Chapter 15
NADIA
Turns out Camilla “Cammy” Navarro was a sixty-eight-year-old retired U.S.
Marshal. A petite woman with silver-streaked dark hair worn in a ponytail tied at her nape, Cammy worked on many high-profile cases throughout her career.
She tracked dangerous fugitives and relocated a long list of witnesses.
Thomas was quick to give Nadia a rundown as Cammy led them across the yard, adding that she was one of the most competent people he knew.
Someone extremely dedicated to her career, he emphasized when she downplayed her credentials, claiming Thomas was buttering her up in hopes of a home-cooked meal.
Cammy stomped dirt and dust off her boots upon entering the house, removing her hat to hang on a nearby hook. “Don’t think you can talk me into any trips down memory lane today, Tommy.”
There it was again. Tommy. Nadia’s brows arched high, rolling her lips over her teeth as she shot Thomas with a look of giddy surprise. He glared at her, softening the warning with an eyeroll. Cammy was probably the only person he’d let get away with calling him that.
“Next visit, then. I’d probably fall asleep on you today,” he teased, but his tone had an underlying truth. She and Cammy only had to look at him to realize how exhausted he was.
“Are you telling me my stories bore you?”
“I wouldn’t dare.” He shot Nadia a grin twisted to one side and she frowned. He looked and acted like a different person around this woman.
“How do you take your tea, Nadia? Cream or sugar?” Cammy asked, walking them through a family room filled with earthy scents of herbs and spices that mingled with the faint aroma of leather. Wind chimes tinkled gentle melodies, carried inside by a dusty breeze through open windows.
“Cream, thank you.”
Nadia’s interest roamed the living room, taking in the plush, lived-in couch and armchair, both draped in crochet blankets.
A dog-eared novel sat atop a rustic coffee table, reading glasses perched on the well-worn cover.
Framed photos covered every surface, faces filled with love and laughter.
But the most striking photo was the large black and white portrait of a twenty-something Cammy astride a horse, its compact build all dense muscle.
A handsome man stood beside the horse, holding the rein, a massive ribbon pinned to the bridle.
Cammy noticed what snagged Nadia’s attention. “That’s Salvaje, my first prize-winning quarter horse. He was explosive. Took me all the way to nationals.”
“Cammy was a champion barrel racer,” Thomas told her.
“Wow. Who’s the man?”
Cammy’s smile filled with sweet sadness. “My late husband, Javier. He was also my coach.”
“Oh. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Cammy dismissed her sympathy with a swipe of her weathered hand. “It was some time ago.”
They entered the kitchen, its open shelving packed with stacked dishes and mugs.
An assortment of mismatched glasses snared the early morning sunlight.
Cammy gestured for Nadia and Thomas to take a seat at the worn farm table while she gathered mismatched mugs and a box of shortbread cookies.
She unceremoniously dumped them in the center of the table along with a basket of assorted tea bags.
“Have at it,” Cammy invited without flourish, turning to the sink to fill a kettle.
The corner of Thomas’s mouth quirked. He opened the cookies, holding the box out for Nadia to help herself.
Nothing like cookies for breakfast. Her mouth curved, matching Thomas’s smirk as she selected three biscuits.
Thomas grabbed a handful for himself. The kettle whistled, clicking off, and Cammy filled their mugs with steaming water.
Nadia picked through the teabags, settling on Earl Grey.
The kick of caffeine would give her a boost at least through noon.
“I saw what happened to your house, Tom.” Cammy joined them at the table. “Good to see you got out alive.”
“Thanks to your training.”
Nadia’s brows lifted as she slowly chewed a biscuit.
“Sorry I didn’t call you back,” Thomas said.
“No apologies needed. You’re here now. But you sure know how to make an old woman worry.”
Head bowed, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Didn’t mean to.”
“So what have you been doing since? Where’d you go?”
Thomas gave Cammy the rundown of the last forty-eight hours, from the siege on his house to their narrow escape at the safe house.
He shared his worries around James, going into more detail with Cammy than he’d confided in Nadia.
And Nadia just listened, watching him closely.
Thomas was different around this woman. More relaxed and expressive.
His affection for her was evident, his respect obvious in the unguarded way he listened and curious way he hit her up with questions, seeking her advice.
If Nadia didn’t know any better, she’d say Cammy was the mother Thomas hadn’t found in Claire.
Despite the doom and gloom surrounding him, this woman could make him smile.
Yet she couldn’t chase the sadness Nadia noticed he’d been carrying since they escaped the safe house.
A sadness Thomas tried to hide from her.
Anytime his gaze tucked into hers, he glanced away first.
Her chest tightened with worry and quiet frustration.
She’d seen the same expression, that same guarded hurt, on him when he sat with her on her porch steps all those years ago.
Only now, she didn’t have an orange slice to offer him.
Would any small comfort be enough to clear what haunted him? She suspected none would.
Their conversation circled to Kane Mitchell. Thomas wanted Cammy’s thoughts on him. Was he wrong to consider they’d been betrayed?
“No,” Cammy said flatly. “I’ll look into it. Put my feelers out. His agency might know something.”
“You need to warn them he’s gone rogue,” Nadia pushed.
