Darkness

14. Autumn-Rose

Fourteen

Autumn-Rose

I stare at the empty space next to me. When did he leave? I didn’t want to wake up without him here. I move over to the side he was sleeping on, and the pillow smells like him. Fresh, woody, cedar like I’m walking in the forest and I have to say I do like smelling him on my bed.

Finally getting out of bed, as much as I want to stay, I can’t. I have a lesson with Poppy in two hours, so I need something to eat. Grabbing a sweatshirt, I make my way to the kitchen. I stop in my tracks when I see Cain sitting on the couch on the cell.

“Well, tell him he can fucking wait. I’m not going back there because he wants to be a fucking baby… Well tell him if he wants to bark like a dog, I’ll treat him like one too.” Who is he talking about? I knew there was a bad energy around him the moment I saw him, but yet it pulled me towards him, almost as if I didn’t have a choice but to go to him. “I’ll be over as soon as Miles gets here. Anything from the laptop?” I get myself some water and turn back to watch Cain as he gets up and walks over to me. “I’ll be over soon,” he ends the call, putting his cell on the kitchen counter, places his hands on my hips, and leans in for a kiss.

“Good morning,” I say as he pulls away from me.

“Morning.” He grabs my bottle of water and drinks some of it, running his hand through his hair. “What time do you have to work?” he asks.

“Can I ask a quick question? It’s been bugging me since last night.” Cain lifts me up a little and sits me on the counter, and gives me a nod. “Is your name Cain Cain?” Cain looks around the apartment, I’m not sure what he’s looking for, but he turns back at me. “No, my first name is Cain. You don’t need to worry about my last name.”

My mouth opens, but no words come out because I’m not sure what to say to him about not telling me his last name. Is he hiding from someone? He doesn’t give out the energy of fearing anyone. “What time do you start work?” he asks again.

“I have a lesson with Poppy first, then a meeting with a couple for their wedding. They want gothic style flowers. You have a busy day?” I ask him. I move my hands over his arms, taking my time looking over the tattoos which are covering every part of his skin. I’m not sure which one I like the most. The eagle face with paint splashes on his biceps is stunning. Continuing to look at his arms, I look at the very realistic scorpion tattoo, which is half on his hand and half on his wrist, as if it’s moving on his arm. “That’s so cool.”

“I think you need at least half a day to look at all the details in my tattoos.” Cain moves his hand up and down my thighs. He stops as he brings up my shorts a little. “Fuck, you really do bruise like a peach.” I look down at my inner thighs and see marks from where he was holding my legs open last night. “Going to enjoy seeing my marks all over you. And to answer your question, yes, I do have a busy day.”

“Is all of your chest covered in tattoos?” I ask, wanting to see what he has under this t-shirt.

“It is.” He pulls away from me, and I watch him walking to the couch and fuck, he’s got a strong broad back. “What time do you have to leave?” He sits down and looks out the window before turning back to me.

“About an hour. How do you know Logan? You were there when I was teaching Poppy and talking to him.” I get off the counter and walk over to him, and sit next to him, but he turns his face towards me with a little chuckle. Not sure what’s so funny, but he doesn’t look happy either.

“You’re not having breakfast?” he asks, and he doesn’t sound happy with it either. “You need breakfast,” he tells me as he walks off into the kitchen to see what I have. Not a lot, I can already tell him that without looking. “Omelet?” He asks me, placing a few things on the counter.

“Sure.” He cooks too. What can this man not do? There has to be something wrong with him.

“Logan is my half-brother, and neither one of us is happy about it. He wishes I was never there, and I feel the same. But to keep mom happy, we both tolerate each other.” He doesn’t look towards me as he gets to making me breakfast, but all I can think about is what he just said and what it all means. Do I have more questions, yes? But I think I need to wait for him to tell me in his own time. Pouring the eggs into the frying pan, he finally looks up at me. “I would appreciate it if you don’t mention us to them, or my mom. I don’t need her banging on my door.” I watch him walk around my kitchen as if he knows where everything is, but not telling them is fine with me. I don’t want them asking me questions about Cain, which they should be asking him.

