by Mason, Marie
“A friend of your mother’s was a patient of mine. She told me how she had died and that she’d had a son. I didn’t think anything about it until she showed me a picture of her, your mother and you.” He looked up at me, sorrow filling eyes that could have been my own. “You looked just like me when I was a kid. You looked about ten, but I’m betting you were only five or six. Big for your age, I’m sure. Just like me.”
Just like me. “When did you find out?” I asked the question again.
“Last year. I found out last year.”
I slowly finished my beer. Thinking.
“I would have come for you, Cage. If I had known, I would have come for you.”
The words were raw, the feeling behind them honest. But I still couldn’t respond. I continued to drink my beer, my face a stoic mask I’d learned to don when life was beating the shit out of me, teaching me a lesson.
Horace cleared his throat and I heard him rise from the couch, the leather squeaking in the silence. “Alright. I think I’ll go to bed.” As he passed, he laid a hand on my shoulder. “If you need me, son, I’m here for you. I want you to know that.”
Our eyes met and I knew he really did regret the fact that he hadn’t known about me sooner. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” And I did. I hadn’t felt like I had anyone in my corner besides Frank for a very long time. Now, I had my father. And Abby.
“I think I’m ready to turn in, too.” We walked up the stairs and parted with another good night. I hesitated as I walked passed Abby’s door. No light was on and I assumed she was still asleep. I had no doubt that her mother had checked on her. I entered my bedroom and walked into the shared bathroom. Turning on the shower, I let the water heat as I stripped. I smiled as I put the clothes in the hamper. Abby and I were both freaky about being neat. I loved hearing her fuss and grumble when anyone left anything out of place. Of course, l had to leave something out of place every now and then just to rile her up.
I stepped into the shower, the hot water feeling good, relaxing my tense muscles. I leaned my hands against the tile wall, letting the water flow over me.
My mind went back to the day I’d taken Abby against the wall, her legs spread wide as I fucked her from behind. God, her cunt was so sweet. My cock swelled. I straightened and grabbed the lavender scented body wash. I didn’t care that it had a sissy smell—it smelled like her. I hissed as the soap got into the scraped skin of my knuckles. It stung like a bitch, but I wouldn’t trade one ounce of the pain. I washed the sweat and grime from my body and hair. Pouring more of the wash into my hand, I encircled my dick with my fingers, stroking the flesh until I was hard and aching.
I knew I was going to spend the night in Abby’s bed, her warm, curvy body tucked tightly against mine. I also knew, she didn’t need a hard cock poking her, reminding her of the day’s events. I pumped my hand up and down my stiffened rod, grunting as I imagined Abby on her knees, her plush lips wrapped around the head. I’d hold her head and thrust forward, pushing my cock down her throat. Again and again, I’d fuck her mouth until I exploded.
My cum shot from the end of my cock and splashing against the cool tile and I almost lost my ability to stand up. I had to prop myself up against the wall. I tugged until I was spent. Washing away the white pool of semen, I turned off the shower and stepped outside.
Drying myself quickly, I opened the door to Abby’s side of the bathroom. I padded across the thick carpet until I stood by her bed. She’d kicked away the covers, lying on her stomach, a pillow hugged to her chest. Her plump little ass was halfway up in the air and I couldn’t resist running my hand across it.
My touch roused her from her sleep. She moved, turning over to her back. She blinked up at me sleepily. Much as she had the other day. “Cage?”
Her voice was a soft welcome whisper in the night.
“Yeah, baby.” I stood there for a couple of more minutes, simply looking down at her sleepy face. She was so damn cute. So pretty. Her large breasts lay on her chest, hidden from my view by the top of her pajamas. I wanted to pull the fabric away and bend over to taste them. My cock started to come to life again and I stopped the thoughts as quickly as I could.
“Move over, sweetheart.” I nudged her with my hand until she moved to the other side of the bed. As soon as she made enough room, I climbed in behind her and pulled her to my chest. She was as warm and sweet as I had remembered.
