Midnight Sins (39 page)

mused. Fuck, no, Marshal had done it out of a

vindictive desire to destroy the ranch and make them

completely paranoid. If it had been to protect them,

then the attacks would have come the times they had

sat in the ranch dark, silent ranch house and waited,

weapons ready, for the vandals to strike again.

“I want to know everything he said, Cami,” he

finally told her. “And don’t leave anything out.”

He watched as she stared up at the ceiling.

“I can’t do a play-by-play,” she told him wearily as

she turned her head to gaze back at him. “You don’t

believe me, do you, Rafer?”

“I don’t disbelieve you,” he finally sighed. “But,

Cami, you don’t know him as I do.” He shook his head

at the lifetime of memories he had where Marshal

Roberts and his deceptions were concerned.

“Rafer, he was trying to tell me something,” she

whispered, and Rafer knew she truly believed that.

“What else could it be?”

“Because he’s a son of a bitch?” he sighed

wearily.

“That’s not a good enough reason, Rafer,” she

said, saddened not just because of the life she knew

he and his cousins had lived but also because he

seemed to have accepted it as deeply as everyone

else in Corbin County. “Coincidences like this don’t

happen. There has to be more to it.”

“The reason doesn’t matter, Cami,” he assured

her with an edge of mockery. “And coincidences are

called that for a reason, I’ve learned. Sometimes, it

truly is a coincidence. Now I’m not concerned with the

past, with grandparents or with Marshal Roberts. I

want to know about those phone calls.”

“I told you about the phone calls, Rafer,” she

argued with a surge of anger. The fear was being

overshadowed now. Overshadowed by the anger that

Rafer refused to even consider the fact that danger

could be haunting him. “Why aren’t you willing to listen

to me?”

He gave a heavy sigh.

“Did you know the Corbins began this little

campaign?” he asked her softly. “Crowe’s

granddaddy stood at the entrance to the funeral home

when Logan, Crowe, and myself arrived at the funeral

home with Clyde. He barred our way. The Callahans

had no place there, he said. They murdered his

daughter and he refused to have one attend her

funeral, and Saul Rafferty, Logan’s grandfather, and

Marshal Roberts backed him on it. We weren’t

welcome there.”

Cami had heard that story more than once, and

each time she’d seen the conflict most people still

had over it. She had also seen the knowledge that

James Corbin had drawn the line that day and over

the years and he’d enforced it. Marshal Roberts and

Saul Rafferty hadn’t, though, if she remembered the

Callahan history correct. And she was pretty certain

she did.

“James Corbin enforced it,” she repeated. “Not

the others.”

“The other’s backed him, Cami,” he growled,

frustration filling his voice now. “Mine and Logan’s

grandfathers were just as much a part of it as James

Corbin was.”

“I don’t think Marshal Roberts was,” she argued.

“I don’t know about Saul Rafferty, but I do know he

moved from Corbin County just after his daughter’s

funeral. He only returns to oversee certain aspects of

the ranch, other than that his manager handles

everything. He’s separated himself from the entire

situation, hasn’t he?” She knew he had. She had

made it her business in the past few days to find out.

“Let it go, Cami,” Rafe warned her. “This isn’t

your fight, and it’s a fight you’ll lose. For God’s sake, if

any part of what you suspect is true, then can you

imagine the danger it would place
you
in?”

“You already suspected it?” she whispered,

shocked that he was fighting her if he had already

suspected something wasn’t right about the past.

“No, Cami, I don’t,” he told her, his tone short now

as he denied the charge. “Do you think we haven’t

thought of every question you’ve come up with?” He

reached out, his fingertips caressing down the side of

her face before he pulled back and watched her

quietly for long moments. “Honey, this time,

coincidence is coincidence.”

“You’re just accepting it?” She couldn’t believe it.

That Rafe wouldn’t fight against the suspected

murders of his family? Especially his parents and his

uncle?

“It’s not a question of accepting it or not

accepting it,” he informed her brusquely. “It’s the way

things are, plain and simple. The only reason you want

to change it at this point is so you can fuck me without

having to worry about the fine citizens of this county

looking down at you for sharing a bed with a

Callahan.”

Could she blame him for believing it? How many

people had ever questioned how the Callahan

cousins had been treated over the years?

How many had ever stood up for them?

Or had they, like her, been torn by the fear of

losing someone they would love with all their hearts

and the three men who only sneered in the face of

their unacceptance and flaunted the fact that they

didn’t give a damn? Men who dared their enemies to

strike out at them or anyone who loved them.

