Darkness

6. Cain

Six

Cain

Staring at the printer is not going to make it go faster.

I was losing my patience because the printer was taking a long time to spit out the information on her, so I needed to get out of the office. I went on the rounds of the club, which I don’t normally do, but it was the best idea I could come up with.

“Whiskey,” I tell the girl behind the bar. I know most of the staff who work here now, but there are few new ones who Lincoln hired recently.

“You going to bed tonight?” Lincoln asks, leaning his back on the counter of the bar, looking out at the club. It’s a busy night, there are a few regulars. They spend many more nights here than they should be.

“I could ask you the same question. I’m sure you came back when I did.” I nod to the girl behind the bar to get him a glass too. “You find anyone to hire as your right-hand man?” I ask.

I could have found someone for him, but I’m not the one who has to teach them, or work with them every day. Lincoln isn’t a chatty man, so to find someone is going to be hard. That’s the reason I told him to find someone himself, and I’ll get all the checks done to make sure they are right, to look after this place if myself or Lincoln can’t be here.

“Not yet, but I will.” He turns his head slightly to face me, his eyes moving to my hands, then turns his head back to the club. “You should get your hands cleaned up.” He drinks his whiskey in one go, then asks for another. I washed my hands, but every time I ball them up, the cuts re-open. “You going to tell me who the girl is yet?”

He keeps asking who Autumn is, I never move people around in the club. They come to have fun, and I leave them to it, well until they make trouble anyway. So, he knew there was something going on when I moved her to the third floor. For two days he's been asking, and he’s been getting the same answer.

“No one.” Downing my drink, I look around the club as Lincoln laughs. Prick.

“You know finding a girl won’t be the worst thing-”

“First, take your own advice. Second, my soul is tainted, and so dark no one needs to be close to it. They will only burn from the flames surrounding me.” I pat his back and walk away before he can say anything. I had a girl, she was my everything, but I lost her because of the darkness which lives above my head. This thought reminds me I might be out of The Pit, but The Pit will always be a part of me. And someone as colorful as Autumn-Rose doesn’t need to be tainted by my darkness.

Walking into the office, I make my way straight to the printer as I can’t hear it printing anymore.

Fuck, that’s a lot of information. I know I can skim through her early parts of her life. Its later in life I’m more interested in.

I call Lincoln to let him know I’ve gone up to my apartment and to only call if there is an emergency.

Standing at the back of my office, I wait for the elevator to arrive. One reason I wanted this building for the club was because it had eight floors.

Already knowing I was going to use six of them for the club, and the eighth floor for my apartment, that left one big open floor empty so the sound wouldn’t come up to my place. Stepping into the elevator, I place my thumb on the key scanner, and the door closes to take me up to my sanctuary. The only other people whose thumbs are registered here are Lincoln and Hayden’s, which he doesn’t know about.

As the doors open, the first thing I see is the night sky. I feel more at ease looking up at it than looking at the daylight. The night is the only time I knew I’d be safe. Well as safe as one can be. You learn early that monsters are everywhere, and you have to not just watch out for them, but listen for them as well.

Putting the papers on the kitchen counter, I remove my jacket and tie and throw them on the back of the stool. I make myself a whiskey, grab the papers off the counter and I sit on the couch. As I look again at the dark sky, I glance over to the building across the road, which is slightly to the right of me, yet I can still see people through the windows when they have their lights on.

I take a sip of my whiskey, then read through the papers, giving her early life only a quick scan.

Nothing important there. She started skating when she was five, entered her first competition at eight, and has been at the top of the sport since. In England, no one has even broken her record score either, which only makes me think again. Why did she leave?

I stop reading and get to the last few pages, wanting to see what she is doing here in America. She teaches Poppy skating, but even I know that’s not enough income to live off, even though Logan pays her well. She owns a flower shop - Sweet Rose, and I shake my head when it’s only a few shops down from mom’s bakery. I have to double check when I see her address.

This has got to be a mistake.

Standing up, I look over at the building in front of mine and look at the eighth floor. I glance back down at the papers to see the apartment number, which will make it on my side and the third window across. Looking over at the building and counting the windows, I see her sitting on the couch watching the TV.

