Midnight Sins (10 page)

breath and grieving with her?

Ella wasn’t able to leave Cami. She couldn’t walk

away from her. That was exactly what her mother had

done. Ella refused to do it.

She stayed in the background, watched until

Cami finally fell asleep, her small, fragile body curled

into the window seat, her arms wrapped around her

self as though there was no other way to feel the

warmth of human touch.

And for a moment, for the briefest second, Ella

nearly broke her word to Cami and called Rafe. She

actually turned to go into the kitchen to retrieve her cell

phone.

Because Ella knew he would come to Cami the

minute he could, and she knew he would make Cami

come back to them. But Cami carried enough guilt.

Ella couldn’t imagine heaping more on her delicate

shoulders.

Instead, Ella laid her head on the kitchen table

and silently allowed her own tears to fall for the girl

who deserved so much more.

Three years later, Cami at twenty-four

Coincidence.

Cami simply didn’t believe in it.

At least, not to the extent that it seemed

someone wanted everyone in Corbin County,

Colorado, to believe in it.

She stood on the edge of the small crowd,

toward the back, as the Reverend Mayer said the final

prayer over Clyde Ramsey’s coffin.

Rafer Callahan’s uncle and the only member of

the family who hadn’t disowned him when his parents

had died was laid to rest on a sunny summer day.

Twenty-two years to the day that the Callahan brothers

and their wives had gone over a mountain cliff, Clyde

Ramsey had fallen from his horse and broken his

neck. The coincidence was simply too strong,

especially considering that the so-called accident had

come only days after he had filed papers with the

courthouse that gave his nephew possession of the

450-acre ranch Clyde owned.

A ranch that Cami knew he had had several

resort investors contact him over selling or at least

leasing part of the property.

She was certain she had heard the sonic boom

the second the three barons had received the news.

Now Clyde Ramsey was dead, and the ranch the

three powerful families had been trying to buy was

about to become the center of yet another court battle

for Clyde’s heir, Rafer Callahan.

The battles begun twenty-two years ago after his

parents’ death still hadn’t been resolved either. As of

six months ago, the inheritance Rafe and his cousins

had been entitled to was still frozen as part of the

litigation the families of their mothers had brought

against it.

Those families were still attempting to deprive

their grandsons of everything their mothers had left to

them on their deaths. Especially the property, left in

trust that had been bought from Rafer, Logan, and

Crowe’s grandparents JR and Eileen Callahan. A

transaction that their sons, Rafer, Logan, and Crowe’s

fathers had sworn their parents would have never

signed.

To deflect suspicion, the vast amount of property

had been placed in trust for the youngest daughters in

each family. That inheritance went to each child on her

thirtieth birthday. Those daughters, as fate would have

it, had married the Callahan sons whose parents had

supposedly sold it. Those three daughters had turned

thirty only days before their deaths.

Coincidence.

Cami hated that word.

Corbin County and its three powerful families

were haunted by the coincidences of blood and death

when it came to those who opposed them or

possessed something they coveted. So far, the

Callahan cousins had managed to evade the

repercussions of that opposition. Evaded it … or

perhaps the powerful barons hadn’t yet managed to

overcome their consciences to outright murder their

own grandsons.

Of course, this was all supposition on Cami’s

part. Or her paranoia as her mother liked to say while

smiling back at Cami indulgently, if a little absently.

How her mother had changed. Even before

Jaymi’s death, Margaret Flannigan had been prone to

depression and had lived in a Valium haze. In the ten

years since Jaymi’s death, her depression had

deepened, especially after her parents had moved to

Aspen two years ago. Four years later than they had

planned, as Cami understood it.

Her parents had been making plans to move the

year Jaymi had died and had been trying to convince

her to move as well.

The big day would have come the summer Cami

graduated from high school. But no one had

mentioned the move to her. Her parents’ way of

silently emphasizing the fact that she wasn’t welcome,

Cami thought mockingly.

How different families could be.

Her parents rarely acknowledged her presence,

and even when her mother did seem to notice Cami,

it was with loving surprise. She never doubted her

mother’s affection for her, simply Margaret’s ability to

deal with the world with her husband in it. On the other

hand, Cami’s uncle Eddy and Aunt Ella and had

treated Cami like the daughter they never had. They

had always been there for her.

