Midnight Sins (2 page)

her young life. She had Jaymi, and sometimes, if their

father wasn’t around, Cami had their mother.

Unfortunately, their father was around much too often.

Cami could do nothing right in his eyes. Just as Jaymi

could do nothing wrong. And to preserve the peace in

the house, Margaret Flannigan did whatever it took to

pacify her confrontational husband. And that meant

ignoring her youngest child.

Even the knowledge that his elder daughter was

fucking the town’s ostracized bad boy wasn’t enough

to tarnish Jaymi in Mark Flannigan’s eyes. As he

explained it, grief had overtaken her and Jaymi was

temporarily trying to find her husband after his death,

in the arms of his best friend. And Rafe Callahan was

taking advantage of it. “After all, wasn’t that what a

Callahan was best known for?” was what her father

was prone to say.

Mark wasn’t a father to his younger daughter, and

that often seared Jaymi with guilt. She didn’t

understand why, but she suspected. Cami would have

been conceived during the year their mother was

estranged from her husband. And Jaymi had always

wondered.

“Do you think they were involved in it?” Jaymi

heard Sara ask, and she knew who “they” were.

“Well, the FBI released their profile on the killer,”

the other woman stated. “And they
‘did’
say they

believed it was at least two men acting in

accordance. I wouldn’t doubt it was three,” she

concluded with an air of knowing importance.

At that moment, Jaymi’s cell phone began

vibrating in her jacket pocket, causing her to flinch in

fear.

Glancing at Rafe, she saw him and Logan talking

to Cami, teasing her as they tried to draw her back to

the group.

Pulling the cell phone free, Jaymi glanced at the

number before moving a few steps away, then flipping

the phone open. She didn’t know her caller’s identity,

but the “unknown” caller was familiar.

“Go to hell!” she hissed into the line as she

answered the call.

“My hell is a daily adventure into a torment

created by man who is full of infinite cruelty and selfabsorbed

awareness. A hell created by Callahans.

Do you really want me to show you my hell, Jaymi?”

She knew that voice.

Each time he called she tried to keep him talking

longer, tried to figure out who he was. Because she

knew that voice, had heard it before, and often. But

not often enough to place it without seeing his face at

the same time.

“Why would you care?” she asked, watching the

crowd and trying to spot anyone with a cell phone.

Anyone who could be making the call.

She saw no one.

She saw several teenagers texting. The Realtor

Dave Stone was laughing into his phone, but he had a

high, nasal tone, not a gentle saddened voice that

echoed with grief.

“Why do I care?” the caller sighed. “There are so

many reasons. I like you, Jaymi. You’re different

than … Well, than most women, who lower

themselves to fuck those bastards, I guess.” He

paused as though he had said more than he intended

to. “Don’t push me. Get your sister and walk away

from him, Jaymi. Cut those ties now, before you force

me to cut them for you.”

Jaymi glanced over at Rafe again. He, Logan,

and Crowe were gently flirting with Cami, as she

giggled and watched Rafe with complete female

adoration.

“I’ll ask you again, why do you care?”

There was a moment of silence.

“Because I have to care,” he finally said sadly. “If I

don’t, who else will? Who else will keep them from

destroying families, lives, and morals, if not I?”

“They’re just men,” she whispered painfully,

realizing in that moment what the Callahans had faced

all their lives. “Not monsters.”

“But they attract the monsters,” he said, with

grave certainty as though he truly believed monsters

existed. “This is your last chance, Jaymi. I won’t tell

you again. End this illicit relationship or I’ll end it for

you.”

It was what he had said.

“End this illicit relationship.”

Who had she heard say that before? It stuck in

her mind, the words and that grave, pain-ridden voice.

Who had called her relationship with Rafe illicit?

She swallowed tightly, feeling that knowledge at

the very edge of her memory.

The knowledge of who it was was getting closer.

She could feel it. And when she remembered she

would make damned sure the whole county knew who

he was. Moving back to the small group, Jaymi

couldn’t help but feel a flare of regret for the lives Rafe

and his cousins lived. Always aware they were

unwanted.

“Jay, you okay?” Rafe slid behind her, his arms

going around her waist as she watched her sister

from the corners of her eyes.

Jaymi watched as Cami turned away as Rafe

came behind Jaymi, Cami’s head lowering until

Logan drew her attention once again.

Meeting Logan’s gaze, Jaymi caught the little

wink he directed her way, as well as the compassion

she saw in his eyes toward Cami and her obvious

affection for Rafe.

