by Debra
“That’s not an easy emotion for me.” In his whole life that sentiment had never really worked for him.
The first time he’d found a home was with the Corcoran Team. Joel was his best friend. They saw each other less now that Joel was back together with the woman who made him happy, but Cam still tagged along. And he hung out with Shane and, to a lesser extent, Holt. They were a team and he entrusted his life and safety to them, but those connections did not extend to people outside Corcoran. Not for him.
“You think it is for me? I grew up with a rageful alcoholic. I didn’t exactly have friends over for playdates.” She shook her head as if trying to clear out all the old memories. “I don’t want you to go.”
The pleas tugged at him, made him think about doing stupid things that didn’t fit with his life or the need to keep her protected. “You’ll be safe with Sandy.”
Her other hand went to his lap. Smoothed up and down his thigh. “You make me feel safe.”
The touching, the sound of her voice, the pleading in those big eyes. Cam was ten seconds from breaking. “Don’t do this.”
She nuzzled her mouth against his neck. Blew warm breath over his skin. He fought it until he couldn’t, and then he turned his head and kissed her. Right there in another man’s house, in a place with security but no connection to Cam.
His mouth lingered over hers, caressing and coaxing, before he pressed deeper. The flash of heat hit him straight in the chest. The need churning inside him kicked up and his hands started to wander over her.
It took every ounce of his strength and self-control to pull back. When that didn’t give him enough space, he stood up. Paced around and thought about airplanes. Anything to take his mind off her face and the touch of those lips.
“Then I’m going with you.” Her voice sounded shaky.
He knew that wasn’t from fear. He felt the trembling inside him and tried to tamp it down.
“Fine.” But he didn’t mean it.
He’d have to be that jerk. Walk away the second she wasn’t looking. Leave her where it was safe and warm and hope that whatever connections Sandy had—and Cam assumed from the look of the place that he had some power—he’d use them to help her. If not, Cam would circle back and take responsibility so she could be free.
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him. “Really?”
“Go wash up and then we’ll find some food.”
“Was that so hard?” She got up and kissed him on the cheek.
He tried to smile and make it look genuine. “Nope.”
She went into the bathroom. He waited until he heard the water running, then constructed a floor plan of the house in his head. He tried to figure out the most logical ways in and out of the house by the layout of the rooms he’d seen and the look of the place from the outside.
The only question was the alarm system. Sandy hadn’t reset it before he ushered them out of the foyer. Cam had to hope that was still the case.
Being careful as he placed his footsteps, Cam walked to the door and opened it. He could hear a television playing in another room and could smell food cooking in the kitchen. He ignored the growl of his stomach and slipped into the hall.
He stopped, trying to get his bearings. It was too risky to go out the front. And if the entry was that way, that meant a side or back door would be in another direction. He glanced to his right and saw what he suspected was a closet. A quick check confirmed the thought. His only solution then was a walk toward the noise.
Between the size of the house and the fact that it had sensor lights outside, this would not be an easy task. He tried to dream up an excuse in case he got caught. The need for fresh air. Probably as plausible as anything else.
The television grew louder as he reached the end of the hall. Sandy stood with his back to him as he used the remote to dial around the stations on the screen that seemed to take up a third of the wall in the massive family room.
At least that task had Sandy occupied. Cam didn’t wait for another distraction. He slid along the counter and headed for the door on the side of the kitchen. The French doors by the dining room would take him too close to Sandy, but this one had possibilities. Cam just hoped it didn’t lead to a pantry. Would be hard to explain why he was hanging out in there.
He waited to move until Sandy laughed at something on the screen. Cam placed each step carefully and didn’t take his eyes off Sandy until he had the door open. Once inside, Cam smelled the faint scent of gasoline and spotted the two cars despite the dark. There was a wide-open bay and a door at the opposite side.
Getting over there took a few seconds. Checking for wires or any evidence of an alarm took another two. The alarm panel next to the door showed a green light. Cam hoped that meant go.
He turned the knob slowly at first, then yanked the door. Cold air and misty rain slapped his face. He glanced up and saw the searchlight aimed at the lawn beyond. Now he had to play the game of beat the sensor lights. Dodge and weave, keep low and not make noise.
He’d just picked a path when a figure appeared in front of him. Round face, backpack and ponytail...and a glare that could melt steel.
“Forget something?” Julia asked through clenched teeth.
“No.”
“If you had asked I would have told you there was a patio off the bathroom in my room.” She exhaled and it sounded harsh and ragged. “The bathroom is the size of most people’s family rooms.”
That was a weird architectural choice and now he regretted not slipping in there to check it out. “Didn’t expect that.”
“Obviously.” She tightened her hold on the strap of her pack. “This is where teamwork comes into play. We work together and you don’t need to sneak around.”
It sounded good. Too good. “You need to stay here.”
“Not happening. See, I turned the alarm to pause. You have about five seconds to come with me before all these lights and bells come on again.” She leaned in closer. “And this time Sandy will call the police on you.”
