by Melody Anne
“Oh, pookie, you’re so sweet.”
Cam felt nausea roll into his throat. “You’ve done well for yourself in the last few years, Jimmy,” he said. “Nice suit.”
“Yes, I have. I’m not your whipping boy anymore, that’s for sure,” Jimmy snarled.
“It takes more than a suit, Jimmy,” Cam said with just enough smugness to set the man off.
“James, don’t let this man speak to you this way,” Kitty said, her eyes rounded in shock, and she turned to Grace. “Why did you bring such an unpleasant man to my party?”
“I apologize for the misunderstanding, Kitty. There’s . . . history between all of us,” Grace said through gritted teeth.
“You have nothing to apologize for. Did your mother know you were planning the wedding of a man who once attacked you?” Cam said, fury echoing through every bone in his body.
“What?” Kitty gasped.
And that’s when Grace lost it. This was all way too much for her to handle. She couldn’t do this. No person could be expected to act professional in this situation. Not even with flashbulbs going off as cameras snapped the entire scene for the world to see.
“Do you practice that outraged gasp, Kitty? You never were much of an actress when we were younger,” Grace snapped.
“How dare you!” Kitty’s claws came out as fire lit in her eyes. “Don’t forget who you’re working for, little girl.”
“Number one, I’m a year older than you, Kitty—”
“And a spinster, too!” Kitty shouted.
The entire room quieted as all eyes zeroed in on the four people in the center of the room. The sound of indistinct whispering filled the space as Cam wrapped his arm around Grace to protect her from these venomous people.
“You spoiled little bitch. I can’t believe I let my horrid mother talk me into doing this wedding. I couldn’t stand you from the first day we met, but you know what . . .” Grace paused as a waiter walked by. Grabbing two champagne flutes, she handed one to Cam and gave him a false smile before she turned to the rest of the room.
“I’d like to make a toast.” Her raised voice caught the attention of the few who weren’t aware of the battle royal that was under way.
“Grace, stop this right now.” Victoria rushed to them and tried to pull her daughter away.
Cam sent Victoria a look that made her falter. “Grace has something to say. Let her be.”
Victoria wisely took a step back.
“As I was saying. I would like to make a toast,” Grace continued. “To the bride- and groom-to-be. They are obviously made for each other. May they tie the knot . . . around their throats.”
With that, she clinked her glass against Cam’s and then downed the champagne. Cam was shocked but also proud. Finally, Grace wasn’t doing as her mother expected. Finally, she was freeing herself from the bonds they’d had her under her entire life.
“Each one of you has been nothing but a liar and a user in Grace’s life. We’re going to take our leave, and from now on you can stay the hell out of her way,” Cam told her parents before downing his own glass and taking Grace’s arm.
They turned to leave, and everything happened so quickly that Cam didn’t have time to stop it. With a wild screech, Kitty ran after Grace, grabbing her hair and spinning her around.
“Don’t you dare mock me at my own party and walk away,” she yowled before her arm shot out and she slapped Grace in the face.
Cam again was frozen. He couldn’t hit a woman, but he couldn’t stand idly by while Kitty beat up Grace. But he didn’t need to worry long.
“You pampered, spoiled little brat.” Grace didn’t bother with slapping. She made a fist and slugged Kitty in the nose, making the girl bleed all over her expensive white evening gown.
“Daddy!” the girl wailed as fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
“What has gotten into you, Grace?” Edwin Grier, Kitty’s father, scooped Kitty into his arms while he scowled at Grace.
“Had I known I was planning the wedding of this scum of a man, I would never have agreed to this,” Grace replied, fire in her eyes, but her voice calm. “He will use you and abuse you. Don’t think for a minute that you’re special.”
“You’re a liar,” Kitty cried as she tucked herself against her father.
“I think it’s best if you leave now, Grace,” Edwin told her.
“Gladly.”
With that, Grace turned and began marching toward the front door. Cam smiled at Jimmy—a promising smile, a look that assured the man he wasn’t finished with him. He didn’t move until he saw fear enter his eyes. Then he chased after Grace.
It was time for them to finish speaking about both of their pasts. They had no shot at a future while secrets still lay between them. Whether she wanted to or not, tonight they would be talking.
“Are you going to be silent the entire way back to Sterling?”
“I don’t feel like talking right now.”
Grace was still fuming, her adrenaline pumping, her nerves shot. When Kitty was gushing about her fiancé, James, she had never thought it could be the same person Grace had been stupid enough to have dated after he’d abused her.
Had she known what was happening, she would have had more time to prepare, more time to face the man she hated so much. But it was too late to kick herself now. The damage was done. Jimmy had managed to catch her off guard at a party with reporters present.
Grace’s humiliation would be complete when her face was splashed across the society pages for being a bitter ex, and her career most likely had just gone down the drain. So much time put into something that was gone in one weak moment.
“Are you still in love with him?” Cam asked.
That broke Grace out of her reverie, and she turned to look at him. “How in the world could you ask me that?”
That’s when she noticed that he seemed to be holding himself together by a very thin thread. She didn’t understand why he was so upset. If anyone should be upset at this point, it was certainly her.
