As his eyes opened, he caught sight of a familiar figure moving across the parking lot. Josh was headed for the door of Grid Iron. Why wasn’t he with Kip? Before Cameron could consider the ramifications of his actions he was out of the car and heading in the man’s direction.
“Where are they?”
Josh cast a glance over his shoulder at Cameron’s question but kept walking. “I don’t know what you mean?”
“Kip and Jade.”
Josh didn’t back down. “Nope. Doesn’t ring a bell.”
Cameron checked his surroundings, ensuring no one was watching before snagging the back of Josh’s shirt. The ache blooming in the center of his chest gave Cameron superhuman strength. With a flick of his wrist he spun Josh around and slammed him against the brick of the building. Pinning him in place, Cameron got in Josh’s face. “Let me jog your memory, Jozsua.”
Josh shoved him away. “Don’t call me by that name.”
An evil smile pulled at Cameron’s lips. “I know all about you, Jozsua Danshov. If you don’t tell me where Kip has gone, I’ll stand on the hood of my car and scream your real name until I’m sure everyone in Vegas knows as well.”
In spite of Cameron’s threat, Josh’s mouth lifted in one corner. “Konstantin would’ve loved you.”
“I’m not sure that’s true but I need to know where they are.”
Josh’s smirk transformed into a huge grin. “You didn’t know him. A show like that on Kip’s behalf would’ve made him proud.” Josh’s expression hardened. “You’re not going to like it.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“There’s no going back from here, cop.”
“There was never any going back,” Cameron said, never meaning anything more in his life. From the moment he set eyes on Kip, he’d known his life would change forever. He was ready.
“Konstantin is Jade’s father. She deserves to be free to love him without judgment. If you can’t offer that, then you need to stay away from them.”
“I know,” Cameron agreed, surprised to find the idea didn’t bother him at all. It had to be that way.
“The same goes for me. She’s a part of my brother and I won’t give her up.”
“You’re a smart man.”
Josh’s eyes flashed. Cameron glimpsed something deadly inside Josh. He was a man with demons.
“If you ever expose her, they’ll never find your body.”
Cameron didn’t doubt him. “I wouldn’t expect anything less,” he agreed, more than willing to meet those terms. Cameron would die for her. He really would.
Chapter Seven
Ryan and Max were a pair of liars. Cameron shouldn’t have been surprised. They’d openly admitted to being some of the best at manipulating people into doing what they wanted. In this case, their manipulations aligned with what Cameron wanted as well. Lucky for them he wouldn’t need to kill them both. Kip had left, in a manner of speaking—one hour off Highway 11 and down a dirt road. If she really had dropped the men’s self-defense class it was because it was damn inconvenient. Cameron had to backtrack three times before he found the place. Once he did he couldn’t figure out how he’d missed it. The place was freaking huge.
The house itself wasn’t ostentatious but it was located on a little piece of mountain spring heaven that had to have cost millions. For all that, Kip’s security system sucked. Cameron was inside within two minutes with no one the wiser. Knocking didn’t work for his purposes. As stubborn as Kip could be, he was likely to stand on her front porch until the end of time.
While he waited for her to discover his presence, Cameron took a stroll through the house. There was no way in hell she’d recently purchased this place. There were no boxes and a few of the pictures hanging on the walls had dust on the frames. It was another mystery for him to solve. He recognized a few of the toys in the living room as belonging to Jade. An ache bloomed in his chest. He couldn’t fail. Kip and Jade meant too much.
As quietly as possible, he searched the front rooms. Everything was silent. There was a small bathroom that was obviously meant for guests and an empty bedroom directly off the living room. A huge, country-style kitchen flanked the other side but other than the hum of the refrigerator, the room was quiet. As he passed a set of French doors, he spotted the sparkling-blue water of an in-ground pool, but there was no sign of Kip outside. He hit the hallway, glancing inside each room as he passed. A trashed bedroom called him inside. It was obvious a man lived there. Cameron’s heart fell. He didn’t hesitate before shifting through the room’s contents in search of the man’s identity. A few framed snapshots on the dresser cleared things up. Josh… With a resigned sigh, Cameron headed back down the hall. He should’ve known.
