by Luna Joya
“Sweetheart, tell me what’s wrong.”
She tiptoed to kiss his lips softly. “Tomorrow,” she promised. “But now, I need you to make me forget everything else but you. Please.”
He stared into her eyes. It looked as though he was judging whether or not to push her for more. She pleaded silently that he wouldn’t.
Finally, he nodded. “I can do that.”
A sad smile stretched her lips before Sam made good on his promise until they both fell asleep wrapped in each other.
“Dream Weaver” blared through his bedroom. The ring tone meant one of her sisters was calling. He couldn’t remember which woman matched the song. He groaned and Bogart huffed as she fumbled to answer.
“Ruby?” she grumbled sleepily.
“Cami, don’t come home,” Ruby barked, her hardass voice loud enough that Sam heard every word. If Ruby used the same tone to push through cops at an emergency scene, Sam got why her sisters said everyone did whatever she told them. Cami sat straight up, clutching the sheet to her breasts.
“Wait, what?” she asked.
“Is Sam there? Put him on the phone.”
“Ruby, what’s wrong?” She sounded frantic.
He raised onto an elbow and stretched a hand toward her. “Put her on speaker.”
Cami hit the audio button before she continued in a hurried barrage of questions. “Why can’t I come home? What’s wrong with Mina? Ama? Is it Dad?”
“No. Dad’s fine. Your mom, Mina, and Rose are all here with me. We stopped by your place to see if you wanted to come to the beach with us. The door was wide open.”
“I never leave my door unlocked.”
“We know. Delia tells us all too many serial killer rapist stories for that to happen. I got worried and told Ama to take Rose back to the car. Thank god you stayed with Sam last night.”
Her face paled. None of the teasing blush she usually got with her family when her sisters talked about anything to do with the two of them sleeping together. He rubbed her back, trying to ease the shock even as he took over the conversation. She needed level-headed and competent right now. Her usual ability to handle emergencies with cool calmness had apparently deserted her, and he wanted to know what’d gotten her so rattled. But that could wait.
“Ruby,” he asked. “What the hell happened?”
“Neil happened.” Ruby sounded pissed. And deadly. He’d bet Cami’s big sister would fight dirty. “Mina saw it when she stood in your doorway. The fucker broke the flimsy lock, forced his way in, and wrecked the place.”
“But I don’t have anything worth taking,” Cami whispered.
Sam disagreed. She’d missed the greatest risk. She was definitely worth taking. He seethed. What if she’d been there? What if she had gone home last night instead of staying with him? What would the asshole have done to her?
“What did this Neil guy do to her apartment?” he asked.
Ruby didn’t say anything for a long minute. “He tossed the whole place, knifed the futon, slashed her clothes, and destroyed the furniture. He even carved a warning in the table.”
“Son of a bitch, what do you mean he carved a warning?” he growled. “What’s it say?”
“Mine. It says mine. That bastard carved the word mine across the whole tabletop.”
Screw this Neil guy. Cami was his. Sam wanted to fight, needed to beat her ex to a pulp to teach him he couldn’t and wouldn’t ever have her. He worked to relax his clenched jaw and curled fists. He knew better ways to vent his anger, but right now he couldn’t remember a damned one of them. He hadn’t burned with this kind of rage in years.
Ruby continued softly. “Cami honey, he tore everything to bits. There’s nothing left.”
She stared ahead blankly. He held her hand, squeezed as Bogart came into the room and cried forlornly at the side of the bed.
“Neil was there last night,” she whispered.
Sam rubbed her shoulder. “I know sweetheart, that’s what Ruby said.”
“No.” Her voice cracked. “At the movies. He was there. He’s been watching us. It was him on the jet ski, at the hotel, at the library. He tried to poison Bogart.”
“What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me?”
She flinched, and he immediately regretted the harsh words. She got out of bed, murmuring something to Bogart who immediately stopped crying and followed her. She reached for clothes and called toward the phone. “I’m coming, Ruby.”
