Cain and Abel

337 Pages·2005·1.83 MB·English

by  Michelle Perry

M i c h e l l e P e r r y
®
Jewel Imprint: Emerald
Medallion Press, Inc.
Florida, USA
Dedication
For Quinton, Chase and Selena
Published 2005 by Medallion Press, Inc.
225 Seabreeze Ave.
Palm Beach, FL 33480
The MEDALLION PRESS LOGO
is a registered tradmark of Medallion Press, Inc.
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this
book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the
publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment
from this “stripped book.”
Copyright © 2005 by Michelle Perry
Cover Illustration by Adam Mock
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perry, Michelle.
Cain and Abel / Michelle Perry.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-932815-03-1
1. Family violence--Fiction. 2. Runaway wives--Fiction. 3. Abused
wives--Fiction. 4. Tenessee--Fiction. I. Title.
PS3616.E7935C35 2004
813’.6--dc22
2004028347
Acknowledgements:
For your invaluable help and encouragement with
this project, I’d like to thank Theresa Gaus, Rebecca
Miller, Sally Apokedak, Cat Brown, Barbara Hughes,
Charlina and Mavis Adams, Diana White, the WWCG
gang: Patsy Phillips, Kate MacNeil, Julie Jones, Eric
Kregel, Nicole Service, Carrie Smoot, Lori Saltis, Glee
Bohanon, Caryl Harvey, Karla Bran, Angie Blanco,
Marie Disbrow and Carole Suzanne Jackson.
Thanks to my family and friends for your support.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Chapter 1
If he looked up, she was as good as dead. Jessica was
afraid to move, afraid to breathe, afraid he would hear
her heart slamming into her chest from across the room.
How had Cole found her?
She watched him eat his hamburger and marveled at
his casualness as he sipped his iced tea.
Was it possible that he didnʼt know?
It had taken fi ve years for her to stop looking over her
shoulder. Five years to reach the place where a ringing
phone or a knock at the door didnʼt terrify her. The idea
that he mightʼve crossed her path again by mere chance
staggered her.
But the late Mrs. Cole Ramsey, as she humorlessly
considered herself, had never been much of a believer in
chance.
2 9 Michelle Perry

Fear coiled in her stomach like a thick, cold serpent.
She wiped her sweaty palms on her slacks and clutched
her purse. As she gauged the distance between herself
and the door, Jessica tried to suppress the whimper that
rose in her throat. Her habit of always seeking a back
table may have gotten her killed.
To get out, sheʼd have to walk right by him, and she
didnʼt think she could do it. She looked around the room,
searching for any means of escape, any help. Nothing.
Then she glanced back at Cole and nearly screamed.
He was staring at her.
Her furiously pounding heart nearly skidded to a
stop as his pale blue eyes locked on hers. Then Cole did
something extraordinary, something that frightened her
more than if heʼd pulled a gun.
He smiled.
With a strangled cry, Jessica jumped up and toppled
her chair. It banged against the gray marble fl oor like a
gunshot. Conversation at the neighboring tables ceased,
and the other customers seemed to fade away until there
was nothing left but Cole and her and the ragged sound
of her own breathing. Coleʼs smile fl ickered and died and
was replaced by a look of confusion.
Was it possible he hadnʼt recognized her?
The thought seemed ridiculous, even though sheʼd
tried to alter her appearance. Her long blond hair was
now short and mousy brown; her green eyes were hidden
beneath a pair of brown contact lenses. She no longer
looked like Jessica Ramsey, the trophy wife of a wealthy
Cain and Abel 9 3

businessman. She was Emily Jackson, a shy woman
who worked at Mid-Tennessee Realty and hid behind
thick bangs.
Cole looked over his shoulder, then back at her, as if
trying to spot the cause of her distress.
Jessicaʼs stomach lurched. He hadnʼt recognized her.
Sheʼd just blown it.
Cole wiped his mouth with a napkin and pushed away
from the table.
Panic freed her feet, and Jessica sprinted past him.
Cole shouted something, but the roar of the pulse in
her ears drowned it out. Propelling herself out the door,
Jessica slammed into a beefy man in a business suit.
His briefcase went fl ying as he staggered and nearly
fell. It skidded off the sidewalk and landed underneath
a nearby car. As the man scrambled for it, Jessica dart-
ed around him. She ignored his indignant cry as she
scanned the street.
Where could she hide?
Jessica cursed herself for walking to lunch. Her car
was fi ve blocks away in the real estate offi ce parking lot.
It might as well have been on another planet.
The bell above the restaurant door chimed and blindly,
she ran. Her low heels clicked against the pavement as
she wove through the midday crowd, trying to put as
many people between her and Cole as possible.
Jessica fell in with a group of shoppers crossing
Duncan Street and tried to make herself disappear in the
middle of them, but her terror wouldnʼt allow her to keep
4 9 Michelle Perry

their relaxed pace for long. She broke from the pack and
took a sharp left down a side street.
As Jessica leapt off the curb, her heel caught in a grate.
She sprawled forward onto the asphalt and cried out as
the rough surface bit into her palms and ripped through
the knees of her slacks. Blood made her fi ngers slippery
as she tried to work her heel free from the grate. The
navy pump was wedged in tightly and, in her despera-
tion, Jessica abandoned it. She yanked the other one off
as well and raced off in her bare feet.
Her knees stung but she ran as hard and as far as she
could before the familiar tightening started in her chest.
Oh God, not now!
A bout of coughing wracked her body. As Jessica
stumbled into an alley, the warm, fragrant scent of fabric
softener assaulted her. Stunned, she leaned against the
gray slate of Michaelsonʼs Laundromat.
Had she really run seven blocks?
The exhaust from the dryers pushed air through the
vents on the side of the building. Lint particles danced in
the warm air. They tickled her throat, and her coughing
grew steadily worse. She had to get out of here, but she
was too terrifi ed to move. Terrifi ed that Cole would seize
her if she stepped into the open.
He was out there somewhere; Cole never gave up.
To her horror, she began to wheeze. The high-pitched
hissing seemed obscenely loud in the enclosed space, and
Jessica felt a fl ash of anger at her bodyʼs betrayal.
Pain stabbed through Jessicaʼs knees as she hunkered
Cain and Abel 9 5

behind a chipped, green garbage bin and fought for her
next breath. She fumbled at her purse with stiffening fi n-
gers, leaving a sticky crimson smear across its shiny black
surface. Her shaking hands nearly dropped the .38 as she
jerked it out and laid it across her lap. She let her purse
slip to the ground as she pulled out her inhaler, shook it
and took the fi rst puff. She held her breath for a seven
count, waiting for the steroids to hit her bronchial tubes.
Maybe she had lost him. Maybe . . .
Through the crack between the dumpster and the wall,
Jessica watched Cole enter the alley. She dropped the in-
haler in her lap and clutched the gun with both hands.
“I saw you run in here,” he said casually, and walked
right past her hiding place.
Jessica nearly lost her footing on a discarded bread
wrapper when she lurched to her feet. Something clat-
tered to the ground, and she realized an instant too late
that it was her inhaler. For a split second, she took her
eyes off Cole to watch it roll underneath the dumpster,
and jerked her gaze back to him when she realized her
mistake.
Oh God, she wasnʼt ready for this. Another stupid
mistake like that and heʼd kill her.
“Stay back!” she growled.
Cole raised his hands as Jessica trained the gun on
him. She hated the way her hand trembled. She feared
the man standing before her more than she did the devil
himself. His handsome face was just a mask.
“Let me walk away,” she managed.