Midnight Sins (63 page)

back of his neck in frustration as he shot her several

irate looks. She was the darling of the Corbin family,

though. The spitting image of her dead aunt, Crowe’s

mother, in both looks as well as temper. And if her

expression was anything to go by, an explosion could

be imminent.

“Eisner deserves the dagger more than most,”

Cami muttered. “The two men he’s talking to even

more so.”

“That’s the first time I’ve seen the girl out in

years,” Logan commented. “They usually keep her

away from town.”

“She and Jeannie are good friends,” Archer

interjected before blowing out a hard breath and

staring around in frustration. “It’s going to take this

crowd hours to disperse, and Jack’s not in a good

frame of mind if anyone decides to get ignorant with

their mouths.”

Cami almost grinned at the saying “get ignorant.”

The fine art of the smart-assed remark that could be

delivered mockingly, snidely, sarcastically, or in a

rage. It went along with having done something “for a

minute,” which usually indicated more than a few

days, and asking a person if they had taken their

“smart pills” or if they were mixed up with the “stupid

pills.” The locally grown little sayings had always

amused her, and she had found herself missing them

when she had been away at college.

“Yeah, well, getting ignorant is what some of

them do best,” Rafe breathed out roughly. “Get your

fire marshal to take him over the damage, then drive

him to the hotel outside of town. Keeping him away

from the homegrown yokels is your best bet unless

you want to see blood shed.”

Cami looked around again, her gaze caught by

the flash of a red Mercedes as it pulled in next to the

Corbins’ black four-door Jaguar.

Wayne Sorenson, Corbin County’s attorney,

stepped from the car accompanied by his daughter,

Amelia.

After Amelia had taken the teaching position in

Aspen, Cami rarely saw her and they never spoke.

Amelia had never forgiven Cami for revealing the

secret Sorenson had learned when he read the

journal she had so carelessly left lying in her dorm

room that day.

Amelia had changed.

Once, she had dressed in fashions that

highlighted her unique temperament and sense of

adventure. Now, she was dressed in a dark peacoat,

black slacks, a gray sweater, and staid, low-heeled

black pumps. The very type of clothes she had once

sworn no one would ever catch her dead wearing.

Was this maturity? Cami wondered. Or was it a

conformation aimed at attempting to gain Amelia’s

father’s love as well?

It seemed to be working for her, just as easily as

it had worked for Cami over the years.

Which was not in the least.

How long would it take Amelia to realize that no

amount of conforming would gain the acceptance and

the love she needed from her father?

“Cami?” Rafe’s hand at her back and the

questioning tone of his voice had her head lifting. “Are

you ready to leave?”

Was she ready to leave?

Did she really want to stay and watch the girl who

had once been as close to her as a sister pretend to

be something and someone she wasn’t?

“I’m ready.” She’d rather face Rafe’s wrath than

watch the Amelia doll pose with tense expectation

next to the father who didn’t even know she was there.

As Cami began to turn away, Amelia’s head

lifted and Cami couldn’t help but be drawn to a stop.

For the briefest second it seemed as though

misery and a plea were reflected in the emerald

depths of Amelia’s eyes before she quickly turned

away.

“We still have that meeting to make,” Crowe

reminded Rafe as they headed to the car.

At that moment, Wayne detached himself from

the Corbins, his expression dark with irritated anger

as his fingers curled around his daughter’s upper arm

and pulled her along after him.

Rafe and Cami drew to a stop, watching as

Wayne neared them. As he drew closer, Rafe

carefully slid her between his back and the cousins

behind him.

She nearly rolled her eyes as she pushed from

between the three men, her elbow pushing warningly

into Rafe’s stomach as Wayne and Amelia stopped in

front of them.

“Rafe.” Wayne nodded to the men in general.

“Wayne,” Rafe drawled.

The fact that Rafe hadn’t addressed him more

formerly had Wayne’s lips tightening for a second as

Amelia pushed her hands into the dark peacoat she

wore and looked down at the ground. If Cami wasn’t

mistaken, Amelia might have been hiding a smile.

“We’re going to have to reschedule the meeting

we had this afternoon.” Wayne lifted his head, his

nostrils tightening as though he smelled something

rotten. “I’ll have my secretary contact you to

reschedule.”

Rafe’s arms crossed over his chest.

Narrowing his eyes, Rafe watched Wayne

suspiciously. Cami could feel the tension that began

to radiate in his body and the sense of distrust that

filled the air around the three men where the county

attorney was concerned.

