Midnight Sins (41 page)

The next time Crowe had seen her, though, she

had been a picture in the paper, the latest victim of

the Sweetrock Rapist.

As he slipped from the house, Rafe decided it

was time to start questioning the past himself.

CHAPTER 12

Three weeks. Cami waited three weeks for Rafer to

return. For him to come back to the house, demand

entrance into both her home as well as her body.

Twenty-one days later, he still hadn’t arrived.

The waiting was destroying her nerves. She

swore she had lost five of that extra ten pounds she

carried pacing the darkened house each night.

She didn’t bother turning on lights. What was the

use?

The waiting had so stretched her nerves that she

found herself unable to stand one more night of it.

She wasn’t waiting another minute.

She was horny, she was pissed, she was bored,

and she was ready to socialize. For at least a few

hours.

Thankfully, the county’s only bar and local

nightspot was only a few blocks from her home, on the

north side of the city square.

Bartlette’s Bar and Grill also hosted the county’s

meals and drinks for the weekend socials. Throughout

the rest of the year, customers could count on a band

every weekend and, weather permitting, the wide

sidewalk to spill out to when the crush of the crowd

became overpowering.

Dressed in jeans, a soft blue sweater, and lowheeled

boots, Cami made the walk to the

establishment as quickly as possible without running.

There hadn’t been phone calls in the past three

weeks from her less-than-admiring “blocked” caller.

Evidently he’d either considered her a lost cause, or

he hadn’t realized Rafer had been at the house for

that last one. Whichever it was, there had been

relative silence where the calls were concerned.

That didn’t ease her nerves, if anything, it made

them worse. It also made the walk to the bar one filled

with trepidation and the knowledge that Jaymi hadn’t

been taken from her home the night she had been

killed. She had been caught on the street going after

Cami’s medicine.

That fact was something her father reminded her

of often. That if it hadn’t been for her, Jaymi would

have never been killed.

Cami knew better. The killer had been focused

on Jaymi, because she knew something about him.

She had finally realized his identity.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t told anyone else her

secret, neither had she written it in the journal she

kept.

Turning the corner to the city square, it was to the

sight of a larger than normal crowd.

Customers were definitely spilling out of the bar,

sitting on the cement benches across the street in the

well-lit square, or at the bistro tables that sat scattered

around the wide sidewalk, and in the well-manicured

area of the festively lit inner courtyard that sat inside

the four sidewalks that comprised the city square.

“Cami!” Loud and boisterous, a feminine voice

lifted amid the music and the chatter as a slender

figure detached herself and all but skipped across the

street to meet her. “It’s about time your fine ass

showed up.”

Green eyes sparkling, her freckled face filled with

laughter, the kindergarten teacher, Emma Walker,

threw her arms around Cami’s shoulders for a

boisterous hug.

“Geeze, Emma, you’d think it’s been years since

you’ve seen me instead of days,” Cami laughed as

she hugged the shorter girl back.

“It’s been forever since you’ve come out to play.”

Emma stepped back, almost bouncing, laughter

bubbling from her lips and gleaming in the gem-bright

green of her eyes.

“Well, I’m definitely coming out to play tonight,”

she informed the other girl.

“And just in time for some juicy, juicy gossip.”

Emma rolled her eyes expressively as she linked her

arm with Cami and began pulling her down the block.

“Tell me you were not at the Ramsey Ranch just after

the blizzard wrapped around Rafe Callahan like a

vine?”

“Like a vine?” Her brows arched as she glanced

over at her friend. “I don’t remember being wrapped

at all. Locked against that wide manly chest,

definitely.”

Regardless of what Rafer thought, there was no

shame in what she had done, or in having others

know she had done it. What terrified her was losing

him.

Emma came to a hard stop, staring up at her in

shock.

The chill evening air almost brought a chill to

Cami’s spine. That, or the fact that Emma was staring

at her as though she had just admitted she had the

plague, or was some alien creature from another

planet.

“Close your mouth, Em,” Cami advised her

ruefully. “I didn’t kill anyone, I just kissed him.”

“Oh my God, and wasn’t it just so good?” Emma

breathed out in awe now. “Tell me all about it. No one

in this county will even admit to speaking to one of the

Forbidden Triplets.”

“Forbidden Triplets?” Cami didn’t know about

that one. “They’re cousins, not triplets.”