“All right, sis. Delia texted. She’s almost here. She says you’ve got to call the cops and report his ass. You can’t let him get away with this. I’ve got to go. Mina’s back, and I need to check on Ama and my baby.”
He had slipped into the closest pants and a clean shirt by the time the sisters ended the call. He ran his fingers through his hair and walked to the kitchen where Cami fumbled with her clothes. He was mad at Neil, mad at her for not telling him, and mad there wasn’t a damn thing he could do.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked again.
She ignored him and clipped Bogart’s leash.
“Were you going to tell me?” He flashed through memories of last night before the amazing sex, when she’d asked to be held and to make her forget. That she’d tell him in the morning.
She bit her lip. “I’m not fighting with you and handling this.”
His jaw ticked. “I don’t want to fight with you either. But I want to punch this guy.”
“You may have to get in line for that,” she muttered.
“I’m coming with you.”
She didn’t argue. She simply strode out of his apartment with his dog. She acted like this wasn’t a big deal. How could she not see how much of a threat this guy was? She’d apparently scanned crowds like a sniper for the last year and jumped at every shadow. Yet when her ex actually approached her, she hadn’t told him. Because he hadn’t been around.
Sam was pissed he’d taken her to an unfamiliar place and then left her by herself. No wonder Bogart had gone crazy and torn through the crowd to get to Cami. His own dog had known, but Sam hadn’t dreamed it could happen. Then she hadn’t told him. Did she not trust him? Would he always come behind her family in her confidences? Or had she been that scared?
Questions spun through his head in the silent short drive to her house. He whipped the truck into street parking and got out without waiting for her. He stood on the sidewalk and stared ahead until she led the way into the apartment building with Bogart in tow.
Upstairs, Mina lingered in the apartment doorway. She moved to block the door. “You need to know before you go inside that Neil was out of his mind with jealousy. There’s no telling how much he’s followed you two in the last few weeks. He tore the place apart in a rage about two o’clock this morning. I don’t know how he didn’t wake the neighbors with all the noise.”
She took the dog’s leash. “Come on, Bogie.” Bogart didn’t budge. “Cami tell the dog to go with me. It’s not safe in there.”
Cami nodded to Bogart, and he reluctantly plodded down the hall after Mina. Sam watched Cami take a deep steadying breath before she walked the few steps into her apartment. He followed close behind.
It was destroyed, wrecked, ruined. His mind couldn’t come up with enough words to describe the damage. Her place was tiny. He had stayed in budget hotel rooms that would swallow this studio whole. And what the hell was smeared on the walls? The whole room reeked. She put a hand over her stomach. Furniture lay askew, overturned and broken.
He looked down to the shattered shards and her skimpy sandals. He reached a hand to steady her. “Careful. Watch the glass on the floor.”
She nodded and kept moving toward the ribbons of her clothes, the pieces of her pink sneakers, the smashed bathroom mirror smeared with lipstick. How long had her ex been here?
“It’s like a nightmare,” she whispered.
“What could this guy have wanted in ransacking your place?” he asked her. He didn’t add that he would’ve moved her weeks a
go if he’d known what a crap apartment she’d been living in. There was almost no security, and the rickety door wouldn’t have stopped anyone, let alone a psycho ex-boyfriend who’d carved up her shabby table. Sick bastard wanted to mark her things, probably to mark her.
She tried to tip a broken chair upright before he stopped her. They’d need the cops to see everything exactly the way they’d found it.
She sighed. “He did it to remind me he can still get to me. As another sign of how far his control can reach.” She wandered further into the room. “He has threatened everyone and everything I’ve ever cared about.”
He took the two steps back to poke at the deadbolt she’d mentioned before. The keyhole had been glued shut. Stuffing from a worn-out futon mattress littered the floor among streamers of what had been family photos now ripped to pieces. She knelt to touch the edge of a photo of Rose, torn in two and crumpled with shredded ribbons of Sam’s flannel jacket.
Tears slid down her cheeks. A long moaning sob escaped her. It damn near broke him. He pulled her into his arms and hustled her out of the mess. He held her trembling hand all the way downstairs as two police officers came up the sidewalk with Delia.
