is still feeding me just to see how far I will expand.

“Last time I checked, I was the parent in our relationship. So if I say sit down, then sit the hell down. And if I say shut your mouth, then I mean shut your mouth,” big, bad John says.

I’m not afraid of my dad, especially when his soft eyes give him away. He’s towering over my tall frame trying to intimidate me. I want to laugh, no, spit in his face. My entire life has been nothing but a lie. I move to the couch and sit. Not because he told me to, but because I deserve to know what the hell is going on.

“You look like hell,” my deceitful mother says.

Her long, dark hair is pulled into a ponytail. Her loving eyes that look so much like mine send me an apologetic look. She’s in on this, too. Everyone is. Along with Manny, who’s standing off in the corner by the door.

“Yeah, well, what do you expect?” I ask through clenched teeth. “I came here for a divorce, not expecting to be carried away by a lying, cheating, and now criminal husband.”

I peer around my mother, who is now standing in front of me with eyes shooting bullets at my husband. I wonder if he steals those, too. I could use about four of them right now to shoot every one of these deceitful, mafia-loving people. Okay, not really. I could never shoot my parents.

“How long?” I demand.

It’s a simple question, really. One I deserve to know the answer to. I seem to be the only one left in the dark here by the way everyone is looking back and forth at each other as if they’re deciding which one of them should fill me in.

My parents sit down next to me. A fond memory flashes through my mind from when I was five years old. The three of us were sitting on the couch exactly like this while they told me our family dog was struck by a car and died. I cried like a baby, kicking and screaming for Hopper to come back. My dad held me for the longest time, stroking my hair and reassuring me that all dogs go to heaven and Hopper would be waiting there for me someday. I feel just like that little girl again. Except I’m not, I’m an adult. One who has been lied to about everything.

It’s my mom who speaks first. Her hand comes to rest on my knee.

“I’ve been connected to the Diamond family my entire life,” she begins, giving me a little squeeze. “My name was Cecily Abagail Diamond. Salvatore is my older brother.”

I stand and move over to the wall, pressing my back up against it and glaring at everyone in this room. I stop when I land on my mother.

“In other words, you’re a mafia princess,” I say with malice.

“I used to be. That is, until I met your father and fell in love.”

Her smile speaks the truth. Even though my parents would fight and argue when I was growing up, the love they had for each other was very evident, even as a young girl, I knew how much they loved each other.

“I don’t understand, then. Enlighten me here, Mom, or what about you, Dad? How do you fit into all of this?”

I hold my breath and wait for him to speak. The tension in the room coils around me.

“Calla, baby. I really think you need to sit down,” Cain declares.

“I don’t want to sit down. What I do want is the truth from all of you.”

I feel cheated, sad, and humiliated. This is a lot of information to incorporate. I’m so angry right now. With Cain, I had so many questions; with my parents, I feel like they have hidden too much from me since the day I was born. My brain at this minute doesn’t even know how to function. My dad gets up and puts his arm around me, tugging me into his chest.

“Honey, you’re shivering.”

“Please don’t touch me,” I whisper.

I duck out from under his arm and step away. Suddenly, the tension leaves him as if he’s come to some sort of decision. I watch it roll right off of his chest. His eyes turn glassy. My knees start to buckle. I stand firm, though. I’m not weak. I’m frightened and scared for my life; for my family’s lives.

“I’m a hitman,” he says emotionlessly, as if he hasn’t just crumbled my entire world. I’ve worshipped this man my entire life, and now he sits before me telling me he’s a murderer.

“Y…you kill people? Oh, my God! What’s wrong with you people? Don’t any of you care about how badly corrupted this world is? And dead center lies my family. The untouchable Diamond family,” I say bitterly.

“You’ve stolen loved ones away from others, Dad. Is this why you pushed me so hard to become a lawyer? Because if you ever got caught one day you would hope like hell that your daughter would defend you? Come on. Tell me. Why? How can you sleep at night? Breathe the same air as the very families of the wives, husbands, or even children whose loved ones you’ve killed?”

“It’s not like that, Calla.”

My father looks genuinely hurt. He should be.

“Then tell me how it is. Because like I told Cain, I’m on the good side of the law. The right side of the tracks. I can’t just stick out an olive branch to all of you. My entire life has been a lie. You’ve left me hanging all by myself on that small branch and today is the day it finally snaps and the ground I thought was underneath isn’t ground at all. It’s a cliff. And I keep falling, smacking my head into every hard rock along the way to the bottom.”

“Jesus. Fuck. Help me out here, Cecily?”

“No, Dad. This is between me and you. Father and daughter. I’m sure she has her own poison she needs to shove down my throat. I want to know how my own father could take someone else’s life?”

