Midnight Sins (26 page)

refuse to even question why they couldn’t resist that

sexual pull that kept bringing them together?

And they were questions she simply refused to

answer. There was too much pain, too many emotions

she had no choice but to keep buried inside her.

“Things are going to go your way and be done

your way, no matter what. Right?”

“Pretty much,” he agreed.

She so didn’t think so.

Rather than stating the obvious, she turned and

stalked to the shower, slamming and locking the door

behind her.

He should have followed her. It was his bathroom,

his damned house. And by God, she was his damned

woman. That was a decision he’d made six years

ago, when she was more than eighteen years old.

When he left the Marines, when he came back to stay,

Cami would be his.

He’d kept track of her. The few contacts he still

had in Corbin let him know if she was dating anyone,

if it was getting serious, what she was doing, and if

she needed anything. He’d taken the decision he’d

made very damned seriously.

Cami was his, and he figured it was time he let

her know that little fact.

She would fight him. He wasn’t certain why she

would fight him, but it was more than apparent that

that was exactly what she had in mind.

He hadn’t expected a challenge from her, but he

wasn’t about to turn away from one either. It would

only make her surrender sweeter, he thought. One of

the reasons he’d looked forward to this return was the

chance to finally claim Cami once and for all. He

might not have that romantic, sweet idea of Prince

Charming that she might think she wanted, but he

knew how to keep her warm when the nights were

cold.

He knew how to please her.

He knew how to protect her.

Now if he could just convince “her” of those few,

though no doubt important, facts.

CHAPTER 8

“Has he lost his fucking mind?” Crowe Callahan

asked Logan the next morning, speaking through the

voice-activated link to his cousin’s communications

set. Crowe sat on the winter-white snowmobile, the

winter camo protective gear he wore insulating him

against the freezing wind as he held the matching

binoculars to the eye slit of the thermal full-face ski

mask.Staring from his position on the snow-covered

mountainside, he couldn’t believe Rafe was actually

standing out in the freezing cold and smoking yet

another of the cigars Crowe and Logan kept trying to

convince him to throw away.

“Told you,” Logan said as he leaned back,

ignoring Crowe’s intense, questioning look.

Dressed in identical snow gear, Logan rested

casually against the pack strapped to the back half of

the seat as the now gently falling snow, the final edge

of the blizzard, collected on the protective face mask

and shaded goggles he wore. “What’s he doing this

time?”

The lazy, unconcerned drawl of his voice was

distinctly at odds with the worry Crowe had seen

earlier in his cousin’s face.

Shaking his head, Crowe turned back, lifted the

military-issue binoculars back to his eyes, and

watched as his cousin leaned against the support

post of the sheltered porch below, the cigar clenched

between his teeth, tension radiating in the stiff set of

his shoulders and the dark glower on his face.

“He didn’t close the curtains to the living room,”

Crowe mused as Cami Flannigan pulled the man’s

long-sleeved white shirt over her naked body after

rising from the bed of pillows, feather comforters, and

quilts that Rafe had obviously made the night before.

Like an animal creating a nest for his mate. Soft,

warm, comforting, and protective. The aura of

intimacy was so heavy it made Crowe’s back teeth

ache in frustrated anger. His baby cousin was making

nests, getting intimate, and staring into the stark

snowscape furiously. Just before his little lover stalked

from the room. Then, Rafe just had to follow the girl.

“Really?” Logan rose from his reclined position.

“Let me see.”

Crowe snorted. “Pervert. She’s left the room

now.” “And you got to see her naked?” Logan chuckled.

“Hell, man, what made you get so lucky and not me?

Can I tell Rafe you got to see his lady naked?”

Crowe shook his head in amusement as he

lowered the device once again. “That boy’s going to

get himself in trouble.” He sighed. “Cami Flannigan is

the last woman he should be screwing, especially

under the current circumstances.”

Especially considering the past and the

circumstances of her sister’s death. As the sister of

Jaymi Flannigan Kramer, the last in a series of serial

rapes and murders twelve years before, Cami was a

problem waiting to happen. Crowe and his cousins

had nearly gone to prison for it at the time. Because

of that, Cambria was the last woman in the world Rafe

should even be in the same vicinity with let alone in

the same bed.

“Hey, I didn’t notice a lot of choice when I was

there with him,” Logan pointed out with a hint of

laughter. “And I’m sorry, man, but if I was stuck in a

blizzard with Cami Flannigan I’d be all about fucking

her too.”

“Fucking her, not making yourself crazy over her.”

