by Palmer Jones
But that was impossible. Cameron didn’t love her. She hadn’t anticipated falling for him, but here she was. She wasn’t stupid. His emotions for her wouldn’t come as quick.
“The hearing is in a few days, Cameron. After that, I’ll be gone. You won’t have to worry about it again.”
He crossed his arms and leaned down a little. “That won’t change the fact you’re inviting trouble with each job you take, be it I’m there to see you do it or not. You break at least a dozen laws with each assignment and probably piss off whatever mafia-tied drug lord you’re messing with. I don’t like it.”
“You don’t like it? I’m good at my job. The only close call I had was handled. I did a few stupid steps tracking down international bank fraud and not rerouting like I needed to—”
“What if they find you next time? Huh?” He picked up her arm. “How are you going to defend yourself? Run?”
“I’ll get Becky to show me how to shoot her gun. Is that better?”
“Don’t joke around. I’m serious.”
She jerked her arm away from him. “Just stop it! My life continues after I leave here.” No matter what her heart wished could happen, reality was all she had to work with. She’d never believe that being with Cameron was wrong, on any level, but she had to agree with him for once, crossing that line did make it hurt worse.
“You don’t have to go,” he said with a softer voice than before. “You could stay. Change jobs.” His lips tilted up on one side. “Live with me.”
She leaned back, desire and disbelief at war. She might have considered it. If it hadn’t come with the contingency that she had to change from a job she loved. How did he not see this was the same situation that Jennifer had put him in? Addie wasn’t cut out for a nine-to-five like a librarian or teacher. That’s who he wanted her to be.
The perfect little woman with a legal job. Well, she wasn’t. If he really wanted her to stay, he’d want all of her, both sides of “Addie” to stay.
Patting him on the chest, she offered him as best a smile as she could. “You should head back to the station. I don’t want you to be late.”
At least that brush-off had put an irritated look on his face. She couldn’t accuse him of not feeling something for her. Too bad the only way he’d want her in his life wasn’t in a way she could exist.
Addie closed the door with a quiet click right in his face. Literally and figuratively. Cameron stood in the hallway another minute, staring at the white wooden door. Every instinct told him to break it down and try to make her understand.
And that small voice, the one he didn’t want to pay attention to, not after their night together, told him to live in reality and not in a fantasy world. Addie’s job was illegal, and he should walk away before it hurt worse.
Shit. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. He didn’t want her to go back to California. If she was determined to do this job, at least if he was around, he could protect her. That’s all he wanted to do. Protect.
He didn’t know how to exist otherwise.
He took heavy steps back to the kitchen, his mom humming as she finished unloading the dishwasher. She sounded too happy for his mood so he tried to sneak out without her noticing.
“Your dad called looking for you.”
“Figured.” He paused and wrestled with his conscience. He needed advice on Addie, wanted to know what his mom thought, but he’d have to reveal her secret to get it.
“I told him you were giving your grandma’s bed a little attention and that I’d send you on your way shortly.”
Cameron’s mouth dropped open. Or maybe he didn’t want her advice.
She didn’t pause in putting bowls in the cabinet. “It’s been a while since that four-poster saw any action. I’m sure Grandma would be happy.”
“Mom!”
His mom set her hand holding the dishrag on her hip. “You know,” she said with a sharp glance over her shoulder. “That bed turned out lucky for us. We conceived you there. You know what they say, practice makes perfect.”
“Ugh! Just stop.” He knocked away any mental image that tried to appear with that statement and walked quickly out the back door. Leave it to his mom to find a way to get his mind off Addie’s rejection.
Once he got to the station, his dad wasn’t much better.
“You better be careful with that girl.” His dad cut his eyes at him in a way that made him feel like he was seventeen and had his first condom in his back pocket. Awesome.
Cameron sat down at his desk. “Mom beat you to the embarrassment part of the programming. Right now, I don’t want to talk about Addie.” He didn’t have a single, damn idea what to do about her, anyway. “Let’s concentrate on work, okay.” He looked at the papers across his desk. Easier said than done. They all focused on the break-ins. Who had Addie thought was committing the crimes? The guy that had asked her to dinner? He didn’t want to consider any other man touching her. If she didn’t stay in Statem, that’s precisely what would happen. Another man would take his place. Another man would kiss her.
Would it be another fake jerk like Brian?
The paper he held crumpled in his hands.
“What are you going to do?”
He glanced up at his dad’s question. “Follow up on a few leads.” He would pay Dexter a visit. Wouldn’t hurt. He could drive out to Ms. Ruth’s house and make small talk. She did live way out in the country. Doing a routine check wouldn’t be that far out of the picture.
His dad sat a hip on the desk. “I meant about Addie.” He pointed at the wrinkled paper. “Besides destroy your work.”
“Nothing to do. She has her own life—”
“Could she make one here?”
“I thought so.” Cameron huffed, shaking his head. “I even offered for her to live with me. Thinking about it now, though, her job and mine might not mesh.”
“I don’t suppose we have anywhere that sells perfume here.”