She only has the lamp on, which makes it hard to see anything else in the apartment, but I can see her clearly.

She lives in front of me. I sit back down to read the rest of the information I have. Again wondering why she came to the States. The cold air hits the back of my neck again. What the fuck is that? I glance over at her apartment; I shake the thoughts out of my head and get back to reading.

Hold on, this isn’t right, something is missing. Once again, I stand up and pace the room as I continue to read. She filed a complaint about someone, no name, no address, nothing, but the police ignored it. She then filed another complaint about someone breaking into her apartment, which was again filed as nothing. She was admitted to the hospital, but nothing about why. As if she’s hiding a lot of information about herself from someone.

There are a lot more unanswered questions about Miss. White, but why do I care? Because every time I’m around her or even close to her, this fucking cold air hits me. Is it a warning?

Collapsing on the couch, I close my eyes, rubbing them to ease the pain shooting through them and hitting my head. When was the last time I had my pills? A few hours ahead of time won’t hurt. Digging through my pants pocket, I take two with my drink and lean my head back on the couch.

“You think love is forever?” Tess cleans up the cut on the side of my lip.

“For me it is.” I take a piece of her hair and bring it behind her ear, then lean in closer to kiss her. “It will always be you.”

“Cain.”

The cold air hits me harder this time, hard enough to make me sit up straight. I have no idea what the fuck is happening around me, but it needs to stop. My sight moves to

Autumn-Rose’s apartment, and I see her putting her coat on. Where the fuck is she going at eleven at night? It’s not safe for her to walk alone at this time of night.

Quickly grabbing my jacket, I get to the ground floor and wait for her to exit her building. I can keep my distance; she won’t even know I’m behind her. I follow her down the street. It’s dark, and around here is relatively safe, but you can still find some fucked up guy who thinks they can get what they want without asking. Not on my watch.

I follow her for a few blocks, then she turns, and I stop to make sure she is one hundred percent going down this road. Looking around making sure no one is following her and then she stops under the tunnel, nothing good will come from this part of the area.

The only thing she’ll get from here is drugs; and she doesn’t look like a person who takes drugs. Not with the figure skating shit she does.

“Evening Autumn,” one guy shouts. They know her name? Am I not reading people the way I used to? “I got you one.” He throws her something, and I wait for her to open her hands so I can see what it is. A cell.

“Thank you.” She gives him some money, and walks away from him to the bench not too far from him. Walking around the back of the wall so I can hear her better as she puts the cell to her ear. “I’m good, just miss you…when?” she asks and her whole body begins to tremble. “No one knows…the shop is good, busy.” A smile spreads over her lips. “How is everyone? That’s amazing, so happy.” Whoever she is talking to talks for a few more minutes before she hangs up.

I watch her as she hands the cell back to the guy. “Same time next week?” he asks, and she smiles, giving him a nod.

“Thanks Gray.” She waves at him as he breaks the cell and throws it into the fire pit they have burned to keep them warm.

I should ask him what he knows about her, but I hate the idea of her walking alone. Fuck.

I’ll be here tomorrow to talk to him. I follow her home to make sure she gets back safely, before I make my way back to my apartment.

***

“You know why we have to do this, don’t you, Cain?” I look up at my grand-dad, who’s grip around my hand is hurting me.

There is only one thing I see, and that’s pain and worry in his eyes. I shake my head, not understanding why we have to leave. “We have a business which can sometimes make us enemies. Those enemies will hear about your dad, and they will come for you. If it was one family or even two, we could fight. But it’s too much for us to keep you safe.” Grand-dad kneels to my height, blocking the view of my dad’s lifeless body. “I never wanted to take you there, because it’s the worst place to be, but it’s the only place I can keep you safe.” Grand-dad looks behind him at Uncle David, and deep inside I know he’s lying to me.

“Why can’t we leave the country?” I ask.

“Because we have enemies everywhere. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry.” It’s the first time in my eight years I’ve seen my grand-dad scared. But of what? Who will come after me, or the place we are going to?