Walking over to him, I wrap my arms around his waist, and he looks down at me and comes closer to kiss me. He pushes me back a little and, not letting me go, he flips the omelet over. “If you didn’t need to eat, I’d be eating you this morning. But I don’t want you getting light-headed on me, when I have a lot planned for us tonight. Most of it involves you screaming my name.” He pulls away from me, and plates up my breakfast, then he points for me to sit on the bar stool and I do as I’m told.

I go to talk but stop when his cell rings. “Hello…you know where to come. Why the fuck you calling me to tell me? Miles, I swear to God.” Putting the cell down, he walks over to the door and opens it, and I wait for Miles to walk in. I never asked how he knows Miles, but I’m hoping he will open up about his life with me when he’s ready, because he looks like a man who doesn’t like to share his world, and keeps everything close to his chest.

“Morning.” I smile at Miles, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I called because I didn’t want to walk in on you two fucking. Fucked up thing. I’ve seen it twice. Don’t need to see it for a third time.” I press my lips together with how easily Miles just said that, not thinking his new…I stop because I don’t know what I am. Fuck buddy, girlfriend, a fling.

“If you knock, then you wouldn’t, would you? Lost count how many times I’ve walked in on you three. The little one is still safe at the moment.” Cain closes the door, and hands Miles some coffee, then places a mug in front of me. “Eat up,” he tells me, realizing I’m busy watching them talking.

“Right? You have my prints already on the system. Take hers. How long do you think it will take you?” Cain asks him, and Miles shakes his head.

“Don’t start with that. You’ve already got time in your head, haven’t you?” I have to giggle listening to Cain and Miles go back and forth.

“I’m not timing this. Take your time. You have all day-”

“All day? You’re joking?” Miles asks him. He looks at me. “He’ll check everything. Put money on it. The moment I say I’m done, and set it up on your cell, you’ll be here looking over my work. Anyway.” Miles pushes his glasses up his nose again.

“Obviously, I have to get to work. Are you going to be alright with him?” Cain asks me, and I raise my brows at him.

“I don’t know, he might rape me-”

“He lays one finger on you, he’s dead,” Cain cuts me off, and he’s not even joking about it, either.

“Hey, do I look like a rapist?”

“It’s the cute, innocent ones you have to look out for,” I tell him when he laughs, Cain just looks at me. “Well, he’s cute.” I shrug my shoulders at him.

“If you think I’m cute, you should see my twin.”

“You’re a twin? That’s cool.”

“Total opposite of this idiot. Are you going to be okay? I have to get to work,” Cain asks me again.

“If you trust him to put a system in my apartment, then I trust him.” I give Cain a smile, thinking maybe I’ll be lucky and Miles might tell me something about him.

Cain grabs his cell, and I was hoping he would give me a kiss before he leaves, but no, not one for showing affection I take it. He talks to Miles quietly by the door, but I can’t hear a word they are saying to each other. Once the door is closed, I smile at Miles.

“So you two are brothers?” Miles starts laughing at my question.

“I don’t think so. If he’s not told you, I’m not talking, I’m not saying a word.”

“Are you scared of him?”

“Fuck yes, I’m scared of him. And when you know everything about him, and I mean everything, you’d know why we’re all scared of him.” Miles sounds serious too, not messing about with me. He means every word he just spoke.

“Do you work for him?” I ask. There has to be something he can tell me.

“Keep asking, I’m not telling you anything now. If you want to ask about me, be my guest,” Miles tells me, and I take a moment before asking. Is there something I can ask which will trip him up and tell me something about Cain?

“So you have a brother, a twin brother? Is that it?”

“No, I have two other brothers and a sister-”

“And Cain is one of them?”

Miles leans his hip on the kitchen counter, folds his arm over his chest. “That crazy fucker brought me here to give you a whole new security system, because yours was shit. And he made me come in the middle of the fucking night and now again in the early morning when I should still be in bed, because the man scares the life out of me. I’m here. There’s only one reason he’s doing it. He cares for you.” Miles stops talking when I choke on my coffee. He cares about me. My lips curl into a smile. “Is he going to tell anyone about you? No. The fact that I know about it, and I already know not to breathe a single word about it to anyone, not even to my brothers, because if I say anything, he will have killed me himself by tomorrow. But he’s doing all this for you, which proves one thing.” Miles stops as he waits for me to say something. My body tenses up, because of how scared Miles is of Cain, when just a minute ago they were both having a funny conversation with each other.

