A Perfect Fit (22 page)

“Seriously, you two,” Lana said. “Drop it. Joel will find
out what’s going on.”

Cami hoped Lana was right.

“For now, maybe we ought to assume someone is listening to
everything you say, and take any sensitive conversations to the office,” Blake
said.

“Right. We have new employees to train today and we need to
get moving,” Lana said, standing up. They were already going to be late.

“I’ll stay and let Joel in, then meet you all at the hotel,”
Sage offered.

“Good idea. I’ll send you all a text when he’s done here and
we’ll coordinate a meeting in Lana’s office—if that’s okay with you?” Blake
asked, though it was clear the question was mostly a matter of form.

Lana pressed her lips together and nodded, whether she felt
he was overstepping, or she was upset by current events, it was impossible to
tell. “I’m leaving in five minutes if any of you want to ride with me.” She
headed back inside.

Cami followed, gathered her things and slid them into the
attaché she’d been using. She needed at least ten minutes for makeup before she’d
be ready. It was going to be a long day.

~*~

Staff meeting had to wait until 4:30 when everyone had sent
home the new hires for the day. They met in Lana’s office, all crowded into the
tight space, and waited for Joel. When he entered, his face was grim.

“If you want to give us your report, we’ll go from there,”
Lana said as the door shut behind him.

“We found four cameras that aren’t part of the main system,
and a dozen bugs. I believe we’ve cleaned everything out, and there are a few
partial prints on the bugs. The sheriff is running them now against a list Sage
gave me of everyone she could think of who had access to the house. In the
meantime, I’ve had all the locks and codes changed. We found a recording device
on site which was grabbing the signals for download. Then it would transmit the
information to someone outside the house, probably in a car on the road.”

He glanced around the room, his normally serious face more
severe than usual. “So the good news is the person responsible probably isn’t
in the house often, but the perpetrator did have to gain access to put in the
bugs and cameras. Is there any time you can think of when the house hasn’t been
locked up tight?”

Cami shook her head and noticed the others doing so. “Sage
is completely paranoid about setting the alarm and double checking every door
and window lock at night and before we leave the place empty—even when we’re
there most of the time.”

“As she should be. As you
all
should be. Your safety
isn’t a joke.” He sent Sage an approving nod. Joel produced a bunch of keys and
passed them around. “These fit the new locks.” He told them the new pass code
for the garage and the house. “I’ll be over tonight and we’ll reset the garage
door openers as well for each of your cars. Until then, make sure to keep the
door between the garage and the house locked at all times. Actually, that’s not
a bad precaution to take in any case. I’ll be hanging around a lot for the next
few days, monitoring the system to see if we can catch the person downloading
the data.”

Cami felt her stomach twist. She’d thought their current
security efforts had been pretty strict, but this was going to make her crazy. “Do
you think we’re in physical danger?”

His eyes strayed to Sage. “It’s impossible to know. So far
they’ve been focused on discrediting you, but it’s always best to be careful. I
also don’t want any of you walking out to your cars here or at the hotel unless
there’s someone with you, either one of your sisters or one of my security team.
Not until we straighten this out.”

Cami reminded herself these were precautions designed to
prevent problems, not because of an immediate threat. But because of what Joel
found at the house, it felt like a threat. She hated thinking she couldn’t
trust anyone around her.

When she walked out of the meeting a while later, Vince
waited in the hallway.

She felt a rush of pleasure at seeing him. “What are you
doing here?”

“Blake called. He said I should be here when your meeting
ended.” He pulled her under his shoulder and kissed her softly. “What’s going
on?”

Cami caught Blake’s eye and mouthed a thank you to him. He
smiled and turned his attention back to Lana. Cami sighed and met Vince’s brown
eyes. “Can I come over to your place?”

A smile spread. “Of course. Let’s swing by the house and
grab some of your stuff. You can stay the night.”

It sounded wonderful.

Since Cami had ridden to the hotel with Sage, she let Vince
drive her home, and explained what was going on as they went. At her place she
packed a quick bag and left her car keys with Jonquil so the garage door opener
could be reset. “I’m going.” She held up the bag in explanation, not wanting to
say too much aloud, though Joel said the bugs were all gone.

