“Let’s keep it simple, Camden.” His father might be the ex-cop, but his mother and sister-in-law were top-notch investigators. Those two could smell a lie like a rat did cheese. If they went in with a convoluted scheme, they’d know it.
“Being too elaborate will get us caught. You’re a friend visiting from out of town. I got my signals crossed with your travel dates.” As long as Camden stuck to it, they should be in the clear.
Elijah watched Camden carefully as he shook his head. He seemed calmer; some of the tension in his shoulders seemed to bleed away as he dropped his hands from his waist. But there was still a sense of dread floating around him in the careful way he took slow, shallow breaths.
“The me being a friend visiting is a solid plan, Elijah. But still, this is your family we’re talking about. I’m hiding from people who didn’t think twice about putting a bomb under my car. Is it wise to keep me here?”
“We don’t have much choice right now. Moving you is dangerous. It would probably take my captain a couple of days to mobilize a move for you anyway. Telling my family about you could be a risk too. They won’t be here for long. We’ll pretend to be besties for a few days, and they’ll be on their way.”
Camden rubbed a hand up and down against his opposite arm as if he was trying to brush a chill away. “If you think this is best, I’ll go along with it.”
“I know it is.” Elijah motioned for Camden to follow him, and they both headed for the stairs. When they rounded the corner and stepped into the kitchen, Elijah’s heart danced a little at the sight of the small, round woman with a cherub’s smile and wide-open arms waiting for him to step into them.
“There’s my favorite son,” Evelyn sang as Elijah bent down, wrapped his arms around her waist, and lifted her off of the floor in a bear hug.
“You know I can hear you, right, Ma?” Emmanuel’s comment went ignored by Evelyn as long as Elijah held her. He kissed his mother on the cheek, then placed her back on her feet as he gave his brother a smug smirk.
“Why be mad at the truth, Manny? I told you she loves me more. And we both know she’s not the only one either.”
Elijah stepped around his mother and into the arms of his sister-in-law, Vivienne. “Come here, girl, and give me some sugar.” Elijah made an overexaggeration of his display of affection for Vivienne because he knew it ticked his brother off.
With a close-faded Caesar haircut that accentuated her high cheekbones and full, heart-shaped mouth, the brown-skinned beauty’s affections were a prize his brother had been lucky to receive. “I was just telling my brother he ought to thank his lucky stars you were gracious enough to marry beneath your station, because we both know who got the better deal in this marriage contract.”
She giggled and waved a hand at him. “Elijah, are you sure you’re not checking for us ladies? You’ve got better game than any straight man who’s tried to kick it to me before. You should teach a class.”
“I did,” Elijah answered with a playful wink of his eye. “How do you think my brother pulled your card?”
“Elijah, stop flirting with your brother’s wife.” Elijah’s smile grew wider as he turned to embrace his father.
“But, Pops,” Elijah answered, “it’s so much fun.”
His father matched Elijah’s wide grin with one of his own as he pulled Elijah in for a hug.
Walter Stephenson carried the same height and build as his sons, tall, solid, strong, and unmovable in most things. But when it came to loving his family, the older man took advantage of every opportunity he had to show them they meant everything to him.
Walter ran a hand down the length of Elijah’s locs and smiled again. “I see Captain Searlington still hasn’t made you cut all that hair off.”
“Nope.” Elijah grinned. “She knows I’d sooner turn in my badge.”
“You sound awful confident you’re worth all that grief I know you’re bringing her.”
Elijah shrugged his shoulder. “I am my daddy’s son. They don’t make ’em like us Stephenson boys.”
“Damn right, son, they sure don’t.”
His father clamped his hand on Elijah’s shoulder and pointed to the doorway.
“Now, one of these things is not like the other, Elijah.”
Elijah already knew where this was going, and the hair on his arms stood up in anticipation of his father’s line of questioning.
This was how interrogations had always begun in Elijah’s house as a child. First his father would come to him with a playful, disarming tone that lulled Elijah and his brother into a false sense of security. Once his father had fattened them up for the kill, he’d tag their mother in for the win, and she’d decimate any lie he and his brother had cooked up.
Keep it cool, and everything’ll be fine.
“No worries, Pops.” Elijah kept his breathing even and his smile tempered as he glanced at Camden standing in the kitchen doorway.
Much to Elijah’s surprise, Camden was leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed against his chest, one ankle overlapping the other. He wore an amused smile that made him look carefree. His blue eyes sparked with laughter, and the laid-back picture he made reminded Elijah of their one night of conversation and lovemaking.
