FOR THE CHILDREN Read online

  * * *

  Abby had wanted to leave immediately, but he'd convinced her to stay, at least for the night. If they ran now, they were at the mercy of the thugs who were after the girls. They could pick the time and place for a confrontation, and there were too many winding roads, too many steep drop-offs between Cameron and Las Vegas.

  It would be safer to stay and face the threat here.

  Now it was late, and the girls and Abby were sleeping. He'd insisted they all stay in one room, so Abby was sleeping on the bottom bunk and the twins shared the top. Their quiet breathing was the only sound in the dark house.

  Damien sat on the floor next to the window, hidden in the shadows. If anyone tried to sneak into the house tonight, he would be waiting. He had vowed to protect Maggie and Casey, and protect them he would.

  A soft thump echoed from the other room, and Damien's heart began to pound. But then Angus, Abby's cat, strolled into the room, and Damien realized he'd merely jumped off Abby's bed. Relaxing back against the wall, he stroked the huge black animal. The sound of the cat's purring seemed to fill the room.

  Suddenly the purring stopped. Angus flattened his ears against his head and growled, a low, eerie threat from deep in his throat. Then he shot silently out of the room.

  Slowly and quietly Damien lifted his gun out of its holster. A moment later he heard a stair creak, and he knew someone was in the house. Moving as noiselessly as Angus had, Damien walked over to stand next to the door.

  The intruder went into the other bedroom first. Damien waited, listening for the almost imperceptible sounds the intruder made. When he felt the presence of the intruder in the hall, he tightened his grip on his gun and tensed his muscles.

  A black shadow stepped into the bedroom, and Damien shoved his gun in the man's back. "Freeze. Don't move a muscle," he said, his voice cold and hard.

  When the intruder tensed, Damien began to squeeze the trigger of his gun. "I'm looking for an excuse. Go ahead and give it to me."

  Slowly the intruder raised his hands above his head. The blade of a knife gleamed in the moonlight.

  "Drop the knife," Damien said sharply. "Do it now."

  The knife clattered to the floor, and Damien nudged the intruder in the back. "Hands against the wall, feet spread. One wrong move, one tic I don't like, and you're history."

  The man, dressed all in black, pressed his palms against the wall and spread his legs. Keeping the gun against his back, Damien searched him and found another knife and a gun. Placing them carefully out of reach, he snapped handcuffs on the intruder, tightened them, then said, "Down on the floor. Do it now."

  As the man struggled to lie down with his hands secured behind his back, Damien snapped another pair of plastic cuffs around his ankles. Then he stood up and turned on the light.

  The man on the floor was the hiker, the same man Abby had seen watching them from the movie theater. "Who else is in Cameron looking for us?" he demanded.

  But the man stayed silent on the floor. Finally Damien opened his phone and called Devlin.

  "I have a package for you to pick up," he said. "And come in quietly. He may have a friend waiting nearby."

  The intruder tensed, and Damien added, "He's letting me know he wasn't alone. You can take your time and check the area surrounding the house. This dirtbag is secure for now."

  When he looked over at the bed, Abby was sitting up, looking at the man on the floor. Her eyes were huge with fear and her face was white. Finally she looked up at him.

  "Are you all right?"

  "I'm fine," he said. "Our friend here came right on schedule."

  Abby's face became even more pinched. "You mean you expected this to happen?"

  "Let's just say I'm not surprised."

  She scrambled out of bed and looked in the upper bunk. "The girls are fine," he said. "They haven't even woken up." Slowly she eased back into the lower bunk, staring at him. She watched when Devlin showed up and told him he'd found someone in a car just down the block from his house. She didn't speak as Devlin escorted the intruder from their house, and she didn't say a word when Damien came back into the house. Silently walking out of the bedroom, she followed him into the kitchen.

  Finally he turned and faced her. "What's wrong?" She took a deep, shuddering breath as she stared at him. "How could you?"

  * * *

  Chapter 15

  «^»

  Abby stared at Damien as he stood in front of her. He was so close she could hear him breathing, feel the heat of his body, but there was a huge chasm between them.

  "How could I do what?"

  "How could you let that man come in here and not warn me what was going on?"

  His eyes softened. "I didn't know for sure he would show up tonight. How could I have known that?"

  "But you had a good idea," she said angrily.

  "I suspected he'd try to get to the girls. I didn't know for sure. And I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry. What could you have done?"

  "I could have told you I didn't want them used as bait," she said, her voice fierce.

  "I wasn't using them as bait, Abby. I was trying to protect them."

  "We could have stayed somewhere else while you waited for him. Haven't they been traumatized enough?"

  "They have no idea anything happened," he countered. "They're still asleep."

  Somehow that just fanned the flames of her anger. "You were right, weren't you?" she said, her voice filled with bitterness. "They are just part of your job. You didn't hesitate to use them to catch that creep. It didn't matter to you if they were hurt or scared."

  "You know that's not true," he said, and his voice was filled with pain. "That hasn't been true for a long time."

  "I sure can't tell by the way you're acting." She realized she was being irrational, but the honor of what had almost happened was overwhelming.

