Chapter Twenty-One
Cameron hadn’t intended to sleep at Gigi’s place, but somehow, he’d ended up wrapped around her with a blanket over them as they slept together on her sofa.
The feel of her pressed against him caused a predictable reaction that he hoped she wouldn’t notice.
She was still recovering from her injuries and didn’t need him and his hard cock disturbing her.
He needed to get moving so he could go home and change before he had to be at work.
She roused when he started to move.
“Sorry to disturb you, but I have to go to work.”
She turned onto her back and smiled up at him. “We fell asleep.”
All he wanted to do was spend the entire day kissing her. “I see that.”
She reached up to run a finger over his jaw, her touch like a bolt of lightning through his entire body. “I wish you didn’t have to go.”
“So do I.” As she bit her lip and gazed up at him, Cameron was tempted to call in sick for the first time in his professional career.
But with the Tappen case at a standstill and Sam trying to get away for a couple of badly needed weeks off for the holidays, he couldn’t do that.
“I’ll take a few days off after Christmas. We can go somewhere to rest and relax.”
Her dark eyes glittered with excitement. “That’d be great.”
“Where should we go?”
“Out to the mountains where we can snuggle in front of a fireplace while it snows outside.”
“I’ll see what I can do to make that happen.”
“Is this real, Cam? Are we really together now?”
“It’s as real as it gets, and we’re absolutely together.”
“I still can’t believe that you wanted me this way and never said anything.”
“We were both with other people. The time wasn’t right.”
“And it’s right now?”
He smoothed the dark hair back from her face. “Nothing has ever felt more right to me than being with you, but I don’t want to rush you into something you might not be ready for.”
She thought about that for a second before she replied.
“I’ve been with Ezra my entire adult life, and all that time, I was trying to make it work with him because I thought I had to do that.
I thought that constant struggle to make our relationship work the way it was supposed to was normal, but I know now that nothing about it was normal.
It was over between us long before the night he hurt me.
I think everyone in my life knew that but me—and him.
My mom and sister are so glad it’s over between us—and they were before he took my mom and nephews hostage. ”
“I’m so sorry you went through all that, sweetheart.”
“I’m not.”
He tipped his head. “No?”
“Nope. If I hadn’t gone through what I did with him, I might not realize that this, with you, is something very special.”
Even though he didn’t have time, Cameron put his arms around her and held her close. “It’s very special, which is why I want to be careful with you. Things are crazy for you, and the last thing I want to do is make anything worse.”
She pulled back so she could look into his eyes. “Don’t you see, Cameron? You’re what’s making everything better.”
He needed to leave her, but how could he do anything other than kiss her after she said that to him? For the longest time, he’d suspected it could be this way between them, but with Gigi in a long-term relationship, he’d allowed himself to get involved with Jaycee.
He could see now that’d been a huge mistake—for more reasons than just the fact that she was obviously unstable if she’d do what she did the night before. But it had also been unfair to both of them when his heart was yearning for someone else.
Gigi broke the kiss and smiled up at him. “You need to go to work.”
Cameron glanced at the time on his watch and winced.
“Would you mind if I borrowed your car and your shower? I don’t have time to go home and change.
” He’d be going to work in jeans and a Henley for the first time ever, which would set tongues to wagging, but he couldn’t be bothered to care what anyone else thought.
Not when he was finally with the woman he’d wanted from the first time he ever laid eyes on her.
“Yes, you can borrow my car and my shower, and if you want to leave Jeffrey here, I’ll ask my sister to bring me some food for him.”
“Jeez, you’ve got me forgetting all about my poor son.”
“I’ll take good care of him today.” She ran a hand over his chest. “Mr. Pressed and Polished is going to start a scandal showing up in the pit wearing a Henley and jeans.”
“It’ll be worth it for fifteen more minutes with you.”
When Sam woke up, she thought for a second that she’d dreamed the call from Gonzo. But when she checked her phone and found that he’d called at eleven forty-five, she knew she hadn’t dreamed it. Nick was already up and gone, so she called him on the BlackBerry.
The call rang multiple times. He was probably in the morning security briefing, his most dreaded meeting of the day, the one he called “the little shop of horrors.”
When his voice mail answered, she got to hear the message he’d recorded for her for the first time.
