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“Don’t,” I said to Cain, hoping he’d get the message, but he ignored me and dropped the gun to the floor.
“Moira, get the gun,” the man said. I watched in disbelief as Cain’s mother hurried to do the man’s bidding. Her eyes met her son’s, but she didn’t speak to him.
As soon as she reached us, the man released me and shoved me forward. Cain put me behind his back and kept his arms out to prevent me from trying to go around him.
“Ain’t that sweet, honey?” the man said as his dark eyes scanned his son. “Our little boy’s gone and got himself a boyfriend. Told you he was a pansy,” he said as he glanced at his wife. He took Cain’s gun and tucked it in his pants at his waist.
“Let’s just go, Jimmy,” Moira said as she settled her hand on her husband’s arm.
I saw a large suitcase sitting on the floor near the door and another smaller bag next to it.
Jimmy was a big guy, but not as heavily built as Cain. His hair was dark, but it looked like a bad dye job. He was wearing dirty jeans and a stained, button-up shirt. A long black trench coat hung off his narrow shoulders. I wondered if he’d worn a similar coat when he’d attacked his son ten years earlier…it would have been easy to hide a knife in the folds of a coat like that.
Jimmy studied his son for a moment and then said, “Nah, Moira.” He shook his head slightly. “Look at him,” he said as he waved the gun in Cain’s direction. “Seen that look in his eyes before,” he murmured. “Boy thinks he can come between us like he did when he was a kid.”
“No, Jimmy,” Moira said quickly as her eyes flicked to Cain. “If we just tie ‘em up like you said-”
“Shut the fuck up, Moira!” he shouted. “You so stupid you can’t see it?” he added. To Cain he said, “That’s right, ain’t it, boy…you’re gonna keep huntin us.”
I wasn’t surprised when Cain didn’t answer.
“See, Moira,” Jimmy said knowingly.
As he raised his arm, Cain’s mother shook her head and then she was stepping in front of the gun. “No, baby, he won’t. He’ll listen to me.”
“Like he listened to you when he was a kid? Always gettin between us!” His eyes jerked back to Cain. “You ain’t gonna stop, are ya?”
“No,” Cain said without hesitation.
“Honey, don’t say that,” Cain’s mother said, her voice high and desperate. She turned to face Cain and I was stunned to see her close the distance between her and her son by more than half. “Tell your father you know he didn’t do those things you accused him of…tell him you were confused.”
“I wasn’t confused about who stuck that butcher knife into my body fifteen fucking times, Mom!” Cain said coldly. “Just like Hailey wasn’t confused about who she was trying to hide from in that bathroom or whose eyes were the last ones Daniel and Justin saw as they begged for their lives or who little Amanda was looking up at just before a fucking knife went clean through her body, the mattress and the bottom of her fucking crib!”
“No,” his mother began to shake her head. I was surprised when Cain ignored his father and stepped forward enough to grab his mother by the arms.
“It was him, Mom!” he whispered, his voice heavy with sorrow. “You know it! I know you do!”
She shook her head violently, but I didn’t miss the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“That’s how he loves you,” Cain ground out. “By killing your kids! That’s what he called them, too, did you know that?” Cain bit out. “Yours, not yours and his! He never wanted us. He told me that the day he buried that knife in my body over and over and over again. He said he gave you kids because you wanted them and he’d do anything for you!” Cain released his mother and pushed her away from him. “If that’s love to you, you’re as sick as he is.”
Moira’s sobs increased as she buried her face in her hands.
“Moira, sweetheart, you know that’s not true. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you. I came back for you, didn’t I?” Jimmy kept his gun on Cain while he moved closer to his wife. “I was a free man, but I risked everything to come back to get you. So we can be together.”
Moira half-heartedly nodded as she wiped at her eyes. But she didn’t move forward towards her husband. “Maybe…maybe we can tell the judge how stressed you were back then…that you didn’t know what you were doing.”
I saw Cain stiffen at his mother’s words and I knew it was the first time she’d admitted the truth out loud.