“Don’t let Neil get away with it,” Delia told her younger sister. “Report his ass.”
Mina stood mere steps away, and Ruby was close behind Delia in moments with Rose on her hip. Ama reached for Cami. He could swear the air thickened around the women. It wasn’t just the ocean smell Cami brought whenever she was emotional. That had spiked in his bedroom this morning when she’d gotten the call. But this, this power was more. They were more.
Cami rubbed her sorrowful face and followed the officers into the house. Ruby and Ama took Rose towards the pier to keep the baby away from the building. Who knew what powers little Rose might already have, Ruby had told him. No need to test them at a crime scene.
Sam took out his phone. He texted Lottie to ask for a favor only his sister could pull off, left a voicemail for the tire repair shop, and one more message with a request he’d never imagined he’d have to make. He’d finished by the time Cami came back with an emergency restraining order and thanked the officers.
“You’ll have to tell people at work,” Delia said. “Some patrol officers can stop by and do a welfare check. They’ve already offered. No going to the beach. No shopping by yourself. Nothing until he’s stopped.”
“Other than the animal clinic and my apartment, you won’t be out of my sight.” Sam didn’t leave room for argument. He twined his fingers through Cami’s and was rewarded by her quick squeeze of his hand. He kissed her knuckles to soften the nonnegotiable order before taking the key that dangled from one finger.
“I couldn’t even lock up,” she told him.
“Can’t lock a door that’s hanging off the hinges.”
“I’ve nothing worth saving now anyway,” she whispered.
He disagreed, thinking she had plenty worth saving as they headed toward the pier following Mina and Delia. She had family who loved her. She had her magic. She had his heart.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sam stared down the long private table he’d set up in the back hallway of his restaurant for an emergency meeting of the Donovan women. He’d been happy to host, and they’d included him without hesitation. He swallowed hard at being accepted into this family as Cami’s partner.
Weary from discussing Neil over breakfast, she had seized the opportunity to change topics when he’d suggested sharing what they’d learned from Tony Davino.
When she had finished, Ruby sighed and shifted Rose in her lap. “That Joey. I’d have followed him down the hill.”
“You always did have a thing for bad boys,” Delia teased around the last bite of her omelet.
He watched Cami tense and wondered if it was a shared family trait to want bad boys. He’d come a long way from the juvenile delinquent kicked out of his home. Granted, he’d been angry this morning, but he’d calmed down with her safe beside him and the clatter of his own kitchen behind him.
Ruby shivered. “Knowing how it’s going to end, it’s sad. It’s like a ‘don’t go up to the house girl’ horror story.”
“Any chance no one was home and she went to her car? Maybe she fell asleep from the gin and never knew what happened?” Ama asked.
“No.” The sisters agreed out loud.
“Didn’t think so.” Ama sighed. She turned and looked at Cami. “Mija, where is your necklace?”
Cami touched fingertips to the bare space at the base of her throat and froze at the emptiness there. He reached for his pocket. “It burned her last night,” he told Ama. “I slipped it off before…” He trailed off, remembering the exact chain of events.
“Before Neil?” Ama arched one eyebrow.
Delia joined in. “That necklace alerts her to danger. It’s why she’s worn it every day since Neil. Why we all wear one. It flares when someone near intends to harm us.”
“Son of a bitch,” he whispered. “I had it.”
“Did you have Bogart?” Mina asked him softly. “I can’t imagine him letting Neil near her.”
Pain shot through the new knots in his stomach. Cami put a hand over his. “This was not your fault.” She straightened in her chair. “Not mine either.” He couldn’t decide if she was trying to convince him or herself.
The sisters argued whether Sam and Bogart needed their own charms. Ama pressed a temporary protection ward into Cami’s palm, the red and gold charm glinting with no sun or bright light to cause the reflection. “Take this, Camellia. Better late than never.”
The back door banged open, and his grandfather came through it with arms outstretched toward Cami.
