Chapter 26
GHOST
I’m at the house already when they arrive.
There were a couple of men standing guard, so I’d waited, chatting with them a little, until I heard footsteps behind us.
Turning, I see Camile and Jack approach. Jack glances at me then looks to the ground as if he’s somehow worried about my reaction, which I don’t understand. I look to Camile, and she’s staring right at me, her jaw tense. What the hell?
The smile that had been on my lips upon seeing her swiftly dies.
She flicks her gaze to the two guards watching from either side of her door.
Even though we’ve agreed that there will always be one of us in the house with her, we’ve still decided to have two guys outside as well.
It doesn’t pay to be lax about safety after what happened.
After all, we still don’t know whether Ledger’s family will somehow find out that we took him and decide to come after us for revenge.
“Prez.” One of the guards nods at Jack, and then at me. “Sarge.”
“Sarge?” Camile asks.
Jack has her keys, and he’s unlocked the door and ushered her inside before he answers.
“As in Sergeant at Arms. You know, Ghost’s role here.”
She purses her lips. “Hhhhmm. As in the one in charge of law and order and keeping everyone on the straight and narrow. The supposed moral one?”
Have I missed something?
Jack chuckles. “He’s not the morality police, Baby-girl. But yes, he’s in charge of keeping everyone adhering to club rules.”
“Hhhhmm.”
There’s that damn hum of hers again.
I head to the fridge and take out a can of Coke. I wave one at Camile, and she nods in acceptance. When I offer one to Jack, however, he shakes his head.
“I ought to get back to the party.” He blows out a sigh. “It’s the last thing I want to do, to be honest. But one of us should be there.”
He really does look as if the last thing he wants to do is leave, with the heart eyes he keeps sending Camile. Does he know that his affection for her is written all over his face? I doubt it.
Still, I don’t want to get in the way of whatever is going on between them, and the woman is being decidedly frosty with me.
I shrug. “I can go to the party, if you want. You can stay here with Camile.”
He glances at her, and she licks her lips. A look of sheer alarm crosses the Prez’s features. It’s as if I’ve asked if he wants to stay and babysit a wildcat. Yeah, I’m definitely missing something here.
“No, it’s all good. I’m the President, so I should really go and make sure everything’s been cleaned up, and that we dispose of Ledger properly.” Jack drags a hand over his beard.
Camile’s mouth purses, as if in slight disappointment at Jack’s answer, and I wonder if she’s dreading being stuck here with me. I shouldn’t really care, and I tell myself that I don’t, but there’s a tinge of dismay in her reaction.
She’s became my favorite pastime, and I’d be lying if I said checking in on her via the cameras regularly wasn’t becoming something of an obsession.
I’d wondered if Ace would have considered the cameras, but I guess he assumes Jack made me remove them already, or else he just doesn’t really give a fuck—he’s always been a bit of an exhibitionist. Camile had taken Ace and Rook to bed earlier, and while they hadn’t had full sex, it had kept me more than entertained.
The three of them hadn’t known a fourth person had climaxed right along with them.
Jack ambles to the door and, as he opens it, turns back to Camile. “I’ll check in on you later, okay?”
“If you want,” she says haughtily. “Don’t put yourself out, though, Jack.”
God, she’s about the only person in this place I can imagine speaking to Jack this way. I watch, fascinated, as he stares at her. His jaw is working, but I swear there’s a hint of amusement dancing in his eyes. Either way, he doesn’t bawl her out or shout at her. Instead, he just holds her gaze.
They look at one another for a very long moment, and I start to feel like a third wheel.
Then it hits me. Something has happened between them.
Have they screwed? The way her tongue darts out to lick her lips and her eyes widen as the stare-off increases between them tells me something’s gone down, and tonight, too.
Jack clears his throat, glances to the floor, and then back up at Camile, before shaking his head and heading out of the door.
It clicks shut behind him, without the man having offered another word. I’m left in a room full of uncomfortable feelings, and a pissed looking woman. Great.
“Seems like you two have suddenly gotten closer,” I observe.
I’m not expecting the anger with which Camile turns on me. She whirls around and jabs her finger in my chest.
“Don’t you dare go around lecturing me on how to behave, Ghost.”
What the fuck?
“It wasn’t a lecture, but a mere observation, Camile. Why the sudden hostility? What the hell have I ever done to you?”
“Oh, my God, you’re unbelievable.”