She settled against my arm as though we’d done it a thousand times. “Where did you go?”
“Nowhere, baby. Nowhere important.” I kissed the crown of her hair. “Now go back to sleep.”
I felt the tension in her body as though she wanted to continue to question me. I’d like to think it was the safety she felt in my arms that had her body relaxing and her breathing slowing and deepening as she fell back asleep.
Knowing my soul wasn’t as pure or as sweet, I lay there, waiting for the night to close in around me. I waited a long time that night before sleep finally claimed me.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll be there.”
Abby pretended not to listen to the conversation, turning her attention back to her food. I knew she was listening though. How could she not? I was standing two feet away from her, getting the best news in my whole damn life and … my heart felt like a leaden balloon inside my chest.
“I said I’ll fucking be there, Frank. I’ll call you later.” I snapped the phone shut. I’d finally upgraded my phone with Abby’s help. Despite having a millionaire father, I still hadn’t upgraded my life.
Except I was lovers with Abby. She was a cut above any girl I’d ever banged before.
Why the harsh lingo? Because what I was about to do next, what I had to do next, was freaking going to cut my heart right out of my chest. And maybe hers, too.
I sat back down at the table. She’d gone to a lot of trouble tonight. There was a white lace tablecloth covering the gleaming walnut wood of the table. Two long white taper candles and a bowl of red roses sitting between them. It looked like a damn movie set for one of those chick flicks I’d watched with her when she was feeling under the weather.
Shit. I had no idea what to do. Did I end it now? Tell her I was leaving in the morning to start training for a fight. A fight that in all likelihood would make or break me? The league had a new bad boy who was a heavy motherfucker with only a few contenders in his weight class. They were scouring the gyms, aka underground fight clubs, looking for any dumb schmuck who had the lights of fame and fortune shining in his eyes to go up against their golden boy.
That wasn’t me. I knew exactly what I was getting into. I’d either kick ass or have my ass handed to me in the first round. It was something I’d been doing half my life anyway—beating the shit out of someone. Yeah, the money would be great. It was the first step in making my dream come true.
Big, fucking whoop.
“Who was that on the phone?” Her voice was low and soft as if she were afraid to talk too loudly.
“That was Frank.” I took a bite of the steak I’d grilled and it tasted like sawdust in my mouth. I kept chewing though. It gave me something concrete to concentrate on while I made up my mind. Tell her? Not tell her? I felt like a fucking little girl picking off daisy blooms to see if the kid who’d hit her on the playground liked her or not.
I didn’t have to do that. I knew I liked Abby. Hell, I fucking lo—
I pulled my thoughts up short. That was one thing I’d vowed never to do. Fucking fall in love. Watching her heart-shaped face as she watched me, I knew it might be too late to keep that vow.
We’d both known this thing between us wouldn’t last. Couldn’t. There were only a few days left of the vacation anyway. I’d heard Horace and Julie talking late the other night. Talking about when Abby had to go back to college. How they’d hate to leave here since we all seemed to be having such a good time.
Would they have thought the same thing if they’d realized I’d been boning my stepsister? I wanted her so badly right now I couldn�
�t think straight. I’d made a huge mistake this summer. I thought I could fuck her and leave. Bastard that I was, at first I’d even gotten a thrill by pulling something over my rich father’s eyes. Fucking his stepdaughter under his own roof.
Abby’s mother knew something was going on. She thought her daughter was falling in love with the bad boy. She had enough faith, probably, in Abby for her not to take it all the way. I snorted. I could charm the panties off a nun if I wanted to. I wasn’t conceited. I knew how a woman’s body worked and I knew how to use that knowledge against her.
Abby had been ripe for the picking. My fingers tightened around my knife and fork remembering that day on the beach when she’d been attacked. It had been a week ago and I had yet to make love to her again. Afraid, almost, in case there was something broken inside her and I couldn’t fix it.
