Cain's Salvation (Passion in Paradise - The Men of the McKinnon Sisters) (4 page)

“I’ll make sure one of the deputies gets
your car home tonight, Honor,” Zeke replied without acknowledging their
gratitude.  Waiting until Honor nodded again, he ordered, “Get in the
house, ladies.  I’ll wait until you’re safely inside to leave.”

“Thanks again,” Faith said as her sister
turned to walk toward the front porch.  “Honor is grateful, too, even if
she’s reluctant to admit it.”

“We take care of our own in Paradise,”
Zeke declared with a dismissive smile even as his eyes lingered on Honor’s
back.  “I’ll get by the café tomorrow with an update on the frat boy and
the trucker.”

“Sounds good.”  Patting the door of
the SUV, Faith smiled one last time before turning and following her sister up
the steps to their porch. 

Finally home, Faith dropped her purse to
the kitchen table and shrugged out of her lightweight jacket.  “I’m sorry
about tonight, Honor,” she apologized quietly.  If there was one thing she
hated, it was worrying the youngest McKinnon. 

Smiling at her older sister, Honor
locked the door and watched as the Sheriff pulled out of their driveway. 
“It’s okay, sweetie.  It isn’t exactly as though you invited a brawl
tonight.  These things are going to happen in a bar, I suppose, but we
need to discuss what we can do to prevent this kind of thing from happening
again.”

Faith nodded.  Honor had little to
do with the bar side of their business.  She and Patience primarily
oversaw nighttime operations at the Café while Harmony and Honor handled things
during the day.  It just worked out better for everyone that way. 
Harmony had a kid, and Honor would never be able to handle a bunch of men
drinking around her – not after everything she’d been through.  “Listen,
I’m wiped.  I think I’m going to trash my bloody t-shirt and take a
shower,” she said, gesturing down at her stained pink shirt.  “We can talk
about everything tomorrow once I’ve had some sleep.  I’ll see you in the
morning, okay?”

Truthfully, she wasn’t sure how much
longer she could stay on her feet.  She was exhausted...physically
and
mentally. 
Honor’s soft gaze seemed to indicate that she understood those feelings well.

“Get some rest,” her sister gently ordered. 
“Sleep late in the morning, Faith.  You need it.”

“We’ll see,” Faith murmured before
heading toward her bedroom, her tone doubtful.  Both women knew that sleep
was a valuable commodity for her these days.  Faith never rested well
since she’d received that awful letter from Cain that had broken both her heart
and her engagement several months ago.  He was always there, hovering on
the periphery of her thoughts.

Stripping off her ruined shirt, Faith
threw it in the trash can and quickly gathered a nightshirt and clean panties
from her bureau drawer.  Tiptoeing across the hall to the bathroom, clad
only in her undies, she was careful to be as quiet as possible.  Harmony’s
room was right next to the washroom, and she knew that her eldest sister and
niece needed their sleep, too.

Shutting the door softly behind her,
Faith started the shower with efficient hands and pulled a clean towel from
beneath the sink while she waited for the water to heat.  Climbing into
the antiquated claw foot tub a second later, she almost moaned as the warm
water cascaded over her naked body.  Careful to keep her bandaged forehead
out of the spray, she tilted her head and soaped her long, blonde hair.

Good God, what a day, she silently lamented
as she rinsed the suds from her head, tilting her neck and running her hands
over her hair.  A year ago, she would have been curled up against Cain
while he rubbed the tension from her back and told her that everything would be
okay. 

Times had changed.

Now, the only thing she had to look
forward to was an empty bed and even emptier heart.  Usually, she could
hold back the self-pitying tears, but tonight, she could feel her self-built
dam breaking.  Gripping the shower rod, she let the husky sobs overtake
her.

Why?  Why had Cain destroyed them?

As many times as she’d asked herself the
question over the last six months, she never had been able to give herself an
answer.  His letter had told her to move on with her life and forget
him.  He’d said that she was better off without him.  But never once
had he offered her a reason
why
he’d decided he didn’t want her anymore.

