Lora Leigh - Midnight Sins

“She and Jeannie are good friends,” Archer interjected before blowing out a hard breath and staring around in frustration. “It’s going to take this crowd hours to disperse, and Jack’s not in a good frame of mind if anyone decides to get ignorant with their mouths.”

Cami almost grinned at the saying “get ignorant.” The fine art of the smart-assed remark that could be delivered mockingly, snidely, sarcastically, or in a rage. It went along with having done something “for a minute,” which usually indicated more than a few days, and asking a person if they had taken their “smart pills” or if they were mixed up with the “stupid pills.” The locally grown little sayings had always amused her, and she had found herself missing them when she had been away at college.

“Yeah, well, getting ignorant is what some of them do best,” Rafe breathed out roughly. “Get your fire marshal to take him over the damage, then drive him to the hotel outside of town. Keeping him away from the homegrown yokels is your best bet unless you want to see blood shed.”

Cami looked around again, her gaze caught by the flash of a red Mercedes as it pulled in next to the Corbins’ black four-door Jaguar.

Wayne Sorenson, Corbin County’s attorney, stepped from the car accompanied by his daughter, Amelia.

After Amelia had taken the teaching position in Aspen, Cami rarely saw her and they never spoke. Amelia had never forgiven Cami for revealing the secret Sorenson had learned when he read the journal she had so carelessly left lying in her dorm room that day.

Amelia had changed.

Once, she had dressed in fashions that highlighted her unique temperament and sense of adventure. Now, she was dressed in a dark peacoat, black slacks, a gray sweater, and staid, low-heeled black pumps. The very type of clothes she had once sworn no one would ever catch her dead wearing.

Was this maturity? Cami wondered. Or was it a conformation aimed at attempting to gain Amelia’s father’s love as well?

It seemed to be working for her, just as easily as it had worked for Cami over the years.

Which was not in the least.

How long would it take Amelia to realize that no amount of conforming would gain the acceptance and the love she needed from her father?

“Cami?” Rafe’s hand at her back and the questioning tone of his voice had her head lifting. “Are you ready to leave?”

Was she ready to leave?

Did she really want to stay and watch the girl who had once been as close to her as a sister pretend to be something and someone she wasn’t?

“I’m ready.” She’d rather face Rafe’s wrath than watch the Amelia doll pose with tense expectation next to the father who didn’t even know she was there.

As Cami began to turn away, Amelia’s head lifted and Cami couldn’t help but be drawn to a stop.

For the briefest second it seemed as though misery and a plea were reflected in the emerald depths of Amelia’s eyes before she quickly turned away.

“We still have that meeting to make,” Crowe reminded Rafe as they headed to the car.

At that moment, Wayne detached himself from the Corbins, his expression dark with irritated anger as his fingers curled around his daughter’s upper arm and pulled her along after him.

Rafe and Cami drew to a stop, watching as Wayne neared them. As he drew closer, Rafe carefully slid her between his back and the cousins behind him.

She nearly rolled her eyes as she pushed from between the three men, her elbow pushing warningly into Rafe’s stomach as Wayne and Amelia stopped in front of them.

“Rafe.” Wayne nodded to the men in general.

“Wayne,” Rafe drawled.

The fact that Rafe hadn’t addressed him more formerly had Wayne’s lips tightening for a second as Amelia pushed her hands into the dark peacoat she wore and looked down at the ground. If Cami wasn’t mistaken, Amelia might have been hiding a smile.

“We’re going to have to reschedule the meeting we had this afternoon.” Wayne lifted his head, his nostrils tightening as though he smelled something rotten. “I’ll have my secretary contact you to reschedule.”

Rafe’s arms crossed over his chest.

Narrowing his eyes, Rafe watched Wayne suspiciously. Cami could feel the tension that began to radiate in his body and the sense of distrust that filled the air around the three men where the county attorney was concerned.

Amelia was aware of it as well.

How strange, Cami thought, that even after all these years she could read Amelia as though they had never spent the past three years as all but enemies.

“I’ll see you later then.” Rafe gave a short nod of his head as his arm once again curled around Cami’s back, his fingers lying close at her hip.

Wayne didn’t acknowledge the agreement; he merely turned on his heel and stalked away as though the simple courtesy of saying, Good-bye, See you later, or, Fuck you, Callahan, didn’t apply in the least.

Amelia moved more slowly, and as she turned she pulled her hand from the pocket of her coat and a piece of paper dropped free.

Rafe’s foot immediately covered it, and just in time.

“Amelia?” Wayne turned back to her, his gaze going past her to Rafe, Logan, Crowe, and then Cami, as though searching for something, as though he had expected Amelia to try to stop and talk or, perhaps, to attempt to warn them of something.

“I’m coming, Father.” Her hands were back in her coat, as though they had never slipped free.

God, what was going on?

Cami couldn’t take much more. She couldn’t handle the hell that Corbin County was turning into any longer or the haunting agony the past and the present merging was creating.

It was her fault her best friend, the one person she had had who believed in her, who loved her, whom she could trust, had turned into this unemotional robot that Amelia had turned into.

It was all Cami’s fault, because she had allowed Wayne Sorenson to learn the secret that Amelia had held close to her heart and had never told anyone but Cami.

The fact that Crowe Callahan had kissed Amelia. That he had held her and made her want more. That he had filled her with such a hunger for him that she had told Cami she understood why the loss of the child Cami and Rafe had created had nearly destroyed her.

She could feel her hands shaking. She could feel something inside her stomach trembling, as though the tremors attacking her fingers had begun in her stomach and refused to dissipate.

As several firefighters, Archer, Jack, and Jeannie moved between Rafe, Cami, the Corbins, and Wayne Sorenson, Rafe quickly bent and retrieved the folded note from beneath his shoe.

Turning his back on the group, he held it between his fingers as he watched Cami expectantly.

Allowing Rafe, Logan, and Crowe to shield her, she took the note and slowly unfolded it.

The house is being watched. Trying to get there. Kick some ass. Love you. Your twin.

Cami felt her lips tremble. Why, after all this time, was Amelia making contact?

“She’s going to try to slip to the house.” Cami frowned, confused. “Why would she have to slip over to see me?”

This was going beyond fear of gossip or of Amelia’s father being angry. It was going beyond the fact that the Corbins rewarded anyone who stood against the Callahans and punished those who stood with them.

And Amelia had signed the note: Your twin . They had always sworn they were somehow kidnapped at birth and taken from loving parents to be forced to exist with those they suffered through. They called each other twin when they were afraid of being caught passing messages during the frequent groundings they both had suffered as young girls and as teenagers.