Bad Habits Part 38

"Kim is indebted to Richard for a good quarter of a million so far with her mounting legal fees. She's been making payments of $300 a month to him," Keith chuckled. He started to laugh louder and louder.

"Do you want me to hate you, Keith?" Simone asked.

He ignored her, dropping his head back and releasing the last of his laughter. "Kim was always stubborn. Don't know how Dennis put up with her. But they kinda fit in that urban kind of way." He looked back at Simone with a sneer. "She thinks she can do it on her own, prideful. Not like you, sweetheart. You can be reasoned with. Can't you, Simone?"

"Leave my sister alone," she said, and it sounded pathetically like a plea.

"She's stretched everything to cover herself, but she and Dennis weren't the best at managing their finances. Take that house he insisted on buying for her. Why do people always overextend themselves? People should live within their means...their cla.s.s."

"If you hurt Kim in any way, I will never forgive you Keith," Simone said.

"Under my suggestion, Richard got her to take out a second mortgage on that house. But the medical bills had her credit shot to h.e.l.l. So I worked a deal for her. I'm the primary. The house is now in my name. She doesn't know this. We just took care of it."

Simone stood there, unable to speak.

He nodded, letting it sink in. And then he sat forward, dropping his elbows to his knees. "That's what family does. Take care of things."

"You stole her house?"

"You're not listening, sweetheart. As long as she makes her mortgage payments, the house is hers." He rose with blood dripping from his cheek to his collar. "However, there is that issue of her legal fees."

"That's low, even for you. You broke the law! My sister was vulnerable and you took advantage of her? What kind of monster are you?"

He flinched. "I told you about calling me names."

"You evil b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Why would you do that? Why?" Simone demanded.

"I did that to help. She wouldn't accept your help so I gave her mine. At a cost."

"That's a lie!" she leveled an accusatory finger at him. "At least own up to it! You did that for you! To control her, me, everything! You won't get away with it! I won't let you!"

"She has another three months to go before she can see a dime out of this settlement with the city. And she needs Richard to do it. You thinking of walking out on me, then you better be prepared for the consequences and the lives you affect."

Simone paced, trying to comprehend fact from fiction. At every turn, her nightmare worsened. At every turn she grew more desperate, heartbroken. She looked from Keith to the floor, unsure of what to do. His betrayal had so many layers, her head spun from it all.

"You're upset. Maybe a little time to cool off will help," he said, reaching for her. She swung and slapped him hard. He received it, but rubbed the sting out of his jaw. "I'll sleep in the guestroom, for now," he said.

She shot around him, grabbed her purse, keys, and cigarettes. Keith just stood there watching. Running out of the door, she hurried to her car, blinded by her tears. Her car was in the garage. Keith's car was parked in the drive. She used his key on her key ring and got in. Crying.

Cain stepped out of his front door in time to see Simone run to her car. Her hair was in her face. But her manner and the way she hurried gave him pause. Closing his door, he watched, trying to see, but the shadows of the late hour prevented it. Maybe she was going to the store. That was possible. He realized different when she swerved out of the driveway at such a high speed her tires screeched a burn over the pavement, and she hit the mailbox at the end of the drive. Cain hurried to his car. He jumped in and went after her.

The chase was on.

He turned several streets before he caught up with her Jaguar. To his horror, Simone swerved in and out of lanes as if she were drunk. He blew his horn at her after she ran through a light, risking his own life to do the same. The police would surely throw them both in jail.

He reached for his cell phone trying to dial her. But he couldn't. He didn't know her number. Instead he followed her, growing increasingly concerned and confused by her behavior.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" she yelled in the car. She hit the steering wheel repeatedly with her fist. When the car ahead braked she swerved out of the lane and almost had a head on collision with another, so she swerved back. With shaky hands and blinded by tears, she fished out a cigarette, pressed it between her lips and managed to light it. The inhalation of tobacco did soothe her some. She sucked hard on the cigarette, trying to fill her lungs and body with more than grief.

A car behind her blew its horn. Her eyes flipped up to the rearview mirror. Was it Keith? She couldn't tell. She couldn't see anything but headlights. She wiped at her tears and made a sharp turn at the next light then the next. She lost him or so she thought.

Simone pressed down on the cigarette with her lips and reached in her purse for her cellular phone, dialing with her thumb while handling the road.

"Answer, Kim! Answer!"

"h.e.l.lo?"

"Mom?"

"Kitt? Is that you?"

Simone nearly burst into tears of relief. She laughed at the sound of Diane's voice. If ever she needed Diane it was now. "Hi, Mama."

"I'm mad as h.e.l.l at you! Don't hi Mama me! Why did you leave here and not give me your number? I got to fight your sister just to find you, and you let that douche take you from me!"

"I did..."

"Kim constantly talking smack to me like I don't deserve respect, and I needed you. I've been looking for you."

Simone sniffed.