“See you tomorrow?” It would be Saturday, so they were
pretty much taking a break for the weekend, though she had work to deal with on
her laptop.

Vince slid an arm around Cami’s back, leading her to the
door. “Monday morning.”

Jonquil winked before they headed out.

~*~

When they’d left her house, Cami hadn’t been certain about
staying at Vince’s through Monday morning—it seemed like a huge step. They had
a great time together though, sitting out on the patio, taking a long ramble in
the woods with the dogs, and making more meals than had been prepared in the
kitchen in a month’s time before. And when they made love, she was amazed the
magic hadn’t been her imagination or a one-time thing.

Monday morning Vince dropped her back at her home instead of
work because she hadn’t brought an appropriate work suit.

He kissed her just inside the doorway, taking his time with it.
“Maybe you should move in with me,” he suggested.

“Can’t.  Contract says I have to live in this house.” She
wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed about that stipulation with his
tempting alternative. The weekend had been an idyll of sorts, not real life,
and she knew moving in would change everything.

He groaned as she pulled away. “Don’t tell me I have to wait
until next September.”

“Unless you want to marry her, that’s the deal.” Jonquil
headed up the nearby stairs.

Cami could have sworn they had been talking too low for
anyone to hear them, but apparently the baby of the group had ears like a dog.

“Oh, is that all?” Vince grabbed Cami’s chin and turned her
face back, kissing her again.

“All?”  Cami asked when she was allowed to talk again. “Isn’t
it more than enough?”

“Plenty. I’m more than happy to get married. What do you
say?” he asked between pressing kisses to her mouth and cheeks and chin.

“Whoa.” She pushed him away, ran those words back through
her head to make sure she’d heard right. “You’re out of your mind. We’ve only
been dating a few weeks.”

“Six, but who’s counting? And sometimes six years isn’t long
enough to decide if someone is the right one for you, but this time, I’d say
six weeks is plenty.” He leaned in for another kiss.

Though she wanted to slide back under his spell, she moved
out of his reach. “You’re crazy.”

“About you.” His slid his hands onto her waist and pulled
her close.

“And unoriginal.”

“But you love me anyway.”

She laughed, unable to help herself as she tucked her face
into his neck, loving the smell of his aftershave, though there was still a
rich field of stubble he hadn’t bothered to shave that morning. As for loving
him, she wasn’t sure if what she felt was strong enough to marry on—it was too early
to make that kind of commitment. Besides, she had more pressing things on her
mind. Though she’d been putting it off, she decided to address one of those
issues now. “So I have this favor to ask, and you can feel free to say no if
you need more notice.”

“What’s that?” He brushed the hair back from her face,
tucking it behind her ear, teasing the sensitive lobe as his finger followed
the curve.

She shivered. She’d spent a long time the previous night
lying awake, considering whether or not to ask, and now her heart raced as she
wondered if it was a mistake. “I have a party in Chicago Thursday night. I
wondered if you’d like to go with me. I kept my condo available. I know you
might have to juggle your work and getting a plane ticket can be a pain, and it’s
bound to cause more speculation, but—”

She stopped talking when he pressed his mouth to hers. “I’d
love to go with you, Cami. Email me the flight information and I’ll make a
reservation.”

“Okay. That’s great.” She nudged him away, feeling awkward
though he’d made it easy—maybe
because
he’d made it easy. “Go to work. I
can’t think when you’re kissing me.”

“Good.” But he pressed a quick peck to her forehead and
turned away. Before he shut the door behind him, he glanced back. “I promise more
finesse when I officially propose.”

Cami didn’t have a chance to respond before he was gone. She
sucked in a breath, not sure how she felt about the fact that he was already
thinking marriage.

Joel hadn’t been kidding when he said he’d be spending a lot
of time at the house. Though Cami had been at Vince’s for the weekend, she
heard he’d hung around since dinnertime on Friday and had used Sage’s bathroom
to clean up and shower. He even slept on the sofa in the great room while one
of his security crew monitored the machines.

