Killing Game (2 page)

“What happened back there?” Her voice was small as she fixed her eyes on him.

“Don’t know. What did you hear?” Cain couldn’t resist using the opportunity to find out if she knew anything. As far as he could tell, she hadn’t realized that he had something to do with it. He glanced at her again.

“Sounded like a gunshot and then the police.” She rested her chin on her knees and stared intently at him.

“Sounded like that to me, too.”

“I’ve heard about killings in New York. Who’d do such a thing?” Her face was a mask of innocence as she looked at him, and he felt as though she’d just stuck a knife in his heart and twisted it.

“Some sick son of a bitch, that’s for sure.” His frown intensified as he pulled the car over to the side of the road and stopped.

Her stomach rumbled and Cain looked at her, taking in the pretty curve of her cheeks and her sweet, embarrassed smile.

“Hungry?” He smiled right back at her.

“Starved.”
She grinned and her whole face lit up.

“This isn’t a come on, you’re sweet and all, but nowhere is open for food... if you want a place to crash, just for a couple of days...” He tried to keep a straight face as he asked himself why he was offering her a place to stay. It was either a desire to give her a moment of respite in what he knew firsthand was a horrible situation, or he solely wanted to find out if she had seen anything in the alley.

“But you don’t even know me.” There was more than a little surprise in her voice.

“Just trying to help.
I figure from the lost look you’ve been wearing that firstly, you’re a runaway and secondly, you’ve never been to New York.”

“Point one... yes... point two... no, I haven’t been here before.”

“So, you want to take me up on my offer or do I drop you at a hotel?” He let go of the steering wheel and held his hands up by his side. “Promise I won’t try anything.”

She paused, her eyes dark in the low light and boring into his. They narrowed slightly, scrutinizing him, and he knew that she was weighing up her options.

He smiled again, trying to reassure her.

“Sure,” she said, a hint of hesitation in her voice.

Cain smiled at her and pulled the car back onto the road again, heading towards his apartment. It was no skin off his nose to give the girl a place to stay for the night. At least he’d get the chance to find out more about his little enigma and if she knew more than she was letting on.

* * *

Lily followed him in silence as he walked up the stairs in the building. Her cold and aching legs protested at the sudden demand of their use and she stared blankly at his back as he steadily climbed up the steps. About twenty minutes ago, her mind had finished computing all the information she’d thrown at it and it had become painfully clear—she was about to spend the night in an apartment with a man she didn’t know.

What if he was lying? He could get her into his apartment and not let her leave. He could make her do things. He could kill her. She kept her eyes fixed on his back, watching him closely as she tried to discern whether he really was just being nice to her.

Panic rose up in her stomach as she realized that he was taller than her, and stronger. The tight grip he’d had on her arm in the alley wasn’t the only thing that told her that. Now they were in the light, she could see how well toned his arms were, his tight t-shirt emphasizing them to her. She stopped dead when she reached the top of the stairs, her breathing becoming erratic as her fears pounded down on her. In her eyes, he seemed to move in slow motion. He carried on walking for a few meters and then turned to look at her, his brows meeting in a frown, causing the lines of his face to become hard. His eyes moved over her slowly and came to settle on her face. When she met them with her own, she was fascinated by the rapid change of his expression. The lines of his face softened, his brows rose questioningly and his eyes seemed to draw her in. They twinkled at her, clearly expressing what he was thinking.

“You alright?” he said.

She wondered why he’d bothered putting words behind his thoughts. She felt as though she could just stay there, locked in his eyes, and read everything he wanted to say to her.

She didn’t answer; she just absorbed the sight of him now that she could see him properly for the first time.

In the harsh sodium light of the hallway, her eyes wandered over him. They delighted in roaming down his biceps and strong forearms to the large hands that he’d placed on her, twice. Raking her gaze back up to his face, she felt something flutter inside her as he tilted his head to one side as though he was trying to figure her out.

