Midnight Sins (30 page)

Cami simply stared straight ahead as Archer Tobias

drove her out of his life.

Cami was leaving again.

CHAPTER 9

Cami’s chest was tight, her throat felt raw and

scratchy. Her eyes ached, and it was all she could do

to breathe without whimpering. The pain seemed to

go all the way to the depths of her soul, and refused to

return to that dark corner she had managed to push it

to years ago.

What was wrong with her?

She stared straight ahead, determined to ignore

Archer and the questions she could feel silently

directed to her.

She hadn’t been aware anyone had paid

attention to the few dates she and Archer had had, or

why anyone would have cared. Especially, why had

Rafer cared enough to have dug up that information?

Focusing her attention on her surroundings rather

than the emotions tempting her to come closer and

peer in, Cami stared at the dash and center console

of the sheriff’s vehicle.

The backseat was enclosed from the front and

the back cargo area with black steel bars and bulletresistant

glass—a laptop, radio, rearview and

navigation screen, cell-phone holder, wireless radio,

and several other electronic gadgets she wasn’t

certain the purpose for. She was in the middle of

electronics paradise and she really didn’t give a

damn. All she wanted to do was demand he turn

around and take her back to Rafe.

And that was the most foolish thing she could do.

She had been there too long already and had done

nothing but add another scar to her heart.

Staring through the window beside her head, she

watched as they turned from Rafer’s driveway and

passed her little aging sedan as it sat with its front

tires buried in the snow that filled the ditch.

She couldn’t believe she had actually found the

strength to walk away from Rafer, because everything

inside her had been demanding she stay. Just as she

couldn’t believe she had actually managed to walk

past her uncle without throwing herself in his arms and

sobbing as she had done as a child.

He had been defending her all her life, she

thought, and she wondered if sometimes he didn’t

grow tired of the constant battles he and her father

had gotten into since she was a child.

She didn’t want him to have to defend her

against her father’s friends as well, such as Archer

had been forced to do here.

She couldn’t believe what she had heard from

him. She had always thought he was so soft-spoken

and kind. To learn he wasn’t affected her far more

deeply than she liked.

This was the same uncle who had defended her

when her father wished she were dead rather than

Jaymi, at Jaymi’s funeral. The uncle Cami had always

thought she could depend upon to care for her, no

matter what choices she might make in life.

“You okay, Cami?” Archer asked, his voice

gentle as she continued to stare into the snow-buried

landscape they passed.

The gentleness in his voice had her throat

tightening further, had emotions threatening to swamp

her. He’d been one of Jaymi and Tye’s best friends

as well, and over the years had become one of hers.

“You know,” he said when she didn’t answer, “if

there’s something I need to know about, then now

might be the best time to tell me, sweetheart.”

She knew what he was asking, and the fact that

he felt the need had the emotion tightening her throat

instantly easing as frustration tightened her jaw

instead. “He didn’t rape me, nor did he attempt to

murder me, if that’s what you’re asking,” she informed

Archer, as she turned and directed the full measure of

anger churning in her on him instead.

“Well now, I didn’t think he had been, but it’s my

job to ask.”

“I was unaware that investigating stupid

questions and obviously slanderous accusations was

part of your job description.”

“Normally it’s not,” he assured her. “But

sometimes with some people it’s better to deal with it

and get it over with before moving on.”

The Callahan cousins were accused often of all

manner of crimes, he had once told her.

“At least they have one friend,” she sighed. “I was

beginning to wonder.”

“I’m not the only one, Cami, but as you’ve

probably learned by now, it doesn’t do any good to

argue with those who aren’t their friends.”

Of course it didn’t. They were the fathers, the

mothers, the aunts and uncles who had first followed

the dictates the barons had first given where the

cousins were concerned.

“Yeah, Jaymi learned that one,” she sighed. She

remembered those days far too clearly sometimes.

“Your sister was a fine woman, but she was more

a rebel than anyone wanted to admit after her death.

But, even more, she lived her life as she felt best, as

she wanted to. That’s really all you can do as well

Cami. If Rafe is what you want, then that’s what you

should have. Don’t let this town’s pettiness affect that.

And you and Rafe have plenty of us friends willing to

stand by you if the barons decide there are other

ways to make their grandsons’ lives miserable.”

