Midnight Sins (53 page)

“He always was a fool, Cami-girl.”

Her head did lift then. Eddy stood a few feet from

the bed, his gaze gentle. She’d rarely seen Eddy with

that expression. That was his funeral face and his

new-baby face. And now, it was his feel-sorry-for-

Cami face.

“Rafer didn’t hurt Jaymi,” Cami said, feeling

numb, wooden. “He wouldn’t have called her and

warned her against himself. Just like the calls I’m

getting.”

Eddy sighed heavily as he shoved his large,

scarred, and beaten hands into his pant pockets.

“Well, a man gets suspicious and he gets paranoid,”

he said. “I’m not going to say he did do it anymore.

But I won’t say he didn’t. You’re our girl, Cam. Nothin’

ain’t gonna change that and nothin’ ain’t gonna make

us stop worryin’ ’bout you. Especially now.” Somber

and filled with brusque emotion, Eddy sniffed

uncomfortably before glancing away from her.

“A benefit of a doubt then?” she asked wearily.

He nodded slowly. “For you, girl. I know you. I

know you’re damned smart, and you’re a damned

good girl. That’s how Jaymi raised you but I ain’t

never called you a fool. And I never called Jaymi one.

And she always defended those Callahan boys. I’m

not going to turn on my second-best girl just because

no one else wants to agree with her.”

His second-best girl. She glanced to her aunt,

dressed in her nursing scrubs, her expression somber

but her gaze loving as she watched her husband. Ella

was his best girl, he always said, and bemoaned

often the fact that she hadn’t been able to conceive

the daughter he wanted. A baby girl who looked just

like his best girl.

Cami swallowed tightly. If she wasn’t careful, she

was going to end up crying. No, she wouldn’t just cry,

she would be sobbing, and she couldn’t afford to sob.

She hated crying. It pissed her off and made her eyes

sore. And her head was sore enough. She felt

overwhelmed by Eddy and Ella’s anger at Mark, and

the way they glanced at her, their sorrow for her

aching inside them. She couldn’t seem to make them

understand that it really didn’t matter anymore. She

was used to her father’s disregard, as well as his

judgmental hatred where her past with Rafer was

concerned.

She had actually needed him when she had lost

her child. Him and her mother, but that had been

years before. She had learned a long time ago not to

let it hurt, not to let it bother her. That was just the way

it was.

“It’s okay, Uncle Eddy,” she assured him, trying to

smile, but her head just hurt too bad to attempt it.

At least her face wasn’t too bruised. Thankfully,

the bastard hadn’t managed to hit her but once in the

face. He’d split her lip, turned one side of her face a

lovely shade of blue and red. No, the majority of the

damage had been the bruises caused by those heavy

fists at the side of the head and the concussion the

doctor had diagnosed.

Her temple was so tender that any tug at the skin

there sent pulses of pain radiating through her head.

“It’s not okay.” He shook his head. “But there’s no

changing him anyway.”

“Has he ever been a father to you?” Ella asked

knowing he hadn’t been, as she turned away to

secure the blood she had taken earlier in the small

tote she carried.

Cami really didn’t want to talk about this now, and

she definitely didn’t want to deal with it. She just

shrugged.

“Cami knows he never was.”

Cami’s head jerked up, a whimper almost

escaping as the movement sent a lance of agony

twisting through her skull.

Rafe moved around her uncle, his leanly

muscled, long-legged stride covering the distance

until he was standing beside her, his fingers beneath

her chin to lift her face.

She didn’t fight him. She didn’t have the strength.

She just stared up at him, miserably aware of what he

was seeing.

Her makeup was smeared, the right side of her

head swollen, her face darkened with the bruise, and

her lip split. She looked like she boxed for a living.

“School board contacted Archer as we drove into

the hospital parking lot,” Rafe told her. “Until this is

resolved, and your attacker caught, you’re on a

medical leave of absence.”

In other words, they didn’t want the gossip or the

small chance of danger that came with her attack.

She understood the concern, somewhat. But she

hadn’t been attacked at school. She knew her

students, though; they were curious and full of

questions at even the busiest time of the school day.

Right now, she didn’t need the questions or the

knowledge that the answers would be spread among

the general public.

It was the right decision for her, at this time. It just

sucked to have the decision made for her.

“She needs to rest,” her aunt Ella spoke up then,

her tone confrontational as she glared from Rafe to

her niece. “And she’s refusing to stay here.”

Rafe slid his fingers back, allowing Cami to turn

her gaze from his, thankfully. She swore she was

staring death in the eye. There was such latent

violence swirling in his gaze that she had to suppress

a shiver.

“I’ll be fine, Aunt Ella,” she assured her.

