“And the door had been broken open!” she cried. “Our stuff was thrown around. Every dish in the cabinet was broken. M-my sofa, Damon. My new sofa. Someone took a knife to all the c-cushions and the st-stuffing was ripped out. I thought, it had to be a robbery. I went to grab some stuff for Molly so we could go back down to Mrs. Danport’s apartment and c-call the police, but when I went in Molly’s room…”
Damon’s stomach flipped. “Chelsea, honey.” He kept his voice low and calm. “What happened?”
“There was a note stuck to her pillow,” she whispered. “Stuck to my baby’s pillow, Damon. They rammed a knife right into the place where my daughter’s head would have been. And it said, ‘Tell your brother to disappear, or your daughter will.’”
Beside him, Cain froze in place, and Damon realized he’d been close enough to hear the entire conversation.
“It’s my father. He’s doing this, isn’t he?” Cain whispered. His face was paler than Damon had ever seen it. “Fuck!” He stepped away and grabbed at his hair with both hands. “Fuck him!” He turned toward the window, his body curled in on itself.
Christ.
Damon sucked in a deep breath as things began to click in his mind. He hadn’t been careful enough. Either Cain had let it slip to his father that Damon was alive - but,no. Looking at his anguished expression, Damon didn’t believe that. He simply couldn’t. Okay, then. It had to have been last night at the fundraiser. He’d thought he’d gotten away, but there were probably security cameras all over the place. Someone had seen his face and figured things out.
The element of surprise was no longer a factor.
“Chelsea, I know you’re pissed right now.” She made a noise that was a cross between grief and outrage, and he winced. “But you’ve got to let me help you.”
“Help mehow, Damon? They know who I am. They know where Ilive.”
“Stop panicking andthink, Chelsea. Is there anyone you could be safe with? Any place out of town you can go?”
“You want me to take my baby and, what? Just leave? How will I work? How will we live?”
“Don’t worry about the money,” he told her. “Do you have a place? Nowhere in Boston. Out of state would be better. Any friends who could help you?”
“No! God. My friends are all local, and I wouldn’t bring this shit to their doorsteps either! That’s your deal, not mi-”
“Okay,” he interrupted. “Okay. I have an idea. I’ll come get you. Pack what you need - not too much - and I’ll take you somewhere you’ll be safe. One hour, okay?”
“Damon.” There was a world of warning in those two syllables. Then Chelsea sighed, totally defeated, and Damon’s heart squeezed again. “Yeah. Fine.” She hung up without another word.
He held the phone in his hand for a second, staring as the screen went black, then lifted his gaze to Cain, who still stood in front of the window, staring blankly at the rain-slicked parking lot below.
“You heard?”
Cain startled, like he’d forgotten Damon was there. “Yeah. Yeah, I heard.”
“I’m gonna take her someplace safe,” Damon said, and Cain nodded, but didn’t turn.
“Tell me if you need anything. Money, or… anything.”
Damon closed his eyes. The parallels were not lost on him. Cain felt guilty for what had happened to Chelsea, the same way Damon did. And just like Damon, he was offering money because he was pretty sure anything else he had to offer would be rejected. The difference was, in this particular case Cain had nothing to feel guilty about.
“Actually, I need something more than that,” Damon said. This time, maybe sensing the change in his tone, Cain turned to look at him. “You might have noticed I’m a little dinged up.” He gestured towards his leg. “I can drive, but I haven’t driven for any length of time since I’ve been back. The place where I want to take Chelsea… it’s far. Two days’ drive, at least. Maybe more, with a kid, especially since we’ll need to take the long way. And I don’t want to fly. We can’t use anything that can be traced.”
Cain’s eyes were huge. “So, you want me to come with you?”
“Can you?”
“Yeah. Yes.” His face clouded. “I’ll figure out something to tell my parents.”
“You sure? We have no idea what we’re getting into here,” Damon warned.
Part of him wanted Cain to back out, both to keep him safe and because the man was a complication Damon didn’t need. But another part of him wanted Cain to be with him. Improbably, the guy kept him sane.
“I’m positive,” Cain said. “I won’t let you down.”
God.
Without conscious thought, Damon lifted a hand to Cain’s face, his thumb tracing Cain’s cheekbone for an instant before he pulled it back and turned away.
“I’ll go pack a bag,” he said roughly as he dragged his broken body into his room.
The way Cain looked at him - just as he had the previous night - made Damon’s chest tight with nerves and hot with an emotion he couldn’t quite name. With all his scars, all of his failures, Damon was nobody’s hero, and he could only hope Cain figured that out before one or both of them got hurt.