Dad used to tell me the family business was dangerous, and to hurt the family they would hurt me and one day he would tell me what it is we do, because I’d be running it. Now that day will never come. I turn to the man who killed my dad, and in that moment I make a promise to myself. He will die, because I’ll be the one to kill him.

“Can I see mom?” I ask grand-dad, and he shakes his head looking up at the house, following his glance and see my mom standing by the window. I go to raise my hand to wave, but stop when I see a little boy hugging her leg. “She replaced me.”

“No!” my grand-dad shouts. “No, she didn’t. I promise I’ll tell you everything, but now we have to go.”

Not taking my eyes away from my mom, grand-dad picks me up and walks away from the house.

“Cain!” I open my eyes and see Lincoln standing in front of me. “What is all this?” He picks up all the papers from the floor and holds up the whiskey bottle, raising his brows at me. Rubbing my eyes, my fucking head is killing me. “Cain-”

“What?” I shout at him before he can say things I don’t fucking care about. Getting up, I take the bottle from him. Not sure why the fuck he’s complaining, it’s not even empty.

“Go see someone about your headaches, man.” I hear Lincoln behind me as I walk over to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water, trying hard to ignore him. Unfortunately, the man has a way of pissing me off sometimes. “You’re getting worse.”

“I’m fine!” I snap, walking back over to him. I grab my cell to see the time. Eight in the morning, this can’t be right. I’ve never slept past six. Grabbing the pills on the table, I take two and rub my eyes again. Fucking hell, my head is pounding.

“You’re not fine. I’ve known you long enough, man. I saw the shit you went throu-”

“It happened to you too,” I hiss at him, not looking at him I stand by the window to see if Autumn-Rose has left for work or not.

“Yeah, it did, but we both know the fucked up shit they did to you was worse. You were there a lot longer-”

“Can we stop talking about it?” This is the last thing I want to talk about. It’s bad enough it haunts my nights when I’m at my weakest. I don’t need it fucking up my days, too.

“What’s all this?” Lincoln stands next to me, holding all the papers I spent my night reading through.

“Nothing. I’m going to shower, then we have to leave.” I walk away from him hoping a shower will help me feel somewhat alive for the day.

“Where are we going?” I hear Lincoln shout, but I choose to ignore him, knowing while I’m in the shower, he will read through the papers. We will see how much of an asshole he wants to be when I get back.

Making my way straight to my all-black en-suite, I turn the shower on, letting it warm up. I don’t have much color in my apartment. It’s mostly all black, which suits my mood. It also means that any light coming from the windows doesn’t have anything to reflect off to brighten up the rooms. After undressing, I get into the shower. I purposely don’t have a long mirror in the bathroom, or the apartment. I don’t need to see my body. I know every scar. I remember the pain of every single one of them. I don’t care what grand-dad said. There is no way that place was safer for me than the outside world.

Placing my hands on the black tiles, I let the water move down my body, trying very hard to push the bad memories as far back as I can into my head. I’m awake now. They won’t win. I won’t let them.

“Who is this girl?” Lincoln asks, holding the papers up. I was right, he did read them. “You’ve met her once, and you have a pile of information on her, and she lives over the road from you.” Lincoln’s tone is a mix of confusion and annoyance, I ignore him. I fill my travel mug up with some coffee, something which will be the only thing fueling me today. “Cain?”

“I don’t know who she is. I had no idea why she lives across the road from me.” I put my jacket on, and grab my mug. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Are you going to tell me where?” Lincoln follows me and presses the button for the elevator.

“You read everything?” I ask him, pressing the button for the lower floor. Lincoln gives me a nod. “What do you think?”

“She’s a figure skater from England who owns a flower shop. Not someone who is coming after you. Come on, she came to the club in a yellow flowery dress. She looks like she likes puppies and cupcakes.” Walking out of the building, Lincoln continues to talk about how Autumn-Rose is a sweet girl who likes to live a happy life, as I tap away on my cell.

From the moment I’ve known Lincoln he’s been a chatterbox and fucking hell is he in a chatty mood today? Years have passed, and he knows I hate talking. He still doesn’t shut up. I’m the only person he talks to, other than that, he lives in his own world.