The overhead lights caused shadows to play in the hollows of his cheeks, and her eyes came to rest on them before they moved down to his mouth, taking in the tempting fullness of his lower lip. Feeling conscious of his eyes on her, she raised hers up to meet his again. In an instant, she was lost in them. They were deep whirlpools of purest blue that had a power over her she’d never experienced before. Her breathing fell into synchronization with the rise and fall of his chest, and her emotions hitched in her throat.

Cain cocked his head to one side as he looked at her. It wasn’t like it was the first time a girl had openly checked him out, he just hadn’t expected it from someone so young and innocent looking as her. His eyes wandered their course over her face. Now that she was standing in the light, he couldn’t believe how pretty she was. Her bright green eyes sparkled into his and his whole body warmed under her gaze. Moving his eyes away from hers in an effort to avoid the feelings that she was stirring in him, they took to roaming over the soft, peachy roundness of her cheek down to the delicious curve of her mouth.

Eyes unblinking, he ran them down her shoulder length blonde hair and over her small, plump breasts to her slim, curvaceous waist. From there, they roamed over the full swell of her hips and down her long legs to her feet. He noticed for the first time that she was wearing heels, her toes exposed to the elements. The sight of her cold feet caused him to snap out of his reverie and his eyes darted back up to her face. He was trapped in her eyes again as she smiled awkwardly, making him wonder if she could feel the tension between them as clearly as he could. He took in the whole of her face one more time, watching as her cheeks flushed pink under his scrutiny.

“I’m fine.” Lily finally responded and took a step towards him. Her knees felt as though they had turned to jelly under the intensity of his gaze and suddenly she didn’t want to leave. Suddenly, staying near this man seemed perfectly reasonable.

He pursed his lips as he stared at her a moment longer and then moved towards his apartment door. Turning the key in the lock, he pushed the door open and walked in. Lily followed him and watched as he walked over to another door, seemingly checked it was locked and then promptly dropped every blind in the room. He disappeared into another room, and when he returned, he had a cigarette balanced on his lower lip.

Her eyes followed the movement of his hand as it slipped into his jeans pocket, and when it reappeared he was holding a small steel Zippo in between his index and middle finger. Her eyes stayed fixed on it as he raised it up and flicked it open, sparking it into life and bringing it to the tip of his cigarette. The long flame seemed to die for a moment as he sucked on the cigarette, tugging the flame to it and causing the end to glow red. As he moved the lighter away, the flame danced back into life, and he stared at it with a look of fascination in his eyes before he flipped the Zippo shut, effectively killing the flame. He released a long stream of blue grey smoke with a sigh, and her eyes fell to his mouth, her knees weakening as she felt his gaze on her again.

“Bugger!”
He rolled his eyes and his jaw clenched.

Lily jumped slightly at his sudden outburst. It had torn straight through her daydream about his mouth.

“Sorry. God, I’m a complete wanker.”

She watched in confusion as he disappeared into the room again. A few minutes later, he returned with a whole heap of clothes and a bathrobe. Seeing the dry clothes in his arms, she realized that in her constant daydream she’d forgotten that hers were soaked. She looked down at her body and her eyes widened when she saw her hard nipples were evident through the thin material of her halter-top. Swallowing hard, she wrapped her arms around her chest in an attempt to hide them from him.

“If you wanted to... get out of those...” Cain cursed himself for suddenly feeling like a pathetic schoolboy, but she was looking up at him with such large trusting eyes that it was making it hard for him to concentrate. “Look.
Clothes.
Dry.
Your clothes.
Wet... comprende?”

She nodded.

He pointed to the room he kept disappearing into. “Please, be my guest.”

Lily gathered up the bundle of clothes that he offered to her and slowly walked over to the room. She was thankful that he didn’t appear to be following her, and when she flicked the light on and the room was revealed to her, she was doubly thankful. It was a bedroom. An expansive bed was laid out in front of her, but other than it and a few scraps of furniture, the room was empty. She couldn’t take her eyes off the bed. What kind of guy had black silk sheets?

