Cain (9 page)

“
Julie, is it? What a
common name. You know, you look familiar. Do I know your family?”
Mrs. Waite couldn’t have been more clear. She thought Julie was
beneath her.

“
I’m sure you do. I hear
there are all sorts of slime balls that hang out in the sewage.
Next time I see a snake in the grass, I’ll think of you.” Julie
went to the kitchen door. “If you will excuse me, I’m leaving. Mrs.
Waite, it was...different. Dr. Waite, you can rot in
hell.”

Julie turned and Cain grabbed her arm.
Coming full around, she slammed her fist into his jaw. He fell back
as she cried out in pain. Sudden and sharp pain throbbed in her
fingers all the way to her elbow. Julie didn’t move fast enough
when out of the corner of her eye, she saw something flash toward
her. Even a glancing blow hurt like hell. Julie staggered back
quickly and caught the counter with her hand. When Mrs. Waite came
at her a second time, the tea pot raised, Julie just managed to get
out of the way before the pot hit the tile counter, breaking three
of the pretty white tiles. Mrs. Waite drew back again.

“
That’s enough,” roared
Cain. Everyone froze as his voice echoed through the large
kitchen.

“
She started it,” Mrs.
Waite sobbed. “And she hurt my poor Roscoe too. She’s just an
upstart. She’s just trying to get at your money. She wants to...oh,
please tell me you aren’t fucking her!”

Cain didn’t answer.

Julie could feel the blood running down
the side of her head and her hand was throbbing like a bad tooth.
She didn’t wait for Cain to decide what he was going to tell his
mother, but went to the door and out of it. She didn’t run, but she
didn’t walk either. She was about a mile down the road when a horn
blaring behind her made her turn around.

“
Get in,” Quinn ordered.
“I told him I’d take you to the hospital. I promise I won’t ask
questions, but I will see that you’re helped.”

Julie didn’t even know where she was.
Staring down at the woman in the driver’s seat, Julie wanted to ask
her why. She didn’t know what for, but she did.

“
I’m very pissed at Cain
myself right now. I promise you I won’t take you back there. Hell,
if I had somewhere else to go, I would too. I just want to make
sure that you’re all right. I just need to make sure my mother
didn’t hurt you too badly. Please, Julie.”

Julie nodded, walked around to the
passenger side of the car, and got in. Dizziness rolled through her
like a freight train. She didn’t lower her head like she wanted to,
but did lean it against the cool glass at the door.

“
There’s a free clinic on
Hudson Avenue. Is that far from where we are?” When Quinn shook her
head no, Julie continued. “Could you please just drop me off there?
I’ll be fine there.”

“
I’ll wait for you,” Quinn
said.

They drove for another five minutes
when Julie remembered her borrowed clothes.

“
Keep them. I’m not sure
what’s going on between you and my brother, but he shouldn’t have
said that about you. Especially not to her. She’s a vicious bitch
and will never look at you with anything but disdain from now
on.”