Crowe sighed in resignation. You can fuck your

women, Logan, without letting your heart get tangled

up with your dicks.”

“My dick’s untangled just fine, thank you very

much, cousin,” Logan informed him with a hint of

heavy amusement in his voice. “Matter of fact, it’s

about as untangled as a dick can get.”

Untangled, Crowe’s ass. Just give it time. Logan

was all but hogtied and just didn’t know it yet. Dammit.

How the hell was he supposed to protect his cousins’

asses without their help?

Crowe stared back at his younger cousin as

Logan’s green eyes twinkled back at him. the laughter

in his gaze made the dark green depths seem to

shimmer.

“Really?” Crowe drawled mockingly. “And that

little neighbor of yours isn’t putting a kink in it at all,

right?” He couldn’t see the frown that pulled at

Logan’s brow because of the cold weather mask, but

Crowe saw the flash of ire in his cousin’s gaze.

“Shut up,” he muttered, his voice muffled by the

face mask he wore.

Crowe breathed out roughly in resignation before

turning back. He lifted the binoculars back to his eyes,

and staring down at the two-story ranch house Clyde

Ramsey had willed to his nephew, Rafer Callahan,

along with the ranch.

As Crowe swept over the valley with the

binoculars, it didn’t take him long to find the road crew

slowly working its way up the mountain toward the

ranch. No one might know where Cambria Flannigan

was yet, but it wouldn’t be long before her uncle Eddy

Flannigan would be the first to figure it out. Shit was

going to hit the fan when that happened, and Rafe

would be stuck in the thick of it with no way out.

Because there was no denying she had spent the

duration of the blizzard there. It would be the perfect

opportunity for Cami to try for a little revenge where

her sister Jaymi was concerned. After all, the rest of

her family believed the Callahans had killed her sister;

over time, there was the possibility Cami could have

been convinced.

It would be too damned easy for her to accuse

him of raping her, kidnapping her, or performing any

other illegal act that could possibly get him thrown into

prison.

This was just what the hell the cousins needed.

Not that the Cami he had known eleven years

ago could have done such a thing. But that was

eleven years ago and this was now. Who knew how

she had changed? And Crowe was a suspicious

bastard.

They had to returned to Corbin County to find that

“something” missing, not to help Rafe find his way into

prison.

“Did you check out the car?” Crowe asked as he

watched Rafe move through the house, the light

curtains on the windows giving a clear view into his

home. It appeared Rafe had followed Cami for some

sort of confrontation.

Crowe could have sworn he’d taught Rafe better

than that at some point. You never confront a possibly

enemy face to face, especially if that potential enemy

was female.

“I checked out the car,” Logan affirmed. “I couldn’t

see anything that suggests the accident was anything

but an accident, but the drifts are piled high around it,

and digging it out enough to get under it wasn’t high

on my list of priorities.”

He was wearing military-issue cold-weather gear

that would have kept him toasty warm for up to fortyeight

hours in the coldest spot in the world and he

couldn’t dig through a few feet of snow to check the

tires.

After the deaths of their parents, Rafe’s uncle,

and other suspected enemies of the barons on the

treacherous Corbin County roads, Crowe no longer

believed in accidents or coincidences.

“What is high on your list of priorities, Logan?”

Crowe asked absently. He wondered if Logan even

understood what direction he was headed in. Or if he

had any idea about the woman he was heading in that

direction with. Sometimes, that worried Crowe more

than the fear that Logan would care about the wrong

person too much. His cousin was doing more than

simply caring too much. He was on the verge of

becoming too involved. Even more so than Rafe.

“Tying my dick in knots, unraveling it, then tying it

again?” Logan chuckled. “Whatever it takes to stay

footloose and fancy-free, Crowe, while having all

kinds of fun. What about you?”

There were very few things Logan allowed

himself to possess or to care about. His home had

been in Crowe’s name for years. It was an attempt to

keep Logan from giving it the hell away and Rafe had

insisted on it.

The Harley was in Rafe’s name; the black Denali

SUV was in Crowe’s name. The only thing Logan

owned, sort of, was the snowmobile, and it was

simply in all their names.

Logan had a serious problem where owning

things were involved. Even he didn’t know why he

didn’t want to own anything, and Crowe also hadn’t

yet figured out why.

“I didn’t hear an answer there, Crowe,” Logan

said as he leaned forward, dislodging the snow that

had gathered on his shoulders.

“Footloose and fancy-free sounds fine to me.”

Crowe shrugged. “Seems to me that as long as we’re