Paradise Found: Cain (Paradise Stories Book 2) (23 page)

“What do you have there?” he said, reaching out to roughly loosen my grasp. I let the cross fall to my breast, and Atom didn’t hesitate to pull it forward. His eyes opened wide, as his fist wrapped around the sacred item and he yanked the chain. My neck lurched forward but the force of his pull fulfilled his mission and broke the clasp. One hand held the charm, the other wrapped around my arm. He tugged me forward and I didn’t resist. I only wanted out of the room, away from it all. Images of Cain’s mouth open and warm against that woman’s, wrapped around another snake, made my stomach roil. The bile rose to my throat, and I choked as I sputtered to swallow. I stumbled on my heels as Atom Callahan dragged me out into the arena hall. Forcing my back against the wall, he pinned me.

“How did you get this?” he cursed in my face, as he shook his clamped fist with the cross inside.

“I … it was …”

“Where is she?” he hissed. I blinked uncertain what he was asking or who he referenced.

“I’m going to ask one more time before I split you in half. Where. Did you. Get this?”

“Cain,” I whisper-choked as I spoke his name. The venom of it poisoned my tongue, which grew thick in my mouth and forced the bile taste to return. Tears burst instantly.

“Tears don’t work on me,” Atom Callahan snarled. He studied my face for a moment.

“Who are you? Why do you look familiar?” he demanded.

I could only shake my head. He’d seen me before, but I wasn’t about to explain. It was evident from his behavior that Cain had never informed him, not even a hint of me. The Cobra had never told the snake pit of his father that he had a wife.

My arm was gripped again and I was tugged down the hall. I honestly didn’t care where I was being taken, as long as it was out of this arena, away from Seattle, and away from the Callahans.

“Atom.” The gruff voice of Kursch sounded in my ears. “Sofie, what’s wrong? Atom, what’s going on?”

“She has Eve’s cross,” Atom stated, as we came to an abrupt stop. “And I’m assuming you know something about this. Now get out of my way.”

“Atom, think about this before you do anything rash.”

“Rash,” Atom spit. “Rash is letting a piece of pussy get in your head.”

“Atom,” Kursch warned. In that moment, I realized how weak Kursch was against Atom. He did nothing to protect me and I was beyond saving myself. My body trembled in a combination of fear and anger, while the logical part of me shut down. I couldn’t process that before me stood a bully of a father, and I was doing nothing to protect myself. My thoughts fought so hard against the image of Cain with Malinda wrapped around him, I had no fight in me for Mr. Callahan.

“And a rash needs to be dealt with.” With those words, I met the cold drizzling air of the night sky. I stumbled again as I was tugged forward to a black vehicle. After Atom shoved me inside, I curled into myself on the backseat. He muttered something about an airport when he climbed in next to me. I didn’t care. My heart was so broken; the pieces swam in my stomach until they came loose on the black carpet.

I was wound tight. The adrenaline of the fight. The anger at seeing Sofie’s hand on Abel. The pressure of my father. The potential for him to discover who Sofie was to me. I panicked. Then there was the look in her eyes as she watched me with Malinda. I was unnerved, and I was stupid. That kiss was more than I intended. The expression on Sofie’s face afterward broke me. I was a snake at her foot, and she’d crushed me with her pain. I couldn’t move at first. Shards of ice filled those normally baptismal blue eyes, and then she was gone. Lost in the crowd, while I was extricating myself from Malinda, who had coiled her way around me. Her hand sliding down my abs to a treasure that was no longer for her. I’d stopped her just in time, but I’d lost Sofie. I’d gone too far.

Abel suddenly appeared before me.

“Father took her.”

That’s all I needed to hear before I was pushing through the crowd, a bull on a mission through the streets of Spain. Elbows out, I plowed people out of my way. In the hall, I had a choice – left or right. I broke into a sprint to the left and found I’d chosen poorly. Circling back, I found Kursch dumbfounded by an exit door.

“How could you let him take her?” I accused, assuming without knowing that Kursch had let them pass. He was a loyal bodyguard, but he was more faithful to my father.

“How did she have Eve’s cross?”

“I gave it to her,” I sputtered, wondering how Sofie’s possession of my mother’s jewelry had any bearing on her sudden disappearance.

“You hadn’t told him?” Kursch questioned.

“Told him what?” I spit.

“You love her,” he said straightforward.

“I haven’t even told her. Why would I tell him?” I couldn’t let Sofie go, and he understood why, long before I did. I stopped my pacing.

“Cain, you have no idea what you’ve done by not preparing him for her.”

“Preparing who? My father? For my wife?”

“He doesn’t comprehend love. It’s beyond him. You of all people know this. He had it once and lost it. He doesn’t wish for others to find it, for fear that it would crush them, too. It seems perverse, but if he could prevent you and Abel from loving, he could prevent you from hurting.”

“Hurting? He hurt us more than anything else.”

“I know,” Kursch said guiltily. “I know.”

We were silent for a moment and time ticked slowly, letting Sofie get farther and farther away from me.

“I couldn’t stop him.”

“You were his friend. He would have listened to you.”

“He didn’t. He didn’t listen to anyone, not even her.” Kursch referenced my mother with sadness. My father was ignorant toward her. I’d heard their fight that final night. He didn’t want to hear her side, or his part in it. He cast her out, wiped his hands, and steeled his heart to move forward.

“Mother gave me the cross. On the night she left, she came to me, and begged me to protect Abel and Evie. I failed Evie. He threw her out like he did Mother, but I wouldn’t let him have Abel. He knew I had the medallion, though. He caught me with it once. It shouldn’t have been a surprise.”

