Cain (8 page)

“
Do you know this young
woman, Dr. Waite? She claims she was just passing by and sat down
to enjoy the view. I think she might be hurt too,” the officer
said, humor evident in his voice.

“
Yes. She belongs to this
bedlam. This man—” Cain pointed to his father. “He does
not.”

Cain picked up a protesting Julie and
sat her down on the couch in the living room. Every time she
started to rise, he pushed her back down again. Finally, he leaned
down to her and whispered in her ear.

“
Get up again and I will
pull you across my knees and beat your ass. I’m not in the best of
humor right now.”

“
Well neither am I. And
you just try it, buster, and I’ll tell your wife what we did where
she is currently standing.”

Cain was too furious with her to
explain. His sisters had been hurt, as well as Julie, by his
father. It was all he could do not to pound the man into the floor.
The only thing going through his head was the amount of witnesses
there were in the room.

“
Miss Waite, I have a
report that says this man here isn’t supposed to be within a
hundred yards of you. That true?” Officer Tanner, Jake, he’d said,
asked Jazzie.

“
Yes. One hundred yards or
he goes to jail. If this young lady hadn’t punched him in his
balls, he might have really hurt us all. It happened so
fast.”

Cain looked at Julie who was trying to
pull a pillow over her belly. Dropping to his knees in front of
her, Cain fought her, trying to get the pillow from her.

“
Do you have to make
everything we do a fight? Damn it, Julie, let me see.” Cain glared
right back at her when he noticed she was glaring.

She hit him with it. “You know, I think
I might have mentioned this before about your bedside manner. You
might think about taking an anger management course or something.”
He pinched her thigh to shut her up. “Ouch! You ass, that
hurt.”

Cain could hear his sisters laughing at
him. The sound was so unexpected and long-forgotten that he ignored
that they were having fun at his expense. “Jake, would you mind
handing me my medical bag from the front closet? Julie has pulled
some stitches and I want to make sure they don’t need to be put
back in.”

“
I’m not hurt, I was
covering myself up, you idiot. Will you please go play in the
street and leave me alone?” She pulled the pillow back onto her
lap.

As soon as the officer left the room,
Cain cupped both hands on Julie’s face and kissed her. It was quick
and hard, but it left them both slightly breathless. “Julie, this
is Quinn and the other one in the chair behind me is Jasmine or
Jazzie. They’re my sisters. Well, two of them anyway. The man the
police are taking away, that’s our father.”

Cain didn’t look up when he heard her
draw a sharp breath, but continued to examine her wound. He hated
his father more in that moment than he had all his life. When Julie
lifted his chin with her finger, she was smiling.

“
I thought they were,
well, that one, Jazzie, I thought she was your wife,” Julie
whispered to him. It was low, but Jazzie could hear.

“
Ewww, gross! Seeing him
buck naked today was bad enough to scar me for years. Even the
thought of...just too gross to think about again.”

“
You saw him naked? Cool!
I saw Gracie naked once. But she was a teenager and a girl.
Probably not the same, I think. But Cain? Yeah, ewww written all
over that,” Quinn said.

Cain turned to glare at his sisters.
“She’s my twin.” He inclined his head toward Quinn. “But I’m older
and she should have more respect.”

Julie snorted. “Respect is something
you earn. You”—she smacked Cain’s shoulder—“are a royal pain in the
ass. I can see the resemblance now. But I’m assuming she got all
the niceness and you got...well, all the sarcasm. And then
some.”

Both his sisters burst out laughing.
“Oh, I like her. Can we keep her?” Jazzie asked.

“
No. I have a life of my
own. Thanks. And as soon as I can convince this—”

“
Your bag, doc. Mr. Waite
is on his way downtown. But if he can post bail, he’ll be out again
in a few hours. You might want to have those gates out front locked
up from now on,” Jake said.

“
Thanks, Jake. It was on
my list of things to do today,” Cain said, feeling guilty he’d not
done it quicker.