Amelia was aware of it as well.

How strange, Cami thought, that even after all

these years she could read Amelia as though they

had never spent the past three years as all but

enemies.

“I’ll see you later then.” Rafe gave a short nod of

his head as his arm once again curled around Cami’s

back, his fingers lying close at her hip.

Wayne didn’t acknowledge the agreement; he

merely turned on his heel and stalked away as though

the simple courtesy of saying,
Good-bye, See you

later,
or,
Fuck you, Callahan,
didn’t apply in the least.

Amelia moved more slowly, and as she turned

she pulled her hand from the pocket of her coat and a

piece of paper dropped free.

Rafe’s foot immediately covered it, and just in

time.

“Amelia?” Wayne turned back to her, his gaze

going past her to Rafe, Logan, Crowe, and then

Cami, as though searching for something, as though

he had expected Amelia to try to stop and talk or,

perhaps, to attempt to warn them of something.

“I’m coming, Father.” Her hands were back in her

coat, as though they had never slipped free.

God, what was going on?

Cami couldn’t take much more. She couldn’t

handle the hell that Corbin County was turning into any

longer or the haunting agony the past and the present

merging was creating.

It was her fault her best friend, the one person

she had had who believed in her, who loved her,

whom she could trust, had turned into this unemotional

robot that Amelia had turned into.

It was all Cami’s fault, because she had allowed

Wayne Sorenson to learn the secret that Amelia had

held close to her heart and had never told anyone but

Cami.

The fact that Crowe Callahan had kissed Amelia.

That he had held her and made her want more. That

he had filled her with such a hunger for him that she

had told Cami she understood why the loss of the

child Cami and Rafe had created had nearly

destroyed her.

She could feel her hands shaking. She could feel

something inside her stomach trembling, as though

the tremors attacking her fingers had begun in her

stomach and refused to dissipate.

As several firefighters, Archer, Jack, and Jeannie

moved between Rafe, Cami, the Corbins, and Wayne

Sorenson, Rafe quickly bent and retrieved the folded

note from beneath his shoe.

Turning his back on the group, he held it between

his fingers as he watched Cami expectantly.

Allowing Rafe, Logan, and Crowe to shield her,

she took the note and slowly unfolded it.

The house is being

watched. Trying to get

there. Kick some ass.

Love you. Your twin.

Cami felt her lips tremble. Why, after all this time,

was Amelia making contact?

“She’s going to try to slip to the house.” Cami

frowned, confused. “Why would she have to slip over

to see me?”

This was going beyond fear of gossip or of

Amelia’s father being angry. It was going beyond the

fact that the Corbins rewarded anyone who stood

against the Callahans and punished those who stood

with them.

And Amelia had signed the note:
Your twin
. They

had always sworn they were somehow kidnapped at

birth and taken from loving parents to be forced to

exist with those they suffered through. They called

each other twin when they were afraid of being caught

passing messages during the frequent groundings

they both had suffered as young girls and as

teenagers.

Amelia was afraid of someone finding the note or

learning she had written it.

Her twin. If anyone had ever been meant to be

Cami’s twin, then it was Amelia. And to learn that at

least something had survived the past three years and

the horrible mistake Cami had made had tears

wanting to fill her eyes again.

She hadn’t been this emotional since the first six

weeks of her pregnancy. She had cried at everything

then, and that was what she felt like doing now.

Sobbing, because there was nothing that made

sense anymore except the thought that she had to find

an alternative to leaving her home if it was truly

bugged. She wasn’t ready to leave. She wasn’t ready

to leave the security and the memories of her mother

yet.

“Crowe, get Tank out here,” Rafe muttered. “Get

the house checked over for bugs, and until he gets

here we need something that will generate a cover for

anything said there.”

“She’ll be at the house tonight,” Crowe said

quietly. “She’s going to end up endangering herself if

she does that.”

Cami shook her head. “The fact that I was

attacked in my own home and that whoever it was is

trying to mimic Thomas Jones will keep her in. She

wouldn’t risk herself like that.”

“You did,” Crowe pointed out.

She stared back at him, his expression and the

somber tone of his voice instantly registering with her.

Amelia would be there to see him if she could

find a way to slip past whoever was watching.

“Keep an eye out for her,” Rafe told him. “Unlock

the back door and see if you can spot whoever’s

watching.”

“If they’re watching, I’ll find them.” It was Logan’s