Walking around the corner, I walk into a bunch of flowers. “I’m so sorry.” I don’t need to see her face. I know who it is. Autumn-Rose puts the flowers on the floor and smiles at me.

“Mr. Cain and Mr. Upgrade.” Her smile gets bigger, if it’s even possible. Her eyes linger on me for a moment. “Nice suit.”

“You can call me Lincoln.” Lincoln puts his hand out for her to shake, and she does.

“Autumn-Rose.” She introduces herself with a small curtsy and giggles to herself.

“Oh, very nice, a British Rose.” I hear Lincoln, as I take the moment to look her over. I stop as soon as I see the bruise on her arm.

“What happened?” I point to her arm, and as she folds her arm to look, I see the cut on her forearm. “And there?” Now I’m looking at her body. She has a lot of bruises on herself.

“This-” she points to the bruise. “-I walked into a door, and this-” she points to the cut. “I cut myself when I was making dinner. Nothing new.” She rubs her arm a few times, then picks the flowers back up. “I have a question. What’s on the sixth floor? Katy said the waiting list is almost six months long.”

I try not to react. There is no way she will be allowed on the sixth floor, even if her name gets on the list I’d remove it.

“Not sure you’re ready for it, Rose.” She scrunches her face, then looks over at Lincoln.

“The boss has spoken.” Autumn-Rose turns her attention back to me when Lincoln’s reply wasn’t what she wanted.

Not saying anything to me, I feel her eyes studying my face, then she smiles. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Cain.” She hands me a sunflower and tilts her head slightly to the right. “It’ll bring some color into your life.” She walks to her car, which is a piece of shit and I bet breaks down at least twice a month.

“Don’t say a fucking word.” Snapping at Lincoln, I hand him the flower. Bring some color into my life. Why? It gets taken away from me, anyway.

“She’s nice, I like her-”

“Then make a move.” I shut him up. I know what he’s doing, and he needs to shut up and stop.

“Hard to do when she was staring at you more than me, plus you spent most of the night reading up about her and looking into her window. Something about her is-”

“Shut up, fucking hell.” I need stronger medication. Lincoln bursts out laughing.

For the rest of the walk, he stays quiet. That’s the way it needs to be. I look under the tunnel, hoping to see the guy she was talking to last night and there he is, with a needle in his arm. How much information am I going to get out of him when his high on some shit?

“Cain-”

“Leave it.” I walk over to him, and he stands up quickly. “Only want information-” I throw a hundred-dollar bill on the table with three legs, and he picks it up quickly.

“The girl who came to you last night for the cell. What do you know about her?”

“Autumn-Rose, she’s nice. I know nothing about her.” I hand him another hundred and he shakes his head. “Sir, I don’t know anything. She came here one night and said all she wants is a burner cell once a month, and she will give me five hundred for it. That’s it. She’s on the cell for a minute or two, then wants me to burn it.”

I look over at Lincoln, who’s looking around at all the other people here, which I do, too.

Last night there weren't so many people here. There were only a few men, but now it’s a lot busier.

“Has anyone caused her trouble?” I ask. If they have, I will fix it.

“They did at the start, but the more she came, the more I started to like her. I won’t let anyone come close to her.” I hand him another five hundred and tell him he won’t tell her I came asking for her, and he nods.

Walking away, I wait for Lincoln to say something because he will, but it’s going to be the same thing I’m thinking to myself.

“Who is she calling and hiding from?” I don’t say anything to him as we make our way back to the club. I need to dig into the reports which seem to have gone missing. There is an answer there somewhere. I just need to find it. “I bet if you ask, she’ll just tell you.” Lincoln stops, which in turn, makes me stop. “Cain, what’s going on? You’ve never taken this much interest in a woman before.” Placing my hands into my pants pocket, I take a deep breath in, giving me a few more seconds to work out what to say.

“I don’t know. Every time I’m around her, a cold, icy breeze hits the back of my neck-” Looking around the street because it’s the truth. “Lincoln, I don’t know why, but something is warning me about her.”

“Or pushing you to protect her.” Lincoln walks away from me, and I take in his words. Protect her?

The biggest threat in her life would be me.