tears.
“Rafe.” Her breathing hitched as the tears overflowed.
“Come here, Cami-girl.” He opened his arms to her, his throat tightening as she threw herself against his chest, the sobs tearing from her as he closed his eyes and fought against his own pain.
“Go ahead and cry, sweetheart,” he whispered gently as he laid his cheek against the top of her head and ignored the trail of liquid warmth he felt ease from his eyes. “Cry for both of us.”
He’d lost his best friend, and he was damned if he knew how to handle it. He hadn’t been able to protect her as he’d sworn to Tye he would do. He had broken the only promise the man who had called him brother had ever asked of him.
As he held Cami, rocked her, and felt the grief that tore through her, he wondered why Jaymi had thought to entrust him with her sister’s protection when he’d just failed to protect Jaymi.
How could he even trust himself now to protect this little waif who had managed to worm her way into his heart?
He’d promised. He’d find a way to do it.
Jaymi couldn’t have known what she was asking. She had no idea he and his cousins were signed to go into the military. They’d all chosen the Marines. And who did that leave to look after Cami?
“Oh my God!”
The frightened squeak had his head jerking around to see Ella Flannigan, Cami’s father’s sister-in-law as she stood poised just inside the doorway.
She looked like she was ready to run screaming.
“Rafer Callahan, you just scared the shit out of me.” Her expression turned chastising rather than terrified as she noticed the way her niece held on to him as though he were a lifeline.
Compassion and sorrow filled her eyes.
“I promised Jaymi.” He swallowed tightly as Cami’s sobs began to ease as exhaustion seemed to tax her weakened body. “I promised to look after her.”
She blinked quickly before nodding. “I’ll be in the living room with Eddy.”
Her husband hadn’t been here when Rafe entered the apartment and he hadn’t heard anyone come in. Ella looked as though she had just woken up, so he sincerely doubted her husband was here. But he would be here quickly enough considering their small house was only blocks away.
He nodded, his hand stroking down the back of Cami’s head as he felt her relaxing marginally.
She would be asleep in a minute, he thought. The bronchitis medication was obviously keeping her sedated enough to allow her to rest.
“I miss her, Rafe,” she whispered, her weary and tear-thickened voice slicing across his heart.
“So do I, sweetheart,” he whispered. “Go to sleep now. Get better for me, okay?”
He couldn’t leave while she was still ill, and the second he and his cousins were cleared, he was out of there. For a while.
“Don’t leave me, Rafe.” Misery filled her voice. “Please, don’t you leave me, too.”
“I’ll be here, Cami,” he promised. “For as long as possible, I’ll be here.”
He wouldn’t upset her more by telling her he would have to leave soon.
It eased her enough to allow her to drift back into sleep, though, and when he laid her back in the bed and pulled the covers over her, he wiped his hand down his face tiredly.
He wondered if he would ever sleep again. If there was any way in the world to sleep at all after Jaymi’s death.
Moving to the living room to face her aunt and the smart-assed sarcasm her uncle Eddy had in abundance, Rafe found himself unwilling to listen to any further insults.
Mark and Eddy hadn’t been outside the jail when they were released, despite the fact that he had more than expected Mark Flannigan to cause a public scene.
For once, Eddy Flannigan was quiet when Rafe walked into the room.
Ella stood next to the kitchen, leaning against the door frame while Eddy stood looking through the large picture window.
“Jaymi’s lease is paid through the next three months,” Ella said heavily. “Her father wants her to stay away for a while. And her mother isn’t doing well.”
Eddy turned around, and he and his wife shared a look that had Rafe’s gaze narrowing. “They don’t want their own daughter now, after losing their eldest.”
Eddy’s expression was tight and hard as Ella’s eyes filled with tears again.
“It’s a complicated situation, Rafe,” Ella finally stated. “But we’ll take care of Cami the best we can.”
“Let me know if she needs anything,” he bit out roughly. “I’ll take care of it.”
“She’s not your responsibility,” Eddy growled then. “We will take care of her.”
“Let me know,” he repeated softly, watching as Ella slowly nodded. “I have to leave now, but if you don’t mind, after—” He swallowed, the movement tight and mixed with fury and pain. “Once we’re cleared, we have to leave.”
“Surprise,” Eddy grunted.
Rafe ignored him as his wife sliced a disapproving look his way.
“We’ll take care of her, Rafe, and if she needs anything we can’t provide, we’ll contact you,” Ella promised.
It was far more than he had imagined he would get from the two.
“Thank you, Ella.”
There was nothing more he could do, and no other way to look after Cami as he’d promised her sister he would do.
He left the apartment without saying anything more, and as he closed the door behind him, he could have sworn he heard Cami cry out his name.
Rather than turning back, he forced himself to walk down the hall and down the steps to the lobby before exiting the building at the back once again.
His cousins, two uncles, and the two military police personnel were still waiting on him. Moving to the motorbike, he kicked the ignition and hit the gas the minute the motor throbbed to life. Tearing from the driveway, he headed out of town and toward the Ramsey ranch he had been raised on.
They would be cleared. He knew they would be, but this town would never admit they hadn’t committed the crimes. At least a large majority of it wouldn’t.
That didn’t mean he would stay away. It didn’t mean he had any intentions of giving up the battle to claim the inheritance that was still locked in litigation, or the land that was rightfully his, Logan’s, and Crowe’s.
On the contrary. He would only fight harder.
She slipped out of the hotel, her heart racing out of control, pain and regret tearing through her in equal measure. It had taken every particle of strength she possessed to ease from his arms, ease from the big bed, and hurriedly dress. Leaving the hotel room had been even harder.
Her body ached in her most personal places, her nipples were tender, her clit still throbbed with lazy satisfaction, and she could still feel the warmth where his palm had spanked her lightly as he thrust into her from behind.
The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, the blizzard that had grounded the planes in Denver having lifted several hours before. The forecast was for cold and only partly cloudy skies. The text on her phone said her plane would depart in two more hours, taking her home.
Rafer was once again leaving Corbin County and heading back to wherever the Marines needed him.
He had changed in the past seven years, but some things about her hadn’t changed. Rafer still took her breath away. He still made her feel things she didn’t understand and had no idea how to control. But, unlike seven years ago, those feelings were stronger, hotter, and more mature. With that maturity there was the arousal, the lust and hunger that she couldn’t fight.
Rafer’s smile, the hunger in his sapphire-blue eyes, the sensuality that filled his expression. Thick, black
