Darkness

32. Autumn-Rose

Thirty-Two

Autumn-Rose

I walk with Lincoln to the elevator, and we both stand there as we turn to see Cain grabbing a bottle, and sitting on the couch looking out at the night sky.

“Am I going to lose him?” I’m not asking Lincoln as much as I’m asking myself.

“No.” I turn to Lincoln. “He just needs to work on a plan, he won’t go without a fight, that I can promise. I’ve seen him fight, he’s a stubborn asshole who refuses to lose.” Lincoln leans in and kisses my cheek. “He’s just scared of losing you.”

The elevator doors open, and Lincoln tells me to call if I need him. Giving him a nod, I walk over to Cain, and sit on his lap, and lean in to give him a gentle kiss. Placing my hands in his hair, which always makes him close his eyes, I softly move them through his hair a few times. Every time I do this, his body always seems to relax a little, not one hundred percent, but enough for me to know he likes it when I do it.

“I used to sit here and watch you in your apartment. So carefree, you danced to whatever music you were listening to, and drank more tea than anyone should.” His words make me smile, there is nothing like too much tea. “I knew I shouldn’t have brought my darkness into your sunshine.” His eyes finally open and lock with mine. “You like flowers and puppies and-”

“And nothing. You told me about the family, told me about you. I’m still here. Because I love you, and you didn’t give me any darkness, you gave me my Prince Charming, he’s just in disguise.” I lean in closer and kiss his lips quickly a few times. “I have no idea what you have going on in your head about Yang and the fight, no matter what you do I will stand next to you.” He needs to know no matter what happens I will always have faith in what he does.

“I can’t take you to The Pit.” The words escape his beautiful mouth in a whisper, as if the room would burn in flames if he said it louder.

“And you think looking over our shoulder for the rest of our lives will be better. Yes, you beat Yang, and there might be another family, and when that happens, we will fight again. But right now, the fight is with Yang and Rowan. So you take me to The Pit, I will be with Lincoln and Hayden-”

“Autumn-”

“Cain, I’m going to The Pit, and you’re going to end this. You’re going to do whatever you have to finish this.” Cain shakes his head slightly, his eyes not leaving mine. I wish I could read his mind right now, but I can’t and Cain closes his eyes again, as he brings his whiskey glass to his lips and drinks.

“You need to call your parents again, reassure them everything is okay, plus I want to know what this letter was.” Cain opens his eyes, and I roll mine as he changes the subject from The PIt.

I wish he would talk about what's going on in his head, but I know Cain, he’s thinking about what to do. What’s the best way to win, without hurting me?

“I’ll get the laptop, how long do I have?” I ask, and Cain laughs.

“He knows you’re here, it doesn’t matter.” Cain fills his glass up, and a part of me wants to be happy. I can talk to my parents whenever I want, but the other part is scared of what can happen if Rowan comes for me.

Placing the laptop on the glass coffee table, just a little to the side so Cain isn’t in view. He doesn’t usually talk to my parents, and I’m not going to make him because I know he doesn’t talk to his own family, never mind mine. Calling my mom, I wait for her to answer.

“Autumn, is everything okay?” my mom asks in a panic, and my dad sits in the seat next to her.

“Mom, everything is fine-”

“No, it’s not. Rowan is there, are you safe?” my dad questions, and there is nothing but worry in his tone, but I can see it on his face too.

“I’m safe. I’m with Cain, he won’t let anything happen to me. I trust him, please have trust in him, too.” I almost beg them, if only they knew what lengths Cain would go to protect me from Rowan, but I can’t tell them. “He is looking into it.”

“If you trust him, and everything he has done for you, then we trust him more than anything. We just got scared when we got the letter.” My mom holds up the letter. “Mr. and Mrs. White, we need you to come to America, your daughter was in an accident. From what we know she was walking to work and got hit by a car. We aren’t sure if she will make it and thought you would want to come see her. Doctor Yang.”

Cain turns the laptop to face him. “Mrs. White, what was the doctor's name?” I know he heard it, because I heard it. Yang is playing mind games.

“Doctor Yang-”

“Is there a return address?” Cain asks quickly.

