Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: To Honor and To Protect\Cornered\Untraceable (36 page)

Something came over Sandy. The fake fear in his eyes faded. Now he looked tall and in charge and every bit the crime boss. “Moving the drugs is easy. Growing them is easy. And if you're really good and have the open land, it can be very lucrative.” He smiled. “Or so I hear. I don't have personal experience, of course.”

“Right.” Cam was done playing this game. “Step away from the bed.”

“Or I could shoot the person in here.” Sandy brought out a gun that had been tucked into the waist of his pants. “Does this person mean anything to you? Actually, it doesn't matter, because you're one of those people who believes in others. Very tiresome.”

Sandy brought the gun around and aimed it at the person in the bed.

Cam shook his head. “I wouldn't do that. He gets upset very easily.”

“Why do I care?”

“Because he has a grenade.” Cam said the code word for Shane to move.

He did not waste time. He brought his arm out from under him with the blade arcing through the air. Just as Sandy turned and aimed again, Shane stabbed his knife into Sandy's thigh.

The man dropped his gun and let it clank against the floor. He let out an awful scream, one that was almost inhuman in its piercing squeal. Then he bent over, holding the wound.

Real doctors came running and Holt slipped into the room. When Shane sat up, he looked down and watched Sandy make demands about his leg and a scar. After ripping the fake tubes out, he came to stand with Holt and Cam.

Sandy rocked back and forth on the floor while Holt grabbed the discarded gun and a nurse tried to stop the bleeding. “You think you won, but I'll beat this.”

The guy fought to the end. Cam guessed a part of him should admire that, but it was hard to after hearing that squeal. “Good luck wasting your money doing that.”

Sandy's head whipped up and he pinned Cam with an intense stare. “And in the meantime you lose Julia.”

“She loves you.” Cam wasn't clear why at the moment. “Why would you do this to her?”

Sandy's rage spilled out of him now. There was nothing fatherly or caring about the guy huddled on the floor in a sitting position. “I am convenient to her. I did everything for her and she left. She was as useless as her father and look what happened to him.”

Cam remembered the story. “He fell.”

“Fell. Sure.” Sandy laughed.

Everything inside Cam went cold. He heard Holt swear under his breath and saw Shane take a step back while he shook his head. “You're saying that you—”

“You might want to get to my house.” Sandy clenched his teeth as the nurse continued to work on his leg. “No phone. No way out. Julia could be on the edge right now.”

Cam imagined her trying to get out of the house. All frantic and confused and winding up. “Why would you do that?”

“Because for once I needed her to listen and do what she was told.”

The comment was so cold, so awful, that Cam knew he couldn't repeat it. Sandy had belittled her and expressed disappointment. And unless Cam misheard, Sandy had also admitted to doing something to Julia's drunken father.

“So you hate women,” Shane said.

Sandy scoffed. “I hate weakness, and she and her father are all about weakness.”

“That's where you're wrong.” Right there was where Cam wrote the guy off. He couldn't speak to Julia's father, but he did know all about her. “She's stronger than both of us.”

Chapter Twenty

Julia couldn't take the confinement one more second. She stood at the bank of glass doors that ran along the back of the house and stared into the lit yard beyond. The security lights plunged the patio and pool into a burst of white. She wasn't much of a swimmer, but right now she wanted to run out there and jump in. Cold or not, didn't matter.

Her insides jumped and tingled. Every nerve seemed to be on fire or ready to burst. She'd never thought of herself as nervous or anxious, but being locked in, penned against her will and unable to contact anyone, had her walking around and dreaming up crazy ways to get out.

She'd paced so much she'd broken out in a sweat. The landline phone lay on the floor. No dial tone. A laptop was open and the television was on. Nothing got her access to the world beyond the walls. It didn't even matter that these were pretty well-decorated walls. Prison was prison.

Her footsteps thundered as she ran up to Sandy's bedroom again. She'd made this journey twice already. She'd seen how Cam got them out. Just tie the sheets and jump. But without him here she didn't trust herself to go. She did trust Cam.

He'd been right about Sandy. She didn't know what was going on, but what was happening now was so odd. She couldn't wrap her brain around it. Didn't believe she'd be okay without him.

She heard a pounding. At first she thought it was wishful thinking or her brain playing tricks. Then the doorbell began to ring. Over and over. Chiming until she felt it inside her head.

She ran downstairs, looking first at the front door. As soon as she appeared in the small window next to the double door, Shane waved and pointed toward the back of the house.

She should have been angry, but all she felt was relief. It almost knocked the legs out from under her. She spun around on her heel and got to the glass doors again. Holt and Cam stood out there, looking as if they were locked in deep thought. Holt held a gun but Cam shook his head.

Cam glanced up and smiled. A warmth filled her when she saw that face. He was fine and here and everything would be okay. Even if she never got out of this house again.

