by Taylor Hart
She shrugged and pulled her hand away. “This has been such an amazing Christmas. Thank you.” Reaching up, she kissed his cheek. Before he could pull her back to him, she was leaving. “Night, Cam.”
“Wait. I’ll see you in the morning for the last excursion, right? I mean, if you still want to do it?”
She nodded. “I’d like that. I’ll be ready at seven.”
“Great.” He watched her walk out of the room and knew she was right. Even though he’d changed, he still was in no place for anything like a relationship.
He waited for a couple of minutes, then put on his shoes and rushed to the internet café. He brought up his email account and was shocked to discover the subject line from his gritty PI:
Found him.
Chapter 19
Isabel woke the next morning and checked her clock, shooting upright in her bed. Eight thirty. No. No. No. They were supposed to meet at seven and leave for the last day of excursions. Jumping out of bed, she put on her swimsuit, a cover, and her flip-flops. She hurriedly brushed her hair and grabbed her purse. Why hadn’t Cam woken her up?
She walked to his door and knocked. Maybe he had slept in? She knew he was always up late. Maybe he’d just let time get away from him?
No one answered.
She banged again, harder and more persistent this time. Nothing.
Confused, she moved down the hall toward Alicia’s room. She didn’t think he would leave her. It was their last day, and she would miss hanging out with him. The idea of not being with Cam every day filled her with loneliness.
She had stayed up thinking about how she would accomplish her dream of becoming a doctor. She had some possibilities for med school, and she could get the money if she sold her home. So yes, she was ready to move on, and there was huge peace in that.
She banged on Alicia’s door. Her son Jon answered, only halfway paying attention to her as he checked his phone. “Hey, Isabel.”
“Hey,” she said, even more confused. “Weren’t we all going together?”
Jon focused on her for a second then got a ding on his phone. “Oh, sorry, my uncle had to leave.”
Her heart raced. “What? Leave? You mean he went on the excursions?”
He looked up at her. “No, like crazy stuff. They found that guy who …” He paused. “The one who hit his wife. He left to fly to Denver to check out the body.”
Isabel’s hand flew to her mouth. “They found the guy who hit Kat?”
He nodded. “Totally freaked him out. He came and demanded his phone last night, and then he was off like a shot in the middle of the night.”
“Where are your mom and dad?”
He shrugged. “She and Dad are at the pool with Paul. I’m working on some other plans.”
“Thanks.” She was off, surprised that she could jog a little bit on her ankle.
She found Alicia lounging in a chair, sun hat and sunglasses on with a book propped in her hands. “Alicia?” she called out before reaching her.
Sitting up, Alicia frowned and pulled off her sunglasses.
Isabel sat right next to her. “I just spoke with Jon. He said Cam left and that they found the guy? He’s dead?”
Alicia nodded. Her eyes were red, and Isabel could tell she’d been crying. “Cam got an email from his PI that said they found the body yesterday, the body had that star tattoo on the wrist. I’m sure he’s …”
Isabel motioned for her to continue. “Yes.”
“Cam banged on my door at two in the morning, wanting his phone and insisting that he go back to Denver. He arranged for his private jet early this morning out of Costa Maya to take him back.” She shook her head. “I wish … I don’t understand how seeing the body will give him a sense of justice. I just worry this will make him worse off than he was, because now there’s no one to punish.”
Vaguely mystified that Alicia could casually talk about someone just “sending for his jet,” Isabel’s main concern was Cameron Cruz himself, owner of the Storm, the man who’d lost so much. The man she liked as more than a friend. “Okay,” she said quietly.
Alicia sighed and leaned back onto her chair, putting her feet back up. “I just don’t know what to do with him. I mean, I felt like he was actually making progress on this cruise, and most of that was because of you.”
Isabel put a hand to her heart. Those words meant a lot, coming from Alicia.
“What are you going to do?”
Puzzled at the question, Isabel said, “I’m going to … finish the cruise.”
“Go after him, Izz.”
Her heart raced. “Like, get off the ship and fly to Denver?”
“Yes.” Alicia threw up a hand. “You’re good in a crisis. I saw you deliver that baby last night. Go help him.”
Nervous butterflies assaulted Isabel. “Delivering a baby is different than helping your brother sort through grief.”
“Not really. He needs help. Direction. I admit I didn’t know if you’d be the right kind of woman to even be friends with my brother, but helping you helped him. He needs you more than ever now.”
Isabel thought about the crazy past couple of days. “Your brother kinda saved me.” It was true. Chills washed over her. “Okay. I’m going.” She didn’t know how, but …
“I thought you might.” Alicia perked up a little. “Actually, I was about to come and wake you up, because I booked you a flight already. Better get your stuff, and I’ll book you an Uber to the airport.”
Unable to believe this was happening, Isabel laughed.
Alicia grinned. “I’m not called a busybody for nothing.”
Chapter 20
After a five-hour flight, Cam met his private car at the Denver airport. It was ten in the morning when Cam walked into the morgue with his PI, Stone Kenney.
“I arranged for them to let you see the body, Mr. Cruz, but I don’t know what you think seeing the body will accomplish.”
