Chasing Love's Wings (22 page)

“Where the hell have you been? I was about to get on a plane to L.A.”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake. Chill. I’m fine. I’m still not feeling good, and after I met
with the builders I came back to the hotel and passed out on the bed. On top of the
sheets, still in my clothes.”

“Something is not right with you, Cameron. You need to go to the doctor.” No, I don’t;
I know exactly what’s wrong with me.
 

“No, I’ll be fine.”

“Damn it, Cameron. Are you pregnant?” Holy fuck. How the hell? I hesitate long enough
in answering her question; I don’t want to lie to her. “Oh my God, Cams. Seriously?”
She doesn’t sound pissed, at least not like I thought she would.

“I—”

“That would explain it.”
 

“What do you mean?”
 

“The vomiting, your exhaustion. You’re distracted. Cams, talk to me.” I start balling
on the phone with her; I can’t help it. ”Babe, oh, please don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it,” I manage to say between quite ugly crying.
 

“You missed an appointment, didn’t you?”
 

“Yeah,” I ball.
 

“Stop crying. Is this why you’re avoiding Tristan?”
 

“I’m not avoiding him. I just...I’m freaking the fuck out, Beau.”
 

“Want me to come out there?”
 

“No. I need some time to get my head wrapped around this. Figure out how I’m going
to tell Tristan.”

“Are you scared of the fact that you’re pregnant, or what Tristan will think?”

“Both,” I say as I wipe the tears from my cheeks.
 

“Cams, Tristan isn’t that kind of guy. He’s not going to leave you or hate you. Believe
me.”
 

“I’m trying, Beau, I’m just...I’m so confused.”
 

“Take a deep breath. Your secret is perfectly safe with me. I won’t tell him, but
if you don’t want him further freaking out on you, you need to pull yourself together
and talk to him. Or placate him. Tell him you’re going to the doctor in the morning
because of how sick you feel. Something — just help him to understand that you’re
okay. He can’t do anything from New York, so make him feel comfortable. All right?”
 

I take a deep breath. “All right, I’ll figure something out.” My phone beeps. “He’s
calling me.”
 

“I’m sure he is, he’s really worried about you.”
 

“All right, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Kisses,” she says, and she’s gone. I click the swap button on my phone.
 

“Cams, are you all right?”
 

I take a deep breath and yawn. “Yes, I’m fine.”

“Where have you been?”
 

“I didn’t sleep for shit last night. And when I got back from meeting with the builders,
I fell asleep on top of my covers.”

“Why didn’t my calls wake you up?”
 

Shit, I don’t know. I look at my phone. “Because it is still on vibrate. Shit, Tristan,
I’m sorry.”
 

I hear him take a deep breath. “It’s all right,” he whispers, and I can hear him yawn.
 

“You need to get back to sleep. We can talk in the morning. Go get some sleep. I miss
you and I love you.”
 

“Ah hell, Cams, I love you too. Will you come tomorrow after you’re done at the office?”
 

Crap. I need some more time. “Let me see what time I get done. If not tomorrow, I
will come Wednesday. Okay?”

“Sooner, please. I need you. I miss you.”
 

The tears start again. “I miss you too. I love you.”
 

“Ditto.”
 

“I need you to say it.”
 

“I love you,” he says, so soft and so sweet that the tears come a little harder. “Call
when you wake up? Please?”

I nod, then realize he can’t hear my head shake. “Yes. I will.”
 

“Goodnight, sweets.”
 

“Goodnight.”
 

The conversation ends, and before I can have a complete crying fit, I go into the
bathroom, then change into some more comfortable clothes. I stand in front of the
mirror, trying to see if anything is any different, and it doesn’t really look that
way.
 

I climb back into bed and let the waterworks fall until I fall asleep again.

THIRTY-TWO

“Good morning, Rayne,” I say to my assistant as I step into the waiting room of my
office floor.
 

“Ms. Enders— I mean Cami. To what do we owe the pleasure.”
 

“Surprise inspection.”
 

