He came down beside the bed in a push-up position. “Please? We have to leave now.”
I’d never been in medical shock before but I knew this was it. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything.
Suddenly Camden reached in and grabbed me by my arm and the belt loop of my jeans. He pulled, dragging me on the stiff, hard carpet until I found enough sense to get out from under the bed with my own strength.
He brought me up to my feet and wrapped me in a tight hug, his hand at the back of my head, cradling me. “I’m sorry. We have to go. I can’t lose you now.”
I tried to nod but nothing came out. Camden brought out his gun and kept a firm grip around my arm as he led me across the room. I kept staring at the blanket on the ground, knowing what it was hiding.
He opened the door and looked around to make sure the coast was clear. When it was, we hurried down the corridor and back the way we came in. I don’t know how I got over the fence but I did. I don’t know how I walked over to the car but I did. I don’t know how we got in the car and drove away down the country lane with our headlights off, searching for a hidden way out of town, but we did.
I don’t know how we got onto the side roads that took us to Temecula.
All I did know was that my uncle had betrayed me for fifty thousand dollars. And now my uncle was dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
When I woke up the next morning I had that beautiful split second of peace and warmth where your brain hasn’t caught up yet to the events from the night before. You think everything is fine, everything is normal, until that realization hits you like a sledgehammer, shattering your insides, shattering your world. Nothing is normal. Everything is forever changed. It wasn’t a dream. You’re alive and awake and now you have to deal with putting the pieces back together.
It was a shitty fucking job.
We were staying in a basic cabin just outside the city of Temecula. Camden wanted something that was off the beaten path, some place Javier wouldn’t think of checking. The cabins were part of a campground and nestled in hills of ponderosa pine. It was beautiful and quiet, the kind of place where you’d stay for a few days while you tried to make sense of life all over again.
But I wasn’t coming up with anything. My life was rendered senseless. I’d spent the whole night crying, rocking back and forth on the bed. Camden. I don’t know what I would have done without him. He held me in his arms, staying awake with me. He never said a single word, he just held onto me like he was afraid of letting me go. His heartbeat, steady against my back, kept me sane and allowed my grief to flow without consequence.
“Hey,” Camden’s mouth was at my ear. “It’s a beautiful day outside.”
I rolled over under the covers and looked around the room, at the stream of golden sunshine that was coming through the windows of the A-frame. It was a lot nicer than a motel room that’s for sure. But all the sunshine in the world couldn’t clear up the blackness I felt in my heart.
I leaned back on the down pillow, relieved that no tears were coming. I must have cried them all out. “I can’t believe it,” I whispered, staring blankly at the wood beams in the ceiling.
“I know,” he said, wrapping his arm across my chest. He kissed my temple, letting his lips linger there.
“But you knew.”
He shook his head and kissed my ear lobe. “I didn’t want to believe it. I was just trying to protect us. I didn’t actually think he’d do that to you.”
“But he did…”
“Some men are weak, and when they’re desperate, they grow weaker. I know your uncle wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.”
I stared at him from the corner of my eye. “He tried to hand me over to Javier. For fifty thousand dollars.”
Camden’s smile was tight-lipped. “I know. But I think Jim really believed that Javier wouldn’t hurt you. You’re such a tough cookie, Ellie. He probably thought you’d be fine in the end.”
“You’re sticking up for him.”
“He’s dead, Ellie. He doesn’t need me to stick up for him. I’m just trying to figure him out, the same way that you are.”
I shook my head. “He held a grudge against me, all this time.”
“Then you can understand how weak a grudge can make someone,” he said softly. I stared up at him, his full lips and the three-day-old beard that was scrawled across his strong face. His eyes were tired though, with bags that pulled at them, and his brow was lined with worry. Worry for me.
“We’re going to have to get you a new pair of nerd glasses,” I told him. “Can you even see me right now?”
He raised his brow. “I can see enough. What’s wrong with my reading glasses? Not hipster enough for you?”