Janelle Denison: Too Wilde to Tame

"Because I love you," he said simply.

A panicked sob caught in her throat, and she shook her head in denial. "You can't!"

"I can, and I do. It certainly wasn't something I'd planned on, but it happened. I want to love you, Mia, like you've never been loved before." He gently wiped away yet another tear with the pad of his thumb. "You trusted me with your body, and I gave you nothing but pleasure. You trusted me with your past and secrets, now trust me with your heart, and I swear I'll keep it safe from the kind of hurt and pain you're so afraid of."

"You can't make those kinds of promises, Cameron. No one can. I know you believe in this moment you can give me those things, that the two of us can make it work, but I can't handle a broken heart if it doesn't. I know what that feels like, and the emotional pain of losing someone is something I can't bear to go through ever again."

He knew she was referring to her mother's death, which had scarred her deeply and affected so many relationships throughout her life. Men, definitely, but shutting people out of her heart had all started with her stepmother, Amelia. And that was a situation Cameron couldn't repair for Mia, even though he suspected that scarred relationship was the crux of most of her emotional issues.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Cameron understood that she was frightened of what she was feeling for him, but he'd hoped that during the course of their conversation today she'd face those fears and take a chance on something genuine and real. Him. Them. Together.

He'd been sorely mistaken. Her rejection felt like a knife through his heart.

Admitting defeat, he pushed away from Mia, letting her go. There was nothing left for him to do. Nothing left for him to say. She'd made it very clear that it was over, and he wasn't going to beg and plead.

"Come on," he said with a heavy sigh. "I'll take you home."

CAMERON skimmed through the rap sheet on Ray Wilkins, a.k.a. Billy Dearborn, that Wesley had just handed to him, not at all surprised to discover that the man had a list of transgressions attached to his real name. The guy had a criminal record that spanned everything from physical to sexual assault, varying degrees of theft, vandalism, drug use, carrying a concealed weapon, and even a few felony violations he'd done prison time for.

"Jesus," Cameron said in disgust and was damn grateful Gina had finally come to her senses and ended her relationship with the guy. Not to mention issuing a restraining order against him. Dearborn was a hot-headed, dangerous criminal without a conscience, and it looked as though Gina needed whatever protection she could get against him.

Jaw clenched, Cameron glanced back up at Wesley, who was standing on the other side of his desk. "How in the hell did you finally nail this guy?"

"Billy Dearborn changed his name, but not his Social Security number or birth date," Wes replied wryly. "As soon as I started tracing his Social Security number through public records, one thing led to another until I tracked him down to the last place he'd lived before moving to Chicago, and that was Florida."

Cameron shuffled through the other paperwork and printouts Wesley had given him. "Do you know what sent him packing?"

"Actually, I do, and I came across more than one reason why he left the state. I have a few P.I. contacts in Florida I've kept in touch with from the last firm I worked for, and I put a call in to someone I know and trust." Wesley's lips flattened into a grim line. "It appears that Billy Dearborn was involved in a drug-smuggling ring, and about six months ago he pocketed a cool twenty grand that belonged to the organization he was working for. They found out about the theft, beat the crap out of Billy, and gave him a week to pay back the money, but Billy changed his identity and moved here to Chicago."

"They didn't try very hard to find him," Cameron muttered irritably, wishing they'd tracked down Dearborn before he'd hooked up with Gina.

"Unfortunately, I'm sure they have bigger fish to fry in their line of business," Wesley told him. "Billy was small shrimp in comparison, though I'm betting if they knew where he was they wouldn't hesitate to try and get their money back from him any way they could. Even in blood."

That thought gave Cameron a semblance of satisfaction.

"But that's not all," Wesley said. "This guy has a warrant out for his arrest for sexually assaulting a woman."

Cameron swore beneath his breath. "Well, it looks like Gina is going to be the last woman he assaults for a very long time, because I'm turning his ass in." There was no way Cameron was going to let this bastard hurt another woman again. "And while I'm at it, I'm going to scare the shit out of him with the information we have about the twenty grand he stole to keep him away from Mia and Gina for good."

Standing, Cameron gathered up the paperwork on Dearborn. "Can you give me the entire file on this guy so I have everything you've covered?"

"You got it." Wesley gave him an affirmative nod.

"I'm also going to share it with Gina and Mia so they know exactly what kind of guy they're dealing with."

Once Wesley left Cameron's office, he picked up the phone and dialed Mia's home number. When the answering machine picked up, he looked up the number Mia had given him for Gina's phone and dialed that. Gina picked up after a few rings, and Cameron let her know he was coming by to talk to her. Cameron figured Gina could relay the information to Mia, which was probably for the best considering Cameron hadn't talked to Mia since they'd parted ways four long, miserable days ago. She hadn't made any attempt to contact him, and the ball was squarely in her court if she was at all interested in salvaging their relationship.

So far, it appeared she was not.

Cameron glanced at his watch. It was after six in the evening. Steve had already left work a few hours, earlier to spend some quality time with his wife and son. Ironically, now that Wesley was picking up so much extra work, everyone's schedule had been freed up. Except Mia was out of Cameron's life, and that gave him too much time to think about things better left alone.

Within fifteen minutes Cameron was on the road, heading toward Mia and Gina's place. Once he arrived, he made his way to the apartment, file folder in hand, and as he neared the door he noticed that it was cracked open a few inches. He frowned, prepared to berate Gina for being so careless when he heard a loud, jarring thud coming from inside, along with something crashing to the floor and a woman's muffled screams.

Adrenaline rushed through Cameron's veins as he pushed the door open and moved cautiously inside, keeping as quiet as possible until he could assess the situation. He found Ray pinning Gina up against the wall in the living room, one of his hands pressed tight against her throat and the other holding her arm to the side at an awkward angle. Gina had a big long gash above her eye that was trickling blood down the side of her face, and while that was the only injury Cameron could visibly see, he feared she was going to end up with even more bruises from Ray's rough handling.

"Bitch," Ray sneered, so focused on dominating Gina he was completely oblivious to the fact that anyone had entered the apartment. "There's not a chance in hell I'm going to let you leave me, and no restraining order will keep me away. Got that?"

Gina nodded jerkily, her entire body trembling in fear. While Ray spoke Cameron made his way quietly closer. For as much as he wanted to kick the shit out of Ray right then and there, he had to get Gina out of his grasp and away from Ray first so the other man didn't use her as pawn between them.

"You try and leave, and I'll hunt you down and break every bone in your body… just… like… this," Ray said maliciously, and twisted her arm until she started crying out in pain and tears rolled down her cheeks.