Killing Game Read online

  Cain looked back at the gun and the edge of the roof before following her. He had to practically sprint down the stairs to catch up with her but he managed to grab hold of her arm as she walked through the club toward the main doors.

  “I’ll tell you.” He panted as she turned to look at his hand where it was tightly holding her upper arm.

  Lily swallowed hard, no longer sure whether she really wanted to know or whether she could take much more of what was happening tonight.

  “Promise me you won’t hate me more than you already do.” His grip on her arm tightened, showing her that he wasn’t going to let her leave without answering him.

  “Why should I?” Lily said the words with venom and instantly regretted it when she saw the hurt in his eyes. He looked as though she was tearing him apart inside.

  “Because you’re breaking my heart,” he whispered, a crooked smile slightly teasing his lips. For the first time, she saw just how weak he was behind his strong exterior.

  “You broke your own heart, Cain, and mine along with it. I can’t promise you that.” Lily furrowed her brows as her anger subsided and she felt broken inside as she turned away from him, wanting nothing more than to be with him even though she knew that she shouldn’t.

  “It was...” Cain trailed off.

  Lily turned to look at him just as the club doors swung up, and the world went into slow motion. Her heart beat painfully against her chest as she saw Andrew standing in the doorway with a gun in his hand. Her eyes flew wide as Cain moved, one hand diving into his jacket and pulling out a gun as the other one pushed her to one side, away from him, away from danger.

  As Cain pulled out his gun, pain exploded in his right shoulder and it jerked backwards. His knees gave way as it blinded him.

  “Andrew,” he breathed as he fell to the floor and felt as though his whole body was on fire. It was burning with so much pain. Too much pain.

  “Cain!” Lily screamed and immediately knelt beside him. She gave panicked looks to the two bartenders and then furrowed her brows as they just backed away from the scene, neither of them willing to help her.

  Cain moaned quietly and fluttered his eyes open. Hot tears cascaded down her cheeks.

  Everything suddenly seemed so simple.

  She needed him.

  He couldn’t die.

  She gasped as she pressed her fingers lightly against his shoulder and then brought them up for inspection. They were soaked and sticky with blood. Instinctively, she pulled off her jacket and took her shirt off, leaving her in only her little spaghetti strap black top as she pressed her shirt against the wound on Cain’s shoulder.

  He winced and looked ready to pass out. She was losing him.

  Lily scowled at the gun that had fallen from Cain’s hand and then raised her eyes in time to see Andrew walking toward them.

  “Please... no,” she begged him as he gave her a look of disgust and then aimed at Cain.

  Cain swallowed hard as he managed to get his eyes to open again, desperately trying not to go to sleep like he so badly wanted to, knowing that if he did that he would never wake up. Losing the fight against the overwhelming tiredness, he took one last look at his surroundings and then gradually let his eyes slip shut as an eerie calmness filled him.

  The last things Cain saw before the world faded into darkness was Russ coming in through the doors behind Andrew with his gun out, and Andrew with a gun pointing down at him with his finger about to pull the trigger.

  The last things Cain heard were Lily screaming ‘no’ and the sound of a shot being fired.

  Bang.

  * * *

  Chapter 18

  Cain could hear noises all around him and none of them were familiar. Amidst the steady beeps and a quiet whooshing noise, he could make out two distinct voices.

  “He’s been stable for a while now, last night his vitals picked up. The doctor expects him to wake any time now.”

  “Thanks, nurse.”

  He listened to someone leave and everything slowly came drifting back to him. He felt so tired, so incredibly sedated, and his right side ached so bad that he could feel it right down in his toes.

  “Man, you’re one lucky son of a bitch.”

  Cain recognized the voice as Russ and tried to open his eyes, his eyelids fluttered slightly as he struggled to grow accustomed to the brightness surrounding him.

  “Don’t feel lucky.” He forced the words out and then realized he had something over his mouth. His left hand slowly came up and pulled the little mask down off his nose and mouth.

  “There he is.” Russ beamed down at him. He ignored him and frowned at the room. “Have a nice sleep?”

  “Feel like hell,” Cain grumbled as he tried to remember what had happened.

  “You look like it, too.”

  He looked blankly down at his right arm where it was strapped to his chest so he couldn’t move it. His eyes widened slightly as he gradually remembered what had happened to him and why he was here.

  “Lily?” he asked with hope in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, man,” Russ said, his tone solemn.

  Cain closed his eyes and sighed.

  He’d lost her.

  Suddenly his whole view of ‘it would be good while it lasted’ tasted bitter in his mouth, and he wished he’d come clean with her at the start. He wished he’d had the chance to tell her that he was giving it all up for her and that he’d quit the job just a second before she’d found him on the roof.

  Opening his eyes, Cain watched Russ smiling to himself and knew that the shot he’d heard must have been the one that Russ had taken.

  Russ had killed Andrew and had the big payoff that should have been his.

  No wonder he looked so happy.

  Cain pulled the wires that were attached to his chest off him and sat up, wincing as he did so. He grabbed hold of his clothes where they were folded up on the chair and began getting dressed as quickly as he could with only one hand.