“No, I’m not in love with him. I’ve never been in love with him,” she snapped, not in the mood to coddle Cam while she was feeling her own hurts.
“That’s bullshit and you know it, Grace. You were with him when you were still supposed to be mine,” he growled, his anger rising.
“What in the world are you talking about, Cam?”
Her anger drained in her confusion. She was also grateful for the privacy glass between them and the driver, although she wasn’t so sure it was soundproof.
“I saw you with him. I came home my first vacation from school and I saw you with Jimmy Wells behind my father’s barn, and he was kissing you.”
Grace was silent as she processed his words. “I never cheated on you, Cam. I wouldn’t have done that. I loved you,” she said, trying to think of what he was talking about.
“Don’t insult me by lying, Grace. I saw you!” he yelled.
“When?” Her voice was quiet. Maybe he didn’t notice how quiet, but it was very, very quiet as she waited for his response.
“It was the beginning of summer after my first year of law school. We were supposed to get all summer together. I got home early and came searching for you. I found you—in the arms of another guy.”
Grace’s eyes flooded with tears, but she managed to push them back before she let them fall. What good was it to rehash this? Why were they doing this to each other?
“You told me you were staying there that summer to work,” she said instead of asking all the questions she wanted to ask.
“After finding my girlfriend making out with another guy, I wanted to be as far from this farm as possible, so I went back and worked all summer near campus.”
“Why didn’t you say anything to me?” she asked.
“I was young and stupid—and ticked off,” he said, his voice draining of anger. “Look, I told myself this didn’t matter, that I wasn’t going to dredge up the past, but I was just so angry . . .” He to
ok a breath. “Seeing Jimmy just brought out the worst in me. I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t cheat on you. I didn’t even entertain the idea of doing such a thing.”
“Grace!” he shouted, then stopped. When he spoke again, he was more in control. “I saw you kissing him.”
She had to think for a minute to remember that summer. Jimmy had kissed her. But it hadn’t been a wanted kiss and she’d immediately pushed him away.
“I didn’t date Jimmy until I knew you were gone, until you dumped me on the phone and then I heard rumors of all the girls you were dating. Then I only dated him because I was lonely . . .” Her voice trailed off. This hurt so much more than she wanted to admit, even to herself.
“No . . .” He stopped again. “The kiss . . .”
“If it was at the beginning of summer, he did kiss me, and I stopped him. I didn’t want it,” she told him. “But then you came back . . .”
“I was pissed and I wanted to prove something.” Cam hung his head in shame.
They were both silent for several more minutes. Then Grace had to say something. “We had sex, and I thought everything was fixed and then you were supposed to come back in a couple of months for the dance. But I didn’t hear from you again.”
Cam didn’t say anything for so long that she didn’t know if he was going to answer. Her heart was breaking all over again as she remembered that painful time. She was so confused, so frightened, and she was all alone.
“I was saying good-bye to you in one way and thinking that I was getting what was owed to me in another. I was young, Grace. I was an idiot. I shouldn’t have done that,” he finally said.
“I guess we were both pretty foolish, weren’t we?” she said, unable to keep the tears from her voice this time.
“I’m so sorry for hurting you.”
They weren’t looking at each other, and Grace was trying desperately not to fall apart, but when his hand reached across the space between them and grasped hers, she wasn’t able to hold back the tears anymore.
They pulled up to Cam’s house without saying another word. The driver opened the door and he helped her out. Her feet felt leaden as she walked up his steps and inside his house.
This night was ending so much less brilliantly than she’d planned. They’d started with smiles and were ending with tears. Why did life have to be so difficult? Why did there always have to be these roadblocks?
“I am sorry, Grace. I was hurting,” Cam said, taking her hand again before she climbed up the stairs.
“Me, too, Cam. I guess we both made assumptions that we can’t take back,” she said, unable to make eye contact with him.
“Let’s not leave it like this tonight. Let me take you to bed,” he said, tugging on her hand, trying to pull her into his arms.
“I can’t, Cam. Not tonight,” she replied, not pulling back, knowing it would do her no good.
“Gracie, I care about you. We’re good together.”
“Please, Cam. I can’t take any more tonight. Please just let me go.”
“Do you mean forever, Grace?” he asked, his hand tightening on hers. “Or do you mean just for tonight?”
She said nothing for several heartbeats. Could she let this man go? Or was he once again wedged so deeply within her soul that losing him would destroy her? She really didn’t know.
“I don’t know, Cam—I just don’t know,” she whispered.
“Okay. For tonight I’ll give you space,” he told her, and then released her fingers.
Grace climbed slowly up the stairs, knowing she couldn’t turn around for fear that she’d go running back to him. But she desperately wanted him to run to her, to tell her he’d been a fool and that he would never hurt her again.
But even if he did that, she wouldn’t believe him—not tonight, at least.
“I’m here when you’re ready, Grace.”
His words stopped her on the landing at the top of the stairs. She blinked and nearly turned back to him, but then she walked away, to the guest room. It was time to leave his house.
The world was lucky he was sitting behind his desk. Cam had been growling at anyone who got within three feet of him ever since Grace had moved out of his place and started refusing to take any of his calls.