“Why did you even come here tonight if all you

wanted was to know about your grandfather’s visit?”

She was angry at herself, but a part of her was even

angrier at him. “What did it accomplish, Rafer? You

should have just called.”

He chuckled at her question then, a dark, sexy

sound of male amusement as the frustration and

anger eased from his gaze.

“What did it accomplish?” he asked arched his

brow, and gave her a heavy-lidded look of complete

male satisfaction. “Other than eliminating your need

for that fake dick tonight? It accomplished a hell of a

lot of pleasure and the best come I’ve had since the

last time I had my cock buried in your sweet little

pussy.”

“It’s last time it’s going to be buried,” she

retorted, knowing it was an empty threat, but growing

so furious now that her pride kicked in. “You should

have stayed home, Rafe.” She pushed away from

him, sliding from the bed as she acknowledged she

wasn’t going to walk away from him unscathed. Not

now, and not in the future. “You’re not willing to fight for

anything, are you, but I’m supposed to risk every part

of my heart and soul for the pleasure of having you in

my bed? Does this seem a little skewed to you

somehow? Tell me, Rafe Callahan, do you even care

what a woman would go through in this fucking county

for you? Would it even make a difference if you knew

you had broken her heart after she had already

placed herself on the firing line?”

Rafe grunted behind her, watching the slender,

graceful curve of her back as she moved from the

bed.

She was just damned determined to piss him off,

and if he was honest with himself then he admitted

she was getting close to that edge.

It wouldn’t be pretty once he let that anger build

inside him. He’d pushed those emotions back in his

teens, determined to never let them free again. He’d

fought his last battle when his Clyde had died and

Rafe had realized how many friends the man had lost

when he had taken in the three orphan cousins when

no one else would have them.

“You know, kitten, you amaze me,” Rafe drawled.

“You lay in this bed with that little toy of yours, fighting

to get off, knowing damned good and well that it’s my

dick you’re fantasizing about, and still, you’re

determined to run my ass off. I’d like to understand the

logic behind that one.”

There it was. The anger was beginning to

simmer inside his chest.

“You know the logic behind it, Rafer.” Soft, filled

with an anger he couldn’t help but acknowledge.

She kept her back to him, drew the silky robe

over her naked body before quickly belting it. “You

simply refuse to accept it. Why should I fight this alone

when you refuse to even acknowledge it? When you

don’t even give a damn about what’s happening

around you or why?”

“Acknowledge what? That you need everyone

else to approve of who you’re sleeping with?” He slid

her a hard look, determined to hold back the years of

resentment and anger that had once been buried. He

refused to allow her to resurrect them.

He stared up at the ceiling for a long moment

before rolling from the bed himself and jerking his

clothes off the floor. He’d be damned if he was going

to fight with her over this. It simply wasn’t worth it and

reminded him far too much of the arguments he had

with her sister the summer she had been killed.

Why the hell did they insist on attempting to tie

together events that even he and his contacts couldn’t

prove had a connection? And they were the ones who

had fought that battle all their lives.

No matter how hard they had tried, they couldn’t

find a single piece of evidence to link their parents’ or

their grandparents’ deaths. And God knew they would

have loved to.

Socks and jeans were pulled on quickly before

he sat on the bed and shoved his feet into his boots.

Rafe straightened again, collected his shirt from the

chair where it had fallen and pulled it over his

shoulders as well.

All the while, he was aware of her watching him,

her eyes sheening with tears every few minutes

before she blinked them back.

“You’re a coward, Cami,” he finally told her as he

secured the buttons of his shirt. “A damned little

coward that would cut her own nose off to spite her

face if it meant her daddy wouldn’t get mad at her. If it

meant he would love her.”

She turned away from him, hiding the truth from

him, he thought, knowing that was exactly why she

wanted him out of her bed after he fucked the want out

of her.
God forbid her daddy should find out about it,

Rafe thought furiously.

“You won’t even try to fight against the Corbins or

to understand why they want you and your cousins out

of this county so badly,” she argued fiercely.

“Oh hell, yes, I do know why.” He gave a bark of

mocking laughter. “The inheritances our mothers left

us were far more important to those bastards than the

grandchildren those daughters left. Especially

grandsons that looked too much like their hated

Callahan fathers.”

“Then tell me why Marshal Roberts grieved for

you?” she asked him, burying the knife that was the