Rayne laughs. “Yes, ma’am. Trinity is in her office.”
 

“I need to talk to Vinnie, actually.”
 

“I haven’t seen him yet this morning, but that doesn’t mean he’s not here. Check his
office first.”

“That’s where I’m headed.”
 

I walk past her desk and head down the hallway. Trinity sees me walking past her office.
“Cami,” she shouts after me.

“Later, Trin.” I take three steps past her office and then I stop in my tracks and
take a few steps back. “Actually, come with me,” I say, and she stands up and grabs
her jacket. “Leave the coat. We’re only going to Vinnie’s office.”
 

“Uh, I haven’t seen him this morning.”

“He’s here. Come on.” She scurries out of her office and down the hall with me to
Vincent’s door. I pause momentarily, taking a deep breath, hoping to keep myself in
check during this encounter.
 

We reach Vincent’s door and I knock twice. “Come in, Cami.”
 

“See,” I say to Trinity as I open the door. I step inside first; Trinity is hot on
my heels, curious, no doubt, as to what has me so worked up. I get an eyeful of one
man sitting on a couch inside the office, and I damn near turn around to push Trinity
out the door, deciding that this might not be the best idea I’ve ever had, but fuck
it. Sitting opposite my father is Vinnie.

Trinity gasps behind me, and I can hear the breath leave her lungs. Thankfully she
falls against the door, and it’s now closed.
 

“Well done, Cami,” Bobby says from the couch. His irritation is obvious and I don’t
care.

I shake my head. “You’re the one sitting in Vinnie’s office, anyone could walk in
here. How the hell did you get in here without being noticed?” I pause but don’t give
him time to answer. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.” I turn toward Trinity, who
is as white as a ghost. “Breathe, Trin.” She takes a sharp breath, then another. “Welcome
to my life,” I say, sarcasm dripping off of every word.
 

She looks at me with big eyes. “How did you know?”
 

“How did you?” I ask her back.
 

“I didn’t. I—” She looks past me at Bobby. “It’s like looking at a ghost.”
 

“Pretty much. But how I know is not important, what is important is that I’d only
known for a couple weeks that there was a possibility that this could really be true
until a month ago, when I saw him in the flesh.”

“I need to sit down,” she says as she steps gingerly toward the couch that Vinnie
is sitting on.
 

“So what now, Bobby, are you making a grand return to Bold?”
 

“Stop that right now.” Bobby stands and stalks toward me, forcing me back into the
corner Trinity was just standing in.
 

“I came here to deal with Vinnie on my own, and I walk in to find you.”
 

“Which is exactly why I’m here. You can’t fire him. I made him do it, and it has eaten
him alive every single day since. Do not be angry with him. Be mad at me.”
 

“I already am.” He backs away, straightening himself out. “So what now? I finally
feel I am actually ready for this job, in a loose interpretation of that, at least,
and now you want back in?” I ask Bobby as he takes his seat on the couch.
 

“We can’t do that. The board will have a shit fit, not to mention the fact that we
would have to pay back the insurance money and Bold’s reputation would go down the
drain. Once that happened, it’d be all downhill from there. Sure, we’ve reestablished
our client list and we’ve turned the largest profit in over ten years, but that doesn’t
mean we are anywhere near stable enough to consider bringing Bobby out of the woodwork.”
Vincent seems to have this all under control.
 

“You both realize that I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing he was
alive, right? That I didn’t need him pushing me silently from the mountains in Montana?”

“I won’t be in Montana long. They’ve started rounding up what we talked about.” He
gives me a look of, ‘Keep your mouth shut. “So I’m going further into hiding.”

“Great, so what exactly was the point of making your presence known if you never had
an intention of coming back?”
 

“That is a conversation for you and I to have. Alone and on a different day. Not here.”
I glare at Bobby.
 

Trinity just sits there, quietly staring at Bobby, who is now staring back at her.
It clicks, and I know my eyes get wide when realization dawns. I want to scream. “Are
you kidding me right now?” I put my hands in my hair and grab hold, bringing myself
out of the rage I feel like flying into. “Un-fucking-believable.”

