Midnight Sins (72 page)

helpless bafflement tightened his face.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he hissed.

“But I am here.”

Staid, buttoned-down. This was the Amelia who

had broken Cami’s heart for the past three years.

Amelia’s long hair was bound at the back of her

head, a thick bun that gave her a schoolmarmish

appearance. Sensible shoes, no jewelry. Strangely,

she wasn’t even wearing her wedding band.

“You’re not supposed to be here.” Lowry gave his

head a quick shake, his lips tightening as anger

began to burn in his gaze.

No, that wasn’t just anger. It was demented rage.

Cami stepped back farther, her intent to get to

the door on the wall closest to her.

It looked like a closet, but the door led instead

into another bedroom and then out into the hall.

“If you fire that gun, Rafe and his cousins will hear

it,” Amelia pointed out. “Is that what you want?”

“Do I have a choice?” he asked as something

akin to resignation flashed in his eyes. “We could

have done it the easy way.” He turned his attention

back to Cami now. “Now, we’ll just have to do it my

way.”

His finger began to tighten.

Cami felt the scream that tore from her throat as

the bedroom door crashed inward in that second and

Rafe came hurtling into the other man. His body much

taller, heavily muscled and controlled, Rafe took the

other man down as the first shot rang out.

Cami looked around, desperate, terrified of

where that bullet had gone and whom it had struck.

Amelia was thrown back against the wall, eyes

wide, her palms flat against the wall. Logan and

Crowe were running a second late behind Rafe.

It was as though hell had opened up and poured

a crazed strength into Lowry. He should haven’t been

strong enough to resist Rafe’s pure, possessive fury.

Yet Lowry was. He fought back, kicking and

screaming and pouring out his hatred of Cami as he

fought the man determined to save her.

At first, it looked as though they had to pull Rafe

off, that for whatever reason, he was unable to get to

his feet on his own. Then, Cami saw the damage.

She stepped forward, one foot, one step, a sob

tearing from her throat as Rafe rushed for her, pulling

her into his arms as his hand went to the back of her

head to hold her against his heart.

“Ah God, Cami.”

“How did you know?” she cried, her arms locked

around his neck as she fought to hold on as tight as

possible, to pull him into her skin if there was any way

she could do it.

“Crowe had a receiver up here, baby,” Rafe

answered, his voice raw, torn. “Thank God. He put the

receiver up here earlier. The minute I saw the voice

activation was blinking I knew—” His hold tightened

on her. “Oh God. Baby. I was almost too late. I was

almost too late.”

She held on to him, certain that if she let him go,

if she let her arms release him, let him out of her sight,

then she would find out it was all a dream and once

again she would be alone.

So alone.

Her hold tightened.

She couldn’t be without him again.

She couldn’t allow herself to waste so much as a

single moment that they could be together.

She had lost so much time. She had nearly lost

him.

“I love you,” the words tore from her lips as the

sobs finally escaped.

More than twelve years of holding them inside, of

telling herself it didn’t hurt so she could survive. Seven

years of loving him, of aching for him, of realizing that

nothing, that no one, could ever touch her, hold her,

kiss her as Rafer did.

And she could never love anyone as she loved

him.

“Ah, Cami.” Pulling his head back, he rested his

forehead against hers, staring down at her, his gaze

so dark, so filled with emotion.

And that emotion had always bound them.

That bond she hadn’t been able to decipher

hadn’t been so hard to figure out; she just had to allow

herself to get past the denial. The denial that she had

lost their child, that she had lost her dearest friend,

and the knowledge that if she lost Rafe again, then

like Jaymi, she wouldn’t want to live.

She believed that. How many times had she

heard Jaymi whisper that she didn’t know if she could

wake up another morning without her heart?

And now, Cami understood. She knew what her

sister had felt, how she had loved, and knew that if

she had nothing left of Rafe to hold on to, no reason to

get up every morning, then she too would wonder just

how much longer she had to wait.

“He’s dead, Rafe.” Crowe’s voice drew their

attention back to the scene in the middle of her

bedroom floor.

Lowry Berry, the shy, socially reclusive teacher

whom she and Jaymi both had called friend, had been

a crazed child rapist and a killer.