  "I promised to protect you and Maggie and Casey. I didn't promise to discuss all the options with you every time I had to make a decision."

  "What if something had gone wrong? What if that man used that knife on them?"

  "The only way that would have happened is if he'd killed me first. And I had no intention of letting that happen." His voice was flat. "I couldn't send you somewhere else, because then I wouldn't have been able to protect you. Once I knew they were in town, this was our only option."

  "I wanted to leave," she said, not looking at him. "We could have gone somewhere else."

  "Where?"

  "Anywhere! Somewhere those men didn't know about." Damien reached for her, then let his hand drop to his side. "Abby, I know you're upset. I know you're frightened. But use your head. If we had tried to run, they could have pushed the car off the road. Those men didn't care how they did it. They just wanted the twins to die."

  "Are they safe now?" she demanded.

  He hesitated for an instant, then shook his head. "No, they're not. They're not safe until the man who killed Joey Stefanetto is in prison."

  "So what do we do now?"

  "You go back to sleep. We'll figure out our next step in the morning."

  Damien walked throughout the house, checking the windows and doors. A few minutes later he walked back into the kitchen.

  "I never asked. How did that man get in here?" she said in a low voice.

  "He picked the lock on the patio door." His mouth twisted. "I didn't think we'd need a lot of security back when we inherited this house. Cameron is a safe town. But you don't have anything to worry about, now. You can go back to bed."

  The lines on his face looked deeper, and purple smudges shadowed his eyes as he led her back to the bedroom. When he stood at the window, staring out into the darkness of the desert night, Abby could see the weariness etched in every muscle in his body.

  Her anger dissipated as quickly as the air hissing out of a balloon, leaving her feeling flat and empty. "I'm sorry, Damien. I was out of line."

  He turned and gave her a weary smile. "Go to sleep, Abby.
It's late. We'll talk in the morning."

  He switched off the light and went back to his post by the window. Abby watched him for a moment. The accusations she'd thrown at him lingered in the air between them, and the room suddenly felt chilled. After a while she lay down on the narrow bunk, but she couldn't sleep.

  Damien stood at the window for a long time, then he sat down on the floor again. Abby knew he wouldn't sleep that night, and shame washed over her for the things she'd said to him.

  "I know you're doing your best to protect us," she said softly.

  "Go to sleep," he said, his voice remote. "It's late."

  * * *

  The birds began to sing before she fell into a light, restless sleep. When she woke, the sun streamed in the window and Damien was gone.

  She scrambled frantically out of bed, disoriented, but the twins were curled together in the top bunk, still sound asleep. Pulling her robe around her, she walked out to the loft. Damien was down in the kitchen, drinking coffee and talking on the phone. When he saw her above him, he said something into the mouthpiece, then snapped the phone closed.

  "Good morning." His voice had no infection.

  As she walked down the stairs, she let her gaze linger on his face. Underlying the weariness was a hardness that she remembered from the night they'd met. The hardness had gradually disappeared over the past few days, replaced by caring and concern. Now it was as if the past few days had never happened.

  "You were right last night, and I was wrong." She stopped in front of him. "I'm sorry I questioned your judgment. Staying here in Cameron was the right decision."

  She reached out and touched his arm, and he took her hand in his. But when he brought it to his mouth and brushed her palm with his lips, he curled her hand into a fist then let it go. When he turned away, she felt him draw his armor around himself.

  "We're going back to Las Vegas."

  "I thought you said it was safer to stay here in Cameron. Won't it be easier to notice strangers here? Where would we go in Las Vegas?" She felt panic rising and tried to push it down. Cameron had begun to feel like home to her. She felt safe in this town. She trusted Shea and Laura and Devlin, and all the other people she'd met in Cameron who'd been strangers a few days ago and were now beginning to feel like friends.

  "I talked to the office this morning. They still don't know for sure who the murderer is. Apparently there were several people who didn't work for the company at the site that day. But they say we need to come back. There's some crucial evidence they can't talk about on the phone, but our presence is required."

  "What if it's a trap?" She said the first thing that came to mind.

  Damien turned around then, and his eyes glittered with anger. "I thought about that. It's no secret that the mobsters who didn't want Joey to testify are powerful and desperate. But I've known my boss for a long time. I can't believe he'd turn."

  "And you're willing to stake Maggie's and Casey's lives on it?"

  His hand slashed through the air. "We have no choice, Abby. I have to trust Frank, because he's never given me reason not to. He said that this evidence is crucial and will convict the murderer, but he can't get it until you and the twins are back in Las Vegas. If you want this to end, we have to go back."

  "You warned me all along, but I refused to listen," she whispered. "You said it was just a job, and you were right. I didn't want to believe you. I thought we all meant something to you." The hole in her chest got bigger and bigger, until there was nothing left but a gaping wound.

  Damien opened his mouth, then his face closed and he stared at her with unreadable eyes. "Yes, Abby, this is my job. And you and the twins will be my job until the murderer is caught and they're safe. I'm sorry that we can't stay here in Cameron." For just a moment she thought his eyes softened, that the yearning she saw there was for her. Then it disappeared, and his face was a mask again.

