Heart of Light (36 page)

Cam raised his eyebrows at her. “Oh really? And what word would that be?”

Jolene pursed her lips together, deep in thought.

Cam’s heart skipped a beat at the adorable look on her face.

“Incredible. Amazing. Astounding. Magnificent. Extraordinary. Superb. Sensational. I can go on for hours.” She smiled before returning her expression to one of sincerity. “But most important, I feel loved. Thank you for that.”

“For what?”

She nuzzled against his chest once more, enveloped by his warmth…by his light. “For loving me. I know I’m not the easiest girl to love, and that I have a whole shit ton of baggage that most people would toss out, not wanting to deal with…”

“Jolene,” Cam interrupted, “you don’t have baggage. You’ve just had some rather appalling things happen to you. You’re dealing with it one day at a time, and that’s all that can be expected of you. You’re still a strong, vibrant, beautiful woman who deserves love just like someone who never had anything traumatic happen to them. In fact, I’d say you’re more deserving of love
because
you had to suffer through a past of fear and servitude. And that’s what I intend to give you. A future for you to do what you want, when you want…within reason, of course.” He winked at her, leaning down and planting a chaste kiss on her hair. He breathed in her scent. “Peaches.”

She shook her head, giggling. “If we ever get married, we need to have peach cobbler at our wedding.”

“You got it, princess.”

Jolene immediately tensed up, the wind sucked out of her as the memory rushed forward of all those men calling her that over the years. She had escaped, but all it took was one word to take her back to that time in her life. She could still smell the cigar smoke. She could still hear the sound of ice hitting glasses. Her stomach churned from the memories.

“What? What is it?”

“I don’t feel so well.” She tried to raise herself, cringing from the pain of her ribs. “I’m going to be sick!” she cried out, her entire body trembling.

Cam quickly scooped her up in his arms and ran her into the bathroom, soothing her back as she retched into the toilet.

“This is so embarrassing,” she commented once her body finally stopped convulsing. She leaned back against the cool tile wall, clutching her stomach, completely exhausted.

“Want to talk about what set you off?”

She opened her eyes and stared at Cam as he sat across from her on the floor. The fluorescent lights made everything appear so bright, and she knew that she couldn’t hide from him.

“Please, Jolene,” he begged. “Let me help you.”

She inhaled, trying to erase the smells and sounds from her memory. She would never get over hearing that word. It felt so wrong listening to it come out of Cam’s mouth. He was perfect and pure. He wasn’t an evil monster.

“That was my pet name. We all had one.” Her voice was soft as she talked about things that she would rather leave dead and buried.

“What was?” Cam asked, swallowing hard.

“Princess.” She shivered. “All the men… That’s… That’s what they all called me. I wasn’t Jolene. I was princess…except for
him
.”

“Who? Who’s behind all of this, Jolene?”

Her eyes flung wide open and Cam could see the terror in them at the thought of naming him.

“Don’t you want to stop it? Don’t you realize that you could be the salvation that all these other girls who he has imprisoned need?”

She shook her head. “No. Don’t
you
see? Don’t you see that he doesn’t care about that? You can name names all you want, but the people who will actually arrest him… Well, guess what? They’re on his payroll, too. Don’t you think we tried that? One time, a girl was able to get access to a phone. She called everyone…police, FBI, you name it. And what happened?
Nothing
! Not to
him
, anyway. But the girl… She was never heard from again. She was gone, except for…”

“Except for what?”

“A week later, we were brought into his office. Apparently, she had been kept there. We heard her screams coming from the other room. They brought us into this dark, cold room. There was metal and chains everywhere. In the center was a large platform, suspended slightly at an angle. They drained her body of blood right in front of us. We were forced to sit there for hours and watch as her heart beat its last beat. As her lungs took their last breath.” She cowered in dread. “It was awful. You could see the pain she was in. And we couldn’t do anything to stop it because then we would meet the same exact fate. He told us as much.”

