Darkness

23. Cain

Twenty-Three

Cain

It’s been two weeks since Autumn moved in, and everything fits. It’s like she was meant to be there from the start. I never thought I would have a woman live with me, but now the thought of her not being there has me going crazy.

That woman is mine, and there is nothing in the world that will take her away from me.

One thing I will say, she’s settled herself into the place with no trouble. There are flowers in almost every room, but the bedroom, and that’s only because the smell was making my head so much worse. She’s even got candles everywhere. I have no idea why because she doesn’t even light most of them.

If I can’t sleep, she sits on the couch with me, watching one of her crazy reality shows. How she doesn’t have a headache after watching them, I have no idea. Five minutes into one episode, and I was ready to lose it.

Would I change anything? Fuck, no.

She rambles about nothing most of the time, talks to herself while she cooks, she plans out her day to herself, and then disagrees with herself at the same time. I have to laugh when she does those little things.

“We have a party who would like to book out the whole sixth-”

“No.” I cut Lincoln off, a party for the entire floor, not a fucking chance. I did it once, and it will never happen again because the fuckers got out of hand, and I ended up beating more people up than I kicked out.

“I’ve already told them no. Miles has finished getting the security all done at the shop. You might want to tell Autumn that even though Hayden and Miles are in college, they would still fuck Katy.” I look up at Lincoln, wanting some more information on that part. “Hayden went with Miles and from what I heard Hayden was very… Hayden. I give it until tomorrow before he gets between her legs.” Shaking my head, I get my cell out and message Hayden and Miles telling them to leave Katy alone, don’t need them fucking things up and giving me a headache for no reason.

I go to say something but stop when the voice in our ear says, “Logan and some woman are here to see you, boss.” Not in the mood for either of them, but the grin on Lincoln’s face tells me he knows about it, too.

“I’ll be at the door.” Lincoln opens the door, and as he does Logan and mom walk through.

Getting off the chair, I walk around the desk. I watch Logan walking over to the window, as mum comes closer to me and gives me a small hug and kiss on the cheek.

“And what do I owe for this unannounced visit?” I ask, knowing very well Logan was dragged here.

“I thought we could all go out for dinner, we haven't spent any time together, and I would like it if you two could spend time together.” She looks at Logan who still hasn’t even glanced my way and I shake my head.

“I tried, he wants nothing to do with me. Now it’s up to him.” I could have lied and said I’ve been busy, or some crap like that, but no. She can blame him, and he can listen to it. “Did Autumn-Rose come talk to you today?” I ask.

Autumn has been scared to talk to my mom, for two reasons. One she thinks because I don’t have the best relationship with her and was worried it would be weird for us, and two she thought mom would say no.

“She did and I love the idea. At the weekend we’re getting together to get things started, as she wants the window display done quickly.” Mom smiles, and looks over at Logan sitting on the couch, but I ignore him and look out the window at the cage coming up. “She’s a lovely girl, I’m happy you’ve found a girl who is so nice, and sweet.” I don’t say anything and listen to the bouncers in my ear as they moan about some guy wanting to get into the club but he is already wasted. “Both my boys are in a relationship, now it’s time to see who makes me a grandma first.”

Now that makes me laugh, something I’ve never thought about, but then again I never thought I would have a woman live with me. Things can change, Autumn-Rose would be a great mom, and I would make sure my kids never had the fucked up life I did.

“Cain, he’s here. And pushing his way to your office.” I hear Lincoln panic in my ear.

“Fuck.” I quickly move around the desk, put on my jacket, and turn to Logan and my mom. “You work for me, you’re here looking for your daughter. Do not call me by my name, do not say a word. You stay there and stay quiet.” Logan goes to say something to me, and I stop him. “You think I’m fucking about? I’m not. Shut up, say nothing," I snap at him. “A man is coming, and he doesn’t need to know who you are.”

He needs to know I’m not fucking around right now, though.

The door opens and I look over at the man I would love to kill, but I took him out of The Pit with a fucked up truce. Fucking truce, but now he’s trying to work around it.

“Mr. Cain, you’re a hard man to get a meeting with,” he talks in Chinese so Logan and mom don’t understand him. I lean on the edge of my desk, looking at the four other men who have walked into my office, and Lincoln stands by the door.

“And you're a man whose head I’d happily rip off.” My tone is the same as it is always, I don't need him knowing how much rage runs through me when I look at him.

“And who do we have here?” He looks over at my mom.