“We don’t know that. But you’re right to question how the cartel found you. Kane is the most probable avenue.” She nodded, her mouth a grim line.
“The authorities should be looking for Ruiz’s sons, not just Fernando,” Thomas said.
“I’m sure they are.”
“They’re the real threat. Ruiz is an old man. They’ve been running the cartel’s operations for years and I bet they’re behind all this.”
“Probably. We just have to trust our agencies have devoted every resource to hunt him down.” Palms flat on the table, Cammy fanned her fingers. “Which brings us back to why you’re here.”
Thomas nodded.
“What do you need from me?” she asked.
He leaned back in his chair. “You know. What you offered last time.”
They stared at each other and something wordless passed between them. Twinges of apprehension pinched Nadia’s chest.
Cammy leaned back, mimicking Thomas’s loose posture. “You turned me down.”
“I did. But it’s different now.” His gaze met Nadia’s, and that brief meeting of the eyes sent a ripple of wariness through her.
Cammy caught the look. “Ah, I see. Does she know?” She tipped her head at Nadia.
“No.” Thomas kept his gaze on Nadia and a cold void opened in her chest. Whatever this was, it went beyond a simple need to see that she was protected.
“You need to tell her.”
“Tell me what?”
“I will.” Thomas’s gaze swerved to Cammy and Nadia immediately felt the loss. Worry snapped the cookie in her hands as Cammy and Thomas stared hard at each other. A challenge. Finally, Cammy sighed.
“All right. I’ll leave it up to you. Meanwhile…
” She pushed her chair back and stood, patted Thomas’s shoulder.
“Make yourselves at home. Show Nadia where the guest room is. I don’t know what your sleeping arrangements are, but if you need separate beds, you can take the futon in my office, Tom.
When you’ve settled in, meet me in the stables.
I could use an extra set of hands today.
” She smiled at Nadia. “I’m glad I finally got to meet you. ”
Nadia cocked her head, eyes narrowing on Thomas. She’d assumed correctly when they’d been introduced. Cammy had known of her. What had Thomas told her?
Thomas just stared into his mug, lost in thought, plotting as if Cammy’s remark hadn’t even registered.
His expression had that familiar look of determination.
Jaw set, eyes distant yet unfocused. Nadia recognized it immediately.
He was in decision-making mode, making up his mind about something significant.
Something that would no doubt affect her.
And he’d arrive at it without her input.
The sight of him evoked a memory from a few months after her mom had started working for Edgar. A time when Thomas had made a similar unilateral decision that changed the course of their lives.
She’d returned home from school one afternoon, fumbling with her house key when Lisa’s car pulled into the driveway. Her mom stepped out, face bright with excitement.
“Hurry and get dressed,” Lisa called. “I’m taking you to dinner.”
Nadia’s eyes widened in surprise. They hadn’t dined out in over a year.
She quickly changed and met her mom outside. Lisa grasped her hand. “You look beautiful, darling.”
Nadia smiled, her heart full. This was the mom she remembered. Happy, loving, confident. The anger and sadness gone.
At the Goat, Catherine congratulated Lisa on her new job. Hugh seated them at a two top by the window.
“Order anything you want,” Lisa said. “We’re celebrating.”
“What are we celebrating now?” They’d already celebrated her new job with ice cream.
Her mom’s smile lit up her entire face. “Our mortgage has been paid off.”
“We’re not going to lose the house?” Nadia asked quietly, almost afraid to hope.
“We’re not going to lose the house.”
Nadia repeated the words just to make sure they were real. She pressed the menu to her forehead to hide the tears threatening to spill.
Lisa came around the table to hug her. “It’s okay to cry, darling. It’s been a terrible year, and I’ve been a terrible mother.”
“You haven’t been terrible,” she whispered into the menu.
“I’m going to disagree with you. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be here tonight. You held us together. You got us through the year.”
Days later, Nadia ran into Thomas at Joe’s Diner, his college applications spread before him again. He erased and rewrote multiple fields.
“What are you doing?” she asked, unzipping her backpack.
“Changing my major to Economics and Supply Chain Management.”
She scrunched her nose. “What happened to Poli sci?” The CIA career track he’d been excited about.
“What of it? I’m still minoring in Spanish,” he answered, terse, as if that explained why he changed his mind.
“I’m just surprised.”
Thomas roughly erased another field.
“I think you’d be good at anything,” she said to cheer him up. He didn’t say anything back.
Angela stopped at their table and poured Nadia water. “Can I get you anything, hon?”
“A club sandwich,” she ordered with confidence. She had money now. Thanks to her mom’s new job at Donato Enterprises, Nadia could use her babysitting money on herself.
“Coming right up. You, Thomas? Can I get you anything else?”
“Coffee,” he answered curtly and refilled the fields he’d just erased.
Angela shot her a sympathetic look and Nadia shrugged her shoulders. Thomas wasn’t mad at her. But for someone who should be looking forward to his future—he’d once told Nadia he couldn’t wait to move out of his parents’ house—he didn’t seem overly enthused.
Nadia left him alone to finish his applications and opened her science textbook.
Her lab worksheet was due tomorrow and she needed to finish drafting her experiment’s conclusion.
But even as she tried to focus on her work, her attention kept drifting across the table to Thomas. He was keeping something from her.