Cam took it immediately. “Please. For the hundredth time, call me Camden.”
Mr. Cole?
For the hundredth time?
What the hell?
It seemed I was not the only one on the train to Confusion Junction.
“Do you two know each other?” Thea asked.
Ramsey laughed and continued shaking Camden’s hand, going so far as to cup it between both of his palms. “This is Mr. Cole. The attorney I told you about who helped at my parole hearing.”
“Just Camden. Mr. Cole was my dad,” the obvious stranger—the one I was planning a life with—said behind me.
Wait…
Oh my God.
“No way!” Thea gasped, stealing the exact words from my mouth. She came unstuck and hurried around the counter. Then she thrust a hand out, and Ramsey let go long enough for her to get a shake in too. “It’s so nice to finally meet you. Ramsey told me you were incredible speaking to the board on his behalf. He doesn’t think they would have released him without you.”
“Happy to help,” Camden said.
Had I been able to form coherent sentences at a decibel that would not leave all the dogs in Clovert deaf, I would have taken that route. But finding out the love of my life—who had just come back into my life days earlier, who’d then planted his foot in the ground that we were no longer doing goodbyes and fewer than five minutes earlier had been debating where we were going to live—had somehow gotten my brother out on parole for a crime he had not committed after we’d all given up hope and had never so much as mentioned it, did not lend itself to those kind of rational reactions. Therefore, my only response was to crane my head back and stare up at him.
Blinking. Lost for words.
His blue gaze met mine and he must have caught the gist of panic in my eyes, because he released Thea’s shake, wrapped his palm around my hand, and inquired to my family, “Can you excuse us for a moment?”
“Yeah, totally,” Thea chirped.
While Ramsey’s, “Sure,” held a confused reluctance.
Camden gave my hand a tug and guided me down the hall. As we went, Ramsey and Thea continued to talk, their hushed whispers not nearly quiet enough for my small house.
“How do they know each other?” my brother asked.
“Are you kidding me? He’s the kid she’s been in love with since, like, middle school,” Thea replied. “He’s so much hotter than the pictures.”
“Sparrow, I am standing right here. Can you quit panting for a second and explain to me what the hell is going on?”
Thea laughed, and Camden must have heard their exchange too, because he grinned before shutting the door.
When he released my hand, I took a step away, needing a second to catch my breath.
“I was going to tell you,” he stated immediately. “I wasn’t hiding it or anything. I thought you might have already known, but then you didn’t say anything and so much has been going on between us.”
“That’s why you have your license to practice law in Georgia,” I whispered, puzzle pieces snapping into place.
“That’s one of them.”
My nose started to sting as I stood there staring at him, over a dozen emotions swirling inside me. “We weren’t even speaking when he got out,” I croaked.
He shrugged with one shoulder. “So? We haven’t been speaking for half our lives and I still love you.”
“Cam,” I breathed.
“Look, a big part of the reason I went into law in the first place was because of you. You talk about devoting your time to the students at your school so they don’t have to go through the hardships you did. Well, I’ve always felt like, maybe if I’d been older or able to help when everything happened with you and Josh and Ramsey, maybe all our lives could have been a little easier. So the minute I was able, I did something about it. He didn’t deserve to be in there. And you didn’t deserve to live in a prison outside those bars, either. I just wanted you—hell, all of us—to finally be free.”
Rivers dripped from my chin. “You make me feel free.”
He smiled, slowly walked toward me, and then gathered me in his arms. “Then why are you crying, crazy?”
“Because I just realized I may have gotten in over my head with you. I’ll have to spend the rest of my life making sandwiches to repay you for this.”
He chuckled. “What if we just stop keeping score from here on out? No more you bringing a sandwich or me bringing a sandwich. Just us, working together for the best lives possible.”
I stared up at him, love and acceptance that I’d never feel with another human being seeping into my bones. The constant ache inside me ebbed into nothingness.