A closed door caught his eye and Cameron’s pulse beat in his ears. He held his breath as he eased it open, bracing for Kip to attack. It was an office. Releasing his breath, Cameron eased inside. There were dozens of trophies and autographed photos of famous hockey players. Konstantin filled every inch of the room. Cameron had a vague image of the man in his mind from the news and seeing him on TV for the games. Those memories didn’t prepare him for seeing Kon’s face now. He was larger than life. The blue eyes and bright smile gleaming in every picture spoke volumes about his personality. He was a mountain of a man who towered over everyone in every shot. It was the pictures of him and Kip that drew Cameron closer. They were almost mesmerizing together. Cameron couldn’t look away.
There were no shadows underneath Kip’s eyes. She looked innocent and in love. It took Cameron a full five minutes of moving from frame to frame and back again to realize what it was about the pictures that made him accept everything Terry claimed about the man as the truth. In every single shot, Kip smiled at the camera. Konstantin smiled at her. He’d loved her. The knowledge was enough to tighten Cameron’s throat. He understood the man then. Cameron had broken into Kip’s home, proving there was no length to which he wouldn’t go to win her back. Maybe he wasn’t as different from Konstantin as he’d thought.
“This was supposed to be our new beginning.”
Cameron’s heart slammed against the wall of his chest, taking five years from his life. Spinning, he found Kip leaning against the doorframe, watching him. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight.
“He was found in a back alley by an elderly shopkeeper two weeks before he was going to meet me here with a new identity—just in time for the birth of his daughter. He’d been shot twice in the back of the head, execution style.” Her gaze shifted to the photos hanging on the wall. “I’ve wondered a thousand times how I’ll tell our daughter how her father died.”
Fuck. It was a hell of a burden. “I don’t know.”
Kip’s focus bounced to his face as if she’d almost forgotten he was there. “Why are you here, Cameron?”
She didn’t sound the least bit happy to see him. It hurt. He deserved it.
“To tell you I’m sorry.”
Kip straightened away from the door. “Well. You’ve said it. Thanks for stopping by.”
Turning her back to him, Kip walked away, leaving him standing in the middle of Konstantin’s office without a backward glance. Oh hell no. She wasn’t brushing him off that easily. He chased after her.
“I also wanted to hear about Konstantin from your lips,” Cameron called at her back. “Terry told me some of it but I want to hear it from you. I deserve that much.”
Throwing those last words her way had been a dirty move. He didn’t care. She would face him. He would fight. She made it to the living room before turning on him.
“Why, Cameron? Why do you care? I make you a bad person, remember? You should go on with your life and forget you know any of this.”
She visibly swallowed, crushing his chest. Her voice came out low as if she felt the same.
“Wash your hands of me and be clean again.”
Goddamn, he wanted to put his fist through the wall. “I love you, Kip. That’s something I can’t wash away. Let me have
this closure.”
Because her knees didn’t want to hold her any longer, Kip sat down on the couch. From the minute she’d spotted Cameron standing in the center of Konstantin’s things, she’d barely taken a full breath. How had he found her? It had to be Josh. Why would he sell her out? Kip hadn’t thought she could hurt more but seeing Cameron did. It cut deeper than she could put into words. Looking at the man who’d given her hope again, only to snatch it away, was the worst form of torture.
No matter how much it pained her Kip couldn’t deny he deserved to hear the words from her. She’d lied by omission and stolen his choices, turning something beautiful into something profane. “Where would you like me to start?”
Cameron sprang forward, claiming the empty spot beside her. “At the beginning. Where were you born? What were you like as a child? How did you come to be where you are? Everything. When you called Josh your brother, I felt as if I were staring at a stranger and I hated it.”