“I have no choice. I was born into this lifestyle just like your mom, just like Cain, and just like Manny over there. We don’t have choices like you do. You wouldn’t be here today if I had told them no.”

“You’re still not making sense to me. Were you threatened? Spit it out. The truth, all of it.”

I’m trying so hard to wrap my head around this. There’s no way I can. My body is looped so tensely right now.

“Our families go back a long way. My father was a trained assassin. He had me shooting targets from a mile away by the time I was ten years old. I’m not going to stand here and tell you what I do is right. What I will say is I sleep at night because I know you’re safe. Your mother and I kept this from you to protect you from this type of life. That’s why all those years ago, when you first brought up Cain’s name, I prohibited you from seeing him. I didn’t want my daughter anywhere near this kind of life. I never wanted it to touch you at all.”

I look at him suspiciously.

“So the feud between you and Cain’s dad was a lie, too?”

“That part is the truth. I hated that prick. He wanted your mother and let everyone know it. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was good at getting us the type of guns we needed, I would have killed him before someone else had the chance to. And then he hooked up with Cain’s mother and his obsession with Cecily stopped. Cain was born only a few months before you, and when two innocent little babies came into this world, I buried my hate for him. I don’t kill people just because I want to. I kill them because they’re scum. You don’t get a second chance when you fuck over Salvatore.”

I tilt my head and fix my eyes on Cain. He knows. He knows everything. And Manny, how does he fit into all of this? Is he a child of the mob as well? Four pairs of eyes are all looking at me. All of them gauging my reaction. Cain looks defeated. Manny looks like he feels sorry for me. My mother looks frightened, as if she might lose the one thing in her life she could never live without. And my dad, he’s standing there watching me intently, wondering if his little girl will ever be able to forgive him.

Suddenly the room starts to spin and the walls begin to cave in. My legs give out and my body crumples to the floor. I can’t breathe. My sweet, caring father is a cold-blooded murderer. My husband steals and sells guns. My mother is the sister to one of the world’s most notorious criminals.

And me? Who am I? The wife and daughter of people I once trusted. A fake, just like them. They all play a role in this. And whether any of them believe it or not, they have left me with no choice. Either I accept the lifestyle they lead, or I find my way out of here. Disappear, and never have contact with them again.

For the first time, I am ashamed to admit I can’t live without any of them. My parents’ blood pumps this non-existent life I was destined to live through my veins. That’s what makes my heart turn cold. And for that, I truly am my father’s daughter.

“Calla!”

They all shout my name at once. Cain is kneeling at my side, lifting me up as if I weigh nothing at all and cradling me in his arms.

“Come on, sweetie. Look at me.”

I do. I look up at him, and his face is so full of love and concern. I should hate him. Hate them all for the lives they lead; for the life I’m being forced to enter.

All of a sudden, I’m crushed by the dire need to be in Cain’s arms. I’m right where I want to be. Right where I’m meant to be. Burying my face into his chest, I let loose and cry while he holds me tightly. I feel so lost. So sad. I don’t even know my family. The two people in this world who I never expected would hurt me have completely wrecked me.

No one says a word as I let loose, soaking Cain’s shirt. I need to pull myself together. There is so much more to be said here, so much more I don’t know, and I’m afraid of just what that might be.

I peel my face away from Cain’s chest. He cups my jaw tenderly, his thumb brushing away the wetness from my face.

“I… I’m sorry,” I say breathlessly. “I’m fine.”

I’m truly not fine, and they all know it. I’ve been kicked in the chest.

“No, you’re not,” says my mother, echoing my thoughts.

“I am,” I insist. “Don’t you see? I’m the daughter of a mafia princess. The niece of the biggest mobster in the state of New York and the daughter of a killer. How could I not be fine?”

Cain bends and kisses each corner of my mouth.

“You’ve been lied to and deceived by us all, but we’ll get through this together. I promise.”

“Sweetheart?” my dad calls to me. I’m not ready to look at him yet.

“Yeah?” I croak pathetically.

“I never wanted you to find out. The last thing I ever wanted to do was to hurt my baby girl. You’ve always been my world. You always will be, no matter what you think of me. I’ll give you the time you need to process all of this. Cain knows everything. I’ll be here when you’re ready to talk.”

Dad’s voice is strained. I still can’t look at him. I focus solely on Cain’s face. His square jaw. Bright blue eyes. The way he looks down at me with worry etched all over his face.

“I love you,” my mother’s voice serenely whispers in my ear as I hear her kneel down on the floor with us. She puts her hand on my back. I don’t want to look at her right now, either.

“I know, Mom.”

“For the record, I’m sorry too, Calla,” Manny says.

I don’t move a muscle until I hear the door close behind them all. It’s after I know they are all gone that I break down once more in my husband’s arms.

The two of us stay in this position until my tears have all dried up. I have so many questions left to ask him. I need to pull my thoughts together.