Score one for Julia and her overwhelming hotness.
A smart man knew when he’d lost. “Let’s go.”
* * *
RAY SAT IN the front of the van with Ned. They parked a good distance away, on the other side of a small hill. They could move in without thinking, but they waited. Watched the woman and the man run into the woods as the rain started to fall around them.
He was getting tired of following these two. From the ferry. The police station. This house. It was getting old.
Ned wiped a hand against the fog on the inside of the window. “Why are we letting them go?”
This was not Ray’s decision. If he had a say, these two would be splattered all over the street by now. Hell, he’d only pulled out of the woman’s house that first time because the boss tracked his movements and sent a message saying to let the woman go unharmed. Up until then Ray had had it handled and could have taken Roth without any trouble.
But he wasn’t in charge...yet. “The boss wants us to follow. Watch from a safe distance.”
“Why?”
The questions skidded across Ray’s nerves. It was bad enough he had to listen to directions from the boss. Hearing his inferior question every move just added to the frustration boiling in Ray’s gut. “He thinks Roth is not alone.”
“You mean the woman.”
“He’s convinced that kind of guy from that kind of team would come here with other men. If so, we need to find all of them. Round them all up.” Made sense to Ray. There was no reason to clamp down on only one problem when more scurried about. “The boss wants them all off the island.”
“Are we still supposed to save the woman?” Ned asked as he traced the rain down the window with his finger.
“If possible.”
“So, we’re letting them go on purpose.”
Ray was not impressed with how long it took Ned to reason that out. Maybe he’d picked the wrong second in command. Problem was, his first choice was dead
on the floor in the woman’s house.
Not many people got the jump on Bob, but Roth had, which even Ray had to admit made the guy appear more skilled than they’d all hoped when they found out he was coming to Calapan to talk with a witness. Roth had fired one shot, a kill shot. Around the corner and in the middle of darkened chaos.
That one shot was the only reason Ray had held off on putting a bullet in Roth now. Sure, he had the boss’s orders, but he really wanted Roth to suffer. See the life run out of him.
Ned looked over his shoulder. “Ray?”
“The boss always has a plan.” And so did Ray.
Chapter Eight
It must be nice to have close friends. They’d walked and then gotten in a car. It had just happened to be there with the keys under the mat. Julia figured Holt and Shane were behind this. She didn’t complain or ask questions, because the thump in her ankle had kicked up again. Once they were settled—and she hoped that happened soon—she’d dig into her bag and find more of those meds Holt had given her.
Cam took one last turn, then drove the car into the bushes. Right in. He had the old sedan tucked in between rocks and trees and now surrounded by shrubs. It was an interesting hiding place. Effective except for the part where she had to get the door open...and she had no idea where he intended for them to hide.
She recognized this area even though it wasn’t one where she spent a lot of time. They were a few miles from the old shipyard where her father used to work. She could smell fish and feel the pickup in moisture in the air as they got closer to the water.
The place, like everything on this part of the island, had fallen into disrepair. Sandy talked about buying the land back and revitalizing the area, but Calapan wasn’t exactly open to a big tourist crowd, which made the task a pretty bad investment. From what she saw of Sandy’s life, he didn’t make a lot of bad investments.
Unless Cam planned for them to hide in a tree, she didn’t understand why he’d brought her here. “You know it’s going to rain again in, like, five minutes, right?”
“Welcome to the Pacific Northwest.” He held out a hand to her. The other one carried a flashlight.
Even in the darkness, guided only by one beam of light, she could make out his strong fingers. She grabbed on and didn’t let go. “Where are we going?”
“I thought you knew every inch of the island.” He marched, forging a path for both of them.
“I never said that.” Then there was the part where she’d specifically tried to stay away as much as possible over the years.
At first when she did come here, usually to visit her father in the clinic, she’d always expected to see new buildings and new restaurants. A turnover in stores and fresh faces. That rarely happened. People who grew up here tended to stay here, except for the few like her who escaped.
Not many people landed here without any ties to the place. Most of the land was owned by a few, and neighboring islands like Bainbridge offered more of a welcoming community feel than Calapan. Here, neighbors sat miles away from each other and didn’t want to get involved. Poor Rudy had found that out the hard way.
She thought about him and her mind zipped back to all that had happened in such a short time. That took her gaze to their joined hands and then to the sturdy man beside her who cradled her hand in a gentle hold even as he marched them through the tall grass and overgrown branches.
They broke around a cluster of trees and she stopped. Stood frozen to the ground. In front of her sat something that looked like a construction trailer. Old, with a rusted roof and a broken front step. She had no memory of the building, but it could have come after her time, before the shipyard wheezed its final breath.
Cam glanced at her. “Impressed?”
Kind of stunned, actually. “For a guy who isn’t familiar with the island, you sure knew how to find this place.”
She waited for the doubts to hit her again. She’d been swamped by them at the police station and unable to wipe her expression clean before Cam saw it. The strange anxiety over trusting him hadn’t lasted long or lingered. It was just that Kreider had talked and she had listened and the words had made sense.