The heat radiating from his thigh against hers made her want to cry.
“It seems crazy for me to love someone so much and know nothing about her. I want to know every detail even if you think I won’t like it.”
Kip wished he would stop saying he loved her, mocking what it should’ve been and pointing out what she’d lost. She also thought he was crazy for wanting to know anything about her. There were thousands of details about her life he would hate knowing. Maybe it was for the best he did. Staring at the corner of the room, Kip tried to decide where to begin. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t look at Cameron. The only person who knew the full story of her life was dead. In a way, she always hoped that’s where her past would stay. “I was born in Ashwood, Texas. The state took custody of me when I was three when a Sunday school teacher noticed both my legs were covered in cigarette burns.”
Cameron made a noise in the back of his throat. It was deadly.
“I don’t remember the abuse,” Kip added in case he thought she was traumatized. She had more time for that later in life. “I sort of bounced around from home to home with varying degrees of failure. There was one where they had a teenage son who was a little too fond of me, and another where I slept on the floor, starving while they cashed the state’s checks.” Jesus. Even to Kip, her voice sounded dead. It was as if she was telling the life story of someone she’d never met but she was too far in to stop now. “By the time I turned sixteen, I lived in an overcrowded, state-run facility, beyond the age of having any hope of finding a permanent home. I rode it out until they turned me loose at eighteen. Luckily I found this tiny apartment above a tattoo parlor. It was a rough place but the people who hung out and worked there let me be. A temp agency kept me in odd jobs so the rent was always paid and the owner was happy.”
“Damn, Kip. Anything could’ve happened to you.”
Since he’d lasted longer than she’d expected without getting judgmental, Kip let it slide. She shrugged, still incapable of looking at him. “I guess, depending upon how you look at it, anything did happen to me. One day about six months after I moved in, I was coming home, and this man stepped out of the shop.” Kip paused, relishing the memory of seeing Konstantin for the first time. “He was devastating,” Kip said with a smile, lacking a more powerful word. “Like a devil wearing an angel’s clothes. My feet froze to the pavement. I must’ve looked like a complete idiot. If so, Konstantin never said as much. We just stared at each other, speechless.” Kip shook her head. “I’d never seen a single hockey game. As a matter of fact, I hated all sports equally. Even without knowing who he was, I was star struck. There was just something about him…” Kip trailed off, oddly reluctant to share the rest of that day with anyone. The way Konstantin held her hand, the first time they’d kissed, all those memories were hers.
“What was he like?”
At the genuine curiosity in Cameron’s voice, Kip finally looked over. There wasn’t an ounce of judgment in his eyes. It loosened the vise on her chest. A snort escaped her.
“Ridiculous,” she answered without an ounce of shame. “Seriously, he wasn’t anything like what you’d think. Drug lord paints an ominous picture, but no… He was a giant clown. Everywhere he went, laughter followed. For me, it was like heaven. I was addicted. He would be outrageous to the point of being unbearable. My cheeks would ache from smiling. Then at the oddest of times, he’d pause and focus on me. It took my breath every damn time.”
Clearing her throat, Kip looked away and swiped her hands down the front of her jeans. “Anyway, by the time I realized there was more to him than I knew, it was as if it wasn’t real. I mean, look where I came from. No one gets to choose his or her family, and his was so far away. Konstantin kept me insulated from that world until it crashed down on me. One day, he was just gone and I found myself in the center of this huge shit storm.” A wry smile twisted Kip’s lips. “He bought our way out of it but our life was over.”
Cameron shifted. “Wait. I thought he was deported and they realized too late they’d allowed a major mafia tie to slip through their fingers.”