My dad looks around for the envelope, and looks for something. “The Pit road-” Before dad can finish Cain walks away, and I turn the computer back to me, and I smile at my parents. I’m not sure how the fuck I’m going to fix this. “Sweetpea?”

“Since Rowan has come, Cain is working out what his move is, and how to fight this. But all I can say is he’s working on it. I will keep you updated. Cain said we can talk all the time now as Rowan has found me, so I will send you my cell number.”

“Be safe Sweetpea, promise.”

“I promise dad. As soon as Cain has a plan, I’ll let you know. I will message you every day.” I blow them both a kiss, and end the call. Staring at the blank screen for a moment, listening to Cain on the cell, I quickly send my mom a message so she has my cell number, and asked her to give it to my sister, too. I can’t wait to talk to her, and listen, all about her boyfriend.

I turn to Cain when he walks back over and picks his glass up and drinks the rest of the whiskey.

“He’s playing mind games, nothing to worry about, but right now, I don’t know about you but I could do with some sleep.” He puts his hand out for me, and I take it, because all I want is to lie in bed and have Cain’s arms around me. It’s been a long three days and I’ve missed him holding me at night.

“So, your brother seems like the freaky playboy, they say twins are similar, what are you?” Katy asks Mason, and I laugh. The only thing similar about Mason and Miles is their looks, because personality wise, they couldn’t be more different.

Miles is a playboy, but I have a feeling Katy is right, he is freaky when it comes to relationships, while Mason he is more of a closed book. He’s fine with his brothers, but when they aren’t around Mason keeps himself to himself.

“So what did you think about him kissing you? Did it make you weak in the knees?” Mason asks, not looking up from his cell, he’s spent most of his time on the cell. Probably messaging his brothers.

“How do you know about that?”

I have to laugh to myself. “Katy, do you really think these four boys don't tell each other everything they do, plus, him and Miles probably have a twin vibe thing going on.” I always wanted to know if the twin vibe was a real thing or was it something TV shows made up.

“We do have a twin vibe,” Mason answers.

“What type of vibe though, one where you can feel each other’s pain, or-”

“We know what each other is thinking, and anything else I’ll let your mind wander.” He jokes, looking at me through his lashes, but I see his lips curl up into a smile.

“So did it make you weak at the knees?” Mason asks again.

“Shut up,” Katy snaps and walks back over to the workstation, while I finish getting the sale receipts out for the day.

“So, what is it, Mason, do you just not like talking in front of people? Do you like the whole mysterious vibe?” I ask him, out of the four of them he and Declan talk the least, Miles, well he has the confidence of a Lion, go for the bit and see what happens. Hayden stays quiet, and talks when he needs to, and Mason, well he’s a closed book.

“If I have nothing to say, I don't talk.” He shrugs this answer to me, as if I’m boring him.

“Well, your brother is definitely not the same as you.”

“No, he's not. Oh Autumn, I'm special, and he's not.” Mason tells me, and Katy walks back over to us.

“Oh, Katy. Katy. Katy, if all us Crawford brothers really put in the effort. I'm sure we can get you with all four of us.”

“Oh god,” I whisper as I walk away from this conversation, because I have a feeling Katy wouldn't even say no. She liked fifty shades of gray, she might be up for more than one guy at a time. “I'm sure the four of us could make you scream and not walk for weeks.” Now she not only has Miles, and Declan making her feel amazing, she now has Mason too. These boys are crazy.

“You four are very confident with yourselves, aren't you?” I hear Katy.

“We're confident because it's true, we would make you scream.”

“And yet not one of you has a girlfriend.”

“Why would we want to have a girlfriend when we have women opening their legs for us?” Mason’s tone is one I would happily slap out of him, arrogant. That’s the best word.

“You slept with your school teacher too, didn't you?”

“And my college one.” Mason adds with pride.

“So you four, are never getting into a relationship?” Katy asks him.

“Never say never, look at Cain. Never thought he was going to find someone. So who knows?” Now I look over at Mason, he honestly sounds shocked Cain has found someone.