“She’s looking for her drug addict daughter, thought she works here. She doesn’t.” I look over at his men walking around the office, Lincoln watching two of them, while I watch the others. “What do you want?” I ask. Being in The pit with him, and other men who spoke Chinese I picked it up quickly, I can have a full conversation with someone, and they wouldn’t even be able to tell it’s not my first language.

“My son.” I have to laugh at his request, because we both know that will not happen. “Now is the time to give him back,” he shouts and I fold my arms over my chest. I watch him as he stands in front of me. “We wouldn’t want you to get hurt now would we?” His question makes me smile.

Now I’ve watched this man fight in The Pit, I watched him kill grandad; I know what he can do, and it’s nothing good.

“I want my son out. Now.” Mr. Yang demands, and I stay where I am, just watching him move around my office.

Never show weakness. Never show them they have scared you. Never show them they’ve affected you. Never show them anything.

“Mr. Cain, I know you’ve been looking into my family from the moment you got out, so I have no doubt you know what we are capable of.” Mr. Yang walks closer to me, and I take the moment to peek over at mom who has been fidgeting with her bracelet, and Logan is keeping a very good poker face.

I know what his family is capable of, the Chinese mafia, who have killed more than enough families to take over New York. Some things that I’ve heard them do are scary. The only reason I’m not scared is because I know they would never kill me, because the day they do, The Pit has orders to kill his son.

“I’m sure even a ghost has a weakness.”

Now I laugh which annoys him because I see his right eye starting to twitch. “When you find it, please do let me know. Now whatever it is you want the answer is no.”

I study Huang, Mr. Yang's grandson as he stands in front of me. He looks just like his dad, but more built. I can see Mr. Chan Yang is making his grandson the next in line, knowing very well his son will never walk free. He needs someone to take over. I turn to the man standing next to him, his bodyguard, who I don’t recognize from any pictures. He continues to walk around the office, behind me and out of sight. I don’t like it. I fight every muscle so that I don’t turn around and stare at him and whatever he is doing in my office.

“Let my father go, or-”

“Oh little boy, if I wanted to I could kill you without even breaking a sweat.” I say, making Lincoln laugh, and the corner of my lips curl into a smile. Oh, so easy to get under his skin, this should be fun.

I focus on the man walking behind me. He walks with a heavy foot, but then he walks softly. He’s up to something, and I take a quick look at Lincoln to watch him, and he gives me a nod.

“You want to try-” He stops when Mr. Yang places his hand on his grandson's chest.

“Back away, you haven’t seen what he can do, I have. The man is a monster.” Now I do smile, a monster. They call me a monster, but it’s them who made me who I am.

“You give me my son, then you can live your life without worrying when I will attack you.” Mr. Yang tells me, as I continue listening to the sounds behind me.

“I don’t look over my shoulder now and don’t plan to. Someone taught me how to listen to the things around me, listen to how people move, they also taught me to never let the enemy stand behind you, because they will attack you, no matter how smart they are.” I quickly move out of the way, when the stupid bodyguard pulls a knife on me.

I grab his hand quickly, slam his head on the desk a few times, and bring the knife and stab it through his hand. He screams and Huang moves to step closer to me, but stops when Mr. Yang shouts at him to stop.

“Now-” I walk away from my desk towards Mr. Yang. “You come into my business, wanting something, and the answer is no. The answer is always going to be no. I’m warning you, the next time you come here, you won’t be walking out. Now get the fuck out of my office.” I lean back on the desk, watching them. They are ready to make a move, but I have to wait and see when they make it.

Mr. Yang looks over at Logan and mom and smiles before turning to face me. “You hide them, you lock yourself away, but I see them. How long can you hide them from the world? Say hello to your family.”

I keep my face straight, not waiting for him to see it’s affected me, because he knows who I am, and who my family are.

“Mr. Yang before you leave. You have until midnight,” I tell him and he stops by the door with his family.

“For?”

“You always told me, if someone tries to kill you, never let them walk away. He tried to kill me, I want his hand in a box delivered to me by midnight, by him. If not, you'll get a gift of your own.” I cross my arms over my chest, as he looks at his family before turning to me.

“A gift?”

“Of his head, which I’ll rip off myself. You have until midnight.” Mr. Yang leaves the office while I was mid-sentence. Lincoln walks in shutting the door. I turn to mom and Logan. “Get to Uncle David's house, now. Don’t stop anywhere, get straight there, if you want to tell your fucking brothers to be there. Fuck!” I shout, and turn to Lincoln. “Family meeting, call them. All of them.”

