Breaker's Point Bad Boy Billionaires Boxset (36 page)

R
elief washed
through Cami and it made her instantly sick to her stomach. How the hell could she feel relief over something so horrible? She'd just agreed to be complicit in the cover-up of a murder. Had she completely lost her mind?

Perhaps the stress of the last few months—no, years—had finally tipped her over the edge. It was the only possible reason she could find for it. She wasn't this type of person, the type who stood in the way of justice.

But when had justice ever helped her?

Cami tried to pull her gaze away from the body on the ground, but she couldn't.

Did he have a family? Was there a wife waiting up for him to come home to her, kiss her on the cheek and tell her he loved her? Did he have kids, innocently sleeping in their beds with happy dreams of playtime with daddy dancing through their heads?

Dreams of things they would never again get to enjoy.

Cami was all too familiar with what it was like to wake up to a nightmare that never seemed to end. She knew what it meant to have a happy childhood ripped away in the blink of an eye.

She closed her eyes and turned away. Even that was a lie. She didn't know what it was to have a happy childhood, but it was just easier to pretend that she did. And she'd spent so long keeping up the lie that sometimes she caught herself believing it.

Her cell phone buzzed and Cami reached into her pocket and drew it out, the light from the screen momentarily blinding her as she pulled up the text message.

Sophie's name flashed across the screen and for a second Cami felt her entire body clench up with fear. There was something wrong. Sophie wouldn’t text her for any other reason.

Gone to Carolyn's house for the sleepover, thought you were going to be back before I left. See you tomorrow.

The tone of the text message held a vague hint of accusation, and Cami glanced down at the time. She'd promised to be home, but that had been before Fintan had asked her to stay on at work because he wasn't feeling well.

Sophie would hold it against her for days. Even though she was only ten, it often felt to Cami like she was already a teenager. Her moodiness and tantrums were exacerbated by the upheaval they'd both suffered.

Cami quickly typed out a reply. There was no point in trying to explain what had happened; it wasn't as though she could tell Sophie she'd accidentally stumbled onto a murder.

Love you and be careful. xxx

At least when Sophie was at Carolyn's house she would be safe. Cami couldn't help but feel grateful that, despite everything, Sophie was such an outgoing kid, capable of making friends no matter where they lived.

"Are you all right?" Griffin asked, his voice pulling Cami from the dark places her mind liked to wander into.

"Yeah, fine, I need to go and close the bar up," she said, heading for the back door, her stomach churning uneasily as she thought of the body that lay just metres from where she stood.

Griffin nodded. "I'll help," he said, reaching the back door to Holey Moley's before Cami had even taken her first step.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

"Look, the other guys from the band are still in there and you'll need them to go without making any fuss because of what's going on out here," Griffin answered, propping the door open with his foot.

Cami sighed and grabbed the bucket she'd dropped on the ground. Her head ached and the last thing she wanted to do was go into a bar filled with customers and try to persuade them she was closing early for reasons she couldn't provide.

"Fine," she said, giving in. "Anything to make life easier."

She stepped in through the door ahead of him and headed straight for the front of the bar. Most of the customers who had been in the bar before she went to get ice had already left, no doubt frustrated by the lack of bartender.

But Griffin's bandmates still sat at the back of the bar, their raucous laughter grating on her nerves as she spotted a bottle of brandy on the table that they'd obviously swiped while she was gone.

Griffin appeared in the bar a few minutes later, and Cami watched as he squared his shoulders and headed down towards his friends. From her position at the bar as she wiped the counter down with a cloth, she couldn't make out exactly what was being said. But she knew from the looks on the other men's faces that they weren't too happy that Griffin was asking them to leave.

They pushed away from the table, and Cami wondered for a moment if another fight was about to break out. Instead they pushed past Griffin and slammed out through the main door, the cracked glass of the front window rattling in its frame as they made their anger known.

“Sorry, folks, I'm closing early," Cami called out to the last of the stragglers gathered in the bar. Their mumbled complaints made her uneasy about what would happen when Fintan found out.

She was going to have to tell him something. He'd always had the uncanny ability to know when she was lying, so she would have to figure out some variation on the truth. But at least for tonight she would have time to think up a plausible story.

Griffin started gathering glasses from the tables, Cami watching as he set them on the bar. There was tension in his shoulders and he appeared to be completely lost in thought.

Grabbing the glasses, she quickly loaded them into the washer and switched it on before turning her attention to the mess still on the floor. She tried to drag her gaze away from the man working silently beside her, but Cami found it nearly impossible to completely keep her eyes off him.

Why was she so intrigued by Griffin? He'd proven himself to be an asshole, just like all the other guys she'd ever known.