From the moment she had first read that
damned letter, her mind had imagined the worst.  Perhaps he’d found
another woman.  Or maybe he’d realized that he never loved her at
all.  A thousand different scenarios had filtered through her mind in the
past months, but none of them made sense to her.

Unfortunately, the only person that
could answer her question was the one person she couldn’t ask.  Every
letter she’d written him had been returned to sender.  She’d even
swallowed her pride and asked his brother, Abel, and his father, Seth, if they
knew how she could contact him. 

Both men, while kind, had been
clueless.  Cain seemed to have cut them from his life, too.  To her
knowledge, he’d only called Abel twice since he’d sent that letter to
her.  Both times, Abel said that his brother had barely said anything at
all and never once mentioned her.

That hurt.

She knew, however, that her life had to
go on.   Allowing one man to destroy her simply wasn’t who she
was.  She was a bright, intelligent woman with her whole life ahead of
her.  She couldn’t pine her life away for a man that had already admitted
that he didn’t deserve her.  She was pretty enough to attract a fair share
of masculine appreciation.  Hell, she’d had plenty of offers for a date
since she’d forced herself to remove her engagement ring six months ago. 

She’d refused every one of those
invitations, but perhaps it was time to accept one.  Maybe it was finally
time to try to find some kind of happiness that didn’t revolve around Cain
Turner.

Sniffling, she wiped her eyes and then
twisted off the shower.  Reaching outside the pale blue shower curtain,
she wrapped her hand around her fluffy terrycloth towel and dried her
body. 

She was young.  She was
healthy.  And she wasn’t the type of woman that wanted to spend her life
alone.

She had to move on with her life.

Slipping her Hello Kitty nightshirt over
her head, she stared in the mirror as she brushed the worst of the tangles from
her hair.  “You’re moving on,” she told her pale reflection sternly. 
“Starting tomorrow, you’re moving on with your life.”

Tossing the hairbrush back to the shelf
above the sink, she offered the mirror a nod and turned to flip off the
bathroom light and pad back to her bedroom.

Tomorrow, she’d begin again. 
Tonight, however, she silently acknowledged as she slid between her cool
sheets, she knew she’d dream of Cain.

Thursday morning dawned bright and clear
and a crisp cool breeze shuffled dried leaves across the back parking lot of
the I Don’t Care Café as Honor McKinnon climbed from behind the wheel of her
grey Buick sedan.  Tightening the apron she wore around her waist as she
approached the restaurant’s back door, she knew she’d find it unlocked.

Her Aunt Orla always arrived an hour
earlier than she did and started the morning breakfast menu preparations. 
They’d open at seven, but Honor always came in at six to begin the day’s baking
while her elderly aunt took care of the customer orders that that their one
morning  waitress, Lexie, turned in. 

Their tiny restaurant offered only
simple fare in the mornings.  Eggs, pancakes, waffles, omelets and a
variety of breakfast meats were on the menu.  Mostly, they simply had
their regular traffic, townsfolk that had been eating there for years. 
Every now and then, though, they’d get a flood of customers off the interstate.

With less than four hours sleep to her
name, Honor truly hoped today wasn’t one of those days.  While the money
would be nice, she simply didn’t have the energy for a busy morning.

Greeting her aunt as she walked through
the back door, Honor paused long enough to kiss the old woman’s leathery
cheek.  At seventy-one, Orla should have been home, putting up her
feet...or so Honor thought.  But the ornery woman that had helped raise
all the sisters after their parents died had other ideas that not even Honor
was brave enough to contradict.

Hanging up her sweater, Honor met Aunt
Orla’s eyes across the kitchen.  “You need any help this morning, Aunt
Orla?” she asked.

“Nope.  Got it all covered,” Aunt
Orla replied in an aged, cracked voice, then nodded toward the dining
room.  “You got company out front, Honor.   Abel Turner’s out
there waiting on you.  I gave ‘im a cup of coffee and sat him down at the
counter.  He filled me in on what happened last night.  Faith
alright?”

“She’ll be fine, Auntie,” Honor assured
the older woman before turning her head to peer out the kitchen’s window. 
“How long has Abel been here?” she asked with a frown.