Walking away from everyone, I punch the wall, because this is going to get fucking messy, and I can’t have my family not knowing what is going on and what could happen. I need to tell them about Mr. Yang, The Pit, and how this might play out. He will do anything to make sure I’m dead.

I told Autumn I had to leave, but that she was not to leave the apartment. I know I scared her, but I promised to tell her everything once I get back. I didn’t have time to tell her, and I know there is no way anyone will get into my apartment. Unless they cut my fucking finger off. Plus, I needed to get to Uncle David’s house. I don’t know when the bastard is going to make his move, and they need to know they could be in danger.

Parking up at the house, I look around already knowing he’s watching, and he will kill whoever means something to me. Fuck. I shout to myself. I know my life is always in danger, someone will one day come for me, but now the time has come and I have to protect the little family I have.

Walking into the dining room, my mother almost power walks over to me, and slaps me. “Who are you? You told that man you’d rip his head off, without any-”

“Stop!” I shout at her, and walk away seeing everyone is here. If she thinks I’m in the fucking mood for this shit, she’s wrong.

“No, what happened to the boy-”

“What happened to the little boy you once knew?” I shout the question to her, and she stares at me. “That little boy died the day his bastard dad killed my father. That little boy died the moment he wanted his mom to tell him it’s all okay, but she didn’t. That little boy died when he looked up at his mom and saw she had replaced him with a boy holding on to her leg.” I take a step closer to her. “That boy died the moment you walked out the fucking door.” She wipes the tears away, and I wait for Logan to say something, but he doesn’t which surprises me. I know he hates me because he thinks mom loves him less, but all I ever felt from her was she replaced me with him.

“I wanted my mom to tell me everything will be okay, and not to fear the monster under your bed-” I laugh a little. “That’s a fucking lie, there is a monster under your bed, and he will eat you alive. Sleep with one eye open is a saying, but there, you go to sleep and you’d be lucky to be alive by the morning. You fucking think I went to fucking paradise? No, I went to hell, to a place where there is only one way out. In a fucking body bag.” I ram my hands through my hair, trying to calm myself down, all because they have no idea what hell is about to rain down on them.

I turn around to look at everyone, but not looking at anyone in particular. I have no idea where to start. I don’t know what to tell them. Clearing my throat, I turn to Uncle David, my jaw clenching with what I’m about to tell him.

“I can’t give the family who is coming for me, what they want. I won’t give it. And because of that I’m putting everyone in this room, but them two-” I point to Blake and Travis. “-in danger.”

“Cain-”

“You have to let me finish.” I stop my uncle from talking. I know he will have questions, but if I can tell them everything about grandad, maybe I’ll answer them all before he has to ask them. “You have to fight for everything:- food, water, fresh air, even fucking sleep.” I feel the pain in the back of my throat, this is hard. I knew it would be, it’s the reason I never told them before. “If you fight, you pick the person you want to fight. There are no rules down there, not fucking one. The bastard wanted freedom for a day, and he picked me to fight. Thirteen years old fighting a man. Mr. Yang. I watched him fight, he could kill me fast if he wanted, but I wasn’t so lucky.” I remove my jacket, and put it on the chair, as I undo my buttons slowly, knowing no one in this room has seen the scars on my chest, yet. “If I fell asleep, then I was used as an ashtray, whipped with anything they could find, you’ll see the scars. I don’t want to tell you about all of them, but the ones you need to know about I will tell you.” Just saying the words is making me sick at the thought of replaying that day in my head. Finding the words to tell them about, wishing I could go back and do things differently. Fight harder.

“I fought, I swear Uncle David I fought. Three broken ribs, a broken nose-” I remove my shirt, and I hear my aunt gasp in shock, whispering my name.My Uncle doesn’t take his eyes off my chest. I hear the twins whispering ‘fuck,’ and I ignore everyone else. “He put a spear through the gap between my shoulder, both of them, pinning me to the wall, and fuck…he took the chance to do whatever he could to me. Burned me with a rod-” I point to different scars on my chest to explain what they were. “-Grandad… grandad shouted to stop when the blood was dripping from my mouth. Grandad took…” I shake my head and replay the worst night in my life. “He took my place. He fought him, no matter how much I begged him to stop, and I can fight. Grandad didn’t listen.” I take a deep breath and look at my Uncle. “Grandad came over to me, because we both knew what was going to happen, and he said. ‘Cain no matter what happens, tell my son I love him, and I’m proud of the man he is today. Cain, you are strong, You’ve got to believe in yourself.’ Then I watch Mr. Yang fight my grandad and…” I break eye contact with Uncle David and look at the floor, while I set all my emotion to the side, before looking back up at him. “Mr. Yang laughed while he looked me in the eye and broke my grandad's neck. There was nothing I could do, I swear I fought. If I could go back and change-”

“Cain, stop,” my uncle shouts at me.

