was seen, then catching the mysterious caller could become that much harder.
“Yeah, just let me get my ass out of here before someone sees who’s slipping out of your house at night and most likely fucking your brains out every chance he gets,” he snorted, his pride still smarting at the fact that she wanted him to leave, despite the fact that he needed to go. “And when you decide to be a woman willing to face me with the truth of whatever you’re hiding, why don’t you just let me know? Because I’ll be damned if I’m going to get down on my knees and beg you for it, Cami. You’re going to have to be woman enough to admit you want it.”
He turned, grabbed the jacket that had fallen to the floor earlier, and stalked from the bedroom.
He hadn’t really believed she would be so stubborn as long as he attempted to ensure no one saw him coming and going. He’d thought he could have her, tease her, and charm her. That there was something burning between them, unresolved and waiting to blossom into something they could have both found some peace within.
It seemed he would never learn. There was no peace to be found in Corbin County. And there was no love, no respect, and no hunger strong enough to combat whatever Cami suddenly found herself frightened of or fighting against. Or was there?
He’d damned sure be finding out what that “something” was, though. Who was calling Cami and threatening her over the relationship developing with Rafe? Or any of the other women who had been involved with the Callahan brothers? What was going on that none of them was aware of?
Perhaps he should have questioned it sooner. Even more, perhaps Cami was right. Because Jaymi wasn’t the only woman who had died that summer who had been involved with the Callahan brothers. There had been one other. And that one had been planning to meet with Crowe to give him something, a picture she thought he would want to see.
The next time Crowe had seen her, though, she had been a picture in the paper, the latest victim of the Sweetrock Rapist.
As he slipped from the house, Rafe decided it was time to start questioning the past himself.
CHAPTER 12
Three weeks. Cami waited three weeks for Rafer to return. For him to come back to the house, demand entrance into both her home as well as her body. Twenty-one days later, he still hadn’t arrived.
The waiting was destroying her nerves. She swore she had lost five of that extra ten pounds she carried pacing the darkened house each night.
She didn’t bother turning on lights. What was the use?
The waiting had so stretched her nerves that she found herself unable to stand one more night of it.
She wasn’t waiting another minute.
She was horny, she was pissed, she was bored, and she was ready to socialize. For at least a few hours.
Thankfully, the county’s only bar and local nightspot was only a few blocks from her home, on the north side of the city square.
Bartlette’s Bar and Grill also hosted the county’s meals and drinks for the weekend socials. Throughout the rest of the year, customers could count on a band every weekend and, weather permitting, the wide sidewalk to spill out to when the crush of the crowd became overpowering.
Dressed in jeans, a soft blue sweater, and low-heeled boots, Cami made the walk to the establishment as quickly as possible without running.
There hadn’t been phone calls in the past three weeks from her less-than-admiring “blocked” caller. Evidently he’d either considered her a lost cause, or he hadn’t realized Rafer had been at the house for that last one. Whichever it was, there had been relative silence where the calls were concerned.
That didn’t ease her nerves, if anything, it made them worse. It also made the walk to the bar one filled with trepidation and the knowledge that Jaymi hadn’t been taken from her home the night she had been killed. She had been caught on the street going after Cami’s medicine.
That fact was something her father reminded her of often. That if it hadn’t been for her, Jaymi would have never been killed.
Cami knew better. The killer had been focused on Jaymi, because she knew something about him. She had finally realized his identity.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t told anyone else her secret, neither had she written it in the journal she kept.
Turning the corner to the city square, it was to the sight of a larger than normal crowd.
Customers were definitely spilling out of the bar, sitting on the cement benches across the street in the well-lit square, or at the bistro tables that sat scattered around the wide sidewalk, and in the well-manicured area of the festively lit inner courtyard that sat inside the four sidewalks that comprised the city square.
“Cami!” Loud and boisterous, a feminine voice lifted amid the music and the chatter as a slender figure detached herself and all but skipped across the street to meet her. “It’s about time your fine ass showed up.”
Green eyes sparkling, her freckled face filled with laughter, the kindergarten teacher, Emma Walker, threw her arms around Cami’s shoulders for a boisterous hug.
“Geeze, Emma, you’d think it’s been years since you’ve seen me instead of days,” Cami laughed as she hugged the shorter girl back.
“It’s been forever since you’ve come out to play.” Emma stepped back, almost bouncing, laughter bubbling from her lips and gleaming in the gem-bright green of her eyes.
“Well, I’m definitely coming out to play tonight,” she informed the other girl.
“And just in time for some juicy, juicy gossip.” Emma rolled her eyes expressively as she linked her arm with Cami and began pulling her down the block. “Tell me you were not at the Ramsey Ranch just after the blizzard wrapped around Rafe Callahan like a vine?”
“Like a vine?” Her brows arched as she glanced over at her friend. “I don’t remember being wrapped at all. Locked against that wide manly chest, definitely.”
Regardless of what Rafer thought, there was no shame in what she had done, or in having others know she had done it. What terrified her was losing him.
Emma came to a hard stop, staring up at her in shock.
The chill evening air almost brought a chill to Cami’s spine. That, or the fact that Emma was staring at her as though she had just admitted she had the plague, or was some alien creature from another planet.
“Close your mouth, Em,” Cami advised her ruefully. “I didn’t kill anyone, I just kissed him.”
“Oh my God, and wasn’t it just so good?” Emma breathed out in awe now. “Tell me all about it. No one in this county will even admit to speaking to one of the Forbidden Triplets.”
“Forbidden Triplets?” Cami didn’t know about that one. “They’re cousins, not triplets.”
“But they look enough alike to be triplets,” Emma protested. “And don’t change the subject. Tell me about that kiss. It had to have been simply divine.”
It was all Cami could do to hold back her laughter. Strawberry-red curls fell to Emma’s shoulders and framed a delicate, heart-shaped face.
“Why did it have to be? It could have been wet and slobbery,” she suggested as they began walking toward the crowd once again.
Emma snorted. “I rather doubt it. But if it was, then I still want to know. Now tell me.”
“It was okay.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t slobbery or anything.”
“Just okay?” Disappointment rang in the other woman’s voice. “It wasn’t earth-shattering or ground-shaking, or made your toes delicious?”
It was all those things and so very much more.
Cami assumed a thoughtful look to her expression. “It was okay.” She nodded decisively as though that were the final word on the Callahan kiss.