She could see Cami’s devotion to Rafe also, as

well as her tender emotions and the conflict raging

inside her. Jaymi knew that Cami loved her. They

were as close as mother and daughter at times, but

lately, with this crush Cami had on her sister’s lover,

she found that though the bond wasn’t straining, it was

changing. That frightened Jaymi for reasons she

couldn’t explain. She had already lost the man she

had called her soul mate since she was thirteen years

old. She couldn’t lose Cami as well, even in that small

way. It would destroy her.

“I’m fine,” she told him as he kissed her cheek.

“What are you doing flirting with my baby sister? Don’t

you know she already has a terrible crush on you?”

He was only twenty himself. Hell, she was a

cradle robber. She was twenty-five and she should be

sleeping with a man her age rather than the young

man her husband had called his blood brother. But

Rafe had always seemed much older than his age,

and far more experienced in life, which he was. It was

easy to see why her husband had all but adopted him

after meeting him years before.

Tye had been part Native American, raised by

his Navajo grandfather, and had been completely

loyal to the mocking, sarcastic, often-brooding young

man he’d met years before in the middle of the forest

while he’d been hunting. Ten years older than Rafe,

but infinitely wiser, Jaymi always thought, Tye had

taken the young man under his wing and they had

formed a bond even death couldn’t destroy.

Rafe sighed at her shoulder. “That girl confuses

me.”

Jaymi knew at that moment that she would be

breaking their relationship off soon after all. Very

soon. More than likely before the night was over. She

couldn’t bear to hurt Cami, and this crush she had on

Rafe was causing Jaymi to break her young sister’s

heart.Jaymi remembered clearly too, the first time she

had seen her husband. She had been fourteen and he

had been a worldly-wise twenty. Within weeks he’d

laughed at her and said the same thing: she confused

him. She had told him that was just because he was a

boy and she was the girl who loved him.

“And why does she confuse you?” Jaymi asked,

though she knew the answer, or a variation of it, that

Rafe would give.

“Hell if I know, sweetie,” he grunted. “She’s got

the oddest look in her eyes. Like she’s a hundred

years old and the secrets she knows break her heart.”

Wow. She had expected the hell-if-he-knew part,

but she hadn’t expected him to acknowledge in even

such a small way the fact that Cami was becoming a

young woman.

“Perhaps they do,” Jaymi said softly. “Her life

hasn’t exactly been a happy one. And I’m afraid it’s

about to get worse.”

“Your father still hasn’t said anything?” Rafe

asked her, knowing the plans Mark Flannigan was

attempting to put in place. Plans that would destroy

Cami.

Jaymi glanced at her sister again. Cami was

talking to Crowe about the wolves that roamed Crowe

Mountain. He had out his cell phone and was regaling

her with the story of the one that came through the dog

door of his partially buried home and ate his cat’s

food before lying in front of the fire for a nap.

Jaymi had seen the pictures herself, but still

found it hard to believe. That wolf had acted more like

an overgrown pet than a wild animal.

“No, he hasn’t said anything,” she finally

answered. “He’s refusing to even discuss the issue

with Mother. It will split them up.”

But as far as Jaymi was concerned, her mother

should have never returned after leaving years before.

This time, however, Jaymi could feel the explosion

coming, and when it did she had a feeling it was

going to hurt Cami more than anyone.

Mark Flannigan had been offered a promotion at

the communications firm he worked at in town. It

meant a move to Aspen and he wanted to accept it.

The problem was, he didn’t want Cami moving with

them. He had convinced Jaymi to go with them before

she learned he’d asked his brother, Eddy, to take

custody of Cami. That betrayal to Cami had broken

Jaymi’s heart. But the fact that her mother’s answer to

solving the problem was to up her dosage of Ativan

infuriated Jaymi.

“Poor kid,” Rafe murmured. “It sucks bad enough

when it’s other family members, aunts. When it’s your

parents, it has to slice clear to the soul.”

“She doesn’t know yet.” Jaymi knew her mother

was doing her best to avoid the situation while Mark

was continuing on with his plan to move.

Jaymi and her mother had managed to protect

Cami so far from learning his plans, but that wouldn’t

last for much longer.

“You can’t protect her forever,” he said sadly,

echoing her own thoughts.

“As long as I’m alive I can.”

She lived for Cami. Knowing that Cami would

suffer at her father’s hands if she was gone, was all

that kept Jaymi from joining Tye. From escaping the

agony that met her each day in the knowledge that he

had been taken from her so quickly.

There were days, nights, that she swore she

could hear Tye calling her name. She would turn,

expecting him to be there, certain that somehow he

had found a way to return to her. If it were possible,