Ranger keeps looking at me like he’s wondering what’s wrong, because he doesn’t understand that knowing who he is to Elizabeth has a huge impact on me. Elizabeth—my cousin who was just kidnapped and God knows what else—the woman who once told me that she thinks her old friend Cam was the only man she could ever truly love.
Does she want to be with him now? I can’t tell her what happened with him. The way she’s looking at him right now, like he’s the light at the end of her tunnel, is making my stomach drop, and not in a good way. Is that how I look at him? I absently rub my chest, trying to ease the sudden pain I feel there. I should be concentrating on her, not him. How fucked-up is this?
“We better get going,” Ranger announces, his eyes on me. “We’ll be back in the morning, Elizabeth. I think your family will be here by then.”
She grabs on to his arm. “I don’t want you to leave, Cam. Can’t you stay?”
I feel like I’m going to be sick.
Ranger again looks to me for help, but I just shrug and say, “You should stay.”
I kiss her cheek and tell her to rest, before leaving the hospital room without saying anything further to Ranger. I actually feel like a monster for all the feelings and thoughts running through my head right now. What kind of person am I?
He’s mine.
She needs him now though. I don’t think that Ranger has feelings for her, otherwise he wouldn’t have slept with me, but this is still a complicated situation.
I’m down the hallway when Ranger calls out my name and jogs up to me, stopping me by gripping my upper arm. “What’s wrong? I saw the look on your face.”
“Nothing,” I say, forcing a smile. “She needs you now, Ranger. We’ll talk later.”
“Yeah, but I need you,” he says, brow furrowing. “Stay. Don’t go back to the hotel alone. We can share the extra bed in her room.”
He really doesn’t get it. He doesn’t see how she feels about him, and how awkward that would be right now. I don’t think she needs to be any more hurt than she already is. It’s selfish of me to take Ranger away from her, if he is who she needs to get through her ordeal right now.
“She didn’t ask me to stay, Ranger,” I point out, smiling sadly. I crook my finger at him until he lowers his head, then I kiss his cheek. “She wants you, and we need to give her whatever she wants. I’ll call the fam and see what time they’re arriving so I can pick them up from the airport.”
“Are you sure?” he says, frowning. “I don’t want you driving alone.”
“I’m fine,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“I’ll meet you back at the hotel in the morning, then,” he says, scanning my face. “Text me and let me know what your plans are, all right?”
“I will,” I say, turning around and walking out of the hospital, feeling sad and resigned.
SIXTEEN
Ranger
“REMEMBER the time we went swimming, I think it was in Croatia?” she says, with her eyes closed. “The water was so clear that you could see the bottom, and you said that was the only reason you were going in.”
My lip twitches. “Not much of a fan of the ocean.”
“I remember,” she replies, yawning. “I always think about our trip. I think it was one of the best times of my life.”
“It feels like a lifetime ago,” I say, then decide to ask a question of my own while she’s being so chatty. “Did they hurt you while you were taken?” I ask her, and her eyes open. “I mean besides . . .” I point to her black eye.
“You mean did they rape me?” she asks, pulling the sheets up her body. “No, Cam, they didn’t. We were going to be sold off at an auction—none of us were touched in that way because then we’d be damaged goods, you know?”
I exhale in relief. “So why did they hit you?”
“I tried to escape,” she explains, staring at the wall straight ahead. “You know what’s funny? I actually would daydream about you coming to save me. That’s why when I saw you, I thought it was another dream. I didn’t think you were actually there.”
“Jo wouldn’t have given up until you were found. She was so determined to save you, Elizabeth.”
Which is why I’m a little confused about the sadness I saw on her beautiful face. She knew Elizabeth and I were friends, so I don’t get why her face dropped, like something hit her, some kind of realization. Was it because Elizabeth wanted me to stay and not her? I don’t know what it is, but I want to get to the bottom of it right away. I don’t like the thought of Jo being out there overthinking everything. I understand that things changed the second we found Elizabeth, our little bubble popping and becoming reality, but now we need to face it. And I want her still to be in my life when we get home. I really fuckin’ hope she wants the same, or I’m about to have a war on my hands to make her see that we’re meant to be together. I don’t give a fuck how pussy-whipped I sound: I’ve never felt like this for a woman, and I’m not about to let her walk away.
“I know, she’s so amazing,” Elizabeth agrees, eyes softening. “She’s a great cop. I knew she would be looking for me.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” she says, shrugging. “I’m not a delicate flower, I’m not going to freak out if you ask me something.”
She is in a delicate situation, even if she doesn’t realize it. I’m wondering if she’s going to get some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder, or something like that. I don’t think anyone can come out of this unscathed, even someone as strong as she is.
“Why did you go to that biker bar in the first place? And alone at that?”
Her eyes flare as she turns her head to look at me. She’s quiet for a while before answering me. “I went looking for you, Cam. I had no idea where you were and I couldn’t find you, but remember when you called me a year after our trip? You told me you were about to start prospecting for a biker club. I wanted to find you, and “biker” was the only clue I had. Your number was cut off, and you’d moved. You never called me again, and I waited for you to, but you didn’t. It’s like when you became a biker you forgot all about me.”
I stand up, unintentionally knocking the chair backward. “Are you fuckin’ serious? You went to a biker bar trying to find me? Asking questions and then they kidnapped you? Why the fuck would you do that, Elizabeth? Did you ever think that I cut everyone off for a reason? I don’t exactly live in a life where I can have civilian friends without them being dragged into trouble.”
“It had been years, Cam,” she says, scowling. “I wanted to see you. Is that so bad? It’s not your fault I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But you asked a question and I’m answering it. That’s why I was there.”
I scrub my hand down my face. “After all these years you decide to come looking for me, and then this happened? Fuck, Elizabeth. This is the reason the only people I care about are in the same lifestyle as me.”