Sure, she was staying with Spence and Sage, and he got nightly reports to the effect that she was safe and sound, but that didn’t help his mood any—it didn’t help his mood at all. Because what Cam wanted was Grace back in his home and back in his bed.
So they’d gotten into a fight. It wasn’t something they couldn’t fix—their wounds would heal—but the next day, when he’d woken up after only a couple of hours’ sleep, she’d already left.
At first Cam had panicked, thinking that someone had managed to break into his house and stolen her away. But then he found the note, saying she was going to Sage’s.
He called Spence, of course, to make sure that she was, in fact, there. Knowing she was safe had helped, and that day he’d even been angry enough with her to think he was glad to be rid of her.
But then the week had dragged on and the more he missed her, the angrier he became with the rest of the world. When he wasn’t thinking obsessively about her, he was thinking obsessively about her case. He needed to know how to help her and, more importantly, how to help them.
“Can I get you anything else before I go, Cam?”
“No. I’m fine.” It was a wonder his legal assistant didn’t march right out of his law offices after telling him where he could shove his bad mood.
But instead of yelling at him as he deserved, as he almost wanted, she just left him alone, like everyone else was doing.
And why? Because his thoughts were pinpointed on one woman—one dark-haired, exotic-eyed, beautiful, frustrating woman. Grace. It was always Grace, always had been Grace. She was his first love, and he had no doubt she would be his last.
But would she allow him to stay in her life? That was an entirely different matter. She was strong and independent, and the bottom line was that she just might not need him as much as he needed her.
“Cam, I have to talk to you.”
Cam looked up to find Sage in his doorway. “Of course. Is everything okay with my brother?”
Concern flashed through him at the worried look in Sage’s eyes. She was normally a cool, collected woman. Right now, she didn’t look so calm.
“Before I talk, I really need a drink—a stiff one.”
She took off her jacket and sat down while Cam went to his liquor cabinet and poured them each a scotch. He had a feeling he would need it, to judge from the expression she was wearing. His body hummed with tension.
“Your brother is fine, Cam. I should have said that right away,” she told him after taking a long swallow of her drink.
“Then this is about Grace.” It wasn’t a question. There were very few people who would cause Sage to look that way while talking with him.
“It’s about Grace,” she said, and her eyes filled with tears.
“You’re going to have to explain to me what’s going on,” Cam told her, frustrated at all the preliminaries. Okay, she hadn’t been in his office all that long, but it seemed like forever.
“You know she’ll murder me if she knows I’m talking to you, right?”
“No, she won’t, Sage. You’re her best friend, and she trusts you. I’m the man who loves her, and she’ll learn to trust me again.”
“I know you love her, and that’s why I’ve come to you with this.”
“Then tell me, please.”
Cam got up and grabbed the bottle of scotch again. He had a feeling that they were going to need a lot more of it before this conversation was finished.
“You know about her relationship with Jimmy, right?” Sage downed her drink and pushed it toward him for a refill.
“Yes, Sage, I know about it, and I’d really rather not discuss that aspect of her life. Unless you know something to tie him to the embezzlement case—and I wouldn�
��t be a bit surprised—I don’t want to discuss that man.”
“I don’t know if he’s involved, but I do know he raped her, shamed her, and then held something over her head for years. She finally walked away when she found him in bed with her mother, but I have a feeling he’s the one behind these little acts of terror against her.”
“Why? What could he possibly be holding over her?” This wasn’t something Cam was expecting.
“This is so much harder than I thought. I don’t want to betray my best friend. But she needs us.”
“If you aren’t going to tell me, then why in the hell did you come down here and throw out the bait?” Cam snapped, jumping from his chair and pacing his office.
“I’m trying to tell you,” Sage countered.
“If I’m going to help her, then I need all the information.”
“Jimmy was a monster—is still a monster. How do you think he managed to go from ranch hand to an important position in an exclusive art gallery? The man has skills, backwoods kind of skills, and he’s dangerous.”
“I know all of this, Sage.”
Cam was losing his patience. He turned away and took in a long, deep breath as he tried to pull himself together. Sage needed to work up to telling him whatever it was she knew, and if he pushed her, she would clam up again.
“I’m sorry, Sage. I’m just worried about Grace.”
“I’m worried about her, too,” Sage said with a sigh. “We all abandoned her after high school. But it started with you, when you left and didn’t come back that summer we graduated. You left for law school and she was devastated, but she had faith that it would all work out. While you were gone, she met Jimmy. Everyone knew she was your girl, and the hands warned the new kid on the ranch that Grace was a hands-off kind of gal. He ignored them. He pursued her. She didn’t think anything of it at first—just that he was a nice guy and she was helping him.”
“I was in law school, a good law school. Considering I was in foster care up until I was thirteen years old, that’s a pretty damn good accomplishment. I didn’t mean to abandon Grace. I was coming back for her. I was just busy . . .” Cam trailed off. He could spout that all day long, but he knew he’d left her, the calls starting to come in less and less, the visits rare. He’d left her because he figured she’d be waiting for him when he came back. He was twenty-two at the time, young and foolish.