“Wha—”

“Jesus, Vinnie, you’re fucking dense, aren’t you. Look at them. Oh my God. I am getting
new furniture in my office, PRONTO!”

“We never did it in his office.”
 

“Thank fuck for that.”

“Watch your mouth.”
 

I bust out laughing. “You’re kidding me, right? How long, Bobby?”
 

“How long what?”
 

“What? How long were you fucking her?”
 

“Damn it, Cameron, calm down.”
 

“Just when I thought you couldn’t drop any more bombs on me. This is great. I feel
like I’m stuck in the middle of a damn conspiracy theory here.” I take a deep breath
in desperation to calm myself down. Everything in my life up to this moment feels
like a smokescreen. Rose-colored glasses being shattered into a million tiny little
pieces. Robert is alive, and in hiding, verses actually being dead. Though now I don’t
know that I truly understand his reason for hiding in the first place. Yeah, okay,
I get it: He was trying to protect me. But if he was going into hiding as though he
were dead, why not just be dead and everyone’s life could go on. “Your web of lies
stops right here, right now,” I nearly growl at Bobby. “I don’t care what your reasons
were for doing what you did, I don’t care how or why. I’m exhausted, and all I want
to do is turn all of this off...or wake up from this goddamn nightmare you’ve created
for me.” Watching the way Trinity is reacting to my yelling at Bobby makes me see
what I was failing to see for all these months. “Oh my God!” I nearly shout when I
realize that there is more between Trinity and Bobby, more than even Bobby is no doubt
aware of. I am staring at Trinity now. Our eyes meet, and she pleads and begs me to
not say it, to not say anything. She knows what conclusion I’ve come to. “He doesn’t
know?”

“Cami, don’t, I’m begging you.”

“Don’t what?” Bobby chimes in to our private conversation.
 

“Do it, Trinity, or I will.” More frustration and anger wash over me. On top of everything
else, I can’t handle this. My father had an affair with Trinity, and—
HOLY FUCK!
I shout in my head.

“No. I won’t do it.” Trinity is beyond adamant. Trying desperately to stand up, to
come after me, to stop me.

“The depth of the depravity in this room is un-fucking-believable.” I turn and open
the door, head back the way I came and barge into Trinity’s office. It is exactly
where I expect it to be. I grab the little silver frame off of her desk and go back
to Vincent’s office.
 

Trinity sees what I have in my hands and she reaches for me and for the picture. “Dammit,
Cami, don’t do this. I don’t even know—“

“You don’t even know if it’s his. Well let me enlighten you. It is!” I turn the picture
frame over and I hear Bobby gasp. “From the moment I first saw his picture, I knew
there was something familiar about it, but I was far too blind to see it. Or refused
to see it. You never told him you were pregnant, did you?”
 

Trinity slinks onto the couch, tears streaking down her face. “I never found the courage
to tell him. When I finally built it up enough, he was gone.”
 

“He was gone and left you with nothing. No money, no anything besides your job, and
right now I have half a mind to fire both of you. And you—” I look at Bobby. “Don’t
fuck him up the way you fucked me up.”

I throw the picture frame onto the couch next to Bobby, and I barely see him pick
it up before I am slamming the door and walking down the hallway. I fly past Rayne
and hit the stairs — I’m not waiting for the elevator — and I am thankful that Bobby
is trapped in that room, otherwise he’d be coming after me.
 

I pull my phone from my pocket. Please don’t pick up, don’t pick up. Dammit, don’t
pick up. “You know what to do.” Thank God!

THIRTY-THREE

******

Tristan

******

“Do we know what time Cami is taking off?”
 

“Not sure. She said she was going to the airport when she was done.” Tyson is reassuring
me. The last time I checked my phone was this morning before we started filming, more
than eight hours ago, and she was getting to the office.

“Tristan.” I turn around and it is one of the student directors. “We need to do one
more scene.”