"Midnight Sins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leigh Lora)

CHAPTER 21

The past was like a ghost, a haunting spectre he couldn’t escape no matter his attempts. No matter the attempts his cousins made. From their births, they had faced the hatred and controversy of their well-loved mothers marrying the town’s least-loved citizens.

The Callahan brothers had been more than the town had known and yet less than it would have taken for Corbin County citizens to ever make the move to ignore the call to ostracize anything Callahan.

Before Rafe’s, Logan’s, and Crowe’s fathers had married the three heiresses, they hadn’t been ostracized. They had been liked, not always trusted but always able to charm their way into the hearts and minds of those they knew. Once their relationships with the Corbin, Rafferty, and Ramsey daughters were known, all that had changed.

James Corbin and Saul Rafferty had been certain that public condemnation would destroy those relationships. They hadn’t realized how stubborn and how deeply their daughters had loved the men they had chosen.

As Rafe stared down at Cami, he was reminded, not for the first time, of the legacy his, Logan’s, and Crowe’s parents had left them. A legacy that made the lives of the women they might love potentially dangerous. A legacy that those women might not be able to adapt to as easily as they had, because they had lived it every day of their lives. Perhaps, in a way, they had grown used to it.

Cami wasn’t a woman known to apologize. Jaymi had once told her that even when Cami had been no more than a teenager, she never apologized. When Jaymi asked her why, Cami had stared back at her with what she described as grim determination and said because she made certain she meant everything she said and everything she did.

She had just been a child then, her life a series of disappointments and chastisements. What Jaymi had said was a teenager’s habit of rebelling, Eddy had described as a result of a young girl constantly being berated instead.

“We’ll talk later,” Rafe promised as he fought to push back the rage that still burned from their earlier confrontation.

It wasn’t a rage directed at her, at least not entirely.

It was directed at life, at the circumstances, at the loss of a life that hadn’t had the chance to even live.

She turned away quickly, the sharp inhalation of breath drawing his attention. Hurting her was the last thing he wanted to do. The last thing he intended to do. But neither would he lie to her.

He wasn’t about to tell her to not worry about it, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her it was okay. Because it wasn’t. What he did intend to do was teach her to never fucking hide anything else from him.

She hadn’t exactly lied to him, but the lie of omission could be just as destructive. And if there was a chance in hell of a future with her, then she would have to learn the value of never keeping secrets from him.

Catching her wrist as she moved to turn away from him, Rafe threaded his fingers with hers, gripping her hand and holding her close as the sheriff discussed the explosion with Crowe.

Rafe could see Archer was having problems with the information Cami had given him and the fact that the garage had obviously been deliberately blown to fucking hell.

“Sheriff, we can’t find any bodies,” the fire marshal, Drew Jacoby, stated in a rasping growl. Jacoby, a transplant from Denver whom the city had hired when they moved from the volunteer fire department to a paid force, was a tall, rough-talking Texan who rarely put up with any crap at all. Especially the gossiping kind.

Archer turned from the Callahans as he whipped his hat from his head and pushed his fingers through the short strands of his thick, dark hair.

“Maybe they weren’t there,” he suggested, hope filling his voice.

Jacoby gave a heavy shrug of his shoulders as he turned back to the charred remains of the garage, his expression brooding.

“We can hope—”

“Hey, Sheriff, it’s Townsend!” Deputy Eisner announced, his voice high, excited, as a black sedan raced into the parking lot to come to a bone-jarring stop.

Jeannie was out of the car first, with Jack stepping out more slowly, his expression bemused as he stared at the garage as though he was certain he had to be seeing things.

Cami ran for the couple, aware of Rafe’s hand still gripping hers as he all but pulled her along, his long, powerful legs outdistancing hers.

“Jeannie.” Cami pulled away from Rafe, her arms going around the other woman as Jeannie suddenly began sobbing.

“Oh my God,” she cried, holding on to Cami desperately. “What happened? Cami, what happened?”

“We were so scared you and Jack were in there.” Cami pulled back to glance back at the garage, then to Jeannie and Jack once again. “Thank God you’re all right.”

“But what happened?” Confusion and fear filled her gaze.

“Bastard!” Jack suddenly cursed. “That fucking bastard. He called last night.” Jack turned to Cami, his eyes blazing with fury. “He told me I should’ve kept my nose out of Callahan business and I’d learn the hard way I should have gone to Denver with the rest of the family.”