  “What are you doing?” Russ looked incredulous.

  “Getting the fuck out of here,” Cain growled at him, showing him that he wasn’t about to listen to anything he had to say so he may as well keep quiet.

  Russ just cleared the way as Cain roughly slipped his leather coat on over his bad shoulder and began walking out of the room.

  * * *

  Cain banged on the door impatiently, only stopping when someone finally pulled it open.

  “Where the bloody hell is she?” he slurred at Jack and swayed on the spot.

  Jack sighed at him and Cain wondered if it was because of the fact he was drunk again, or because of the fact he’d nearly got himself killed.

  “Where’s who?” Jack said, giving him a confused look.

  “My little angel... my sweet Lily... she’s gone.” Cain leaned heavily against the doorframe and screwed his face up when his shoulder burned with pain.

  “You shouldn’t drink while you’re on meds, man.” Jack reached out to catch hold of him but Cain batted his hand away.

  “Gone... don’t you... I’m not drunk. You can’t tell me what to...” Cain went to swing at Jack but missed and ended up in a heap on the floor. He buried his face into his left hand and growled in frustration as he remembered that he couldn’t move his right one.

  Jack just sighed.

  Cain didn’t have the strength to stop him when his friend hauled him back onto his feet and led him into the apartment, sitting him down the couch.

  “Gone... where’d she go? She left me. I’m a bad man and she left me.”

  “She had to get away from New York.” Jack told him with a sympathetic smile.

  “Away from here or away from me? It’s all the bloody same. The only thing I’ve loved in my entire life is gone.” Cain sank a little further into the couch as he thought about the things she’d said to him and how badly he wanted to see her again, if only to explain some things more clearly.

  “It wasn’t you.” Jack’s voice was gentl
e and it made Cain look at him.

  Was he telling the truth? He wasn’t the reason she’d left New York?

  Jack frowned. “You stink like a brewery. How much did you drink?”

  “Enough to make the hurt go away, but it isn’t... I want to die... can’t live without her. I want to die. Life is nothing without love.”

  Jack sighed and gave him a sorry look. Cain knew that he was thinking about the time he’d wanted to be a hit man but had been turned down.

  He wished that he’d been turned down too. He wished he’d been honest with her from the start.

  “Life is still life, man.” Jack put his hand on Cain’s shoulder. He looked up at him blankly, wanting an explanation. “Where there’s life, there’s hope. She’s in Los Angeles, had to go there, said she couldn’t stay in New York.”

  Cain brightened up a little as he took in what Jack was telling him. He knew she wouldn’t have left without at least telling someone where she was going, and she must have known that Jack would tell him.

  “You look as broken as she did when she came to tell me she had to go, had to leave this city. I wish I could get you two back together again. I tried to convince her to stick around and give you a chance, but she’d told me that you weren’t the reason she had to leave and that she wished she could stay. With that, she was gone.”

  “Her father’s?” He swallowed noisily and looked up at Jack.

  Jack shook his head solemnly. “No, but you should call him. He’ll be a good place to start.”

  “He won’t know where she is.” Cain felt dejected again but then smirked.

  Jack gave him a confused look.

  Fumbling in his coat pocket, Cain produced his mobile phone and grinned.

  Jack raised his head in a way that said ‘ah!’ and smiled. “There’s the resourceful guy I know. Now let’s get you sobered up so you can call her.”

  “She put my head under the shower,” Cain said absently as his friend hauled him up onto his feet.

  Jack looked confused again. “Huh?”

  “When I was drunk. She ran my head under the cold water, put her hot little hands on my back and pushed me under it.” Cain grinned and wobbled slightly on his feet. He sighed as Anna appeared from the kitchen. “Hey, girl.”

  “Figured you’d be needing this, what with the woman trouble and the drunkenness.” Anna just handed him a cup of black coffee and beamed at him.

  “Was supposed to kill her ex.” Cain chuckled but it turned into sobs as he remembered what had happened. “Oh God, she hates me... it’s hopeless. The love of my life hates me.”

  Jack sighed again and held him steady. Anna wrapped her arms about him and patted his back. When she drew back, Jack let go of him. He watched as his friend went to put his hand over Anna’s mouth, but she swatted it away.

  “She’s probably just pissed at you. She’ll get over it... I mean... who wouldn’t when they had that much money?” Anna said.

  Cain looked at Jack for an explanation. His friend closed his eyes and hung his head.

  Cain stared at them both, feeling suddenly shocked into sobriety.

  The silence was deafening.

  * * *

  Cain stared down at the address on the little piece of paper his associate had given him and then up at the door he was standing in front of. She had only answered her phone once in all the times that he’d called her and she’d flatly refused to speak to him, but it had been a long enough call to trace her and give them a location.

  She was in Los Angeles, in what seemed to be a nice apartment building.

  He took a deep breath and adjusted the sling that held his right arm in place, trying to make himself more presentable. He hadn’t slept much in almost a week, couldn’t sleep knowing she was out there somewhere and hating him.