Mason puts his cell away and walks around the back to me, he hasn't really left my side. I wanted to get coffee, and he said, Katy can go get it, or he comes with me, so he came with me, and I regretted it the moment we walked through the door. All eyes were on him, every single woman in the coffee shop stared at him, and you could see them undressing him in their heads. Cain's gorgeous, tall, and absolutely model worthy, and the four of them are all the same.

“Are you ready to close up?” he asks.

“Yep, just got to get these all in the file, and we're ready to go.” I smile at him, and he takes them from me and starts putting them away.

“Autumn!” Katy shouts.

“Yeah?”

“You… someone…. you might want to come out here.” My head snaps to Mason, hearing Katy’s tone. I already know who it is.

Straight away, and without moving, we have a conversation, and Mason is on the cell to Cain. I can hear the ringing tone, and Mason leans in closer to me.

“Do not say anything about Cain,” he demands, and I nod my head. “Check your camera’s, he’s here. What do you want me to do? I could kill him, I mean, that would be more fun.” I can't hear what Cain’s telling him, but Mason's shaking his head, so I'm assuming he can't kill him.

Mason hands me the cell, and with shaking hands I take it from him. “Go talk to him. Act normal, Mason's right there with you. He might slip up and say something stupid. I'll be on the cell the whole time. He doesn't know I'm on the cell-”

“But, but.”

“Hey, hey, Autumn-Rose, my girl's a fighter, and you've got the crazy brother with you.” Cain comforts me trying to calm down, and it’s crazy but it’s worked.

“Okay,” I whisper, handing the cell back to Mason.

“Okay, I'm going out with her.”

Walking out to the front of the shop, I glance over at Katy as Rowan shuts the shop door, and turns the sign around to say closed.

“You shouldn't be here.” I find the courage to talk to him.

He turns around and just stares at me, tilting his head. “You still look so beautiful. The first day I saw you, I knew you were the one. You look exactly the same-”

“What do you want, Rowan?”

“To take you home, to show you what I've built for us-”

“Built for us. There was never an us.” I try to tell him, but I take a step back when I see his body tense up, I’ve seen that look in his eyes before.

“There's always an us, Autumn, always. So, I think we've played this game long enough. I've let you have your space because you ran away.” I have to laugh at how crazy he is.

“I ran away because you became obsessed-”

“No!” Rowan shouts, and I see Mason move in the corner of my eye. “Let's put the past behind us.” He takes a step closer to me and I take one back, Mason takes one closer to me. “Oh, look at that, your bodyguard. Could your boyfriend not come to protect you?” I hear a little chuckle come from Mason.

“Unlike you, he has a business, and he needs to work.” Mason answers.

“So he's not scared that I'll just take Autumn?”

“You have to get through me to touch her,” Mason snaps.

“Oh, pretty boy, I think I could break you.” Now Mason does laugh.

“Come on then.” Rowan laughs at Mason’s reply.

“I promised Mr. Yang I wouldn’t touch her, I just wanted to see her.” He takes one step closer, and I move to the side, a little closer to Mason. I'm half behind his body and half so I can see. “All I wanted to do was give you this.” He hands me a box, but I don't take it, Mason does. “I'll see you in about two weeks and tell Mr. Cain, Yang's been teaching me how to fight.” With that, he leaves the shop.

“Mind games, Cain says it's mind games. And he's also told me to tell you to shut the shop and get to my house.” Mason walks around the back of the counter, and starts turning things off, while on the cell to Cain.

“Your house?” I question, shouldn’t I be going to the apartment?

“Yeah. Cain and Lincoln have been talking, and I think he’s come up with a decision on what he's doing.” Mason won’t even look at me while he’s talking, so it doesn't help me feel any calmer.

“Why do you not sound very confident with that?” I ask him.

“When it comes to Cain and The Pit, no one's ever confident on what's going to happen and the way he's talking about Yang, fuck knows what's going to happen Autumn, only Cain knows what he's decided to do.” Mason looks at Katy staring at us, she doesn’t know about The Pit, but knows a family is after him and she knows about Rowan. I don’t think she needs to know any more than that.

Why does that not give me any peace? Why has that just made me shake in fear that something bad is going to happen, because no one is confident. Cain himself isn’t confident because he knows what Yang can do.

All I want is someone to just give me that reassurance that all this is going to end, but not one person is saying it.