"Kitt? What's wrong? What's wrong, baby? Is it d.i.c.k brain? Did he do something? Talk to Mama. What he do? Motherf.u.c.ker. I know he did something. I told you, you didn't need no counseling. You needed to drop kick his a.s.s to the curb! Counseling my foot. They always want to throw us to counselors. Bulls.h.i.+t! They people too. What the f.u.c.k made them so special they get to tell you how f.u.c.ked up your life is? Bulls.h.i.+t! What he do?"

"Nothing, nothing. I'm just so glad to hear your voice. I-I-I-I miss you," she sniffed, trying to steer, swerving again around a slow moving car.

"I miss you too, baby. Come home. We need you. The babies and me need you, not Kim. She too busy trying to fool some white boy into thinking she perfect. But we miss you."

"Thank you, Mama."

"Come home!"

"I'll try, I promise. Soon, okay?"

"No! Come home! I don't like it. No man takes you from your family like that. Kim here with these babies alone and won't let me watch them. She let them be abused by that black b.i.t.c.h. And you know, I've been trying to stay clean. We need you, got nothing. And I think your sister is on drugs!"

"What?"

"Yeah, I think she is. I can tell. I seen her bathroom-"

"Ma, have you been drinking?"

"What the f.u.c.k does that have to do with anything? I'm telling you we need you to come home right now!"

Diane went on rambling about Kim being on drugs, tissues with blood and pills, and other things that made no sense. She ranted about Anne and the way the boys are terrified of her. How she knows that she pinches them when no one is looking. She ranted about her neighbor who has been looking in her window when she is sleeping. How she tried to stay clean, but she thought she saw their father, who none of them have seen in over four years. She ranted and ranted and Simone listened, enjoying the sound of her voice. Looking up at a bar, she slowed down and drove up into the parking lot.

"Ma, I got to go."

"What? Did you hear me?"

"I did, and yes, I understand. I will come home. Stay out of Kim's things. You know how she is. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Kitt!"

She ended the call. Dropping the cigarette into the ashtray, she grabbed the steering column with both hands and dropped her forehead against it, then cried.

There was a soft tap at her window. Her head shot up. With her hair in her face, she wiped at her eyes and looked up, fearful. Here she was in the parking lot of some bar in the middle of the night. But the face she saw smiling down with concern was the one she had come to count on. "Cain?"

She opened her door. The seat belt moved and he pulled it open wider.

"What the h.e.l.l was that? I followed you for ten miles," he said alarmed and then paused. Her tears, her disheveled state, her smoking, something was more than wrong. She looked broken. "Simone, what is it?"

"You followed me."

"What happened?"

"My marriage is over," she choked out barely, "and I can't get out of it."

Cain reached inside for her. She accepted his hand allowing him to pull her out of the car. Then she came into his arms, throwing hers around his neck and pressing her tear stained cheek to his face. He held her in the parking lot. A few cars zipped by with the tailwinds blowing her hair about her head. Closing the door, he touched her face. "Hey, it's okay. It will be."

"You don't understand," she wept.

"I do. Let's go inside."

Before she could object, or run from him, he walked her inside of the bar. There were several seated on the round stools in front of a mirrored wall of liquor and a man filling up frosty mugs with beer, others at tables. A corner booth to the back was empty. Cain led the way, his hand holding hers. He pulled her behind him. They were just outside of Castle Rock, in the less established area of Van Meyers, a small fis.h.i.+ng town. She had driven right through, and he chased her all the way.

Simone slipped into the booth. Cain took a seat across from her. They were given sticky menus. He ordered them both a beer. Simone dropped her face into her hands. Her shoulders shook with silent tears. She didn't look up.

Cain waited.

The beer came, slos.h.i.+ng suds over the top, spilling down the side. He sipped and waited. What else could he do? Then she lifted her eyes and shared her story with him. All of it. Who her husband really was and who she was. She included what he'd done to her and what she'd allowed. It was as if he wasn't there and as if she was facing herself and confessing. She was forcing herself to admit to her duplicity in the destruction of her world and admit that there was no going back.

It was the bravest thing she could have done, considering how each time she spoke he felt it shredding all the naivete that made her so special.

When she was done, Cain felt such caged rage at the man who was his boss. He kept stroking his chin to keep from pounding his fist into something. He had fantasies for Mrs. Livingston, of her being sweet, being the ant.i.thesis of his wife. He had molded her into a perfect example of what he could have in a woman, since his own wife had slowly become everything but what he wanted. And she was much more than that. She was just human, needing love, wanting to believe in love. And like him, she had wasted that on someone less deserving.

Maybe that would explain what happened next between him and Simone Livingston. How they both turned the corner. That was his rationale for his actions, because he did act. He reached across the table and took her hand. At first she didn't notice, until he brought it to his mouth and kissed the inside of her palm. She dropped her head back crying, understanding, nodding that she felt it too, and neither of them verbalized it.

"Cain."

"I'm sorry he hurt you, but you aren't trapped. He won't get away with it. Let me help you."

"I don't want to go home." Simone admitted.

"Okay, okay."

"I don't want to be alone."

He stared at her. "Okay."

She sniffed. "Take me somewhere."