ABBY
I took a small taste of the baked potato I’d made to go with the steaks Cage had grilled. I was hungry, but I wasn’t. Not now anyway. I’d thought I knew Cage well enough by now to know when something was bothering him. Something had been bothering him for the past several days, but this was different. I’d thought his strange behavior—not screwing me—had been because of the attack. I’d thought it had screwed him up more than it had me. He didn’t seem to want to touch me at all. Had my first assessment of the situation been correct? Did he view me as damaged goods now? Did he somehow think I had encouraged what had happened? Just like Danny had thought I owed him something simply because I was curvy and available and he assumed he was god’s latest gift to women. Did Cage assume I would welcome the touch of any man because I had been a virgin before I’d met him?
I laid down my fork. No use pretending I was hungry. No use pretending anything anymore. My magical summer vacation was coming to a screeching halt.
Cage followed my example and we looked at each other for a moment, as if memorizing each other’s features. As if we both knew this was it. The end.
“That was Frank. He’s set me up with a fight.”
I plucked at the tablecloth even though my heart was nose diving inside my chest, sinking to the very bottom of my soul. “That’s good, isn’t it? What you wanted?” All I could see was his bloody and battered face.
“Yeah, it’s what I wanted.”
His tone said something different and for a moment hope flared. Did that mean he wanted more now? With me?
“I’m leaving in the morning.”
Hope plummeted inside me, making my stomach hurt. “Can’t you stay to the end of the week? We’re all leaving then.” My mother had told me this morning that Horace had to get back to work. They were cutting the vacation short by a whole week.
“No. I’d lose too many days of training.”
I wanted to ask why he couldn’t continue to train here. He’d found a gym and ran along the beach each morning. What else did he need?
I was afraid to ask him that question because I was afraid of his answer.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t train here, but that he didn’t want to anymore.
It was hours later when my mother and stepfather returned. I still wasn’t comfortable thinking of Horace as my father. With the appearance of Cage, I now knew I never would. My attraction to his son—my stepbrother!—had short circuited that relationship.
“Hello, darling. Did you have a good night?” Mom and Horace had gone to dinner at the country club. It wasn’t my mother’s favorite place, but I think there had been some kind of fundraiser. My mother was unpretentious unlike the other wives and mothers I’d met this summer. She was a happy, genuinely good person and I was lucky to have her as my mom.
“Cage grilled some steaks.” I’d already washed the dishes and put away the fancy tablecloth and candles Maria had helped me find. I still wasn’t ready to tell my mother about Cage.
Or I hadn’t been. After tonight’s happenings I knew that moment was drawing closer and closer because my heart was starting to break.
When my mother tapped my legs, I sat up. My stepfather had taken a seat on the matching leather chair. I did have to say he had good taste. In wives and furniture. Horace loved my mother and I thought any man who had her in his life was very lucky.
“Where’s Cage?”
“He went out. Said he’d be back soon.” I circled my knees with my arms, hoping he wouldn’t make a liar out of me and stay out all night drinking. Or carousing. He’d left in a sour mood. It broke my heart thinking about him doing that now.
Horace’s phone rang and he rose, indicating he’d take it in the kitchen. He’d been getting calls from what I’d assumed was his practice all summer. Once, I even saw him doing a conference call using Skype. I’d given him a thumbs up for embracing the technology until I saw the footage on the screen. It was a picture of a man’s chest, cut open. And the gory parts hadn’t been blurred and faded out like they were on NCIS.
When he left, my mother asked, “Are you alright, darling?”
I felt the tears form in my eyes and it took all I had inside of me not to burst into tears and throw myself into my mother’s arms. It was funny really, how anticlimactic our parting had been. He’d said he was leaving, and I’d said okay. I had to close my eyes and didn’t see that Horace had returned until he spoke.
“I got a call from the harbor master. Cage took out the boat.”
I hadn’t expected that.