Cami drew back from Jeannie slowly.

She could feel the guilt moving in, slowly, surely. This was her fault. Jack had been trying to help her. If he hadn’t been the one she had questioned after leaving Rafe’s, if he hadn’t become curious because of her questions, then this would have never happened.

“Cami, this wasn’t your fault.” Jeannie suddenly caught her arm as Rafe, distracted by Jack’s announcement, turned away from her. “You didn’t cause any of this, I swear. Jack has been bothered by too many things lately where his friends are concerned. And pretending the Callahans weren’t his friends when they returned wasn’t happening.”

Cami shook her head. She didn’t believe Jack would have begun questioning his father over the Callahans, though, or learned about the brake lines to Jaymi’s car with the wreck twelve years ago if it hadn’t been for her.

Those particular questions were the ones that had made Jack a target. Just as they had made her a target.

“Let me find the son of a bitch and I’ll kill him,” Jack snarled as Cami turned to see him staring at the bulding with naked pain.

“Jack, think of Jeannie,” Archer warned him, his voice low. “If you’re out chasing the bad guys, who’s going to protect her? Leave this to me. I promise you, I’m not my father. I’ll find out who’s behind it.”

“Dammit, Archer, you think I’m just going to sit around and wait for that son of a bitch to just find me and Jeannie and announce his presence again?” A tight, savage smile curled his lips. “Hell no, I won’t. You better hope you find him before I do. Because when I get my hands on him there won’t be anything to prosecute.”

He was enraged, but at least he was alive, Cami thought as she felt Rafe’s arm curl around her back, his fingers gripping her hip to pull her closer to him.

He was making a statement. As the crowd grew around the destroyed garage he was making it a point to show everyone who bothered to look exactly whom she was with there.

And there was plenty of looking. She could feel the gazes, some antagonistic, others curious, and still others calculating.

She met those gazes defiantly. She’d spent too many years running from what she wanted, running from the only man who did anything to fire her blood or to make her feel more than friendship.

These people’s opinions should have never mattered for even a second, but she had pretended as though they had, to save her own heart. To keep her emotions shielded and her secrets closely guarded.

There were no secrets any longer. Rafe knew the past, and he would either accept it or walk away. She wouldn’t demand anything from him either way.

“You’re staring at Eisner’s back as though you’re going to send a dagger through it,” Rafe murmured beside her as she realized she was indeed staring at Eisner, wishing she could kick him, scream at him, hurt him as he had tried to hurt the Callahans so many times for the very people he was now talking to.

James Corbin and his son, William.

But standing with them and glaring at Eisner as well was William’s young daughter, Kimberly Ann Corbin.

Ann Corbin at nineteen favored her father’s side of the family. Long auburn hair fell nearly to her waist in a riot of curls while sea-green eyes stared at Eisner, her expression creased in anger.

Her father, Will, kept trying to shoo her back. The more he tried to shoo her, the closer she got until she was standing at his elbow.

Both Corbin men would glare at her; they would cut Eisner off at some points. William rubbed at the back of his neck in frustration as he shot her several irate looks. She was the darling of the Corbin family, though. The spitting image of her dead aunt, Crowe’s mother, in both looks as well as temper. And if her expression was anything to go by, an explosion could be imminent.

“Eisner deserves the dagger more than most,” Cami muttered. “The two men he’s talking to even more so.”

“That’s the first time I’ve seen the girl out in years,” Logan commented. “They usually keep her away from town.”

“She and Jeannie are good friends,” Archer interjected before blowing out a hard breath and staring around in frustration. “It’s going to take this crowd hours to disperse, and Jack’s not in a good frame of mind if anyone decides to get ignorant with their mouths.”

Cami almost grinned at the saying “get ignorant.” The fine art of the smart-assed remark that could be delivered mockingly, snidely, sarcastically, or in a rage. It went along with having done something “for a minute,” which usually indicated more than a few days, and asking a person if they had taken their “smart pills” or if they were mixed up with the “stupid pills.” The locally grown little sayings had always amused her, and she had found herself missing them when she had been away at college.

“Yeah, well, getting ignorant is what some of them do best,” Rafe breathed out roughly. “Get your fire marshal to take him over the damage, then drive him to the hotel outside of town. Keeping him away from the homegrown yokels is your best bet unless you want to see blood shed.”

