“Apology accepted,” Cameron said and held out his hand.
Samuel grabbed the outstretched hand and the two men shook. Peace flowed through Cameron and he knew his monster had been slayed, not by violence, but by forgiveness.
“Be happy, Cameron,” Samuel said as he released Cameron’s hand.
“That’s exactly what I intend to do,” Cameron replied. He grabbed his gun from the ground, tucked it back into his holster, then turned and sprinted back toward the house, knowing for the first time exactly what it would take for him to be happy. Alicia.
Chapter 14
Throughout the remainder of the day and into early evening Alicia hunted for Robert’s briefcase. While Rebecca played quietly in her room with the toys she’d been unable to take with her on their travels, Alicia ransacked the house, seeking the elusive attaché case.
When darkness fell, Alicia was reluctant to turn on any lights, not wanting to alert any neighbors, especially Broderick and Ruth, of their presence in the house. Instead, she and Rebecca played cards by flashlight until it was time to tuck Rebecca into bed.
With Rebecca asleep, Alicia continued the search, growing more desperate with each minute that passed. She finally sank down on the sofa in the darkness of the living room, wondering if returning had been a mistake. The check Cameron had given her was a lot of money, but was it enough to mount a defense against a couple who were probably millionaires?
There were a hundred ways to bleed a fund when fighting a court battle, and Alicia had a feeling the Randalls would know all of them.
She leaned her head forward and pressed two fingers against an eyebrow, where tension worked overtime to produce a headache. Tears burned, tears of frustration, of exhaustion and finally the tears she’d held in since leaving Mustang...tears for Cameron and what would never be.
She gave in to them, wrapping her arms around herself and rocking back and forth, her heart aching with an intense pain she’d never felt before.
So, this was heartbreak. She’d felt immense sadness when Robert had died, ached for her daughter who would grow up without her father, but her heart hadn’t hurt like this. This ache sliced through her, like the coldest wind on the chilliest winter day.
When the tears finally stopped their trek down her cheeks, she once again faced the problem at hand. Cameron couldn’t help her now...even if he were here, this was a problem she had to solve herself, demons she had to slay in order to be truly free.
Rebecca’s room. It came to her suddenly, without effort. She remembered now. She’d come home from the police station, where they had given her Robert’s belongings. Needing to hold her daughter, she’d gone right into Rebecca’s room and set the briefcase next to the bed. As she’d held Rebecca, rocking her and explaining about death and Heaven, she’d kicked the briefcase out of her way. It had skidded beneath the bed.
Holding the flashlight tight, praying her memory didn’t deceive her, Alicia crept into Rebecca’s room and got down on her hands and knees. Peering beneath the bed, she spied the errant attaché case. As quietly as possible she pulled it out and left the bedroom.
As she carried the case into the kitchen, she flipped the brass fasteners, stifling a moan of frustration as they refused to release. Locked. Dammit. Why was everything so damned difficult?
She placed the briefcase on the kitchen table and retrieved a knife from the drawer. It took her nearly thirty minutes of prying and jiggling to finally pop the locks and open the case.
With trembling hands, she pulled out the papers that rested inside. Using the flashlight, she picked up the first sheet of paper and began reading.
Business reports. A day planner. Copies of memos from Robert to his secretary, Paige. Alicia read each and every item word for word, despair once again rising up inside her.
She’d hoped. She’d prayed that somehow the answers would be here. With her heart pounding anxiously, she pulled the last item out of the briefcase, a slim manila folder with Randall Electronics written across the front. Probably another business report of some kind, she thought as she flipped the folder open.
It wasn’t a business report. She frowned as she read the cover letter written to Robert from a Jim Casey of Casey’s Investigative Enterprises. It appeared to be a letter confirming an investigation begun on Robert’s behalf. An investigation of what?
She set the letter aside and picked up the next piece of paper, a photocopy of a page from an old newspaper. The article was about a man named Henry Brockburn, a medical doctor convicted of selling babies in a black market scheme.