Cain’s phone vibrates in his pocket. I unlock my grip from his shirt and go to stand, but he holds me in place with one hand while digging into his pocket with the other.

“Stay,” he simply states.

I do. If I could stay cocooned in his arms forever, right here on the floor, I would. I feel safe, untouched by the evil world outside of this house. The moment I walk out of these doors I will become someone I’m not. Someone I will hate.

“Just leave them on the porch,” I hear him say before turning to me.

“That was Priscilla. She has all your stuff.”

His voice is low, unsure even, when he speaks next.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I give a slight shake of my head.

“Not right now.”

My eyes are still closed. I know they’re swollen from all the crying I’ve done. My breathing is delicate and light. My ears keep hearing over and over again the things my loved ones said. There’s an unpleasant taste in my mouth. All of my senses are screaming at me.

“All right then. Will you at least look at me?”

Rough fingertips start to stroke my cheek. A flash runs through my mind of him using these hands that feel so good across my skin to steal, hand over guns to people who use them to kill. I shiver.

“Calla. Look at me.”

It’s more of a demand than a statement. He thinks I’m fragile. In a way I am, but not in the way he thinks, though. My heart has been stomped on and bled dry. But here’s the thing; it’s what terrifies me the most. I am a lot more like my father than any of us can begin to comprehend.

When I do look at Cain, it’s as if these past six years never existed and we were never apart. But we were. How can you feel a pull so strongly towards someone when in reality you never knew them at all? How can you love someone so much after being separated for as long as we have, and at the same time want to gouge their eyes out? It’s a riddle I will never be able to solve. A puzzle that will always be missing the last piece no matter how hard I try to find it.

“We have a lot more things to talk about, you and I. You tell me when. If it’s too much for you to handle and you don’t want to know any more, then we can leave it at that until I find Kryder. The one thing I do want to tell you is, I fucking love you so much it hurts. I’ve hurt every day since you walked out of my life. It’s killing me that you found any of this out and that it’s been shoved in your face all at once. You seem so fragile and yet so strong at the same time. Your dad speaks the truth, you know?”

“I know.”

Cain pushes the hair away from my face. The way he looks at me as if trying to define whether I’m real or not sends an indescribable tingle to the one place that shouldn’t be tingling at all. The place that is still sore from our reconnection. I keep telling myself over and over that I don’t know him anymore, but does it really matter if I do or not? Not to me, it doesn’t. I’ve never been one to give a damn what other people think of me. I’m sure a lot of people around here think I’m crazier than a lady with a hundred cats. I don’t care.

“It’s just a shock, a blow right to the center of my gut knowing he kills people,” I say, picking up our conversation again.

“He loves you, Calla. So does your mom. They never wanted you to know. At least, not this way.”

“Well, I know now, don’t I? What I don’t know is how this Kryder guy fits into all of this. Or Manny. Dad said he didn’t have a choice, either.”

Cain lets a whoosh out of his lungs.

“You sure you want to know?” he asks, speaking as if what he has to say could break me more than what I’ve already heard.

“If it’s the last of the big, gut-punching hits, then yes.”

“Like I told you, Kryder deals drugs. I don’t do drugs. I despise them. The asshole wouldn’t listen, so he’s gone. We kicked him out.”

“And he knows about the weapons and the mob?”

His sexy lips curve up in a smile.

“He does now. He didn’t before.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sweetheart. What I mean is, he put a hit out on my wife. The niece of Salvatore Diamond. The daughter of a man who can silence you without the person sleeping next to you realizing he’s there.”

My spine goes ramrod straight.

“Holy shit. So my dad put a hit on him? That’s why he’s in hiding. He’s scared. He knows he screwed up.”

“Now she’s getting the picture!” he says, lifting his face to the ceiling for a moment. “That’s why we have Manny on you. To keep you safe. We’ve been trying to find him before he finds you.”

“This is like a nightmare. Worse, even. This is a war,” I whisper.

He begins to caress my cheek once again. The effect of his hand stroking my face is relaxing. I could easily fall asleep like this. I just want to slip into my own world and process all that has happened today.

“And Manny?” I ask.

He hesitates for a moment too long.

“Shit.”

The way he said the word shit sends a nauseous sensation to my stomach, without me even knowing why, I can already feel this is going to be another blow to my heart. Another chunk of my chest cut open. I come to my senses and jerk away from him, standing up.

He’s looking at me with pity. I hate pity. It’s the worst emotion ever. Pity is for the weak, and considering everything I have found out and overcome in the past day and a half, the last damn thing I want is pity.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I grit out. “I’m not a charity case. I fell apart once and I refuse to do it again, so tell me, what does Manny have to do with this?”

“Calla... Manny’s your cousin. He’s Salvatore’s son.”