Cami looked around again, her gaze caught by the flash of a red Mercedes as it pulled in next to the Corbins’ black four-door Jaguar.

Wayne Sorenson, Corbin County’s attorney, stepped from the car accompanied by his daughter, Amelia.

After Amelia had taken the teaching position in Aspen, Cami rarely saw her and they never spoke. Amelia had never forgiven Cami for revealing the secret Sorenson had learned when he read the journal she had so carelessly left lying in her dorm room that day.

Amelia had changed.

Once, she had dressed in fashions that highlighted her unique temperament and sense of adventure. Now, she was dressed in a dark peacoat, black slacks, a gray sweater, and staid, low-heeled black pumps. The very type of clothes she had once sworn no one would ever catch her dead wearing.

Was this maturity? Cami wondered. Or was it a conformation aimed at attempting to gain Amelia’s father’s love as well?

It seemed to be working for her, just as easily as it had worked for Cami over the years.

Which was not in the least.

How long would it take Amelia to realize that no amount of conforming would gain the acceptance and the love she needed from her father?

“Cami?” Rafe’s hand at her back and the questioning tone of his voice had her head lifting. “Are you ready to leave?”

Was she ready to leave?

Did she really want to stay and watch the girl who had once been as close to her as a sister pretend to be something and someone she wasn’t?

“I’m ready.” She’d rather face Rafe’s wrath than watch the Amelia doll pose with tense expectation next to the father who didn’t even know she was there.

As Cami began to turn away, Amelia’s head lifted and Cami couldn’t help but be drawn to a stop.

For the briefest second it seemed as though misery and a plea were reflected in the emerald depths of Amelia’s eyes before she quickly turned away.

“We still have that meeting to make,” Crowe reminded Rafe as they headed to the car.

At that moment, Wayne detached himself from the Corbins, his expression dark with irritated anger as his fingers curled around his daughter’s upper arm and pulled her along after him.

Rafe and Cami drew to a stop, watching as Wayne neared them. As he drew closer, Rafe carefully slid her between his back and the cousins behind him.

She nearly rolled her eyes as she pushed from between the three men, her elbow pushing warningly into Rafe’s stomach as Wayne and Amelia stopped in front of them.

“Rafe.” Wayne nodded to the men in general.

“Wayne,” Rafe drawled.

The fact that Rafe hadn’t addressed him more formerly had Wayne’s lips tightening for a second as Amelia pushed her hands into the dark peacoat she wore and looked down at the ground. If Cami wasn’t mistaken, Amelia might have been hiding a smile.

“We’re going to have to reschedule the meeting we had this afternoon.” Wayne lifted his head, his nostrils tightening as though he smelled something rotten. “I’ll have my secretary contact you to reschedule.”

Rafe’s arms crossed over his chest.

Narrowing his eyes, Rafe watched Wayne suspiciously. Cami could feel the tension that began to radiate in his body and the sense of distrust that filled the air around the three men where the county attorney was concerned.

Amelia was aware of it as well.

How strange, Cami thought, that even after all these years she could read Amelia as though they had never spent the past three years as all but enemies.

“I’ll see you later then.” Rafe gave a short nod of his head as his arm once again curled around Cami’s back, his fingers lying close at her hip.

Wayne didn’t acknowledge the agreement; he merely turned on his heel and stalked away as though the simple courtesy of saying, Good-bye, See you later, or, Fuck you, Callahan, didn’t apply in the least.

Amelia moved more slowly, and as she turned she pulled her hand from the pocket of her coat and a piece of paper dropped free.

Rafe’s foot immediately covered it, and just in time.

“Amelia?” Wayne turned back to her, his gaze going past her to Rafe, Logan, Crowe, and then Cami, as though searching for something, as though he had expected Amelia to try to stop and talk or, perhaps, to attempt to warn them of something.

“I’m coming, Father.” Her hands were back in her coat, as though they had never slipped free.

God, what was going on?

Cami couldn’t take much more. She couldn’t handle the hell that Corbin County was turning into any longer or the haunting agony the past and the present merging was creating.

It was her fault her best friend, the one person she had had who believed in her, who loved her, whom she could trust, had turned into this unemotional robot that Amelia had turned into.