Why would Robert care about this? What could this doctor have to do with Alicia’s husband? As she looked at the date of the article, her heart beat an unsteady rhythm. The doctor had been arrested three years after Robert was born. Was it possible? Could it be?
The last item in the folder gave her the answer. Tears filled her eyes as she realized she held the key to her freedom. There was no way Broderick and Ruth would want this information to become public.
Triumph soared through Alicia. Yes, this was it. This had to be it. This was what Robert had been working on...this was the information that he’d known would gain them their freedom from Broderick and Ruth.
Her hands trembled as she pressed the papers against her chest. Now she understood Robert’s euphoria the week before he died. The knowledge contained here would have helped break his emotional ties, and the threat of creating a scandal would have permitted Robert to walk away with some sort of monetary settlement.
Alicia didn’t want a settlement. She didn’t care about the Randall money. She just wanted them out of her life...out of Rebecca’s life. Carefully she placed the items back in the folder. “This is my ticket to freedom,” she said aloud. And first thing in the morning, she intended to face her monsters, armed with the truth as her only weapon.
Sleep seemed to have taken a leave of absence. She stretched out in the bed she had shared with Robert, but her thoughts were not of him, but of another man.
Cameron. When did the hurt stop? When would she be able to think of his name and not ache with want...with need? She’d gone to Mustang to find a place to hide, she’d never dreamed she’d lose her heart there.
At least something good had come from her heartbreak and her trip to Mustang. If not for Cameron encouraging her to face her monsters she would have never come back here, never found the information that would make her free forever.
Sleep finally came, embracing her in dreamless slumber. She awakened at six the next morning, eager to confront Broderick and Ruth and put the past behind her forever. Only with the past behind her could she face her futurea future of rebuilding...a future without Cameron. She shoved this thought out of her mind. She couldn’t dwell any longer on what would never be.
Dressed and armed with a cup of coffee, she picked up the phone and dialed Broderick and Ruth’s house. The maid answered. “Emma, this is Alicia. I want to speak to Broderick.”
A stunned silence greeted her words. “I’ll...I’ll see if he’s available,” Emma stuttered in surprise.
“Oh, I’m certain he’ll be available,” Alicia replied dryly.
“Where in the hell are you?” Broderick’s voice boomed across the line.
“That’s the problem with having a maid to answer your phone instead of caller ID.” Alicia tried to still her quivering nerves.
“Dammit, I’m not playing games here. Where’s my granddaughter?” He drew an audible breath, as if attempting to swallow some of his anger. “Alicia, be reasonable. You and Rebecca need our help. Let’s sit down and talk. I’m sure we can work something out.”
Alicia wasn’t fooled by his conciliatory tone. She knew the man could smooth talk a snake, at the same time he was stealing the snake’s skin. “Yes,” she agreed. “I want to talk to you and Ruth. I’d like to come to the house in an hour.”
“Fine...fine,” Broderick readily agreed. “I’m sure we can come to some sort of agreement where Rebecca is conc
erned.”
Alicia didn’t reply. She knew exactly what sort of agreement he had in mind...that she bow out of her daughter’s life and let them raise Rebecca. “I’ll see you in an hour,” she said, then disconnected.
An hour. In an hour her life would change. It would either get better, or it would deteriorate beyond repair. Oh, how she wanted to call Cameron, tell him she was about to confront her monsters and she was frightened. How she wished he were here to hold her up, to hide behind.
But she couldn’t hide any longer. She couldn’t continue to drag her daughter from small town to small town, constantly afraid, continually on edge. It was time for change and one way or the other she would be strong enough to face whatever came. If Cameron could face his past with Samuel, then Alicia could face her own fate.
She woke up Rebecca and as the little girl dressed, Alicia’s thoughts once again went to Cameron. Was he all right? She had to believe he was...that if Samuel had found him no harm had come to him. She had to believe that Cameron faced his monster and won because that gave her strength to face her own.