She could hear a mild chastisement in his voice

and she didn’t understand where it had come from or

what made him believe there was anything between

her and Rafe that would warrant it.

“We’re not lovers, Archer.” She turned, glancing

at his profile before staring through the windshield to

avoid his gaze. As lies went, even she wasn’t certain

of the lie in that one.

“I never said you were. But, if I were you, I’d

remember it was no one’s business if you were.

You’re an adult, not a child to be ordered about.”

Neither did she need anyone attempting to push

her closer in Rafer’s direction. She was going to feel

like a bone between a gang of dogs very soon.

She suddenly remembered her sister Jaymi

making a similar comment the summer she had died,

while she and Rafer had been living together, or

rather, sleeping together.

“Do you ever see the ignorance in this war

against them?” she said as she turned to him. “I’ve

never understood why his family disowned him, or why

everyone made the decisions to either follow suit, or

secretly befriend them.”

Archer grimaced. “If you figure that one out, then

why don’t you let me know about it?”

“Do you have any idea why?” she asked.

Archer breathed out harshly. “You know, Cami,

I’ve known those boys all my life. My father knew all

their parents and worked for their grandparents, but I

don’t think I’ve ever heard why they disowned them. It

might be interesting to know, though.”

She hoped he had better luck than she had in

finding out because so far she didn’t have a clue.

Even her sister hadn’t been able to explain to Cami or

to herself, why it had happened.

She knew the Callahan brothers Rafe, Logan,

and Crowe’s fathers had married three heiresses who

had already been engaged to three men their fathers

had chosen for them. Once those three women had

met the Callahan brothers, their hearts had been lost

forever, though.

Still, that wasn’t reason enough to try to frame

their only children more than twenty years later for the

vicious rapes, torture, and murders of the six young

women who had died twelve years ago. Nor was it

reason enough to hate three children, as those young

men had been hated in their youth.

“Why do it?” she murmured, almost to herself.

“Do what?” Archer was obviously paying close

attention to everything she was saying.

“Why hate the sons so viciously for whatever their

fathers had done?”

And that was what her sister had suspected was

behind the animosity directed toward the cousins.

Whoever had targeted the cousins’ fathers had

immediately turned their attention to the cousins once

their parents had died.

“Did you know Jaymi and her boss were both

threatened when she was seeing Rafe, just before

she died?”

Cami turned to look at Archer, watching as he

threw her a dark frown.

“No one mentioned that, even Rafe, and we’ve

seen each other and discussed Jaymi’s death a time

or two since the charges were dropped.”

“She was trying to keep Rafe from knowing about

the harassment she was dealing with,” she told him.

“But she began getting calls after he would leave at

night, or the next morning. Threats, filthy accusations.

The Gillespies pulled the babysitting job she had

watching their granddaughter, and someone called

Dad and warned him that she would be ‘punished’ if

she didn’t sever the relationship.”

Archer’s gaze flicked back to her as he slowed

down, obviously trying to make the drive longer as he

grew more curious.

“Did she know who it was?”

Cami shook her head. “She never knew who was

calling her. But she finally did break things off when

her boss came to the apartment to talk to her the night

before the last social she attended with me, Rafer,

and his cousins. He was warned that if Jaymi didn’t

stop seeing Rafe and he didn’t fire her, then they

would burn down the pharmacy. He was so scared he

was shaking.”

“The man that killed Jaymi was linked to the other

women’s deaths as well,” Archer mused. “Only a few

of them had a connection to Rafe and his cousins.”

“I’m not saying it wasn’t him,” she told Archer. “I

don’t know anything more than that. Two weeks after

the pharmacy owner came to the house, Jaymi was

dead and her killer was dead.”

Archer was silent for long moments. “My dad was

sheriff then,” he said. “I asked him about it. He said

there were no ties between the cousins and the killer

at all. Nothing tied the six women together, and he

couldn’t remember seeing the Callahan cousins with

any of the women that summer except Jaymi.”

“And everyone wanted so desperately to believe

they had killed Jaymi,” Cami said softly. “Archer,

didn’t your father ever question any of this?” Archer

gave a tight shake of his head. “I argued with him over

that at the time. Not that it helped.”

“None of it ties together, no matter how I try to

find a way to understand it.” And she needed to

understand it.

Archer grunted. “And that’s exactly how their

lawyer managed to get the charges dropped,” he

reminded her. “The fact that the DNA that came back