“
I just need to get
everyone’s name for the report to file.”

Jake looked at Julie first. Cain did as
well. She was pale and Cain was sure she was panic-stricken. He had
hoped to get her real name and this seemed to be the perfect
opportunity. But her face, her expression, said she wasn’t giving
it up. When she looked at him, Cain knew for a certainty that she
was hiding from someone.

“
Quinn, take Jake in the
kitchen for me, please? I need to have a word with Julie.” Cain
never took his eyes from hers. “Use this address as your home base
and tell Jazzie too.”

“
Okay. Jake? It’s
doubtful, but let’s see if there’s some coffee on. Can you believe
it? Cain doesn’t drink it. Then there’s...” The door closing to the
kitchen cut her off.

“
Tell me who you are,
Julie.”

~CHAPTER NINE~

Julie looked at him. She thought she
could trust him, but wasn’t one hundred percent sure yet. So many
people were greedy and she could make someone a very rich person
fast if her family found her. She leaned back on the couch and
looked around the room.

The room was a beautiful mixture of
antiques and modern stuff. The blends of bright colors and dark
woods gave the room a very homey, cheerful feel that Julie was
certain could be changed easily to formal if need be. She was just
thinking about the fireplace when Cain spoke again.

“
Julie?”

“
I’m not...I won’t tell
you. Him either. I’ve worked too hard at becoming who I am. If I
have to run again to avoid this, I will.”

Cain stood up and walked to the
fireplace she had just been admiring. With a flick of a switch,
there was a roaring fire warming the chilled room. She could feel
the heat and was afraid that it all wasn’t coming from the
fireplace.

“
You don’t trust me.” It
wasn’t a question, but she answered anyway.

“
I trusted only one person
in my life and he’s dead. People who I should have been able to
trust betrayed me more than I thought would have been possible.
You’ve known me for a very short time and I’ve no reason to not
trust you. Nor do I have any reason to trust you.”

Cain didn’t say anything for a long
while. He just stared into the flames. “Is your real name Julie? Or
any of the other four or five names I’ve heard you called when I
was looking for you?” he asked without raising his head.

“
No. Julie was a name one
of the older ladies called me because she thought I was her
daughter.”

“
Sally,” he
guessed.

It took her a second or two to remember
that he’d seem them together. “Yes. Sally. Miss Rocky is because
Moon, the man I gave the fruit to, calls me that because of Rodney.
Moon thought Rodney’s name was Rocky. I don’t believe Moon is right
in the head most days. He sometimes has nightmares about his time
in the war and I don’t think he knows the difference when that
happens to him. I got the name Shade because someone thought I was
a ‘shade short on sense’ to be living out there.” Julie looked at
Cain. “I suppose he was right.”

Cain continued to stare at the flames.
Then seemingly coming to some decision, he turned and looked at
her. Julie waited for his anger.

“
We had unprotected sex.
There could be a child because of it. Are you...do you...how much
sex have you had with strangers? Am I safe?”

Cain wanted to know if she hooked. And
for as much as she was hurt by his question, she couldn’t really
blame him. She could understand his concern even, but it hurt
nonetheless. She stood up. “I don’t do drugs, not even to smoke
pot. I had sex three times if you count us fucking on the floor
like the animal you accused me of being. The other two times was
when I was sixteen, both with the same boy and both times with a
condom.” She straightened his shirt over her body. “I’d like my
clothes, please. I want to leave here. Now.”

Cain looked ready to say something, but
he door flew open and there stood an older woman with Jazzie right
behind her. Jazzie was crying and the older woman looked furiously
at her. Julie went to Jazzie. Cain stopped her.

“
We aren’t finished
here.”

Julie turned to look at him. “There was
never a ‘we,’ Doctor Waite. Excuse me,” she said as she brushed
past the older woman and out the door. She heard Cain ask what the
other woman, his mother, wanted before Julie shut the door behind
her.