“How would you like to go to Nancy’s Day Care for a little while this morning?” Alicia asked her daughter as Rebecca pulled on her cowboy boots.
“Okay. I like Ms. Nancy,” Rebecca agreed. Rebecca had occasionally spent time at the nearby day-care center and had developed a real fondness for the young woman who ran the business.
“Mommy?” Rebecca’s boots clicked against the floor as she walked over to where Alicia sat on the edge of the bed.
“What, honey?” Alicia pulled Rebecca’s little body into her arms.
“I don’t want to stay in this house. I don’t like it here.”
Alicia kissed Rebecca’s cheek and hugged her tight. She knew why Rebecca didn’t like it here.
This house was far too close to the grandparents who frightened Rebecca, grandparents who had actively sought to alienate Rebecca from her mother.
“We’ll only be here for the day, then we’re going to find a place and settle down, a place where we can have our own home and not move anymore.”
Rebecca nodded. “Can we move to Mustang so I can see Mr. Lallager every day?”
Aching pain swept through Alicia. If only he’d loved her. “No sweetie, but we’ll find a town just as nice, a town with cowboys.”
Rebecca sighed and Alicia knew the little girl was wrestling with her own kind of heartbreak. But little girl hearts healed far easier than grown-up ones. There was no way Alicia could go back to Mustang, see Cameron every day and not feel her soul dying a slow death.
All too soon, it was time for Alicia to leave. She drove Rebecca to the day care, kissed her on the cheek and promised to be back soon. As she drove back she prayed she wasn’t walking into a trap.
If Broderick and Ruth had already somehow received a judgment of custody and Alicia had been proclaimed a fugitive from justice, then it was possible Alicia could be arrested. And if that happened, she had no idea what she’d do.
She slowed her car as she approached her house. A car sat in the driveway. Her heart pounded in a flurry of nervous anxiety. Was it the police? Had Broderick figured out that she was at the house and sent the authorities to pick her up?
In an instant she had to make a decision. Stop?
Or drive by the house and continue on to the Randall mansion at the end of the street. She slowed and the sole occupant of the car opened the driver door and stood.
Tall, lanky, with a dark cowboy hat that was achingly familiar. Cameron. Alicia slammed on the brakes and whirled into the driveway. She was out of the car before the motor completely stopped running.
“Cameron.” She checked the impulse to race to him, to throw herself into his arms. “Wha...what are you doing here? How did you find me?”
He walked toward her, an easy smile curving his lips. “You weren’t hard to find. Your husband’s name and address is listed in the phone book. I flew in, rented the car and only had to ask for directions a couple of times.”
“But...but what are you doing here?” She searched his features, trying to still the thundering of her heart.
He shrugged, his gaze studying her intently. “I thought maybe you might need some moral support. What’s going on with your in-laws? Is there going to be a court battle?”
Moral support. She wanted to thank him for caring, but it hurt that he hadn’t said he loved her, he needed her, he couldn’t live without her. She shoved the hurt away and focused on the last of his questions. “I’m not sure. I was on my way to talk to Ruth and Broderick when I saw your car.”
“Where’s Rebecca?”
“I just dropped her off at a day care. I didn’t want her with me for the confrontation.”
“Want me there for the confrontation?”
His presence confused her, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. She had to keep her thoughts schooled to the matter at hand...to facing Broderick and Ruth. “I’d love it,” she replied, knowing she could face anything if she knew Cameron was beside her.
At the moment it didn’t matter that he didn’t love her like she wanted him to. It was enough that he was here. “I found the skeletons,” she said a moment later as they pulled into the Randall driveway.
“I’m glad.” His deep voice swept over her, through her and she felt a renewed burst of strength. She shut off the engine and stared at the front door of the Randall mansion. Inside lay her future, Rebecca’s future.