Kip couldn’t help it. She laughed. Unfortunately it wasn’t a pleasant sound. Nothing about any of it had been fun for her. “He was married to me and had been for nine years. Not only was Kon legally in this country, there was zero reason he couldn’t have been tried here. Deportation was just a scheme to put him back in the hands of his family. Luckily Josh was still completely under the radar. He was off doing what he does, kicking people’s ass for a living. Kon sent him to get me and we hit the road, traveling to all the matches around the country.”
“That explains a lot,” Cameron said, sounding as if was meant for himself. “Why did he ditch you in Tennessee?”
This time when Kip laughed, she meant it. Poor Josh. She was such a plague on his life. “He didn’t. I left him no choice. He’d been at it pretty hard for a few months and he was bored and acting all sulky. Brian was sitting at the bar. I was watching him. He looked like I felt—broken. We’d passed each other several times along the tour and I’d never seen him like that. Josh was eating and I ambushed him. Taking a page from Kon’s book, I showed out and started yelling at the top of my lungs, accusing Josh of checking out our waitress and claiming he was always screwing around on me.” With a chuckle, Kip shook her head. “As long as I live, I’ll never forget the look on his face. He didn’t know what the hell to do. But he knew from living with Kon, he needed to go along with me if there was any hope of making me stop. I stormed off and he stormed off. Dear God. He was fucking pissed. I’ve never seen him so furious. Only the fact that Brian took me in saved me from his wrath.”
“I can imagine,” Cameron said, snagging her attention.
She glanced over, showing an ounce of weakness. “Something drove me that night. I had this overwhelming desire to act. Do something. Anything. It led me to you. There have been days, since Konstantin died, when I didn’t think I could stand another second inside my skin. Then I’d remember that I’d met you because of all this and think everything I’ve been through happened for a reason. Now I realize it was just a series of events and impulsive decisions that led nowhere. How sad for all of us.” Kip stood before she exposed any more of her heart. It was already bleeding and raw. “I hope you found what you came looking for and maybe one day you’ll think back on this without hating me.”
“I could never hate you.”
The conviction in his tone gave Kip pause. She searched his gaze. He meant it. A pain shot through her, nearly crippling her. Why wouldn’t he leave? “That’s nice. You should go before Jade wakes up from her nap. It’ll be hard on her to see you again only to have you disappear.”
Cameron winced before a look of determination crossed his features. A bad feeling overcame her. He crossed his arms over his chest. His jaw took on a stubborn tilt.
“No.”
“What do you mean no?”
A smirk touched his lips. “No,” he repeated, drawing out the word as if he was enjoying himself.<
br />
Shifting from foot to foot, Kip ran through a list of her options. It wasn’t likely she could physically throw him from the house.
“Josh will be home any minute.” There. That should piss him off enough to move his ass.
Ignoring her, he felt around beside him. A triumphant light entered his eyes. The footstool popped out and Cameron kicked back, settling in. “So?”
“What do you mean so?” Kip asked, wondering what in the hell was happening.
Cameron laced his fingers behind his head. The motion caused his t-shirt to stretch tight across the muscles in his chest. It wasn’t fair for him to be so tempting.
“So what if Josh comes home?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly.
The bastard smiled. “I want to see Jade.”
Kip rubbed her hands together, more nervous than she could remember being in years. “She’s sleeping.”
His gaze swept down her body, leaving her skin heated. Seriously. It wasn’t fair.
“Then we have some time alone.”
Her hands rose before falling back to her sides. She was helpless to stop it from happening. She had nothing. As hard as she searched her mind, Kip came up completely empty. “What are you doing, Cameron?”
“Sitting here.”
“No. Really?” Kip said, getting irritated in spite of her best efforts. “What is this about?”
“I love you,” he said, making it sound so simple. “And I love Jade. So here I am.”
She wanted to stamp her feet and scream at the top of her lungs. Why was he so fucking stubborn? “Stop saying that. You don’t want me.”
His face hardened. “If you ever tell me I don’t want you again, I’ll handcuff you to the bed and leave you there this time. I love you and I’m not fucking leaving this spot.”
Undamaged Page 10