Julie didn’t care. She hoped she’d
never see her again anyway. She didn’t say anything and the rest of
the ride was made in silence.

~~~

Cain tried to call Quinn’s cell phone
number again and got the same thing, “cannot be reached at this
time.” He’d already called the hospital four times and after
finding out that Julie hadn’t been seen, he’d had Quinn paged.
Still nothing. He was about to go out himself when his phone rang.
It was Quinn.

“
Where the fuck are you
two? I’ve been trying to reach you for over three hours. Damn it,
Quinn...are you all right?”

“
Yes. I’m at the gate. You
might as well know now that Julie isn’t with me. So if you want to
turn me away, now would be as good a time as any,” she told
him.

Cain wanted to scream at her, rant and
rave too, but he simply pressed the button to allow her inside the
boundaries. How could she think that he’d turn her away? Why would
she think he’d do something like that? He knew why. He’d been an
ass to Julie, a bastard to her really.

As soon as he heard her car door shut,
he met her at the back door from the kitchen. She looked exhausted
and there was a glazed, pained look in her eyes. He pulled her into
his arms and held her. And when she finally put her arms around his
waist and held him back, his heart leapt with joy.

“
I’m so sorry, baby. So
very sorry. Did you have someone look at your head too? If not,
will you please allow me to look at it? I can see that you’re in
pain.”

Cain wanted to ask about Julie, but he
knew that if he pushed his sister, she’d not tell him anything.
When she nodded, he sat her in a kitchen chair and went to get his
bag. Jazzie was in the living room and followed him into the
kitchen. Cain began examining Quinn while Jazzie made some
tea.

“
Julie is at the women’s
shelter, though I don’t know why. She is the most stubborn woman
I’ve ever...they treat people like shit down there. I was surprised
they even put the ten stitches in her head.
Ouch!
Watch it, that
hurt.”

Anger again at his mother had him
pressing too hard on the wound at her head. The fact that his
mother had been so pissed that Quinn had “bothered” with the tramp
and had gone on about her even after Cain had told her to shut up
had him throw her out.

“
I’m sorry.” He forced
himself to take a deep breath and to be more careful. “Are they
keeping her overnight? Or is she back...back out on the streets
again?”

Quinn stilled his hands and looked at
him. “I didn’t know she was homeless when I agreed to take her to
the clinic. They gave her...no one should be treated that way,
Cain. I don’t care who you are or how little money you have. They
wouldn’t keep her. They called her a trouble maker and after they
treated her, they practically threw her out.” Quinn stood and
hugged Cain again. “She’s such a fighter. And Mother...I think I
hate her and Father more...Cain, they’ve been so...oh, Cain.” Her
sobbing tore through him. And when he felt Jazzie come up beside
him, he pulled her into his embrace as well.

Cain held his sisters while they cried.
He wanted to join them, but knew that he couldn’t. He also knew
that he had to find her, find Julie and care for her.

“
Like I said, she’s at the
women’s shelter on Tenth. They’ve seen her before and took her in
even though they didn’t have any room. They told her she could
sleep on the couch in the rec room until morning.” Quinn backed up
and dug something out of her pocket. “I gave them your number in
case something happens. I also gave her one of these. She thinks it
was an aspirin. Something else you should know, I really like
her.”

Cain looked down at the small brown
bottle. It took him several seconds to realize what it was.
Codeine. He raised a brow at her. His sister had slipped Julie a
Micky.

“
I like her too, Cain.
What are you going to do about her?” Jazzie asked as she sat down
with three mugs of hot tea.

“
I fucked up with her.
Badly. But I want to fix it.”

Before he could say more, his phone
rang. The number was one he’d never seen before.

“
That’ll be the shelter.
They’ll need you to show some sort of identification to get her,
but they can’t help you with her if she wakes up. Oh, and you are
going to volunteer your services there twice a month. As a goodwill
gesture.”

Cain stared at Quinn for a full minute
before it registered what she was saying. Jazzie’s “get the hell
out of here” had him racing to the door. He turned quickly and
hugged them both again before going to his car. He was bringing her
home.

~CHAPTER TEN~

Julie woke slowly. She didn’t have a
clue where she was or how she had gotten there. Rolling to her
side, she looked at the sleeping nurse sitting in the chair. Julie
looked around the room and saw that while furnished, there didn’t
seem to be anything personal around, just like she’d seen at Cain’s
house. One thing she was certain of, she wasn’t in the