“’Bout fifteen minutes or so,” Orla
answered evenly, whipping the pancake batter she mixed with one hand.  “He
seems right pensive this mornin’,” she added pointedly.

Turning to grimace at the older woman,
Honor admitted, “I left him here with Patience last night.  I hope those
two didn’t get into it again,” she added with a sigh.  Patience and Abel
got on like oil and water.  You just couldn’t mix the two of them without
consequences.  “I didn’t have the heart to wake either Faith or Patience
this morning, so I don’t know how everything turned out last night.  Both
of them needed sleep more than they needed to answer my questions.”

“Harmony comin’ in this morning?” Orla
asked as she set her mixing bowl down on the metal table in the center of the
kitchen.

“After she drops Heaven off at the
sitter,” Honor answered, lifting a hand to the loose knot of hair at the back
of her head.  Reaching for one of the brown hair nets from the box on the
wall, she put it on.  “She and Lexie are taking the early shift this
mornin’,” Honor explained.  “I’ll be back in a minute,” she told her aunt
before heading out front.

Meeting Abel Turner’s gaze as she walked
behind the long counter that separated the dining room from the kitchen, Honor
smiled.  “Abel!  I didn’t expect to see you this morning.  We
don’t have much made up yet, but if you’d like some breakfast, I can…”

Holding up a large hand, Abel shook his
head quickly.  Dressed in a dark suit, he quickly tossed the file he’d
been reviewing in his briefcase.  A local attorney, the tall man was
always working.  “No, ma’am.  Coffee was fine,” he stated with a nod
toward the white enamel mug at his elbow.  “How’s Faith?” he asked
quickly.

“She’s fine.  Three stitches, but
she was sleeping when I left the house this morning.  I’m just glad you
were here last night.  I don’t think I thanked you for your help, and I
seriously doubt that Patience remembered her manners where you’re concerned.”

“Patience doesn’t
have
manners
where I’m concerned,” the man grumbled under his breath.  “But, I’m not
here to talk about her.  Honor, I need to come clean about
something.  What’s worse is that after that, I need to ask for a favor.”

Lifting her chin, Honor studied the
older man’s face.  “I’ve got a feeling that I’m gonna need my own cup of
coffee to hear this,” she murmured, turning toward the coffee pot and reaching
for another mug.

“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Abel agreed
regretfully.  Waiting until the young woman had turned to face him again,
Abel drew in a deep breath.  “Cain is home, Honor.”

Stunned, Honor nearly dropped her
coffee.  Putting it on the counter with an unsteady hand, she stared at
Abel.  “What?” she whispered.

“He’s been home about a month,” Abel
confided, his voice just loud enough to be barely heard.  “He’s not doing
so well, Honor.  The war… it’s changed him.  Hell, he hasn’t left the
home place since the day he got back.  He flat out forbade dad or me from
telling anybody he was here.”

“W-why?”

“Well, there’s the obvious reason. 
I don’t think he’s in any hurry to confront Faith.  But, and I’m not
exaggerating here, he’s really not himself.  The last month he was in
Afghanistan, the convoy he was traveling in was ambushed.  I guess a bunch
of his men were killed.  He won’t talk much about it.  Hell, between
the patients he lost and the ambush that he was in right before he was due to
come home, I know he’s entitled to take some time and readjust.  I know
he’s suffering from PTSD.  He flat out refused to go back to the hospital
to work.  He says he’s not even sure he wants to be a doctor anymore.”

Inhaling a shaky breath, Honor forced
herself to listen to the man and to not comment yet.

“Last night, when I got home, I told him
that he had to snap out of this depression that he’s absorbed in.  If he’d
pull his head out of his ass and get some help, things might be a whole lot
better for
all
of us.  Anyway, I told him about what happened to
Faith and the look on his face…”  Pausing, Abel’s own face
tightened.  “Honor, I
know
he’s still in love with her.  This
damn break-up is a direct result of all the crap he saw over there.  It
has to be!”

Honor’s heart broke for what Cain had
been through in Afghanistan, but she couldn’t forget what he’d put her sister
through either.  Pushing her hands against the counter, she asked warily,
“Abel, what do you want from me?”