Life wouldn’t be perfect with Camden. My life would be a never-ending work in progress, but with him at my side, it didn’t seem so damn daunting anymore. We could take it slow and get to know each other again. Things like fighting over who took the trash out last and why he squeezed the toothpaste from the middle of the tube were a rite of passage for couples. And I was ready.
Finally.
Because with Camden, I was ready for anything.
Lifting up onto my toes, I pressed a gentle kiss to his mouth. “Thank you for being you. And for taking care of me all these years. I don’t know how, but I promise I’ll make it worth it for you.”
He smiled and deepened the kiss, taking a breath only long enough to say, “You already have.”
“You’re a Caskey?” Ramsey asked, aggressively chewing a piece of gum as we sat around Nora’s dining room table, bagel crumbs and empty coffee cups long since forgotten.
I sighed and gave Nora’s thigh a squeeze under the table. “Technically. Though I don’t advertise it.”
Thea leaned forward and her green eyes searched my face. “Fascinating. I thought you were required to be a douchebag with those genetics.”
“Thankfully, the douchebag gene skipped me.” Popping my eyebrows, I looked to Nora. “Or at least I think it did.”
She shrugged. “You were wearing penny loafers the first time we met at the creek. I don’t think it skipped you as much as you fought it off.”
“Hey,” I said, feigning offense and shifting my hand down to chomp at the ticklish spot above her knee. “Take it back.”
She laughed, prying my fingers away one by one. “Fine. You just have extra-pretentious taste in shoes.”
Wrapping my hand around hers, I lifted it to my mouth and kissed the back. “Fair enough.”
When I looked up, Ramsey and Thea were leaning back in their chairs, holding hands, and grinning like a pair of Cheshire cats.
Nora rolled her eyes at their love-struck stares. “So, anyway, I think Camden and I are moving to New York.”
“What?” Thea exclaimed.
My body tensed. “Well, we haven’t made any final plans yet.”
“But it’s happening,” Nora stated. “And I don’t want to hear a peep about it from either one of you. As soon as you’re allowed, you two will be off traveling the world together. Maybe you can stop by our place in the city sometime.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” Ramsey let out a loud belly laugh. “Leaving you alone in Clovert has been a nightmare. Now, if we could only figure out how to get Joe and Misty out of here too.”
“Shit,” Thea said, jumping to her feet, causing her husband to jump with her. “We promised Dad we’d be at his house a half hour ago. Misty is making some kind of casserole for lunch and we need to stop and grab something to eat in the car on the way over.” She shot me a tight smile. “Word to the wise, never eat anything that woman cooks.”
“Especially not the pot roast,” Thea and Nora stated in unison before dissolving into a fit of laughter.
“Duly noted.” I nodded, rising to start cleaning up.
Nora’s eyes lit as she stood and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Hey, why don’t we go over there too? I could formally introduce my boyfriend to the family.”
Fuck me. I was a grown ass-man with a
career and a car payment the way God intended, but I was damn near giddy at the idea of being Nora’s boyfriend.
I waggled my eyebrows. “Your boyfriend, huh? Sounds like a promotion.”
“Long overdue.” She patted my chest and then pursed her lips, asking for a kiss.
Who was I to deny such a request?
While Ramsey and I cleared the table, our women huddled together, sharing whispers and giggles. I was in the same clothes I’d worn to Nora’s house the morning before—although I hadn’t been wearing them for the majority of our activities—but I liked the idea of changing into something clean before heading to her dad’s for lunch. We agreed to meet at Joe’s after Nora and I swung by the Clovert Inn so I could change and check out. Hellhole hotel aside, I wasn’t spending another night without Nora.
We all walked out the front door and started down the sidewalk to our respective vehicles. Four people smiling and laughing genuinely happy for the first time in, well, possibly ever. It should have been my first clue that all hell was about to break loose.
“You son of a bitch!” Jonathan Caskey roared as he came storming through Nora’s front lawn. He was in plain clothes, but his cruiser was pulled up on the curb, two tires parked in the grass.