“The alarm is in shutdown.” She yelled the words because she knew the glass would muffle them.

For some reason he seemed to know. He nodded and bent down. When he stood up again he had a planter in his arms, and not a small one. This thing could break glass and bones.

The first hit bounced off the glass, but her belief never wavered. He might talk about not caring about a woman and keeping things light, but that look of determination did not say acquaintance to her. The second hit landed square against the glass and a huge cracking sound split the night. She waited for the glass to fall. He stood on the other side looking as if he was trying to will it to fall.

Finally he motioned her back and lifted his leg. As Holt yelled something, Cam kicked. The glass exploded. It shattered into pieces, breaking off into slivers as it crashed over the dining room table and pinged in what looked like a million tiny cubes against the hardwood floor.

Then he was there. He had her wrapped in his arms and was kissing her hair. He said something about trust, but she didn't hear it. Couldn't hear anything over the frantic beating of her heart.

The night was a blur, but he was solid. She ran her hands over him and tugged him in close. Her last thought was relief.

Then the world went dark.

* * *

C
AM
SAT
BY
Julia's bedside at the clinic and willed her to wake up. The doctor had chalked her reaction up to anxiety and shock. Cam didn't like either answer. Also hated that she still hadn't opened her eyes.

He put her hand between both of his and rubbed. The heat had slowly returned to her body. When she first passed out she'd felt like ice. Her skin had actually been cold to the touch.

“How are we doing?” Holt asked as he opened the door and came in.

Shane followed. “Looks like she's not ready to wake up yet.”

The doctor had said the same thing. Cam now hated that phrase.

He glanced at her, saw her hair on the white pillow and the slow rise and fall of her chest. “Apparently.”

Shane walked around the bed, looking at her. Whatever he was looking for he must have found, because he stopped at the end of her bed and stood there. “What are you going to tell her when she wakes up?”

Cam had walked through that in his mind. Over and over. He could soft-pedal it all and fill in blanks. But that wouldn't be fair. She'd been strong and right by his side throughout the entire ordeal. He owed her as much information as he could give her and a shoulder to cry on when the disappointment about Sandy hit.

“The truth.” He'd mess up if he tried to do anything else, anyway.

“Smart.” Holt nodded. “But that's a rough story. Her uncle—”

“They weren't blood related.” For some reason, that mattered to Cam. He didn't want her tied to Sandy any more than she was.

“I don't think that will be a comfort, since he ran drugs, killed, scared her on purpose, tried to kill you and possibly killed her father.”

Man, that list. Cam ran through it in his head, but hearing it out loud sounded so much worse. And that wasn't even all of it. He knew it would get worse over the next few days as they gathered more information on the choices Sandy had made. Then came the criminal part. No way would that man go down easy.

But that wasn't even the biggest problem of all. Julia's feelings for him were. “She loved him.”

Shane snorted. “Well, her taste in men stinks.”

“Thanks.” Since that actually made Cam smile, he didn't bother to shoot an insult right back at his teammate.

Holt looked over at him. “I guess this means you're off the market.”

“Was I ever on it?” Cam kept his dating life light. It had been a good system until he met Julia.

“You were single.” Holt shrugged as a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Fight it all you want, but I saw the look on your face. You want her.”

The knee-jerk reaction to deny and minimize had faded. When Holt delivered his assessment, Cam could only agree. “I do.”

Shane put a hand on Cam's shoulder. “Then don't mess it up.”

That seemed simple enough. Maybe too simple. “That's your advice?”

“Hey, it's good advice.” Shane walked toward the door.

“Call us if you need a ride,” Holt said as he joined Shane. “Otherwise, Connor said you should take some time off.”

“He's a hopeless romantic.” Cam had never thought he'd say that about a six-foot-something bruiser who could shoot and run and do anything Corcoran needed. But Cam did admire Connor's ability to balance his marriage and the work. He wasn't the only one. The entire Annapolis office was paired off.

They'd all survived dating. Maybe he could, too. He rubbed a thumb over the back of Julia's hand. Maybe it just depended on the partner.

“I'm thinking all of you have marriage fever.” Holt sounded disgusted by the possibility.

Shane touched his chest. “Except me.”

Holt nodded. “Right, except me and Shane.”

Cam remembered saying something similar and thinking it was brilliant. Now he knew better. “Your time will come.”

Holt's smile fell. “Don't come back with that attitude.”

* * *

J
ULIA
CAME
AWAKE
in bursts. She'd wake up and try to open her eyes, then drift again. Every time she thought she'd reached the surface, she would feel a hand in hers or the brush of fingers through her hair. It was that loving touch that had her keep trying. She craved it.

On the last swim to the top she heard her name spoken in a deep, husky voice. She knew that voice, which meant she knew that hand. Using all her energy, she opened her eyes. The light flooded in and had her blinking. She wanted to lift her hand to block it, but her muscles weighed too much to lift.

