Elijah touched his forehead to Camden’s. It was a way of connecting, as if their minds and hearts melded into one when they touched like this. “We’ll be waiting for you. The choice is yours.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“HEknows the truth.”
Camden sat in Captain Heart Searlington’s office once again. This was the third time since all of this nonsense began, and he was no less pissed this time around.
“You finally told him about your father’s complaint?”
Camden nodded. “You sound as if you’d expected me to do so earlier.”
Captain Searlington stood up and walked around to the front of her desk, taking a seat on its edge in front of Camden. “Of course, I did. You two are a couple. Why wouldn’t you discuss this and come up with a plan?”
Camden’s gaze fell to the floor. Apparently everyone else in the world knew how people who loved each other were supposed to behave in crises.
“I have little experience with relationships, I’m afraid.” He cleared his throat before meeting her gaze again. “I assume that ridiculously large wedding set on your finger means you’re an expert, Captain?”
She wiggled her marriage finger, admiring the rings Camden mentioned. If his experience in expensive baubles was accurate, whoever placed those rings on her finger had paid a handsome price for them.
“My husband comes from a world like yours. Old money, family business, overbearing parent who thinks they can rule the world through you. The only difference is, his dad and his godfather taught him the strength of family. I knew what it meant to have a strong family, but I didn’t truly understand how to tap into that until I met my husband. If you’re hiding things like your father’s complaint from Elijah, it means you don’t understand he’s supposed to be the source of your power. It took me a long time to realize my husband, Kenneth, was my center.”
Camden leaned back into his chair, still weary from the earlier emotional exchange with Elijah. “What do you advise I do, Captain? My father will use every bit of influence he has to destroy Elijah and his family. How do I fight that?”
“Camden, from what I understand, you’re an impressive lawyer. What would you advise someone to do if they were being blackmailed?”
Camden closed his eyes to process her question. He hadn’t thought about his father’s actions as blackmail before. But what else could they be? The judge had been pulling this for years, demanding Camden behave in a particular manner and throwing the precise penalty at him that would threaten the thing Camden loved most.
“I’d tell them to expose their blackmailers.”
She crossed her ankles and offered him a comforting smile. “If you expose your own truth, how can anyone else hold it over your head?”
Camden pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket. “Have you got any immediate plans over the next hour or so?”
She shook her head. “No. Why?”
Camden smiled as he dialed, waiting for the line to connect on the other end. “Because I was hoping you’d give me a hand in telling my truth.”
She clapped her hands together and rubbed them in a conspiratorial manner, smiling as she answered, “What the hell. It’s been a minute since I risked my career just to stick it to someone above my pay grade. I’m in.”
ELIJAHplated the various meats he’d grilled to perfection on his father’s old-school drum grill. It may not be the latest in grilling technology, but that bad boy smoked meat like nobody’s business. If his dad left him nothing else but his grill in his will, Elijah would be a satisfied man. Well, mostly satisfied.
He stopped what he was doing to think about Camden. It had been hours since Elijah had coaxed the truth out of him in that bathroom. He’d expected to hear something from him by now. His heart too full of love to let hope completely die, he continued to busy himself with prepping the food while his family played cards inside the house.
It wasn’t summer; the hot days had turned to a crisp breeze. It wasn’t cold enough for a jacket, but standing out here grilling was probably a testament to the instability of his thoughts.No time to worry about that. You’ve got meat to grill.
He flipped the last of the jerk chicken, brushed more sauce on it, then flipped it again, enjoying the sizzling sound of wet meat being seared by hot metal.
“A-yo, E, come inside,” Emmanuel yelled from the back window. If Elijah were home on his quiet block in Westchester, he would’ve been telling Emmanuel to shut his big mouth. But here, on the block he’d grown up on in East New York, Brooklyn, that familiar “A-yo” coasting across the air to greet him was a soothing balm to his tattered soul. “Your boss and your boy are on the news.”
“Camden?”
“You got another man you smashing right now?”
Elijah rolled his eyes and shook his head. His brother’s crudeness was also something that was familiar. Too bad that particular trait didn’t make him feel as warm and fuzzy as his prior greeting had. He waved Emmanuel off, pulled the remaining food from the grill, and brought two heaping plates full of grilled food into the house.
He made a quick stop at the kitchen counter to make sure the plates were secured, and then he rushed into the family room where his parents, brother, and sister-in-law were sitting with their eyes focused on the television. Elijah sat on the arm of his mother’s armchair and joined the viewing. As the commercial ended and the nightly news theme played, a picture of Camden, Heart, and the anchorwoman came into view.
What the hell are you up to, Camden?
