Elijah laughed. It was true; there was a risk in him bringing Camden here, more than one in fact, and not all having to do with this case.
“This house isn’t attached to me, not on the surface anyway.” Elijah had purchased this house through a shell company he’d created. One couldn’t work in Vice for as long as he did and not walk away with more than a handful of enemies. If those enemies could find his name easily on a property record, Elijah wouldn’t have survived as long as he had in the game. “Not to mention, technically, I’m still on the disability list. There’s nothing on paper that connects me to Camden or the precinct right now. If they’re looking for him, my spot is the last place they’ll look.”
His father nodded. Elijah could see acquiescence taking hold in Walter’s eyes as the man mulled over Elijah’s explanation. “It’s not the most orthodox plan you could’ve come up with, son. Who knows where you have him?”
Elijah shook his head. “No one. My captain knows I have him, but she doesn’t know where. I’m not using my cell, only contacting the captain through a burner.”
His father continued to nod his head as he processed the info Elijah was feeding him. “You know your mama can’t know about this, right?”
Elijah’s chest swelled with discomfort. Choosing not to disclose the particulars of his dangerous job was one thing. Allowing her to believe her son had found love, something he knew she prayed for, was a different scenario. The image of her wrapping herself around Camden both frightened and excited him at the same time. It was a glimpse into a future he’d hoped his new desk job would help him build.
But that future couldn’t happen with Camden. And no matter how ready his mother seemed to designate Camden her extra son, the reality was Camden would walk away from Elijah when this was all over. If he perpetuated this lie, it would disappoint his mother.
But what was the alternative?
“She’d worry.”
His father sighed loudly and rubbed the sides of his temple. “Between my twenty years on the force, and your fourteen, and nearly losing you, Elijah, her heart can’t take it. She’s a strong woman. She’d have to be to put up with me all these years. But your mother pushed herself so much worrying about you in that hospital bed and during your recovery that her heart nearly gave out.”
Elijah didn’t need the memory of finding his mother on the floor unresponsive and laboring to breathe as a reminder of how deadly stress could be. The doctor had called it a small heart attack. Nothing about its effects seemed small to Elijah. A change in diet, more exercise, and minimal stress had been the recommendation. His mother had dedicated her life to taking care of the men in her family. And in kind, the three Stephenson men vowed they’d do whatever they needed to keep Evelyn Stephenson alive and thriving.
“She’s gonna kill me when she finds out Camden and I are scamming her.” Elijah moved next to his father, nudging him slightly out of the way as he leaned against the SUV. “And then she’s gonna kill you when she finds out you knew about it.”
His father chuckled and shook his head. “You ain’t ever lied, son.”
Walter pushed off from the car and began a slow saunter toward the stairs leading to the house, leaving Elijah to replay their conversation in his head. It wasn’t until his father reached the top of the landing that Elijah realized what was bothering him.
“How did you know Camden was the executive ADA? I never mentioned that. And as far as I know, PD has kept his attack under wraps from the press. The explosion was linked to a faulty gas pump, and no injuries or casualties were revealed.”
Walter turned around to answer Elijah’s question. His brow furrowed into a sharp point between his eyebrows. “I met him at the hospital when you were attacked.”
“He was there?”
Elijah’s memory of that time was still sketchy. Between the pain meds and the brain swelling, Elijah couldn’t trust any of the strange visions that haunted him from that time. But somewhere in the depths of his subconscious Elijah remembered a glimmer of Camden’s face. He’d passed it off all this time as the wishful musings of a dying man. But what if he wasn’t dreaming? What if Camden had been there?
“He was the first one from the DA’s office to come to your hospital bed when you were attacked.”
Elijah followed his father up the stairs, leaning against the banister as he sifted through his father’s answer. “Then why didn’t Mama and Manny recognize him?”
“Your mother and brother weren’t with me when the squad car pulled up to the house. Manny and Viv were on vacation, and your mother was off on that missionary trip with her church in Boston. She arrived by police escort a few hours after me.” Walter returned to the house as Elijah jogged back down the steps and removed the remaining suitcase from the SUV’s cargo area.
Elijah had believed it was a dream all this time. Hell, even if Camden had been in his room, the memory Elijah carried with him could well have been a hallucination. Just his mind’s way of easing Elijah’s pain and giving him something to hold on to.
He tried to think back to that time. All of it was hazy to him. One minute Elijah was doing a dirty gun deal in the back room of an underground club. The next, he was blocking an attack from multiple directions. It was dark, and he couldn’t see who his attackers were. The only thing he knew was that there was more than one of them, and if his backup didn’t get to him soon, he’d be a dead man.
Six months later and Elijah still didn’t remember what happened between initially being attacked and waking up in the ICU a week later on life support. But he’d always carried the fuzzy image of Camden with a single tear down his cheek.
The sadness that registered in Camden’s eyes lit a fire somewhere in Elijah’s addled brain that told him there was something, someone worth fighting for. When Elijah had finally awoken, and the only faces he saw were those of his family members, he’d concluded it was just his imagination.
Elijah gently shook himself free of the haunting image. Elijah moved up the steps with the suitcase in hand and stepped inside of the kitchen. He glimpsed his family and Camden sitting at the kitchen table laughing loudly and thought to himself,Maybe it wasn’t a dream at all.
Chapter Twelve
CAMDENsat in the living room flanked by the entire Stephenson clan. He made himself comfortable in the oversized armchair, his back straight, one leg crossed over the other, and his hands neatly sitting atop his thigh as he took in Elijah’s family.
They were loud, fun, and connected in ways Camden had never experienced on a personal level. Sure, he understood the fundamentals of how a family was supposed to work, but the reality often differed from the ideal.
He’d always thought of himself as fortunate being born into the Warren clan. His family possessed generational wealth that afforded Camden and his parents a luxurious life most couldn’t conceive of.
