The bench creaks beside me. I don’t need to look to know who it is.
Cain.
“What are you doing here?” I ask without turning my head, keeping my eyes on my target.
“Thought I’d check how it’s going,” he replies, his voice steady, easy. I have to chuckle to myself, now I know Cain is a perfectionist and needs to make sure everything is done so we never get caught, but even I know the man trusts me more than any of my brothers. So, I know one of the twins has called him.
“Which one called you?”
“Mason.” He leans back like this is a park stroll. “You don’t have to talk to me. But I’m here.” Then he hands me a cup, and I smile because my coffee has gone cold, so this one is very much what I need right now.
My target laughs, and I shake my head as it’s so fake, but then again that’s what these bastards do. Nothing is real to them.
“Mason said you’re fighting tonight,” Cain says after a beat. “I think I’ll come watch, not seen you in action for a while.”
I finally turn to him, raising my brow. “So, you can see if I still know how to fight?”
“No,” he says with a chuckle. “To make sure you get the anger out before it eats you alive. Because if you don’t, you’ll be fighting me next and you know how that ends.”
I snort, half-smiling. “With me on my back, ribs cracked, your punches feel like getting hit with a brick.” I know Cain never wants to hurt us, but I understand what he's doing, he'll fight me for hours until I finally do get all my anger out, maybe that’s what I need. A fight with the ghost himself.
Cain grins. “Exactly.”
I stare back at the man inside; another woman joins him. Younger, too much makeup, nervous laugh. You can always tell the fake ones. His hand rests on her knee under the table, and her body tenses a little.
“I still love her,” I mutter, because maybe I do need to talk about it. Cain doesn’t say anything. “I fucking hate her, and shenever told me why she did it.” My grip on the coffee tightens. “I asked her today, and all she said was, she can’t.”
“You want me to find out?” This man can find out anything if you ask him, he doesn’t care how long it takes him. For the family he'd do anything and doesn’t care what law he'd have to break either.
I shake my head slowly. “You already offered. I said no.”
“But now?”
I pause. “I don’t know.”
“I’ll look into it anyway. When you want the truth, it’ll be there.”
“If it’s bad, really bad, you won’t tell me unless I ask.” I need to know no matter what he finds out he won’t tell me until I’m ready.
“You know me so well.”
“Cain,” I say, my voice is low, “how can I love her and hate her at the same time?”
“She was your best friend, before anything else. I wasn’t there when it all started, but everyone's told me how you were with her. You loved her long before you ever said it. I’m not the guy for emotional shit, Hayden, but you got to decide, can you forgive her?”
I’m not saying anything, because I don’t know if I can, because I have scars on my body because of what she did. Even if I do forgive her, the reminder will always be there for me.
We both stand up as my target leaves the restaurant, Cain and I follow slowly, keeping our distance.
“What’s the plan?” Cain asks.
“I’ll come back tonight, his notes say he has a woman, I’ll follow him to see where he meets her, then I’ll watch for a few days. I want to see if the timing’s consistent.”
Cain’s grin is slow and proud. “Now that sounds like the old Hayden. The Hayden I’ve taught so well.”
I don’t say anything, and for a moment, we both walk around for a bit, until he goes back to his office, and I think about two things. My fight tonight, and the woman I can’t stop thinking about.
Like most nights the fight club is full, but Blake has a pretty tight contract before you can step foot down here. What happens down here, stays down here.
