Cami shook her head. The delay would give her more time, and it would give Rafe more time to get upstairs.
“She was girly to the bone.” Lowry smiled in reminiscence.
“What did you do, Lowry?” Cami whispered tearfully.
She couldn’t believe he had done something so cruel. That he could have been involved in Jaymi’s death.
He had been her friend. She had dated him a few times. They had always laughed that he was the brother fate had taken from her.
“What do you think I did?” he asked Cami softly.
A sob jerked at her body, stealing her breath for a precious moment. “You helped Thomas Jones kill her, didn’t you?”
There was no hiding from it. And there was no denying it.
He nodded slowly. “I picked her up. Jones was waiting for me. I was to take her to him, just like I did the other girl. The one Crowe was fucking. That lobbyist’s daughter that he met at a party the week she died.”
“I didn’t know about her.” Keep him talking. She had to keep him talking.
“Not many people did know about her. But once they were on trial for murder, then she would have been brought up.”
“By who?” And why? There were so many questions, but she wanted to keep him talking, right here, right now. She was not leaving the house with him.
“Now see, I don’t know that.” He shook his head as he moved to the dresser next to the door and leaned casually against it, as though it were simply a casual conversation as he kept the weapon trained on her. “I get a picture and my orders and I do what I’m told.”
“But why, Lowry?” she whispered again, this time desperation shadowing her voice. “Why would you betray your friends this way? Who could possibly make you hurt the people who care about you?”
“The person who knows that even though I can’t kill my friends, I won’t take the chance of going to prison if the cops find out that I’m the one that raped those three teenagers in Aspen the year Jaymi died, and at least two a year ever since. And I can tell you, Cami, I wouldn’t survive prison.” He straightened and waved the gun toward the door before coming back to her. “Now, you be quiet. Real quiet. There’s this little bug in the kitchen, and I listen through here.” He pulled an earbud free before tucking it back into his ear. “Your friends are still in there, but I’m not betting they’ll stay for long and we need to get out of here.”
“Why?” Her breathing hitched. “Where are you taking me, Lowry?”
“Because I don’t have a choice,” he sighed. “It’s what I was ordered to do, and I can’t ignore the order.”
“Why?” she whispered desperately. “Who has such a hold on you that you would do something so evil?”
Sorrow darkened his eyes. “I don’t know who he is,” he said regretfully. “I just know he was Jones’ partner. He’s the man that’s going to kill you, Cami.”
Like hell he was.
Did he think she was going to give in without a fight? That she would just lie down and die for him with a warning like that?
“Was Jaymi that easy, Lowry?” Cami asked, confused by his demeanor and the fact that he had managed to kidnap her sister.
“She missed her husband an awful lot, you know,” Lowry commented softly. “I think she knew. And I think preferred dying to living without him. But she didn’t know who would kill her until we arrived at the clearing and I had to help Thomas tie her down.”
He blinked quickly.
“Tears from a murderer?” Cami sneered suddenly. “From a child rapist without a conscience?”
His lips trembled. “I lose sleep.” It was a whine. It was a childish attempt to make himself look better, though he knew that wasn’t possible. “I feel guilt, Cami. I hear her telling me, though, that she was happier in his arms. In her husband’s arms.”
“You’re hearing your own demented wishes,” Cami cried out as he flinched, then looked around wildly as though expecting Rafe to suddenly materialize.
“Shut up,” he hissed, fury blazing in his eyes.
“Shut up?” She laughed, a broken, hollow sound. “Why, Lowry? Why should I shut up? Why should I obey you when you’re going to kill me anyway?”
Her lips parted to scream.
“Lowry?” Cami swung around as Amelia stepped from the bathroom.
There were tears on Amelia’s cheeks; her emerald eyes were filled with pain and with betrayal.
Lowry hadn’t been just Cami and Jaymi’s friend. He had been Amelia’s as well. He had helped her and Cami evade curfews when they were younger and slip out when they were grounded.
Since Jaymi’s death, he had been too distant to aid in anything. He’d withdrawn, and now Cami knew why.
Lowry stepped back, shocked, as Cami watched the gun in his hand carefully.
He didn’t know whether to aim it at Amelia or aim it at Cami. It swung wildly between the two of them as his dark brown eyes grew even wilder and a sense of helpless bafflement tightened his face.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” he hissed.
“But I am here.”
Staid, buttoned-down. This was the Amelia who had broken Cami’s heart for the past three years.
Amelia’s long hair was bound at the back of her head, a thick bun that gave her a schoolmarmish appearance. Sensible shoes, no jewelry. Strangely, she wasn’t even wearing her wedding band.
“You’re not supposed to be here.” Lowry gave his head a quick shake, his lips tightening as anger began to burn in his gaze.
No, that wasn’t just anger. It was demented rage.
Cami stepped back farther, her intent to get to the door on the wall closest to her.
It looked like a closet, but the door led instead into another bedroom and then out into the hall.
“If you fire that gun, Rafe and his cousins will hear it,” Amelia pointed out. “Is that what you want?”
“Do I have a choice?” he asked as something akin to resignation flashed in his eyes. “We could have done it the easy way.” He turned his attention back to Cami now. “Now, we’ll just have to do it my way.”
His finger began to tighten.
Cami felt the scream that tore from her throat as the bedroom door crashed inward in that second and Rafe came hurtling into the other man. His body much taller, heavily muscled and controlled, Rafe took the other man down as the first shot rang out.
Cami looked around, desperate, terrified of where that bullet had gone and whom it had struck.
Amelia was thrown back against the wall, eyes wide, her palms flat against the wall. Logan and Crowe were running a second late behind Rafe.
It was as though hell had opened up and poured a crazed strength into Lowry. He should haven’t been strong enough to resist Rafe’s pure, possessive fury. Yet Lowry was. He fought back, kicking and screaming and pouring out his hatred of Cami as he fought the man determined to save her.
At first, it looked as though they had to pull Rafe off, that for whatever reason, he was unable to get to his feet on his own. Then, Cami saw the damage.
She stepped forward, one foot, one step, a sob tearing from her throat as Rafe rushed for her, pulling her into his arms as his hand went to the back of her head to hold her against his heart.
“Ah God, Cami.”
“How did you know?” she cried, her arms locked around his neck as she fought to hold on as tight as possible, to pull him into her skin if there was any way she could do it.
“Crowe had a receiver up here, baby,” Rafe answered, his voice raw, torn. “Thank God. He put the receiver up here earlier. The minute I saw the voice activation was blinking I knew—” His hold tightened on her. “Oh God. Baby. I was almost too late. I was almost too late.”
She held on to him, certain that if she let him go, if she let her arms release him, let him out of her sight, then she would find out it was all a dream and once again she would be alone.