“But they look enough alike to be triplets,” Emma

protested. “And don’t change the subject. Tell me

about that kiss. It had to have been simply divine.”

It was all Cami could do to hold back her

laughter. Strawberry-red curls fell to Emma’s

shoulders and framed a delicate, heart-shaped face.

“Why did it have to be? It could have been wet

and slobbery,” she suggested as they began walking

toward the crowd once again.

Emma snorted. “I rather doubt it. But if it was,

then I still want to know. Now tell me.”

“It was okay.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t slobbery

or anything.”

“Just okay?” Disappointment rang in the other

woman’s voice. “It wasn’t earth-shattering or groundshaking,

or made your toes delicious?”

It was all those things and so very much more.

Cami assumed a thoughtful look to her

expression. “It was okay.” She nodded decisively as

though that were the final word on the Callahan kiss.

“Oh, wow.” There was a definite pout on Emma’s

lips now. “I think I’ve just been crushed.”

Cami laughed again as they joined the crowd

gathered on the sidewalk just outside the bar.

The waitress, a young woman Cami had gone to

school with, took her drink order, as well as an order

for hot wings.

She wasn’t particularly hungry, but neither had

she eaten that day. She was more nervous than

anything and eating wasn’t any higher on her list of

priorities than it had been the day before.

As the first drink hit her system though, Cami felt

the softening haze of relaxation begin to ease through

her. At the first offer to dance, she was in the middle

of the street with Dean Meyers, the Phys. Ed. teacher

at the high school, and several dozen other couples,

as a rousing beat filled the night.

The music faded and a round of applause for the

band filled the street. Turning away from her dance

partner, she was unaware of the large body that had

eased in behind her.

She became more than aware of it though as his

hard arms wrapped around her, and the once-rousing

music turned slow and seductive as the bar lights

strung across the streets dimmed to match the slower

beat.

“Rafer,” she whispered, her finger clenching on

the hard biceps that tensed beneath her touch.

She was aware of not just the couples in the

street, but also those along the sidewalk watching.

She could feel all eyes on her, watching, dissecting

the dance.

“You can slap me and stalk away if you want,” he

suggested, his expression hard, lashes lowered over

the sapphire of his eyes.

“I told you, Rafer, I wasn’t ashamed of you,” she

told him. “It’s not shame.”

“In three weeks you haven’t called,” he told her

coolly.

“Neither have you.”

“You don’t answer the phone when I call,” he

growled, his head lowering until he was nearly nose to

nose with her.

“You would have to actually call to find out, now,

wouldn’t you?” she said with a heavy, false

sweetness.

His gaze narrowed on her as his hands dropped

from her waist to her hips, drawing her closer to him

as he placed his hand at the back of her head and

pressed it to his chest.

She couldn’t resist letting him hold her.

It had been three weeks. Three long, lonely

weeks.

“Any more phone calls?” he asked her as they

moved and swayed to the seductive rhythm of the

music.

She shook her head, loathe to allow anything to

intrude on the magical moment they were sharing.

She expected him to say something more. Some

kind of I-told-you-so. A reminder that he had warned

her there was nothing to it. Marshal Roberts messing

with her head and nothing more.

When he said nothing, she relaxed against him,

luxuriating in the warmth of his body wrapping around

her, filling her, drawing her closer to him.

The dance was a moment out of time. It was a

slow, unconsciously binding moment, one she didn’t

know how to fight.

As it drew to a close, he pulled back and stared

down at her for a long, unbroken moment.

Just when she thought his head would lower that

last inch and his lips would touch hers where God and

everyone could see the intimacies they shared, he

pulled back instead.

“Rafer?” she questioned, wondering why he

suddenly seemed so distant.

“Later,” he said softly. “I’ll call later.”

She stepped to the curb as he pulled from her

completely, then turned and walked away.

She watched as he crossed the street, the self

confidence in his walk, the strength of his shoulders,

and the lift of his head drawing more than one

feminine gaze.

What the hell was he up to?

“And the gossip ensues,” Emma drawled behind

her. “Not only does Rafer Callahan show up, but so

does his cousin, Miss Anna Corbin.”

Cami turned to her friend, then followed the

direction of her look.

Another bitter loss of her past, Cami thought, as

she saw the young woman entering the bar with

another familiar face.

Amelia Sorenson.

She and Cami had once been as close as

sisters. Collaborators, conspirators, and cohorts, they

used to say.

Until that final year in college when Amelia had