shelter.

The furniture was old, but not worn.
There were several antiques spread around the room mixed in with
the newer pieces, a rocker and stool where the nurse now sat. Julie
had seen the same set in her mother’s home, but smaller and back in
the servants’ rooms. A coat rack and a beautiful lamp were in the
corner. The bed she was in was a simple full-sized bed. The two
dressers were nice, but like the rest of the room, devoid of
pictures or small things that made the room look like anyone lived
in it.

There was a braided rug under the chair
the nurse was sitting in. The room was too dark to tell what the
colors were, but Julie thought there were deep reds and dark
blues.

Knowing that she had somehow ended up
in someone’s house, Julie had a good idea whose it might be. She
moved the blankets back and started to sit up. Dizziness swamped
her. She thought she had moaned out loud, but either the nurse was
a very heavy sleeper, or Julie had only thought she had.

It took Julie a few minutes to get to
the side of the bed. That’s when she realized she couldn’t go
without help. Hating to wake the other woman, Julie called out to
her. The nurse woke immediately.

“
Oh, miss, I’m so very
sorry. I’ve been so busy of late. What, this place was is dusty
bunny’s haven, it was.” The nurse hopped up and began to help
Julie. “I’m Dottie Webb, I am. My, you are beaten up, aren’t you?
Come on, love, let’s get you to the bath, shall we?”

Julie barely noticed the accent she was
in so much pain. She wanted to scream. Every part of her body hurt,
not just hurt, but pounded pain at her. She tried to keep any moans
to herself, but it was just too much. She’d been beaten more times
in the past few days than she’d been in most of her adult
life.

“
Please. Please, I beg
you, I can’t move just yet. Just leave me here and go out and find
a gun. It will be a mercy killing, I swear to you. You won’t go to
jail. I’ll leave them a note for you.”

Mrs. Webb looked horrified. Julie was
only about half kidding. But when she left Julie, she thought maybe
she was going to put her out of her misery. Tears streamed down her
face. She was in so much pain, so when the nurse returned
empty-handed, Julie couldn’t help it, she sobbed.

“
You don’t be moving from
there, child. I’ve called the troops, I have. Someone will be here
just shortly to see you though,” Mrs. Webb said with a look of
determination on her face.

“
I think you should just
shoot me. I know I’d feel better in the long run. I know I’d feel a
damned sight better than I do right now.” When Mrs. Webb only
tisked at her, Julie continued. “I don’t suppose you can tell me
where I am, could you? I know this is someone’s home. Is it
yours?”

“’
Tis Dr. Cain Waite’s
home you’d be in. He called me just yesterday. Retired, I was, but
he was looking for some extra help and I some extra monies. Do you
want to try and stand now, miss? You don’t look so pale
now.”

Julie knew that was where she was, but
the reality of the situation was still a bit of a shock. Moving to
the edge of the bed more, she stood up, the need to leave
overriding the pain that riddled her. But the need was overpowered
by the tilting room and the belly lurch. Julie reached out and
grabbed the first thing she touched.

“
Come on,” the voice said
in a strained way. “Let’s get you back to bed. Damn it, Julie, do
you have to make everything so difficult?”

Julie looked up into the stormy eyes of
Cain. “Fuck you. I didn’t ask you to bring me...how the hell did
you bring me here, come to think of it? Never mind. I’m leaving. I
just have to pee, let me go.”

Julie tried pulling away, but the next
thing she knew, he was scooping her up into his arms and taking her
into the bathroom. She tried in vain to pull the t-shirt, which she
just noticed wasn’t hers and was huge on her, down to a modest
cover up.

“
Put me down this instant!
The nerve!” She tried to struggle out of his arms, but she was just
hurting herself more.

“
Shut up. I swear...here.
I’ll stand right out here and you do your business. And be careful.
You don’t need any more bruises on you.”

Glaring up at him, Julie wanted to cry.
Damn him. He had no right to be pissy with her. She was a grown
woman, damn it.

“
I can’t...you have to
leave. I can’t pee with you standing there.” She didn’t think he
would. She thought he would be just stubborn enough to stand right
there until her body had done what he wanted.

“
I’ll be right outside the
room. If I hear one noise, one sound that I don’t like, I swear to
you that I’m busting down this door and coming in. You hear me?”
Cain roared at her.

“
The fucking house can
hear you, oh loud one. Like I give two shits if you bust down your
own door.” She moved toward the commode. “Out, and when I’m
finished, I’m leaving here. You aren’t my keeper. Nor are you my
father, though there are times...get out!”