“Hey there.” Cam leaned in farther as she woke up.

“What happened?” She remembered being in the house and the sense of desperation. Then there was glass everywhere. She didn't even know what had happened to Sandy and why he'd locked the house down.

“Sandy set the security system and you couldn't get out.” Cam kept up the gentle caress of his fingertips against the back of her hand. “The doctor said that shock along with being dehydrated was too much for your system.”

“Am I okay?”

“Yes.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “You need rest, which is what I think I said to you about a hundred times.”

She wanted to roll her eyes, but it hurt to move her head. “I'm not weak.”

“Of course not.” His head pulled back. “Is that what you thought I was saying?”

She thought back to all he'd told her. He'd praised her. She didn't remember the word
weak
or any other negative word. He wasn't her father or like any man she'd ever dated. “I just wanted you to know.”

He raised their joined hands to his mouth and kissed her fingers. “I know.”

She knew she should close her eyes and drift off. Him being there made her feel safe, but there were so many questions spinning in her head. She started with the obvious one. “Sandy was involved, wasn't he?”

A flash of pain crossed over Cam's face. She knew then that he was trying to hold that back and protect her. But she'd already guessed the truth. The second she'd looked for her cell and found it gone and then couldn't get out of the house, her mind had gone from thinking Sandy was being overprotective to knowing he was hiding something.

Part of her wanted to believe he'd done it because he hadn't thought Cam safe. But she knew that wasn't it. Sandy had become secretive, and that security system kept growing to include new and scary features. When she'd stopped visiting, his mood had turned surly.

Cam continued to hold her hand in his. “We think Sandy is the drug runner, Julia. The boss. In charge of it all.”

She closed her eyes and tried to let those words sink in. “I can't imagine him doing it.”

She'd never known him to use drugs or even alcohol. He'd shamed her father repeatedly on the alcohol issue. It made her wonder if dealing was his way of proving he was stronger and everyone else was weaker. That did fit with his personality.

“He pretty much admitted it to me and the team.” Cam exhaled. “He got caught up in telling us how great he was and started talking about this.”

“I bet he's trying to back off of that admission now.” The thought of Sandy in prison made her mind rebel. The guy liked comfort. Big-time comfort. Thinking about him in a uniform with set mealtimes... What had he been thinking?

“We set him up at the hospital and he took the bait. Came to the clinic to kill Ray, the one guy who could finger him, but it was really Shane in the bed.”

The body blows kept coming. That was not the man she knew. Watching who he was unwind in front of her made her wonder if she knew anything about men.

She glanced up at the only other man who had meant so much to her. She lay there waiting for Cam to deliver the news that he was off to a new assignment or going to live under a new name. There was an automatic finality that came with being with him.

“You can just tell me.” She braced for the pain that would come when he uttered the words. “You don't have to be careful with your words or worry about my feelings.”

Instead, he frowned at her. “What?”

“That you're leaving. How you hate commitment.”

“When did I say that?”

“You've said it before and I want you to know I'm ready for the speech.” But she wasn't. She totally wasn't.

“Do you want me to go?” He laid her hand against the bed but kept his over it.

“No.” She practically screamed the answer. A nurse walking by in the hallway did a double take.

He shot her that sexy dimpled smile. “Then why are you trying to get me to say something I don't want to say?”

Her brain kept misfiring. She had no idea what they were talking about or how they'd gotten here from where they were the last time they'd discussed this subject. “But you—”

“Julia, I wasn't kidding when I told you I felt something I'd never felt before. I haven't had wild love affairs or had the benefit of growing up in a big family and watching my siblings pair off.” He switched seats so that he sat on the edge of her bed. “I want you.”

“A date.” It felt risky to even put that out there knowing how he felt about the subject.

“I'm hoping for a lot of dates.” His eyes gleamed. “See, I'm falling for you and it seems to me when that happens, two people should spend a lot of time together.”

She couldn't figure out how to open her mouth to speak.

“Let's try this.” He lowered his head and took her mouth with his. The dragging kiss had her remembering every touch and wanting so many more.

When he lifted his head again, her body sparked to life. This time she grabbed his hand and pressed it right between her breasts. “That falling thing?”

“Yeah?”

Oh, that smile.
“You're not falling alone.”

Falling, fell. They could use whatever words he wanted. She just knew she thought about him all the time, even when he was right beside her. Something about him—the charm or maybe the bossiness—had gotten under her skin from the beginning.

He turned his hand to trace a line along her collarbone. “In the interests of disclosure, my world is about danger and secrets and—”

“I've known that from day one. Literally.” He'd busted into the house and nothing had ever been the same.

“True.” His expression grew serious. “I want to give us a chance. A real chance.”

She was in for that. She could give him as long as he needed. She'd waited. “So long as we give it a nice long chance.”