And yet her gaze kept swinging right back to him.

Cami let out a sigh and threw the mop back against the wall. She was done for the night. Her head was constantly running in circles, and all she really wanted to do was go back to her house and hide beneath the covers.

"You ready to go home?" Griffin asked, lifting his eyes to hers, an emotion Cami couldn't quite put her finger on lurking in his heavy gaze.

"Yeah, I'll come in tomorrow and finish off the rest."

He nodded as she turned and grabbed her bag and jacket from the hook behind the bar. She quickly fished out her keys, the pain in the back of her head making her wince.

"You're not driving home," Griffin said. It wasn't a question, merely a statement he seemed to be making, and Cami couldn't help but roll her eyes at him.

"And how do you propose I get home otherwise?"

"I'll drive you back."

Cami laughed, the sound cutting through the tension that sat heavy in the bar. Griffin smiled back at her, an innocent look that made nervous butterflies come to life in her stomach.

"And that's funny why?"

"I thought it was a joke. There's no way you're going to drive me home."

"And there's no way I'm going to let you drive yourself and get into a wreck because you're concussed."

"I'm not concussed. I feel fine."

"This isn't a debate, Cami, and you won't persuade me otherwise. Either you let me drive you home or you spend the night here. The choice is yours."

He sounded so utterly sure of himself—infuriatingly sure of himself—that Cami found herself itching to wipe the smile right off his face.

She shook her head and stepped out from behind the bar.

"Thanks for the offer but I don't think so." She started to brush past him but he grabbed her arm, the skin on skin contact sending a ripple of heat flooding down into her fingers.

Before she could properly form a response, Griffin's hand slid down, his fingers wrapping through hers as he lifted the keys out of her hand. He took a step back, the look in his eyes heavy with an intensity that Cami hadn't seen before.

"I'll drive."

He already had the keys so there was no point in fighting him for them. Cami knew she'd lose, and her headache was spreading from the back of her head over her eyes. She needed painkillers, and it seemed there was only one way she was going to get home to take them.

"Fine," she said, her tone curt as she tried to force as much dislike as she could into her voice.

Griffin smiled ruefully at her and stepped aside. "Glad to see you’ve finally come to your senses."

Cami stalked past him, the anger bubbling in her veins only making her headache worse. But it didn't matter; she was determined to stay mad at him. At least when she was angry she was somewhat able to clear her head of the seductive charm Griffin Reynolds seemed to be capable of weaving over her.

G
riffin watched
Cami push past him, the anger she was clearly feeling evident in every line of her perfectly curvy body.

What the hell was he thinking? Insisting that he drive her home was clearly a huge mistake and yet here he was, standing outside the bar as she locked up the front door.

He waited for her to point out her car in the parking lot, following her as she stalked out in front of him.

Was he really going to go through with this? With everything that was already going on in his life, spending time in close proximity to this woman was the worst possible thing he could do.

His hand still tingled from the contact they'd shared in the bar. Griffin flexed his fingers, remembering the way she'd looked up at him.

He was being a complete jerk. Steve's body was being loaded into the back of a van to be taken God knows where and all he could think about was the look in Cami's eyes when he'd held her hand.

But Griffin knew that there was something different about Cami; he just wasn’t sure what it was yet. He wanted to protect her, help wipe the haunted look from her eyes, even though it was completely absurd to even think that way right now.

He knew nothing about her and yet here he was, feeling all of these confusing emotions for a virtual stranger.

Griffin hopped in behind the steering wheel and quickly pushed back the seat, giving himself as much room as his long legs required.

"Right, where to?" he asked as the silence stretched between them.

Cami turned to face him, the surprise on her features telling him it hadn't even occurred to her that he needed directions to her house.

"Uh, yeah, do you know Chapel Street?" she asked, pushing her hand back through her hair and wincing gently.

"Yeah, I know this area pretty well."

She nodded and dropped back against the seat. Griffin watched from the corner of his eye as she folded her arms across her chest and huffed out a long breath.

Most women in her position would have been only too happy for him to drive them home. Most women would have jumped at the opportunity to get some alone time in his company, and yet Cami seemed to be treating it as though being with him was the biggest chore on earth.

It wasn't what Griffin was used to, and he couldn't help but feel a little intrigued by her response to him. He'd seen the look in her eyes, and he had no doubt that she found him attractive. The flashes of desire she'd allowed to slip through had told him as much, and he'd seen more than his fair share of the same expression in other women's eyes through the years. He was utterly sure of her feelings towards him.

And yet she pretended not to see him, pretended not to feel the spark between them.

Griffin pulled the car out of the parking lot and allowed the silence to drag on. If she didn't want to talk then he wasn't going to force it; she'd probably just dig her heels in about that anyway, so there really wasn't any point.

