Page 143 of Cain

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Too late. It’s already there. And you put it there.”

I roll my eyes. “Blame me all you want. You are the one who can’t stop smiling.”

“Well, you’re the one to blame again.”

I let out a laugh I can’t hold back, then look him straight in the eyes. It’s the first time I’ve seen them glimmer like this. The first time I notice those faint, sexy wrinkles at the corners. I think he’s giving me a genuine smile, and somehow, that’s the most dangerous thing I’ve seen on him yet.

“How come you didn’t have your men stalk me and did it yourself?” I ask.

“Because you’re my business. My obsession. My responsibility. I don’t trust anyone else to watch you the way I do. No one touches what’s mine. And I swear to you, if I ever find out that someone touched you, I’ll kill them.” He strokes my hair back. “And if I find out that you didn’t tell me …”

My heart is pounding. He’s talking as if he knows what happened with Landon.

“Yes?” I ask, swallowing hard.

“Well, you won’t like the outcome.”

Kurva …Fuck, this man scares the hell out of me.

I glance away, needing a breath, and the Rubik’s Cube on his desk catches my eye.

“You still haven’t solved that thing?” I nod toward it. “How long has it been? Twenty years?”

He glances at it, the smile still lingering.

“Twenty-three. And I’m not planning to cheat.”

I raise an eyebrow. “So, eternal frustration in a cube?”

It’s so weird to me that such an intelligent man can’t solve a simple Rubik’s Cube.

He exhales slowly and stands.

“You know, for years, I didn’t realize that all this time, I wasn’t solving it. I was just shuffling it.” He walks around the desk and picks up the cube. “She wanted to teach me how to see ten steps ahead so I wouldn’t end up like her. She wanted me to learn how to control everything.” He twists it once, eyes fixed on it. “But even if I solved it, she’s not here to see that I did.”

And that’s when I know. He’s just a kid on the inside, deprived of his mother way too early.

His mother didn’t want him to solve a stupid, simple puzzle. She tried to teach him strategy and patience. How to think differently.

He’s mastered strategy, but he’s missed the deeper lesson.

But I guess some things can’t be won through force alone.

“Your mother wanted to train you without erasing your childish self.” He lifts his dark green eyes and looks at me. They’re soft, maybe even a little worried. “Maybe you don’t really want to solve it.”

“What?”

“You said it yourself. She’s not here to share your success with. Maybe it was never about solving it.”

His eyes dart across the floor, taking in my words, then settle on the cube. It’s like he’s seeing it for the first time.

He studies it for a few seconds as if calculating ten moves ahead. Then he twists it, slowly at first. But as the seconds pass, his movements grow faster. More deliberate. More confident.

I remain silent for a few minutes and let him think as he twists it. He doesn’t hesitate. Not even for a second.

And then, there it is.