“Honor, Cain is drinking way too much
and isolating himself.  I want you to go in there and storm the gates.”

“Storm the gates?” Honor echoed, her
light eyebrows drawing together in surprise.  “What are you suggestin’
here, Abel?” she asked incredulously, privately wondering when she had become
the resident miracle worker in Paradise, Tennessee.

“Go offer him a job as a nighttime
bouncer.  He’s qualified.  He’s been a soldier, for God’s sake. 
He’d be here to look after Faith and Patience.  And maybe, if God is
shining in His heaven, he and Faith could work things out between each other
or, at the very least, find some resolution for their relationship.”

“Are you crazy?” she blurted, her eyes
widening at his request.  “I think you underestimate the amount of pain he
inflicted on my sister!  Have you forgotten that your brother sent Faith a
letter
to end things, Abel?  A letter!  He couldn’t even be
bothered to call and tell her in person.  He shattered her heart into a
million pieces with a
letter
.  Every time I look at Faith, she’s
sad.  He broke something inside her, and now you’re asking me to help try
and fix
him
?”

“No, honey, I haven’t forgotten
anything,” Abel denied slowly, shaking his head.  “I see that same pain
that Faith holds inside her in
his
eyes every single day, too.  I
stare at that anguish in his face every time I look at him.  Go see him,
Honor.  If you can look at him and
not
wanna help him, I’ll never
say another word about it.”  Pausing, he stared at her before adding
softly, “I know you know a thing or two about suffering through trauma
yourself.  You’ve survived hell, too.  If nothing else, maybe
somebody that’s been roasted in the fires herself can reach him.  God
knows, I’ve tried more than once.”

Grimacing, Honor stared down at the
counter.  She owed Abel and Cain a debt she’d never be able to repay, but
that didn’t mean that she could overlook the harm Abel’s twin had done her
older sister.  Drawing in deep breath, she whispered, “I’ll go see him,
Abel.  I’m not making any promises about a job, but I will go talk to
him.  I’ll drop by when I go out to the bank this morning.  You
should know, though, I can’t keep this secret from Faith.  When she comes
into work for her shift this afternoon, I’m going to have to tell her Cain is
back in Paradise.  I won’t have her blindsided with this news.”

“I understand.” Abel nodded, then added,
“And that’s fair.”

“Fair?” Honor snorted.  “None of
this is
fair
, Abel.”  Taking another deep breath, she offered the
man across from her a hard look.  “I’m sorry for what Cain has endured,
but my first obligation will always be to Faith, the same as yours is to
Cain.  I hope you can understand that,” she remarked softly.

“I do.  I guess I’m just hoping
that you and she can find a way to help my brother heal,” he admitted
truthfully.

Honor’s jaw clenched.  She couldn’t
blame Abel for wanting the best for his brother.  She wanted the same for
her sisters.  But this was a precarious situation that she was wading
into.  “I’ll do what I can, but Faith doesn’t owe your brother
anything.  Not after what he put her through.  If she pulled a gun
tonight and shot him through the heart, I’d offer her an alibi,” she declared
truthfully.

“I know you would.  And if I didn’t
know how much he hates himself for what he did to her, I’d load the gun for
Faith myself.  I don’t know what the hell he saw halfway around the world
to change him so much, Honor, but I’m real scared that the one person that can
help me find the brother I love is the one person that might never be able to
get past what he put her through.  Faith is the key here, no pun
intended.”

Sighing heavily, Honor’s shoulders
drooped.  So much for an easy morning, she thought bitterly.  “Like I
said, I’ll go see him, Abel.  I can’t offer you a single guarantee beyond
that.”

“That’s all I’m asking,” Abel quickly
agreed, rising to his feet.  “Thank you, Honor.  I’m beyond grateful
to you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she replied,
crossing her arms over her chest.  “Once all the sisters find out your
brother is back in town, I’m not sure that the Mideast wouldn’t be a safer
location for him.”

Reaching across the counter, Abel
squeezed Honor’s wrist supportively.  “You rule this wacky family of yours
with an iron fist, honey.  They’ll follow whatever lead you set for them.”

“Oh, Abel, I hope you’re right about
that,” Honor murmured to him.