There had been a moment in time when she’d thought perhaps her future lay with the man sitting next to her. Although her heart would always ache for what might have been with Cameron, she also felt eternal gratitude, for if not for him, she wouldn’t be here taking her future into her own hands.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded, grateful that he didn’t touch her. She had a feeling if he touched her in any way, she’d shatter into a million little pieces.
“Let’s go,” she said grimly. She got out of the car and strode to the front door, her shoulders stiffened in grim determination. In the purse she carried were the papers she’d found in Robert’s briefcase... papers she hoped were the key to her freedom,
Emma answered Alicia’s knock, her gaze flaring slightly as she took in Cameron’s presence. She opened the door to allow them entry. “You are to wait in the library. Mr. and Mrs. Broderick will be with you momentarily.”
The library. It was the room where Alicia and Robert had first told Broderick and Ruth of their marriage...a room that held nothing but bad memories. “Tell them we’ll wait in the front living room,” Alicia said and swept past Emma into the formal living area where she’d rarely been in the past, a room rarely used by the Randalls.
She refused to give Broderick the upper hand, refused to meet him on turf mired in bad memories. Emma emitted a resigned sigh as she hurried from the room.
Alicia drew a deep breath, all thoughts of Cameron shoved away as she readied herself for the battle to come.
Cameron stood just inside the room as Alicia paced back and forth on the Oriental carpet. He had felt the chill in the house the moment he’d entered. Not a temperature coolness, but the lack of love, of compassion, of utter humanity.
He tried to imagine Alicia’s life with the people who lived here, but he couldn’t. Alicia was far too filled with warmth, embodied with a life spirit that didn’t belong in this cold place.
His first impulse when he’d seen her had been to sweep her up in his arms, proclaim his love for her and take her back to Mustang where she belonged. But he’d seen the shadows in her eyes, knew she was still chained to her past, and until that issue was resolved, she’d never really be free.
As she paced back and forth he felt her distance from him, and it stirred a growing uneasiness in him. If she managed to settle the custody issue with the Randalls, would she still be in love with turn?
When she’d told him she loved him, she’d been on the run, frightened and alone. Vulnerable. And in that particula
r state, it would be easy to mistake affection for love, the need to be held and supported for passion.
The thought of not having Alicia in his life swept a cold wind through him. She’d brought him to life, made him recognize just how lonely, how isolated he’d been. He didn’t want to go back to that forsaken, solitary life.
However, he knew there was nothing he could do for Alicia now. Just as he’d had to face his past and resolve it, so did she. And she had to do it alone. All he could do was be here for her when it was finished...if it finished.
“He’s doing this on purpose,” she said softly as she stopped her frantic pacing. “He’s making me wait to psych me out. He’s a master at mind games. But it’s not working.” She clutched her purse tightly against her chest. “He can’t bully me or manipulate me any longer.”
Cameron nodded, proud of the strength he saw radiating from her eyes. But he’d known it was there, had seen her spirit so many times in his time with her.
At that moment Broderick and Ruth entered the room. Broderick Randall was a big man, dressed as a caricature of a Texan. Clad in a white western shirt with a belt buckle the size of a dinner plate, the man looked like an overstuffed, overfed pompous buffoon, but when Cameron looked into his eyes, he recognized that this man was nobody’s fool. Broderick Randall’s blue eyes radiated craftiness, intelligence and held a soulless quality.
Ruth Randall was perfectly coiffed and clad in an expensive dress with a string of pearls at her throat. Her face had the strained, taut features of a woman who’d had one too many face-lifts in an attempt to retain her youth.
“Where in the hell have you been?” Broderick greeted Alicia, then turned to Cameron. “And who in the hell are you?”
“Cameron is a friend,” Alicia replied, her chin lifted with defensiveness. “And it really doesn’t matter where I’ve been, I’m here now.”
“Where’s Rebecca? Where’s my baby?” Ruth asked, her voice as demanding as her husband’s.
“She isn’t with me. She’s playing with friends.”
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