I looked at him, realizing that wasn’t all he had to say. “What’s wrong?”
“They can’t raise him on the radio.”
I shrugged my shoulder. I suppose he needed the time alone. If I wasn’t so afraid of water, I might have done the same thing. If I had thought about it.
“There’s a storm coming, Abby.”
I laughed. I was already in the middle of a shit storm. One that ended with my heart in tatters around my feet. The implications of what he was saying hit me. If Cage had turned off the radio, he’d have no way of knowing the weather forecast had been updated. If he’d even bothered to check the weather before he went out.
“Oh, Momma, what have I done?” I knew that I was the cause of him being out there, blind and heading straight for a storm.
Horace’s phone rang again. My mother pulled me into her arms and I was thankful she was there with me. “Does Horace know? About me and Cage?” I whispered my questions so Horace could hear whoever was on the line. I knew it was about Cage.
My mother patted my back. “We haven’t discussed it, but I’m pretty sure he does.”
“I didn’t mean to, Momma. I swear.”
“I know, sweetheart. You can’t pick who you love and who loves you.”
There was no use in denying my mother’s words. I loved Cage. Would love him with all of my heart. I was also positive he didn’t love me. I wasn’t even sure if he knew what that meant.
Horace ended the call and sat down on the coffee table in front of the couch. His size and mannerisms were so like Cage’s that, for a moment, my world blurred. Or maybe it was because I was having a difficult time processing what he was saying.
“They’ve located his boat, but he’s not on it. It looked as if it had been hit by a wave.”
Even though I was sitting down, my world tilted. All the feelings that had been building inside me all summer, solidified into a cold, hard lump in my chest.
Sound slammed back into me like a freight train. “We have to go find him.” That was my only thought. We could take Horace’s big boat out, search the inlet and find him. Simple.
“Search and rescue are already out, Abby.” Cage wasn’t the first angry young man who had taken a boat out when he shouldn’t have. There were a lot of young, foolish people who came here each summer. It made me feel better that the officials appeared to know what they were doing.
“Can we go down there?”
“Of course, we can.” My mother answered before Horace could, but I knew the big man wanted to go down there as much as I did. Coming to my feet, I said, “I’ll go change. I won’t t
ake long.”
In fifteen minutes, we found ourselves traveling down the two-lane black topped road to the marina. In the middle was a large wooden structure that housed the harbor master. No one stepped out to greet us and I didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad sign. Horace walked right in as though he owned the place. If this man wanted answers, someone was going to give them to him.
“Mr. Montgomery.” A large burly man came forward and stuck out his hand and I appreciated the way he got right to the point. “There’s no more news. We have teams searching the surrounding beaches.”
“Can we call in more teams?” Horace shook the man’s hand. “Cost is no object.”
“I realize that.” No doubt, he was used to rich, powerful men getting their way and he went out of his way to accommodate them. “I’ve called in a few from the surrounding area. They’ll be here within the hour.”
I could tell Horace wanted to demand that they appear in the next thirty seconds. Instead, he said, “Thank you.”
Horace turned back to me and my mother and I knew there was nothing else to do but wait.
The room had a hard, narrow bench along one wall and we took a seat to do just that. Wait.
CAGE
I knew I should have turned back when the sky had darkened. But I didn’t. Seemed like I’d been born doing foolish things. Hadn’t I done them all my life? Picking fights in foster care, dropping out of high school. Becoming a fighter.
What kind of life was that?
In the distance, the sky lit up as a storm rolled in and I swore I felt the boom of thunder under my feet. I knew I should turn around, head for the nearest piece of land. But I didn’t. I kept going and going, the slash of the wind and rain validating the bite of anger and wildness inside me.
When the waves started coming over the bow of the boat, I knew it was time to turn around. I wasn’t an idiot and I certainly didn’t have a death wish. A heavy wave hit the side of the boat and knocked me away from the wheel. I made my way to the benches on the side and put on a lifejacket.