The tiny bubble of panic in her stomach exploded into a turbulent ocean of fear. She shut the door and hurriedly peeled off her wet clothes. Keeping one eye on the closed door at all times, she picked through the clothes he’d given her, and slipped into a pair of sweat pants and an oversized black t-shirt.

Clinging onto her wet clothes, she re-emerged and shut the door behind her. Noticing that the man was nowhere to be seen, she let her eyes wander around his apartment. It was as sparsely furnished as his bedroom, and the walls were greying with age and neglect.

As her eyes fell on the closed door opposite her, she remembered him checking that it was locked. It had been the first thing he’d done on entering the apartment. He’d walked straight in and checked that door. She felt the weight in her hands disappear and she jumped, her heart leaping into her throat as she did so.

“Jittery little chit, aren’t you?” He smiled.

She noticed that he was standing no more than a foot away from her, and he was now holding her wet things. She hadn’t even heard him approach.

How the hell did he do that? She offered him a slight smile.

“I’ll hang these in the bathroom,” He hollered as he walked off behind her. “There’s tea in the kitchen. It’ll warm you up.”

Lily still stared at the locked door, her mind racing through all the possibilities of what he had to hide.

Maybe he just didn’t like strangers near his stuff. It was perfectly reasonable. He probably had expensive stuff in the room and she couldn’t blame him for being cautious. After all, she had nothing and he knew it. She hoped he didn’t think she was out to rob him. She laughed internally at that. She was worried about him thinking bad things about her, and all this time she’d been thinking bad things about him. Well, some of it was bad. The rest, she didn’t know what to make of that. She tried to take her eyes off the door but found she couldn’t.

“You’re a little quiet. You sure you’re alright?”

She jumped again and her gaze darted between the door and him. His eyes followed hers to the door and he narrowed them.

Catching her around the shoulders, he marched her over to the couch and sat her down on it, then walked away. Lily blinked as the feeling of his hands echoed on her skin.

* * *

The man placed the tea down on the coffee table in front of her and then settled on the other couch. He leaned his elbow on the arm of it and supported his chin on the pad of this thumb while his index finger played idly on his lips.

She picked up the tea and tried to ignore the feeling of his eyes boring into her.

“Thanks... wow... God, I’m so rude. I don’t even know your name.” She turned to look at him and he seemed to be carefully weighing up his answer.

“Cain.” His lips played into a smile as her eyes widened.

“Did your mother call you that?” She almost wanted to tease him by asking if he had a brother named Abel.

“No.
My associates.”

She frowned. She had expected him to say ‘friends’ but instead he’d chosen to call them ‘associates’. Either it was a British thing or he was the kind of guy who didn’t make friends.

“So... got a name for me in there?” His voice was low, nothing more than a purr. He gave her a little smile when she blushed violently and she wondered if her reaction had satisfied him somehow.

“Lily,” she said shakily and held her mug in both hands to stop the tea from spilling over her as her fingers trembled. Apparently it wasn’t just his eyes that could do things to her.

“Did your mother call you that?” Cain teased.

“Yes.” Lily sipped her tea to steady herself.

A split second of palpable silence descended on the room, and she cursed herself for answering him so curtly.

“So,
Lily
.”
Cain pronounced her name pointedly and watched her cheeks glow pink again. He took a drag on the remains of his cigarette and reminded himself to play nice. He stubbed the cigarette out and then slouched back into his seat.
“Runaway, huh?”

She frowned for a moment before setting her tea down on the table and curling up on her couch. He couldn’t blame her for being confused. One moment ago he was turning on the charm, and the next he was being nothing more than friendly.

“Would you be surprised if I said it was because of a man?” she
said,
a little embarrassment in her eyes.

“Not really. Where do you hail from?”

“Hail?” She raised a brow at him.

“Come from, where do you come from?” He watched her as she carefully considered her answer, and the corners of his mouth twitched into a fraction of a smile. He liked how cautious she was around him. In some twisted way, it made him feel satisfied.