“But you’re safe now. No one will be able to hurt you.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But those girls are still there, and they’ll never be safe. By naming a name, I’m not worried about signing my own death warrant, Cam.” She met his eyes, her body shaking from her cries. “I’m worried about signing theirs.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“R
ALPH
, I
NEED
SOME
good news!” Anthony Falconi shouted at his associate. “It’s been over three months! Nothing! Not a fucking trace! It’s as if she simply disappeared!”

Ralph flinched in response to his boss’ outrage. At every truck stop between here and Miami, each possible clue was met with a dead end. A few people thought that they recognized Jolene, and there was also that girl he spoke to that looked like her, but there was no solid evidence. Now, he was sitting in his boss’ office after he summoned him back, frightened of what would happen because he failed on his mission.

A loud phone rang, temporarily saving him from his boss’ anger.

“What is it?” Falconi barked into his phone.

“Tony. It’s me. You won’t believe this. Your pal, Senator Murphy, was just on the news giving a little press conference. Apparently, he found the girl.”

“Who?” Falconi quickly stood up from his desk, walking over to the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows in his office, and looked down at the city of Chicago several stories below.

“Jolene,” the man on the phone admitted. “The girl’s father saw it, too, and is heading down there. The senator made sure the video was zoomed in on the name of a bar that it looks like she’s working at. I’d say that he wanted you to find her. She’s in Amelia Island, just outside of Jacksonville.”

A sly smile crossed his face as he retreated back to his desk. “Perfect. You go down there to keep an eye on the girl’s father and I’ll fly in with my private jet.”

“Do you think that’s such a good idea, you being down there? People may get suspicious and put the pieces together…”

“Paulene!” he shouted into the intercom. “Refresh my memory! Didn’t I get asked to speak at some fundraiser in Florida?! What are the details?!”

“Yes, sir. You’re one of their largest donors,” a voice replied. “I’ve stalled on giving them an answer. It’s tomorrow night in Jacksonville. They have a back-up speaker on stand-by if you can’t make it, but I think it would go a long way toward your image if you were there.”

A calculated smile crossed his face. “Tell them I’m in.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t worry,” Falconi spoke into the cell phone. “I’ll be there. Looks like we’ll be coming back to Chicago heavy one passenger.”

T
HE
FOLLOWING
AFTERNOON
AS
Jolene rested in Cam’s arms on the couch, he felt her begin to tremble. “Hey, hey. You okay?” he soothed in her ear.

“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just the story I told you last night. I can’t stop thinking about it. Every time I close my eyes, I see her body. It’s been years, but…”

“I’m so sorry, Jolene,” Cam interrupted, pulling her body further into his and trying to calm her. “I know seeing something as gruesome as that will probably always stay with you. I’m not going to pressure you to talk about it, but when you’re ready, I’m here and I’ll listen.”

She nodded, thankful to have crossed paths with Cam. She wondered what her life would be like had she continued on the bus to a different destination. She couldn’t imagine her life without him in it.

“Hey, Cam?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think I have value?”

“Of course you have value, Jolene,” he said, helping her roll onto her back, surprised by her question. He hovered over her. “What makes you think that you don’t?”

She shrugged. “Probably just another one of his mind games. He always made us feel that, even if we did get out, no one could possibly want us. That our best chance at a future was there, with him. That no one would want to marry a worthless whore…”

“Don’t let him back into your head. That’s the hard part about talking about things. It brings up memories and you start to relive what you went through, what happened to you. The sights. The smells. The feelings. The anger. The hate. The rage. The helplessness. At some point, you will get past it all. You’re not worthless. You’re a treasure. You made me believe in love again after having my heart broken. And, just for the record, Jolene… I would marry you in a heartbeat, if you’d let me.”

“Really?” Her voice rose in pitch in disbelief.

He nodded his head, a look of serenity washing over him. “Really. I don’t ever want to wake up again without you by my side. I know we’ve only known each other for a few months, but in that short time, I’ve realized that I don’t want to go another day without telling you exactly how important you are to me.”

Jolene searched Cam’s eyes. “You would really want to marry me? And I hope you’re not just saying that because you’re pushing forty.”

