Camden watched as the three Stephenson men each processed those words. Emmanuel spared Camden a sorrowful glance that tore at Camden’s heart. This family was falling apart in front of his eyes, and none of them would be all right until they returned Evelyn unharmed.
“Manny.” Elijah’s voice was thick with emotion as he called his brother’s name. He stepped closer to Emmanuel, wrapping his arms around him. “We will find these motherfuckers and end them before they hurt Mama and still protect Camden at the same time.”
“I’m scared, E.”
Elijah held his brother tighter, wrapping him in a protective cocoon. The sight of the two men clutching at each other for strength while Vivienne walked across the room to embrace their bone-weary father made Camden hurt for this family more.
The notion of feeling so much for a group of people he’d only spent days with seemed strange even to him. But this family had raised a man he cared for. If he cared about Elijah, how could he not be ripped to shreds by watching their pain?
It made little sense, this connection he had with this man and these people. But logical or not, there was something powerful about the Stephensons that had grabbed hold of Camden’s heart and wouldn’t let go.
We loved each other, so we took care of each other.
Evelyn would be proud that the people she loved most were doing just as she’d expected, taking care of one another no matter how much it hurt. Ache squeezed his heart, and Camden understood why Evelyn’s words were so accurate. Watching the man he loved hurt and knowing he couldn’t do anything to change it made Camden’s chest constrict with the discomfort of helplessness.
But are you really helpless?
As soon as the thought sparked in the back of his mind, Camden resolved to follow it through. Elijah would hate him for it later, but Camden couldn’t allow that to keep him from doing what was right.
His eyes looked down on the corner of the counter where Elijah had dropped his keys when they entered through the back door. Camden made a quick swipe of his hand, fisting the keys quietly in his palm. He slipped them into his pocket and glanced back at the scene still unfolding in the middle of the kitchen.
All eyes were still on the Stephensons. Camden took one final glance and slipped out of the back door. He didn’t look over his shoulder as he made his way through the backyards of the connecting properties. He just kept going until he found the dark blue sedan Elijah informed him of the night the Stephensons arrived. It wasn’t until he was already driving down the block that he allowed himself to glance at the retreating small house through the rearview mirror.
“Please forgive me, Elijah. I couldn’t let her die because of me.” Camden was doing the wrong thing for the right reason. He just hoped Elijah would understand why.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“I SWEARto God I’m gonna wring his fucking neck when I catch him.”
Elijah took a quick look over to the driver’s side of the unmarked sedan where Captain Searlington focused on the road. He wasn’t supposed to be in the car with her, but after threatening bodily harm to Smyth if he didn’t get out of Elijah’s way, his captain reluctantly agreed to let him partner with her instead.
“Not if I catch him first, Cap.”
“Right hand to God, I cannot stand rich people.”
Elijah glanced at his boss through the narrowed slits of his eyes. “Wait, aren’t you married to a rich dude?”
“And your point?”
Elijah threw up his hands and shook his head. Everyone in their right mind knew the captain’s husband was off-limits. Elijah would be in enough hot water with Camden running off alone; he didn’t want to add to Captain Searlington’s bad mood by reminding her that her man and the person who was currently infuriating her were cut from the same cloth.
“Stephenson, how well do you know this man beyond the brief history the DA described to me?”
Elijah kept his eyes fastened to the road, looking for hazards as they sped through the streets with lights and sirens blazing. “I’m not sure what you mean?”
“I’ve met Camden Warren all of once. He seemed entitled and self-centered. Nothing about him screams sacrificial lamb. What’s really going on here?”
Elijah was grateful they’d made it beyond the local streets and onto the highway where there was no intersecting traffic. Trying to explain what occurred between him and Camden was too distracting for him to watch out for oncoming cars and pedestrians in the intersections as his Captain focused on the road ahead of them, and unravel the complicated ball of webbing his feelings for Camden had become.
“As my captain, I don’t think you really want to know the answer to that question. This way, you still have plausible deniability.”
She nodded, eyes still fixed on the road, and then sped down the left lane of the Hutchinson River Parkway. “In that case, I guess I don’t need the specifics. Let me offer you the same advice my captain gave me when I fell in love with someone he assigned me to protect. Tread carefully. Do your damn job and keep this shit as quiet as you can until this case is closed. Because if it gets out you two were together during the case, you’ll be the one to suffer, Elijah, not him.”
Elijah gave her a silent nod. She wasn’t wrong. Camden’s name came with clout that Elijah’s would never carry. If this shit went sideways, Elijah’s career would take the hit, not Camden’s.
“Trust me, keeping it quiet isn’t an issue at the moment, Cap. It might never be if we don’t get there in time.”
“We’ll get there.”