“The surprise was that if he knew you had it, he also knew you were the one to give it to Sofie. And if Sofie had it, it only meant one thing. She was special to you.”

He paused for this information to sink in.

“When he knows someone is special, Cain, precious even, what does he do?”

“He destroys it,” I stated slowly and then I crumbled to the ground. My fists hammered the floor at my feet. Knuckles cracked as they broke. Blood spurted from open sores. My father would stop at nothing until I was as hard as him.

The hours slowly passed as we traveled overnight to Vegas. My father had taken Sofie to the family home. While I didn’t want Sofie anywhere near that hell, I was grateful that my father was predictable enough that this would be his safe haven. He was lord of his manor.

Entering the house to silence, I knew the devil lived in his office alone. Busting open the door, I didn’t find Sofie.

“Where is she?” I growled, approaching his desk and slamming already sore hands on it. He glared at me over that imposing furniture.

“She’s been resting since we got here. She’s had a rough night,” he snickered bitterly.

“If you fucking touched her …” I started, but his hand rose to pause my threat.

“I would never covet another man’s wife,” he stated, steepling his fingers and tilting his head downward as he looked up at me. His stare was unashamed. I didn’t believe that he hadn’t hurt her.

“I thought that marriage business wasn’t real.” He paused. “So this is the distraction,” he said, releasing his hands, and shuffling something on his desk that didn’t need attention.

“She’s not a distraction.”

“Oh, she’s deliciously distracting, actually.” He looked up at me again with that devilish look, and I lunged over the desk to grip his shirt.

“Easy,” Atom warned. “Don’t you want to know where she is?”

I did, actually. As if on cue, Sofie was shuffled into the room. She fumbled as one of my father’s minions handled her roughly. I reached out for her, but she recoiled in disgust.

“Sofie?” I questioned. Her face was devoid of all emotion. Her hair a mess of strays and loose strands around her face. Her clothes were wrinkled and her feet were bare. No, this couldn’t happen.

“What did you do?” I turned to my father, ready to pounce again.

“We’ve had a nice chat, as I’ve gotten to know my new daughter-in-law,” Atom said, sounding bored. “That was quite a rock on her finger.” He nodded toward Sofie’s fingers and I noticed her nails were jagged and broken as if she struggled against someone. Her engagement ring was missing.

“Where’s the ring?” I hissed at her, but my question was directed at my father.

“Oh, I’m holding onto it for safe keeping. It seems Sofie here has had a change of heart.”

“What?” I glared at my father then turned to Sofie. I stepped toward her, but she stepped back and hit her legs on the arm of a chair. I reached out to grip her arms to steady her. She tightened under my touch.

“No, Sofie, no,” I said, gently jostling her in hopes to wake her from the dead stare on her face. She hadn’t looked up at me, and her head turned as if I’d slapped her.

“I’ve done a little investigating on your Sofie Vincentia,” my father began. “It seems I’m familiar with her in more than one way.”

I was still holding onto Sofie, begging her with my eyes to look up at me, but my father’s words gave me pause, and he drew my attention. Vomit curled through my stomach that he knew her at all.

“Your name sounded so familiar,” Atom continued. “Gustavo Vincentia sound familiar to you?”

The surprise on Sofie’s face was an admission.

“Answer me,” he demanded, and Sofie flinched in my arms.

“He’s my father. Was my father,” she whispered.

“Who were your parents, exactly?” His question seemed to prove his inquisition hadn’t taken him in the correct direction, but then the smirk on his face was evidence he was playing a game. I couldn’t figure his angle.

“Gustavo and Catrina Vincentia,” she whispered, looking down at her bare toes.

“Catrina,” Atom mumbled. “Catrina?” He glanced up suddenly and stared at Sofie. He approached her slowly. Reaching out for her face, she flinched and I blocked him, but he forced his hand to push back some chestnut locks.

“Catrina,” he muttered one more time.

Sofie and I both stared as my father’s face fell, for only a second. I’d never seen an expression of pain cross his face, but his brow wrinkled and his nose pinched.

“She was so brave,” he said softly, staring eerily at Sofie.

She continued to gawk back at him, her eyes opening wide in some kind of recognition. I was holding onto her, but it was as if she didn’t even feel my hands.

“She wouldn’t let me take him,” Atom stated, assessing Sofie’s horror stricken face. Her head began to slowly shake.

“He owed me. He bet against the fight and he owed me. I’d only come to collect, but Catrina, beautiful Catrina got in the way.” He pushed back her hair again and Sofie remained blind to his touch.

“Why do the strong marry the weak?” he sighed.

I didn’t know whom he implied was weak or strong in my marriage, but Sofie was barely holding it together. Her body trembled. Frantically, I was trying to put the pieces together, but it was apparent Sofie was ready to fall apart. Catrina and Gustavo were clearly her parents, and their death … was related to my father.

Sofie’s head continued to shake in disbelief.

“Sofie?” I questioned. Her skin was frigid, shock taking her over.

“Sofie, look at me,” I demanded, but she refused.

“Sofie, this isn’t me,” I reasoned, panic rising. My hands slipped down to hers, which had turned ice cold, and I forced them up around my neck, holding them in place. She wasn’t looking at me, and I released one hand to raise a finger to her chin. Letting go of her hand made it fall free of my neck. I repeated the motion, holding them in place with one of mine covering both of hers. My other hand struggled to grip her chin and force her eyes to mine.

“This isn’t me,” I reinforced, leaning forward to kiss her.