It was all Cami’s fault, because she had allowed Wayne Sorenson to learn the secret that Amelia had held close to her heart and had never told anyone but Cami.

The fact that Crowe Callahan had kissed Amelia. That he had held her and made her want more. That he had filled her with such a hunger for him that she had told Cami she understood why the loss of the child Cami and Rafe had created had nearly destroyed her.

She could feel her hands shaking. She could feel something inside her stomach trembling, as though the tremors attacking her fingers had begun in her stomach and refused to dissipate.

As several firefighters, Archer, Jack, and Jeannie moved between Rafe, Cami, the Corbins, and Wayne Sorenson, Rafe quickly bent and retrieved the folded note from beneath his shoe.

Turning his back on the group, he held it between his fingers as he watched Cami expectantly.

Allowing Rafe, Logan, and Crowe to shield her, she took the note and slowly unfolded it.

The house is being watched. Trying to get there. Kick some ass. Love you. Your twin.

Cami felt her lips tremble. Why, after all this time, was Amelia making contact?

“She’s going to try to slip to the house.” Cami frowned, confused. “Why would she have to slip over to see me?”

This was going beyond fear of gossip or of Amelia’s father being angry. It was going beyond the fact that the Corbins rewarded anyone who stood against the Callahans and punished those who stood with them.

And Amelia had signed the note: Your twin. They had always sworn they were somehow kidnapped at birth and taken from loving parents to be forced to exist with those they suffered through. They called each other twin when they were afraid of being caught passing messages during the frequent groundings they both had suffered as young girls and as teenagers.

Amelia was afraid of someone finding the note or learning she had written it.

Her twin. If anyone had ever been meant to be Cami’s twin, then it was Amelia. And to learn that at least something had survived the past three years and the horrible mistake Cami had made had tears wanting to fill her eyes again.

She hadn’t been this emotional since the first six weeks of her pregnancy. She had cried at everything then, and that was what she felt like doing now. Sobbing, because there was nothing that made sense anymore except the thought that she had to find an alternative to leaving her home if it was truly bugged. She wasn’t ready to leave. She wasn’t ready to leave the security and the memories of her mother yet.

“Crowe, get Tank out here,” Rafe muttered. “Get the house checked over for bugs, and until he gets here we need something that will generate a cover for anything said there.”

“She’ll be at the house tonight,” Crowe said quietly. “She’s going to end up endangering herself if she does that.”

Cami shook her head. “The fact that I was attacked in my own home and that whoever it was is trying to mimic Thomas Jones will keep her in. She wouldn’t risk herself like that.”

“You did,” Crowe pointed out.

She stared back at him, his expression and the somber tone of his voice instantly registering with her.

Amelia would be there to see him if she could find a way to slip past whoever was watching.

“Keep an eye out for her,” Rafe told him. “Unlock the back door and see if you can spot whoever’s watching.”

“If they’re watching, I’ll find them.” It was Logan’s voice, pitched low and filled with danger that had a chill racing up Cami’s spine.

There were rumors he, along with Rafe and Crowe, had trained as snipers in the Marines. That they were three of the military’s sharpest, coldest killers.

She could believe it. The lives they had lived hadn’t exactly been easy in Corbin County. That dark bitterness could have easily transferred into a rage that would see Rafe going after more than one target.

“Let’s go,” Rafe said, his voice carefully low. “I want to give Crowe time to meet the agent from our security company in Aspen to pick up some equipment we need.”

“And I want to make damned sure if she slips into the house that I’m there to greet her.” There was nothing welcoming in Crowe’s voice as he turned and began leading the way to the SUV they had driven to the ruined garage in.

“This is getting out of hand,” Cami protested as the fear still crawled through her system like a potentially killing virus. “What are they hoping to accomplish? Why do you and your cousins’ presence threaten them to the extent that they would go to these lengths?”

“We remind them of the past,” Crowe stated quietly. “And of a loss they don’t want to accept.”

“And you accept that?” she asked, more surprised than she would have thought she would be. “That’s not a good enough reason, Crowe, and it’s gone far enough.”

“Evidently it hasn’t gone far enough,” Rafe answered her, his voice cool. “They’re still pushing, Cami, and I have no intentions of leaving this county again. They’ll find out fast enough, they can’t run us off now any more than they could do it twelve years ago. The Callahans are home to stay.”