Cameron watched as the man approached the community center carrying light-pink roses with a dark fuchsia trim. Beautiful, but they immediately put her on the defense. Daron was aware of the main reason she didn’t like bouquets.
The delivery guy grinned. “It seems that someone wanted you to know you’re special.”
“You can keep them and give them to your girlfriend.” Cameron continued moving swiftly toward her car. Bishop had her leery of accepting them, even when they were sent from someone she knew, as well as sniffing perfume in department stores. He told her that as skilled as she was, she couldn’t kick ass if she was drugged.
“They smell wonderful.” He held them toward her face.
She knocked them away.
He tried again.
Something was definitely wrong. She snatched them out his hand and pressed them into his face. “Describe the scent.”
He jerked his head to the right. Cameron punched him in his gut and stuffed the roses in his face. His body collapsed. The floral van doors whipped open and two large men rushed out. “We wanted to do this the easy way.”
“By drugging me? Interesting.” Cameron unclipped the gun holster. “I’m down for the hard way.”
She fired at the door, forcing the men to jump back and close it as she ran toward her vehicle for cover. Out the corner of her eye, a lanky man approached and fired a taser. She turned her body. The barbed darts missed connecting with her flesh by millimeters.
One of the men from the van scrambled across the street and rushed her. Cameron blocked his jab, but the needle pricked her skin. She immediately released the guy, grabbing the grey bead off her bracelet before sinking the needle in her thigh. The drug would slow down the effect of whatever she’d been given but she needed to get to safety. She jammed an elbow into the guy behind her, pulled the needle out of her neck and slammed one of her black beads to his chest, then flung him into the other man. Cameron pressed her earring as she raced to the Charger. She slid behind the wheel, locking the door and gasping for breath.
Her hand slammed down on the red button on her dashboard to engage protection mode. A smoked glass rose to cover the windows. The man who reached for the door handle screamed as the blades dropped, slicing into his hand. Another man banged with a gun trying to break the glass.
Pulling out her phone, she tried to dial Greg but her eyes felt like lead. The banging quieted as the phone slipped from her fingers and she faded into darkness.
* * *
A beeping noise like a truck backing up filtered into Cameron’s mind. Loud voices seemed to be in a heated debate. The men who attacked her were attempting to tow her car. They would have a difficult time hooking it up with the protection system engaged. The Charger dropped a shield from the undercarriage to the ground so they couldn’t easily access what they needed to take the car away. She could hear Daron’s voice as she struggled to open her eyes.
“Greg. How in the hell do I get into the car?”
The sound of flesh connecting with glass echoed in the air. Cameron tried to turn her head with no success. Her mouth was so dry. Eyes heavy like lead. Her body felt like it was pinned to the seat.
“I saw the blades on the handle,” Daron roared. “She’s not moving. I need to open the damn door.”
Seven taps on the glass, then the locks clicked. “I’m in. I got her.”
“Cam, baby talk to me.” Daron’s fingers slid to her neck, searching for a pulse.
“What in the hell have you gotten yourself into?” Cameron managed to say as she came out of her fog. Her body was still not quite cooperating but her mind and mouth were in gear.
He slowly shifted her body toward his, resting his forehead on hers.
“Is she all right?” Pedro asked, peering in over Daron’s shoulder.
“Not quite. Drive my car to the house.” Daron stood, passing Pedro his keys.
Pedro’s eyes went large as dinner plates and his mouth hung open for a moment before a smile crept over his face.
Daron lifted her from behind the steering wheel. “I’m driving her to Little Company of Mary to get her checked out.”
Pedro practically skipped over to a dark-grey Maserati Quattroporte. Now she understood Pedro’s earlier expression.
“I don’t need to get checked out. Take me to my house,” Cameron insisted as Daron escorted her around to the passenger side. “I need to sleep it off.”
“Do it for me?” Daron closed the door and returned to the driver’s side.
“I’m serious. Don’t take me to the hospital,” she warned. The hospital made her an easy target. Too many strangers and not enough weapons to protect herself. It would be difficult to know for sure who was staff and who was there to harm her.
“Fine, but you will be checked out.” Daron sent a text before pulling off. “Tell me what happened. By the time I got here, they had a tow truck backed up to the car.”
Cameron’s eyes still felt heavy and her mind still had its sluggish moments as she told him what transpired. She noticed that he ignored the instructions to take her home and was aiming for his house instead.
“How are you feeling?” Daron brushed back the loose strands of hair from her forehead as they sat at a red light. “You’re sure you don’t want to go to the hospital.”
“Positive.” Cameron reached for the bottle of water in the gym bag on the floor near her feet. “Let’s talk about your situation.”