  He needed answers now as badly as she did. Anna had refused to say anything that would expand on what she’d said to him and he couldn’t bring himself to believe it without hearing it from Lily first hand.

  Knocking on the door, he tried to breathe slowly as he waited for someone to answer, silently hoping it would be her.

  When no one answered, he knocked again, his heart beating erratically against his chest. He gave a grim smile to an old lady as she poked her head out of her door and looked up the corridor at him.

  As the woman closed her door, he heard the one in front of him open and then shut quickly.

  “Go away.” A muffled voice came through the door and he knew it was her.

  His heart beat a little faster.

  “Lily? Please, love, let me talk to you.” He pressed his hand against the door and ignored the dull ache in his right shoulder as he waited for her reply. “I just want to explain.”

  The silence seemed to go on forever and he wondered if she’d walked away from the door and left him alone. He was about to knock again when she replied.

  “Go ahead, talk.”

  “Let me in?” He pleaded and waited for her answer.

  “You can tell me everything you need to say... on that side of the door.”

  Cain almost smiled at how cautious she’d become and then cleared his throat a little.

  Just as he was about to start, the door down the hall opened again and the woman appeared once more.

  She stared at him, making it clear that she wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Got an audience out here... please?” He smiled nervously at the woman and then looked at the door in front of him.

  “Nope,” Lily replied. Her heart was beating so fast that she felt sick. She had always known that he’d find her, she had been waiting for him to, but she hadn’t expected it to be so soon.

  “Okay... you win.” Cain took a deep breath and tried to ignore the way the old lady was staring at him. “I just wanted to tell you that I’m out, Lily, I quit. If you had given me a chance to explain to you that night, you would have known this already. I wasn’t going to go through with it. I had contacted Russ and told him I couldn’t fulfill the contract... I couldn’t do that to you.”

  Lily didn’t know what to say. She pressed her hand against the place where she figured his was on the other side of the door and stroked it slightly as she looked through the peephole at him.

  “I know I can’t prove it to you, because I don’t want you to be a part of that world, so I won’t let you contact Russ... but I can tell you something that will hopefully make you see that I’m telling the truth.”

  “Go on,” Lily said, her voice calm and patient.

  “You asked me once why I call myself Cain, and I think I told you it was something people have called me for a long time. That was the truth, but there’s more to it than that. I wanted to tell you that night that when you entered my...” Cain glanced at the woman as she stared at him, waiting for him to continue and obviously enjoying the soap opera antics that were happening on her floor, “...profession... that the first person you... kill... is yourself.”

  Lily flinched as she heard a door down the hall slam and then she grinned. That’ll teach Mrs. Goldman for being so nosy.

  Cain waited a moment and then continued. “So here goes. My real name is Reece Cooper. I’m from London. I ran away from my parents at age seventeen and came to New York. I was destitute, alone and got pulled into the underworld because it was my only means of survival. I started out small, just being someone’s thug and then they realized that I was good with a weapon or two. My whole life at home I had been having lessons in archery and shooting, and I had been repeatedly told it was the only damn thing I was good for, and good at. It’s the only thing I know how to do, Lily, but you showed me that there is more to life than that, that if I tried, I could find something else that I’m good at... that I could have the life I never thought was possible.”

  Lily closed her eyes as he heaved a sigh and she rested her head against the door.

  “Reece.” She breathed his name quietly, wrapping her mouth around it and smiling as she realized how much trust and hope i
t must have taken for him to reveal his real identity to her.

  It was such a risk. Now that she had his real name she could turn him over to the authorities, but something in the way he was stood patiently in the hall told her that he knew she wouldn’t.

  “When I met you... I don’t know what happened. My whole life changed that night, Lily, just like yours did. Now everything is so confused, and I feel as though I’m drifting again with no place to call home, nothing to call my own.” Cain sighed and leaned against the wall opposite her door. He adjusted something and frowned.

  Lily’s brows furrowed as she saw the sling for the first time and remembered the night he’d been shot. She’d been so scared, so petrified of losing him as he lay on the floor bleeding to death.

  Her memory of the night was hazy, the whole thing seemingly passed like a blur, and she didn’t want to remember what had happened.

  “I know I fucked up, everything is fucked up. I wake up and you’re gone. I thought I was dead, I should have been dead, and Russ wouldn’t tell me what happened, but I thought it was him and then I go to Jack’s because I can’t find you and Anna tells me—”

  Lily leaned heavily against the door before opening it a crack and looking out into the hall at him.

  He froze and his eyes met hers, searching them.

  * * *

  Chapter 19

  “It was me.” The words slipped from Lily’s lips, and she just stared at him blankly as he pushed off from the wall and took a step toward her.

  “I know.” Cain found himself smiling at her as she finally opened the door all the way. It seemed like forever since he’d seen her beautiful face.

  “I did it. He was going to shoot you. The gun was right there, Cain, right there next to me and I couldn’t let him kill you, wouldn’t let him take you from me like he took everything else.” Lily felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she looked into Cain’s and saw all the sorrow in them. He was sorry for what he’d done, for the world he’d brought her into.