“Hi, babe. I can’t take your call right now, but there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than talking to you, so leave me a message, and I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”
Swoon.
“Hey, it’s me. Love the voicemail message.
So I told you Bryson Thorn was murdered last night.
Gonzo called to tell me his wife, Tiffany, was accusing us of arranging it and asking how could it not be related to the lawsuit.
Apparently, she’s talking about taking her claims to the media.
He said he tried to talk her out of it, but who knows what she’ll do? Let me know that you got this message.”
Sam ended the call and decided to text the same information to Christina, just in case Nick didn’t get the message.
When she’d done what she could to tip them off, she got up, showered and got dressed for work before she went to rouse Scotty and the twins.
With just a few more days of school until Christmas vacation, they moved slowly and were grumpier than usual as they ate the pancakes she made for them in the family kitchen.
During their upcoming vacation, she was determined to cook as many meals for their family as she could so her kids would know she was capable of making more than pancakes.
Elijah’s presence helped to elevate the mood, but they were all sad to hug him goodbye for a few days as he headed back to school for final exams.
Scotty left with his detail, and the twins were fifteen minutes behind him with theirs. She left shortly after they did and arrived at HQ minutes before her tour was to begin at eight.
She was greeted by Captain Malone, who appeared in her office doorway five minutes after she arrived. “Morning.”
“We have Green’s ex in lockup making a huge stink about being unjustly accused.”
“Did you tell her we have her on video damaging Green’s vehicle?”
“She says it wasn’t her.”
Sighing, Sam gathered her hair into a ponytail that she twisted and secured with a clip. “I’ll go have a talk with her, and then I’m getting everyone into the conference room to start at the top with the Tappen case.”
“Thank you for dealing with Green’s ex, and let me know when you’re meeting. I’ll join you.”
“That’d be good. Any word from Gonzo about the Thorn case?”
“He’s been here all night working the case. He can report on it at the meeting, and then we’ll divide and conquer.”
“I need some threads to pull on Tappen. I just keep coming back to the affair she was having with the father of one of her son’s teammates. How can that not be related to her murder?”
“We’ll talk it through and find you some threads.”
Sam stood to follow him out of the office. When he took a left to go to his office, she took a right toward the stairs that led to the jail in the basement. She heard Jaycee before she saw her.
“I’ll sue your asses off for unlawful incarceration,” she shrieked at the top of her considerable lungs.
“One of yours, Lieutenant?” the sergeant at the desk asked her.
“The ex of one of mine.”
“He dodged a bullet. She hasn’t shut up since they brought her in last night.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“We’d appreciate that.”
Sam approached Jaycee’s cell right as she started a fresh diatribe about cops using their authority to persecute innocent people. “Shut up,” Sam said, amazed to think she’d found the woman in the cell attractive on previous meetings while she’d been dating Cameron.
Stunned by Sam’s sudden appearance, Jaycee slammed her mouth shut, but it stayed that way for only a second.
“How dare you tell me to shut up?” She was a curvy blonde with blue eyes, a looker who was no doubt accustomed to getting her own way in life and love.
It would’ve been a shock to her system to be dumped by Cameron, Sam decided.
“How dare you vandalize Detective Green’s property?”
“I didn’t do that!”
“We have you on video, Jaycee, so you can quit all your bullshit about persecution and cops having an unfair advantage.”
“The video isn’t admissible. It’s entrapment if I don’t know there were cameras.”
Sam rolled her eyes to high heaven. “Obviously, you’ve been watching too much Law & Order. The video footage is admissible, and it’s not entrapment. You committed the crime, and you’ll be charged accordingly.”
“Cameron committed a crime when he made me believe we were going to get married and then dumped me for some brown-skinned bitch—”
Sam was glad there were bars keeping her from slapping her across her nasty face. “Are you seriously going there?”
“Does she or does she not have brown skin?”
“The Dark Ages called. They’re looking for their hateful village idiot.”
Her frosty blue eyes flashed with outrage. “He made promises to me.”
“No, he didn’t, and that’s probably because he knew that under your shiny veneer is a hateful, vindictive, racist bitch who doesn’t deserve him.”
“How dare you? You don’t know me at all.”
