Part 4 (1/2)
”Cain, don't.”
”Don't what?” They had started toward the stairs and Cain stopped, confused by the request.
”He just scared me, and I know you don't think so, but he doesn't deserve what you have in mind.”
Cain took a deep breath in an effort to control her rage, not wanting to scare Emma anymore, but she couldn't resist picking up an expensive vase and flinging it at the wall. ”This can't go unanswered, love, you know that. What he did”
”He did to me,” said Emma. ”So I'm asking you to let him live. I won't have his death on my conscience for a 'what if.' G.o.d is forgiving, but not that forgiving.” A bit of her mother seeped into her speech, but she really didn't believe in taking someone's life. And from what she was seeing in Cain's eyes, that was exactly what was going to happen to Danny if she didn't do anything to stop it. ”Promise me on what we have together you'll respect my wishes. I want your word.”
”Why? After what he did today, why?”
She gazed up at Cain, trying to find the right words. ”Because this time it happened to me, and I don't believe this behavior warrants such a rash act. That's the best way I can explain how I feel about it.”
Emma's reasoning wasn't good enough, and the logical part of Cain's brain told her to send her upstairs with their son and be done with what had to happen. The guy had crossed an unforgivable line, and the price was his life. Cain knew that, but the trust in Emma's eyes made her turn away from logic and tell her what she wanted to hear. No matter the cost, Cain didn't want to destroy how Emma felt about her so she answered with her heart. ”I give you my word.”
”Thank you.”
Hours pa.s.sed after the brief conversation, and when Hayden had fallen asleep, Emma went in search of her partner. The house was quiet and the sun had just set, so it was easy to hear the squeak of the cellar door as it opened.
”Get rid of him.”
Cain's voice and her words made Emma grab the banister to keep her feet. When she turned the corner, she stopped. She felt sick when she saw the blood splattered across Cain's s.h.i.+rt and pants, and her crimson hands. ”You promised me. I thought your word meant something to you.”
In their time together she had never thought of Cain as a liar, but before her stood not only a liar, but also a vicious killer. A killer covered in the evidence of her crime, who had committed the act with her wife and son in the house.
”I promised you, and I kept my word.” The blue eyes never wavered, and she delivered the words calmly.
All her mother's warnings crashed down on her. She sank into the nearest chair, disgusted with her own naivete. She had wanted to believe so badly in Cain that she had refused to see what was right in front of her. How much more plainly could Cain show her the depth of her deceptions? This time she was covered in the truth of what she was and what she was capable of. Emma felt her heart turn cold at the fact that she was sharing her life, her bed, and her soul with a killer. To make it worse, she had given this devil a child to perpetuate what the Casey family stood for.
She loved Cain, but she couldn't ignore this evil woman who stood there and blatantly lied to her. Despite their love, she had time to salvage as much of her family as she could. She refused to become as guilty as Cain. She refused to teach Hayden that murder, revenge, and dishonesty were codes to center his life around.
”I said I kept my word,” repeated Cain.
”Thank you.” Those two empty words were all Emma could think to add.
”At a birthday party for your aunt Marie that Cain and I hosted, one of the guests got drunk and tried something he should've known better about, considering who I was and who I lived with. But I guess he thought Cain would tolerate it since the Irish whiskey was flowing as well as the ale, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. You were about to turn seven, and I remember looking out into the yard and seeing Cain help you get a piece of cake.”
Emma took her gloved hands out of her pockets and brought them up to hug herself from the sudden chill the memories had brought on. She realized her voice sounded detached and devoid of emotion, which was a lie. With every detail she retold, she relived the anguish.
”I don't think anyone noticed when this guy dragged me into one of the bedrooms. Just when I thought something horrible was going to happen to me, somebody jerked the guy's body off me. One second I was in terror, and the next I was in the arms of someone I knew would keep me safe.”
”Cain?” Hayden looked at her for the first time since they'd left the house.
”Yes, it was Cain. I don't know how she knew, but she saved me.”
”So as her reward, you left her?”
His voice sounded so incredulous his mother almost laughed. Her son wasn't yet twelve, but he already thought like the heir to the Casey name. Every sacrifice she'd made to get Hayden back was in vain. Cain was too ingrained where it mattered mosthis heart.
”I didn't leave because of that, Hayden. After she calmed me down and let someone take me upstairs with you, she cleared the grounds. I waited up because I was so worried about her, and because I wanted her to hold me and make the humiliation go away. After what seemed an eternity, I went downstairs to look for her. The man was gone, but Cain hadn't cleaned up yet. I saw her hands. Her hands and her clothes are etched into my brain, and I'm sorry, but I couldn't live like that any more. There was so much blood. She was covered in it, so much so that it felt like it would taint all of us like a flood. The sight of it made me sick. I didn't want to be responsible for getting someone hurt, or worse, just because I shared a bed with the head of the Casey family. I'm sorry if that's hard for you to hear, but it's the truth.”