“My situation.” Daron turned as the vehicle in front of him proceeded through the green light. He did a quick check in the rearview mirror.
“These men are determined to have leverage on you.” Cameron paused as a wave of nausea hit her. She sipped the water then asked, “Why is that?”
“Bishop left me a membership for a place called The Castle.” Daron glanced at her as he parked beside the Quattroporte as though trying to gauge her reaction.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Cameron closed her eyes for a moment, resting the back of her head against the seat. More Secrets.
“I wanted to know exactly what it was and who was part of it before bringing up the subject with you.” He lowered the window to retrieve the keys from Pedro.
“Take care of her,” Pedro ordered.
“I will,” Daron replied as Pedro made his way to a white BMW.
Cameron studied Daron’s profile as he raised the window. “I feel like that statement you made prior to Pedro’s arrival was a partial truth but I’m going to let it slide.” She stared at the sleek maroon vehicle the Maserati was parked behind. “You bought another car.”
“Testing it out for a friend.” Daron left the driver’s seat with the swiftness of a child being chased by a dog. She knew he’d just issued yet another half-true statement.
Daron rounded the Charger, helping her out. She hadn’t expected Daron to lift and carry her.
He winced a bit. Daron gave her that stern non-negotiable glare, which meant he must have felt her resistance. No denying that she was falling in love with the man. Had it been anyone else, she would have made them put her down.
The fact that “retirement” didn’t mean the same to him as it did to her, and the fact that his life had put her in a situation where he needed to carry her, reinforced her decision. At the rate that these people were hunting her down, she was fine standing by his side if he was caught up in something out of his control. But if he was actively back in the business, she couldn’t deal with that. Right now, if anything happened to him or someone close to them, she’d hunt the bastards down and make them regret it.
CHAPTER 22
After the doctor came by to check Cameron out, Daron set up a workstation in the bedroom to keep an eye on her.
His cell vibrated on the portable desk, just as Cameron’s chimed on the nightstand. He glanced at his screen to see Steve’s name. He snatched his phone from the black metal surface and headed to the hallway.
“What’s up?” He kept his tone low enough not to wake her even tho
ugh she seemed to sleep through her phone ringing.
“Amarion has been relocated several times since yesterday,” Steve explained.
“I hate the team just missed extracting them.” Daron was frustrated. By the time the team made it past Marquise’s guards, the boys were being taken out the back via a secret freight elevator.
“I noticed Reese’s tracker had been activated.” Steve’s voice seemed hesitant as if he was questioning Daron’s decision. Cameron’s phone rang again.
“Clearly he did not mention the tracker to Marquise’s men.” Daron leaned on the door frame watching the rise and fall of her chest.
“Whatever you say,” Steve muttered and the displeasure in his tone became obvious. “I’ll send you a summary of what Terrell said.”
“Good.” He received the rest of the update and let Steve know how Cameron was doing before ending the call.
Daron turned his attention to the package from JD which had arrived earlier in the day. It reminded him that he needed to talk to Cameron’s old team about taking a job to handle switching out some artwork for him.
The art pieces Reese and Amarion took hadn’t left the building with them. While he could take down the security system, even with Calvin’s suit, he knew breaking, entering and recovery wasn’t his area of expertise. It was one thing to send his security teams in to rescue someone but he couldn’t send them in to deal with stolen auction pieces. Something kept nagging him about the conversation he’d had with Cedric.
I need to reassess the list of The Castle suspects.
There had to be a second person working with the security system on the day of Khalil’s shooting. Reviewing the conversation Steve had with Terrell before turning him over to law enforcement moved to the top of his to-do list. Then he would work on his plan to replace the stolen items with fakes, then leverage the real ones to get Reese and Amarion back.
Cameron’s phone chimed again, as it had been doing often for the last two hours. Most of the text and missed calls were from one person she had listed as Dr. Feelgood. Daron didn’t even want to think about her seeing someone else, let alone being intimate with another man.
The phone rang and Aretha Franklin’s voice filled the room. Cameron groaned and rolled over, tangling the beige sheets around her body, then disconnected the charger and answered the call.
“I’m so sorry,” she said in a soft and sensual tone, then paused listening as her head returned to the pillow. “I’m fine. I had a small crisis at work and completely forgot about our date tonight.”
Daron stared at her, straining to hear the other side of the conversation but could only catch a few words here and there.
“Yes, I’ll see you then.” Cameron extended her arm, returning the phone to the nightstand. She laid there a few moments with her eyes closed before peeling back the sheet and taking careful steps to make it to the restroom.
