Hugh was so much taller than she was. “Who will help you, though, Ivy? If you’re caught alone in the dark again with that SOB, who will be there for you?”
She didn’t have an answer for him. Bennett wasn’t going to be her partner, and for all of her other cases, well, she’d been working them on her own.
“The danger is too much. Hell, I don’t like this shit. Not one bit.” His breath rushed out. “Maybe I should move in and stay for a while. Until the PD catches this guy. You don’t need to be alone—”
“I wasn’t alone after the attack at the convention center. Bennett was here.”
Hugh’s face hardened. “He’s no good for you, Ivy. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“You can tell me a thousand times, but it won’t matter.” She didn’t pull her punches with Hugh. “Bennett and I aren’t done.” Even though he’d royally pissed her off at the ME’s office. “You need to accept that.”
“So is he going to be here tonight, is he going to be here with you, every night, until that killer is behind bars?”
“I don’t know what he plans.” She stepped around him. “All I know is that I have to see some men about an alarm…”
***
Hugh watched his sister walk away. Ivy didn’t get it. She couldn’t fix the world, even though he knew that was exactly what she’d been trying to do for far too long.
He’d always known that Ivy was the good twin. The one who looked out at the world and hoped.
While he…
I know exactly what I am. And it’s not good.
If he found the jerk who’d terrorized his sister in that hallway last night, the guy wasn’t going to make it to the inside of a jail cell. No one hurt his family and gets away scot-free.
No one.
It was a lesson that he thought Bennett Morgan had learned years ago.
***
“You’re going back with him. Aren’t you?”
Ivy glanced over at Cameron. He’d arrived at her house just as the security installers had left. And since then, he’d been pacing around like a caged tiger, the energy seeming to roll off him.
“Cameron…”
“Bennett Morgan is no good for you.”
So she kept being told. Even though she didn’t remember asking what anyone else thought of Bennett.
Cameron moved to stand in front of her bay window. “I would have given you anything you wanted. You should have stayed with me.”
Oh, no. No, no, no. They couldn’t be back to this. Ivy jumped to her feet and hurried toward him. Then…then she couldn’t touch him. Fear held her back. I don’t want to hurt him. “Cameron, you know I love you.”
He looked back at her. His lips had twisted. “Like a friend.”
“No, more than that. Like family. You matter to me, so much.”
His gaze lowered.
“I’m not in love with you, Cameron, and you’re not in love with me.” She knew that with certainty. The guy had a new flavor of the week always waiting in the wings. “I think we heard too many people tell us that we should be together when we were younger, but we weren’t right that way. We didn’t fit.”
“Not the way you fit with Bennett.”
Bennett infuriated her. He drove her to the edge and…
Yes, when she was with him, she still felt like she fit.
The connection between her and Bennett had been so strong—from the very beginning—and maybe it had even scared her a little. Am I supposed to give so much of myself to him?
She had. Too late, she’d realized that she’d given Bennett everything.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Now Cameron sounded grim. “But that’s going to happen, Ivy. You will be hurt.”
“Things are different.”
“Yes, they are.” He marched around her and picked up his coat. “I think I’ll get out of town for a bit. Maybe spend some time at the beach house.”
She hurried after him. “Cameron…” She’d been clear with him, for years, and for this to come back up now…
He looked back at her. “I think it’s time I put that particular dream to bed. I saw the way you looked at him. And I saw the way he looked back at you. The past isn’t over.”
Then he was striding toward the door. She followed him out onto the porch and watched as he jumped into his SUV and drove away. Ivy didn’t immediately go back inside. She stood there, aching, so sad that she’d caused Cameron pain.
Things would have been easier, if she had been able to lose herself with him. But that hadn’t happened. And she’d known it wouldn’t be right to use him.
He deserved more.
So do I.
She could hear the sound of the parade, drifting in the air. It was Saturday night—more floats would be filling the streets, and the boom of drum beats echoed around her. That sound used to soothe her, but it didn’t anymore. She tensed, her heart raced faster. Her arms wrapped around her stomach as she listened to those sounds. The bands were marching. The crowd cheering.
Was the killer out there again? Hiding in that crowd. Watching everyone?