“You’re not going home by yourself,” Cami’s

uncle protested, though this time he had that tone

normally reserved for his son.

“I’ll be fine.” She had no other place to run to, and

she wasn’t going to her aunt and uncle’s. Cami loved

them, but the thought of living with them terrified her.

“I’ll take care of her.” Rafe’s tone brooked no

refusal, and as she slid him a quick look beneath her

lashes she realized she was hesitating to argue back

as well.

The tension that rose in the room was

unmistakable.

“I said I’ll be fine—,” she began to protest again.

“Like you were this time?” Rafe growled.

“Because you were too damned stubborn and

ashamed to let anyone know what was going on.”

“Ashamed? Me?” She stared back at him in

surprise. “I’m not ashamed, Rafe. I’m practical.

Something you don’t seem to be. And I did tell you.”

“Really? You didn’t adequately explain” he

argued sardonically as he crossed his arms over his

chest and stared down at her with irritating arrogance.

“Practical is hiding the fact you’re getting threatening

phone calls until someone actually tried to rape and

murder you in your own home. Right?”

She winced before glancing quickly at her aunt

and uncle. Cami swore Eddy paled before he

swallowed tightly to regain his equilibrium.

“That was uncalled for.”

“It was the truth. Now, you can stay here, in this

nice, sterile little room, or you can stop arguing with

me and I’ll take you home. Those are your choices.

Now pick one before I pick it for you.”

She so did not like being ordered around like

this. If it weren’t for the headache, as well as the

exhaustion, she would have argued with him.

“I want to sleep in my own bed.”

There was no way she was going to be able to

sleep in a hospital bed. She loved her aunt Ella, but

each time Cami had dozed off Ella had been there for

blood or some other nursing reason.

Rafe gave a sharp nod of his head.

“She shouldn’t be leaving, Rafe,” Ella spoke up

then. “The doctor wants her to remain until tomorrow

morning for observation. A concussion is nothing to

mess with, and he suspects she may have some

cranial bruising.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Cami told him mutinously.

“She gets paranoid.”

Ella rolled her eyes before turning back to Rafe.

“Are you paying attention to me, Rafer Callahan?”

Rafe’s brows arched as Cami glanced at him,

though he seemed more amused than angry.

“Yes, ma’am, I am,” he assured her. “In this case,

you may have to settle for a Marine medic, though.”

Ella propped one hand on her lush hip and stared

back at him, suspicious. “You’re a medic?”

“No, ma’am, but I have one.” He grinned back at

her. He had no intentions of telling them who the

medic was or that Logan had had training that could

have gotten him a job in any hospital as a physician’s

assistant.

“You two just are not going to listen to reason, are

you?” Ella finally griped.

“Maybe it’s a good thing, Ella,” Eddy spoke up. “I

just want her safe. And this is a public hospital. If her

attacker’s determined, he’ll not have too hard a time

getting to her.”

Cami could see what he wasn’t saying, though.

What if they were wrong and Rafe and his cousins

had been the ones to have killed Jaymi and, as many

believed, framed Thomas Jones?

It was in Ella’s and Eddy’s eyes and in their

voices each time they spoke and in their gazes as

they shared one of those speaking looks that only true

soul mates shared.

Eddy was rough talking, loud, and confrontational

whenever his petite wife wasn’t around. But once she

was there, he went from growling lion to tame little

house cat.

“Are you ready to go?” Rafe asked then. “Logan

and Crowe are waiting in the hall for us.”

Cami lifted her gaze to her aunt.

“Callahan, I wanna talk to you first. You and I can

walk out in the hall while Ella helps her finish getting

ready and gets her signed out.” Her uncle wasn’t

growling, but he wasn’t exactly the tame pussycat

either. Rafe stared across Cami’s head at the older

man, seeing more than simply the command in his

gaze. Eddy Flannigan was pissed off, but he wasn’t

pissed off with Cami or even with Rafe this time.

Rafe gave a sharp nod before bending his head,

his lips pressing the top of Cami’s head. “Be good,”

he warned her. “Don’t try to run on me.”

“Rafe, if I had to run for my life right now then I

think I’d probably have to just go ahead and die.”

He doubted that. According to the doctor Rafe

had talked to, she had put up one hell of a fight.

“I’ll be right outside then.” He let his fingertips

caress down her back before he moved away and

returned to the hall, the normally verbally abusive,

smart-assed Eddy following behind him.

As the door closed behind them, Eddy held up

his hand quickly as both Logan and Crowe

straightened from their positions on each side of the

door and glared at him fiercely.

“I’m not interested in fighting you boys, yet,” he

warned them.

Rafer crossed his arms over his chest and stared