My whole body went on alert, and in the next second, Ramsey was at my side, Thea and Nora forced behind us. While I had every bit of faith that Ramsey could hold his own, I’d worked my ass off to get him out of prison and not for another damn Caskey to send him back.
“Take the girls inside,” I said.
“Fuck that!” Thea shouted, fighting to step around her husband.
“Don’t make this worse, Sparrow,” Ramsey rumbled as Jonathan continued to advance.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Nora chimed in, stepping around me.
Which was fan-fucking-tastic. No one had gone inside. Mr. Out On Parole, Miss Out On Bail, and Mrs. Flat-Out Pissed-Off were all at risk of getting tangled in this clusterfuck.
“Just stay here and let me handle this.” I walked away from the group, meeting Jonathan in the middle of the yard with plans to send him right back in the direction he’d come. “Nope. We are not doing this here. Not today. Fuck…maybe not ever.”
“I told you to call off your goddamn dog!” he yelled, spit spraying onto my face.
I gritted my teeth. “And I said drop the charges against Nora.”
Narrowing my eyes, I took a second to really take Jonathan in. Unkempt clothes hung on a frame that was far thinner than it had appeared when he had been in uniform. His hands shook, and his dark, sunken eyes continuously scanned the yard, never lingering for longer than a beat.
“This is not a fucking negotiation!” he boomed. “You have no motherfucking idea who the hell you are dealing with right now.”
I laughed humorlessly. “I think you’ve made it pretty clear that I’m dealing with a crooked cop who gets his rocks off playing God with innocent people's lives.”
“You think I give one single fuck about your whore or her cock-sucking family?”
My vision flashed red for an instant before time suddenly slowed to a crawl.
Everyone moved at once, the explosion of chaos rocking me back onto my heels.
Thea shouted something behind me, and on instinct, I turned at the sound.
Ramsey hooked her around the stomach before she had a chance to get more than a few steps away from him.
Nora burst forward at the same time, pure rage cloaking her beautiful face.
But it was the cold tip of a gun slamming against my temple that halted the melee.
There was a round of gasps punctuated by a shrill scream tearing from Nora’s throat.
“Cam!”
“Back up!” Jonathan yelled, wrapping an arm around my neck and dragging my back to his front. The barrel of his weapon dug into my head. “All of you. Back the fuck up.”
“Easy. Easy,” Ramsey said, stepping in front of Thea, one hand in the air and the other reaching for his sister. “We don’t want any problems.”
“Get them in the house!” I barked.
“One fucking move, I will put a bullet between your eyes.”
Ramsey gave the illusion of stilling, but he continued inching closer to Nora—my beautiful, terrified Nora, her brown eyes wide, tears already streaking her cheeks. Jesus, she’d been through enough.
We’d all been through enough.
A ball of fire grew in my chest as I held her panicked stare. “Put the gun down,” I snarled over my shoulder.
Jonathan’s voice was cold and cruel. “If your guy doesn’t lay off, I’m as good as dead. I have no problem taking you down with me.”
“I have no idea what the fuck you are talking about, okay? Whoever is following you isn’t working for me.”
“Liar!” he yelled, his unsteady hand shaking so violently that the gun rattled against my head. “You’ve always had it out for me. You like the idea of putting me in the ground next to my brother, huh? I don’t know why I’m surprised you’re fucking your way into the family who did it. You think if I’m out of the way all the Caskey money will be yours? Is that what you’re after?” He laughed, loud and maniacal. “Well, bad news, Cole. It’s gone. All of it. Fucking gone.”
Shit.
There it was. Whatever was happening. Whatever Jonathan had gotten himself into. It all boiled down to my archnemesis: money.
I had not one clue how it was even possible for his family to have burned through a fortune like the Caskeys were believed to have. But, then again, maybe believe was the operative word in that statement.