“There’s the girl with the gorgeous curls that’s got my boy distracted.” Cami stood to be wrapped in a hug. “I’d know you anywhere, he’s talked about you so much. Renzo,” he told her with another squeeze. “Or Pops. Your choice.”
Sam saw that twinkle in his grandpa’s eyes and eased her away. “Go grab your own girl. This one’s mine.” He didn’t resist when Pops smacked his jaw playfully.
“Always been cheeky,” Pops admonished. “Wait ’til Lottie sees her. She pulled in after me, but I wanted the first look.”
Pops extended a hand toward Ama. “Ciao, Eleuia. It has been too long. My wife will be sorry to have missed you.”
Ama kissed his cheek. How did she know Pops?
Before he could ask, Lottie bustled in the back door, shifting bundles and bags around her gypsy dress.
“Bro, I got what you asked for. Where’s she at? Let’s see this knockout.” She dropped the bags and moved to Cami, skirting around Delia and Mina on the way.
“Very Rita Hayworth early period. Those big golden eyes you talked about, perfect olive skin, and all those curls. I’m Lottie. I brought you some pretty new dresses and makeup to replace what that asshole destroyed. Oh, who does your hair?”
Cami blinked a startled look, and he sympathized. Lottie could be overwhelming.
Ruby answered, “Susan Donovan. She’s our mom.” She tipped her head toward Delia who looked coolly at the commotion of the newcomer.
“Oh, I know her well. I’ve worked with her,” his sister professed. “Worked for your grandmothers too.”
The Donovan sisters looked at Lottie with new interest before staring at Pops and him.
“Huh,” Mina said quietly. “That explains a lot.”
“Give a girl some love, Pops.” Lottie moved to hug her grandfather.
“She always this energetic?” Cami asked as Lottie stopped to purr over Rose’s perfection.
“She’s only warming up.” Sam chuckled and kissed her head. She leaned back, fitting perfectly against him. She had to be tired after the trauma of this morning. It didn’t help he’d kept her up most of the night taking his time with her in the bedroom, but he couldn’t regret one minute of enjoying her lush curves and those sighs.
“So which one’s the sister with the history visions?” Lot
tie gushed.
“What exactly have you been sharing, Sam?” Delia’s tone bled thick with accusations.
Sam shrugged, never taking his hands off Cami. He had enough of a fight coming with this Neil guy and to get her to trust him. He wasn’t arguing with her sister.
“Not enough,” Lottie insisted. “You must be the one who fights her gifts.” Lottie rounded on Delia.
Ruby snickered. “She’s got your number, Deals.” Rose giggled at her mother’s laughter.
“Do we let them fight it out?” Cami whispered to him.
He leaned close to her ear. “Delia has the red turbo Mini Cooper, right?”
She nodded, and if he didn’t imagine it, she shivered at his breath so close.
“Wait until Delia sees Lottie’s car. She drives a blue Mini Countryman.”
“No.”
“Yep. Straps surfboards on top. Those two are more alike than they realize.”
She cut a look at him from the corner of her eyes. “You have no idea.”
“Do all of you have an extra special something?” Lottie asked the sisters.
“Boldness. Beauty. Brains,” Pops said before nodding to Cami. “Sweetness.”
“I’m a healer,” Ruby told her. “Cami communicates with animals. We aren’t sure about my baby’s powers yet though Rose’s already got plenty of personality. You know a little about Mina’s gifts. Ama’s talent is love and special brews.”
“I knew those candles in your house weren’t ordinary,” Sam said. He’d sensed the magic trickling through Ama’s home. It’d wrapped him in an embrace and danced against his skin in a comforting touch.
Ama smiled secretively. “Nothing in my home is ordinary.”
“And you?” Lottie asked Delia.
“No comment,” she snapped.
“Oh, cattiness.” Lottie made pretend claws in the air. Rose gurgled adorably and shoved a fist in her mouth.
“Delia reads the history of objects like Mina reads places.” Ruby bounced the baby in her lap. “Sometimes she reads people too. Through touch.”