She was glad to have missed most of that.

Tuesday evening most of them were sitting around the house
taking care of paperwork and making plans when Joel grinned—an odd expression
for his face considering how seldom he did it. “Gotcha.” He pressed a few more
keys, then gestured to Sage to come over and sit in his spot. “Someone just
logged on to the system. I’m going to go see if I can find the person trying to
download information. Stay here.” He pulled a handgun from the small of his
back, cocked it to load a bullet in the chamber, and put it back in the holster
before heading for the door.

Cami felt her stomach drop. Joel had a gun in her house? Was
that necessary? A few seconds passed as she thought about it before she
realized that of course he’d be armed. This was Joel, military to the max. He
probably owned an arsenal. Maybe it should have made her feel better, safer,
but somehow, it didn’t.

A long moment passed and Cami started to get anxious.  She
inched over to the front windows, peeking out of the corner through the curtain
so no one outside would be able to see her. She saw Joel just through the
trees, kneeling on the ground. He looked like he had someone restrained, but
she couldn’t see who through the brush.

“Get away from there,” Sage hissed.

“He’s got someone.” Cami moved to the door and opened it a
crack. “Joel, do you need me to call someone?”

He looked up at her, his face grim. “Call the sheriff’s
office. And keep everyone inside.”

“What?” She looked behind her and saw everyone else watching
her. “Stay here. He’s got the perp. I’ll see if he need anything else. Stay
inside.”

No one else seemed interested in following her so Cami shut
the door behind her and made her way across the grass. She pulled out her phone
and dialed 911.

When she was told a deputy was on the way, she put away her
phone.

“Get back inside, Cami. I don’t need you out here.” Joel sat
between her and the person he was restraining. “If you come out, your sisters
will be next. You’re a distraction. Go back inside.”

“Who is it?” After all of the stress and worry, she had to
know who was behind everything.

“Go inside. There could be someone else out here too.”

Cami studied him for a moment then shook her head. “If there
were, you would have incapacitated that person and be out looking for the
second person already.”

He swore low under his breath. “Just go back inside. I’ll be
in as soon as I give my statement to the deputy.”

There was the sound of sirens in the distance and Cami
shifted, trying to see who was behind Joel.

“Go. Inside.” His brows V-ed over his eyes in anger.

“Even Cami wasn’t crazy enough to risk ticking Joel off.
“Fine. I’ll see you there.”

Before she reached the front door, Rosemary opened it. “Who
is it?”

“I don’t know. He was hiding the guy. He insisted we stay
inside.”

Rosemary put her hand on her hip. “And you just turned
around and came back inside like a good little girl?”

“Hey, you want to risk his wrath, that’s on you, but I don’t
recommend it. Besides,” she looked over her shoulder as the sheriff’s office
truck came to a stop, “Looks like he’s got backup, and going over there now
will just put us in their way. Better to watch out the window and see who they
haul off.”

“So we wuss out and let him have his way?”

“Yes. For a few minutes, anyway. Give him time to take care
of things and they we can all gang up on him for answers.” It galled her to
have to wait when the answers were in her front yard. A second sheriff’s truck
pulled into the driveway. “Looks like they’re planning a party out there.”

“Too bad we’re not invited,” Rosemary said.

Delphi sat at the kitchen island while Rosemary prowled
around like an agitated lion. She may have growled once or twice as well.

Cami stood at the window, watching the deputy show up, talk
to the suspect and then pull out a set of handcuffs. She tapped her foot as she
watched the man haul someone away. “It’s a woman.” Cami couldn’t believe it.
She stared, trying to figure out who it was. She didn’t catch any of her face,
though, and the deputy pushed her in front of him, so Cami couldn’t get a clear
view.

“What do you mean it’s a woman?” Rosemary joined her at the
window, pulling back the curtains. The deputy had already pushed her into the
back seat of the truck. “I missed it.” She strained to get a better view of the
woman until the truck pulled out, then she resumed pacing.