I glanced back at Nora—my strong, beautiful girl. Ramsey had managed to get his hand around her wrist, but she refused to budge. Funny, I’d spent my whole life trying to keep her and the one time I wished she’d leave, her feet were rooted in the ground.
I should've been terrified. I should have taken a deep breath and offered him the entire contents of my bank account. But not twenty-four hours earlier, I’d finally gotten the girl. We were planning a life together, a future, and a forever. For an instant, I was the kid carrying a bowl of banana pudding again, desperate to get back to Nora at the creek. There was no fucking way I was going to let Jonathan Caskey steal her from me again.
Shifting back, I got low, ready to duck out of his grip, and seethed, “I’m going to fucking bury you.”
In one fluid movement, he swung the gun from my temple and trained the barrel on my entire world. “Not if I bury her first.”
“No!” I yelled just as a bullet exploded from his gun. A crippling pain erupted in my ear, but it was nothing compared to the agony slashing through my chest. “Nora!” I screamed as she fell backward, Thea and Ramsey diving after her.
Panic slayed me, a visceral fury flooded my veins, and a crash of adrenaline ignited my system.
I needed to get to her. I needed to gather her in my arms and tell her it was all going to be okay.
But, first, I had to end this once and for all.
Spinning out of his hold, I slammed a fist into his face. Bones crunching and blood spraying, I showed him no mercy. He fell back and I followed him down, raining punch after violent punch. As long as his heart was beating, I would never feel an ounce of satisfaction.
I sat up, straddling his motionless body, my fist reared back, ready to land another devastating blow, when suddenly a mountain of a man tackled me from behind.
Immediately lurching to my feet, I was stopped by a tattooed hand landing square in the center of my chest.
“Relax, Cole. I got this.” After roughly rolling Jonathan’s unconscious body to his stomach, he gathered his wrists in one hand and planted a knee into his back. With his free hand, he grabbed the gun off the grass and shoved it into the back of his jeans.
Confusion snapped me from my frenzy as I stared down at a man with dark hair, a thick beard, and black ink crawling across his skin. I’d never seen him a day in my life, but somehow, he knew me. “Who the hell are you?”
I had a dozen questions, but all of them could wait.
“Nora!” I shouted, sprinting past him.
I couldn’t have been more than a few yards away, but it felt like it took an eternity to reach her. My heart pounded, and every inhale felt like jagged razors in my lungs. Ramsey and Thea were crouched down around her, blocking my view, and I bulldozed through them.
“Move!” I roared.
I wouldn’t survive this.
I wouldn’t survive losing her.
Not after I’d just gotten her back.
Ramsey moved out of my way, his face pale, his phone already to his ear. “We need an ambulance. I think she’s okay, but I don’t know for sure.”
Dropping to my knees, I began frantically searching her body, patting down everywhere I could reach. “Where do you hurt? Are you bleeding? Talk to me.”
“I…um. I don’t think he hit me.”
“Are you sure?” I continued with the pat-down, inspecting her arms and legs for any sign of trauma.
Her trembling hand came up to cup my jaw, forcing my eyes back to hers. “What the hell just happened? Are you okay?”
No. It was safe to say I would never be okay again after watching him pull the trigger, knowing she was on the other end. But as long as she was safe and at my side, I would find a way to breathe again.
“Come here,” I forced out around a lump of emotion lodged in my throat, falling back on my ass as the adrenaline began to ebb from my system.
Sirens screamed in the distance as she wasted no time crawling into my lap and burying her face in my neck. “Oh, God, Cam.”
“I’m right here,” I murmured, smoothing her hair down. “Just breathe.”
Motion over my shoulder caught my attention and I swiveled around to find at least a dozen men covering the lawn. All of them in suits, not a single Clovert police uniform in the bunch. A few of them were surrounding Jonathan, who was now cuffed but still lying facedown.
“Sir, are you injured?” a woman asked.
“No,” I breathed, my head swirling as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on. The ambulance wasn’t even there yet, but there was somehow a row of unmarked cars lining the street.
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