Then she’d remembered she was dealing with Kreider, the same guy who’d brought her father in to dry out but never arrested him. Who sometimes even looked the other way while her father drove around the middle of town drunk. A good old boy who protected his favorites and hated outsiders. The guy who found reasons to lock up anyone who was even a little different.
The idea of Kreider being too incompetent or too full of hate to see Cam as a protector was not hard to imagine. Kreider and Cam were too different, and if it came time to choose between them or pick one to believe, well, there wasn’t even a contest. She picked Cam.
He clicked a button on his watch, and the dial lit up. “I’d like to wow you with my brilliance, but the GPS did all the work.”
A handy tool. She noted that for a future purchase even if it did seem a little anticlimactic for Cam. She half expected him to have an invisible plane. “Okay.”
“Holt found the place abandoned and set it up as a safe house for us after he cleared the area.”
She was starting to like Holt. “Does clearing the area involve shooting a gun?”
“More like checking for vagrants and animals.” Cam squeezed her hand. “We have a no on both.”
They’d been so busy dealing with the two-legged kind of trouble that she hadn’t even spared a thought for critters. The size of the raccoons alone around here could scare a normal person to death.
“Holt also dropped off some supplies.” They went to the door in single file as they walked on a board across what looked like a deep puddle of water.
“Maybe I should have stuck with Holt.” The quiet hit her and she glanced up in time to see Cam’s jaw tighten. “Kidding.”
“Believe it or not, I don’t find that funny.” He dropped her hand as he reached for his gun but came up with air, since Kreider had stripped him of his weapons hours ago.
She tried not to take the loss of contact personally, but he sounded as though he was serious. His tone matched his frown and neither said happy or anything similar. The idea that a man like Cam, with his confidence and control, could need reassurance struck her as funny, but she didn’t dare laugh.
She went for damage control instead. “I don’t find him attractive. Just you.”
“That’s better.” He winked at her. “Stay here.”
“Yeah, I know the drill by now.”
He stopped before taking the last step onto the broken staircase. “You know we’ve only been together one day.”
“It feels like months.” That wasn’t an exaggeration. She felt as if she knew him. As if deep down they’d bonded on some level that allowed them to fast-forward through the getting-to-know-you stage. Maybe that was what happened when the initial meet consisted of a hostage and shooting situation.
“I’m going to hope that’s a good thing.” He moved, balancing for a second on the piece of a rotted stair before pulling his body up to the deck.
He took careful steps. With each move he’d put a portion of his weight down. Once he heard the crack or the creak, he’d go forward. Almost sprint across as if to barely touch the piece of wood.
It felt as if it took forever for him to get to the door, but the journey only lasted a few minutes. Without looking back he turned the knob, then slipped inside.
With him out of view, the sounds of the night amplified. Crickets chirped and the leaves and branches swished and swayed. She could hear something scurry nearby but decided not to think about that. She blocked the critter just as she blocked the terror racing through her at the idea of someone sneaking up behind her.
She thought about that possibility and whipped around to confront whatever might be out there. Only a breeze greeted her.
“Are you okay?”
Cam’s voice cut through the night and the nerves jumping around inside her. She glanced up to see
him standing there with his hands on his hips, looking every inch a man in charge.
“I’m good.” That qualified as a lie, but if she told him about the shaking knees and chattering teeth, she might accidentally distract him.
He held a hand out to her. “Let’s get you inside and off that ankle.”
He remembered. Of course he did.
She lifted an arm just as he leaned down. He had his hands under her armpits and her feet off the ground in no time. She spun through the air with her body pressed next to his. When the world came back into focus, she balanced against his chest with her arms wrapped around his neck.
“You’re carrying me.” It seemed like an obvious comment, but she wanted to point it out just in case.
“Yeah.” The breathiness in his voice mirrored hers.
Like everything else about him, that was way too sexy.
“I can stand.” Not that she really wanted to at the moment. The feeling of his strong arms around her had that shaking inside her turning into something else.
“That’s a shame.” He pressed a light kiss on her mouth, then loosened his grip.
Her body slid down his. The friction had her breath hitching in her chest and her common sense in free fall.
Some of that shine of the moment dulled when they stepped inside. To think she’d made fun of him for demanding pristine accommodations. But this was not good. There was a cot with blankets folded and stacked on the end. She gave credit to Holt for that and the bag of food and duffel bag on the floor.
The rest of the place consisted of dust and cobwebs. Cleaning was not her thing, but neither were spiders. She shivered and not in a good way.
“It’s set up to look abandoned,” he said with more than a little amusement in his voice.
“Uh...” That sounded like crazy talk. A bit more in line with the scenarios she spun in her head about guys working undercover, but still a little weird. “What?”
“Holt cleaned it up, then added some charm. The idea is that if someone comes looking tomorrow or any day soon, they’ll see what they expect to see.” Cam glanced around. “A stripped-down, no-one-lives-here building.”