She withdrew her hand and eased out of the booth. Cain stared down at his beer, empty, hers un-touched. He hadn't given her the rescue speech. He hadn't told her how he could save her, be her hero. She didn't seem to want a hero. She wanted something else. So he dropped the bills on the table and followed her out. Deciding he did as well.

Contrary to popular opinion, Simone didn't believe crying made anyone feel better. In her experience, crying only made you feel worse, which is one of the reasons she hated being a 'crier'. Her sister, Kim, didn't have that problem. She internalized her pain. Simone could recall her only weeping once for Dennis, and that was on the day they pulled the plug. Publicly, Simone never saw her cry again. Not even when the surprise cribs he had ordered for the twins was delivered on the same day of the funeral. Nothing could break her strength. She wished she was as strong as Kim.

Dabbing at her puffed, red, swollen eyes with a bar napkin, she slipped into the front seat of Cain's car. Keith's car was parked to the left of them. A s.h.i.+ny platinum convertible Jaguar-the vehicle a family man wouldn't necessarily own. How come she didn't see that before? There was so much evidence over the years to clue her in to her husband that she sank deeper into despair at her willful blindness to it all.

Simone took a slow calming breath to not crumble once more. She opened her eyes again as the shoulder strap to the seatbelt closed in on her, locking her securely to the seat. In numbed silence, she began to plan her liberation. Each step she took away from Keith's control gave her the molecule of strength to take the next-except for this one. Cain. Her gaze flickered and she caught his movement as he walked around the front of the car to join her from the driver's side. What was she doing with this man, dragging him into her drama? She knew exactly what. She was disappearing, and it felt good.

He closed the door looking over to her with that boyish grin of his that made her melt. "This is a port town, lots of fishermen in and out. There's a motel that's pretty decent up the road. I know because I come down to fish at times and not because I stay in motels away from home on the regular...yeah...so um...yeah we can go there. It will give you a place to regroup. Or we can drive back into Castle and-"

She put her hand over his. His eyes lowered to her touch. Simone sniffed the tears back and gave a weary sigh. "I don't want to drag you into my problems. You don't deserve that for being a friend. That's all I really needed tonight, someone to talk to, a friend. You've been that. Tell me where the motel is, and I can go on my own."

As much as she wanted him, and she did want him long before Keith gave her license to, she respected him. He was a good guy. Maybe he was one of the last good guys. How could she corrupt another woman's good guy? The last thing she wanted was to do to Maryanne Gatlin what was done to her.

His hand closed around hers. "You aren't the only one that's lost something, Simone. Before I saw you tonight, I was headed out too. No, scratch that. I was running from problems that are in some ways like yours and in a lot of ways different from yours. I know how it is. Trust me. I'm here now because I need to be."

She opened her mouth to explain further, but he started the car, reversed, and pulled out of the parking s.p.a.ce. Simone dropped her head back on the headrest, closing her eyes. There was such a heavy burden on her now. She had so little mental strength left, especially with this man sitting next to her, looking the way he did, talking to her the way he did and treating her the way he did. If she had to choose one sin, why not choose this one with this last good guy.

She knew the answer why.

If something, or more importantly a man, looks to be too good to be true, he probably was. What made Cain so special? Was he not doing exactly what Keith had done to her? So what, he made her laugh. At one time, Keith had made her laugh. So what, he excited her. At one time Keith thrilled her. So what he offered her comfort. Rescue. Isn't that the same packaging Keith walked into her life gift-wrapped in? Another man, good intentions or not, was the last thing she needed.

Simone decided she'd accept the ride to the motel and politely dismiss him. That's as far as she'd go.

Her eyes opened when they turned off the road. He was right. The motel wasn't far at all. She could walk back to her car. She would have to in the morning. She just needed an escape tonight. Cain parked in the circle drive at the front of the motel. Simone reached for her purse from between her legs. "This is as far as I need you to go, Cain. Thanks, but no thanks...I...I can't. I'm not interested." She opened her car door and got out before he could say a word to stop her. She hurried around his car before he could call for her, and went through the automatic doors before she could change her mind. She did look back. He sat there staring at her, not driving away. Simone shook her head and walked to the front counter.

"Welcome to Fisherman's Cove. Will you be staying the night or two?"

"Yes, can I have a room?"

"I will need your Identification and a major credit card as an acceptable form of payment." The woman with a crown of curly brown hair and a large mole to her right cheek smiled. She was stocky, looking up from the counter instead of dead on. Simone guessed her to be only five foot two. Simone removed her AMEX and pa.s.sed it over.

"Have you been here before?"

"No, I just want a room now please. One night, no make that two nights. Give me two nights." She rubbed her brow nervously. The soft whoosh sounds of the automatic doors made her close her eyes. She knew without looking who came in. Simone bit back her sob, wis.h.i.+ng he wouldn't make this so easy for her.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but this card is declined."

Simone blinked at her, shocked. "What?"

"I apologize. I ran it twice."

"That's not possible."

"What's wrong?" Cain asked.