Intense Love

by Natalie Ann

  The ones around her property showed nothing out of the ordinary. Not even a view of the street showing traffic driving up and down. The cameras inside were hidden well, but just broad shots of the doors and windows on the first floor. Nothing more.

  Whoever threw the rock through her window was too far away to trigger the cameras or any security lights. Either they had one hell of an arm and aim, or they got lucky.

  They’d gotten a judge to sign off on a court order for a look into Simon Arrow’s finances this morning also. Nothing, again.

  No traces of withdrawals or deposits. Nothing that stood out to make them look even further. That didn’t mean cash wasn’t exchanged, but again, nothing to trigger a deeper dive. And Simon’s legal team was tough as nails and they weren’t cooperating in the least.

  Either Simon was doing his own dirty work—which Ian sincerely doubted—he had someone else pulling the strings, or an account they didn’t know about...or it wasn’t him.

  And if it wasn’t him, then who could it be? It wasn’t the Buckleys either. No signs of any dealings there and the Buckleys openly offered all their finances to be looked into. Told them that the sooner they stopped wasting their time looking at them, the sooner they could find out who it was, because they didn’t want anything to prevent David Arrow from getting his due.

  Ian was still waiting for a call from the security company regarding Cam’s keycard on if there was a way to track it since they hadn’t found it yet. Ian was thinking whoever had that card, whoever took it, was the one responsible for the fire. The one that hoped to trap her in the building and possibly kill her. Stop her from testifying.

  They just didn’t do a good enough job and he was hoping they didn’t think to try again.

  Ian had stayed with Cam all night, stayed by her side this morning, until he brought her to the station with him. She was riding to the courthouse with Captain Taylor.

  She’d be safe; she’d be fine. She’d give her testimony and he’d be sitting there watching it, and then he’d take her home.

  When his phone went off, he picked it up, knowing it was the alarm for him to get to court.

  The outside was swarming with people waiting to hear the verdict. The courtroom was probably packed as well, but he’d be let in. No way was he waiting outside.

  He’d made his way in, standing at the back, just in time to see Cam sworn in. She answered all the questions like the pro she was. She explained what had happened during her interview with David Arrow the day before. When Priscilla Arrow shouted out Cam was a liar and David turned and told his mother to shut the hell up, the courtroom erupted in chaos.

  Ian was positive it wouldn’t take much time to get the verdict and it sure the hell didn’t. Not thirty minutes later the judge announced David Arrow was guilty of murder in the first degree. Sentencing would be at a later date, but he was on his way back to jail, then prison to serve out his term.

  Priscilla was openly sobbing, then launched herself at Cam. “How could you? How could you lie like that? You’re all the same. None of you have ever helped him. Have ever even tried to treat his sickness.”

  Simon yanked his wife back, saying, “She’ll get hers,” and left while Ian nodded his head to an officer to follow them out. He escorted Cam out the back door to his SUV and out of there, hoping it was finally over, but knowing it might have just gotten worse.

  ***

  “It has to be them,” Cam said on the drive back to her office. “You heard them. They blame me for this. David was sick, but it wasn’t an illness. He’s just evil. A spoiled rotten kid that has gotten everything he’s wanted in life. He doesn’t have an ounce of compassion in him. Everything in his life is a possession that he has to have. If he doesn’t want it, he doesn’t try. If he gets it and decides he has enough of it, he discards it like a piece of trash on the side of the road. He doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with those who truly have a mental illness.”

  “I’m putting patrols around your house tonight, but you’re staying with me at my place.”

  She hadn’t seen his place yet and as much as she had wanted to, she didn’t think this was the way it’d happen. “Why?”

  “Because they don’t know where I live and whoever is doing this knows where you do.”

  “If it’s Simon Arrow, he’s got enough reach to know who I’m dating and where you live.”

  “I’d still rather have you in my house. It’s smaller and I’ve got more weapons there.”

  “Guns, you mean. You’ve got more guns at your house?” Seriously. This was getting out of hand. Guns were worse than being trapped in her office while it was on fire. No, definitely not. They were equally as bad. Being trapped was worse than anything in her mind.

  “Yes. And I’m going to teach you how to shoot one. You should get your permit. It wouldn’t hurt for you to carry one with you.”

  “Not happening. Sorry. The day I’m too scared to treat my patients is the day I stop treating them at all.”

  There was one thing about wanting some thrills in her personal life, but another when it came to her livelihood.

  She’d changed her specialty once before, not out of fear but failure. If it was fear this time, then she’d have to hang the closed sign on her door after all.

  He pulled in front of her building and parked. “You don’t need to go up with me.”

  “Yes, I do. I want to make sure you’re in your office and I’ll come get you at five. Then we’ll go back to my house. No arguing. Let me cook you dinner tonight. Let me take care of you for once.”

  They got out of his car. “That does sound nice. Who would have thought I’d get this kind of treatment from my boyfriend? Guess all I needed to do was get threatened.”

  He shook his head and followed her through the building and into the elevator, then her office.