Cameron set the stack of papers down in front of him, taking way too much time to line up the edges, pressing out the wrinkles. Stalling. Telling his dad the whole truth would betray Addie.
“Dad, you don’t even know what she does for a living. Really does for a living. Or how much she makes doing it. If I want to be Sheriff, I can’t be with her.” He wanted to find a way to make it work, but she didn’t even want to consider it. She had a gift. Her intelligence was something he loved about her. But breaking laws, stealing information, even if for a good cause, he couldn’t live with that under his roof for very long and still serve his hometown honestly.
Rubbing his chin, his dad stood up. “No, I don’t know what she does, but after she’s lived in my home the past two weeks, I know there isn’t a mean bone in that woman’s body. She’s generous. Caring. Sweet. I’m not looking forward to how your mom will be after she leaves. I think she wants to officially adopt her. One thing I do know is that I’ve learned to trust her. You’re closer to her than I am. You should try a little trust.”
“Her work isn’t safe.”
His dad stared down at him nodding. “We can’t always protect the people we love. All we can do is make a vow to die trying.” He walked out, leaving Cameron with a beast of a question staring him in the face. How did he handle his feelings for Addie? Because, even if he refused to formulate them into words, he’d fallen for her. Fallen hard.
21
Addie opened her laptop at a small desk in the corner of Cameron’s bedroom. She slipped on her glasses. The attack on Sunflower might last until morning. Some jobs looked easy but took days. Others appeared impossible, but with a few clicks, she was in and out with the information she needed. Either way, working in the bedroom would give her the chance to take short naps if necessary.
Her phone rang, and she noted Cameron’s number before answering. “Hey, there.”
“Hi,” he said, his voice sounding more businesslike than she wanted. But he’d asked her to move in and she’d declined. That had obviously pissed him of
f back at his parents’ house.
“Did you need something?” She stood and walked to the bathroom in Cameron’s, needing to move. She hated the sudden distance between them.
He sighed, and his voice lost a little of the gruffness from before. “Yes, actually. I want you to stop looking at the security cameras around town. I went out to Dexter’s house and his grandmother vouches for him. I don’t want you to get caught up with this if it goes bad.”
Addie laughed. She couldn’t help it. She had a drug lord’s system sitting on her computer in Cameron’s bedroom and he was worried about some small-town thefts sweeping her into danger.
“Addie, this isn’t funny.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Promise me you’ll stop.” After a beat of silence, he added, “All of it. I don’t think you understand the danger in this job or in your other job.”
She looked at herself in the vanity mirror. The soft glow of the early moon came in through the one small window in the bathroom. She didn’t mind him feeling overprotective of her. The way he worried and cared for everyone in their entire town made him perfect to be Sheriff.
But she couldn’t stop simply because he didn’t like it. She’d done her job with White Rabbit for years. She knew the risks. She took care of herself. She swallowed over the lump in her throat and blinked back tears. Being with him shouldn’t be based on ultimatums.
In the other room, her laptop booted up with its usual melody.
“Cameron, I need to go.”
“But—”
“No. I’m not going to talk about it. I appreciate you allowing me to use your house until I leave, but I have a job I need to do. And you do, too.”
She hung up, staring at the screen of her cellphone until it turned black. Hell. She wiped away the tears that fell and walked back into his bedroom. She didn’t want to cry over him. Why couldn’t she be a sophisticated woman who could have a wild, two-week fling with a hot guy and walk away?
The answer was easy. She was in love with Cameron.
Concentrating on her real job would give her a chance to be productive for the first time in a while. She blocked her signal three different ways before opening her browser and program. Two of the other three goons had emailed her back as well. One told her in very colorful language that she should mind her own business since he’d caught his girlfriend messing around on him.
Maybe if he learned to use another descriptive word other than one that began with the letter “F” she might have stayed around.
The second one seemed interested in the high-end perfume discount.
The IP address of all three went to one server location.
Bingo!
She rubbed her hands together. She’d read an article recently that said almost seventy-percent of all systems were vulnerable to attacks. Mostly, people didn’t realize how many digital footprints they left and, like playing hopscotch, she could skip her way back to the source.
She hummed Painting the Roses Red as she connected the dots. After jumping through a few hoops, she pinpointed the server’s location. An address in Modesto, California.
In a quick message, she sent that off to Miss Alice. Again, as usual, the response came back in real-time.
Finally. I’ll pass it along. Get the contacts, suppliers, employees…
Good thing they had the internet between them. She wouldn’t want to meet Miss Alice in person. She was probably the size of an Amazon with the voice of a general. She owed her so much, trusting her right out of college. Showing her how to get better, faster at her job. Honing her talents. If Miss Alice ever needed her, she’d drop everything to be there. But Miss Alice was invincible.
She pushed through another barrier and made her laptop screen mirror the desktop of a superuser, someone in their system with every permission possible. It should give her access to everything.
There was no way to tell who the user was, though. The username Giant Chocolate Sprinkles could remain a mystery as far as she was concerned. The other names were just as impressive. Mighty Cobra Foot. Hairy Lightening Claw. Awesome Screaming Bee.