  "What do you want me to do?" She was numb, incapable of feeling anything. And she was glad, because the pain would come soon enough.

  "Get your things packed. When the twins wake up, we'll have breakfast and leave. We can be back in Las Vegas by this afternoon."

  "And then what?"

  "Then, I hope, we find out who killed Joey."

  She hadn't been asking about the case, and she was certain he knew it. Struggling to focus on Maggie and Casey, instead of herself, she asked, "Are we just going to walk into the FBI office?"

  When he looked at her, his eyes softened marginally. "I have a plan, Abby. But you're going to have to trust me."

  "I do trust you. Completely."

  Damien jammed his hands into his pockets. "Never trust anyone completely, Abby. You'll end up getting hurt."

  He walked out the patio door and disappeared around the corner of the house. She watched for a moment, hoping he'd come back, praying he'd take back his last words.

  Because what he'd just said was as good as goodbye.

  She should have known it was coming, she thought, turning to walk up the stairs. He'd told her enough times that he didn't ever want to fall in love again. So why did it hurt so much?

  Because she hadn't wanted to believe it. This time they'd spent together in Cameron had been magical, and she'd believed that miracles could happen. Cameron was the kind of town that made a person believe in miracles. But their time here had turned out to be a mirage, a faint, fleeting image of something she wanted but couldn't have. And when she reached out her hand to grasp the mirage and hold it close to her, she found out just how insubstantial it had been.

  * * *

  Damien stood on the side of the house, out of sight of Abby and her imploring eyes, and cursed himself.

  He never should have let things go so far. He'd known what Abby would think. He'd known that she would start to see happily-ever-after, but he hadn't been able to stop himself. He'd needed her, needed the goodness in her heart and the tenderness of her touch. He'd needed her generosity and her loving spirit.

  And now he'd hurt her. But it was better that way, he told himself. It was inevitable that he hurt her, so it was best that it happen now, before any more time passed. Before she had a chance to convince herself that she really cared what happened to him. Now she knew what kind of man he really was.

  Abby was better off without him. She needed a man who was whole, a man who could give her everything she wanted out of life. She deserved a man who came to her with an open heart, one that wasn't scarred and brittle. There would always be dark places in his soul, and Abby deserved better than that.

  The sun was edging above the red rock that rose in the east, and it was time to leave Cameron. It was time to leave behind the forbidden dreams that had begun to seem possible here. It was time to go back to his own world, a place where his duty and his job were the only things that mattered, the only things that he could allow to matter. Striding into the house, he forced himself to ignore the sounds of Abby in her bedroom, packing her suitcase. He was leaving Cameron behind, and all the hope that had seemed possible here.

  Three hours later they were almost to the Utah-Nevada border. He'd kept a close watch on the road behind them, but there had been no sign of anyone following.

  "I thought you were afraid to leave Cameron yesterday because you were afraid someone would try to cause an accident on the road." Abby's voice was low. She had hardly spoken at all during the trip.

  He glanced in the rearview at the twins, who were busy playing with their dolls. "The people I was worried about yesterday are sitting in jail in Cameron today. And I didn't think there had been time for anyone else to get to Cameron. No one's followed us, Abby."

  "What about when we get to Las Vegas?"

  "We'll find out what's got Frank's shorts in a knot. After that, we'll see."

  "You said you had a plan. What was it?"

  He hesitated. He wasn't used to trusting anyone else. Then he said, "We're not going back to the office. We're going to pick our spot and make them come to us. You and the girls w
ill be safer that way."

  "It sounds like you don't really trust your boss."

  He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. "I don't trust anyone, Abby. Not when it comes to your life or the girls'. I was willing to come back to Las Vegas since Frank thought it was important, but that's as far as I go. The rest of the way has to be on my terms."

  "Where are we going to go?"

  Her voice still sounded stiff and forced. He didn't dare look over at her. He knew what he would see in her face, and it would eat away at his heart. "I have a friend who has a house in the desert, away from the town. There's nothing else around. We'll go there, and I'll be able to see everyone who approaches us. I'm not going to let you walk into a trap."

  "I never thought you would," she said.

  "But you thought all I was interested in was getting the job done, right?" He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice.

  "I don't know what I think, Damien." Her voice was low and tortured. "Are we more important to you than your job?"

  "You know you are." He looked in the rearview mirror at the twins again, who were still involved in their make-believe world. "How can you doubt that?"

  "I know how you feel about children," she whispered. "I know how hard it's been for you to be with us. I wondered if you wanted to come back to Las Vegas so you could get away from Maggie and Casey."

  "I wanted to come back here because I want them safe, and solving this murder is the best way to make sure they're safe. How I feel about children has nothing to do with it."

  "Damien…"

  There was longing in her voice, and a yearning for something that he knew could never be. Before she could continue, he said, "Let's concentrate on one thing at a time, Abby. Let's make sure Maggie and Casey are taken care of, then we can worry about other things."

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw her turn and stare out the window. "How much longer before we get to your friend's house?" she asked.

  "An hour and a half."

  They didn't speak again until they reached the house in the desert. Abby had turned around and talked to the girls, and they had talked to Damien. But he and Abby couldn't seem to find anything to say.