  “Hi, Tiffany,” Cam said. “Any calls?”

  “It’s been pretty quiet,” she said, laying her cell phone down. Cam figured every time she was out of sight Tiffany was probably on her phone. But her work was done, so Cam couldn’t fault her there. “I was just reading the newsfeed on the trial.”

  She was shocked Tiffany read at all, let alone the news. “It’s over with now.”

  “That’s good. Now maybe the phone calls will stop.”

  “What phone calls?” Ian asked.

  “Just people calling and giving their opinions. You’ve always told me to just hang up on them, so I have been,” Tiffany said.

  “Opinions on what?” Ian asked.

  “High profile cases like this often get reporters calling, concerned citizens,” Cam said. “People wanting to tell me how to do my job. It happens. There were probably more with this case than others, but nothing out of the ordinary, right, Tiffany?”

  “Not that I could tell,” she said, picking up her soda and taking a drink. That girl always had something in her mouth. If not food or candy, then something to drink.

  “See. Nothing to worry about,” she told Ian.

  “I’ll be the judge of that.”

  “What’s the problem?” Tiffany asked, looking confused.

  “Nothing,” Cam said.

  “If the Arrows or anyone from their camp calls, I want to know right away,” Ian said to Tiffany.

  “Will do,” Tiffany said, her eyes traveling the length of Ian.

  Cam fought from grinding her teeth. “I’ll call you when I’m done,” she said, leaning into Ian and giving him a kiss.

  They still needed to pretend, right? Or had that all gone out the window too?

  Not to Me

  Sunday morning, they were back at her house. They’d spent a few nights at Ian’s, but it’d been quiet and she missed her own bed. Nothing wrong with Ian’s; it just wasn’t hers.

  Sure, his house was nice. It was smaller than hers but all newly updated and masculine. Like maybe he had a hobby and worked on it when he could. Or his father did.

  Either way, she just wasn’t as comfortable ther
e and in her mind, there was no reason she couldn’t return home and told Ian that.

  The truth was, she was getting too used to spending time with him. When this ended, because she was sure it was going to, she needed to keep her heart in check.

  They were getting ready to leave when he got a text on his phone and his face lost all the composure he’d always maintained. He wasn’t angry; he looked almost sad. Lost even.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, walking over and running her hand up and down his arm.

  “Nothing,” he said and put his phone back in his pocket.

  “You don’t lie as well as you think you do.”

  “That’s because I’m not trying to,” he said, walking away.

  Hmm. She didn’t like the sound of that. That he could lie well enough to fool her, even though she hadn’t been fooled once by him. Or that he purposely wasn’t because maybe he wanted her to question it? It was bringing up all the bitter memories of why she stopped dating the hard and wild guys.

  “Tell me what’s going on, Ian.”

  “So you can do your head shrink routine?”

  She wanted to get angry but didn’t. She just grinned at him, knowing it’d probably annoy him. Maybe enough to talk. “It’s what I’m so good at.”

  “I’m not your client anymore,” he argued.

  “No, you’re not. You’re my friend. My lover. I’d like to think that gives me license to find out what is bothering you.” She ran her hand over his, giving him tenderness and comfort for once. “Ian. When you’re someone that runs toward danger instead of away from it, it’s hard to swim in the river of pain and not get wet.” She knew that herself. “Talk to me.”

  He threaded their fingers together for a minute, then let go and sat down. “The girl...the one I shot.”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “No word on who she is. We haven’t been able to track her family down, get a name, anything. I walked the streets with her picture and no one would talk to me. I exchanged cash with people I’d rather not come within ten feet of and all I got was a shrug here and there. Someone called her Lady. That was it. It wasn’t her name by any means.”

  “Why are you trying to find out?” she asked. She remembered him saying before that everyone had someone that missed them and she was wondering if he was still holding on to this. That it might be the type of closure he was looking for to put it behind him.

  His job hadn’t been affected, nor his performance. He wasn’t holding anything back. He wasn’t holding much in either, that she could see. He was fine like she’d said he’d been all along.

  Ian had shot other people in the line of duty. He’d killed someone in self-defense. She’d seen it all in his file. But this was different for him. She knew that, he knew that, but it wasn’t so different he couldn’t move on. Just not fully.

  “It doesn’t feel right to just walk away from it. No name, no nothing. They’re going to cremate her to get her out of the morgue. They’ll store the ashes for a time, but that’s it.”

  “Does that happen often?” she asked.

  “It does. It can. Just not to me. Just not a case I’ve worked on before.”

  “What can you do to get answers?” she asked. She figured the best thing for him was to just ask questions on his way toward a solution, rather than how he felt. He was a person that needed results and this seemed like one of those situations.

  “I don’t know. We’ve run her prints. We’ve asked around. I’m having her picture run through facial recognition for missing persons, but she’s way down on the list of priorities right now.”

  “You can’t save everyone,” she said.

  He turned to look at her, then frowned. “There was no saving her. Not that night. There’s nothing to save now. I just want her to have some type of closure for her family. Or acknowledgment at the least.”