He chuckled loudly. “I’d marry you even if I was only twenty.”

“But then I’d only be ten, and I’m pretty sure that would be frowned on.”

“Am I going to have to put up with age jokes for the rest of my life?”

Nodding fervently, she ginned. “Yup. Creepy old man wanting to marry a woman ten years younger.”

“Hey. What can I say? I have good taste. And you have an old soul that spoke to me the minute I saw you.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what, Casanova. If you really want to marry me, I’ll say yes, just as long as you pop the question in a way that makes me completely weak in my knees. I want it to be a moment I’ll never forget. I want it to erase all of the…”

Cam crushed his lips against hers, cutting her off. He wanted to erase all of the bad memories, too.

The phone immediately began ringing loudly and Cam groaned, not wanting to leave Jolene’s lips for all the money in the world.

“You should probably get that,” she said, her mouth moving against his.

“It can wait.”

“What if it’s a patient emergency?”

He grumbled something incoherent and pulled away from her, grabbing his cell phone. “Dr. Bowen.”

“Cam. It’s Else. You will
not
believe this.”

“What?”

“Well, I was working the lunch shift today and a man came in claiming to be Jolene’s father. He showed me a police badge and everything. He and his buddy saw the video and got on a plane. I’m glad we’ve got her hidden away, just to be on the safe side.”

“Yeah. I agree.”

“So, what do I do?”

“
Is
it her father?”

“Hell if I know for sure. What’s her father’s name?”

“Hold on a second.” He covered the phone with his hand before turning to Jolene. “What’s your father’s name?”

She looked at him. “Why?”

“Humor me for a minute.”

“Greg. Gregory Matsen.”

“You don’t have the same last name?”

“No. He had my name changed when I was a baby, I guess. Gave me Holly’s last name.”

“Do you know why?”

“No. I never really questioned it, though, because Holly raised me, so I liked having her last name.”

He nodded before turning his attention back to the phone. “Else, are you still there?”

“Yup. Got a name, Casanova?”

“Gregory Matsen.”

“Fuck,” Elsie said. “It’s her dad.”

“Let me call you back.” He placed the phone on the coffee table, meeting Jolene’s eyes.

“What? What is it?” There was a look of worry on her face.

Inhaling deeply, he grabbed her hands in his. He didn’t know too much about the relationship she had with her father, but he was aware that she carried some resentment toward the man, thinking that he preferred alcohol over his own daughter.

“Jolene, I just want you to know that I love you very much and no matter what you decide you want to do, I will support you one-hundred percent. I’m not going to pressure you to do something you aren’t comfortable doing.”

“You’re scaring me, Cam. Please, just tell me what’s going on.”

He gently caressed her cheek, thankful that the swelling and physical scars had diminished. He could finally see his Jolene again. “Your father’s here. Well, at Slider’s. He’s looking for you.”

Tears began falling down her face. “What is he doing here? How did he find me?” she cried out.

Cam wrapped his arms around her, comforting her. “I’m not exactly sure,” he lied, not wanting to say that he was able to track her down because Senator Murphy had leaked her location across the country. “But he did, just like you said you wished he did all those years ago.”

She nodded, soaking his shirt with her tears. “But if he was able to find me…” Pulling back, her eyes met his and he could see the panic within.

“Don’t even think about that, Jolene. Nothing will happen to you while I’m around. I swear to you.”

“Can I see him? My dad?”

“If you’re sure that’s what you want, absolutely. I’ll have him come over here. This is good for you.” He placed a gentle kiss on her head.

“Cam, do you think I’ll ever be able to forgive him? If it wasn’t for his drinking…”

“Jolene, baby, don’t think about it. All you need to know is that he found you. Listen to him. To his story. To his side of things. He’s probably been living with his guilt for years. Maybe he just needs to see you and know that you’re okay. That way he can move on, just like you’re trying to do.”

A small smile crossed Jolene’s face. “You’re so good to me. Do you know that?”

He shrugged, raising himself off the couch and gazing at the beautiful woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. “Maybe. I just want to do right by you. That’s all.”