Cam pushed away the sick feeling in the lower pit of his gut. He’d carried that nausea the whole way back to Denver. His sister had tried to call countless times. Then he’d seen a new number calling, which he’d ignored. He’d gotten a text that said, It’s Isabel. Will you talk to me?
He hadn’t responded.
No, that life, the one on the cruise ship, had been a fantasy. Nothing like his real life. Nothing like … Emotion surged through him, and all of a sudden, he was back to that night. Police surrounding him. He’d gone to her side and ignored all the protests that he shouldn’t tamper with a crime scene. The blood from the gash on her head was sticky in her hair and on his hands as he cradled her body to his chest and died inside.
Stone checked them in, and they were on their way back to see the body when Cam got full-on sick. “Where’s the bathroom?”
Luckily, the worker pointed to a room right by them.
Cam burst into the bathroom and lost the toast and coffee that he’d eaten this morning. Ironically, he’d only eaten it to settle his stomach.
He cursed, going to the sink and rinsing his mouth and face off. Staring up in the mirror, he saw those hollow-looking eyes Isabel had kept bringing up. Dang, he’d aged ten years since Kat had passed. Yet he distinctly remembered Christmas Day, looking at himself before he’d gone to the dining room and thinking that the cruise had been good for him, that helping Isabel had been really good for his mental health.
Wincing, he closed his eyes and thought about going in there and seeing the body of the man who had killed Kat. Of finally looking the killer in the face. Anger and a mix of other emotions seared through him, and he punched the paper towel dispenser.
“Everything all right in there?” Stone knocked on the door.
Cam longed for some space. He yanked open the door and rushed back toward the front of the morgue. “Wait, I need some air. Just a sec.”
As he burst out of the front door, he was shocked to see Isabel getting out of an Uber. “What are you doing?” he blurted.
Her brows pulled togeth
er. “You can’t face this alone, Cam.” She spoke in that no-nonsense tone she’d used to take over when Karen had her baby and the doctor fell apart.
The sickness hit him again in flashes of hot and cold. Rushing to the side of the building, he dry-heaved again. Sweat broke out on his forehead.
She was next to him immediately.
“Go away!” he yelled, hating that she was seeing him this way. Hating being this way. Nothing had come up, and he turned to face the wall.
True to Isabel form, when she didn’t want to leave, she wasn’t going to. Her hand touched his back. “No, Cam. I’m not leaving you.” Her arms went around his waist, her face pressing into his back. “Let it go, Cam. Let it go.”
His emotions cooled, his anger turning to pain and sorrow. He felt himself cry, really cry, for the first time since losing Kat. More tears, more sorrow—all the pent-up grief from the past year was now coming in messy, snot-nosed, awful sobs. “I can’t.” He tried to wipe his face and push her away.
She just held on. “No, dang it, Cam. You deserve to cry, to weep, to mourn.”
She was like a vice grip around him. Finally, he just held her and blubbered like a baby.
After he didn’t know how long, he calmed down and looked at her. He was not surprised to see her face was tear-stained too. Gently, he put his hand on her cheek. They stared into each other’s eyes.
She pulled back and took his hand. “Let’s do this.”
Feeling jittery, he walked beside her into the morgue and down the hall where Stone and the attendant were still waiting.
Stone gave him a strange look, but Cam ignored it, knowing he probably looked awful. “She’s with me.”
The attendant opened the door and scanned the wall of metal doors, then turned a lock and slid the body out. A sheet was laid over the body, just like on the television shows. The whole scene felt surreal.
The attendant hesitated, giving Cameron a compassionate look. “Are you ready, sir?”
Cam nodded, holding Isabel’s hand tighter. He still wasn’t sure why he was here, but he was going to see this through.
The worker pulled back a sheet, revealing the corpse. The guy looked different than he had in the picture from the PI. Of course he did. He was sunken and sallow, like how Cam imagined all dead bodies looked.
Cam sucked in and then released his breath. “Let me see his wrist.”
The worker pulled the sheet farther down to reveal it.
The star. The star he’d stared at on the footage a million times.
Isabel turned to Stone and the attendant. “Could we get a minute?”
“No,” Cam said quickly.
“Yes,” Isabel said, giving Stone and the worker a waving gesture toward the door.
“No problem,” Stone agreed. He and the attendant walked out.
Cam stared at the tattoo and the guy. He felt dead as the corpse.
Isabel stood next to him. “A good friend of mine told me that sometimes, when things are trapped in your head and you feel like you’re going in circles, it helps to talk it out.”
Cam’s heart raced as he turned to her. “Wh-at?” This was ridiculous.
Isabel pointed to the door. “Yell, cry, talk—I wouldn’t recommend beating a dead body, but you’re a billionaire, so you might be able to get away with it.”
Unable to stop it, a faint smile played at his lips. “Always back to the billionaire comments.”
She squeezed his hand. “No, it’s back to you. Just you and what you need right now.”
He met her eyes. This beautiful woman was … a true friend.
“You deserve some closure, Cam. It might be time to allow it.” Then she let go, and she walked out.