“I would never have let him take my place.” I can’t stop, I’ve waited so long to get the words out. They need to hear it. They need to know why I am like I am.

“Cain, you were thirteen years old. Not once have I blamed you for dad’s death, and I’m not going to now.” He stands in front of me and cups my face so I’m looking him dead in the eyes. “I don’t blame you You, my son, are a brave boy, and have become a powerful man.” He wraps his arms around me, pulling me into a tight man hug.

“How did Mr. Yang get out?” Hayden asks.

“When Grandad was taken out, I was alone. I learned a lot with grandad there, but it also meant I was the target for a lot more fights. It’s easy to win with a thirteen-year-old. Until one fight, Mr. Yang offered to take my place, didn’t give me the choice, just walked in before I could. Fuck, I was still recovering from the fight from the night before, so I didn’t stop him, I had nothing in me for another fight.” I put my shirt back on and button up a few of the buttons. “Next thing I know he’s teaching me how to fight, how to read a room, to listen to things, remember things I would never think of remembering. How to read a dark room, everything I do now, it’s because of him. Uncle David, you always joke about how I know it’s you when you walk into the office. It's because you walk with a heavy right foot, and a lighter left foot,” I tell him who looks down at his feet. “These are the things he taught me. Over time, I became an even better fighter, smarter, and I only had one goal. Own The Pit, and kill his son. When I started winning fights, taking more control, Mr. Yang noticed what I was doing. That’s when I took a step back from him. But when I finally took over, I let Mr Yang out. He killed my grandad, but he also saved my life. I told him for helping me, he can walk, but for killing my grandad his son had to stay. He took the deal, but now he wants his son, and I won’t let that happen.”

I stare at all my family. My mom has been silent this whole time, but I see the tears flowing down her cheeks. It was going to upset her, but she needed to hear what her son went through.

“Who is this Mr. Yang?” Uncle David asks.I was waiting for that question, it’s the reason why I’m telling them about The Pit now.

“Mr. Yang is the leader of the New York Chinese mafia.” I hear them all take in deep breaths. If you look into that family, you’ll see the fucked up crap they do. The man never lost a fight in The Pit. He made some people suffer for days before killing them. I don’t know what he has planned, but I need you all to know you could be in danger.” I watch Uncle David look between his family, knowing that I’ve potentially put them all in danger. “Uncle-”

“Cain, we are family. If they come for one of us, they come for all of us. You’re not alone anymore.” Uncle puts his hand on my shoulder and he squeezes it. I give him a nod and look at my cousins.

“If it means I get to beat someone with my baseball bat, I’m in,” Mason tells me, making me shake my head.

“We’re with you,” Miles and Hayden tell me, and I give them all a small smile because they have no idea how crazy it is.

“It’s set up.” I turn to Lincoln and I give him a nod.

“I can’t explain what The Pit is. I can’t explain why I get my headaches. What the nightmare are, but tonight you can all go down except Aunt Jane. You can all wear masks. You’ll say nothing to anyone, you don’t stand by anyone’s cage, you just walk and say fucking nothing.” I turn to Logan, Blake and Travis, because if anyone is going to say something, it’s one of them, because they will see their dads down there. “If you don’t want to go, then speak now.”

I wait for someone to say something, but there’s nothing from anyone, not even my mom, who I thought would hate going there. Maybe she wants to see what I went through because of her. “One word from anyone, Lincoln will take you out. No one talks about The Pit, and you will all be blindfolded until we get there. I trust six of you, but not the others.” I don’t need to tell them who I’m talking about because they all know. “We leave in two hours, so sort out anything if you need to.”

I walk over to Lincoln to get the update from him. “They will all be in the cage, but everything else down there will be the same. I have two others walking around with us in masks too, to throw off anyone watching. You just never know.”

I give him a nod, because there is nothing to say at the moment. I’m about to take my family to hell. They might not live it, but they will get to see what I lived for years.

I glance over at my mom wiping the tears away, then talks to Logan, who gives her a side hug consoling her. I’m never going to have what those two have, but a part of me doesn’t want it. I did what grandad asked of me, to meet my mom once I got out. I did that. He never said I have to forget everything that happened to me. I’ll never forget any of that.

Maybe one day I can forgive and forget, but right now I will continue with the relationship I have with her, or the little relationship I have with her.