  “If she has a family,” Cam said.

  “We don’t know one way or another.”

  “You’re doing the best you can. But even you should know that closure doesn’t happen for everyone. Not in your line of work and not in mine.”

  “How do you deal with it?” he asked. It was probably the closest he’d ever get to asking for help.

  “I put it aside, but not from my mind. I tell myself if I ever get a chance to make a difference by learning from what I might have done differently, then I will. But if I can’t, I won’t let that defeat me. I won’t let it control me or my future.”

  “It’s not controlling me.”

  “I didn’t say it was. You asked me how I dealt. I’m telling you what I do. What I think of. If you were put in the same situation again, exactly the same, would you have done anything differently?”

  “I would have stopped Mick from going into that apartment. I would have realized something wasn’t right.”

  “So you learned from that. But I meant if you found your partner being stabbed, would you have shot to injure, or shot to kill?”

  “I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

  “Then push it from your mind, but don’t wipe it out. When the time is right, the information will come to you.” She reached her hand for his again and held it, then sat next to him and hugged him to her chest.

  ***

  Cam said her purpose was to make people feel better and that was what she was doing right now.

  He knew he’d do the same thing again if he had to protect his partner. Protect anyone. But that young nameless girl was just haunting his thoughts. Making him wonder if anyone wanted to know what happened to their child.

  He’d take Cam’s advice and do what she said. He’d push it aside, but not away. He’d focus on Cam and her life, the two of them together, and if he had a chance to find out more about the teen, he would.

  “Do you want to go to lunch today?” he asked, wanting to get out of the house. They’d spent most of the weekend in, him cooking for her, the two of them relaxing and talking, being almost a couple. But he was getting antsy and he figured she was too.

  “I actually need to get groceries,” she said.

  “I’ll go with you,” he said. Anything to stay with her. Not because he was trying to protect her but because he just wanted to be with her.

  It was dangerous to let himself feel something for her knowing that it might be temporary, but he wasn’t going to stop now. Rather he was going to take advantage of the time they had together and worry about the future when the future came.

  “Then let’s go if you think you want to enjoy your Sunday afternoon helping me pick out fruit.”

  He laughed, grabbed his keys and followed her out the door.

  “Cam. You never get groceries on Sunday.”

  They both turned and there standing in front of him in the grocery aisle was an older version of Cam. Classy and elegant even on a Sunday afternoon. A light-colored pair of pants and a sweater with a pearl necklace and bracelet on, even heels. She looked like she’d come from church even though Cam hadn’t once said a word about religion.

  “Mom,” Cam said, leaning in and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “This is my friend Ian.”

  Friend, he thought, fighting back the snort. He wanted to correct her but didn’t need to. “Friend, darling? Don’t go trying to fool your mother. Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone when we had lunch the other day?”

  “It didn’t come up,” Cam said. “And it’s early still. I don’t need you scaring anyone away.” Cam slid her arm through his, but it was forced and he knew and was annoyed over it. She must be uncomfortable introducing someone so common to her mother. “You always want to meet whoever I say I’m dating. It’s dating, Mom.”

  “Buying groceries together is dating?” her mother asked, looking at the cart Ian had his hands on. The one that Cam had just dropped some bananas in.

  “You’re reading too much into it, Mom.” The hurt again, blasting through the steel he’d tried to erect around his heart while he was with her.

  Her mother
clucked her tongue, then said, “We’ll see. Call me soon, darling. I’ll let you get back to shopping with your friend.”

  Cam was quiet the rest of the way through the store and then on the drive back to her house. He shouldn’t have let himself feel what he had been. He should have reminded himself again and again it was a job. An assignment.

  He shouldn’t have let himself believe it could be more.

  “Why didn’t you tell her about me?”

  She calmly turned her head. “There was no reason to. As you’ve kindly pointed out several times, you’re protecting me. We aren’t sure where this is going to go when it’s all said and done and there is no reason to get my family involved.”

  “Because they’d scare me away?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said quickly, then let it drop.

  But he didn’t want to let it drop. He wanted to talk about it for once.

  Only she wasn’t going to, it seemed, when they pulled into her driveway and silently unloaded her bags, then put everything away.

  “It seems I should go back home now.”

  “It would probably be for the best since you’re ticked at me.”

  “I don’t know what I am.”

  “Sure you do,” she said, turning. “You’re hurt. You think because your father knew about me, that I should have run and told my family. But you forgot that everything is being held back from my family right now. If I told them about you, and then once this is over you’re gone, they’ll want to know why. I’d have to lie and say it didn’t work out, or be honest and tell them why you were with me to begin with.”

  “Or you could find the truth in the middle like I did with my father.”

  “My family isn’t like that. When we get to the future like we talked about, then I’ll make a decision what to tell them. Until then, let me handle my family the way I want to.”

  “Fine,” he said, moving toward the back door. “I’ll give you some time and space that you seem to want but aren’t willing to tell me you need. There’ll be patrols around your house and outside tonight.” When she went to open her mouth he said, “No arguments,” and slammed out the door.