“I want to say that he’s not going to kill me.”

“No, you’re the first woman he’s probably even thought of doing something with. He will protect you until his dying breath. When he thinks the time is right, not when you ask him, by the way, but when he thinks the time is right, he will tell you everything.” Miles stops talking for a second. “I don’t know what he’s told you. All I know is that I’m not telling you anything about it, but everyone honestly thinks he is going to end up alone. After everything that happened to him, a lot of people would have come out the other end, either dead or in a mental hospital. But not him. Put it this way, he won’t let anything happen to you. He’ll protect you more than you’ll ever know. So, whatever or whoever you’re hiding from, tell him who it is. He can’t protect you from what he doesn’t know.” Miles walks away and I swirl the mug on the counter.

Everything Miles has just said means I should be scared of Cain, but when he’s with me, he’s not that person. He’s not…Is he a killer? Should I tell him who I’m running from?

Maybe I should talk to him, like Miles says he can’t protect me from what I’m running from if he doesn’t know.

***

“Ready, Poppy?” I ask her. She looks happy today. She’s always so happy and full of energy.

“Yes, will you be able to talk to Logan about competitions?” I have to laugh at her. This is all she talks about, but she’s not ready.

“Now you know how he is-”

“But what about single competitions? No partner? He said no because of the boys.” For her age, she listens to everything and everyone. She’s going to be a handful for her parents.

“I have to find a competition first and at the moment, you’re not even half ready. If you want to be in competitions, it’s going to take a lot of work, and this once a week training won’t cut it-”

“What do I have to do?”

“Well, the first thing you have to do is get your posture straight. Come on. What have I told you? Stand straight, shoulders back, down the ice. Let me have a look if there are any competitions coming within the next year.”

“Promise?”

“Poppy, it will take easily a year for you to be ready to compete. Not to win, to win it will probably take a good two, three years. Now get going. Backwards.”

“I hate going backwards.” She places her hands on her hips.

“And there it is. The reason you’re not ready for competitions. You have to do flips, you have to do jumps in the air. You have to do a lot.” I love teaching Poppy. I really do. She’s eager. She reminds me of the arguments I used to have with my dad.

“Okay, Coach, give it to me.” This little girl is full of confidence, like nothing will stop her from getting what she wants.

“I want back straight, and you going backwards-”

“For how long?”

“To the end, and if you don’t have your back straight for the whole way, you come back here and redo it.” Moaning, she skates to the side. “Back straight, Poppy.” It’s probably one of the hardest things to do. Posture. Even a little off and you get points taken off you.

Skating over to her, I stand behind her. “Let’s do the little trick my dad used to do on me.” I skate off to the side and grab a stick, and get back to her. I slide it through the back of her arms. “This is what we’re going to be using for the next couple of weeks until you can do your posture without it.”

“It hurts.”

“It’s meant to hurt. That means your posture is not good. Now go, you can go forward for a bit.” She skates off and moans to herself. “Two laps, posture straight, head held high, like that.” I watch her moving around the ice as I skate over to Meadow. “She’s asking about competitions again.” The only reason I bring it up is because Logan’s not here yet.

“She mentioned it to me, too. What do you think?” Meadow asks me as I watch her moving on the ice.

“She’s not ready, Meadow. She will need to train more than once a week, maybe this time next year, but she needs more training sessions. Almost every day. Take a day break or something.”

She wants to compete in the big leagues. She needs to do more training.

“Really?”

“Yeah, she’s not ready. She doesn’t have a good posture. She can’t do the spins up in the air yet. You should have a look at YouTube. Type in kids her age in figure skating competition. Show her, show her what they’re doing, and she’ll realize how far behind she is from them.” Before she can answer, she stops when Logan arrives and says. “Morning.”

“Morning, you coming from practice?” I ask him.

“Yep, coach is probably going to kill us this season.” He jokes.

“Didn’t you have a whole season without losing?” I ask. I’ve never watched him play, but Meadow gives me the update on them.

“Yes, and now he wants it again this season.” I look at Logan really looking at him, knowing that he’s Cain’s half brother. Now that I’m really looking at him and having a clear picture of Cain in my head, you can kind of see it. There are small, little features that are similar to each other.

I’d love to know why they hate each other, but I remember Miles’ words. He will tell me everything when the time’s right.