In another three hours, she pulled off the files she needed, rearranged the startup of the computer she’d infiltrated, so it played the theme song to Golden Girls for two minutes straight before a picture of a dog dressed up as Harry Potter appeared as the wallpaper.
Stretching her arms and tossing her glasses onto the desk, she glanced around his room. She’d gotten used to getting regular sleep at night like most of the human race. Now, almost midnight, and she was exhausted.
Addie walked Lacy one last time before letting her curl up at the foot of the bed, despite the nice dog bed in the corner or the roomy crate in the living room. She needed the contact. Working for Miss Alice didn’t feel as satisfying as it once had.
She rested her hand on the pillow next to her. She was down to two days after tonight. Two days until the first man she’d ever loved was out of her life.
Cameron stopped his car at the end of his driveway. He wanted to drive down, check things out and make sure Addie was locked up tight, beg her to see reason. Ever since meeting with Dexter, Cameron had an uneasy feeling about the guy. His grandmother, Ms. Ruth, had vowed Dexter had stayed with her each night. Ms. Ruth might not have even known he’d left.
His mom had told him Addie had driven his truck. Unless the thief knew he worked tonight, which most of their town could figure out the schedule with one or two phone calls, they wouldn’t break-in his house knowing someone was there.
Lacy should be a little bit of a deterrent. At least wake-up Addie if the situation arose.
He shook his head and drove on. This would be how it was every night he worked if she lived with him. He’d wonder if her job caught up with her. Thugs coming to Statem to find her or the police coming to arrest her.
And if she left for California?
He pulled back into the Sheriff's Office’s parking lot. His dad leaned against the hood of his patrol car, scanning through his phone.
“Nice night,” called Cameron as he approached his dad.
He glanced up. “Where’d you ride off to?”
“My house.”
His dad set his phone to the side. “You’re off duty. You could have stayed.”
“I didn’t even go down the driveway. I need to solve this case. If the guy strikes tonight, I want to be available.” He leaned on the hood. “I still haven’t figured out what to do about Addie.”
“I’d think the situation was pretty black and white to most people looking at it.” He crossed his arms and stared up at the sky full of stars. “According to you, you two are on opposite sides of the law. That’s a pretty firm line in the sand when it comes to being Sheriff.”
“Believe me, I know. And she refused, again, to stop working.” Cameron had figured that one out quick after finding out what she does for a living.
“But,” he began. Cameron’s body tensed at the phrase. At the hope. “Who am I to tell you what to do? I met your mother when I arrested her for underage drinking.”
Cameron shot to his feet. “No way.”
“Met her the second time when the next county over called in back-up for a sit-in protest over a land developer. She’d chained herself to the front of a tree-cutting machine. I helped cut the chain when she dropped the key down the front of her shirt and dared me to frisk her.”
“Mom did that!”
“The third time—”
“We’re talking about the same woman, right? Tanya Dempsey. A school teacher.”
He cleared his throat. “The third time I caught your mother speeding- ninety in a fifty-five zone. She had to do community service and worked at the Sheriff's Office helping with filing and such to earn her license back. Addison reminds me of her in a way. Back in the seventies, your mother didn’t appreciate law and order very much. Still doesn’t, but she amuses me from time to time.”
“I can’t believe you arrested mom and still married he
r.” He’d always thought he’d followed his dad’s rise to Sheriff. He’d held a strict, no lie policy in their house. Even if it meant you were in worse trouble, you told the truth. You followed the law.
“Son, I got to a point where I begged her to marry me. Couldn’t see spending a day without her by my side.” He rubbed a hand over his face, his five o’clock shadow scratching in the quiet night. “Considered giving up my job for her.”
Cameron shoved his hands in his pockets. He’d thought about that. Part of him understood why Addie had looked so confused and in disbelief at his suggestion that she does the same and changes jobs. He was born to do this job. She felt the same way. But if neither one of them conceded, they’d never have a future.
“What made you change your mind?”
“Your mother did. I told her that I would find another job if it meant she’d be mine. I guess she took pity on me and announced that not all cops were there to quiet her voice or something like that. She believed and still does, in all the flower power movement that happened back then. Wore her signature flower crown in her hair the day we got married.”
“I’ve seen the picture.” His father had been willing to give up his job. Cameron couldn’t. It was what he loved.
But what if he went to California with her? He’d miss Statem, and his family, but without the small-town constraints of being Sheriff and living with Addie. In a larger city, her hacking career wouldn’t matter. But could he get past the ethical issue with her job?
“What are you thinking?” His father stared at him with a blank expression, the same one he used for possible witnesses to a crime.
“I’m thinking that life has a way of changing all your plans.”
He stared hard at Cameron before giving him a subtle nod. “You planning on following that woman across the country?”
Cameron let out a harsh laugh. “If she’ll let me, I guess I will. Although, I don’t know if she’ll take me back at this point. I made her pretty mad.”
“I think a good place to start would be to tell her you’re in love with her.”