“Who the hell was he working for, though?” Logan

muttered as he propped his hands on his hips and

stared down at the bloody corpse.

There was a single gunshot wound to Lowry’s

chest, directly into his heart. A self-inflicted wound. He

had killed himself rather than face trial or have to face

the fact that his crimes would be brought to light.

“What do we do now?” she asked as Crowe

pulled his phone free of the holder at his hip.

“Now, we call Archer,” Rafe breathed out roughly

before turning to Amelia, then back to Crowe. “Let

Logan call the sheriff. You get her the hell out of here

and back home. We don’t need her name in this.”

Amelia still stood against the wall, watching, her

face pale, her eyes locked on Lowry’s lifeless form.

“He called me last night.” She lifted her gaze to

Cami, misery reflected in their depths. “He’s never

called me before, Cami. He said friends should say

good-bye.” Amelia gave her head a hard shake as

her gaze lifted back to Cami. “I didn’t know what he

was talking about until I heard Jack’s garage had

blown up.”

“Get her out of here, Logan,” Crowe growled.

“Now.”

“I thought that was your job?” Logan muttered.

Crowe shot him a dangerous, brooding look. “I

think she comes with more trouble than I need.”

Cami’s breath caught at the pain that suddenly

flashed in her friend’s eyes.

Amelia’s shoulders straightened, though, her

emerald eyes turning dark and emotionless.

“I didn’t need any help getting here, and I don’t

need any help leaving,” she informed them.

Then, steady and calm, she moved to Cami.

“It would kill me if anything happened to you,”

Amelia said evenly. “And I never blamed you for what

Father found. He was looking for something and he

found it.” She shot Crowe a cold look. “It was my fault.”

“Amelia—”

“I hear fucking sirens. Get her the hell out of here

if she’s going,” Crowe rasped.

Amelia turned on her heel and, with Logan close

on her heels, hurriedly left the bedroom.

Cami listened until the sound of Amelia’s

footsteps on the stairs faded away and nothing else

was heard.

Rafe’s arm slid around Cami once again, pulling

her against him, the warmth of his body, the steady

strength found there, a balm to what had been her

shattered soul.

How had she managed to survive without him for

the past three years?

“We don’t know who was behind it,” she said

softly as the sound of the sirens grew closer.

“But now, we know he’s out there,” Rafe said, his

hold on her tightening. “We know he’s there, Cami,

and we know to watch our backs.”

Looking over her head to his cousin, Rafe made

a vow to himself. Whoever it was. Whatever had

made them a target for whatever reason. They would

find him. They would find him, and they would make

damned certain he paid with his life as well.

Rafe was thirty years old and he’d believed a

single coincidence, Jaymi’s death, had marked his

life forever.

His life had been marked for far longer than the

years after Cami’s sister’s death. It stretched back to

his and his cousins’ childhoods and possibly even to

the deaths of their parents.

The question was why.

Laying his cheek against Cami’s head, he swore

to himself he’d find out why. Because he couldn’t risk

this, he couldn’t risk his soul by losing this woman.

If he lost Cami, then he would lose everything he

was and he would lose the only reason he had to fight

another day.

“I love you, kitten,” he whispered against her hair,

his eyes clenching closed, his hand stroking down her

back as his arms held her close.

She was his.

And in the darkest hours of midnight, when sin

was in the eye of the beholder and secrets were

guarded with the blood of others, Rafe knew he would

no longer be alone.

St. Martin’s Paperbacks Titles by

Lora Leigh

E
LITE
O
PS SERIES

Live Wire

Renegade

Black Jack

Heat Seeker

Maverick

Wild Card

SEAL
S TRILOGY

Killer Secrets

Hidden Agendas

Dangerous Games

~~~

Forbidden Pleasure

Praise for bestselling

author Lora Leigh’s

Elite Ops Series

RENEGADE

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Renegade
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Renegade
will have you breathless in places and it

gets your blood running hot with the physical attraction

between Mikayla and Nik.”
—Romance Reviews Today

BLACK JACK

“Overflowing with escalating danger, while pent-up

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