They had bought her senior prom dress for her,

despite the fact that Cami hadn’t wanted to go.

Thankfully, her friend Jack Townsend had had a friend

willing to escort her, Archer Tobias, the son of the

former sheriff. Archer was now Corbin County’s

sheriff. Which surprised her considering the fact the

barons had not backed his election.

Her aunt and uncle had helped her get her a loan

for college, and when Cami had lost her best friend

that last week of college, it had been her aunt and

uncle who had dried her tears.

But even more important, when she had lost the

one thing she had wanted above anything else in the

world it had been Eddy and Ella who had rescued her.

They had forced her to move out of her apartment and

had brought her into their own home.

Now Cami stood watching another friend being

buried.

As the Reverend Mayer drew the prayer to a

close and the small crowd began drifting away, Cami

made her way to the gravesite and the three men

gathered there.

“Rafer.” She stood in front of him, feeling just as

vulnerable, just as weak and hungry, in the face of the

powerful dominant male she faced, as she ever had.

“Hey there, kitten.” He greeted her softly, the dark

remnants of arousal in his voice sending heat flashing

through her.

She couldn’t avoid the arms that wrapped around

her. She tried. She tried to make herself step back

and then tried to make herself stiffen in his arms. She

told herself she couldn’t feel this, couldn’t allow it, and

she definitely couldn’t have him.

It didn’t work.

She felt herself soften against him involuntarily,

and felt her arms go around his shoulders. Her face

pressed against his powerful chest as she relished

the subtle heat and powerful warmth that eased the

chill inside her soul. She drew in the scent of him.

Uniquely male, hinting at the dominance, at the sheer

male strength that filled his body. Cami could feel her

senses coming alive. The dormant warmth and

sensuality flaring to life inside her, and reminding her

of the pleasure she had once found in his arms.

She let herself relish those seconds in his arms.

Let herself revel in them and told herself she wasn’t

going to allow anything more.

She couldn’t allow anything more. She had nearly

lost her will to survive when she lost their child. She

couldn’t risk that again.

“You’re as beautiful as ever, Cami,” he

whispered against her ear. “And you make me just as

damned hungry.”

And he was hard.

His cock pressed against her lower belly and she

felt his hunger for her begin to burn. As well as her

own. Heat built between her thighs as her clit

awakened with a vengeance. Her womb clenched,

sending a rush of breathlessness through her as she

felt the liquid response to his touch dampen her

pussy.

She couldn’t, wouldn’t, allow herself to give in to

it.

Drawing back was even harder than slipping

from his embrace and his hotel room three years

before.

“I’m sorry about your uncle,” she said, stepping

back. “He was a good man.”

“He was as unbending as steel and just as rigid.”

Rafe was smiling, though, his blue eyes amused at

the description.

“But he loved the three of you,” she reminded

Rafe softly.

“He tolerated us anyway,” he tried to tease her.

She could see the knowledge in his gaze,

though, that she wasn’t returning the warmth, the

teasing, where she had always teased back before.

She was drawing away from him because she had no

idea how to be close to him without wanting him,

needing him; without taking everything she knew he

would be willing to give her. All she had to do was

reach out for it. Reach out for him.

Oh God, it hurt so bad to pull away from the

warmth of his arms, to see that flash of hurt and anger

brighten his eyes. It was like tearing a chunk of her

soul out of her body. And here she thought she had

already lost her soul.

She hated how weak she was, and she hated

that she had no idea how to take that risk again and

survive it. She had lost too many people, too many

things in her life that she had loved. Her mother, her

father, or rather accepting he had no desire to be her

father. And her child.

The thought of allowing herself to weaken that far,

to allow his touch again terrified her. The chances of

losing Rafe were incredibly high. The chance of

standing and watching as his body was lowered into

the ground increased every day that he was in Corbin

County.

So she stepped back. Her fingers clutched the

edge of her purse as she gazed up at him in regret.

“I just wanted to say hello,” she said softly. “And

to tell you how sorry I am.”

His expression closed, when he saw her

deliberately put distance between them. His eyes

burned with anger.

“You shouldn’t have wasted your time, Cami,” he

drawled. “Run on home now, before I show you exactly

how I make little girls like yourself admit that you know