Julie led Jazzie to the kitchen with
her arm around her shoulders. She just let the girl cry. Julie
needed to get out of here. When they entered the kitchen, Quinn was
seated at the table reading a paper. She looked up when she heard
them.

“
I told you to let me take
her in. She’ll probably ask Cain for the money for the prick’s bail
too.” Quinn smirked. “Knowing Cain, he won’t give it to her
either.”

Julie filled the pot on the stove with
water and turned the burner on. She hadn’t had a cup of tea in ages
and had no idea why she wanted one now. While the water boiled, she
took down three mugs and put them near the stove. Finding some Earl
Grey, she put a bag into each cup and set the sugar on the counter.
When she finished, she turned, and both women were staring at
her.

“
What?” she asked
embarrassed.

“
You’re living with Cain?
That’s so...well, you’re so...so, you and Cain, huh?” Quinn asked
with a smile.

Julie didn’t like the smile, nor did
she care for the way they were looking at her. Like they’d just won
the lottery and she was the grand prize or something. “No, we had
sex. Once. And for some reason, he believes I need for him to boss
me around.” Julie opened the doors under the sink and looked in the
trash.

“
Yeah, that’s Cain. He’s
very protective. I guess because he’s the oldest. And the only boy.
He protected us girls as much as he could while we were growing
up.” Quinn got up and poured the hot water into the cups when Julie
walked away.

Julie opened the cabinets, vaguely
noting they were well stocked. “Well, I don’t want or need his
protection. I do just fine on my own, thanks.” She closed the last
one as she finished speaking.

“
He doesn’t listen. He
thinks...what the hell are you looking for?”

Julie looked at Quinn when she asked.
“In case it has escaped your notice, I’m slightly under dressed
here. I know he hid my clothes somewhere just to make sure I
wouldn’t escape. But if I don’t find them soon, I don’t give two
shits what I don’t have on. I’m outta here.”

“
You want to...okay. I
have some clothes you can wear. They aren’t much, just some jeans
and t-shirts.” Quinn picked up her suitcase and began pulling out
clothes.

Julie watched her, amazed someone could
get that many clothes in one small case. She had more clothes in
her case than Julie had owned over the past five years. Her
thoughts made her angry. She loved her life now. Then she thought
of something.

“
What happened to the cop?
He seemed hell bent for...you didn’t kill him, did you?” Julie was
kidding and they all three laughed.

“
No. Tempting, but no, I
didn’t. He asked me out if you can believe it. Here, these should
work for you.” Quinn handed her an arm load of clothing, most of it
in very bright colors. “I told him you were hiding from an
ex-husband who had hurt you and he had access to certain files such
as police information. I saw them do that on one of those crime
shows on television the other night. Wouldn’t you know it, it
worked!”

Julie took the clothes to the small
bathroom just off the kitchen. She held up the shirts one at a time
trying to find the one that had the least amount of color in it.
Each shirt had so many bright colors and designs that Julie was
sure come cockatoo had been the inspiration for them. Pulling one
over her head, she immediately tugged it from her body. She wasn’t
used to things actually fitting her. After pulling on the jeans,
also too tight, she continued to tug at the shirt as she returned
to the kitchen. Cain and his mother were standing there as well. It
wasn’t until she heard Jazzie telling how Julie had hit Mr. Waite
that she entered the room.

“
You hit my husband? Who
the hell do you think you are going around beating on poor,
helpless men? He’s paid his debt to—”

“
Mother, shut up.
Jul...she’s a guest in this house and you’ll be nice. This is my
mother, Guinevere Waite. This is...this is a friend of mine, ours.
She was living on the streets when I found her.”

Julie felt the tears begin to burn. She
looked at Mrs. Waite and nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak.
Instead, she went to the drawer she’d found earlier filled with
empty grocery bags. She pulled one out and began to gently put her
other things into it—her toothbrush and other
toiletries.