“In these delightful five minutes with you, I know everything I’ll ever need to know, and I’m deeply thankful that my friend and colleague has removed you from his life.
Here’s how this is going to go—when you’re arraigned later this morning, you’ll plead guilty to malicious mischief and take your punishment, including making restitution for the damage you did to Cameron’s vehicle.
After that, he’ll be filing for a restraining order that will keep you more than a thousand feet from him and Detective Dominguez.
You’ll follow the letter of that restraining order, or we’ll be happy to invite you back for another stay in our city jail.
Is there any part of that you don’t understand? ”
Jaycee crossed her arms and stuck out her chin. “I want my lawyer.”
“Sure, we can call one for you, but you should know that until he or she arrives, you’ll be staying right here.
We won’t be able to arraign you until your lawyer gets here.
That can sometimes take a day or two, and your lawyer is likely to give you the same advice I did when he or she sees the video footage of you committing a crime. It’s up to you.”
Her posture lost some of its rigidity when it sank in that her choices were somewhat limited.
“Am I calling a lawyer for you, or shall we move forward with the arraignment and get you released on personal recognizance with an order to stay far away from Detectives Green and Dominguez?”
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
Sam was a tiny bit ashamed at the pleasure she was taking in the other woman’s discomfort.
“It’s not fair.”
Sighing, Sam said, “What isn’t?”
“He led me on, made me believe we were going to be married.”
“He never once mentioned the word ‘marriage’ with you.”
“How do you know that?”
“He told me he never said anything of the sort because he never wanted it.”
She recoiled from that information. “What else did he tell you about me?”
“That he felt bad that he didn’t feel for you what you felt for him, but he couldn’t force that to happen if it just wasn’t there.”
“It was there! He’s a liar!”
“No, he isn’t. He’s one of the most honest, ethical people I’ve ever met in my life. I have no doubt at all that he was always honest and upfront with you. If you read more into it than what was there, that’s on you, not him.”
“I love him.”
“So much that you flattened his tires?”
“I didn’t want him going to her! How can he want her and not me?”
“Uh, is that a rhetorical question?”
“What does that mean?”
“Never mind. I’ve given you enough of my valuable time. Am I calling a lawyer or putting forth your arraignment?”
Jaycee released an indignant huff. “I’ll take the arraignment.”
“And you’ll stay away from my detectives?”
She gave a tiny nod, but it was enough of an acknowledgment to satisfy Sam.
“Let me be very clear—if we meet again, I won’t be anywhere near as friendly as I’ve been today.
If you get the big idea to bother, harass or threaten Detective Green or Detective Dominguez, I’ll make your life a living hell. You got me?”
Tears filled her big blue eyes as she nodded.
“Excellent.”
Sam turned to walk away and nearly collided with Cameron Green. She wasn’t sure which was more shocking—that he was wearing jeans or that he hadn’t shaved. Sam directed him back toward the stairs and followed him up. “Were you listening to that?”
“I was. Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“No problem.”
When they were upstairs, he turned to face her. “I’m very sorry to have brought this nonsense into your house.”
“You didn’t. She did. It’s not your fault.”
“What she said about Gigi…” His normally amiable expression hardened. “I had no idea she was like that.”
“You’re lucky to be rid of her.”
“I feel sick after hearing the stuff she said.”
“Try to put it behind you and focus on the future. You were upstanding in your dealings with her. You know the truth, and that’s all that matters. What she read into it isn’t your responsibility.”
He released a deep breath. “Yeah, I know. It’s just hard to fathom that I spent a year with her and had no idea who she really is until now.”
“At least you found out before you shackled yourself to her for a lifetime.”
Shuddering, he said, “No kidding.”
“How’s Gigi?”
His entire disposition changed at the mention of her. “She’s great.”
“I take it things are progressing there?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“I’m happy for you both.”
“It won’t get in the way of the work, LT. I swear to you.”
“You’re both professionals. I’m not at all concerned about that.”
“Okay, good.”
“We’re meeting in the conference room in ten to go over the Tappen case. Can you let everyone know?”
“I’ll take care of it. And thank you again, Lieutenant, for your support and for handling the mess downstairs.”
“I’ve got your back, Detective. Always.”
“Likewise.”
Satisfied that she’d handled things with Jaycee as well as she could, she returned to the pit to get to work.