Although he knew she wasn’t trying to get to him since she didn’t know she’d be there, the jealousy monster still reared its ugly head. Daron hadn’t expected her to start dating so soon. His eyes were glued to the nightstand with Aretha’s voice haunting him. Like a teenager, he was tempted to call to see what ringtone she had for him.
“What has you frowning like that?”
His head snapped toward Cameron who was moving back toward the bed. Daron would be damned if he’d tell her what was really bothering him. He glanced at the laptop’s screen. “When I say that I hate asking you this, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Do you think you could contact your old team to see if they could switch the real stolen auction pieces for fakes?”
“Why?”
“It may be the only way to save Amarion and Reese.” Daron was grateful her cousin was able to get a copy done so fast. It seems Bishop had equipment that made duplicates that could get past an untrained eye easily.
“I’m sure they’ll do it if I ask. Give me the details.” Cameron retrieved the cell, then lowered herself onto the bed.
“I confirmed where they’re holding the items. While I can get through their security system—” Daron hated not having more time to put this plan together. “—grabbing the pieces without damaging them isn’t my forte.”
“How many items and how many guards?” Cameron asked.
“It’s two items; a necklace and a painting. Three guards.” Daron was having second thoughts. If anything happened to Cameron’s team, she would never forgive him. However, he needed local people he could trust to be discreet.
“I’ll see if Kathleen is still in town and the two of us will handle it.”
Daron closed the laptop. “I need your contacts to do it, not you.”
“Why make my team a target when The Castle member in question has already seen the two of us.” Cameron gathered up the phone charger. “We can get in and out undetected if your intel is right.”
“What if I’m wrong? No.”
She stepped in front of his makeshift desk, leaning in toward him. “You trust my old team to handle the job, but you don’t trust me?”
“Cam, I can’t ask you to do that. I won’t have you do it.” Daron knew she’d be resistant to the next idea he was about to present. “However, I do want you to reconsider training the women from the shelter on weapons.”
“That’s more dangerous to me than doing this favor for you.” Cameron slipped out of his grasp and snatched her jacket from the chaise. “I know and trust Kathleen. These other women could get innocent men and women killed if they don’t know how to keep their mouths shut.”
He stood in front of her, staring deeply into those brown orbs that expressed a world of doubt. “These innocent women could die if you don’t teach them how to protect themselves. If what occurred today with you, happens to them … the majority of them would not have survived.”
Cameron was silent for a moment, her brows furrowed and her lips taut. “Here’s the deal.” She placed an index finger in the center of his chest. “You will purchase each one a black tier specialty membership and refer them to Tandria. Once you have the memberships, I’ll show you a separate entrance into the facility to access the gun range and other weaponry training areas to show the ladies how to get in. They’re not to use the regular entrance to the gym facility.”
“Wait, you have a weapons training area?”
“Just because I haven’t actively been helping people and have been a little leery about implementing my plan, doesn’t mean I’m not working toward the goal.” She moved around him heading out of the bedroom.
“When were you going to tell me?” Daron asked as Cameron went into the refrigerator, pushed the Heineken aside and grabbed a bottle of water.
“I did.” She twisted off the cap, downed the entire contents then tossed the bottle. “Clearly you didn’t believe me.”
Daron inhaled, trying to remember that conversation. “Put me on your schedule to tour the place about five tomorrow evening.”
“My schedule is full for the remainder of the week.” She smiled sweetly, letting him know she was intentionally being difficult.
“How were you going to help me out with the other situation?” Daron hated being on the receiving end of her stubborn, ornery ways.
“I’d willingly change my plans to help you out, but not for you to do a tour.”
He moved closer to her. “I’ll be there tomorrow and you will show me.”
All the pretend lightheartedness left her expression as she glared at him, pursed her lips, then looked him up and down. “Fine.”
Daron recognized that ‘I plan to be difficult’ tone and knew he’d have to double down to make sure she didn’t avoid him.
“I’m going to get out of your way.” She headed for her gym shoes near the door.
Daron leaned on the wall, his eyes glued to her shapely ass as she bent over to put on a pair of black Nikes. “You know I always enjoy spending time with you. How about you let me feed you while we discuss the possibility of Greg and Rob doing that job?”
She glanced up. Her lips slowly curving into a smile as she slipped off the shoes that she’d stepped into. Daron was glad he was good in the kitchen because Cameron’s love language was food. If he could get her to sit down to eat, he had a shot. The moment he couldn’t, he was met with that unbending, unwavering, and stubborn woman her father had been battling to get back into her life.
She followed him into the kitchen. “Their business model changed when I left,” Cameron explained, referring to Greg and Rob, two men who handled reclaiming stolen items and returning them to their owners for a hefty fee.
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