She throws her arms in the air then slams them down by her side before turning and stomping toward her bedroom.
I follow her, needing answers about what the fuck just happened, but as I enter the room behind her, I freeze.
I shouldn’t be in here. With her back to me, she strips out of her jeans, throwing them onto the bed beside her, then bends over to pick something off the floor, giving me a view of her panty-clad ass.
I spin on my heel in such a rush to leave that I hit my head on the door on the way out and curse under my breath.
“You don’t have to go, Ghost,” she calls after me.
It sounds like an invitation if you only listen to the words, but her tone is venomous. It would be a very unwise man who ignored her.
I turn and look at her, wary.
“Why don’t you stay and enjoy the show? After all, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, is it, now?”
I’m confused but also amused. She is standing in her bare feet, wearing no jeans, only the silk camisole and her panties, but with her hands fisted on her hips, staring at me as if she’s about to take me on.
I don’t know quite what it is about the situation that strikes me as amusing. Perhaps it’s her petite size as she squares up to me, when I’m at least a foot taller, but, either way, I can’t help the smile that twitches my lips.
“You think it’s funny, do you? Spying on young women?
It’s sick, that’s what it is, Ghost. God, what is it with the men in this place?
You’re all emotionally stunted. There’s Jack who masks any feelings he might remotely have.
He holds me at arm’s length because he’s got some sort of martyr complex. ”
She stomps around the room, picking up discarded clothes, I presume from an earlier trying-on session, while I try not to stare at her ass.
“Then there’s Rook,” she continues. “That man seems to need to take the blame for everything that happens around here. And then there’s you.
” She stops her pacing as her eyes narrow.
“The worst of them all. The one who drifts through this place like the ghost he’s named after, not connecting with anybody and staying on the outside, but you’re watching, aren’t you? ”
The importance of her words suddenly hits. She knows. Oh, shit. Jack told her about the cameras, didn’t he? Fantastic, thanks very much, Jack.
He could at least have given me a head’s up, for God’s sake. Still, if she’d asked me, I would have told her the truth. I’m not proud of spying, but I didn’t plan for there to be cameras in her house, and I wouldn’t have lied about it.
“The cameras were already in here because of the previous occupant.” I gesture around as if to prove my point. “I didn’t realize that until I checked and saw they were still recording.”
“Oh, I see. And that’s the point you decided to turn them off, right? Right, Ghost? You turned them off.”
I don’t answer because we both know I didn’t.
“You watched me? During private moments, and with Ace and Rook. That’s so…” She lets out a cry of frustration. “I thought you were the one person in this place who was solid and dependable. I thought you were someone I could trust, but you broke every boundary. Why?”
“I don’t know, I guess…” I trail off, feeling like shit. “Fuck, Camile, I’m sorry. I guess I got caught up in watching you. I liked it. I liked it a whole lot, and I know it’s sick and wrong.”
“I bet you did, you pervert.”
I jerk back. “Whoa, that’s going a bit far.”
I’ve been in literal war zones where I’ve had to face the enemy armed with guns.
I’ve crossed deserts littered with landmines, where one wrong step could see me losing a limb, or worse.
And yet I’ve never felt the need to step more cautiously than I am now, because I sense this girl is about to blow, and she’ll happily see me as a casualty.
“Is it?” she demands. “You’ve just admitted to enjoying watching me in my private space, and you don’t think it’s perverted?”
“I didn’t just enjoy watching you… you know, naked and stuff. I liked watching it all. I felt… close. To you, I mean.”
God, I’m making a hash of this. I palm the back of my neck and duck my head. Yeah, I might be six-four, but right now I feel about the size of a child.
“That’s even worse,” she screeches. “Watching me having sex is one thing, but you watched me just going about my normal life, or as normal as it can be right now, which isn’t very. I feel so violated. I’ve already had more than my fair share of men violating me.”
I flinch at that. Fuck, she’s so right.
“Camile, I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry. Truly, I am. But, like I say, I felt close to you, as if I was keeping you safe, but also maybe like your friend.”
Her laugh is bitter. “My friend?”
She stares at me for a moment, and I warily observe her. Then something in her face changes. A tiny smile plays about her lips, as if she’s decided to fuck with me. She steps toward me.
“Do you want to be close to me, Ghost?” Her voice is soft, silky, and seductive.
“Yes,” I admit. “And no, too. I don’t think I’m a good bet for a relationship. I don’t do romantic entanglements.”