Cam sucked in a breath, already exhausted by his emotions. His mind went over two words his sister had said to him that he’d felt were ridiculous. “Forgive him.” Traitorous tears filled his eyes.
He didn’t know how long he stood there, wrestling with his emotions. Finally, he sighed. “I hate you, but I don’t know you.” He looked at the man’s face taking in the wrinkles and scratch marks. There were fifty years of life in that face that Cam knew nothing about.
“I’m afraid hating you has caused so much pain for my sister, for me.” Tears washed down his face, and he sniffed and thought of Isabel’s mom’s words.
Out loud, he said, “A little bit of grace indeed. You see, I hate it, but I think the only way back to what Kat would have wanted for me is to forgive your sorry butt.” He clenched a fist and turned away. “And I hate that!” He imagined what he could have done to the guy if he’d been alive: beat him senseless, then watch as he was thrown into a cell with no key.
Suddenly, Cam felt exhausted, weighed down under a year’s worth of those thoughts. He released a breath. “Kat. I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. I didn’t go with you. I didn’t protect you.” He was crying, covering his face. “I should have been there. I should have protected our baby. Lord, please forgive me. Please help me.” He crumbled to his knees, tears washing down his face.
A rush of warmth filled him, and he was overwhelmed with the grace of God. He had no doubt that’s what the new feeling was. He let go, knowing that this was the dam of emotions he’d been holding back for so long. Finally, he sagged and knew what he had to do.
Standing, he looked down at the man and said, “I forgive you.”
Chapter 21
Cam had requested that Isabel accompany him back to his place, his high-rise loft in downtown Denver. Isabel noted that nothing appeared out of place. Of course it was clean. He had people for that. There were so many pictures around of them. So many tributes to her. It was stupid, but Isabel felt a bit sad about the fact that Cam was so in love with his wife. She knew her jealousy was just plain dumb.
She was facing downtown Denver, looking out through the floor-to-ceiling windows that oversaw Storm Stadium. Cam had asked her to come, had held her hand during the ride with his driver back to his place, but he hadn’t spoken. She’d heard yelling in the morgue, and as much as she wanted to rush in and comfort him, she’d given him space.
After all, they were friends.
“I have to go down there tomorrow. We have a game in two days.” Cameron offered her a bottle of water.
“Thanks.” She opened it and drank nearly the whole thing. She couldn’t remember when she’d last eaten or drank anything. All of her thoughts had been consumed with finding him, helping him. It had been like she was part of a birth, because this was almost exactly how she felt after the rush of it all was over. Exhausted.
This was the place where he belonged with his wife. It didn’t allow space for her. The cruise ship had been different. That had been an escape, a place she would always be grateful for. Unfortunately, none of that translated into this world. She would never belong in this world, in his world. Not how things were. How he was. He was at the start of the healing process.
“I need to go,” she whispered, not moving
Jolting a bit, he turned to her. “You can stay. I have a guest bedroom.”
She put her hand on his forearm. “No, I can’t, Cam.”
Their eyes held, and he seemed to understand.
Slowly, she leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.” She moved toward the front door, where she’d put down her luggage.
“Wait. We need …” He darted over and snatched up her luggage, not letting her move any farther. “We should talk about … everything.”
She let out a long breath. “Timing.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Your sister.”
He let out a sigh. “That book she gave you.”
“Persuasion.” She smiled. “You call me when you can.”
His face registered her meaning, and he slowly walked with her toward the front door. “You’re going back to Fort Collins?”
She nodded.
Putting down her suitcase and wedging a foot against the door, he pulled out his phone and
clicked for a minute. “Well, you’re going helo style.”
She laughed, and flutters filled her. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. “Let me take you up to the roof. My guy is firing it up right now.”
* * *
Isabel could hardly believe she would really be showing up to her home on Cameron Cruz’s helicopter. She was hesitant to get in, to leave him.
“I’ll come with you,” Cam offered, moving to get in.
The helicopter was already on, the blades making a loud noise. Her suitcase was already on board. She put her hand up. “No.” Then she hugged him.
He hugged her back.
Pulling back, she smiled at him. “Thank you.”
Softly, he leaned in, brushing his lips to hers. “No, thank you.” He let go. “You are going to get everything you’ve ever wanted in life. I know it.” He winked at her.
She nodded and turned to get in.
The pilot strapped her in and put a headset on her, explaining some things about safety, but all she could think about was that she was leaving the man she’d fallen in love with. She didn’t know if she’d ever see him again.
He was waiting by the door for the pilot to finish. “I want to hear what med school you go to.”
Isabel felt a surge of hope. Yes, this was the beginning. The real beginning. “I’ll text you if your sister lets you keep your phone.”
A real smile washed over his face. “You better.”
As the helicopter took off and she watched Cameron get smaller and smaller, she felt immense gratitude and a little disappointment. The trip had been so different than she ever would have thought, but she had healed. But she’d also fallen in love with a guy who might never love her back.
She thought of her son and Rick, and she actually felt peace. If peace was all she got, then it had to be enough.