The street lights cast odd shadows inside the car as he pulled onto Chapel Street and waited for Cami to indicate which house was hers.

"Just here," she said, and Griffin rolled his eyes at the fact that she'd obviously waited until the very last second to tell him.

He parked the car and killed the engine, the sound of it ticking over and cooling down the only noise apart from their breathing.

"Thanks for getting me home safely," Cami said, turning in the seat until she faced him.

"It was the least I could do after everything." Griffin kept his attention on the dark street, his mind instantly flicking back to the scene in the alley.

"How are you going to get back to the bar for your car?"

"I'll call a cab, it's no big deal." He pulled the keys from the ignition and held them out towards Cami.

"You could always come in for a quick coffee while you wait. It makes more sense than waiting out here for it since you don't even know how long it'll take to arrive."

Griffin faced Cami. Her expression was half covered in shadow from the darkness within the car.

"If you've got something a little stronger than coffee I think I could be persuaded." He smiled at her and tried to make his expression as open and honest as possible. It seemed ridiculous, but Griffin couldn't help it. He wanted her to like him, to feel as though she could trust him, open up to him.

Cami ducked her head and stared down at the keys he'd just given back to her. When she lifted her head again she smiled at him, but there was something lurking in the depths of her eyes that told Griffin she still wasn't sure.

"I might have something that could work."

She didn't wait for an answer, instead climbing from the car and starting towards the path that led up to the front porch of her small house.

Griffin watched her head up the path and contemplated his options. If she was so unsure about inviting him in, then maybe it'd be better if he just walked away now? It would probably take the pressure off her and might even give him some much needed brownie points in her eyes.

Pushing open the car door, Griffin followed her up to the front door. He wasn't one of the good guys and never had been, so what was the point in starting now? And, anyway, he didn't want to do the right thing. He didn't want to be the gentleman.

Cami unlocked the door and stepped inside, flicking on the lights, Griffin following behind her.

The house was as small on the inside as he'd suspected it might be from outside, but, despite its size, Griffin took note of the distinctive homely quality it had. Cami had obviously taken time to make it as cosy and welcoming as possible, and as a result it was a far cry from the atmosphere where Griffin had grown up.

Of course, the hotels he often stayed in hadn't helped to build a sense of home for him anywhere in his life, a feeling he was never more aware of than in that moment.

"Don't just stand there with the door open. Come in," she called to him from the kitchen, and Griffin jumped, the sound of her voice startling him from his thoughts.

He did as she suggested, making his way down the narrow hall towards the bright and welcoming yellow lights of the kitchen.

Cami stood with her back to him, straining to reach into the uppermost compartment of one of her cupboards.

Without even thinking about it, Griffin moved up behind her, one hand sliding around her waist to balance his body against hers as he reached past her and grabbed a bottle of rum from the back of the cabinet.

She jumped, her body jamming against his as she turned to face him. Griffin sat the bottle down on the counter next to her and took a small step backwards.

Fool!
The voice screamed at him as he caught sight of the slightest hint of regret in Cami's wide eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, and sound roared in Griffin's ears as he stepped back up against her.

He lifted his hand and cupped the side of her face, her skin soft beneath his touch as she let her eyes flutter shut. It took him a second to realise that her hands had balled up into the front of his dark shirt, as though she was trying to draw him closer.

"Cami…" Her name left him on a sigh as he dipped his head towards hers and crushed his mouth against her rosebud lips.

She tasted of apple and vanilla, exactly what Griffin imagined home would taste like if he ever had the chance to experience it.

She moaned against him and Griffin felt himself stiffen as she crushed her breasts to his chest. He ran his tongue against her lips and she opened up to him, his hands tangling around her soft hair.

Griffin slid one hand down her side until it reached her hip. Digging his fingers into her soft flesh, he jerked her leg upwards, forcing his body between her thighs as he lifted her until she sat on the edge of the kitchen counter.

Everything about her invited him in: the taste of her skin, the feel of her body against his, the scent of her hair.

The urge to bury himself inside her was almost overwhelming and he growled against her mouth, breaking off the kiss and staring down into her lust-filled eyes.

"Are you sure?" he asked, instantly regretting the question the moment it had left his mouth.

What the hell was he thinking? He wanted her. Wanted her in a way he'd never wanted any other woman. And here he was, giving her a chance to walk away. He'd clearly lost all sense of reason.

She bit down on her lip and Griffin groaned in response, his body reacting to the simple action with an intensity he wasn't used to.

"I'm sure…" Cami said, dragging him back down to her mouth, their kiss deepening as Griffin lifted her from the counter and carried her through the arch that led to the lounge.