She put her hand on Hayden's arm to get him to stop walking. When he paused, she thought she had gotten through to him and he'd understood her position.
”Mom protected you, and you left because of it?”
Hearing it put like that, her actions didn't make much sense to her either. ”I'm not one of my father's cows, Hayden. I don't belong to Cain like some piece of furniture. As much as I respect her sense of family and honor, this isn't feudal j.a.pan where I'm expected to walk four steps behind her. I was her wife, and I wanted to have some say in what happened in my life and the lives of my children. But she told me she didn't kill the guy like she wanted to because I asked for his life. I thought it was a job for the policenot Cain's hands or the muzzle of her gun. Do you understand all of Cain? What she's capable of, under the right circ.u.mstances?”
”I understand better than you. But you left one more person out there just waiting to hurt her or me. All because you were weak. Did you think of that when you were being so charitable? Sure, you did what you thought was right. But I can't respect you for it. You and your clear conscience. Too bad you didn't care as much about Mom and me. Why didn't you ever stop to think about me?” The anger that had been bottled up for four years came pouring out until Hayden was screaming at her.
Hayden's words. .h.i.t her like physical blows, so she moved a little away from him, and her eyes filled with tears again. ”Listen to you. No eleven-year-old should have to think that. This doesn't have to be your life, son. I more than care about you, I love you. It killed a big part of me to walk away. You, Cain, and Marie were my family. You're still a part of my family, and I want you to know you have options other than Cain.” When Hayden didn't object she moved back close enough to put her hand on the sleeve of his coat.
”What, I could come live here and learn to milk cows? Better yet, I could spend the rest of my life trying to get Grandmother Carol to not look at me like she hates everything about my family and me. No, thank you. You wanted me here so we could get to know each other. Well, you're no one I want to waste my time getting to know better, lady.” He jerked his arm out of her grasp and walked farther away from her, wiping his eyes as he went.
Emma just watched him leave, not thinking of anything that would make him stop. The hope she had so fragilely pieced together when she left for New Orleans to see him again shattered with every step he took away from her. She was sure this defeat would hurt as much as giving up her life with Cain.
Hayden turned back toward the house, ignoring Mook as he pa.s.sed. He wanted nothing more than to leave when Cain arrived. Coming here was a mistake, and Cain would have to respect his wishes about not caring to have a relations.h.i.+p with Emma. He had done his part. He had tried because of the precious memories he still clung to when he remembered his mother. This time around he would walk away, and she could spend the rest of her days reliving the pain of loss.
”Let him cool off, Emma. Don't worry. He'll be fine. You just hit a raw nerve without knowing,” said Mook.
”What do you mean?”
”He still misses Marie. It upsets him sometimes when someone mentions her name, and he wasn't expecting it.”
”Did Cain have to inst.i.tutionalize her?” Emma remembered Cain's younger sister and the afternoons she'd spent listening to Cain read to her. She recalled Marie's blue eyes looking adoringly at Cain.
”She died almost three months ago.”
”What? How?”
”You aren't getting the story out of me, and I'll have to insist you don't ask Hayden about it again.” The bodyguard broke out into a run when his charge disappeared into the house, leaving Emma to fill in the blanks however she wanted.
The two houseguests spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening behind the closed door of their bedroom. Emma walked past it more than twenty times but took Mook's warning seriously.
Chapter Eight.
The sun had set by the time Emma felt comfortable enough to knock and see if Hayden and Mook wanted to come down for dinner. Her hands flew to her chest when, before her knuckles made contact with the wood, the door opened. Hayden had his coat on and rushed past her toward the stairs, obviously heading outside.
She heard the front door open and close and ran down after him. Is he leaving? Her worst fears were confirmed when she saw the entourage of people standing in her father's yard.
Pulling back the curtain in the living room, she spotted a large SUV parked near the barn. From the light spilling out of the large building, she saw Hayden clinging to Cain. He stayed in Cain's arms for a long time, as if trying to make himself feel better after the horrible morning he'd spent with his birth mother. He'd obviously called, and she'd come early to take him away.
Cain and Hayden strode into the barn, leaving all the help, as Cain liked to call them, outside near the car. The head of the Casey family surely wasn't expecting a mob hit or trouble here, since she'd brought only Merrick and a couple of others with her. In New Orleans, depending on what was going on in the business, anywhere from four to eight guards trailed Cain every day. They had also been a presence in Emma's life, and of all the things she missed, the guards weren't one of them.
Emma looked on as Hayden told Cain something and kept pointing toward the house. Cain c.o.c.ked her head to the side as she listened, looking in her direction every so often as if she knew Emma was standing at the window.